Better off Dead Book Two

by Odette C. Bell

  Unholy magic bled around them, and I instantly knew it was the chaotic power of the Banished. But it wasn’t enough. That minotaur turned around, jolted its arm to the side, and attacked both of them in one smooth move. They were thrust backward. Not one of them had a chance.

  I smiled – for all of about two seconds until I realized the minotaur was not here to help me.

  I took a step back just as it opened its mouth and screamed at me. Judging by how quickly it could move, it could dispatch me in under a few seconds.

  I opened my hands wide. It was in a pleading move. Though I wasn’t usually one to beg for mercy, I knew when I was outmatched.

  The minotaur took one look at my hand, then stopped. He pushed down until he was no longer standing above me, looming like death itself. He sat on his massive, furry haunches. Then he nodded. It was completely at odds with all the other bloodcurdling aggressive moves he’d made so far. This almost looked... polite.

  My hands were still open, my mouth now spread in surprise. “Ah, what?” I hissed.

  I watched as the minotaur’s big beady eyes locked on my hand again. Tracing his gaze, I realized he was staring at one of my rings. It took me too long to figure out which one it was. It was my engagement ring.

  I pulled off all of my other rings, throwing them in my subspace pocket until only Sonos’s ring was left. “Is this... is this what you’re after?”

  “There is no need to be afraid,” the minotaur said in perfect clipped English that made him sound as if he’d studied at Oxford his entire life.

  I blanched. “No need to be afraid?” I whispered. “Don’t you... exist to chase interlopers out of the tunnels? Or... kill them?” I said pointedly, not bothering to glance over at the pile of priests to my left.

  “You’re a friend. For anyone associated with the great Sonos is a friend indeed. How may I assist you, bride-to-be?”

  I paled a little at the words bride-to-be. If this were a normal situation, I would snap at him that there was no way in hell I would ever marry Sonos. But I was starting to learn that there was a way in hell to do everything.

  “Aren’t you loyal to this tunnel system?” I stammered.

  “Yes, I am. But you are not attacking it. They are.” He inclined one of his massive, beefy shoulders toward the priests.

  The priest I’d broken the jaw of was starting to rouse. The minotaur was so damn large that all he had to do was reach over without getting up. He rounded a fist and smashed it into the priest’s jaw. The guy would now not get up for a week.

  I... had I just gotten lucky? For the first time in my life, had providence actually shone on me?

  It was too damn early to tell. There was another shudder through the tunnel system. I thought it was nothing at first, but the minotaur sniffed, his massive bull nostrils opening wide as he tasted the air and drew it deeply into his lungs. “The unjust one is here,” he growled. “We must go.”

  “The unjust one? ... You mean Hilliker, don’t you?”

  “Do not say his name. It will give him power. Now come – accompany me and I will take you out of here.”

  A tunnel opened right in front of the minotaur. I guessed, considering the show he’d put on earlier, that he would be able to take me out of here immediately. But I couldn’t leave yet. Though it was possibly one of the greatest risks of my life, I ducked forward and locked a hand on his massive arm. There was no way I could actually grab hold of it – my fingers barely spread across a chunk of it, let alone wrapped around it.

  The minotaur turned to me. “Do not fear, bride of Sonos. I am here to assist you in any way I can.”

  I had to play this carefully. If I asked for this minotaur’s help to break into the vaults, he might quickly sense that I wasn’t a friend and his attitude might change. But I could not have come here for nothing.

  “There’s something I need to find first.”

  “It is time to leave these tunnels—”

  “I came here looking for something.... Oh, stuff it.” Relinquishing to my bad idea, I shoved a hand into my subspace pocket and pulled out the ledger. I brought it around, opened it, and showed him the right entry.

  His bright, massive, fire-like eyes locked on me. The animalistic side of me told me he was about to eat me. He did not. “This is not your vault,” he pointed out in a relatively civilized tone.

  I winced. But I still didn’t back down. “No, I know it isn’t. But I need to get inside, anyway. These are my orphanage records,” I said as I tapped on the right entry, underlining the section that described what they were. “I need them. If I’m to have any hope of understanding what’s going on here, I have to get them. I know they don’t belong to me but—”

  “If they are your orphanage records, then they do belong to you. Come. We must be quick.”

  I blinked back my surprise. That had been easy. I’d been led to believe over the years that minotaurs were some of the most irrational creatures out there. They would do their master’s bidding, protecting tunnels to the death. This guy seemed almost pleasant.

  It didn’t take him long to direct me to the correct vault room. He didn’t need any keys. All he had to do was walk, and the tunnel system opened up before him like a flower.

  The vault room door opened with barely a noise.

  We walked in. As soon as I stepped foot inside, I realized this had to be one of the highest-level vaults there was. I could tell that based simply on how thick it was. The door itself was at least 20-meters thick. And yeah, you read that right. Rather than open outward – it had to retract into a wall beside it.

  “Just what kind of vault is this? A level 100?” I squeaked.

  “It is a level 99. There is only one level 100. I would not be able to take you there.”

  “Why – what’s in it?”

  “Death.”

  “You mean some kind of weapon?”

  “No, the man himself. He sleeps there. Now, your orphanage records should just be here.” He moved his massive body through the tightly packed shelves without ever banging into anything or knocking things over. He quickly produced a box. It was ornate, and with one single look I could tell that it was protected by one heck of a magical spell.

  It rivaled the box that I’d stolen from Hilliker’s office.

  I frowned at it immediately. “What kind of box is that? And why are my orphanage records being kept in there?”

  “This is a mini vault box,” he said proudly. “Our engineers have been working on them for centuries. They utilize all the magical protection properties of a proper vault room,” he proffered the box, “but in an-easy-to-carry size.”

  It was like this was an ad or something. As soon as I got over the weirdness of it, I took the box off him. I shivered as soon as my fingers locked around it. “This looks like it’s the most important thing in here,” I said as I turned my head around and stared at the other shelves. Though there were a lot of them, I quickly used my magic to scan them. There was some fancy stuff, but none of it was kept in a box like this.

  “That is the correct conclusion. This is by far the most important thing in this room.”

  It took me a moment, then I paled further. “That makes no sense,” I whispered in a choked voice. “If that were true, then the only reason this is a level 99 vault is because of—”

  I didn’t have the time to spit that out. There was a scream. I couldn’t tell if it was close or if it was so loud that it traveled through the entire tunnel system. Immediately the minotaur took up a defensive position, thrusting forward, his massive barrel chest shoving out as his stocky legs widened, spreading his balance evenly. “It seems Hilliker is already here.”

  I freaked out. “Why is he coming here? Is it for me or for the box? Why did he break into the tunnel system?”

  “I cannot answer that. All I can tell you is that this was a coordinated attack. He has utilized large amounts of magic, energy, and manpower to undertake it. He would only do that if there was something valuable
here for him.”

  My gut kicked as it told me that was me, but I went back to the fact that he hadn’t known I was here until a while ago.

  Though I wasn’t usually someone to stand behind others for protection, I didn’t always have a minotaur at hand. I proudly deposited myself right behind him. That meant I couldn’t get a good view of the door, but I didn’t care. I’d be able to feel Hilliker a mile off.

  “Hide, Sonos’s bride,” the minotaur said with a growl.

  Again, I was hardly the kind to hide from a fight, but I didn’t question. I scurried away, finding a corner of the room that was far away from the doors. There was a gap between one of the large shelves and the wall. I hunkered down beside it.

  It was murder not having a direct glimpse of the minotaur and the door. As the seconds ticked by, I wondered how long I’d have.

  The answer was not long.

  There was the sound of something hissing. It wasn’t a human, it wasn’t the minotaur, and it wasn’t some other kind of animal. It was like the world itself had grown a tongue and a throat and a voice box and the first thing that it had dared to utter was a dark growl. It set my teeth chattering in my skull and my hands clutching into fists.

  “Unjust one,” the minotaur said in a dark growl. “You have no business in this tunnel system. Leave.”

  “You are between me and something I require. Remove yourself from this place, minotaur – and I will not scatter your molecules across this universe.”

  “Even you do not have that power—”

  “Yet,” Hilliker said darkly, his voice going down to this place that felt even deeper and darker than the depths of Hell.

  Though I usually knew how to keep my fear in check, there was nothing I could do to stop it from coiling around my stomach like a snake. I was forced to clench a hand over my mouth, my fingers driving so hard in, it was like I was trying to rip them from my face.

  “You did good to figure out that I was after this vault,” Hilliker snarled. “I suppose you’re more than a glorified toy, then? It doesn’t matter. There is nothing you can do to stop me – a fact you will soon learn. Now, I will give you one last chance to walk away. If you do not, I will not hold back.”

  I thought I heard the sound of Hilliker spreading his hands. The only reason I could actually hear that was that it did things to the air – to frigging space-time. A single movement from him made it sound as if reality was cracking.

  More and more fear pulsed through me. I crunched forward harder, locking that hand over my mouth, forcing myself not to make a sound even though all I wanted to do was scream.

  “Your time is up,” Hilliker spat darkly.

  I heard him thrust forward. I saw the room changing. It reminded me immediately of what I’d seen in the hospital. Everything started to bulge. Back then, I’d had Sonos to protect me. Now, though I could hear that the minotaur was fighting, I could easily appreciate he didn’t have Sonos’s power or knowledge.

  I found myself clutching that box tighter. As space around me warped and contracted, my mind caught up with me. Hilliker was after this box, wasn’t he?

  As crazy as it was, I’d come here to find this at the same time he had. That told me there had to be something exceptionally important in it.

  Maybe I hadn’t come here entirely on my own. Maybe, unbeknownst to me, the compulsion charm had worked to bring me here to Hilliker’s side, but the point was, I was now holding onto something that was gravely important to that bastard. When Hilliker had decided to come here, he would’ve still been under the belief that I was wandering forever in Purgatory. So what was in this box that was so important to him? You would think, without me, his entire plan would be bust....

  I stared down at the box. There were no markings on it – nothing to tell me what was inside. If the minotaur hadn’t revealed its contents, I wouldn’t have known.

  The minotaur suddenly screamed. He sounded like he was in pain.

  The guy had grown on me, and I whimpered. I tried not to make a sound, but I heard Hilliker stop. “What’s that?”

  The minotaur roared. His hoofed feet pounded into the floor, and he threw himself forward. The whole floor shook. He’d clearly been the one doing that to the tunnels earlier. While the room convulsed, I wasn’t thrown off my feet. The shakes appeared to have the ability to concentrate and narrow in on their targets. I was certain I heard the sound of Hilliker being thrown sideways.

  Though all I wanted to do was peek out of cover, I couldn’t give any further indication that I was here. So I just sat there, huddled up against the wall, my entire body buckling and shaking in total fear.

  I clutched the box tighter. I desperately wanted to get inside, but I knew I didn’t have the power to even begin to understand how to use the lock.

  “Get out of my way,” Hilliker roared.

  His voice was so dark, the limited illumination in the room was cut further. A few lights had turned on when we walked inside, but now, despite the fact they were still pulsing with electricity, their illumination could do nothing. It was like they forgot their purpose – all at one of Hilliker’s dark cries. Another one split the air. This made me freeze as if I’d been bitten by a snake. I became so paralyzed, I couldn’t function.

  The minotaur suddenly screamed in pain. I heard a bang as he was thrown to the side. The shudders stopped.

  The room bulged. It was even worse now. I was certain that I was going to be ripped apart on the molecular level.

  It was... it was all over. Again.

  I’d barely escaped Hilliker, but he was at my throat once more.

  “Who’s in here?” he growled. “A concierge? You will rue the day you ever stood in my way.”

  I heard things fall down as he smashed into shelves and his chaos magic tore everything to shreds.

  I held onto the box as I held onto the fact that he didn’t know it was me. But it wasn’t as if either of those things could protect me for long. Hilliker would simply rip through this vault until he found me.

  I had to get out. I knew that, but I also knew there was no way. There was only one exit – the vault door. And Hilliker was in front of it. Even if I managed to get to it, what then? It was clear that he was now more powerful than he had been in the hospital. He would’ve benefited from every single time I’d died. I still didn’t understand the process – how my resurrection could energize him – but the fact of the matter remained.

  I was completely screwed.

  “Where are you?” Hilliker growled again, his voice so dark, he could’ve made every single star in the cosmos blink out.

  I kept that hand clamped over my mouth as tears trailed down my cheeks.

  I had never been in a more terrifying situation. I usually believed that no matter what happened, I’d be able to fight my way through. And with the resurrection curse always there to bring me back from the dead, it led to arrogance. I’d just throw myself into fights with no heed for caution. Now all of that just fell away.

  “I will find you. And I will rip you to shreds. I will let the power of chaos flow down your throat. It will wriggle in your bloodstream, keeping you alive long enough to feel true fear. Then it will destroy you, cell by cell.” I heard the unmistakable sound of him tightening his hand into a bloodless fist. The chaos hex in the room became more powerful. It shook up the walls. I watched everything bulge as if it was about to pop.

  He’d been searching through the left side of this massive vault. Now he moved toward me. This was it. There was no way I could get out of here. My time was over.

  I squeezed my eyes closed. I thought of calling on the snow globe, but there would be no point. It wasn’t like I was injured. It could give me time to recoup without using my resurrection magic, but it couldn’t transport me out of here.

  “Your name will be forgotten to eternity. Your life – your family, every mark you left on this world – they will be removed. You will become as insignificant as a single mote of dust in this otherwise great
universe.”

  I closed my eyes even tighter. I let the fear sail through me, so high, it was like I was trying to use it as a ladder to climb out of here.

  I heard him shift even closer toward me. It would only be a couple more seconds until he turned down this row.

  I... I went to a place that was worse than Purgatory. I went to a place that was total, numbing, soul-crushing fear. It was a place that told me every single threat he’d just made would eventuate. Everything I’d ever done – everyone I’d ever loved – all of it would become irrelevant. He would use me – and my mind, my body, and my soul would all just melt away as if they’d never been at all.

  I whimpered. It was a mistake. There was no noise to distract from it anymore.

  Hilliker stopped. I could practically hear his body freezing. Then he moved. This was it.

  I forced myself to open my eyes.

  I was still holding onto that vault box.

  I went to discard it to the side. Maybe I’d slow him down if he saw it before he saw me. But that would be when one of the tears sailing down my cheeks splashed onto the lid of the box. Right there in front of me, it opened.

  I stared inside. There were my adoption records.

  I barely had a chance to splutter before Hilliker turned around my shelf. He saw me.

  Acting completely on instinct, I grabbed the files out of the box and threw them into my subspace pocket. Once Hilliker had me and he completely controlled me, he would control my subspace pocket too, but at least it put a buffer between him and me for a time. I still didn’t know why these files were so important to him, but they had to be worth all the trouble of him attacking the most secure location on the face of the planet.

  Hilliker didn’t have any eyes anymore. He hadn’t regrown them after the incident at the hospital. They were still these empty hollows devoid of any energy. They looked like black holes that had been carved into his skull. It seemed they’d absorbed more than his eyeballs. As he took a menacing step toward me, all I felt was hatred. If the man had possessed even a single scrap of love and compassion in his dying, withering heart, it had been absorbed long ago.