War

by R. S. Broadhead

  I bit back a laugh and instead zeroed in on the reason for his innate sense of protection. Dax was closer now, the gun still pointing down at it. He darted forward and with the tip of his shoe gave it a shift kick. It remained motionless.

  “See, you were worrying for nothing,” I said as I walked past Sim. He gave a small grunt and didn’t seem too convinced that the situation was as nonchalant as I was making it out to be. I neared Dax, unable to keep the tensing of my body at bay. Even though it appeared to be dead or unconscious, my senses were on high alert. “What is that thing?”

  “A weapon that can control beings from the spirit realm. It’s what I’ve been working on since we got here. I knew there was a possibility we might need it. Wasn’t sure if it was going to work really, but I’m glad it did.”

  “So is it dead?”

  He shook his head. “No. Only out for a little nap until we can get it in the holding chamber Fuzz had specially prepared for one of these things.” Still keeping the gun in place, he reached behind him with his other hand and pulled out a set of cuffs made of this weird wire rope material. “Here. Put this on her wrists.”

  I stared at his outstretched offering and quirked a brow. “Why me?”

  He gave me a blank stare. “Really? You’re really going to ask me that after you just crawled Sim’s ass about trying to protect you? I’m not going to be like him. Fighting is not my forte, and I’m trying to be a hero. Not when two more of us are now dead.”

  My chest clenched at his words. As if on cue, the medics emerged from the room behind us pushing two gurneys. Each held a lumped form beneath a stained white sheet. Each held a dead friend. I winced and tried to ignore the stinging as my body pulsed with rage. I stepped forward and snatched the cuffs from his grasp. “You said you had a holding chamber, huh?” I asked, bending beside the spirit realm being.

  “Yeah. Fuzz had the crew he brought in start working on it.”

  My fingertips grazed across its flesh, and I quickly recoiled. “This thing is burning up.” I stared down at the withered complexion.

  “Probably the electricity I blasted through it,” Dax said.

  Sim appeared at my side. “Need some help?” Together the two of us bound the joints and hoisted what looked like a woman up. A snarl rippled through the air from underneath the tousled mane draped over her face. My body went rigid, and I silently swore.

  A manic laugh reverberated off the walls, surrounding us, and sounding as if it were coming from all sides at once. “I can feel your apprehension, little one.” The words didn’t come from the thing in our hands, but rather from a place that was impossible to penetrate. “It feels like the same thing your two friends had before I killed them both.”

  My grip around her wrist tightened to the point that it caused me pain in the process. Blue fire slithered out from the tattoo and latched around her arm. “I have a dark side too. One that doesn’t end well for others. Trust me, it’s way worse than anything you could ever do.”

  The voice hissed, turning the blood in my veins to fire. She jerked to the side as a scream erupted from her lips, breaking the sadistic charade.

  “Lead the way to the chamber. We’re going to find out what this thing was up to.”

  With wide eyes, Dax spun on his heels and dashed down the hall.

  I jerked the thing with haste, making sure to cause an ample amount of pain in the process. “Get to moving.” All of us marched through the corridor and took a door leading to the stairs. We descended them, coming to a drafty lower level that reminded me a lot of the place in the first facility, the one that held all the creatures the guys had captured to study and spar against.

  “This is the one.” Dax stopped at an all glass chamber.

  As we neared, I noticed as the light from overhead hit the surface, inscriptions were embedded over the walls.

  “They’re enchantments. So she can’t go back into spirit form and escape.” He pressed a few buttons on a keypad, and the door swished open. “Put her in the chair. There’s a lock in the back that will latch onto those cuffs we put on her.”

  She bucked wildly as a deep-throated growl clawed from her throat. “Let me free!” Lashing to the side, her head snapped in Sim’s direction.

  “Shit! She bit me.”

  Blood spat from her mouth across the floor. I yanked her free from Sim and twisted her body in front of me. My arm wrapped around her neck. The thoughts in my mind became blurred as a familiar Darkness seeped through my pores, igniting a primal instinct to kill. Through the fog I heard my name being screamed.

  “Reese! Stop. You can’t kill her.”

  I blinked, my eyes adjusting as if looking through an unfocused lens. Fuzz came into view. His arm rose as he took one careful step toward us. “Put her in the chair, Reese. Right now this thing is much more valuable alive than dead.”

  I pinched my eyes together, combating the overwhelming sensation to burn this thing from the inside out. My muscles bunched and started to shake. Before I could do anything that would fatally harm it, with one movement, I shoved it toward the chair. Fuzz and an antsy Dax quickly secured it to the chair as Sim stood to the side nursing a bloody spot on the side of his neck.

  “Come on. Let’s get out of here for now. You need some time to cool down.” Fuzz put one hand on my shoulder, which I shrugged off. I didn’t want to be rude to him. He was the voice of reason after all. If I had killed the being, we wouldn’t have gotten any answers from it. But I could still feel that insatiable need to hurt someone, and I couldn’t take the chance of it being Fuzz.

  We all left the thing alone in the room bound to the chair. She didn’t look up, still downward with hair over her face.

  “I’m going to go get this thing looked at,” Sim said, still holding a bloody napkin. “I’m sure I’ll have some explaining to do to the woman at home. She’s going to think I had a wild night of sex or something.”

  “I’ll go with you. That thing gives me the creeps. Reminds me of the girl on the Exorcist movie. I slept with the lights on for about six months after watching it,” Dax said.

  The two of them disappeared around the corner, their steps slowly tapering off as they climbed the steps. For several seconds, we stood in silence, staring at her through the glass. “Have you found Shayla yet?” I wanted answers. Abby and Masey were now dead because of this thing. Heat pulsated up my neck. It was the first moment I’d had to actually think about them not being here anymore. I would never see them smile again. I would never hear them bicker with one another. Two best friends now gone. Who would be next? Tears sprang to my eyes, thinking of the possibilities.

  “She was holed up in Hollywood’s room. Told her we needed to know what happened. She said she’d be down here in a few minutes.”

  I shook my head. “Something wasn’t right about all of it. She looked like she’d seen a ghost or something when I had passed her in the hall.”

  “You’d look like too if you just had to shoot one of your friends between the eyes,” Shayla said in a small voice.

  25

  Reese

  We turned to find Shayla standing a few feet from us. She eyed the glass cage but didn’t make any attempt to come closer.

  I swallowed a hard lump in my throat. I knew how she felt. There were no words for me to say to comfort her. She would never get over this incident. Her soul and memories would forever be stained from this.

  “Tell us what happened.”

  She looked away and stared at the wall for a moment. “When I came in, Abby had Masey by the throat.” Her face grew pinched as a light shade of pink marred her skin. “There was nothing else I could do but watch. I couldn’t get a good shot without hitting Masey. She managed to get out that it wasn’t Abby, that it was Lamia.”

  Fuzz sucked air between his teeth and let out a low curse. Quickly, he shot a glance over his shoulder.

  “She cut Masey’s throat, so I did the only thing I could and shot Abby. I killed Abby.” Shayla broke down
and fell to her knees. Cradling her waist, she flopped to the side in a fetal position.

  I raced to her side and kneeled down. Before I could open my mouth, Hollywood came into view with a wide-eyed Jace directly behind him. This isn’t going to end well. “Guys, maybe we should give her some space right now.” Neither of them listened to me like I knew they wouldn’t.

  Hollywood practically shoved me to the side so he could take my position. “Baby, I’m here. Told you not to come down here.”

  Jace stood back, shifting from one foot to the other as he watched the two of them.

  “Jace?” Shayla squeaked out.

  Everyone froze.

  “Yeah, um, I’m here.” He remained where he stood, now on the receiving end of a heated stare from Hollywood.

  “Please. I need you,” she whispered before breaking out into a full-blown sob fest.

  Hollywood jumped to his feet. “Really? You want him over me?” His jaw locked with a prominent tick. “It’s cool. I was just trying to get into your pants.” He locked eyes with Jace. “But now that I think about it, I wouldn’t want his sloppy seconds anyway.” He stomped in the direction of the stairs.

  “Hollywood?” Fuzz called out.

  Without turning around, he came to a stop. “What?”

  “Can you tell Freeman to come down here? I think I have an idea.”

  “Get him yourself, fucker.” He disappeared without another word.

  Fuzz’s face went slack. I had never seen him so quiet and still. I was waiting on his head to explode or something at any moment. “Jace, how about taking Shayla to her room? I’m going to go have a talk with Hollywood.” He turned to me. “Be back shortly.”

  After they had all left, I remained standing in front of the cage. I knew there was no need for me to stay, but I couldn’t make myself leave. She had answers I needed. With a deep breath, I pressed the numbers on the keypad that Dax had used. The door slid open, giving the thing in the chair a slight jar.

  “Didn’t think you’d have the balls to come in here,” she said. For the first time, she looked up. Dax was correct in his description. Her puffy, cracked lips pulled back exposing a row of jagged broken teeth. “Glad to see I was wrong, Reese.”

  I walked closer and stood directly in front of her. Squaring my shoulders back, I reached my full height to show she didn’t intimidate me. The corners of her butterscotch eyes crinkled.

  Crossing my arms, I fought to keep my breathing steady. I wasn’t sure if it was the smartest move coming in here. One thing could set me off. I had to force myself to keep a level head no matter what she said.

  “Who are you?”

  She sneered. “Why, your man out there knew exactly who I was when my name was mentioned. How do you not know?”

  Lamia. Lamia. No matter how much I thought about it, I kept coming up short. Finally, I caved. “Sorry. If you thought you had some badass reputation around here. I can tell you right now it isn’t true. No clue who you are.”

  “I’m the Queen of Agathra. You should be humbled to be in my presence.” A smug looked plastered itself over her face.

  “But that’s impossible. That portal is locked.”

  “It took some planning, but I figured out a way here because I knew I could help finish what needed to be done. Nekroun Earth has an almost impossible surface to break in order to get here, but there are cracks. All I required was that Banshee to bring me a host back. One that I was sure one of you would come find. Because I hoped anything one of you came looking for on that side he’d give it over. It worked out even better when it happened to be you. There was no denying he would grant anything you wished.”

  I shook my head. “What? Who?”

  She erupted into a fit of laughter. “Oh, you are so naïve. The one that hunts you. You are his.”

  All at once, I knew who she was referring to. The stranger, the person on the horse. They were one in the same. He was the one who had stepped up to me when the Death Dealer sent me there. I took a step back and touched my forehead. Sweat was slick beneath my fingertips.

  “Why does he want me?”

  Before she could answer, Fuzz and Freeman walked in. “Reese, you shouldn’t have come in here alone. What if something happened and she got loose?”

  “I’m fully capable of taking care of myself,” I spat in Fuzz’s direction. I knew he was being cautious and it was hard for him to let these overbearing tendencies go, but still, he needed to have faith in me.

  He nodded, ignoring me. “Did you find out anything from her?”

  I glanced over at the smiling spirit. “Nothing that will help us.”

  His brows slashed inward. “I see. Well, guess we need to find out some things that will.” He turned toward her. “What were you doing in the lab?”

  “Think about that, and you’ll have your answer.”

  “The relic,” I answered for her. “That would be the only reason she’d be there. And the only reason Masey would’ve fought her.”

  “Why did you need the relic?” Fuzz continued.

  She didn’t say anything, only smiled and leaned closer to Fuzz before erupting into song. The back of his hand came back and he cracked the side of her face. She sat back, dazed for a moment. Black oozed from the corner of her mouth, which she greedily licked with her bloated tongue.

  “How dare you make me bleed?” Her voice dropped an octave as she slowly tilted her head to the side.

  Her threatening demeanor didn’t seem to faze him. He snatched a handful of her matted hair and yanked her head back. “You don’t seem to understand that you’re a solid entity now. You can experience pain and bleed now. I can do whatever I want to you unless you give me the answers I want.”

  Her lips pressed together. “Once Dermetheus discovered who took the relic, he assigned me to make sure no harm came to it since I could work from the inside of your group. He instructed me to bring it to him once Reese had completed consuming the energy from all the portals. As soon as Masey figured out a way to get rid of it, I knew she had to go. There was no way I could risk her destroying it. You know the rest.”

  I stepped forward. “So he knows we have it?” I asked, confirming what I thought she’d confessed. This entire time we had blindly assumed he wouldn’t know we now held the relic. By the leaving the portal here in Jackson open, we figured it would throw him off. We were saving that portal for last.

  “Oh, he knows. I told him I saw it here during one of our meetings.”

  “Then why hasn’t he came after it and finished the job himself?”

  “The only person that can control the relic is one that possesses light and dark.” Her eyes narrowed. “You.”

  I took a few steps back and put my hand across my forehead. How was he always playing us? I was doing all his dirty work for him. There was one thing for certain, I would make sure that every portal was consumed and he would never get his hands on that thing.

  “Where are you supposed to take the relic?” Fuzz asked.

  Her mouth opened, but before she could answer, her body convulsed. The three of us looked each other. Fuzz stepped forward and inserted a needled into her neck. She went limp a second later.

  “I was afraid of that,” he said, staring down at her.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Lamia has been known as a fierce leader, but she doesn’t take well to pain or the possibility of meeting her demise. If Dermetheus was using her to do this, he had to know the possibility of her getting caught might happen.”

  “So he insured a protection plan,” Freeman continued.

  Fuzz nodded. “Exactly. My guess is the Magal did something to her without her knowledge to keep her from telling anyone their whereabouts. Explains why Abby would disappear alone several times. I assumed it was her way of coping with what she went through.” His gaze slid to Freeman. “That only leaves us with one option. Make her forget she was here. Plant some other thought into her head. One that makes her have to get to him. We follow he
r.”

  Freeman rubbed his neck. “I’ve only done that on humans. How do we even know if this will work?”

  “We don’t. But it’s worth a shot. If we can get it to work then we may actually have a chance at catching Dermetheus off his guard. We could end this before it gets too ugly.”

  Stroking his beard in a loving way, Freeman stared at Fuzz with a thoughtful expression. His forehead creased, as he seemed to be playing everything out in his mind. His hand slapped his thigh as he dropped it in a dramatic fashion. “Fuck it. Let’s do it.” He closed the gap between his and Lamia’s bodies and placed his palms over her drooped head. Words, too quiet for me to hear, fell from his lips in a fast, repetitive fashion.

  Her back went ramrod straight as she bolted upright. Her eyes scanned the room, but didn’t land on any of us. It was as if she couldn’t see we were here with her. Fuzz quickly went around to her backside and undid the restraints holding her to the chair. The three of us watched as she stood. Her arm bent at the elbow and she twisted it back and forth, taking notice of the red marks marring her skin. Her lips pursed and without warning, she darted out of the cage.

  “I really hope this works,” I mumbled to them as we followed closely behind. “What did you put into her head anyway?”

  One side of Freeman’s mouth turned up. “I put that Dermetheus had double crossed her and that she needed to find him.”

  “Guess that’s why she was looking at those marks so hard.”

  “Yep.”

  She plowed up the steps and shoved the door open. Thankfully, no one was out in the hallway except Harley. His eyes widened and he tensed until he saw us behind her. He did a quick side step as she continued her escape to find the person that had wronged her.

  He mimicked my pace. “So what are we doing?”

  “I’m going after Dermetheus, and she’s going to take me there.”

  “You mean we’re going after him. I’m not letting you go into wherever he’s hiding alone. I hope you know that.”