“Not as much as I am,” Gan said. “I just don’t know how the Unholy turned her. Was she acting alone or are there more?”
Hep handed him the Hunter restraints.
“Are you going to try and use those on her?” Hep asked.
“Only if I have to,” Gan said.
“You want my advice?”
“Not particularly, but you never listen to me so go ahead,” Gan answered as he put the restraints in a pocket of his jacket.
“You see that glowing ward there near the door?” Hep said as he pointed with his chin.
Gan nodded. “What’s it for?”
“I use it to indicate power levels of my ‘guests’ when they come in here,” Hep answered. “I never thought it would turn that color.”
The ward gave off a dull orange glow and then shifted to a bright green.
“What does that color mean?”
“It means don’t try and put those on her unless she is unconscious,” Hep said. “Her strength is off the charts since the last time she was here.”
“Do you think you could defeat her now?” Gan asked. “Even without her named blade?”
“I’m afraid I would lose that fight,” Hep said. “The power she holds now,”—he rubbed his chin—“no, I wouldn’t win that one.”
Gan nodded and headed to the door. He answered without looking back.
“You and I share the same fear.”
THIRTY-SEVEN
Dreadwolves ran through the unused tunnels of the archive network. These tunnels ran under the park and connected to several locations throughout the city. Many of the destinations were forgotten or blocked but the paths to the archives were always kept clear. The leader’s coat was red, mottled with white.
They approached the Bryant Park archive and entered the corridors of C-level. Using their sense of smell, they tracked Marks to the artifact room. They stepped around the ruined sentinel and walked down the ramp.
He stood in the center of the artifact room covered in flame. He didn’t look up the ramp when the Dreadwolves arrived. He kept his focused gaze on Perdition. Green flames escaped his hands and enveloped the sword, obscuring it from sight. For a few seconds the flames would be the only thing seen, only to dissipate just as quickly.
After several attempts, he looked up the ramp and noticed the Dreadwolves. The green flames that caressed him were gone. Power radiated off his body in waves and most of the pack whimpered as they entered the room. He held Perdition in his hand as the lead Dreadwolf padded closer.
“You’re here for me,” Marks said. “You want my life.”
The lead Dreadwolf crouched before him and then stood. The rest of the pack backed up the ramp with whines.
“You must come with us,” the leader said.
“Why should I follow you?” Marks said, distracted.
He held Perdition and pointed it at the Dreadwolf before him as if seeing it for the first time. The Dreadwolf cowered, but stood its ground.
“We will take you to the power,” the lead Dreadwolf said. “To your power.”
“To my power?” Marks asked, and nodded slowly. “Yes, to my power, go.”
The Dreadwolves bounded out of the artifact room with Marks running behind them. They were leading him to the only power source in the park—the rift.
*******
“It’s moving,” Sepia said. “My sword is moving.”
“Which direction?” Gan asked. “Can you tell?”
“Deeper into the park, I think,” she said. “Away from the archive.”
“Where would they go, deeper into the park?” Gan asked. “They must be using the old tunnels to be able to move this fast.”
He drove a modified black Honda HR-V equipped with EMP- jamming and armor-plating in the direction Sepia pointed.
“I don’t know,” she said. “All I know is that it’s moving fast under us and it’s headed that way.”
They crossed the city, west on 42nd Street, and turned up on 8th Avenue, which led them directly to Columbus Circle. Gan stopped outside the entrance to the park.
“What are you doing?” Sepia asked. “Why did you stop?”
She banged a hand against the dashboard, cracking it. Her eye flared beneath her glasses, giving off a green glow around the left side of her face.
“We can’t take the HR-V too deep into the park, blueberry,” Gan replied. “The EMP is too strong even for this. We have to follow—”
Sepia had jumped out of the vehicle and was entering the park.
“…On foot,” Gan finished. “Let’s go, Jas, before she gets too far ahead of us.”
They ran after her as she crossed deeper into the park. Large boulders of Manhattan schist loomed in front of them. Sepia ran up and over the boulders with ease. Gan and Jas were losing her.
“Tell me you placed a tracker on her or something savvy like that,” he said to Jas as they scaled another boulder.
“No, but I can track the tech in her glasses,” Jas said as they slid down into a grassy field.
“Good enough, which way?” Gan asked.
“That way,” Jas said and pointed at an immense rock formation. “That one feels off.”
Gan closed his eyes and remained still for a few seconds with his arms outstretched before turning in a full circle.
“Shit,” he said. “I should’ve expected this.”
“What, what is it?” Jas asked. “Unholy?”
She drew her guns and looked around into the night.
“We are standing over a huge reservoir of power,” he whispered. “Listen.”
The park had grown silent as they stepped closer to the large formation that sat on the edge of a large lake. They scaled it in a matter of minutes and looked down at a sheer drop into darkness.
“I don’t hear anything,” she whispered.
“Exactly,” he said. “We aren’t behind wards. There should be an Unholy welcoming committee attacking us right this second. But nothing.”
“Where are they?” she said, looking around into the eerily silent park.
Gan crouched down and looked down. He took a stone and tossed it in. A splash could be heard after a few seconds of silence.
“My guess would be down there,” he said. “We have to go in there. Can you track her still?”
Jas closed her eyes and focused.
“She’s down there, but I’m getting a lot of interference with the energy around this place.”
Gan adjusted his pack and weapons, strapping everything tighter. Jas did the same.
“Time to get wet,” he said.
He jumped in with Jas right behind him.
*******
Sepia could feel the tug of Perdition pulling on her. She vaguely remembered this chamber and the passageway ahead.
I’ve been here before.
She had emerged from the water and felt the draw of Perdition as she stepped on the smooth stone that formed the edge of the lake. She drew Lux and walked forward. Images flashed in her eyes and she shook her head a few times to fight the vertigo, gagging as the bile rose in her throat.
Around her, she could sense the presence of hundreds—no thousands—of creatures. She ignored them and focused on Perdition. The large chamber was silent as her footsteps echoed on the stone. She found the passageway that led down to the rift. Her eye flared brighter with each step. Halfway down the passage, the pain assaulted her and she fell to one knee, gasping for breath.
I can do this. I must do this.
She entered the chamber and saw Marks standing in the center with another figure. Behind them, a figure comprised of green flame rose from a chasm in the ground.
She felt Marks through the bond in her sword.
How can he be bonded to Perdition?
“Welcome, Hunter, or should I say Sister?” Marks asked. “It doesn’t matter. By this time tomorrow I will have destroyed both.”
His words were daggers that burrowed into her head, shattering her concentration. He
r foot caught on a stone and she stumbled. She wiped the liquid from her nose only to have her hand come back bloody.
“Oh, yes, the pain,” he said. “Isn’t it exquisite? I’ve heard it’s particularly nasty to half-breeds.”
“You bastard,” she said.
“You first,” he said and smiled. “Do we even know who Daddy is?”
She looked at him in confusion, and he laughed.
“How?” she said.
He held up Perdition and pointed it at her.
“This lets me withstand the power of the rift, and thank you, by the way,” he said. “Without this sword I wouldn’t have been able to acquire this power—my power.”
“It is your power now, Lord,” the figure next to Marks said. “Claim it. Step into the flame and complete the ritual.”
It was Onyx.
Sepia steadied herself and pointed Lux at Marks.
“Give me my sword,” she said.
She gritted her teeth and ignored the blood pouring from her right eye, ears, and nose.
Marks’ laughter echoed through the chamber.
“Come and take it if you can,” he said. “But I don’t think you will survive long enough.”
He brought Perdition close to his body and assumed a defensive stance.
She pushed the pain to one side, forcing it to the background of her brain. It was a sensation like any other, like being cold or hot. She used her training and dismissed it. She raised Lux and rushed at Marks. Marks stepped forward to meet her.
Behind her, far away, she could hear Gan and Jas yell her name. She heard the report of gunshots, but none of that mattered. She barely registered Onyx as he dived out of the way, firing his own gun and throwing knives. Her singular focus was Marks and Perdition. Anger coursed through her as their swords met. The rift erupted around them as cracks formed in the ground. Green flames shot up through the cracks and licked the walls, turning the light of the chamber into different hues of green. The smell of sulphur and almonds suffused the space. Marks lunged at her as he laughed maniacally.
“It’s time to die, Hunter!” he screamed.
“You first,” she said.
She parried his lunge and stepped to the side with a slash at his leg. He stepped back with unnatural speed and kicked, connecting with her midsection and sent her sprawling. Her head hit the stone ground as she landed. Dizzy and disoriented, she tried to stand as Marks unleashed a torrent of green flame from his hand. She saw the flame but couldn’t move in time. She froze in place, expecting the flame to incinerate her. She closed her eyes against the heat.
Time to die.
The flames never reached her. She opened her eyes to see Jas burst into flame in front of her. Jas had run into the path of attack and shielded Sepia with her body.
“No,” she whispered as Jas dropped to the ground at her feet.
“That was impressive,” Marks said. “Pointless, but impressive.”
The light from her eye exploded outward as she ran forward.
“I am going to kill you and then close this rift,” she said as she attacked.
Marks cackled as he jumped to the side and slashed at her side. His speed was more than she could track and Perdition cut into her side. She gasped in pain as it cut her. She lunged with Lux but he deftly avoided her and slashed again. She twisted to the side and caused him to miss, much to his surprise.
He paused, confused. He looked at Perdition and then at Sepia before jumping at her. That pause was enough. She rolled back and held Lux in front of her as he jumped on her sword, impaling himself. She drove Lux deep into his chest and pushed him back. He staggered back with Lux protruding from his chest. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him forward slightly as she took Perdition. It dissolved into her hand as she grabbed it. Her body burst into green flame as she absorbed the sword.
“It’s too late,” Onyx said as he grabbed Marks by the arm.
He backhanded her across the face. Only her ink saved her as she spun across the chamber and crashed into the far wall.
“My power,” Marks whispered. “Help me claim my power.”
“You will claim the power,” Onyx said as he kept his eyes on Sepia. “And it will claim you.”
Marks grabbed Onyx as they approached the rift. Sepia stood, her body still engulfed in flame. She extended her hand and Perdition flowed into it, surrounded by flame.
“Let him go,” she said. “It’s over.”
Shots rang out as Gan fired from a distance. Onyx held Marks in front of him and let his body absorb the bullets. He kept stepping back toward the rift.
“Over?” Onyx said. “No, Hunter, we are just beginning.”
Sepia launched herself at him as he took one final step back and disappeared into the rift with Marks in his arms. The flames around her body disappeared and the rift went silent. All trace of green fire was gone.
“What happened?” she asked. “Is the rift sealed?”
It was several minutes before parts of the ceiling began to crack and fall into the chamber as the ground shuddered and split.
A column of flame shot up into the chamber, forcing Sepia back. A figure emerged, covered in flames, but unharmed.
“The ritual is complete,” the figure said. “Chimera will rise again.”
She took a step forward but Gan held her back.
“No, blueberry, it’s too strong for you,” he said.
He grabbed Jas and pulled Sepia back. More of the chamber collapsed around them as they made their way back to the entrance.
“I can stop it, I have to stop it now while I can,” she said and struggled to reenter the chamber. “Let me stop it.”
She coughed and spit blood onto the floor. Gan grabbed her and pushed her gently against the wall. She slumped to the ground.
“If you go in there, you die tonight,” he said. “I’m not ready to lose you, blueberry.”
He grabbed a phone from his pocket and pressed a button.
“Where are you, sir?” Bear said. “I can’t find the signal on my radar.”
“I’ll get topside soon, then you can follow the signal. I have two injured, one critical,” Gan said.
“Once you get topside I can exfil, until then I can’t assist. Sorry, sir,” Bear said. “Do you want me to call in the cavalry?”
“Negative, unknown threat at my location,” Gan said. “Do not call cavalry.”
“You always were too stubborn for your own good,” said a voice behind him.
It was Calisto.
Gan turned and gave her a tight smile.
“Thank you for coming, but you aren’t fully recovered.”
“I’m recovered enough; besides, I’m not alone,” she said. “Ursa, grab them and take them to Mercy.”
Ursa bounded in behind Calisto and stood next to Sepia and Jas. In a few seconds, all three had vanished.
*******
Calisto grabbed Gan and pulled him up the passageway as more sections of the chamber collapsed.
“I should try and seal the rift,” Gan said. “This may be the only chance.”
The entity in that chamber is beyond the both of us, love,” she said. “If we go in, we will not exit.”
“I didn’t say ‘we,’ I said ‘I’ should go in,” he said. “You need to get to safety.”
She looked at him and grabbed him by the arm. He winced as she gripped and pulled him back.
“It’s clear you are wounded and your thinking is muddled,” she said as they returned to the lake chamber.
“But it must be done,” Gan said.
“It will be, but not by you,” she said as she created a tunnel back to the surface. “We need to prepare Sepia to deal with this threat. She and the Hunters may be our only hope.”
THIRTY-EIGHT
“Hello, blueberry,” Gan said.
Sepia opened her eyes and the glare of the light made her wish she hadn’t.
“Where am I?” she said, reclosing her eyes and rubbing the bridge of her nose. �
��Ugh, I feel like I got hit by a truck—twice.”
“We’re in the Keep, for now,” he said. “It’s safer that way.”
The room was sparsely furnished and Sepia was in the only bed. She tried to sit up and found it to be more of a challenge than she thought. She was strapped to the bed and tied down with Hunter restraints.
“Restraints?” she said, holding up her wrists. “What happened? What do you mean safer?”
“What do you remember?”
“Marks fell in the rift, it shut down, then something or someone came out,” she said. “I tried to stop it. You stopped me—and saved my life.”
“Close enough,” he said. “Onyx dragged Marks in. We don’t know what came out. For a second the rift was shut down and then it wasn’t. Whatever happened down there reset the wards around the park.”
“Meaning?”
“The secondary protocol has been reset,” he said. “The Hunter blades are only blades again, not wards against the Unholy.”
“How is that possible without obelisks to focus the power of the wards?”
“We don’t know, but I have Hep looking into it,” Gan said. “He mentioned some theory he and Jas had come up with about the source of power.”
“Jas—oh. No, is she…?”
“Still in critical, but Mercy says each day her chances get better.”
“How long have I been under?”
“Two weeks,” he said. “You’ve been in and out but mostly out.”
She looked at the restraints.
“Why the restraints?” she asked. “Why aren’t we at the Gray HQ?”
Gan looked away.
“Blueberry, there have been some—complications,” he said. “When you were under, Perdition appeared.”
“Excuse me?”
“There is an artifact called a keystone,” he continued. “Something the Unholy have wanted to use for decades, maybe longer.”
“What does this have to do with me or Perdition?”
“Whatever Marks did with your sword required the keystone.”
“What did he do?”
She closed her eyes, focused inward, felt the familiar presence of her sword, and sighed.
I still have it.
“We tried to take it when it first appeared,” Gan said. “We nearly lost five agents.”
Sepia Blue-Sisters: A Sepia Blue Thriller Page 15
