by Sophie Stern
“Here’s what we need,” Amy says, totally taking charge, and is it weird that her determination and courage is totally turning me on? “We need a distraction. Our plan is to get into the Mountain and stop the magic users.”
She doesn’t say anything about Derek, which is smart. Even amongst the angels, it’s possible that someone will try to betray us. It’s best not to lay our cards on the table.
“How will you sneak in?”
“That doesn’t matter,” Amy says.
“What if we storm the building?” Another person offers helpfully.
Amy sighs.
“If we storm the building, it’s going to put every vampire in the city on high alert. They’re going to come flooding back to the Mountain. That’s the last thing we need. No, what we need right now is for you to go together in a group and cause some fucking chaos. Attack the vampires, make a scene, draw attention to yourselves: I don’t care. Anything like that.”
“What will that do?”
“It’ll make sure every vampire’s eye is on you. It’ll make it easier for us to sneak into the Mountain undetected and get rid of this damn darkness.”
A few angels complain, but most of them are cheering. I’m only a little surprised. Did human Amy manage to make herself an army of angels?
I’m impressed, if not completely awed.
“Now go,” she says. “When the sun shines, you’ll know we made it.”
“You heard the girl,” a female angel yells. “Let’s go.”
As a group, they turn and leave, heading off into the shadows. I don’t know what they’re going to do. I don’t know what chaos they’re going to unleash. The only thing I know is that whatever happens next is going to change the world.
It’s going to change the universe.
We run, moving swiftly, until we reach the Mountain.
And then we’re there.
We stand across the street in the shadows of the next building over. We can see a winding alley that goes around the building. Throughout it, there are doors and entrances. They’re sprinkled around the entire building and essentially form a number of different ways people can break into the Mountain. The building isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty damn close. Some of the entrances lead to the main halls. Some of them lead to the dungeons. Some of them are traps.
Trying to enter the Mountain is kind of like playing a guessing game that nobody could possibly win.
Except Amy, apparently, since she’s the one with the unbeatable weapon.
“Earth to Songbird,” a voice sounds in my ear. I know it’s sounding in Amy’s, too. It’s Daisy. She’s been silently tracking us, letting us find our way to the Mountain.
“We’re almost there,” I whisper. “We can see it.”
“Don’t use the same door from before,” Daisy says. “It’s been compromised.”
“Really?” Amy whispers from beside me. “It looks clear.”
“It’s a trap,” Daisy insists. “Don’t do it.”
It makes sense. If this is the place where Amy sneaked in before, of course Derek would have it on lockdown.
“There’s got to be another way,” Amy says, but Daisy just growls.
“I can’t find one,” she says. “If there’s an entrance, it’s not on the map, so be fucking careful. Both of you.”
Amy is obviously frustrated as she eyes the entrance. We wait for a few minutes, but it appears to be completely vacant. Just when I’m about to suggest that we try to go through it, anyway, I see it. There’s a small silver dot that appears on the door, as if someone is watching the door through the scope of their rifle.
But a silver dot is no laser sight.
“Fuck,” Amy groans. “Magic.”
There’s a magic user guarding the door. How powerful are they? No idea. I also don’t want to try to find them. They could be anywhere in the building we’re currently hiding beneath. Chances are, they’re just waiting for an excuse to zap us with a spell. There’s no use sitting around or trying to find them. Not now. It’s time for us to move.
“Plan B,” I tell her.
“What’s Plan B?”
“We’ve got uniforms on, Amy. We’re going to walk in the front door.”
It’s a stupid plan, to be sure, but time is running out and this is the last one I’ve got. I’m not about to waste time trying to sneak in secret side entrances when the main door will work just as well, so that’s what we do.
“Wait,” Amy says. She reaches into her bag and pulls out the Sword of Edith. Then she slides it just under her waistband. It’s only slightly bulky, but we’re close enough that she may need to use it. She was smart not to carry it out or like this on the way over. It would have drawn attention to us and it would have slowed her down.
Now, though, we’re ready for the end game. We’re ready to find out who wins: good or evil.
We’re ready to use the weapon.
We round the building, smile at the guards who barely glance at our uniforms, and walk right in.
And then we’re inside the Mountain.
The lobby of the building is lovely. It’s decorated in dark reds and blacks. Beautiful shades of purple cover the walls, while burgundy runners cover deep marble flooring.
“I feel way too sweaty to be in a place this nice,” Amy mutters, and I bite back a laugh.
She’s right.
Under normal circumstances, I would feel completely awful and terrible even trying to set foot in a place like this, but these aren’t normal circumstances.
We’ve got a mission.
We make our way through the few vampires who are standing, talking, and hanging out in the lobby. It almost looks like a hotel lobby, rather than the main area of the evil vampire’s empire. We walk through the crowd to the security checkpoint. There’s one guard standing there. For a minute, I’m nervous. Ezekiel kept the special batteries for himself. He didn’t give them to us to bring in. If we go through the security system, the alarms are definitely going to go off.
The Sword of Edith might be back in its tiny blade form, thanks to Daisy and Amy figuring out how to minimize its size, but that doesn’t make it any less steel. It’s definitely the type of object to set off an alarm.
I needn’t have worried.
The guard, who looks tired and bored, waves us through, so with a surprised glance, Amy and I stroll casually around the metal detectors.
“Busy day, huh?” I ask the guard casually. He laughs.
“Not at all. Best day on the job yet, to be honest.”
“What’s everyone up to, anyway?”
He looks sideways at me and shrugs.
“What do you think? Mischief, no doubt.”
“Good thing we’ve finally got this darkness taken care of,” I say, motioning to the blackness outside. The guard smiles and nods politely. “All thanks to those magicians on level two,” I add.
“Level eight,” the guard shakes his head.
“Oh, of course,” I pop myself in the forehead and roll my eyes dramatically. “Why would I say such a thing?”
“I don’t know, man,” the guard says.
Amy is silent as we quickly walk away and move briskly toward a set of steel elevators.
“Elevators?” She murmurs. “I thought the vamps hated tech.”
“They hate stairs even more,” I say.
We walk inside and the doors close.
“Smooth move figuring out which floor,” she says, pressing the button for the eighth floor, but nothing happens. She pushes it again. Then once more for good measure.
“What the fuck?” She growls. “Why won’t it move?”
“Magic elevators require magic keys,” I tell her. “May I?” I motion to where she has the sword carefully tucked into the band of her pants. There’s no way that’s comfortable. She shrugs and motions for me to take it. I slide out the blade and prick my finger on the end, drawing blood. Amy gasps slightly, but doesn’t move as I press my finger to the button for the eigh
th floor.
Instantly, the machine roars to life and we begin to move.
I hand the blade back to her.
“Wow,” she murmurs. “How did you know that?”
“It’s an old demon trick,” I tell her. “When in doubt, go for blood.”
“Remind me not to piss off a demon,” she mutters.
Chapter Fourteen
Amy
Perhaps this entire plan is a horrible idea. It’s possible that our venture into the world of vampires is going to lead directly to our deaths, but we have no other choice. The world needs to be saved. A save-the-world squad made up of a human and demon is kind of unheard of, but that doesn’t matter right now.
What matters is that we do it.
What matters is that we fight for what we’ve got.
The doors open on the eighth floor and instantly, I know we’ve come to the right place. There’s an air of discomfort, of unease, that permeates the space.
It’s creepy.
And it makes me feel uncomfortable.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath. We can do this, I silently remind myself.
“You can do this,” Daisy says in my ear. “I’ve got the floor plans for the eighth floor.”
“Where do we go?” Harrison says quietly as we step forward. We exit the elevator and the doors close behind us.
“Forward,” Daisy says. “One hundred feet. Then turn right.”
“Roger that,” Harrison says.
The eighth floor opens into a long, wide hallway. There’s absolutely nothing here. The carpeted floors feel out of place in an otherwise sterile building. I would think that vampires would want their flooring to be pristine and easy to clean.
That doesn’t seem to be the case today.
We walk forward. There are no doors on either side of the hall. There are no pictures. No paintings. There’s only silence as we move.
“No cameras,” I note.
“They don’t need them on this floor,” Daisy says. “There’s going to be a guard when you turn. You’ll need to take him out.”
Sure enough, we prepare to turn right as we near the adjoining hallway. There’s a guard stationed there who doesn’t even look up when he sees us. Apparently, recognizing the uniform is good enough for him. I pull the blade out of my pants and slide it into his chest. He dies instantly. It’s very clean. It’s quiet and not messy.
“Good job,” Daisy says. “Storage closet is five feet ahead of you. Shove him in there and keep moving. You have about eight minutes before he’s supposed to check in.”
“How can you possibly know that?” Harrison asks.
“She knows everything,” I say.
We shove the guard in a closet. This one has keys on him, so we take those, pocketing them. I also grab a keycard, but I’m not sure if I’ll actually need it. We keep going, swiftly, quietly. We’re both determined. We’re both ready to get this over and done with.
At the end of that corridor, the hall splits again.
“Left or right?” I ask quietly, nervously.
“Left,” she says after a second.
We turn and head forward.
“When you approach the room, I have no idea what you’re going to find,” she says. “There might be guards. There might not. The magic users aren’t going to want to stop. They might not be able to. Chances are that Derek has threatened their parents, their families, their friends. They don’t know just how bad things are, so please, be fucking understanding and compassionate, but be firm.”
“We’ve got this,” I tell her. “Radio silence.”
Harrison and I move forward in unison. At the end of the hall is a bright red door. I don’t want to push it. I don’t want to find out what’s behind it, but I know that we must. Everything comes down to this moment.
“Are you ready?” He murmurs.
“Nope,” I say.
We reach the door and I turn the knob. Nothing. There’s a glow coming from beneath it and a strange humming noise. This is definitely the right place. It’s only a matter of getting inside. Harrison reaches for the door and turns the knob, too. There’s a tech pad beside the door and I hold up the keycard from the guard, but there’s just a beeping noise and then nothing. The door still won’t open.
“Fuck,” I say, groaning. Looking at the tech pad, I realize that it’s a handprint analyzer.
“We need the guard’s fingerprints,” Harrison says in realization.
“Yeah, but I fucking killed him. He’s old and wrinkled now. Destroyed. There’s no way his fingerprints are even readable now. Even if we went back and got his body, it would be useless.” The vamp had been an old one. When he died, he instantly reverted back to the age he should have been, which looked to be at least a hundred years old.
“Good thing you have another way of getting what you want,” Harrison says. He jerks his head toward Edith and I realize what he’s saying. I’m not going to use it once we’re inside. I have no intention of killing any of the magic users. They’re likely victims just as much as the rest of the world is.
But I still need to get into the room.
Before I can pull out Edith, I hear a noise. It sounds like someone is running toward us, and that’s not a good thing.
“Guards?” I ask.
“I’ll hold them off,” Harrison says. “Hurry!” He turns and swings just as a vampire rounds the corner. He hits the vamp in the face, knocking it to the ground. The next vampire dodges his swing, though, and gets in a good hit. Harrison groans as the monster hits him.
“What the fuck are you doing here, demon? Go back where you belong,” the vamp taunts him. Another vamp joins, but I don’t look. I can’t watch what’s happening because I’ve got to get into the magic user room before it’s too late.
Pulling out the blade, I raise it up. I bring the weapon down against the control panel as hard as I can and instantly, the sensors go nuts. One of the vampires with Harrison seems to notice what I’m doing. He yells, but I ignore him and try the door again. This time, it opens, and I slip inside.
The room is almost completely dark. There are four magic users in here, but no vampires. At least, none that I see.
“Hey!” I yell. “It’s time to stop.”
Nothing.
Their eyes are open, and they seem hyper-focused on whatever it is that they’re doing. The magic users have their hands up and open. There’s this light beam that seems to go from one person’s hands to the next, like they’re holding up this invisible beam together.
It’s really weird, but mystically beautiful. If this were any other situation, I’d stop to admire exactly what it is they’re doing. They’re sharing something unified and lovely between them, only it’s not lovely at all.
It’s destroying the world.
Or allowing something else to.
“Stop!” I say. I really don’t want to knock them unconscious. Not just yet. I’ll give it one more shot. If I can convince them to stop using their magic willingly, then I won’t have to use the angel tears. We can save those for a day when things are really bad.
Only, there’s a part of me that wonders whether things could ever really be worse than they are today. When I woke up and decided to steal a sword from Derek, I didn’t think it was going to launch an incredible journey that would ensure I was part of the end of the world, but that’s exactly what happened.
Now I’m standing in a room full of magic, staring at a group of witches, wondering whether anything is ever going to be okay after all of this.
Will things ever go back to being normal?
Is “normal” even a thing?
“Please,” I try one more time. “They’re going to destroy everything. Doing this isn’t going to save your families. Stop, please. The vampires are going to kill us all.”
It’s useless.
My yelling, screaming at them, isn’t going to make them stop what they’re doing.
One of the users is a young woman. Two are older wo
men. One is a younger man. Maybe he’s around 20. It’s strange to see just how different each person is that the vampires manage to catch. They really sink their fangs into anyone they can, don’t they?
The vampires aren’t afraid to destroy the world.
And neither are these magic users.
One of the women starts to cry even as she continues to focus, holding her magic in place. I can see the powerful beams of light extending from person to person and then shooting up and outward. The dome is going to fall. Mark my words. I don’t have time to wait for everyone else to start crying and feel distracted, though.
It’s time to take action.
I reach into my bag and pull out the angel tears. With a sigh, I press a button my shades, darkening them. I hope I do this entire thing right. Ezekiel said just to open the bottle. I turn the top of the cannister, but nothing happens.
Nothing.
I look up at the magic users, but nothing is happening yet. Maybe they need contact with the liquid. Maybe simply setting the tears in front of them isn’t enough.
I hesitate, wondering if I should throw it into the center of the circle, but I don’t have time to decide because all of the magic users turn to look at me. They move in unison, which is creepy as hell. They look like a group of old dolls: bendable and posable. They manage to hold the beams in place, but their eyes narrow.
“Oh, you don’t like this,” I mutter. “Too fucking bad.”
Time is up.
I toss the liquid toward the center of the circle. It hits the floor and bounces, sprinkling against each magic user. I’m far enough away that none of the liquid hits me. Otherwise, I’m guessing that I’d pass out just as quickly as they will. One of them drops their hands and tries to block the water from hitting them, which has the opposite effect. Instead of blocking the liquid, it catches on the user’s hands and they fall to the floor in a heap.
One, two, three, four.
They all fall down.
And just like that, the world becomes light again.
The blackness that covered the city instantly lifts, revealing the still-bright sun in the sky. I move to the window and look down at the chaos unfolding around the Mountain. In the streets, I can see fighting, but now I also see death.
