"No," Alec said. "They're not. Come on, let's hurry."
They sped up their walk, but all of them were more careful now, watching for trip wires and odd-colored tiles. Eventually the corridor opened up into a large room. All of them stood and stared into it. It was like looking at a garbage dump. There were piles of things stacked together haphazardly. It reminded Harper of an old woman's house she went to once. The woman had never thrown anything out: not magazines, not newspapers, not paper plates, nothing.
"Great," she said. "How are we supposed to find anything in this mess? I thought they collected treasure, not... garbage."
"They collect what they believe to be treasure," Alec said. "They just have a different view on it than we do. Alright guys, split up. Find those paintings."
Harper thought it was a lost cause; there were mounds and mounds of rubbish reaching all the way up to the ceiling. Nonetheless, she approached one of the piles and began sorting through it. She found the oddest things; a broken mirror, an old set of stripper heels, a bikini, a signed photo of Marilyn Monroe... but no paintings.
Sarah didn't bother looking. Instead, she went back to where the corridor opened up, sat on her haunches, and stood guard.
There was a flurry of movement from behind one of the piles, and Harper prepared herself to see one of the sewer rats. When the creature stepped out, though, she almost wished it was a rat. It was one of the goblins; he was short, with yellowish green skin, a long nose, and floppy ears. He was dressed in an old tattered loincloth and he was hissing at them.
"Get out," he said. "Get out, get out, get out. This is our treasure. We hunted long for it. You can't have it."
"We're looking for paintings," Alec said loudly. "We don't want the rest of this junk. Just tell us where the paintings are."
"Junk? Junk!" The goblin lurched sideways and then ran at Alec head-on. "This is priceless treasure! My treasure! My stuff! You can't have it! Junk? You don't know what you're talking about, oh no, you don't. This is precious, so precious, my beautiful treasures."
Alec simply stepped out of the way and the goblin ran past him and into the wall. He was knocked off his feet. Harper felt a moment of pity for him, and went over there to help him stand. He hissed at her and drew back. "No, you cannot touch me. No touching. No, no, filthy human. You can't touch me."
She looked around in amusement, and saw that there were several more of the goblins in the room with them. Some were cleaner than others, but they all wore the same filthy loin cloths. She could see how they might have sneaked into the museums; they moved silently. She hadn't heard any others approach.
Alec held up his gun. "Do you know what this is?"
None of them responded.
He shot into the air, and the room was suddenly full of screams. The goblins banded together and glared at him. "The next one goes in someone's knee."
All the goblins began to squeak and hiss. They banded together in a small group and began talking in a language that Harper couldn't understand. Alec sighed, aimed the gun at the floor near their feet and fired. They all jumped and screamed again, pressing more tightly together.
"Fine," said the first goblin. "Take the paintings! We don't want them anyway!"
"Where are they?" Alec said.
The goblin pointed at a tall tower of trash. At the top, precariously balanced, was a stack of paintings. "Great," Conner said. "Now if only we had a ladder..."
The goblins ignored him and ran out of the room together. Harper thought it was all too easy when suddenly a loud crashing noise made her jump and look to the side. All around them, gates had swung down. Then, in front of the gates, large steel plates descended from the ceilings, effectively cutting off all the exits. Sarah had to leap backwards to avoid being cut in half by one.
"Uh, Alec," Brittney said slowly. "We're trapped."
"Right," Alec said. "We'll work on that in a minute. Let's get those paintings down."
Harper thought he sounded a little too cavalier about being trapped in a room of garbage with no way out, but she decided that he must have a plan, so she went over to where the paintings were and stared up at them. "How are we going to get them down? Like Conner said, we don't have a ladder."
Brittney, Sarah, and Conner joined them, and the five of them stared up at the paintings.
"You know," Sarah said, "this would have been a great time for Chloe to help us. She could have levitated up there."
"Yeah," Brittney said. She looked away from the others, and Harper thought she saw tears sparkling in her eyes. But when she looked back, she was quite composed. "But we don't," she said. "So we're just going to have to make do. Get out of the way, guys."
"What are you going to do?" Alec asked.
"Just move."
He stepped back, and the others followed him. Brittney moved forward, took a long look at the pile, and then began picking pieces out of it, seemingly at random. Then, at once, the pile fell, creating a loud crashing noise, and covering them all in dust. Harper and Sarah both coughed.
"What the hell?" Alec said.
"Family night," Brittney said. "You pick up a few things." She caught Harper's eye and they both started laughing again. The others didn't seem to find it as funny.
"You made a huge mess," Conner said grumpily. "I hope you didn't hurt the paintings."
"Me either," Alec said darkly. "Remember, we need those, or you two are going to be in a load of trouble tomorrow night."
"If we aren't still down here," Harper said. "Trapped."
Alec shook his head and began sorting through things. The others joined in, moving newspapers and books and broken dolls out of the way. After about fifteen minutes of looking, Sarah stood up triumphantly. She held up the stack of paintings. "No worse for the wear," she said. "I mean, they need dusted, but they're fine."
"Thank God," Brittney said. "Now... how about getting out of here?"
"That's the thing," Alec said. "It's not going to be as hard as you think."
"Why not?"
"You really think they'd create a room they can't get out of? No, there'll be a lever here somewhere. Remember, goblins are very afraid. They wouldn't want to be trapped in here with no food or water. Start checking the walls."
Once again, they split up, each one covering a section of the wall. Harper looked closely, checking with her fingers as well as her eyes. It did little good; the wall she was searching was bare except for certain dark spots that she didn't want to think about. She was just giving up hope when she heard Sarah let out an exclamation. Everyone turned and ran to her. Brittney scooped up the paintings and joined them.
Alec gave her a swift smile, and stepped forward to pull the lever. The walls and gates didn't lift, but a small hatch partway down to the floor clicked. Harper raised both eyebrows as Alec bent down to open it. Inside was an old telephone keypad with the numbers one to nine lit up and glowing.
"So now we just have to get the combination," he said. He punched in a few digits and hit the enter button. Nothing happened. He tried another combination, but once again nothing happened. He let out a frustrated sigh, and tried again. They stood there for nearly thirty minutes as he tried combo after combo, with no results.
He stood up, frustrated, and turned to the others. "I have no idea what their combination would be," he said. "I thought it would be something simple, because they're not exactly rocket scientists. They'd have to remember it, after all."
"Wait, that's it," Harper said.
"What?"
"Something they'd remember," Harper said. "Move."
Alec backed away from the console and Harper knelt down in front of it. She counted quickly in her head, and then entered an eight digit code. She crossed the fingers of her left hand and then hit the enter button. There was a loud beep and then the steel walls and gates lifted with a loud creaking.
"What was it?" Conner asked.
"Treasure," Harper said.
Alec blinked. "I never even thought of that."
Everyone nodded their agreement and they began their long walk once more. It took them nearly five hours to get out of the sewers. They took a wrong turn, and ended up lost. When they finally found their way back to the original path, all of them were too exhausted to be truly pleased by their progress. There were several times when they had to divvy up the artwork and hold it under their shirts so they wouldn't get damaged.
When they exited the sewers, the sun was already shining overhead.
"I feel like I could sleep for days," Brittney said, covering a yawn with her hand. "Can we go to our house, or are we still staying at the hotel?"
"Let's go back to the house," Alec said. "One of us will have to stand guard while the others sleep. We'll take shifts."
"Guard?"
"Yes," Alec said. "We don't know if Chloe and her new beau are going to come after us. She knows where the house is, and we need to make sure she can't hurt any of us. Don't look at me like that, Brittney. We're not going to hurt her. If she shows up, we'll detain her. That's all. Just till we can figure out exactly what that guy did to her. What did she say his name was? Nathan?"
"Nick," Conner said. "I think. I don't remember."
Harper shrugged. "Come on, let's go get some sleep."
THIRTEEN
Everyone took turns in the showers and changed into fresh clothing. Then they slept, and slept heavily. Harper thought she might dream; sometimes when she was stressed out she would dream of being Ileana. Not today, though. Today, she slept like the dead and when she woke up for her turn on guard duty, she felt much more refreshed.
It turned out that guard duty had been a waste of time. Neither Chloe nor Nick showed up. In fact, the only person who even came close to the house was a meter man who took a reading of their power grid. Harper waved at him, and he returned the gesture, tipped his hat, and went on his way.
Once everyone was awake, they ordered Chinese food and sat there, eating quietly. Nobody seemed very inclined to talk. Once they were fed and everyone was feeling more satisfied, Harper said, "So, tonight."
"Tonight," Brittney repeated. "Right, I almost forgot. We have a date with a gang."
"I think they prefer to be called a mob," Conner said.
"Mob, gang, it's all the same thing," Brittney said. "We have to figure out how to frame them with paintings. How are we going to do that when the place is crawling with demons? I mean, it would be bad enough if they were humans, but... we're going up against a gang full of vampires, incubi, succubi, and... flame things."
"Infernos," Alec supplied.
"Yes, infernos."
"We'll play it by ear," Alec said. "Just take one of the paintings, go to them, and tell them that it's a start, and if they want more, they'll let you in."
"You'll be with us, right?" Harper asked.
"Sort of," Alec said. "I'll be with Conner and Sarah, watching from a distance. You're going to have to give us some kind of signal... then we'll swoop in and the five of us will clear out the demons. We'll deal with framing the humans after."
"Great," Harper said. She sighed, and ran a hand through her hair. It was tangled and unkempt. She'd gone to sleep with wet hair and it had become a mess. She got up, went to the bathroom and brushed it out, thinking hard the entire time. It was going to be a dangerous night -- perhaps the most dangerous night of their lives. Yet, somehow she didn't feel frightened. She felt exhilarated, and ready for battle.
When she left the bathroom, she saw Brittney and was glad to see that she had the same fierce look on her face. It would be better for them to go in confidently then shaking in their running shoes. The thought reminded her of the clothing they'd discarded that morning. She gathered it up, put it in a garbage bag, and took it out to the dumpster.
When she returned, Conner was stretched out on the couch, and Alec was sitting at their table, smoking. She thought about snatching his cigarette and throwing it out the window, but she contained herself. He was their guest, and he would be for a while; after all, Afterlife was still getting renovated.
"How are we going to take down fifty demons?" Brittney asked. "I mean, there's only six of us. Sorry, five of us."
Alec shrugged. "I've faced worse odds."
"They might have guns."
"So do we."
Brittney just frowned at him, and went to the fridge. She stared in at the groceries, grabbed an apple, and went to join Conner in the living room. She took a bite, chewed, and then asked, "Have you faced worse odds, Conner?"
Conner considered for a moment. "By myself, sure. I've been up against twenty or so harpies, all on my own. I had to fight my way out of that, but luckily they weren't immune to my charm. So I seduced a few of them, turned them against each other, and bam! Escaped while they were fighting. I was actually pretty bad ass."
Brittney rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you were," she said. "Hey, do you think tonight you can seduce some of them? I mean, can you seduce men?"
"I can try," Conner said. "Most likely, I won't be able to though. They have to have some level of attraction to men for an incubus' power to work on them."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"Okay," Harper said. "Let's just figure it out as we go. For now, let's discuss what to do about Chloe and Nathan."
"Nick," Conner corrected.
"Right, Nick, sorry. Look, he's not a demon," Harper said. "He doesn't have any supernatural powers at all. I checked when we were there and I saw nothing. The thing is, we all know Chloe doesn't love him. She just thinks she does. Which means she's under some kind of spell. Now, if Nick isn't supernatural at all, then that means he got help from someone who does. Which means there's a demon out there who wants us dead."
Brittney said, "Oh great, that really narrows it down."
Conner laughed. Even Alec gave an indulging smile.
"We've gone over this already," Sarah reminded them. "Remember the whole conversation about how you can't keep someone you love prisoner, and then you and Alec argued about whether we should kill him..."
"I know," Harper said. "I'm just trying to figure out what we're going to do about her."
"Nothing tonight," Alec said. "Tonight, we've got a date, remember? Look, guys, some of us might not come back. That's something we need to accept right now. Because if we go in there believing that we can do this, that's one thing, but if we go in there believing that we're invincible, we're going to be killed."
"Nobody is going to die," Harper said sharply.
Conner shook his head. "Alec's right, Harper. We can't go into this without acknowledging the risk. The risk is, we could all end up on body slabs tomorrow. Do I think that's going to happen? No. I think we're going to kick ass, honestly. I mean, that's what we do. But they're high odds, and we're going to have to watch our every step."
"Alright," Harper said. "We'll watch ourselves. Message received."
"Okay," Alec said. "Alright. Good."
Sarah stepped up to Harper. "Come on."
"Where are we going?"
"Right in here," Sarah said. She led her into the living room, and began pushing furniture out of the way. She paused when she got to the one Conner was on. "Time to move."
Conner sighed, sat up, and got off the couch. He helped her push it out of the living room.
"What are you doing, anyway?" he asked.
Sarah nodded to Brittney and Harper. "These two are going to fight me."
"What?" Harper groaned.
"Have to make sure you're ready for tonight," Sarah said. "And that means testing your skills. Come on, both at once. I want you to fight like your life is in danger."
Brittney glanced at Harper, and nodded. The two of them went on separate sides of Sarah and came at her at once. She ducked Brittney's blow, and blocked Harper's with her left arm. "Is that all you got?"
For the next two hours, they practiced fighting. Alec joined in at one point, and then Co
nner got involved as well. Soon, the five of them were just fighting each other without worrying about who was on who's side in the mock battle. If anyone came near Harper, she either blocked the attack or reacted offensively. She knew she wasn't as good as the others, but she fought to her best ability, and by the time they were done, she was covered in sweat.
"Great," she said, flopping on the floor, exhausted. "Now I need another shower."
"We all do," Brittney said. She smelled herself, winced, and stretched. "I'll take the first one!"
Before anyone could argue with her, she'd skipped off to her bathroom.
"You did well," Sarah told Harper. "You're really getting some pack behind your punches."
"Well, with all the fighting we do," Harper said, "and all the training, and weight lifting, and running... I better be getting some strength. I feel like my arms are now made of lead."
"That'll pass," Sarah said. "Do you mind if I shower in the guest bathroom?"
"Go for it," Harper said.
Sarah nodded and went off to the guest bathroom. Alec went to lay down in his room for a little while, which left Harper and Conner alone.
"You fought well," Conner said. "I think you might have even bruised me."
"Do demons bruise?" Harper asked.
Conner laughed. "No, but it made you smile to think you might have, didn't it?"
"I suppose," Harper said. She laughed and shook her head. "Are we crazy, Conner? I mean, I'm not scared. I'm excited. Is that crazy?"
"No," he said, "I often feel like that before a big job. Like nothing can go wrong. But remember what I told you, Harper. Overconfidence can you get killed as easily as weakness. We can't underestimate these guys or our heads will be rolling. Got it?"
"Got it," she said.
Conner flashed her a smile.
Once Sarah and Brittney were both out of the shower, Harper went in to take one herself. The hot water felt great on her sore muscles. Soon, she was relaxed and ready for another fight. She got out of the shower, toweled herself, and dressed in clothes fitting for the evening. She put on her socks and running shoes and went to join the others.
Kinda Like Van Helsing (Afterlife Book 4) Page 12
