The Tower

by L. A. McGinnis

  “My father enjoyed killing people. Violently. Messily, at times. His choice of weapon was a knife.” Her eyes grew colder as she added, “My mother’s choice of weapon?” She didn’t blink when she looked at Balder. “Poison.

  “I was indoctrinated into the family business at an early age. By the time I was six, I could explain, in graphic detail, how to kill a man quickly and efficiently. By either method. By the time I was eight?” She swallowed, hard. “I had.

  “Hence, my other name. Angel de la Muerte. I was known in certain circles as the angel of death, a reputation my parents cultivated—because I never failed—and the mark never saw me coming.

  “But when I turned fifteen, I chose a different life. I left behind my family, my country, everything I’d ever known because I wanted to change.” Her tone turned pleading, despite her best efforts. “And from here on, I swear, everything I told you was the absolute truth. I did become a medic in El Salvador. Because I knew my way around…certain things, I proved useful to the cartels. I had specific medical knowledge.” She felt sick, remembering. “Poisons, of course, puncture wounds, gunshot wounds.” Her voice dropped. “Burns. Torture. Other…stuff.”

  Watching his eyes go dark, Gabriella realized this was what reckoning felt like, this sickening, hollow sense of dread that wound its way up through her, gripping her by the throat, strangling her.

  “Please, Balder, I…”

  “Save it,” he spit out. “We don’t have time for this right now. If there was one of those creatures, then there’s more, and we can’t get everyone to safety if our window of opportunity slams shut. Which means we focus on getting Celine and the baby to the safe house.

  “I’ll wake everyone up. You get things ready to go for Celine, including prepping for emergencies based on what just fucking happened out back.” She opened her mouth to protest, and he pointed a finger into her face. “I do not care about the word of a paid assassin. Once we get clear of this shitshow, I’m recommending we cut you loose.”

  His gaze flickered over her—a lying, bleeding, imposter—before he added, his voice distant, “By then? None of us will need you anymore.”

  Gabriella did as Balder asked. Only because he was right and because she didn’t have anything to add. Words were nothing but bullshit in the end.

  The house woke in organized panic, everyone doing everything they could to get Celine and the baby out of Oak Park as quickly as possible. Gabriella focused on the medical end of things, working as fast as she could with a bum arm. “You got this Gabbie?” Mir asked, leaning into the dining room, clearly just checking in. She nodded, keeping her attention fixed on organizing the supplies in front of her.

  “Got it under control. You?”

  “Helping Freyr and Loki load up the Hummer with as much as we can fit. Dawn is in four hours. What happened to your arm?” he asked, his eyes flying to her wound, the sleeve still encrusted with blood.

  “Just a surface laceration, I’ll treat it later,” she muttered, embarrassed.

  “Bullshit. Here, let me.” A shimmer of blue covered her arm, warmth sinking into her skin, then deeper, penetrating to the bone, the pain instantly subsiding, while before her eyes, the skin knitting back together. Ah, that’s what it feels like. “I can’t believe Balder didn’t take care of you first thing.” Mir growled, grabbing a full box and disappearing.

  Her arm usable again, Gabriella packed quickly, efficiently. Sticking to what was vital. Celine’s needs came first, obviously, and the baby’s. Everything else came after that.

  From outside she heard yelling, then gunshots. If those things were here…

  What if there were a lot of them? What if they were trapped? What if this turned into a bloodbath? Her mind churned the possibilities until she wondered if running was the answer. Prey ran. Predators gave chase.

  Gabriella paused, considering this little town, evaluating their current location. Main street was nothing but a narrow corridor lined by high shopfronts. The perfect chute for corralling animals. Blocking a few side streets might just do it, explosives would take care of the rest. Like a puzzle, it all fell into place. They’d used the same scheme in Madrid once, she remembered, and with a bit of finessing, they could make a stand. They might have to.

  Fenrir raced into the house. “We just killed another one outside. They’re already here. Get those supplies into the Hummer, Vali’s ready to leave.”

  Hefting the last box, Gabriella hurried for the door. Just under four hours before dawn. Chances were, the creatures would arrive well before that. Predators hunted pre-light, and she knew their habits well. She could help. The only thing holding her back had been Balder. Her fear of what he’d do once he discovered her secret.

  Now that she was outed, it was time to show them who she really was.

  29

  Vali left for the Wisconsin safe house—Lilly, Celine, and baby Remus packed safely inside the Hummer. It turned out Lilly had some medical training, so the consensus was, they’d be just fine.

  After making another inspection of the carcass in the backyard to confirm her suspicions, Gabriella slipped into the back of the room while the planning meeting was in full swing, getting a feel for where they were at and how they expected things to go.

  Not well.

  From the deep footprints around the corpse in the backyard, she figured the gods had also done a thorough job if inspecting their pursuers, something that would make her proposal easier. If they listened to what she had to say.

  Balder had a laptop flipped open on the middle of the table, a dark, fuzzy picture pulled up on the screen. She guessed it had something to do with the creatures. Since Balder went to great lengths to not acknowledge her entrance, and even greater lengths to ignore her intermittent efforts to interrupt the conversation, she couldn’t say how it related to their situation.

  “I have an idea.” Yup, he just kept on talking, even when she knew he’d seen her motion to him repeatedly. “Balder, I have an idea of how we might be able make a stand. Here, in Oak Park.”

  Silence.

  “This is war, Gabriella. If I wanted your opinion, I would have asked you for it.” Ouch.

  “If you had bothered to ask me for it, I might have surprised you.” For the first time since she’d met him, she dropped all pretense. She became the cold-hearted mercenary she’s once been. She didn’t expect them to like it, not one bit. She knew her voice was caustic, and her eyes looked empty and dark, but she did not give a fuck. Enough with the good girl routine.

  “Because if you would have bothered to ask me, I would have told you that the animal’s only weakness was under its neck, and the only way to kill it was exactly the way I killed it. So, get over it.” With a small, deadly smile, she spread her arms, daring him to take her on. “You’ve all looked, and I’m sure you agree. They can’t be attacked from above, only from underneath. Which is exactly what we are going to do. They’re clearly built to run down prey. To hunt us down. So, let them come.” She shrugged casually. “And when they do, we’ll kill them.”

  “You’re out of your depth, here, doctor.” Balder’s lips twisted, as he let out a low, mocking laugh. He pointed at the screen. “From what we can see from the video feed, there are a lot more of them. This isn’t a game.”

  As much as telling her to go to hell.

  Maybe I will, when this is all said and done. She thought. But not today.

  “The Orobus sent these things here to flush us out. Clearly, they’re predators whose goal is to eliminate us. If he’s smart—and he is—there’ll be enough of them to ensure he’s successful. My guess is, they’ll keep coming as long as we run. Which means we don’t run. We make a stand, and we trap them. We have four hours.” She checked her watch. “Less—now that you’ve wasted my time.”

  “You don’t make plans for us. As a matter of fact, you don’t have a say in this.” Balder’s voice was cutting and directed straight at her.

  “You’ve never been on the run before
, and you’re on the verge of making a mistake, Balder.” Her voice turned just as he pointed. “Once you run, it’s harder to defend yourselves, a fact the Orobus is well aware of. My guess is, this other safe house has fewer provisions, fewer comforts, and is less fortified. Your best bet is to make a stand here. I can help you.”

  She could practically hear Balder’s teeth grind from where she stood. Good. Let him stew. “What’ll it be? We’re packed up. Do we run, or do we fight?”

  “Like I said before, you don’t make…”

  “Let her have her say, Balder.” Odin’s voice was hard as stone. “Hear her out. She’s right, you know—our backs are against the wall, and this might be the only way out.”

  Gabriella couldn’t look at Balder, not when she looked inside herself and saw all the terrible things that had brought her to this moment. Brought her here. If not to Balder, then to this war.

  “We don’t have time for this, Gabriella. Stop stalling, you must convince them,” Odin urged gently.

  Pausing for only a second, she met their eyes and offered, by way of an apology, “I was a different person, once. In a different world.” Her eyes burned, but she held her head high. “I did terrible things because I was trained to do them. And I did them very, very well. It wasn’t a life I would have chosen, but my experience might save us now.”

  Tyr stepped in between them. “You’ve got three minutes, Gabriella, make it count.”

  And she did. By the time she was done explaining the plan, they were all nodding. Except for Balder, of course, who looked like he wanted to throttle her.

  “Could work. We’ve got the explosives,” Mir pointed out.

  “We won’t need many,” Gabriella reminded him. “We’ll let the utility company do the work for us.”

  “It’ll wipe out some of our resources here. We’ll have to rely on wood for the fireplaces.”

  “Of which we have six,” Gabriella reminded him.

  Tyr spun the map around while they all leaned in. “Teams of two. Thor and Fen will cordon off the street, Freyr and Mir on charges. Me and Loki will scout so we have a timeline to work from. The rest of you know what to do. Spread out, hit your targets. Dress for the weather.”

  A storm was kicking up outside and would hit full force in the next few hours. Hopefully, whatever hell planet these creatures had been bred on didn’t have Chicago winters to contend with.

  “When they come, charges will be set up underneath the road, along the gas lines of the main boulevard, and the side streets. Every fifty feet should do it. They should bottleneck—right here—up against the rubble and the debris at the end of Lake Street.” She pointed at the crossroads where the buildings grew taller and the road narrower. “We’ll lure them in using Hunter as bait. One of the ATV’s should outpace them easily. Me, Loki, and Balder will be on the right—Tyr, Mir, and Morgane on the left. Fenrir, transformed, will cut in behind them once they reach this point…right here. Odin, you’ll be waiting at the end.”

  He scowled in answer.

  “As the prize.”

  “Once the beasts fill up the street, we hit the charges, and it should turn into a blood bath. We take them all out, quickly and efficiently. Everyone closes ranks, picking off the stragglers. Once we finish with clean up, we wait.” They waited as she added, “To see if he sends a second wave.” Now came the tricky part. “Once we’re in the clear, I suggest we send in a team to rescue Ava.”

  Tyr nodded slowly. “Without Hel, without his army and his weapon stores, this might be the weakest he’s been. He’d be distracted by the loss of his creatures. It would be a good opportunity.”

  “Rescue her how?” Balder jerked his head toward the map. “We’ll be coming off a potential disaster. And you’re suggesting going up against Domenic?”

  If she wasn’t so pissed off right now, she might actually admire his flinty authority. She met his eyes unwaveringly. “I know things about Domenic’s security that will get us inside, get me close. I think we should try… You got Hel out of there. We should try for Ava.”

  Odin’s blank gaze swung to her and stayed.

  “And once you’re inside, what then?” Balder’s tone turned brittle.

  “We figure it out. There’s a possibility…” She pursed her lips. “A very real possibility, Ava’s still playing him. It’s what I’d do, if I could. I’d…” She clamped her mouth shut. This wasn’t the time for a lesson in who she used to be. What she used to do.

  Her eyes found Odin. “What do you think, could this be my opportunity, what we were discussing before? Could this be my chance?”

  “I don’t know. I told you, when it comes to Domenic, I’m blind.”

  “What the fuck are you two talking about?” Balder demanded as time slowed down.

  She squeezed her eyes shut. “Just something I’ve got to do.”

  Aware of everyone’s eyes on them, sure enough, Balder’s lip curled up off his teeth, the second he put two and two together. “You cannot possibly be talking about what I think you are.”

  “Leave her be, Balder,” Odin murmured. “She and I have talked through this scenario. There’s a reason she’s here with us—and this is it.” Odin exhaled, exhaustion etched into his gaunt face. “Tell them the rest, it’s the only way they’ll understand.”

  Her heart skipped a beat, but she explained, with the intention of keeping things short. “I had another life, once. As an assassin.”

  Cue the pin drop. “I was raised as one, from the time I was a child. And I worked for Domenic once, a long time ago. Which means he and I are already connected, which Odin takes as a sign I’m here for a reason.”

  Balder’s denial came out as a vicious hiss. “The Orobus cannot be killed.”

  “Odin thinks otherwise. And I’m beginning to believe he’s right,” she admitted. “We go in there to rescue Ava, but if I cross paths with Domenic, if I have the chance…”

  “No.” Tyr growled. “No suicide missions. No vigilante shit.” Loki and Mir nodded vigorously. “Look, even if I fail, then it’s nothing lost. You’re still dealing with Domenic, without an army—and Ava will either be on his side or yours.” She shrugged. “I fail to see the problem.”

  “You. You are the problem, Gabriella.” Balder’s face was stiff with anger. “He would kill you. Or worse.” A sideways glance to Odin. “He’ll kill her, Odin. Or worse.”

  She shrugged. “Like you said a few minutes ago, Balder. This is war.”

  “You are not going in there,” Tyr reiterated, crossing his impressive arms, a take-no-bullshit look on his face. “We deal with one clusterfuck at a time, because that’s all I can take right now.” He tightened his pose, and his muscles swelled epically. “Tell me you understand, Gabriella.”

  “I think I can do it,” she countered, not taking her eyes off those ginormous arms.

  Balder rasped, “You can’t do this. You aren’t this person.”

  “That’s the problem, Balder. I am this person. I’ve always been this person. The woman you think you know? That’s not me. Or rather, it’s the person I wish I was. But it’s not me, not really.

  “Right now, we set our trap, we kill these monsters that are coming for us. We paint the streets in their blood. And then I’m going after Domenic.” She didn’t even blink, feeling herself settle seamlessly back into her cold, hardened self. “As far as Ava? I’ll know whose side she’s on, depending on what I see in her eyes.”

  “You are not the judge and jury, Gabriella…” Balder growled.

  She cut him off. “We don’t have a lot of time. If you have a better plan, run it by us now. Otherwise…” Something inside of her broke at the expression on his face. “Otherwise. Get out of my way.”

  “I always wondered,” he whispered, his eyes glimmering. “I wondered about that space between us. Now I’m glad of it. I’m sure you’re glad of it too. It’s the only thing you did right.”

  She stood a bit straighter, even while she wanted to throw up. “This is
who I am, Balder. I’ve made my peace with it a long time ago, and as for the space between us? I did that for you. Not me.” And she walked away from them all.

  “That went well.”

  If Odin wasn’t a frail, old bastard, Balder would have him up against the wall.

  “You knew,” Balder hissed. “You knew what Gabriella was all along.” He couldn’t believe it. An assassin. A killer for hire. Anger burned bright within him, fuel to the betrayal that stabbed him in the heart. “You fucking knew, didn’t you?”

  “I knew. But what would you have me do? Tell you? Tell everyone? It wasn’t my secret to tell. It was hers.” Odin stared at Balder for so long it was as if he could see. “Hers, damn it. We all have our secrets, Balder. You. Me. All of us. Don’t put this shit on me and don’t take your anger out on me.

  “Besides, she’s right. She is what we need. There’s something about that girl… I believe in her, even if you don’t.”

  “And her plan to funnel those creatures into the street and exterminate them?”

  “A good one, don’t you think?” A flash of the old Odin—his merciless smile—and his previous cunning shone through, only to be replaced by an old man’s plodding sedateness. The change made Balder blink. “How long will it take to plant the charges along the gas lines?”

  “Less than an hour. Freyr and Mir are already on their way.” His mind was churning. “Thor and Fenrir took the trucks to move vehicles to blockade the side streets. I couldn’t gauge numbers from the video feed, but enough firepower overhead should keep them moving, and once they’re in the chute, we blow the whole damn thing.”

  “Sounds like you have it all under control,” Odin called after him as Balder hurried away. “And you might want to take a moment to talk to her, Balder.”

  “Fuck that,” Balder called back. “I’m done talking. She had all the chances in the world to tell me the truth. And she didn’t.”

  Odin paused before answering. “Did it ever occur to you that the truth isn’t everything?”