“On second thought, you take him,” Tamerlane said. I scooped up my brother and threw him across my shoulders.
“Alright ladies and gents, let’s get the show back on the road,” Valerian said and took a few steps. “If we take Allegany it should take us pretty close to the service road that runs perpendicular to the main driveway.”
“Not so fast little brother,” Tam, said as he drew his phone from his pocket and pulled up a gps program. “Mother text me earlier. We can't take the main entrance. It seems our failure to issue a formal statement, has caused a bit of speculation. There are twice as many news crews camped out at the edge of the property.”
A few finger swipes later he held up his phone. “If we follow this path, we can gain entrance to the grounds through the woods at the southern end of the property.”
“Isn’t that area protected by a thirty-foot electrical fence and laser weaponry?” I asked. I was all for protecting the public and keeping our Fae problem out of the news, but getting my ass fried trying to avoid the main entrance wasn’t on my bucket list.
Tamerlane held up his phone. “It is, but there’s also a small access gate there. I’ve got the clearance codes to shut down the defenses for the gate and get access to it.”
It looked like we were bound for another trek through the forest. I rolled my eyes and jostled Constantine on my shoulders, trying to get him into a better position for running.
“This is far from dignified,” he complained from his upside down perch on my shoulders.
“Keep complaining, hard-head, and I’m going to tell Mama how you refused to call for help,” I warned Tino. No, I was not above threatening one of my brothers with our mother.
We broke into another run, and made it to the fence that surrounded our property without any sign of the Banshee, or the Manticores that we left fighting her. I slid Constantine to the ground and looked toward the sky. There was nothing, not even the rain that was falling so heaving a few minutes ago. “Where the hell is everyone,” I wondered. “They shouldn’t have been that far behind us. We agreed upon a three minute lead at the most.”
“Maybe the Manticores finished her off,” Valerian said as he scanned the darkened thatch of woods for the creature or signs of the Fae guards.
“I’m not that lucky,” I mumbled as I closed my eyes. “Come on, Ire,” I whispered. I threw my mind away from me and searched for signs that Irulan had regained consciousness. For a few tense seconds, I got nothing, and then her voice filled my head.
“Are you okay?” She asked me.
“Me, you're asking about me,” After everything that she's been through tonight she was worried about me. “I’m fine, baby. Where are you?”
“In the sky,” she said. “Thade and Marcus have gathered their wolves and are closing in on the Complex.”
“What about the Banshee?”
“She killed two of the Manticores,” Irulan sighed. “I got there in time to watch them fall to her blade. I sent the remaining guard back to the FaeLands. He's not in a position to help anyone.”
That didn’t sound hopeful. That meant there were only four Manticores left to help drive the Banshee toward the Vault. I was confident in my abilities, but I’d be a fool if I failed to recognize they were a lot better at combating the Harbinger than we were. I had one last question. “How much time do we have?”
The word ‘none’ popped in my head the same time the Banshee came into view. Tamerlane didn’t have to deactivate the security measures. The freaky, Fae bitch opened her mouth and began to wail. We scattered; diving to the ground. Her yowl took out an entire, twelve foot long section of the fence; along with it, the terminal that he needed to override the security system.
Vedo and Tamerlane jumped up and began firing their weapons. “No,” I yelled at them. This wasn’t what I had in mind. They were supposed to be back inside with Tamerlane, manning the panels that controlled the explosives we set. I had to get her attention focused on me long enough for them to make it inside.
“Come on, Brother,” I grunted, and grabbed Constantine by the collar. “I gotta you guys out of here.”
I tossed my oldest brother through the air, leaving Tamerlane and Valerian no choice but to drop their weapons and catch him. He hit them with enough force to knock the two of them onto their asses.
She belted out another scream, and I jumped into the air. Her neck craned as she tracked my movements. Now was my chance. I slapped my hands together, and black lightning erupted from them. Where the energy orbs required a little finesse to generate and were more controllable, the bolts were easily tapped and completely wild. Ever since I almost fried my father’s Bentley, I’ve been hesitant to form them.
The lightning shot toward the Banshee. Of course, she used her wail to keep it from hitting home, but as long as I could hold out, the beam of energy would stay a constant stream. If I didn’t let up, neither could she. Here’s to praying that I could keep my hands touching a lot longer than she could hold her breath.
I dropped to the ground with my hands on fire and the beam intact. The Banshee’s eyebrows came together in a scowl. She didn’t look happy at being put on the defensive. Doubt me again. I looked past her and saw my brothers running for the nearest entrance to the main building. I breathed a sigh of relief and shook away a bead of sweat that had gathered on my brow.
Keeping her away from me wasn’t that hard, now I had to get inside without getting torn apart. That proved easier said than done. The ground beneath me began to rumble, and I was forced to throw out my hands to balance myself. There went my lightning.
The Banshee used my momentary distraction to her advantage, inhaled, and let loose another volley. I dug my heels into the ground and backpedaled as fast as I could, heading for the gap in the fence. I got within inches when I heard a small whine. I looked behind me and saw a crisscross pattern of blue lines beginning to fill in the missing links. Lasers. The backup defenses for the fence were powering up, and I didn't have an access terminal to shut them down.
I stopped short and headed back in the other direction. Bad move. The blast hit the ground less than a foot away from me. The impact knocked me into the air, sending me sailing toward the electrified section of the fence. I screamed and unfurled my wings faster than I ever had before.
The leathery appendages ripped themselves free of my back, catching the air, bringing me to a halt, but not before the smell of burnt hair filled my nostrils. That was too damn close for comfort. I twisted and whipped my wings back. My body cut through the air. I needed to find a tree big enough to offer some cover. In my hurry to find it, I flew right into the Harbingers path.
She smiled and threw open her jaws, unleashing a wail that hit me dead on. I screamed as the force ripped through my wings. The sensation was like nothing I’ve ever felt before. I’ve been hit with energy attacks and bombarded with magic. I’ve been shot, stabbed, punched and kicked. The feel of her wail tearing away the thin, nerve filled membranes of my wings, made me long for a nice bullet to the gut.
White-hot pain engulfed me, clouding my thinking as I began falling toward the ground. When I hit, I hit hard; bouncing twice before coming to a stop on my back. The crunch of bone filled my ears, and I groaned. That was my leg. I rolled onto my side and tried to lift it. Fuck that hurt. Yep. It was broken.
The ground beneath me shook again, and my mind scrambled to function through the pain. The earth moving was significant, but I couldn’t remember why. I heard laughter and the crunch of dead leaves. She was coming to finish her kill. That was all the motivation I needed to focus. I shook a strand of burgundy hair from my face and took a deep breath.
“Is that the best you’ve got, bitch,” I spat around a mouthful of blood. Dear God, please let me sound more intimidating than I felt. I forced myself onto my stomach and then to my feet. My leg hurt like a hell, healing at a snail’s pace because of blood loss, but I’ll be damned if I was going to let her kick me while I was down.
I lifted my head, and there she was, standing a few inches away from me. Her bottomless, hollow eyes locked on my own, and she had me.
“That’s more like it,” she crooned, her voice without the wail, just as effective a weapon. She touched the gashes on her arm and drew away a bloody finger. She reached out and ran that finger down the side of my face, leaving a trail of blood. “It’s a pity you all have to die. I’ve never had a quarry fight the way you have. Your brother managed to draw blood,” the Banshee’s silver hair whipped around her as she circled me. “Not many can claim that.”
I should have wanted to shrug my shoulders, or come up with some smart-mouthed reply to further piss her off, but my mind was hers. “No, it’s not,” a voice shouted. I tried to turn my head to find it, but my body wasn’t cooperating.
“I’m so close,” the voice said again. The Banshee continued to talk, but her voice wasn’t as effective. That other voice was pushing against it, fighting. I could almost feel invisible fingers latched onto my brain in a tug of war for the control of me. Is that what people felt when I took them over?
“Val,” the voice screamed again. This time I recognized it. It was Irulan. I caught the blink before my eyelids closed and stared into the night; trying hard not to let on that I wasn’t under her compulsion.
The longer Ire talked; the clearer my mind got, no matter what the Banshee said. Why is it the bad guys love to preach before they kill their targets? Seriously, if they would just shut the fuck up, maybe they'd get something accomplished. But who am I to point that out? Her long-winded ass was the only thing keeping me alive until Ire got here…Or my brothers figured out a way to help me from inside.
Looks like my brothers it was. I looked past the Banshee and saw the small weapons launchers rising out of the dry ground. Tam had activated the complex’s main defenses. That wasn’t part of the plan either, but yay Tam! For once I was grateful my brother was always of the opinion that there was no such thing as overkill. I did a quick count and saw four of the metal boxes, rotating toward us.
The perimeter launchers were equipped with two small surface-to-air rockets and a mini-gun. Both were strong enough to stop anything with a pulse and most things that weren't. But I wasn’t about to kid myself into thinking they would have any effect on her. When it came to defying death, the Harbinger would make Houdini look like a rank amateur.
The Banshee was so enamored with the sound of her own voice that she failed to notice the launchers. By the time she did, rounds of ammunition were flying through the air. I dropped, twisting and dodging the hail of bullets, but I wasn’t successful.
The gun was firing rounds faster than I could keep up with. I was hit twice before I finally threw out a hand and erected a shield. With all the energy I’d expended, it would be a miracle if I didn’t end up shot dead by friendly fire.
Spurts of leaves and dirt hopped into the air, displaced by bullets riddling the ground. More than one struck the Banshee, causing her to jerk with each hit. My eyes were transfixed on the wounds. They never bled. She didn’t shed a single drop of blood. There wasn’t enough time for it. As soon they pierced her skin, the pale flesh knit itself back together.
After getting hit a few more times, she turned with her mouth open. She didn’t make a noise, but I could see the sounds emanating from her mouth. There were small ripples hanging in the air before her. The rounds struck her barrier and fell to the ground without doing any damage. No, the rounds weren't going to kill her, but they did distract her enough for me to flash toward the nearest tree. Any cover was better than nothing at this point, and I needed to force these bullets out of me so that I could heal, if I could. My body was damn near exhausted from healing my leg.
“I’m here, Val,” Irulan’s voice, called out to me. I spared the shortest of glances, taking my eyes off the Banshee for a second and looked up. There was my wife in all her fiery, Sidhe glory, dropping out of the sky. Her waist-length crimson hair was swirled around her, and her green eyes churned with angry clouds.
She landed beside me and cocked an eyebrow. “You ready, baby?”
With her by my side I was ready for anything. I nodded as I felt the metal intrusions slip from my skin. If Irulan saw, she never said so. From the moment, my brothers and I arrived at the fence, till now, were no more than five minutes tops. But as I watched the Banshee taking her sword to the weapons launchers, it felt like more time had passed.
“We need to move," I whispered. “We’ve got about five hundred yards to cover before we reach the entrance to the Vault.”
“So we've got to scale the fence while avoiding her and the security system, and then make it across fifteen hundred feet of open area,” she replied.
“Yup.”
“No problem,” she said and dropped to her knees. I watched in silence as Irulan thrust her hands into the earth. “As soon as she falls, we scale the fence and run like hell.”
I peeked around the tree and saw the Banshee driving the blade of her sword into the last functioning launcher and frowned. “There goes the last launcher for this sector. What are...”
I was on the verge of asking Irulan what she was planning, but as I watched the Fae assassin ride the twisting weapons launcher, I noticed the ground around the silo, was beginning to crumble and fall into the vacant hole.
I looked at Ire, and I saw thin fissures in the forming in ground. They ran from her hands to the launcher, opening the earth like a fault had been there all along. The destroyed weapon had shaken loose from its mooring and falling into the widening hole beneath it. The Banshee struggled to free her sword and get clear, but the chasm was opening too fast. With a loud screech and even louder scream, the metal base crumbled. Both the launcher and the Banshee were swallowed by the falling earth. Her scream continued, but it was muffled by the mounds of dirt that covered her.
“Move Val!” Irulan yelled beside me, as I stood there like a nut watching the pit get wider. “She’s using her scream to dig herself out. Without unbroken contact with the earth, I don't know how long I can keep up the shovel routine.”
She didn’t have to tell me twice. Together we darted around the scattered trees and headed for the security fence. “Shut ‘em down, Tam,” I yelled and projected at the same time. We could jump the fence, no problem. The lasers positioned along the top were a different story.
We were inches away from the fence, but I didn’t hear a thing from Tam. Shit. The Banshee’s screams were getting louder. It was time for a leap of faith. I bent my legs and pushed off. Air whipped at my face as I flew upward. I eyed the blinking lights on the battery packs and thought ‘red’. Stay red, please stay red. As long as those lights didn’t turn green, the lasers weren't powering up.
I cleared the fence and dropped to the ground with a sigh of relief and thanks. He heard me. Irulan touched down beside me, a sight more graceful, floating on her column of air than I had been.
“We’re heading around back, to the far left of the grounds,” I pointed. The Banshee’s wail was no longer subdued. I jerked around and saw her climbing out of the hole, her silver hair streaked with clumps of dirt. With the moon high in the sky, I had no problem seeing the expression on her pale face. The witch was pissed.
“I’m going to save you for last,” she yelled, shaking free chunks of sod. Her chest rose as she took a deep breath; then she unleashed hell. Her wail hit the fence, totally obliterating the metal poles and links, as far as I could see. Without anything standing between us, she charged forward.
“Faster, Ire,” I croaked. Since feeding from FaeVar I’ve gotten a lot faster. I can outrun a Mustang doing one twenty and hold that speed for thirty minutes without breaking a sweat. Right now as far as I was concerned that wasn’t fast enough.
“Shields Val!” Ire yelled, as she ducked under a tree branch.
“I don't think I can,” I gasped. Between giving Ire blood, all the healing I’d done, and the stunts I’d pulled to lure the Banshee into following me, I was quickly de
pleting my cache of energy. When I ran out of juice, I’d be forced to feed. Now was so not the time for me to grab a quick bite.
Irulan stopped running and threw herself in from of me. She raised a shield large enough to cocoon the two of us and not a moment too soon. The Banshee let loose a volley of wails that tore the ground apart around us. She hammered the shield with so much force that Ire’s arms shook from the strain of maintaining it.
“I need some help, Val,” she said through clenched teeth. I held out my hand and tried to shape the remaining energy inside of me into something solid, but it was no good.
“I can't,” I croaked. Any abilities that I’d gained since taking Irulan’s blood were closed off. “I don't have it in me.”
“You’ve got it, Val. We just have to find it.” Irulan dropped her glamour. The rose colored, crimson-haired facade that she normally projected fell like a curtain being swept away. In its place was a woman made of fire. Her red hair swirled with flames. The light, rose-colored tones of her skin had darkened in shade. And she was glowing as if a bonfire had been lit under her skin.
Sidhe are born with one base-glamour firmly intact. Manipulating glamour is second nature to the Fae. But dropping it completely to reveal their true forms underneath, I’ve found out, is a learned skill. Some Sidhe, less powerful ones, went their entire lives without dropping their glamour completely. The ones that can don't make a habit of doing so, unless the situation called for the extra energy used to maintain the glamour. I can count on one hand, the number of times I’ve seen Irulan in her true form.
She is a sight to behold, but something was different. Her green eyes void of pupils and swirling with tiny storm clouds, complete with lightning, locked on my own. She stared at me with an intensity that I hadn’t seen in her eyes since our first visit to the FaeLands together. But there was also a sense of unfamiliarity in her stare. She looked at me like she was staring at a stranger. Before I could process the reasoning behind her gaze, a stabbing pain lodged itself in the center of my head.
Black Moon Rising (DarkLife Saga) Page 18
