“Oh!” The fluttering gasp came from my left and even with my enhanced reflexes, I only had time to spin halfway around before something raced towards me. I got the vague impression of a sweater-clad blur before Phyllis crashed into me, winding her arms around me like ivy, clinging to my side.
The pillowy fabric of her sweater was the softest thing I’d felt in days. I threw my arms around her waist and squeezed her back gingerly.
“You’re fast for an old lady,” I said, voice muffled by the soft cloud of hair that billowed around my face.
“I’m so glad you’re back,” she crooned. “Please tell me you’re going to stay. You can’t go gallivanting off on another mission so soon. My nerves can’t take it.”
I pushed her away from me carefully, regret bubbling in my gut when I caught sight of her anxious expression.
“I have a few more missions to complete. Elle has to deliver the cure to the wolves and she’ll need protectors. And Cat still needs rescuing. After that I’ll hang up my hat for good. I’m done with this business.”
I really ought to have quit when I was alive but there was no use crying over spilled blood now. I’d learn to live with Valerius somehow, or we’d destroy each other. Either way, I wasn’t resuming assassin work any time soon.
“Speaking of which…” I craned my neck to stare back at Dom. He hung back in the shadows, watching my happy little reunion through narrowed eyes. I wondered if he was still thinking about the promise I’d made to Volkar.
“How is Declan coming along with the helicopter?”
Elle had been able to synthesize quite a bit of the cure during her stay. We’d estimated the amount to be enough for a thousand wolves, or about a third of the island’s population. That alone didn’t take up much space but the tools that Elle would need in order to create more on Wolf Isle would.
“About done,” Dom muttered. “But you’re welcome to check for yourself. I escorted Sophia and Fabian to the exit. She wanted to see snow again.”
My heart warmed a few degrees. “I should go check on his progress,” I murmured, though I secretly hoped to catch Sophia building her first snowman or making a snow angel.
Dom fell into step behind me. “You can’t marry one of the Barbegazi,” he said when we were alone. “You don’t have to throw your life away for this.”
“What life?” I chuckled darkly. “I’m already dead, remember?”
I increased my pace, trying to get ahead of him. We were rapidly approaching the exit. I was saved from having to argue with him by the sound of a scuffle ahead. I walked even faster, determined to put a stop to whatever was happening.
I turned a corner and I found myself in the chilly entrance of the caves, staring at a Westland WAH-64 Apache Longbow. Fabian was laying on the ground, holding something, and Vance shouted down at him.
“How could you bring this abomination here?”
He reached down and grabbed a small arm, tugging a young girl away from Fabian’s grasp. Tears streaked down Sophia’s face as she tried to pull herself free of Vance’s grip. I’d always thought he was just a run of the mill human who kept the books. I’d been wrong. With Valerius’ enhanced vision I saw him for what he really was: a sponge. A man who could sense and deprive others of their power. With purely mortal people he could drain the life away from their bodies, if he really tried.
Like he was trying to do to Sophia, right this very instant. I could practically see him sucking energy away from her. My vision went red and I stalked forward, seizing Vance and dragging him off Sophia. And then I bore down on his wrist, twisting it until I heard the crack of bone.
chapter
24
“STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM her!” I yelled, as Vince’s wrist snapped like a pretzel beneath my grip.
Though he fought to siphon off my strength, there was simply too much for power Vance’s sponge-like abilities to absorb. He staggered away from Sophia with a scream of pain, clutching the injured limb to his chest.
“Fuck! Valdez, I thought we were friends!”
“So did I. So what the hell do you think you’re doing attacking my niece, Conoley?”
Vance glared at me, through streaming eyes. The bone of his forearm bulged just beneath his skin, threatening to break through at any second. He’d need to have that had looked at before he did permanent damage to his wrist.
“That thing isn’t your niece, Natalia. It’s a doll with a soul attached. It’s not human and it was never meant to live this long.”
“News flash, Vance, I wasn’t supposed to stick around this side of the mortal plane either. But you know what? Sometimes these things happen. You learn to embrace it. Now are you going to come with us and do some good for once in your sniveling little life, or are you going to stay here and make snow angels with Volkar?”
Vance’s eyes flicked up to the chopper behind me. Declan either hadn’t noticed or cared enough to stop the conflict going on below him. He was still busy securing the transportation stones to the various nooks and crannies on the plane. The bulk of the Apache Longbow we’d swiped from the remaining Trust forces was too large to fly through one of Declan’s homemade portals. We were going to have to do this the old fashioned way, with enchanted river stones and a shitload of duct tape. Dom and I had welded on our own additions, a pair of magically-boosted lights in order to combat the low visibility around Wolf Isle.
His gaze finally settled back down to stare at Sophia, who clung to my leg with the tenacity of a bionic Koala bear. His lip curled in disgust and I had my answer.
“She’s important to Findlay,” I growled, “and he’s important to us. Which makes her more valuable right now than you are. So get with the program or we’ll leave your ass behind.”
I shoved Vance into the wall hard enough to bruise and strode past him, detaching the girl from my leg as I went. I didn’t have time for this bullshit. We had about three thousand wolves to save on Wolf Isle alone. There would be more in quarantine zones all along the coast. And then there was the matter of saving Cat. Ashby had said something about a wedding at House Lamonia. I knew where she was meant to be, but had no idea how I was going to break through Algerone’s defenses to reach her. With Valerius’ powers I could probably sneak in, or burn the house down, but I wanted to leave more than a smoking crater. Getting my sister out alive from a den of vampires would be the hard part.
Once we had Findlay and Cat on our side, we could clear our names, unveil Lamonia’s genocidal plan against the wolves, and stop the Trust from persecuting Elle falsely. Kill all the birds with one stone. But there was a lot that could still go wrong between then and now.
Dom reached silently for Sophia and I slid her into his arms before climbing into the chopper myself. He felt similarly to Vance, even now that he’d had a chance to interact with the little girl. I couldn’t understand what the big deal was. Why did the circumstances surrounding her creation matter? She was here already.
It took almost an hour to prepare for lift-off. The timing of our jump had to be absolutely perfect, or we could find ourselves beneath the waves instead of hovering over the ring of ironclads guarding the island as we’d planned. I had no doubt Grieves had sent reinforcements to guard the wolves. They’d have weapons on board that could shoot the chopper down, but we hoped the skirmish with Barabbas and the element of surprise would lend us the upper hand. All we had to do was get Elle behind the adhesionist line and we’d be golden. Unless I died suddenly and killed everyone else on the island. Valerius rumbled in my stomach to share his appreciation for that idea.
Dom’s pack had a seat all to itself. Volkar’s healers had diagnosed Fabian with late-stage pancreatic cancer. With some time and magic he might heal, but he was certainly not up to the mission we were facing. In lieu of his presence, Dom had been loaded up with Fabian’s equipment so he could mix the elixir needed to keep Sophia alive. Her presence on the flight had also been a huge point of controversy. Did we drag what wa
s essentially a young girl into a war zone? No matter how I sliced it, I knew it was unethical. But how else was I going to convince Findlay that we’d received his clue and rescued his daughter? The only way to sway him to our side was to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was safe.
Elle kept up a stream of conversation, keeping Sophia enraptured by a story that Landon had told her during our absence. I turned my head away as the engine whirred to life beneath Dom’s hands. The color high in Elle’s cheeks told me that her teenage crush on Dom had been thoroughly trounced by the one she now sported for my former boss.
“Tell me you’ve done this before, McCarty.” He had to shout to make himself heard over the chopper blades.
McCarty flashed him a devilish grin and shook his head. “Not even once, Tempest. Let’s get this bird up to 12,000 feet, shall we?”
I had half expected Sophia to cry during the flight. After all, every experience was a first for her. With the exception of our battle in the catacombs, she’d proved surprisingly unflappable, taking on each new experience with a can-do attitude and an eager smile. I guess after being buried in a tiny apartment in the catacombs, almost everything else was a step up. She pressed her face to the window and stared at the rapidly retreating ground in stunned silence as the blades spun above us. Sharp, snowy mountains filled the horizon.
I seized Elle’s hand in mine and squeezed. “Thank you for all of this. And I’m really sorry about trying to kill you. If I’d known…”
“If you hadn’t come, they would have sent someone else,” Elle said, patting my hand gently. “If it weren’t for you I could have been killed twice over. Once in the Everglades when they shot up our safe house, and again when we burst into Landon’s office. I’d say we’re even. You’ve been such a badass, Miss Valdez. I’ll admit I’m a little jealous. I deserved your suspicion. I’ve done terrible things.”
She ducked her head and twisted her fingers in her lap, shame flashing across her face before she could hide it.
“You never meant to hurt anyone,” I shrugged. “And now you’ve concocted a miracle cure within two months and you’re about to save thousands of wolves from a genocidal crew of vampires. You’re something of a badass yourself, Miss Dawson.”
Elle glanced up and a small, reluctant smile curled the edges of her mouth. “You think so?”
“Oh yeah. Landon’s gonna be all over that in a few years.”
Her cheeks flushed crimson and she slapped my hand away, eyes darting toward the cockpit. I was almost certain neither man had overheard.
“I’m not….he’s not….he’s at least a hundred years older than me. He’d never…”
“Oh trust me, he would.” Landon’s interest in Elle had been palpable. Even if it never progressed to anything romantic, I was sure he’d keep her around in some capacity. It would be just like Landon Johnson to hire on a reputed bioterrorist to boost his business.
She was saved from replying when Declan spread his arms wide. The punch of his power made me rock back in my seat. Every single river stone on and inside the Apache Longbow glowed with golden light.
A hole the approximate size of a Ritz-Carlton opened in the sky above. Dom steered us through and the gateway snapped shut behind us, plunging us into sudden darkness. The return to hot, moist and dark surroundings made me feel as if we’d been popped into a giant’s gullet. Dom flicked the lights on and revealed a new ring of warships circling the island. The nearest was about five hundred feet below us.
“Alright, time for you to go,” Declan said, seizing the controls from Dom. There was a moment of general confusion as Dom handed them over to the Irishman and clambered into the back with us.
“You ready for this?” he asked, glancing between me and Sophia. Elle had begun to undo her straps the moment we’d come through the portal and the little girl bounded toward me the instant she was free.
“I guess we’ll have to be. We’ll take care of Findlay and the vampires, you take care of the wolves. Declan, do you know where to land this thing?”
“Got an idea, yeah,” he drawled. “Now you lot jump before the bloodsuckers on those ships decide to poke us full of holes.”
Dom helped me attach Sophia to my front, the way one might do with a skydiving instructor. The difference? She wasn’t here to learn and I wasn’t the most confident in my ability to stick the landing. I made a promise to land on my back and shatter every bone in my body before I’d let her impact the deck of an ironclad in freefall.
The wind whipped my dark hair as I stepped out through the open door, hanging on to the railing. I pointed down at the largest ironclad. That’s where Findlay would be. Dom took my hand and gave it a firm squeeze before we both took the step into open air.
Gravity plucked us out of the air and hurled us toward earth.
Sophia let out a small cry as we tumbled downwards, but I threw out my arms and legs to stabilize us. The deck of the ironclad rushed up to meet us with surprising speed. I fumbled on the strap of my pack and pulled the string, releasing my chute. To my relief, it came out on the first try. I’d been half-expecting to have to rely on the backup chute or crash. How shitty had my life become that slamming into the deck of an ironclad warship sounded like the plausible and least painful option?
A few feet away from me, Dom did the same, his parachute blooming like a silver flower in the darkness around us. The chute provided just enough resistance to slow our descent to a reasonable level. I had been told on my first trip skydiving that free fall took about a minute when you dropped from 1200 feet. I hadn’t been sure though, because time seemed to exist in limbo when you were suspended in the air, heart trapped in the back of your throat, and your limbs completely weightless.
With Valerius I could experience both at the same time. My demon dutifully kept track of the seconds as we hurtled downward, losing speed as we went. By the time we were a few feet away from the ironclad, we’d slowed to a reasonable speed. It seemed effortless to land feet first on the deck and rip the strings of the parachute as it billowed up to behind me. I flung the sheet away, lest it get in the way. Sophia trembled against my chest and I scrambled to undo the latches that held her. Even with her small, bulletproof jacket and helmet attached, I didn’t want to risk getting her shot. I pushed her to stand behind my legs as Dom landed less gracefully on the deck.
It took him longer to free himself from the constraints of the chute. By the time he’d regained his feet and drawn his weapon, we were surrounded by vampires. I grinned when I spotted Ashby and a very somber Findlay waiting in the crowd. Finally, my luck seemed to be turning.
“So you’re still alive, are you?” I called, my tone more jovial than it had any right to be. “I thought Barabbas might have had the stones to kill you. Or did you tuck tail and run back to Algerone when you spotted him coming? That seems like something you’d do.”
Ashby wasn’t nearly as pleased to see me as I was to see him. His perfectly sculpted lips pulled away from his teeth, glistening and sharp from a recent feeding. He turned to Findlay with a growl and jabbed a finger at us. “Kill them. I don’t care how, but do it.”
Ah, so it looked like he’d learned his lesson and cut the witty banter. A battle of wits was a bad choice when you were unarmed.
“Kill me now and you’re the biggest dick I’ve ever met, Findlay,” I snapped. “I got your message, you know. And she’s safe.”
Something like hope flickered in his dark, watery eyes for a second before his mask slid back into place. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. The only message you got was from Algerone, not me.”
“She’s safe and I can prove it,” I said, sidestepping just enough to allow him to catch a peek of the diminutive figure clinging to the backs of my knees. She let out a small squeak of fear when she spotted Ashby and ducked for cover, hiding her entire frame behind mine. I couldn’t blame her. It was a more reasonable reaction than I’d ever had to Ashby. Did her status as a child
protect her from his appeal, or her makeup as a homunculus?
Ashby’s face paled to a sickly gray when he spotted the girl. He turned and seized Findlay, ready to tear his throat out. “You treacherous little—”
But that was as far as he managed to get before something sleek and gray came arcing out of the water and onto the deck. I caught one glimpse of a thirteen-foot tiger shark sliding across the deck before its jaws clamped down on Ashby.
The vampire’s eyes widened to a comical size and he stared down at the improbable shark for a second before the shark’s jaws tightened. Ashby let out an ear-splitting shriek before his entire body dissolved into goo and hit the deck with a wet splat.
chapter
25
BETWEEN FINDLAY, DOM, AND I, we managed to clear the ship of all the undead currently aboard and turned our attention to the others surrounding the island. The ironclads were worse for wear after their encounter with the galleon. Grieves’ attack had done some good after all. It took us only an hour to pick off the rest of Lamonia’s forces. Dom’s electric attacks were particularly effective at killing the lion’s share of the vampires. Any that leaped into the water to escape were picked off by gunfire or shark attack.
Dom relayed the victory to the wolves on the shore and by early afternoon we were able to begin loading the wolves that Elle had injected with the cure. Even with the large space to work with, I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to load all the wolves onto the ships we had. Only three of the five were seaworthy and even then, the journey was bound to be slow.
I flung Ashby’s clothing onto the deck with disgust, clearing out his quarters so we could make room for more wolves.
“Foppish bastard,” I griped. “I found enough of his hair in the drain to make a wig. He must have been showering and changing on the hour.”
Findlay didn’t look up to acknowledge me. He’d been staring at his daughter for the past several hours, soaking up her presence as if she were a small sun. Sophia looked equally intrigued after being informed he was her father. She’d sometimes reach up to touch his face or tweak his nose, testing to see if he was still there. Watching him interact with her thawed some of the bone-deep hatred I’d held for him. I didn’t think I’d ever like Findlay. I certainly would never understand what Cat saw in him. But I could tell that he worshiped the ground Sophia walked on. He loved her unconditionally, no matter who or what she was.
Agent of Magic Box Set Page 39
