With every step the sound of the waterfall became more faint until the utter silence overtook them. The fact that they could hear nothing but their steps and their own breathing was depressing and debilitating, causing them to doubt the effort altogether. Not being able to see anything unless their headlamps were pointed directly at it made things seem even worse.
Raif stopped so suddenly Mercy ran into his back.
“What is it?”
“Thought I heard something. You hear anything?”
“I’m not sure,” she said. “What am I listening for?”
He didn’t answer the question. He just said, “Come on,” but the excitement in his voice was contagious and gave her just enough of a surge of energy to make another few steps. “There. You hear that.”
She listened hard. “Is that a dog barking?”
He grinned. “That’s exactly what that is.”
“You did it.” She sounded amazed.
“Not yet,” he said. “But it looks really promising.”
They took another couple of steps, but it was like turning the volume down on the barking. So they went back to where it was loudest.
Raif looked straight overhead and thought there was a break in the ceiling which was a few feet overhead. “How strong are you?”
“Um, I don’t know. Average?”
“Okay. I’ve got to get up there and the only way that’s going to happen is if you can give me a boost.”
“A boost! You’ve got to weigh two hundred and fifty pounds.”
“Well, I’m not Lou Alcinder.”
“You mean Kareem Abdul Jabbar?”
“Whatever. So you’re a basketball fan?”
“What does that…? Can we get back on topic? You need another plan. I’m not going to be able to hoist your big body.”
“You don’t have to hoist me. Just boost me.” He pushed a damp strand of hair back from her face. She was too tired to retreat from his touch, or so she told herself, so she let his fingers linger on her cheek.
“Why don’t you give me a boost instead?
“First because you have too much weight in your lower body and not enough strength in your upper body to pull yourself up.”
“Thanks.”
“And even if you could do that, which you can’t, you wouldn’t be able to pull me up. So unless you were planning to leave me behind?”
“Let me think on it.”
“Look,” he held his arm straight up. “It’s not that far from my hands. Four feet maybe. I can get aloft by a couple of feet and you can get me another two feet with a well-timed boost. With just a little effort I should be able to get a hold. If it turns out that it’s an opening and, if I can get through it, I’ll pull you up.”
“How are you going to do that, genius? By my math I figure that leaves me at least two feet short of being able to reach your hand.” He grabbed her shoulders and turned her around. “Raif! What are you doing?”
“Taking your backpack. End to end it’s two feet long. If I get up, I’ll lower it. You grab on and this whole thing will be history.”
“I don’t like it.”
“It’s all we got, babe.”
She tried to ignore the shudder that went through her body when he called her ‘babe’, telling herself it was just the cold seeping all the way to the marrow.
Strapping the backpack cross body over his neck, he put one arm through the strap then showed her how to cup her hands for his foot. “So here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to crouch down like this with one foot in your hands. I’m going to concentrate all my effort into one big spring. With an assist from you it’ll be enough.”
“Okay. So when do I?”
“Get ready. I’ll count to three. On three you’ll feel the pressure from my foot. Don’t let me push your hands down. You push my leg up instead. Like you’re throwing me skyward.”
“Raif, I…”
“Mercy. Don’t be scared. It sounds more Cirque du Soleil than it is. And the worst thing that can happen is that it doesn’t work.”
“I know, but that is the worst thing that can happen.”
He laughed softly. “Tell you what. Why don’t you count to three?” She nodded. “You ready?” She nodded. “One.” She started breathing heavy like she was trying to move a boulder. “Two.” He could feel her muscles quivering even though she wasn’t holding up any weight to speak of. At the last second, he said something about the gods that didn’t involve cursing. “Three.”
He exploded toward the ceiling and Mercy did her part. Live weight in motion is a lot easier to keep in motion than she thought. Her head lamp jerked up and found him hanging onto something by one hand while punching at something with the other. She heard him grunt and saw him lift himself up so that his shoulders disappeared from view. Within a couple of seconds his torso and legs followed and for one panic-stricken moment she realized she was alone in the cave.
Then she heard his laughter coming from above and a sob erupted from her core. She hadn’t really believed they’d get out and thought Raif was just trying to keep their minds off of the inevitable.
His light appeared at the opening above her. “Hey. There’s no crying in collapsed cave rescues. Grab onto this horrible girly imitation of a backpack and come on up.” She laughed and grabbed on. “Don’t let go.”
She wasn’t used to holding up her own weight, but Raif caught hold of her arm when she was a couple of feet off the ground. Having boobs pulled over rock wasn’t especially pleasant, but it was so much better than the alternative that she didn’t care. He pulled her up and on top of him, her back to his front, cushioning her body from the hard, cold ground. His arms came around her as they both lay catching their breath, looking up at the October stars, and thanking the gods for giving them another chance at life.
He turned his head and nuzzled her ear. “You didn’t really think we were getting out, did you?”
“No,” she said quietly. After a minute she asked, “Did you ever really think we wouldn’t?”
“No.”
“Why?”
He didn’t answer right away. She wasn’t sure if he didn’t know or if he was choosing his words carefully. For a change. “You made me feel too alive to die.”
She let that soak in, slowly, deeply.
He rolled her away gently and heaved himself to his feet. “I think it’s colder out here than it was in there.” After scanning their surroundings as best he could in the dark, he said, “Looks like we got two choices. We can try to find the road, but it will be slow going on this terrain and in the dark. Or we can huddle up together and try to stay warm until the sun comes up tomorrow morning.”
“I’m not sure I can move.”
“Not an answer, babe.”
“Add meanness to your bad qualities.”
“Okay. What’ll it be? Ladies’ choice.”
“It’s too cold to just sit here.”
“Then we have a winner. Choice number two it is.” He reached down to help her up. Instead of taking his hand, she gave up a groan that lasted a full minute. “The hard part’s over. You survived. When we get back to the hotel, you can take a bath and get in bed. Or eat and bathe and get in bed.”
She groaned again for good measure as she was pulled to her feet.
“But somebody’s going to need to watch you if you get in a bath to make sure you don’t slide under the water and drown. I volunteer.”
“Ha.”
It was just before midnight when they made it to the road that led to Sozopol. There weren’t a lot of vehicles on the road, but they did manage to get a flatbed truck to stop. Mercy told the driver they were going to the hotel. He said he could drop them close to there. So they climbed on the back.
Raif sat with his back to the cab, legs out in front of him. Mercy sat next to him, but slumped over on his lap and was asleep within a couple of minutes in spite of the cold.
CHAPTER 22
When Elora and Ram strode o
nto the Whister pad with Kris Falcon in tow, Storm and Kay looked surprised, but pleased.
“Guess who’s comin’ to patrol?”
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Storm said as he leaned over to give Elora a kiss on the cheek, “but where’s the Sovereign?”
Elora opened her mouth to answer, but Ram beat her to it. “Gone doin’ important Sovereign shit.”
Elora shrugged and gestured toward Falcon, smiling like a proud mom. “We have orders to show this knight-to-be how it’s done.”
“In fact,” Ram added, “the man said he was to learn from the best. Meanin’ us.” Kay chuckled. “Sincerely.‘Tis Paddy’s own truth is it no’, Elora?”
“Aye, Ram. ‘Tis Paddy’s own truth,” she answered. Ram beamed like he’d won a cake walk. “Sir Storm. Sir Caelian. I believe you’ve both met Kristoph Falcon?” Storm nodded and acknowledged Falcon with a chin lift.
“Sir,” Falcon said as he offered his hand to Storm and then Kay.
Storm leveled Falcon with a look that said he had x-ray vision. “You carrying weapons tonight?”
“Yes, sir. Just what the Lady Laiken told me to bring.”
“And that would be.”
He pulled up his jeans legs to reveal a stake in each boot and lifted the back of his jacket to reveal a laser snub nose. One of the new wood bullet models that Monq had just cleared for testing.
Storm turned to Elora. “Who’s he sticking to?”
She looked at Falcon, then at Storm. “Well, I’d like for him to go with you because he’s already learned most of what I have to teach him. On the other hand, I want to deliver him back here safe at the end of the night.”
The pilot stepped out onto the Whister pad and grinned at Falcon. “You flying tonight, kid?”
Falcon grinned. “Sure, Mac. You’re my wingman?”
“Nah. Just your co-pilot.” Mac smiled and nodded to B Team before boarding the Whister and starting the check.
“Wait,” Kay said. “That kid is going to pilot a Whister? The same one we’re riding on?”
The other three exchanged a laugh.
“Come on,” Storm said. “I’ll tell you the story on the way.”
By and large the night was uneventful except for encountering the four teenage immortals on patrol in the same district. They stopped to say hello. After a couple of minutes B Team realized that Falcon and Animal House had drifted a few yards away and were involved in a conversation that could have passed for a bunch of human kids.
Members of B Team smiled at each other. There was something uniquely Black Swan about one of their future vampire hunters engaged in sidewalk banter with vampire who passed for teens even if they were hundreds of years old.
They knew that any night out could be their last. Maybe that was what made them feel so alive.
CHAPTER 23
As promised, the truck driver dropped Rev and Mercy two blocks from the hotel. Raif had to carry her because she couldn’t stay awake long enough to stand up. He was thanking Black Swan for a grueling physical training regime every step of the way. It was just before one o’clock when they walked into the lobby of the hotel. It was surprisingly busy considering the hour and that it had been more or less empty when they’d left that morning. No one seemed to notice them. So Raif headed for the elevator with a dogged determination, all thought of steaks gone from his mind.
He set her on her feet in front of her door like she was precious cargo and fished the card key out of the battered back pack. He opened the door for her. “You need help getting to bed?”
She hesitated. “No. Thank you. For everything.”
“See you tomorrow.” He kissed the top of her head knowing it would be the last time she ever let him get that close and backed away.
Mercy turned on the light switch and found two surprised and sleepy-looking people sitting up in bed. “Sorry.” She assumed she had the wrong room and turned to leave, but caught sight of her own toiletries bag hanging in the bath. She turned around, so tired she could barely form thoughts, much less words. “Who are you? And what are you doing in my room?”
Farnsworth stood, wearing a loose silk cami with pajama bottoms to match. She approached, looking at Mercy like she was a ghost. Farnsworth knew that it wasn’t the ideal time to come clean with her daughter, whom she could see was dead on her feet, but there was also a nagging sense that beginning their relationship with deflection or lies would be a bigger mistake. “There were no more rooms in the hotel. And we’re here because I’m your mother. This is your boss, Sovereign Rev Farthing.”
Mercy’s eyes flicked to Rev and back to the woman talking gibberish.
Farnsworth’s impulse was to want to selfishly gush out everything that had led to that moment, but it was plain that her daughter was barely hanging onto consciousness. So she decided to let Mercy be the one to decide how much she wanted to know and when. Her expression never wavered from a look of shell shock. She simply turned around and left the hotel room without saying a word.
Raif had just stripped out of his clothes. He was too tired to get in the shower. So he did what was, in his mind, the next best thing. He was pulling on a clean pair of boxers when he heard a soft knock on the door.
He opened it to find Mercy standing there.
“What’s wrong?”
She walked straight into his body and he put his arms around her reflexively. “There’s a strange woman in my room who says she’s my mother. Can I sleep in here?”
“Yeah. Of course, baby.”
He shut the door behind her and helped her strip down to underwear. Then he pulled back the covers, got in and turned off the light, noting that Torn was snoring through the whole thing.
As she climbed in and nestled into his side like she was made to be there, he said, “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather sleep in Torn’s bed?”
She snorted. “Why would you ask me that?”
“Because girls like you always end up with some other guy.”
“Shut up and go to sleep.”
He grinned in the darkness and pulled her closer.
The next day the hotel cleared out pretty quickly once it became known that the missing couple was safe. Rev and Farnsworth moved to another room. Raif woke to the sounds of low voices.
Torn was saying, “Woke up with a mother of all hangovers and, Great Glorious Paddy, there they were. Sleepin’ like angels. Much as I want to know what transpired durin’ the night, I do no’ have the heart to disturb a slumber so sound.”
“When they wake up, tell Dr. Renaux that her room has been vacated and is ready for her with clean sheets and towels. Here’s her card key. I think she left it.”
Glen closed the door and Torn sat down on the side of his bed facing his partner and the surprise bedmate.
Raif was on his back with Mercy asleep on his chest. His arms were wrapped around her in what looked like a protective embrace. He opened one eye a sliver and looked at Torn.
Torn smiled like a Cheshire cat. “Got lucky, did ye?”
Raif’s gaze swept over the state of Torn’s swollen and bruised face and took in the bandages. “When are you going to learn that no means no?”
Between the hangover and whole body soreness, the last thing in the world Torn needed was to laugh, which of course meant that everything was funnier than usual. So he laughed, but the sounds he made were more, Ow Ow Ow than Ha Ha Ha.
That in turn made Raif laugh. Without opening her eyes, Mercy reached behind her and shoved a pillow in his face. “Quiet. Both of you. Go somewhere else.”
“This is our room,” Torn said.
That made Mercy raise her head and look around. “Oh. Yeah.”
Raif patted the blanket covering her ass. “Glen came by. He said your room is all yours. No more strange people. Nice clean linens. And he left your key card.”
She let out a noncommittal huff that gave no indication of her plans.
“Sooooo,” Raif began. “What would you like to do?”
“Be left alone to sleep.”
“Well, we could do that. Or I could help you get to your own room where you could have a nice bath and put on some clean clothes. And while you were doing that I could order some room service. Coffee. Juice. Sugary pastries.”
She pulled back just far enough so that she could see his face. “What happened to steaks? I thought you wanted steaks.”
He grinned. “We’ll see what they have in the way of aged filet.”
“Okay,” she said. “If I agree to get out of this bed, you agree to get me room service.”
“That’s the deal.”
She started to pull back the covers, but stopped. “Make him turn around. And I have to go to the bathroom. I’ll never make it all the way to my room.”
“Our facilities are your facilities.” Raif made a motion to Torn to turn around and his partner complied without hesitation or complaint.
When he heard the bath door close, Torn turned to Raif with a scathing smile.
“What?”
“Two words,” answered Torn. “Pussy. Whipped.”
“Call it what you want, brother. I’m taking whatever she’s giving and calling myself the luckiest son-of-a-bitch alive.”
Torn shook his head. “Out of all of us. Ne’er figured you to be the first man down.”
CHAPTER 24
When Mercy emerged from the bath in clean clothes, wet hair, and no makeup, she didn’t feel the least glamorous, but she did feel a little less like dead person walking. The room smelled like a banquet. Raif had pretty much ordered one of everything the kitchen had to offer and looked ready to eat anything she didn’t. They’d run out of surfaces and put a lot of the plates on top of the bed.
She smiled shyly. “Thank you. This looks wonderful.”
He pushed out a chair. “Have a seat. What will you have first?”
“Um. Is that cranberry juice?”
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