Veiled Threat

by Shannon Mayer

  “Don’t touch me, I’m covered in venom. But yes, who the hell did you think would come for you? Charlie?”

  She jumped up, clapped her hands over her mouth and stifled a sob. “I told Milly you’d come. She said we were on our own. I think, I think she is trying to make friends with …Orion.” She breathed out his name and I knew she’d met him, saw it in the way her voice hitched and her eyes dilated. Alex ran into the room and she dropped to her knees.

  “Pamie, Pamie, Pamie.”

  “Alex, you came too!”

  Erik clapped his hands. “There is no time. Alex, stick close to the girl. Things are about to get ugly.”

  I shot a look at him. “This wasn’t ugly?”

  “No one knew we were here, not until you touched that door.”

  Damn it all to hell and back. “Let’s move, we still have Milly to get.” I didn’t want to think about the other problem we faced.

  Thomas allowed us to bring two people out with us.

  And I had three.

  I would have to negotiate with him when we got back to the doorway; we were leaving no one behind.

  Two doors down, and another doorway that was locked. Erik leaned in and traced the design. “No alarm on this one, no booby traps.”

  Why wouldn’t they do anything for Milly’s door? The answer didn’t come to me until it swung open.

  The room was sumptuous and filled with beautiful things, gold, silver, thick carpet and food of all kinds laid out on a table. Orion wanted her well fed, well cared for. His breeding stock.

  The mother of the body he wanted to possess so badly.

  Milly sat in a stunning, low-backed green gown that matched her eyes perfectly. Her belly had swelled, even in the few days since I’d seen her last.

  “Please tell me you didn’t sign back up on Orion’s team,” I whispered.

  She shot to her feet. “Rylee! You can’t be here; Orion will kill you! Why did you come?”

  My eyes met her and the years between us rose. “You’re my sister, as much as Berget, as much as Pamela. And I don’t leave my family behind.”

  Her eyes welled, tears slipping down her cheeks, but she dashed them away. “Then we’d better haul ass, because if Orion doesn’t know you’re here now, he will.”

  I didn’t want to tell her what we knew, that Orion wanted her for the child in her belly. That he wanted to possess her baby, not kill it.

  No, this was not the place. We’d get her out and then tell her.

  Erik led the way, but Milly was at his side, also helping to direct us. Pamela and Alex walked in between and I brought up the rear.

  That Milly knew the lower hallways so well was … disturbing and my gut told me something was off. Shit.

  “Wait.”

  They all stopped and looked back at me. “Erik. You lead. Milly, let him do his job.”

  “But I know where there are dead ends to avoid.” She frowned at me, but it was confusion that covered her face, not anger.

  “Let him lead.”

  She sucked her lower lip in between her teeth and slowly nodded. “I understand.”

  Erik lifted an eyebrow at me and I waved him forward. Slowly, my gut stopped clenching, and feeling like I was going to lose my lunch. Milly’s back swayed ahead of me, supple and unbothered by the extra weight in her belly. Not at all how she’d been walking back at the farmhouse, last time I’d seen her.

  “Milly, give us some light, would you?”

  “I can do it.” Pamela said, lifting her hand.

  “No. I want Milly to do it.”

  The doppelganger in the green dress stopped and planted her feet. “How did you know?”

  “Does it matter?” I pulled a sword free as Erik spun. “Milly” was cornered; Erik lunged toward her, his hand out and she shrieked, her spine stiffening as she arced backwards, right in half, her head touching the back of her ankles.

  Pamela let out a cry and flung her hand toward the demon. A burst of fire erupted, eating up the dress in a split second.

  The demon scuttled toward us upside down and backward and still managed to dodge Alex and Pamela; I snagged my whip and snapped it forward. The leather coiled around the neck of the demon scuttling toward us.

  Heart, it was about heart. I tightened my grip and felt the flow of energy—I could almost tell what it was—and then the whip tightened and the demon exploded without a sound, ash and dust floating down.

  I turned and ran toward the room the doppelganger had been in. Tracking Milly, I felt her there, sleeping.

  Quiet.

  The room was no longer furnished, but a bare cell, like Pamela’s, and in the middle instead of a table full of food, was a large trunk.

  “How did you know it wasn’t her?” Pamela and Alex skidded into the room.

  “Remember how much she was complaining about the extra weight, how her back hurt? She was walking fine. Like she wasn’t even pregnant.” My hands skimmed over the trunk, but there were no latches, no key hole, no way in or out I could find.

  “Erik! How do we break this open?”

  He was at my side, doing the same thing as me, his hands searching for an entry point. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

  I Tracked Milly, could almost see how she’d be curled up in the box. Fuck, we didn’t have time. I had to take the chance. I pulled a sword out. Erik stepped back and nodded.

  “Do it.”

  I lifted the blade high, holding the handle tight with both hands and prayed I didn’t hit her. With everything I had, I drove the blade down the inside edge of the box. I didn’t feel anything like flesh and I let out a slow breath. Going slow wasn’t an option, the box bit in hard to my blade, seeming to hold it tight and keep it from cutting. Teeth gritted, I jerked the blade to the left, hit the corner and then tipped the blade and went to the floor.

  The box cracked, groaned and fell open. Milly spilled out, her hair tangled and dirty, her face pale and bruised but she was alive. I bent to touch her, then remembered the venom.

  “Erik, can you carry her?”

  He didn’t answer, just scooped her up in his arms. “We need to get out. Look at the wolf’s bracelet.”

  I looked to see the bracelet fading. “Shit, we need a way upstairs or Orion is going to win by default.”

  The building around us shivered. I looked at Erik and he shrugged. “Don’t know.”

  I directed my question to the wall, to the monster who made up the structure. “You can hear us? You know we want to stop Orion, but we have to get out of here.”

  The building again shivered and floor below us shifted, lifting us toward the ceiling.

  “Oh shit.”

  That was not what I’d been hoping for.

  “Erik!”

  “Let me think.”

  I crouched as the ceiling touched my head. “Think faster. Pamela, Alex, lay on the floor. Pam, if it starts to squish us, you fire away, understand?”

  She nodded, blue eyes hard, but not afraid.

  Erik crouched, Milly unmoving in his arms. “The building is alive and can hear us, so I’m guessing that it doesn’t like what Orion is doing to it.”

  The building gave a loud groan, pitched suspiciously like a “Yes.”

  I ran with it. “Then you’ll help us get out?”

  Another groaning, “Yes.”

  There was no other option at that point. We had to trust the building that was alive, that was likely some sort of demon, and hope for the best.

  Yeah, not really a gamble I wanted to take, but what other choice did we have?

  I held my breath as the ceiling drew close and as Pamela lifted her hand, the ceiling shimmered and pulled back.

  Only one problem. Seemed like we were about to get the express route. The panel below us began to pick up speed.

  “Lie down, Rylee,” Erik said, doing so himself and laying Milly flat. The walls around us flashed by and I forced myself to look up as each floor above us drew close an
d then disappeared a hairs breadth before smashing into us. I didn’t know why it had to be that way, but I didn’t care. We were getting the hell out of here.

  As fast as the ride up started, it was over, the building let out a final groan. “Go.”

  I sat up. Shit, we were in the room Alex and I crawled into what felt like hours ago. I glanced at his ankle. Only the faintest shimmer of gold showed. We were running against the clock, but I managed to keep my manners intact.

  “Thank you.”

  I stood, Pamela and Alex scrambled toward the window and Erik followed.

  I paused and put my hand on the building. “Why?”

  The building, a living entity demons carved out as their base, gave me an answer I didn’t know how to react to.

  “Not all demons bad. Remember.”

  Well shit. “I’ll remember.”

  I climbed out the window. “Alex, you lead the way back to the gate. Smell our back trail.”

  He gave me a snappy salute. “Yes, boss!”

  Behind us, the building groaned, the ground around the base shooting up in large chunks, and demons—lots and lots of demons—poured out of the windows.

  “Time to go.” Erik hitched Milly a little higher in his arms and took off, Alex running beside him.

  Pamela stared at the demons, her eyes glittering with hate. “I want to kill them all.”

  How much had she seen, how much had they hurt her? I pointed after Erik. “Another time, Pam. We’ll have another shot at them.”

  Running flat out, we barely stayed ahead of the horde. Alex ran in front, nose to the ground and then in the air, then back to the ground. I couldn’t see any flash of gold, and that worried me.

  We had to make it; Thomas had to hold the doorway for us.

  Otherwise, we might as well give up.

  Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.

  Three hours. Thomas held up his finger. “I will open the veil. If they are not there, waiting for us, there is no re-opening it.”

  Liam ground his teeth. “Thomas.”

  The necromancer looked at him. “Yes?”

  “If she isn’t there, you are holding the veil open until I say. Understand?”

  Thomas snorted. “Negotiations were made, you’d change them now?”

  “These are lives on the line, not negotiations.” Liam stepped closer, so Thomas and he were almost nose to nose. “They are lives that are needed more than any other in the world. You will hold that veil open until I call cease.”

  He stepped back and nodded for Thomas to go ahead.

  Megan gave him a look, her eyes full of worry; she mouthed something at him. Something that looked like ‘kill him.’ Yeah, that was not going to happen. Right at that moment there was nothing else he could do. Thomas would betray them, or he wouldn’t. They would just have to wait and let the scene play out.

  The necromancer put a hand on Frank’s shoulder then one on Megan’s, and the two teenagers slumped a little. Across from them, the veil began to open, finally revealing the same archway Rylee and Alex stepped through only three hours past.

  No one was there.

  No Rylee. No Alex.

  Just a vast empty plain. At least Megan had been wrong about that. Thomas had so far kept to his word. Now Liam had to get him to hold it a little longer.

  Thomas let out a long sigh. “This is why I do not like opening the veil into the deep level. No one comes out, not ever. I told you that.”

  Liam spun toward him. “You never said that.”

  “Didn’t I? Well, it was implied.”

  “You hold that open.” Liam stalked toward the open veil, but whatever made him a guardian kept him from going any further. He stared onto the open plain. There was movement, far, far in the distance.

  “There is someone coming.”

  Thomas snorted again, and his voice was strained. “Even if it is her, I am not sure how long I can hold this open, wolf.”

  “Thomas, hold it open. You have to.” He strained his eyes, peering into the shimmering darkness.

  The veil slammed shut. “I cannot, Liam.” Thomas slid to the ground between Megan and Frank.

  “No!”

  Thomas lifted his hand. “Let me rest. I am a fool, but I will open it again for you.”

  “He’s lying,” Megan whispered. “It’s all an act.”

  Frank’s eyes went wide. “Megan, why would you say that?”

  Liam had a bad feeling this was not going to be easily cut and dried. “Megan, sit down.” He pointed to the ground, a few feet away from Thomas.

  Thomas lifted his head. “Someone has gotten to her, I think. She is marvelously strong, but …” He didn’t finish. Megan lifted a hand and around them the ground shifted.

  “I will kill you, old man. You’re too stupid to see you’re weak now. Too weak to stop me, too weak to open that gate. Orion will rule, and I will be his queen.”

  From below, the dead began to rise, pushing themselves out of the dirt. Liam didn’t hesitate, though his heart faltered.

  He leapt toward Megan, who had her back to him, and wrapped his fingers around her neck, lifting her from the ground. Quick and easy, he’d snap her neck; she wouldn’t feel a thing.

  “If you kill her, we won’t be able to open the veil,” Thomas said, as though their lives weren’t in danger, as if zombies weren’t even now crawling toward them with open mouths and reaching hands.

  “Knock her out. I can drain her powers. Permanently.”

  There was no other choice. She struggled in his hands, her face going red and then purple. He shifted his grip so the pulsing carotid artery was under his fingertips and then he squeezed.

  Out like a light, she slumped, her body loosing urine all down her legs, urine he couldn’t smell over the heavy perfume she wore. She must have known he could scent her lies and had covered them; the naivety had all been an act. Fortunately, the zombies she’d called stilled as she passed out, dropping where they were.

  He all but tossed her limp body toward Thomas. “She is another of Orion’s pets.”

  Thomas nodded. “It would seem that way.”

  Something about this bothered Liam, a piece that didn’t make sense. “Why didn’t he use her the way he used Talia?”

  With a sigh, Thomas crouched beside Megan. “She is still young, likely he was grooming her to be a back up. She is untrained and without the proper training she could never have opened the deep level of the veil for Orion.”

  A back up necromancer. Shit. There was nothing for her then, nothing to redeem her of this if she’d thrown her lot so fully in with Orion. Which was obviously the case. Liam’s gaze met Thomas’s. “Do it.”

  Thomas beckoned. “Frank, come, you must learn this too.”

  Frank stepped forward, his eyes glassy behind his too large specs. “I thought she was … I thought she liked me.” He shook his head.

  “We all get fooled by a pretty girl at least one in our lives,” Thomas said, putting a hand on Megan’s head, then taking Frank’s hand and doing the same. “Likely, more than once, actually. This will help you in the long run, you will be stronger now than even she was.”

  Liam knew he couldn’t rush them, knew that it was going to be close.

  Come on, Rylee, let it be you. Come home to me.

  Chapter 21

  WE RAN AS fast as we could, but demons came from every side. Thousands upon thousands, more than I could comprehend. Most seemed pulled from the human psyche, nightmares lain dormant awakened, monstrous and terrifying. Others, though, were disturbingly normal.

  Human like, and in that, all the more frightening. Because I never would have known them for what they were if they hadn’t been chasing us. They would have fooled me.

  Ahead of us, far ahead, I saw a speck of light. An opening into the world. Our time was up.

  “Hurry, we have to hurry!”

  But even as I said the words, the light disappeared, closing us off.

  Alex whimpered and Pam
ela choked back a sob. I kept my focus straight ahead. “Keep going. Liam is with him; he will get that fucking veil open.”

  And so we ran, an avalanche of demons closing in, tightening the deadly noose that would swallow us whole if we slowed for even a heart beat.

  “Rylee, when we get to the arch, put the others inside and you and I will defend,” Erik said, out of breath from running while carrying Milly.

  We hit the archway a few minutes later. He dropped Milly to the ground and swung around. Pamela and Alex crouched beside her, and I spun to face the horde. But Alex didn’t stay with Pamela, he pushed her down and then leapt up beside me.

  “I protect you.”

  I wasn’t going to argue with him. We were done.

  Fuck me, we were so done.

  I had no illusions; this was a last stand, a way to etch ourselves into the memories of the demons as the ones who took out hundreds of them. Erik’s hands shot out, catching the first demon on the chin, his power vaporizing the monster before I even registered what it looked like.

  “Rylee, you always bring the trouble, my girl.” Giselle’s voice made me smile. I knew she’d come; she wouldn’t let us fight on our own.

  “What happens if you die here?”

  “Then I am gone. Gone to my reward, wherever that is.” She loosened her weapons and steadied her stance. “There is no greater joy than to take a stand for those you love.”

  Erik grunted. “Fierce love is a power unto itself.”

  She smiled at him and gave him a wink, of all things. “That it is, Slayer.”

  And then they were on us. I used my sword, my whip, my hands. The power I’d not understood flowed under my skin, driving the demons back. From the heart, it was all from the heart.

  Giselle fought like lightning, striking and withdrawing, her weapons dropping demons all around her.

  And Alex, everywhere he bit, clawed and struck, demons fell. It had nothing to do with symbols or etching designs into blades and weapons.

  No, this was about the heart. Alex had more heart than anyone I knew, he fought for me because he loved me. And then it all clicked, and I finally understood.

  Every person I loved, every child I’d brought home, every decision I’d made because it was the best I could do, that was what it took to take out a demon. This power was bottomless; there was no draining it, though I felt the toll on my muscles, on my stamina. The well in my heart would not run dry.