“Your vigor is no surprise to me, my love,” Gan said, stepping up beside me.
Ugh! I swear, if I had even a bit of sense in my fucktard brain, I’d have hopped into that car with Ed and hauled ass out of town. But I had to do this. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself sending my friends to rescue Sally with only Gan – someone who wasn’t exactly renowned for her restraint – as their backup.
All I really had was my wits and reputation to go on, which meant I had my wits. Maybe it was a good thing Sally was still held captive, because I had a feeling she would have pointed out that left me with jack shit.
Regardless, if this went well, she’d be able to tell me in person.
And if it went extraordinarily badly, well, maybe the afterlife had enough sense of humor to let her tell me anyway.
Knowing my luck, I didn’t doubt it.
♦ ♦ ♦
“Everyone hold hands and step into the circle.”
Three guesses who decided to hold mine, and if you didn’t say “Gan” for all of them, then count yourself a fucking idiot.
Her hand locked around mine in a vice grip, reminding me there was zero chance of breaking free if she decided to not let go. For a moment, I was tempted to draw the sword and preemptively hack my arm off at the wrist, but decided to save that option for later if need be.
Besides, I had another plan in mind for it beyond self-mutilation. Sheila had once told me the sword made her feel complete. That was a long time ago, but I was hoping it might act as a peace offering, a way to remind her of what she’d once stood for.
If not, then at least it didn’t leave me totally defenseless, since we’d opted to not bring any of the weapons we’d scavenged from Komak’s strike team. All things considered, a John Woo style entrance might have conveyed the wrong message.
All of that went through my head in the time it took us to step into the circle, Tom included, although technically he couldn’t hold anyone’s hand.
Christy and Kelly closed their eyes once we were in. A moment later, bright light flashed around us and reality winked out of existence.
♦ ♦ ♦
It wasn’t the first time I’d been teleported, apparated, or whatever the fuck the Magi liked to call it. But it had been years since I’d visited this theme park, more than enough time for me to forget the reasons I didn’t like riding this particular roller coaster.
Imagine having every molecule in your body unglued then tossed into a margarita blender. I had no idea what that would actually feel like, but it couldn’t be any less pleasant than being nowhere and everywhere at once as Christy zapped us to The Source.
Fortunately, we all had a pretty good remembrance of that hell hole. It was a hard place to forget. There was the inner chamber, a massive underground cavern that housed The Source and had been the main home for Calibra and her legion of Jahabich slaves. That was probably where the big show was going on.
It was also likely where, if we simply popped in unannounced, we’d be gunned down before we could say a word to the contrary.
However, there was also an outer chamber, equally as massive, but separated by several narrow tunnels. It was doubtful that it would be entirely unguarded, but there would almost certainly be fewer people trying to kill us before we could express that we came in peace.
And I had to think they’d be expecting company, especially after Komak’s botched abduction attempt. The bigger question was how pissed off they’d be to see us.
And then we were there ... except we weren’t.
Oh crap!
The light from the spell faded and before us lay the seemingly infinite darkness of the void.
What the hell had just happened?
♦ ♦ ♦
“Hold on a second.”
A moment later, a sphere of dim light appeared, illuminating the fact that we were actually standing in what appeared to be a narrow cave.
Oh yeah. The Source was deep underground. And, minus any illumination, caves tended to be dark. Silly me. Guess I should’ve scoured Christy’s junk drawer for a flashlight before heading down.
“Well, this is spooky as fuck all,” Tom’s said, nearly giving me a heart attack. In the dim light he was barely visible, nothing more than a shadow.
“So says the boogeyman,” I muttered.
“Heh, you sound like you’re huffing helium,” he replied.
I guess that made sense since everyone else seemed to be talking slowly and deliberately, a side effect of the time spell. Albeit I didn’t exactly feel better knowing I was heading into possible danger sounding like a chipmunk. I turned to Christy. “Are we...”
“Yes. We made it.” Her voice was hushed despite the silence around us. “I shunted us to one of the tunnels branching off the outer chamber.”
Probably a smart choice. If I remembered correctly, this was one of dozens of narrow tunnels which had once led to portals connected to ley lines at various points around the world, providing a near seamless transition between locations. One step you were where you’d been, and the next you were here ... all without realizing you’d moved thousands of miles.
Of course, that was the past. Now they were just an endless warren of passages that dead-ended on one side and hopefully led to the outer chamber on the other.
“Which way?” Kelly asked.
“Right hand rules, as any seasoned gamer can tell you.” I turned in that direction. “Let’s go.”
“That would be a waste of time, my love,” Gan said. “That way ends in a rock wall. Our quarry lay in the other direction.”
“How do you...”
“I can smell them.”
Oh, yeah. Forgot she could do that. “You could have just said that to begin with, you know.”
It was yet another reminder that I was even more out of my depth now than I had been all those years ago.
PARLAYING IT ON THICK
“Tell the specter to conceal himself.”
“Eh?” I asked.
“The revenant,” Gan explained. “He will be more useful if his presence is not painfully apparent.”
“She does have a point,” Kelly said. “That trick with Komak only worked because he popped up out of nowhere.”
I turned to Tom. “So ... can you switch yourself off?”
“How the fuck am I supposed to know?”
“Try.”
“Fine.” Tom squinted his eyes as if he were concentrating.
“You look like you’re trying to take a dump. Just imagine yourself, I don’t know, being invisible.”
He nodded. “Yeah, like I was back at school trying to sneak into the girl’s locker room.” Then, upon seeing Christy’s expression, he amended, “Or just because I want to be invisible.”
Goddamn. Even dead, he was still a whipped moron.
Unfortunately, he was also still there. I turned to Christy, my eyebrows raised.
“Don’t look at me,” she said. “I’ve been working all week to make him visible, not the opposite.”
Damnit.
“Duck down beneath the ground,” Gan said. It was more command than suggestion. “That way you can move unseen”
“Yeah. I should be able to do that.” Tom stared at the floor for several seconds, as if trying to figure it out, then he took a step and his foot sank, as if he were descending a hidden stairway. A few moments later and he was completely submerged, at least until he stuck his head out again. “Just for the record, this is really fucking weird.”
“Because everything else going on is super normal?” I offered, to which he shrugged and popped back into the floor.
Now to hope the idiot didn’t get lost. Fortunately, that wasn’t likely. Far as I knew, he couldn’t move further than maybe a dozen yards from the prism currently in my backpack.
A few minutes later, Gan paused, her head cocked to the side. “There’s machinery ahead – generators, I believe.”
Soon enough, the light at the end of the tunnel was upon us. Despi
te knowing what was likely waiting, I was glad to see it. Protective spell or not, I was starting to get winded.
There was no reason to be stealthy as we approached the mouth of the cave. This was a case where surprise could work against us, but fortunately we had witches to help with that.
As we neared the cave exit, the massive outer chamber partially visible beyond, Christy and Kelly worked their mojo. The latter conjured a purplish dome of energy in front of us, just in case, while Christy cast a spell that amplified her voice.
“WE HAVE COME SEEKING THE PROTECTION OF PARLAY UNDER THE OLD WAYS. WE WISH TO NEGOTIATE WITH YOUR LEADERS.”
Not quite how I would have put it, but probably for the best. “Give us Sally, you kidnapping cock-hamsters” likely wouldn’t have won us any brownie points, hence why my chosen profession was programming, not hostage negotiations.
Several long seconds passed in which I nervously wondered if we were about to be hit with a concentrated Death Star beam by a dozen angry sorcerers. Go figure – plans like ours sounded awesome right up until you actually had to do them.
Finally, though, there came an answer, one not wrapped in death magic. A booming male voice replied, “PARLAY IS GRANTED. STEP FROM THE TUNNEL WITH YOUR HANDS RAISED. NO HARM WILL COME TO YOU SO LONG AS YOU OFFER NO RESISTANCE.”
I glanced at Christy and she nodded, although I could see the uncertainty in her eyes. Something like this used to be law among her people. Now, all we could do was hope the other team was nostalgic enough to not blast us to bloody chunks.
Kelly dropped the force shield and we continued onward. There was no sign of Tom as we walked. Good. Now to hope he didn’t pop his head out at the wrong moment and end up making us all ghosts.
I glanced over at Gan and saw her flex her hand. The nails on it momentarily extended into wicked claws before she retracted them again. She was playing nice for now, but no doubt readying herself in case the need to filet some wizards arose.
Maybe I should’ve worn a rain slicker for our trip down here.
♦ ♦ ♦
As expected, the outer chamber wasn’t empty by any stretch, but it wasn’t exactly standing room only.
Half a dozen people met us as we stepped out. Five were aglow with energy, no doubt ready to blast us to atoms if we made the wrong move. One held an assault rifle, either a human who’d been recruited or another of those neo-vamps. Regardless, I didn’t recognize any of...
What the fuck?!
I realized, after a moment, there was a seventh among their number. At first I thought it was maybe a shadow or trick of the light, but then I looked closer and saw it blink at me ... from about twenty different spots.
It was a blob of goo, about knee high, and filled with eyeballs of various sizes.
Needless to say, that was a bit unexpected.
But then I remembered what Gan had told us. Not every creature had been shunted back to where they belonged when The Source closed. There had been stragglers from elsewhere. Call me crazy, but that thing definitely looked like it was from out of town.
It must have noticed me staring – how could it not – because an air bubble appeared in its gelatinous body, floating to the surface where it popped, producing sound.
“It’s the Freewill,” it said, sounding like a drowning man gasping for one last breath. Talk about creepy.
“I can see that,” the man with the gun – a tall fellow with five o’clock shadow, thick black hair, and an angular face, said. “We are honored by your presence.” He blinked and his eyes turned yellow as he nodded toward Gan. “Prefect Gansetseg.”
She, in turn, didn’t even acknowledge him. What a surprise.
“You asked for parlay,” one of the Magi, a middle-aged male with thinning salt and pepper hair, said. “What do you wish to discuss?”
I opened my mouth before clamping it shut again. For a moment, it was as if the years melted away and I was the one expected to speak for my motley crew. But those days were dead and buried. This was Christy’s expedition.
Now to only hope Gan understood that.
“We have come to speak to your leaders,” Christy said, taking a single step forward, her voice formal. “We offer an exchange – that which you seek in return for one held prisoner.”
“A prisoner?” the blob slurped. “We don’t have any...”
“That’ll be quite enough,” the vamp interrupted before turning to Christy. “Please be more specific. I’d prefer to know what we’re negotiating for before we decide whether or not to execute you right here.”
“Parlay has been granted, Jasper,” the Magi said. Jasper? We were talking to a vampire named Jasper? So much for the mind-numbing fear coursing through my veins. “I would ask you to honor it until such time as it is rescinded.”
I personally would have let the two argue it out. Vamps and Magi historically had a kind of mutual don’t-fuck-with-each-other policy. They didn’t go out of their way to start shit but also weren’t shy about murdering each other if it suited their needs.
Christy, however, proving she was the right person to lead this adventuring party, said, “I am the bearer of an incantation known to myself alone, one capable of augmenting the Icon’s power and cracking through the veil to what lies beyond.”
There came a beat of silence. Our theory about what was going on was exactly that, a theory. If they replied with, “Da fuq?” that would tell us we’d screwed up and had, in essence, given ourselves up to these assholes with absolutely zero leverage to show for it. Wouldn’t that be the perfect cherry atop this shit sundae of a week?
“A way home?” the blob thing sputtered, the excited air bubbles of its speech splattering the floor around it. Eww.
It definitely didn’t have much of a poker face, but that was probably because it didn’t really have a face to begin with.
Finally, the Magi in charge spoke again. “You’re Christine Fenton, correct?”
She nodded.
“I’ve heard of you. A lot of us have been wondering where you would stand in regards to our efforts. Very well. If what you say is true, then we will hear you out. But know that if you’re planning any duplicity, you can expect no quarter in return. There are many here who do not speak fondly of your name.”
The words were chilling, but she took it like a trooper. “I speak true.”
Can’t say I or my former roommates would have been so neutral on the subject, but that’s probably why Ed was on the surface, Tom was stuck in the floor, and I was doing my damnedest to keep my fucking mouth shut.
♦ ♦ ♦
Unsurprisingly, they relieved me of Sheila’s sword before leading us away. However, I took some small bit of amusement in seeing that none of them – mage or vamp – was all too eager to touch it. In the end, the high-muckety mage ordered one of his minions to carry it, much to the poor guy’s apparent chagrin.
I took the time to look around. The folks who’d commandeered this cavern had been busy. Heavy duty electrical wire ran everywhere. Some were connected to work lights while others led off into the darkness to points unseen. As we walked, there came a massive flash of light about twenty yards to our left, followed by a tanker truck bearing the ExxonMobil logo appearing out of thin air.
Guess that was one way to keep the generators running. Christy was right. When the magic was flowing again, it was apparently a minor issue for the Magi to keep this place supplied. Judging by the multiple stacks of crates we spied along the way, the people here were ready to go the distance.
I dared a glance back over my shoulder and an involuntary shudder passed through me at the expected sight of dozens upon dozens of tunnels lining the far wall of this chamber. All of them were pitch dark, offering the promise of any of a thousand horrific nightmares, although they probably led to nothing more than dead ends these days.
All except one, that is. One tunnel to the far right was aglow with light. Several people stood guard at its entrance.
“Hey Gan,” I whispered
under my breath. “Do you think that’s the...”
“It is,” she replied, no doubt anticipating the rest.
If I was reading her right, that tunnel was the one which led up to Damascus ... a place I actually had no interest in visiting.
“No talking,” Jasper the vamp warned. Five years of living as a human was apparently not enough to erase centuries of being an asshole.
Big surprise there.
♦ ♦ ♦
We were about three quarters through the chamber, massive as it was, when I suddenly realized I had a lot more spring in my step. It was as if I’d been wearing weighted clothes and had stripped them all off ... minus actually whipping my dick out. At the same time, the voices of our captors seemed to rise both in pitch and speed.
The pulse had ended as abruptly as it had begun.
Almost as if in response, half the Magi leading the way drew guns from their sides.
Maybe I’m crazy, stupid, or both but – despite their weapons – the threat of regular people seemed to pale compared to what they could do when the juice was flowing. Yeah, it made no sense for me to be emboldened, but then I never claimed to make much sense.
Fuck it.
“Yo, Jasper,” I said, trying to keep the smirk out of my voice. “What’s your story? I mean, what were you doing before the shit hit the fan ... you know, human to human?”
For a moment, I wasn’t sure if he would answer or simply shoot me in the face and be done with it. But he actually glanced back and replied, “If you must know, I was the second in my coven.”
Where at?”
“Cambridge.”
“What happened?”
“The Destroyer happened,” he replied before turning back.
He didn’t need to explain. Vehron the Destroyer had cut a swath of destruction from New York to Boston, decimating covens along the way and recruiting them for his master, Calibra.
It was perhaps best to not mention I was one-hundred percent responsible for that happening.
Strange Days (Bill of the Dead Book 1) Page 21
