Dark Moon Rising (The Revenant Book 2)

by Kali Argent

  The green light pulsed inside a little bulb attached to a bigger black box. On either side of the box, large blocks of colorless clay snaking with numerous wires had been attached to the joints holding up the wall. Pushing up on her toes, Thea pressed her cheek to a moldy board just under the explosives and peered into the fissure. She counted six more blinking green dots hidden within the wall, and she had to assume the entire maze had been rigged similarly.

  “We have to go.” Rhys grabbed her by the elbow, holding tightly as he dragged her through the empty passage and around the bend. “Where the hell are the others?”

  “There.” Lynk pointed ahead of him. “Come on.”

  “Nothing,” Deke said as they approached, meeting Thea’s group back in the center of a four-way intersection. “We didn’t find a door, but there has to be one somewhere.”

  “And we need to find it fast.” Thea vibrated from head to toe, partly from the cold, but mostly from what she’d just seen. “We found explosives in the wall. This whole place is set to blow in less than an hour.”

  Deke didn’t ask questions. He didn’t waste breath to inquire why the pack would do such a thing. They all knew the answer. Nikolai had been discovered, was likely already dead, and their rescue team was walking right into a trap.

  As they waded deeper into the maze, the terrain became more and more difficult to traverse. They’d sloshed through bitterly cold waters of a small pond in the middle of one corridor. Two turns later, they’d trudged through thick, rolling sand that swallowed Thea’s feet with every step. In another corner, a semi-circular hole reached six feet into the ground and twice that across. Unable to shift, they’d wasted precious time descending into the hole and then climbing back up the other side.

  “Look!”

  Ahead, at the end of another long stretch of the maze, a tree-sized log rested across a small break in the wall, held up on both ends by bronzed brackets. It reminded her of the barricades used in old movies about castles and knights. Removing the piece of wood and opening the rampart doors didn’t usually go well for the heroes, but in this case, she didn’t see any other options. She’d rather face whatever waited on the other side of the massive gate than be blown up or decapitated by flying car parts.

  It took four of them to lift the log from the brackets, but before Thea could push open the giant doors, Rhys stopped her with a hand to her shoulder.

  “Do you hear them?”

  Footsteps, heaving breathing, grunting, snarling, and the occasional growled word or phrase came from beyond the gate, but it was impossible to tell how many Ravagers waited for them.

  “This is the only way out, Rhys.” The maze had been designed that way, all paths leading to only one exit.

  “Just wait.” Releasing her, he rubbed the back of his neck and paced. “What if you hadn’t seen that light? We wouldn’t know about the explosives. We weren’t being attacked. What if we had just stumbled around until the clocked ticked down to zero?”

  Rhys didn’t like it. Simply blowing them up went against everything he knew about the pack. Then again, nothing about this full moon was like anything he’d experienced. Normally, captives fought to the death for hours until the sun rose. It had been nearly two hours since they’d woken up in the maze, and the lack of anything remotely dangerous—beyond a wall of explosives—made him uneasy.

  “What are you saying?” Lynk asked. “That countdown is for something else?”

  “Maybe.” He just didn’t know.

  “Okay,” Roux said, “then what’s with all the C4?”

  Rhys didn’t have an answer for that, either, but his gut told him the alpha had no intentions of detonating the explosives, at least not this early in the game. “Insurance? A failsafe?”

  Thea wrinkled her brow, her lips turning down at the corners. “I don’t know. Between our collars and their guns, bombs seem like overkill as a security precaution.”

  She made a valid point, but Rhys didn’t have any other guesses, not yet.

  “Fuck this,” Brody snarled. “I’m not waiting around to get my ass blow up in this shit hole.” Sliding past Thea, he pressed hands to the wall and shoved hard, grunting with the effort.

  “Oh, shit,” Deke breathed as the gates opened with a loud wrenching of metal.

  At least a fifty Ravagers and vampires turned as one with dark, hungry gazes. At the front of the group, Rhys recognized the human family from the enclosure, their eyes pools of black, their fangs elongated below their upper lips. Little compared to the savagery of a newly turned vampire, especially one who hadn’t fed after the transition. It would be a mistake to underestimate the females because of their size or the male based on his age.

  Enclosed in a massive cage with a domed, mesh roof, the beasts started toward them, picking up speed as they came.

  “Run!” Rhys shouted. “Now, go, go.”

  Stumbling away from the gates, they turned toward the left and sprinted for the end of the pathway, reaching the intersection just as an earsplitting siren wailed through the night. The Ravagers who’d reached the gates stumbled out into the corridor, holding their ears as they howled, their voices rising up over the alarm. Red lights strobed atop of the walls, casting an ominous glow through the darkness, and small explosions erupted in a chain throughout maze.

  Nothing caught on fire. No debris sliced through the air. Nothing fell down around them.

  “It’s not explosives!” Lynk yelled, his eyes wide, fixed on the wall in front of him.

  Rhys’ nostrils flared, a strong, coppery scent filling his nose. Blood seeped through the cracks in the patched metal, flowing down over the baseboards to run in a thick, warm stream across the ground. It wasn’t fresh, suggesting it had been stored for a long time, possibly frozen in a blood bank somewhere. The thought was less gruesome than the alternative that the pack had drained enough people to create a river of blood, but it didn’t change the direness of their circumstances.

  The sirens cut off abruptly, but the red, dome lights continued to flash, creating a horror scene straight from a movie. The vampires scented the blood first, their high-pitched screeches terrifying and inhuman. Beasts in every size, shape, color, and gender spilled through the gates, sprinting into the maze, hungry and searching. The crimson flowing down the walls held no interest for them, not with fresh, living prey so close at hand.

  Slipping and sliding, Rhys ran, grabbing Thea around the forearm and dragging her beside him. As they rounded the corner, she skidding sideways, falling to the ground, the goo saturating her clothes and splashing into her face, effectively making her the most appealing member in their group to the predators chasing them.

  Cursing, Rhys lifted her by the waist, set her back on her feet, and shoved at her to get her moving again. “Keep running!”

  They had nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. For every one of their steps, the creatures behind them took two, closing in on them. At the next intersection, Rhys led their group to the left, heading back toward the place where they’d started. In his brief view of the cage that imprisoned the monsters chasing them, he hadn’t seen any doors or windows, no way for them to escape in that direction.

  There had to be a door, a loose panel, a gate, something they’d missed during their first trip through the maze. Their pursuers numbered too many for them to fight, and unless they found a way out, they’d all be dead within minutes.

  A startled cry had him glancing over his shoulder, and his heart leapt into his throat when he saw Brody go down behind him. The male tried to regain his feet, but slipped in the goo that coated the ground, going down again. Rhys had barely turned, hadn’t even had time to call the guy’s name, when a female vampire dove at Brody, landing on his back and pinning him beneath her. In an instant, other vampires and Ravagers converged, snarling and growling, screeching and a screaming.

  Brody’s cry cut off abruptly, and with a heavy heart, Rhys turned away, knowing he could do nothing to help the male now. The Ravagers crawled over
each other, sliding and rolling, some pausing to fight each other. It slowed them down some, but they were still coming.

  “No!” Roux yelled. “Stop!” She jerked and twisted when Deke lifted her off her feet, dragging her away. “Let me go! We have to help him. Brody!”

  “We can’t help him,” Deke told her, guilt and grief tinting his voice. “Roux, stop. We have to go.”

  At the end of the corridor, the captain placed his mate back on her feet, pushing her, urging her forward. Roux hesitated for a heartbeat, taking a last look over her shoulder, then she sprinted down the next long passage, her hair flying out behind her.

  Rhys’ pulse raced as he sprinted after his own mate, his blood pumping through his veins, roaring in his ears. His muscles contracted with every stride, his stomach twisted in violent spasms, and sharp pain traveled up his spine. He could feel the moonlight on his back, the tingle that swept over his nape. His body attempted to shift, failed, realigned, then contracted again. After two years, he should have been used to it, but while he’d become better at managing the pain, he still had difficulty focusing when every cell in body was screaming.

  “This way,” Deke called, swinging right at a four-way crossing.

  “Go, go, go,” Deidra yelled, running half a stride behind Rhys. “Hurry!”

  They could run all night, but unless they found an exit, it wouldn’t make any difference. The Ravagers would eventually catch up to them. The vampires would feast.

  Roux spun around the turn, her socked feet slipping through the blood, and disappeared into the next strip of the maze. Her scream pierced through the night, a combination of fear and pain. Snarling and huffing, Deke burst around the corner after her, Rhys and Thea on his heels with Lynk and Deidra bringing up the rear.

  Please, no. Not again.

  Rhys sent up the silent prayer as he hurried after them, preparing himself for the fight ahead. He expected to see Ravagers, maybe a vampire or two who’d circled around instead of following the horde. He hadn’t, however, expected to see his mother in her tattered dress, her jagged claws digging into Roux’s upper arm as the smaller female jerked and twisted, trying to pull away.

  Rhys roared, Thea yelled, and the world stood still as Deke leapt forward, his own claws extended, and raked them across the Ravager’s throat. Rhys’ mother choked, her eyes widening, her grip falling away from Roux as she crumpled to the ground.

  Savage rage consumed him, and for once, he didn’t try to fight it. Despite what she’d become, Jenna Lockwood was still his mother, and seeing her broken, bleeding, and lifeless finally pushed him over the edge. Darkness beckoned, a relief from all that he’d endured, a respite from the constant pain, and he welcomed it. His chest heaved with each growling inhalation. His shoulders rounded, his muscles flexed, and his upper lip curled over his fangs.

  “Rhys! Rhys, we have to go!” Thea stood in front of him, holding his face between her hands, shaking him, yelling at him. “Rhys, I’m so sorry, but we have to go!”

  Behind them, the horde advanced, their growls rising in volume, their footfalls muffled but coming closer. Only one thing mattered more than his anger, more than the pain. His angel needed him, and he’d do anything for her. She was his. His to protect, his to cherish, his to love.

  “Mine!”

  Primal, fierce, barely more than an animal, he couldn’t think beyond the driving need to claim her as his own. Reaching out, he locked his arms around her like steel bands, crushing his mate to his chest and burying his face against the side of her neck as he embedded his canines into her supple flesh. Bright, blinding light exploded behind his closed lids, and warmth, pure and radiant, flooded him as a magic he couldn’t begin to understand bonded them together as one.

  When he lifted his head, the haze had already started to clear, and he felt like he was seeing the world for the first time in perfect clarity. Colors appeared brighter, sounds sharper, and the scent of spiced vanilla surrounded him. His heart pounded when he realized what he’d just done. He’d claimed his mate—at the worst possible time and without her permission.

  Surprisingly, she didn’t seem that upset about it.

  “Welcome back,” she said with a brief smile. “Now move your ass.”

  The others waited at the end of the long isle, shouting their names and beckoning to them. Behind him, the first three vampires rounded the corner. Rhys stared down at his mother’s unmoving form, remembering the way she’d been before Bricksten Chase had destroyed her. It killed him to just leave her there like that, but their lead had already been diminished by his breakdown, and as much as it hurt, there was nothing he could do for her now.

  “Go!” he shouted to the others as he and Thea sprinted toward them.

  They made another left, racing past the flashing clock that had started it all, and ducked down a narrower corridor on their right. The tunnels seemed to stretch on forever, in every direction, and every time they turned, there were only more walls, more scraps of metal, more tunnels.

  “This way!” a male called to them, standing in the intersection with a semi-automatic pressed against his shoulder.

  “Who the hell is that?” Thea asked through panted breaths.

  “Does it matter?” Deke countered.

  “He’s human,” Lynk added, as if that made him worthy of trust.

  “Come on, come on. Let’s go, let’s go.” The male waved them past as he unloaded a spray of bullets into the approaching mob of Ravagers and crazed vampires. He backed away, turning only once he’d rounded the corner, then sprinted ahead of them. “Follow me.”

  After several twists and turns, races down dark corridors, and another encounter with a lone vampire, they slowed to a stop in front of a stretch of wall that looked like all the rest. They all stared at each other, some wearing masks of disappointment, others confusion. Thea, however, was pissed.

  “Who the hell are you?” she demanded.

  “Captain Luca Moretti,” he answered, pounding his fist against a slab of corrugated tin.

  A section of the wall slid back, opening into a vast field. Three males, dressed similarly to Luca in black, long-sleeved shirts, utility pants, and boots, motioned them through. As they passed, the new captain nodded at Thea, offering her a tight grin.

  “Sorry we’re late.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  A barrage of gunfire sounded in the distance as Nikolai moved through the group, unlocking the collars around their necks. Thea tilted her head to one side and then the other, shaking out her shoulders and fighting the urge to shift.

  “Took you long enough,” Deke said, clapping the vampire on the shoulder. “We kind of thought you were dead.”

  “Not for lack of trying,” Nikolai commented as he finished with the last collar, freeing Deidra from her shackle. “It took me most of the night to figure out where the hell to find a beach and lagoon.” He eyed the she-wolf and snorted. “The polar bear enclosure isn’t exactly the first thing that comes to mind.”

  “My description was quite accurate.” Deidra sniffed.

  The vampire chuckled and turned to introduce them to the other males standing a few feet away. “Sean and Nathan Chambers.”

  Twins. Interesting.

  “Miles Irati,” Nikolai continued, “and you’ve met Luca Moretti. They’re Revenant out of Kansas City.” When he’d finished, he looked at Thea and the rest of their group for a long time, his expression impassive. “This is all of you?”

  “This is it,” Thea confirmed, her heart pained by the admission. “Zerrik and Brody are dead.” She choked a little on the last word, but cleared her throat and kept going. “Abby and Cade were traded to the Abraxas coven, along with two other humans.”

  “Abraxas?” Luca slid a fresh magazine into a .22-cal pistol and passed it to Roux. “Well, that’s a problem for another day.” He nodded when Roux took the handgun. “You know how to use that?”

  She smirked up at him as she released the magazine to count the rounds. Then she s
lid it back into place, cocked the hammer, and aimed the muzzle into the distance as she stared down the barrel. “I think I can figure it out.”

  Nodding, Luca passed a similar handgun to Rhys, then a 9mm to Deidra.

  Deidra frowned. “Why do I get the bloody peashooter?”

  “Because it has more rounds, and you’re a lousy fucking shot, O’Malley.”

  Thea coughed to cover her laughter, but when the female glared at her, she couldn’t hold it in any longer. “You two know each other?”

  Luca snorted. “We’ve met.”

  “It wasn’t my fault.” Deidra inspected her gun, then slid it into the waistband at her lower back. “If you hadn’t gone charging into that warehouse like a madman, maybe I would have had more time.”

  Jerking his head up, Luca pinned her with his dark gaze. “You shot me in the ass, O’Malley!”

  “I barely grazed you,” she argued. “You completely overreacted.”

  Thea wondered if that was the reason the female had ended up in Valley Falls. “Okay, we’re missing all the fun. Let’s move.”

  Luca and Deke both gave her approving nods. Lynk and the Chambers twins stripped out of their clothes and knelt of the ground in a row, their bodies contorting and writhing as they shifted. When it was over, an enormous white tiger and two sleek leopards stared back at them, the moonlight reflected in their eyes.

  Thea hooked her thumbs into her waistband but paused when she caught Rhys staring at her. He wouldn’t be able to keep up with her, and while she was hesitant to leave him, she was also eager to shift after being restrained for so long.

  Reading the hesitation on her face, Rhys stepped in front of her and took her chin gently between his thumb and forefinger, tilting her head up for a slow, sweet kiss. “Go, angel. I’ll be right behind you.”

  “I lov—”

  He kissed her again, cutting her off. “No goodbyes. I’m going to be right behind you.”