One of the specters had increased strength. That could be useful.
Another had slightly increased speed. Another bonus.
The woman leered and came at her at a full sprint, raising her machete high for the swing. Jennie easily sidestepped the blow and swung around to the woman’s side. She shoved her through the corridor wall and out of sight.
The others took that as their cue to attack. Jennie didn’t shy away, throwing herself among the fray and working through the group. The sharpened metal whistled through the air toward her, and she narrowly avoided its blade. A fist knocked her shoulder and sent her off-balance, but she countered by grabbing a fistful of one specter’s shirt and pulling herself up. She used the momentum to toss him at the wall where he, too, disappeared.
Jennie blocked a punch and returned with a kick. She ducked the table leg and grabbed the base of the instrument. Freeing the specter of his weapon, she pummeled his head and threw the table leg away.
It skittered across the floor and melted through the window, falling to the street below. Carolyn and Sandra saw this and looked up at the window with curiosity.
The butcher remained behind the group fighting, watching with grim fascination. Jennie would get to him later.
A kick caught her behind the knee. Jennie dropped to one knee and latched onto a specter just before her switchblade reached her. The specter froze, her face a mask of disbelief. Jennie growled and threw her hands out, forcing the specter away from her in the same direction as the table leg.
The specter cried out in frustration, her body unable to move as she disappeared from the window. Sandra and Carolyn finally had someone to work on.
Jennie rose to her feet and blocked a series of punches and kicks. She returned with her own jabs, toying with the specters while they tried to take her down. Their skills were credible, and a few blows caught her off-guard, but after a number of kicks to one of the specter’s thighs, she heard the satisfying crunch of a bone breaking.
There was no time to celebrate. The lead woman returned through the wall, face like thunder. “Stand aside,” she bellowed as she sprinted at Jennie.
Jennie latched onto the two specters who had shown an increase in their abilities. Their power flowed through her and increased her speed and strength, though only slightly. It was enough to avoid the singing blade as the woman attempted to carve her in two. On the backswing, Jennie was one step ahead. She flung her body back, landing on her hands as the blade passed inches above where her face had been.
Jennie affirmed her grip on the ground and kicked at the woman’s knee. It was a good strike, but it wasn’t enough. The woman was determined. She struck at the ground, barely missing Jennie as she completed her maneuver and rolled out of the way.
Jennie pushed herself to her feet and ran at the woman.
The butcher stepped out of the way as Jennie leaped and threw the woman out of the window. She held her waist, both of them plummeting toward the tarmac. They landed with a sickening crunch, though Jennie used the woman as a crash mat.
The woman yelled in pain. Carolyn and Sandra, who had already disarmed and disabled the man Jennie had tossed from the window, came inside and helped her restrain the woman. Jennie relieved the woman of her machete and held her down with her boot heel.
“You said no weapons,” Jennie reprimanded.
The woman gurgled. “I said no firearms.”
Jennie grinned. “Cheeky. I like it. Girls, keep her restrained, I’m going to need to jump back to collect my things.”
As she finished speaking, Baxter appeared from the lower floor of the building, eyes wide at the chaos. “What the hell happened? I lost you guys.”
“Later,” Jennie replied. “Boost me.”
Baxter looked up at the window. “Might be a little too late.”
The remaining enemies gathered at the ledge. The man who had been thrown through the wall stared at them, Jennie’s weapons raised in his hands.
“Let her go,” the man commanded. “It’s over.”
Jennie turned to Carolyn. “Together?”
Carolyn smiled. “Sure.”
Before the group knew what was happening, Carolyn extended her arms, and the weapons flew through the air and landed safely in her fingers. The next moment, Jennie latched onto the remaining specters and pulled them, sending them crashing to the ground. The only remaining specter was the butcher, who she latched onto and guided him softly out the window and onto the ground.
“Sandra, hold the others,” Jennie instructed.
Sandra obeyed, crossing over to the confused specters who froze instantly under her power.
Jennie motioned the butcher over. She released her hold over him, identifying him as someone she needn’t worry about. If he was truly dangerous, he would have joined in with the fight.
“Do you know this woman?” she asked as he cautiously approached.
He shook his head. “I’ve never seen her before today.” His brows knitted together. “What is happening to me? What in the name of Sam Hill is going on? Am I dreaming?”
Jennie recognized the confusion of a man freshly born into specterdom. “I’m sorry to say this is no dream. You are dead. My presumption is that you died at the hands of those morons. Am I right?”
The woman on the ground gurgled through her grin.
Jennie kicked her in the face in an attempt to wipe the smile off of it. She turned back to the man. “Your name?”
“Sam,” the man replied. “Please tell me you’re kidding. This is all some kind of terrible nightmare. I can’t be dead. I have a family. Children.”
Carolyn huffed. “Join the club.”
Baxter raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, maybe not kids,” Carolyn clarified. “But I had a fiancé and my dogs, okay?”
Jennie crossed to the man and placed a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry. This is real, and I’ll be sure to get someone to explain everything to you so that you can work out your options and be properly inducted into spectral life. For now, we’ve got bigger fish to fry. These fuckwits blew up your business, destroyed a landmark, and killed a bunch of civilians in the process. I’m going to track down who did this, and we’re going to bring the world to rights.”
She returned her attention to the woman on the ground. “As for you, I’ve got a couple of very simple questions for you: who sent you, and what were you promised in return?”
The woman held her gaze and was silent. Jennie was wondering whether she was going to have to force her to speak when she finally replied. “You’ll have to kill me first.”
Jennie pinched her eyes. “Fine. That can be arranged.”
She snapped her fingers and indicated a swap with Sandra. While Jennie held the others pinned down, Sandra knelt by the woman’s side. She closed her eyes and placed her hands on the woman’s chest.
White light emanated from her center and the woman’s eyes grew wide.
She screamed, the heat of the exorcism coursing through her body. “Wait! Wait! I’ll talk! Please!”
Sandra retracted her power and the white light disappeared. She swapped once more with Jennie.
Jennie knelt by the woman’s side and stroked the hair away from her face. “Ready to talk now, sweetie?”
The woman’s chest rose and fell as she panted and caught her breath. “How… Who the hell are you all?”
“We’re the King’s Court.” Baxter grinned.
Carolyn added, “And you’re under arrest.”
Jennie chuckled. “Time to start squeaking, little mouse. My patience is running thin."
Chapter Forty-One
Richmond, Virginia, USA
Tanya scratched her head, holding the door wide open with her other hand. “What do you mean, they just got better?”
She had been on her way downstairs to switch with Roman and Ula, checking the notifications on her cell phone, when she heard the two conduits deep in conversation further down the hallway.
The door was aja
r. Roman and Ula stared inside at something she could not see. Tanya broke into a run, all thoughts of reprimanding Lupe for oversleeping when it was his turn to watch pushed from her mind as she arrived at the holding cell and saw what the pair were seeing.
The two women were sitting with knees to their chests against the far wall, not a note of malice in their confused eyes. The two animals that had attacked Roman and Triton the previous night were gone, leaving nothing behind but regular, unpossessed yoga students.
Ula shrugged.
Even Roman couldn’t hide his surprise. “We opened the door to check on them both because they had been quiet for so long, and we found them like this.”
The redhead woman rubbed her cheek. “What happened to us? Why is my face so sore?”
A flash of the previous night came to Tanya, Roman’s hand pressing the woman’s face onto the hard floor.
Ula looked to Tanya. “Do you want to take this one?”
Tanya entered the room, keeping a safe distance from the two women. “We were actually hoping you’d be able to help us with that.” She explained to them what had happened at the yoga center and the journey they had taken to the quarry and the tunnels beneath. “What do you remember?”
The women looked at each other. The blonde shook her head, determined to remain silent.
“It’s all a blur,” the redhead answered. “One minute I was watching the Toya—that’s the yoga instructor—the next thing I know, everything went dark. All I could see were shapes and patterns as though I was looking at a TV screen through murky water.”
“I remember anger,” the blonde woman added. “I felt angry. Angrier than I’d ever felt. I can’t explain it, but it didn’t feel like mine. It was like my body was tapped into someone else’s emotions and…I couldn’t control it.”
“Yeah,” the redhead agreed.
Tanya asked for their names, discovering that the redhead was called Lyla, and the blonde was called Krissie. She nudged them for more answers but could glean little more from them than they had already shared. Apparently, their entire experience was a mass of unknowns and anger.
“Are you going to let us out now?” Lyla asked, rubbing her throat. Her voice was cracked and her throat dry. “I just want to go home and see if my cat is okay.”
Tanya glanced up at Roman, his face difficult to read. “We can’t do that, I’m afraid. Not right now, anyway. You two have been through an ordeal, and we don’t yet know that it’s completely over. We could set you free, and the same thing could be triggered again. We don’t know what’s causing this, but we can prevent you from causing harm to others if you agree to stay.”
We have some idea, Tanya thought, suddenly remembering the message from Julia she had received on her cell.
The women sighed but nodded their understanding.
“Can we at least have something to eat and drink?” Krissie asked. “I’m starving.”
Ula fetched them each a couple of bottles of water. They sat with them while they ate their fill of snack bars and fruit. When they were finished, Ula made sure to remove any packaging that could somehow be utilized as a weapon if the tides were to turn again.
Roman folded his arms. “Better?”
The women nodded.
“Good.” He turned and made to close the door, leaving them alone in the room once more.
“Wait!” Lyla cried.
Roman paused.
Lyla fixed her gaze on her knees, wilting under his stare. “Can’t we at least sit out there with you? You can watch over us. It’s just…being kept in this room feels like we’re in prison.”
Roman considered this. “Not yet. We’ll give it twelve hours and monitor your situation. If you like, Ula can keep the door open and watch over you two, so it feels less enclosed. If either of you tries anything stupid, your privileges will be immediately taken away.”
Ula, added a softer note to the conversation, added, “We’re here to help you. You aren’t trapped, okay? You’re with the good guys. We want to fix this as much as you do.”
Roman and Tanya exited the room and left them to it.
They ended up downstairs in the reception lounge, where they claimed sofas across from each other. Tanya immediately went to her phone while Roman launched into externalizing his thoughts.
“Something must have happened to expel the specters,” he muttered. “I’ve never seen anything like it before, that specters can work their way out of those they possess. Not without some kind of encouragement, anyway. They know more than they’re letting on, I’m sure of it. We have to worm out the rest of the information. They’re our only key.”
“Not the only key,” Tanya replied, fascination etched on her face. “Julia’s translated the sarcophagus. Listen to this: Here lies the Dreadnought Conqueror, Rathbourne Valerius. Gifted, cursed, loved, feared.”
Roman raised an eyebrow. “The Dreadnought Conqueror? That’s an impressive title if I’ve ever heard one.”
Tanya waved a hand to hush Roman. “A day may come when the forgotten is lost to the past, and the future may know the terrible darkness that once plagued these lands. A scourge, proud and strong, a terrible curse once sealed, never to be broken open, unless darkness is what you seek to govern this land.
“Breaker of the lid, beware. What’s done cannot be undone.”
Tanya slowly turned to Roman. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“No,” Roman replied. “No, it does not.”
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
The lower floor of the skyscraper was a bank. The next few floors were office space, but the remaining twenty floors were given over to apartments.
The entrance to the apartments was through a shaded alley at the side of the building. Jennie, Rhone, Baxter, Carolyn, and Sandra gathered around the door. The woman with the machete, Terri, had been dragged along for the ride, and Sam the butcher had joined them, too.
“Up there?” Jennie asked.
The woman hesitated in her answer. She glanced at Sandra, then sighed. “Yes.”
“How far?” Baxter queried.
Terri looked up. “Floor thirteen.”
Jennie counted the floors. Thirteen wasn’t hard to identify, it was the only floor where all of the windows were closed and dark.
“It looks abandoned,” Carolyn noted. “Why would an entire floor of a residency be closed off? Is that where they keep all the vampires?”
Although she was joking, it wasn’t met with laughter.
Jennie shaded her eyes. “Some skyscrapers discount the thirteenth floor and pretend it doesn’t exist. I’ve seen it often in hotels, but rarely in apartment blocks.”
“Why the thirteenth floor?” Sandra asked.
“Unlucky thirteen,” Baxter answered. “For the superstitious among you.”
Jennie continued. “It is said that the dead and the cursed inhabit floor thirteen of any building. In holiday destinations, some elevators skip from twelve to fourteen on their button panels. Some hotels have thrown away the keys to the doors on floor thirteen. Others schedule cleaners once a month just to keep away the dust, dirt, and mold, but even then the cleaners are paid a premium. Many are only hired the once, unable to return because of the things they’ve seen.”
“A safe haven for specters, then,” Carolyn commented.
“Arguably a self-fulfilling superstition,” Jennie offered. “If you build it, they will come. There are still things and forces in this world we don’t yet understand. Let’s hope that this building is different.”
Baxter melted through the door and unlocked it from the inside. They passed through a quiet reception area, barely registering the attention of the concierge, who was reading the latest Grisham novel.
Baxter opened the security door to the stairwell, and they made their way upstairs.
They knew when they had reached the thirteenth floor when they came across the peeling paint on the wooden door. Where the other entryways had been immaculately painted and kept, this do
or had been neglected. There was no keypad panel like the other doors, either, just a typical handle and key combination.
“You’ll have to wait outside,” Jennie told Rhone.
“Lookout again?” Rhone protested.
Jennie laughed. “I’m kidding. We wouldn’t leave you. Come on, we’ll open it from the inside for you.”
The door creaked open, and they found themselves in a quiet corridor. The air was cooler here. A series of yellowed doors that might once have been painted white stood quiet and forgotten.
Jennie led the way, tiptoeing quietly along the dusty carpet. At the end of the corridor, they reached a final door, and she heard people talking inside the room.
“Specters or mortals?” Carolyn asked, exaggerating her lip movements to counter for her quiet tone.
Jennie closed her eyes and reached out to feel the spectral energy coming from the room. “Both.”
Jennie booted near the handle and sent the door swinging in. There was no delicacy with this entry. Rhone was right behind her, ready to go,
They charged into the room, guns trained and poised on the people within. They were in a large living room, clearly in a space that would once have been imagined to be a luxury suite. Two large sofas filled the center of the room, and a group of specters and mortals jumped to their feet at their approach.
There were over a dozen, at a quick count. Jennie was hyper-aware that the mortals looking would only see Rhone and herself. Two against a dozen gave them the impression they had great odds.
Hopefully, the specters would tell their leader otherwise.
The leader was distinguishable from the others as she was the only one who remained sitting. She wore SI glasses. She calmed her entourage with a gentle word and leaned slightly to the left to get a better view of the specter they had captured.
“Terri?” the woman crooned. “You disappoint me. Betraying your own kind like that, and for what? What did they offer you?”
Terri remained silent.
Agents, Agreements and Aggravations: In Her Paranormal Majesty’s Secret Service™ Book Three Page 32
