Wicked Legends: A Dystopian Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection

by hamilton, rebecca

  Allana gazed at her flashing notification. “They found him.” She looked into Maddox’s eyes. “No going back now. The clock has started ticking.” For the first time, fear lit her features and her lower lip trembled.

  She was human after all. He had the urge to hug her, but though she might drop him to the ground or kick his ass if he tried, so he didn’t.

  “We’ll make it out of the city. We’ve got a good head start, but let’s pick up the pace.” He wiped his face with the hem of his jacket and adjusted the pack on his back. “And the plan is solid.” He had to succeed. He’d vowed that Meera’s death wouldn’t be in vain. Sounded like he and Allana both had reasons to work for Verity and the time had come to get it done.

  “Yeah.” She took a deep breath. “We will. Let’s go.”

  She didn’t sound convinced, and he wondered if he sounded more certain than he felt. They had to try. No matter what, the fate of the city could lay in their hands now. The data she carried might be critical to Verity’s next phase. They had to escape and get the information to Verity.

  The pounding of boots on the wet pavement startled him and Maddox turned in time to see a squadron of Sentinels heading down the road, long gear on and Lancers in hand.

  Headed right toward them.

  Fuck.

  Tactically intelligent, but emotionally brainless, the Confessor’s soldiers would shoot to kill, or worse torture them to see what they knew. Maddox’s heart shrieked panic, but his brain went into overdrive. Think, man. Run?

  “Maddox!” Allana yanked his jacket.

  He turned to tell her to be quiet, but she wrapped her arms around his neck. Before he could take a breath to speak, she had pulled his head down and had her mouth pressed to his.

  Raindrops slipped down his forehead and slid down his nose, but he kept his lips to hers.

  So soft.

  The tromp, tromp of boots passing behind lulled him and for a moment he forgot the danger and relished the sweet sensation that was Allana’s kiss. With the bulky cloak draped over her, he couldn’t get a good grip on her back so he held the wet folds of fabric tight. She was the perfect height for him to bend his head and meet her mouth with his own. She put her hands on his face and kissed him softly, though he knew if he could feel her heartbeat, it would be racing as hard as his.

  If only he could see what was going on. But the kiss was so nice.

  A dangerous kiss.

  The sound of boots faded and only the splatter of rain on the pavement remained.

  “They’re gone.” Her eyes opened wide, a deep blue or maybe dusky purple in the dimly lit park. Raindrops settled on her lashes and she blinked them away. “Maddox?”

  He shook his head. Back to business. “That was a smart diversion.” He winked and adjusted his waistband. “I never would’ve thought of that.”

  “Thanks.” She stared, her lips flushed from the kiss and her cheeks pink and warm.

  “We’ve got to get to the rain sewer before we run across more Sentinels. We may have fooled that group but there are going to be a lot more coming.” He smirked and strode off. “This way. We’re close.”

  “They teach us how to handle anything,” she called from behind. “In assassin’s training.” She caught up to him, her cloak brushing against his leg.

  “Bet they do.” He smiled and kept walking, hurrying to get to the sewers.

  2

  The small brick building that obscured access to the entrance to the rain sewer’s rusty overflow gate on the far lower east side wasn’t guarded—it didn’t need to be. Not only would no one have a reason to break in to the city sewer system, but even if they did, the electronic lock clasped to the gate was impenetrable to anyone without high-tech, code breaking experience.

  The advanced lock setting ruled out most everyone, and since the Confessor didn’t want people leaving the city at all, he had his captive subjects locked out and blocked in whether they realized it or not. On top of that, the Sentinels’ steady march around the perimeter was enough deterrent to keep most people in line.

  No one left the city.

  No one that Maddox had heard of, anyway. Sometimes people tried, but they always ended up on the end of an electro-stake or lancer bullet. Not much chance of escaping with a Sentinel behind you, above you, and invariably in front of you, too. They were just too damned fast.

  Besides, no one really knew what was left outside the city anyway. Most people assumed it was wasteland, left from the war. Yet that was where Verity was sending him. Something must exist there.

  Maddox checked the lock again as he tamped his heart rate down with slow breaths. He’d never be able to figure out the code on his own and he’d set off an alarm if his pulse got too high. Slow it down.

  “Hurry up.” Allana crossed her arms in the thick cloak. She stepped closer and a spatter of mud flung across his face.

  “I’m trying.” He wiped off the lock screen and checked the number. Twenty-two. One of the ones he had a code for.

  Verity had provided an EM pulse to break the lock codes of the most common locks. No reason to believe the city rain sewer would have an unusual code. Maddox held up his wrist screen, started the program, and waited. If this pulse didn’t work, they’d have to go to another entrance to the sewer and with the Sentinels already trampling so close, he didn’t think they really had time to make it safely.

  He swiped the raindrops off the screen.

  This might be their only chance.

  Allana paced the muddy ground in front of the gate like a creature afraid for her life, shoulders curved in anticipation and worry and cloak trailing like a heavy mat. Every few seconds, she looked at him to see if he’d figured out how to get the lock off. If the Sentinels caught her and didn’t kill her on the spot, she’d be tortured before being executed. Assassins were their favorite toys and capturing one that killed the Confessor would be the prize.

  He’d be tortured too, of course. He rubbed his nose. His thoughts kept returning to the press of her soft lips against his own. Her sweet, very soft lips. He shook his head and looked to his wrist screen. Almost done. He’d better focus on the task ahead so he didn’t screw it up. Escaping the city once in the sewers wasn’t going to be easy. Even disarming the lock seemed to take longer than he expected.

  Beep.

  The lights flickered on his wrist screen and one by one, the code unraveled the lock like blue laces untying from a shoe, slipping the electronic knots until the strands were free and the gate slipped open.

  Beep, beep, beep.

  “We’re in. Let’s go!” He pushed the gate aside and looked into the darkened depths. A musty odor wafted up from the unused stairwell inside. If any Sentinels were waiting in the tunnels below, then he and Allana would be dead as soon as their feet hit the treads. They’d never be able to fight them off in the dark maze.

  But he doubted anyone had used the stairwell in quite a while, it was so musty and dirty. It was also their only chance.

  Allana joined him at the entrance of the steep stairs. She wrinkled her nose. “Smells like old fish.”

  A loud crash rang out in the distance and beamcar sirens pealed again, echoing against the fabric of the night in sharp relief against the dank silence. A spotlight lit the sky in a thin cone of righteousness and signaled to and fro over the gray clouds in a slow search pattern.

  Looking for Allana.

  The search for the Confessor’s killer had begun. Her eyes mooned. “Are you sure this is the way?”

  “Yes! Of course I’m sure.” Maddox gave her a nudge toward the entrance. “Go. We’ve got to get out of sight. They’re coming.”

  She took one quick look around then clambered into the stairwell. “We’ll get out of here. Been through too much not to.”

  “Damn right. Hurry.”

  They headed down the dusty stairs, Maddox closing and locking the rusty gate and door from the inside, turning the old lever with a click. They’d never go back into the city, at least
through the gate.

  And definitely not alive.

  Using muted light from their screens, they maneuvered down the slippery steps into the depths of the storm water sewer system that ran under the city. The stairwell, chipped brick like the building above, was filled with chalky dust that had fallen from the deteriorating concrete.

  Maddox stepped carefully over piles, some sticky where the dampness had turned the dust to sludge. He held to the small metal handrail that wound down into the sewer’s depths. “You okay?”

  “Why the fuck wouldn’t I be?”

  She didn’t even turn to look.

  “I just thought—” Maddox avoided a partially ripped away piece of landing jutting from the side of the wall where only the coils remained.

  “I’m fine.” Allana shot him a scowl. “If I’m not, I’ll let you know, okay?”

  He held his hands up in mock defeat. The last thing he wanted to do was piss her off. He took a deep breath and got himself back into survival mode. He shouldn’t be thinking about her as a friend or woman anyway. She was supposed to be under his protection until he got her out of the city. No more, no less.

  She took the steps two at a time, her blond hair stuck to her shoulders and her wet cape dripping as they went. He smiled. He could do this. Taking care of Allana wouldn’t be a problem. They’d made it to the sewers and that was already a significant achievement.

  “We’ll be out of here in no time.” He ran his hand across the wall, sending a shower of flaky concrete onto the stairs.

  “Good.”

  He’d trained for weeks underground and he still didn’t know every tunnel and pipe beneath the city, but he had learned enough to escape and get to the rendezvous point outside. That was all that mattered. The rigorous training had kept his mind off Meera, for the most part. She had been the only family he had left.

  Now that she was gone, he was alone.

  “One more flight.” He shone his light at the curved brick ceiling. The whole place had proven to be a masterwork of engineering to have withstood the war so well. It could become their tomb tonight if the Sentinels caught them. But he and Allana had an extremely good chance of getting out of the city altogether. The plan was solid and they had a great head start.

  Allana went down the last stairs in silence, her light trained on the steps below as she walked. The heavy cape had fallen away from her face, leaving her pale hair framing her pale face and deep blue eyes that seemed to always be searching for danger.

  When they reached the bottom of the debris-covered stairwell, the room opened up into a large water-filled cavern that split off into many tunnels in every direction, each carrying rainwater out of the city like rivers flowing off a massive lake. They turned off their wrist screen lights.

  Each numbered, gray concrete wall was lined with thin Biolumen strips, the bacteria colonies feeding off the naturally dank moisture in the underground. The weak greenish light gave an eerie glow to the cavern, but provided enough illumination for maneuverability at least.

  “Wow.” Allana pushed her hood down. “This place is huge.”

  “It has to be. There’s a lot of water falling up above. It’s got to go somewhere after it hits the ground.”

  When the droughts had come and the government had found a way to make it rain, they’d built the infrastructure to support the extra water that would pour into the city, not realizing that they’d saved the city from flooding when the rain system went haywire and the rains had never stopped.

  Maddox had been so amazed the first time he’d been underground, before the Confessor came to power. On a childish dare, he and two friends had slipped into the storm drain on the way home from school. This was before the Confessor had locked everything up and had Sentinels patrolling everything. Good thing someone had seen the kids, otherwise they might’ve been stuck underground for a long time.

  Most of the city’s residents had no clue what lay below them, but Maddox and his friends had had quite the eyeful of the underground lake and rivers that channeled the water away from the city daily. The impact had never really left him, and when Verity had told him there were areas in the world where people didn’t actually have enough water, he found it hard to believe them. But he wondered.

  And he wanted to help.

  “I’ve never really thought about it. No time now.” Allana scanned the area. “So, how are we getting out of here? What’s our plan?”

  A loud clang reverberated through the room and Allana jumped. Maddox spun in the direction of the noise.

  “It’s just the pipes.” He didn’t know if he was trying to convince Allana or himself. “They’re noisy. I remember that from training.”

  “Are you sure?” She crouched and scanned, her poncho spread around her like a shield.

  “Yes. See? It’s gone.” He did remember the pipes making noises during training, but he also knew that the Sentinels could be sneaking up on them from any angle. They had to get moving.

  He listened.

  Sure enough, the sound died away, replaced by the hiss of rushing water and the whisper of an echo of their voices through the cavernous room.

  “We’ve got to get out of here. My nerves can’t take it. There must be fifty tunnels leading from this room and Sentinels could be hiding in any one of them.”

  “Forty six. And I don’t think there are any Sentinels down here yet, or we’d know it by now. But we’d better get moving before they get here. And they will come.” Maddox looked at his screen. It glowed a pale blue. “Not much of a signal underground except for our own biometrics, so we’re off-grid.”

  “That’s expected?” Her eyes widened and she stood. “Fantastic. No one told me.”

  “Didn’t want to alarm you. Now we see how good my training is. This way.” He directed her around the water to the far side of the room, walking at a brisk pace. “Only one set of tunnels leads to the main flow out of here—and only one is on the path we need to follow to get out of the city near the rendezvous point. Some of the others lead to recycling or waste management. Or to places far from where we need to be. Or closer to places we really don’t want to be.”

  “Great. This gets better and better.” She jogged to keep up. “Won’t they track us by our screens?”

  “I know which ones we need to take. Don’t worry.” He grinned at her. “And no. They can’t track us underground. Not while we are off-grid. We’ll get rid of the screens later. No time now. We need to get moving.”

  “You better know where we’re going.” She smiled. “I’m not a great swimmer.”

  “You trained as an assassin. This is what I trained for.”

  “I hope you’re as good as I am.”

  He paused and looked around for the easiest path. Me too. “At least we’re alone. No Sentinels.”

  “Yes, thank the gods for that. If we say it enough maybe it will remain true.”

  “Yeah, maybe.” Or maybe it won’t. Maybe it’s already too late.

  She shook the water from her cloak. “It’s warm down here. Much warmer than on the surface.”

  “I told you it would be. We’ll ditch our coats once we get out of this main area. We won’t need them outside the city. Verity will provide what we need.” Maddox adjusted the backpack. “I don’t want to be caught here, and this is the most likely place the Sentinels would look if they came underground.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  He continued to scan. Where the hell was it? Ah. “There it is. We need the big tunnel over there, to the right. Number seventeen-fourteen.”

  Maddox led her around the large pool to the round tunnel that spoked off the center and headed mostly due east. With a small metal walkway suspended over the rushing water it carried, this tunnel would be the easiest they would navigate on their way out. The tunnel had been painted at one time, and flaps of decaying and molded paint hung like giant drips from the curved ceiling.

  “This place is bound to be a health hazard.” Allana held her nose.
“It smells.”

  “No doubt about that. But not as much of a health hazard as Sentinels are. You go on ahead. I’ll bring up the rear.”

  Allana nodded and headed into the tunnel. With a last glance behind to make sure no one was following, Maddox scurried along the pathway.

  They held the thin rails as they walked, the biolumen strips on the walls lighting the way, barely, casting a greenish glow over the water. The tunnel domed over them and the metal suspended walkway swung and creaked as they moved.

  “You should see this when there’s a deluge. The water can fill this pipe in seconds.”

  “Why? I already feel like I’m inside a snake.” Allana grasped the railing. “A moving snake.”

  Her voice quivered and Maddox laughed. The sound echoed down the tunnel. She sure was a nervous assassin. “We only take this tunnel a little ways then we stop at a hub and go into a smaller tunnel.”

  “Great.”

  He smiled. Something about Allana made him curious to know more about her, even though she was a Verity assassin and she wouldn’t be in his life very long.

  She’d killed the most hated man in the city and Verity would keep her hidden away for the rest of her life to protect her. He’d get one day with her, two at most. Then he’d never see her again.

  He watched her walk, the heavy wet cloak draped over her. Still. “The tunnels diverge up ahead. Not much farther. Stop when the ceiling opens up again. We need to move to a different fork there. I’ll show you which one.”

  She nodded, keeping her gaze down, maybe watching the water or maybe her feet swaying as the platform moved. Even with her cloak, he could see the tension in her body in the way she carried herself. She wasn’t comfortable in the tunnels, that much was clear.

  They soon came to the hub and Maddox leapt to the concrete platform jutting from the side of the tunnel. He held his hand out to help her, but she jumped to the narrow ledge without taking his grip, sending a shower of loose pebbles into the water below. He set the backpack down and unzipped his jacket.