by Leah Silver
“But…” He stuck out his bottom lip, actually pouting.
I tossed the bag of his belongings at him. “Get dressed. You’re a grown-ass gargoyle. No whining.”
He opened the bag, throwing a sexy grin at me. “Thought it might earn me a spanking.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “It just might if you move any slower.”
“Well, then I’ll be sure to slow things down a bit,” he teased.
“I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to meet them, whoever the fuck they are.”
He frowned, straightening. “No. Me neither. Not when it’s just the two of us. They know. They know we can beat them if we’re together. But we need all of us. Ike, Ed, Levi, all of them.”
I agreed. “We need to go.”
He pulled his jeans on and stood, giving me just the tiniest glimpse of his bare ass before he shimmied them up and zipped. I bit my bottom lip, desire pooling deep in my belly. He caught me when he twisted around to grab his shirt out of the bag.
“Now who needs a spanking? Ogling the sick, are we?”
“You’re not sick anymore. In fact, you’re looking mighty healthy to me.” I sauntered over to him, which really wasn’t that far. It was barely one step, but I worked it.
He swallowed, telling me that one step had totally done the trick. Clearing his throat, he reached down to button his shirt.
“Need some help there?” I asked.
“Getting it on, not off.” He laughed.
A sound in the distance told me we should go. Like a door slamming, or something. We needed to go. But he stood, bare chested, and I couldn’t make myself move.
Oscar, on the other hand, shifted gears in an instant. He was alert, staring over my shoulder to the double doors. “We need to go.” He grabbed his phone out of the bag, jammed it into his back pocket, and put an arm around me.
“Do you even know how to get out of here?” I asked, hustling to keep up with him. Pouting a little at our missed opportunity, I still knew we needed to escape.
“No. Not really, no,” he answered.
“Great. What’s your plan?” I demanded.
“Get out.”
“How, exactly?” We hurried to the double doors. Cautiously peering left and right, I wondered which way to go.
“Go in the opposite direction of the noise.”
I shrugged. “Seems simple enough.” I just hoped whoever was chasing us was the noisy one. In my experience, it was the silent ones who were the most dangerous. I kept that tidbit to myself, though.
We padded out into the grey concrete hall. He opted to go left, although neither of us were certain where the original sound had come from. And the only subsequent noises had been us. We agreed staying put wasn’t a good idea, so we rolled the dice and hoped we were equipped to deal with the consequences. Not generally how I liked to operate, but I didn’t have much choice.
“Too bad Tempest couldn’t have stayed a bit longer,” I mumbled. We stealthily sprinted down the hall, staying close to the walls.
“As I recall, you were pretty grateful she was gone when you were all over my body.” His broad smile was evident as we wound through the endless hallways.
“Who was all over who now?” I whispered.
He didn’t answer, throwing out an arm to stop me. We were at a T-intersection. He turned to stone immediately. Stuffing me behind him, he tried to act nonchalant.
I couldn’t see much with that big rock of a man blocking my view, but the harsh male voice that came from the other side of Oscar made me tense. I reached for two of my blades as I stood behind him, waiting to see what would happen.
“What are you doing here? You should be with the others, searching the grounds.”
“I am, sir. Our party split up, thinking we could cover more ground.” Oscar said it so confidently even I almost believed him.
“Indeed. Well, continue on then.”
“Yes, sir.”
Silence for a few more beats. “Are you touched in the head? Continue on,” the man commanded.
“I need to wait for your party to clear the hallway,” Oscar offered.
The man grunted. “Fine.”
I heard footsteps, along with a strange sort of slithering sound. I tried to peek around Oscar, but he changed his stance, widening himself out even further, blocking more of my line of sight.
Waiting until the sound passed completely, he finally relaxed. “Demons’ breath. That was close.”
“What were those things?” I asked.
“Not sure. I think they’re underlings of the super species, to be honest.”
“Snakes?” I asked, unable to get the slithering sound out of my head. Coupled with the hissing language I’d heard from the medics earlier, it made sense.
“Some form of snake shifters, I think. But they have a caste system, and several types of creatures among their race. The medics, for example, don’t rank terribly well.”
“I’d gathered that much. Why though?”
“Who knows? Maybe they can’t shift or maybe they don’t have any powers at all, so they’re outcasts? Any number of things could make them inferior.”
I shook my head. “That doesn’t make it easier to understand.”
“Not for us, no.”
We made our escape the same way the band of slithering creatures had come. With every passing moment we remained in that warehouse, we were pushing our luck more and more. There were more of them all the time. More gargoyles. More snake creatures. More of everything. We needed out. Now.
“Oscar. We’re going in circles. We need to get out.”
“What do you suggest?” he snapped, clearly just as frustrated as I was. We’d been wandering the halls for at least fifteen minutes.
“Let’s just go.” I stared hard at him, hoping he’d catch my drift.
“Just bust our way out?”
I nodded. “You are a gargoyle. Made of freaking stone, after all. Just start banging through the walls.”
“I can’t. I tried to escape earlier before they administered the plague. This place is meant to hold gargoyles.”
I stopped, surveying our surroundings. “All right, well—”
“There they are,” a man’s voice shouted from behind us.
“Run,” Oscar yelled as he grabbed my hand. The cacophony of sounds that followed us made me run that much faster. The pounding feet of gargoyles hot on our trail was nearly drown out by the slithering sound. Just how many snake creatures were behind us? I resisted the urge to turn around to see.
“Shit shooters,” I said as we rounded another corner, running smack into a set of locked double doors. No windows in them told me nothing about what waited for us on the other side. I took out my jeweled beauty, the one Tempest had given me so long ago. I kissed the handle when the thundering sound grew closer. I’d never used a blade to pick a lock before, but now seemed like a great time to start.
“Find your mark,” I said to the blade, knowing she’d do her best. I jammed her between the doors as hard as I could, and a loud clunk was my reward. I shoved at it, and the lock gave. “You are a true beauty,” I said, withdrawing her and pushing the door open. “Let’s go.”
Oscar turned, and his mouth hung open. I didn’t wait for him to catch up to me. I, for one, wasn’t getting overpowered by the wave of snakes. It didn’t take long for Oscar to snap to it, and he was by my side again. We stepped out into the daylight, nearly blinded by the piercing sun, and faced a barren parking lot with nowhere for us to hide.
I wanted to scream in frustration. “Shit shooters. Now what?”
Where are Sebastian and Flounder when you need them?
“Keep running,” Oscar commanded.
Which way? He took off heading directly away from the building, but there was no cover. Nothing to shield us from anything. Not gunfire, nor any supernatural attacks. We were sitting ducks. And I wasn’t accustomed to being so vulnerable.
As we crested a small hill
, it revealed a swamp in the distance, giving me hope. “Where the fuck are we?” I asked.
“No idea. Not far from New Orleans, though. It didn’t take that long to get here.”
I heard a commotion behind us, gesturing with my chin forward. We headed for the swamp as fast as our legs would carry us. “You get out front,” Oscar shouted, way past trying to be covert at that point.
He remained his stony self, providing a bit of a shield between me and the hoard behind us. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I appreciated it, to be sure, but I wasn’t exactly wild about the idea of him getting hurt. Needless to say, I hurried a little faster. Oscar was right on my heels. I could almost feel him breathing down my neck, huffing and puffing as we went.
“Someday, I’ll be the one making you pant like that,” I tossed over my shoulder, trying to ease the nervousness I felt.
“I look forward to it,” he said. He reached down and swatted my ass, making me squeal. The hoard was just cresting the hill as we reached the edge of the swamp, and adrenaline filled me.
“Keep going,” Oscar ordered.
I did, splashing into the murky water. It was bizarre how the swamp started right at the edge of the parking lot. Well, I supposed there was some mushy grass in between, but still. Seemed to me if I were a developer, I wouldn’t build so close to something like this. Liable to be some flooding problems, but least it worked out well for us.
Except the splashing wasn’t doing much to conceal where we were. “What should we do?”
“Just keep going. The swamp will slow them down.”
“Oscar, they’ve got snakes with them. Snakes can swim.”
“Snakes are also prey for a lot of the creatures who live in these waters,” he pointed out. I eyed the muddy water warily.
“Not sure that makes me feel any better, since we’d be prey, too.” All sorts of deadly creatures lurked in the swamps of Louisiana, but I was most concerned about the things chasing us, so I forged on. A wayward root reached up and grabbed my foot. I face-planted, spitting out the murky water and gagging. In the depths, I heard something. Singing.
Oscar yanked me up, and my world went silent again.
“Oscar.” I wasn’t sure how to explain what I’d just heard. Was there some sort of supernatural creatures in the swamp? It really wasn’t that farfetched of an idea. Supernaturals lived everywhere. But what kinds lived in such shallow water? Mermaids lived well out to see, far away from the human world. While they were prone to singing, I couldn’t think of any who were small enough to occupy the depths of a swamp.
“What is it?” he asked anxiously, glancing behind us.
“Something lives here. Maybe they’ll help us.”
“Fat chance. The supernaturals of New Orleans look out for themselves. Unless you’ve got some drugs to sell them.”
“Now, that’s a very narrow-minded view.” I crossed my arms over my chest to accentuate my distaste with his opinion.
He said nothing, trying to urge me on. But we couldn’t trudge through this thick swamp indefinitely. We needed help. So down I went again.
I opened my eyes this time, but literally couldn’t see anything in the murky water. But the singing I could hear rather clearly. It wasn’t a language I could understand, and I wondered if this would work. If they couldn’t communicate with me, how could I ask them for help?
Having no other options, I started swimming. I bonked into some tree trunks and scraped my chest on the ground more than once as I went, but before long, the bottom dropped out of the swamp and I surfaced. “Oscar, over here.” He was only about an arm’s length from me, keeping up with me easily when I awkwardly swam through the shallow waters.
I wiped my face and pointed to the deep hole. “The swamp bottoms out here. It’s super deep, and the water’s a little clearer.” Although that was true, I still couldn’t see much. Except for maybe a bit of light off in the distance. “How long can you hold your breath?”
“Longer than you,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.
“Is that a challenge?”
“Let’s find out.” He dove beneath the surface, and I followed close behind him. The singing grew louder and louder as I caught movement from my left eye. I didn’t dare stop. If it was one of the snakes coming after us, we were done. If it was a mercreature, I only hoped they wouldn’t be insulted I’d ignored them.
There was movement again on the other side. This time, it was grey. Damn it. Snakes. Before I could warn Oscar, though I wasn’t even sure he’d hear a muffled cry over the singing. It was so loud by then, I couldn’t even hear my own movements through the water.
It turned out to not be necessary. A bright green object hit the snake square in the face, and it sank into the depths. That was new. I stopped swimming only for a moment. I was too far from the surface at that point to make it back. I was committed. Oscar had gotten about five feet ahead of me by then, so I continued.
Each time I felt one on my heel, a bright green streak sailed past my head and hit the snake dead on. This must have happened a dozen times before I quit worrying about the snakes catching up to us. Seemed like they were under control.
Vampires didn’t need to breathe. Much like my encounter with the water demon, I could swim indefinitely. Apparently, though, so could the damned snakes that were chasing us. I wasn’t sure what had happened to the rest of the creatures—the man in charge and the gargoyles he had with him. Clearly, gargoyles were strong swimmers since Oscar maintained his lead on me.
Suddenly, gravity seemed to take hold of Oscar. His feet sank, and he landed on the bottom of the swamp. He began walking ahead of me as my feet did the same. In front of us, it looked like a small city that grew larger as we approached. A tiny green creature sidled up next to me, but it didn’t speak. It had a single fin, short green hair, green skin, and appeared to be a man, due to his lack of breasts.
Another fell in line on the other side of me, and two flanked Oscar. Two more swam up ahead of us, and I glanced over my shoulder to see an additional two bringing up the rear. Oscar rose an eyebrow at me, but I just shrugged. Out of the fire and into the frying pan? Maybe. But at least we didn’t have snakes on our tails anymore. Right? Yeah, their pointy green tridents aimed at the surface begged to differ.
As we walked, I noticed our escort grew larger. Not in numbers, but in size. Perhaps we were shrinking? The magic in this place was mysterious indeed. We approached the castle in the center of what appeared to be a huge limestone city.
We were lead through the iron gates that creaked underwater as they slammed them shut behind us. Oscar glared at the gate, and it was obvious he wasn’t happy about this arrangement. Not one bit. From his point of view, I didn’t blame him. We were further than ever from Ike and the others.
We approached a huge set of stone doors and stopped, our entourage spreading out on either side. Before I could ask what the hell was going on—believe me, it was on the tip of my tongue—the doors slowly opened, as if they weighed a million pounds. I peered through, seeing what looked like a throne room. A carpet laid a path down the center of the grandiose room, leading straight to a set of chairs on the opposite side. Big stone pillars lined the edges of the carpet, and those green mercreatures milled around. Sconces lined the outer walls at regular intervals with actual fires burning in them, except the flames weren’t yellow or orange. They were light blue, casting a bit of an eerie glow across the huge space.
My hands were not bound in any way, but I still felt danger, as if it were breathing on the base of my neck. I took mental stock of my blades, and knew all six were in position, ready to go. I could have two of them out in less than a second. Seeing how accurate and deadly these creatures were with their tridents, I wasn’t sure I’d have the draw on them, but I’d try if they forced my hand.
A man wearing a shining green crown sat on the biggest throne, his hair flowing in the water around us. Next to him sat a very striking woman with bright green everything—eyes, skin, a
nd a braid slung over her shoulder. She eyed me curiously as we approached. The other two seats were much smaller and empty. I assumed they were for children who were much too busy—meaning bored—for proceedings such as these.
The king reached for his trident, and then planted it on the ground hard near his feet making a clanging sound that rang through the entire throne room. Any murmuring the creatures around me were making silenced at once.
“You’ve brought great danger here. Why?” His voice rang clear as a bell through the space, baffling me. It was as if the water had no effect on them at all. Save for their requirement to swim with their tails.
“We needed help escaping them,” I offered. Or at least, I tried to offer. It came out in a garbled mumbling sort of sound, muffled by the bubbles.
The mercreature on my left approached, and he put his trident to my neck. But as I watched him, I noticed he wasn’t tense. His biceps were relaxed, and his trident was not poking me. It simply rested against the base of my neck. It wasn’t a threat, but an aid.
“Try again,” the king commanded.
“We needed help escaping them.” I surprised myself that time, my voice resounding through the room just as clearly as the king’s had. But he gave me no time to marvel at it. Instead, he went straight into reprimanding me.
“You endangered my entire city bringing those things here. You’ve brought their gaze right to us.”
“For that, I apologize. I know firsthand the dangers of these creatures. The snakes are the least of our concerns.”
The king stood and descended the steps in front of me. “What do you mean?” he asked quietly as he floated, his tail slightly bent behind him. He was an intimidating force, his chest appearing as if it were carved right out of a slab of green marble.
“I mean they’re attacking all supernatural creatures. And the snakes are on the bottom rung of their race, as far as I can see. There are a few creatures between the snakes and the ones in charge, but I haven’t gotten a firm grasp on what I’m facing. That’s part of what’s helping them win.”
