I swear it was replaced by fear. Of course I’m not saying anything about it out loud. Ever.
“Global Centurion? A psionic? More police invading my home? Very well, you may leave. Take any with you that wish to go. Your presence is boring me, go now.” With a wave of her hand as a dismissal, she returned to her throne, still holding Bruiser’s severed hand in her own.
Ash sidestepped the Queen to stand beside me, handing me the guns I had given her. Without a word she picked me up by the shoulders and ushered me out the front door. Ren joined us beside the hovercar.
“Is that how you ask for help everywhere?” Ash asked.
“Pretty much,” Ren answered for me.
“No wonder you need help so badly then. I need to go back and smooth over some things with the Panther Queen. Tell me where you want us to meet you, and you will have your help.”
I told her and we drove off in the falling snow back to the city.
Ren fidgeted in her chair for a minute before turning towards me. “Next time we go to ask someone for help, let me do all the talking.”
Probably not a bad idea.
* * *
It was already late evening. Well past sundown when I pulled the car into the empty parking lot at the GCP branch office. No one was in sight.
Did I tell them the wrong address? Wasn’t anyone coming? What happened to the officers Ren sent over?
Ren and I gathered our guns and stepped out into the cold. The only sound other than our breathing was the snow blowing in the wind. It was like the calm before the storm.
“Such a waste of a perfect evening.”
Ren and I both jumped at the voice, turning around guns ready and pointed at . . . Yuric? He stood a few feet away staring up at the densely falling snow.
“Wouldn’t you agree? By the way, you are late my Child,” he said dropping his gaze to me.
“I had a little trouble recruiting the shifters.”
“You didn’t use your usual charm on them, did you?”
“She did,” Ren added.
Does everyone think I have a bad temper?
Two dozen cars pulled into the empty lot around us. Ash parked next to us, and got out of her car with four others. Every car was filled to the limit with people. They all circled around us.
“This is the place right? Vicki is being held inside?”
“Not exactly Ash. Vicki is underground. This is an entrance to the Archives, an underground facility of the GCP.”
So much for keeping the Archives a secret. I hope I don’t get fired for this. At least not until I rip out Jacob’s throat with my bare hands.
“You want us to break into the GCP?” Ash asked quietly through the shock on her face.
“The Archives have been taken over by Jacob and his minions. The facility is under siege, and no longer under the control of the GCP,” Nikolai announced in a flat tone walking towards us out of the building with the missing armored police officers in tow. “I was able to deactivate the alarms at this entrance. However, the entire Archives has been put on lock-down. The emergency bulkheads have been sealed. I am sorry, but there is no longer a door into the complex we can use here.”
“I can handle the doors. What about the passages to the sub-reactor?”
“Every hallway is either being patrolled by werewolves and vampires, or has become a new home for the creatures loose from the Bestiary. Even if you get past the doors, you will have quite a difficult journey ahead of you.”
“We will clear the way for you Child.” Yuric stepped forward.
The shifters all kept well out of his reach like there was an old long-standing blood-feud between both species.
Did he say we?
I started to ask when I saw shapes emerge from the snow like ghosts materializing out of thin air. Vampires walked towards us across the parking lot. I tried to count them, but lost my count. The vamps well outnumbered the shifters. We now had a small army.
This should be fun. To war then!
Chapter 22
The noise of stomping feet was deafening. Footsteps fell like thunder as our army made its way down the narrow stairs. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Jacob had heard us coming. On the way down I gave my straight blades to Ash. She said she was good with knives, and promised to give them back.
I hope this isn’t all one big mistake I’m making trusting these guys.
“There are no door guardians inside, but the bulkhead door lay beyond,” Nikolai announced as we approached the small door at the bottom of the stairs. He had the sniper rifle now.
We were bottlenecked in the hall as it was. If anyone wanted to stop us, all they had to do was pick us off one by one as we went through this one small door. The door never reacted to my presence or my badge. I decided we didn’t have time to mess with it anymore, and drew my sword. I used my shields to activate one of the blades, then I cut a hole through the wall around the door. It fell in with a loud THUD!
Great, more noise to announce we’re here!
I stepped over the fallen door into the darkness. My glasses reacted, switching to night vision. Ren was wearing another pair right behind me. At least I remembered to bring a spare pair for her this time. Massive metal doors had closed, hiding the door on the other side of the room. I stopped and took a feel better cocktail from my belt-pack. I might not have a chance later when I need it, and I’m not going to be caught without again like last time. Without warning anyone I pulled one of the revolvers. I had to let the assault rifle hang by the sling, since it took both hands to hold the massive hand cannon.
“Fire in the hole!” someone shouted behind me.
It was a struggle to hold the gun steady. Then I pulled the trigger. I had to use my shields to help keep me standing against the gun’s kick. The noise was deafening in the empty room. On impact, the massive doors exploded into a rain of debris. The hole in the thick security wall was large enough for us to walk through three across. Beyond the hole, the hallway was littered with the remains of the doors and wall.
“We’re not armed,” someone complained in the back.
“First stop’s the Armory then.”
“No Kieran. The Main Armory has been overrun. It is too well protected for us at the moment.” Nikolai stood in the hole in the wall glancing back and forth down the halls with the oversized sniper rifle in his hairy hands.
“Head to the Demonstration Armory. You can get all the weapons you require there,” a sultry voice poured over my skin like liquid silk, raising a desire inside me the likes of which I had only felt once before.
I spun to gaze at the crowd behind me. Every single male – regardless of species – was all staring at a single person. Sorrow the succubus was dressed as provocatively as always in her leather bikini and chains as she sauntered through the crowd with her arms out, fingers brushing against the bared skin of the men she passed. Each person she touched shuddered in passion. Her large raven wings were spread out behind her, keeping the men from touching her from behind.
“What are you doing here . . . Mistress?” I asked breathlessly, longing for her to touch me, to feel her skin on mine.
“Mistress? What the hell have you been up to Kieran? Kieran?! Kieran!?!” Ren screamed at me when I didn’t answer.
All of my thoughts were on Sorrow. She stood before me then, arms and wings spread wide with the lights shining brightly on her perfect skin. She was a leather clad angel, the single most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She smiled at me.
Then the vision abruptly shattered like a mirror.
Everyone was still standing just as they had been a second before, but it was different. Sorrow wasn’t the enchantingly beautiful goddess that held my heart anymore. Like the flick of a switch she changed to a regular, good looking half-naked woman with wings.
As if that could be considered regular.
“She means nothing by it Detective. I vamped her just like the rest of the men. She was simply under my spell. My name is Sorrow. I am a
succubus, I feed on men’s lust. And for some strange reason I also have the same effect on Kieran as well.” Sorrow’s voice was still sexy, but it didn’t pour over me anymore.
She had no clue about my mind switch, but she would find out if she ever asked me about it when she vamped me like that. When I was under her spell, I’d tell her any truth she wanted to hear just to have a brush of her skin against mine.
I was still gaping at her, “Hell of an entrance Sorrow.”
“Yes. I came back here when my communications with Arkon were interrupted. Time is of the essence I’m afraid. I suggest we get moving.”
* * *
It was a straight shot from our makeshift entrance to a maintenance access passage that dropped us into the conference room where I had first met Yuric. It took several minutes for our army to flood into the room, dropping one by one through the vent in the ceiling above the table. From there everyone moved into the small armory and loaded up all the weapons and ammo they could carry.
This is going to cost me a fortune if we don’t get all these guns back. I sure hope this is a good idea.
“I know your friends are important, but my primary concern is for the staff being held in the cafeteria.” Nikolai said edging his way down the hall to the left to a stairwell. “Go the other way to the access tunnels. Take the cargo elevator down to the Bestiary. It will open at the shark tanks. Follow the corridors taking a right at each intersection. On the other side of the Lair you will find the Colony. From there you can enter the reactor access tunnels. They are the most direct route to the sub-reactors. The creatures that have been released from the Bestiary are most lethal. It would probably be best to destroy them quickly if you encounter them. I would appreciate any help you can give my endeavor as well.”
“You four with me, Bishop take a team to guard Arkon, the rest of you follow the wolf. Rescue the staff and secure our escape by clearing out the halls one by one.” Yuric barked orders at his vampires. One of the more dangerous looking ones gave a deep bow when Yuric called him Bishop. Bishop gathered four other armed vamps and headed down the stairs.
“Agreed. Derrick, bring your men with, the rest of you help the vampires. The fourteen of us should be able to handle this, right?” Ash asked.
“I wish I knew,” I shrugged.
* * *
The elevator ride was one filled with an eerie silence. No one spoke, in fact the vampires didn’t even breathe. It finally got on my nerves.
“Don’t you have to breathe?” I asked Yuric breaking the silence.
He inhaled lightly, “Only to speak my Child.”
After that, we were swallowed by the silence again. Minutes later the elevator slowed and DINGED at our arrival. Before the doors opened one of the vampires started screaming. We all stared at him until Sorrow saw what the problem was.
“Water?” she asked on one in particular as she pointed at the doors.
Halfway down the seam of the doors was water rapidly pouring through. It pooled at our feet, rising quickly. The water didn’t seep through gently, instead it shot into the room like it was under pressure.
Outside the elevator is the shark tanks, and we have water pouring into the elevator. What the–?
“THE HALL’S FLOODED!!!” I screamed as the doors began to open.
Every inch the doors parted, increased the amount and speed of the incoming water. In seconds the water rose to above our waists. The elevator groaned under the weight. The screaming vampire began to claw his way through the wall as he attempted to reach the escape hatch in the ceiling. As soon as he reached the hatch, he punched through it with his fist. With the hatch open the rising water had someplace to go. The pressure increased as the water rushed in forcing the air out the open hatch.
“BREATH!!!” I screamed in Ren’s face.
She nodded and gulped down as much air as her lungs could hold before the water covered her head. As soon as she had her breath she wrapped her hands around my shoulders. I flexed my shields launching us up through the water. The ceiling of the elevator crumpled like tinfoil when my shields perforated through it. An instant later we were flying up the empty shaft. I edged close to the wall and helped Ren grab on to the service ladder.
With Ren secure I darted back to the elevator. By then Sorrow was standing on top of the elevator car next to an equally soaked Ash. Both of them were helping the others climb out of the holes that were gushing water like little geysers. I landed next to one hole and shoved my hand into the churning water.
Instantly a hand met mine. A waxy feeling skin surrounding stick-like bones that held an unnatural strength in them held on to me. I yanked Yuric up out of the water. He turned around to help me pull out one of the werecats. The water filled up the car and started to fill the elevator shaft since more water was pouring in than could spill down the small openings around the car.
The elevator groaned and shook. A second later following an incredibly loud metallic SNAP, the elevator car fell abruptly a few inches from the breaking cable. Only a second more and with another SNAP we fell a little more.
“It’s going down! Everyone on the ladder!” Ren barked at us as she waved everyone over to where she was safely hanging onto the ladder above the chaos.
Sorrow ushered the others to the ladder as I pushed Yuric out of the way. Then what we had feared happened. The sounds of the other cables breaking all at once. I grabbed Yuric by the banded collar of his coat just as the world fell from under my feet. We fell a second before I could lift us both with my shields. Sorrow was there flying beside me flapping her wings like a giant bird as she grabbed Yuric’s sleeve helping me hold him up.
The wings work? I thought they were just for show.
Yuric shocked us both then as he suddenly became lighter. He levitated himself out of our grasp and over the two feet to the ladder. Sorrow and I shrugged. As we floated there I glanced below.
The world went back to that slow motion again as I watched the elevator car fall.
The vampire that had started screaming inside it earlier was still standing on top of the car, still screaming as it fell. Why in the hell didn’t he get off with the others? He was too far away, and falling too fast for me to reach. That scream echoed all the way down until the sounds stopped in a CRUNCH that reminded me of a bus slamming into a semi. The only sound that remained was the roaring noise of the eight-foot-tall spout of water gushing forth from the open hallway.
We all had to wait for a full ten minutes until the water pressure died down enough for us to enter the flooded hallway. No one said anything until we were all safely in the hallway with solid ground beneath our feet. The hallway went level for a few feet, then it angled down, down into the water filled corridors.
“Hope everyone can swim, because I think we’re about to get wet again.” Ren groaned.
“We do not need to breathe, water is not an issue for us.” Yuric answered.
“Then what was the deal with the other guy that freaked out at just a little water?” I asked even though I should’ve kept my mouth shut.
“One does not lose their phobias just because they become a vampire, Child.”
Ask bad question, get bad answer.
I shrugged and began to slosh my way down the hall through the rapidly deepening cold water that was already at my knees. Ahead of me a shadow passed through the light causing me to freeze in my tracks.
Shark tanks–! SHIT!!! The only way to flood the hall was to break the glass to the shark tanks! The sharks are loose!
“Yuric, do these fancy bullets of yours work underwater?”
“I do not know. We had not intended them to be used that way. Why do you ask?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Kieran? W-w-what a-aren’t you telling us?” Ren’s voice wavered with fear as she glanced around me at the ominous water.
“The halls are flooded. This is where they kept the sharks they were studying. Make the connection.”
“The water
is filled with sharks then?”
“Most likely.”
“May I suggest testing your guns first before we proceed? It would not do you good to be in a position to need them, and have them . . . malfunction on you.” Yuric proposed, his face void of expression.
Now or never. No sense on destroying one of the main guns.
I pulled out one of the derringers from my boot. Pointing the gun at the water, I pulled the trigger. The bullet was silent as it left the barrel, being pushed on by the light blue light of the propellant. It hit the water with a light PLOP, like dropping a small rock in a lake. I waited for the round to explode against the floor, but nothing happened. After a few seconds, I reached down into the water. On the floor was the crumpled remains of the bullet I had fired. I held it up for Yuric and the others to see.
“Apparently it imploded as soon as it hit the water. Most interesting.”
“Interesting? Yuric, that means they’re useless underwater!” I yelled at him.
“No Child. That simply means they are not effective when fired from above at targets under the water. You must fire with the entire gun submerged in order to tell if it will truly work under the surface. I do suggest that you make your shields present, just in case.”
In case of what?
I plunged my hand under the water with the gun. Tiny bubbles floated to the surface when I tilted the barrels up to allow the water to fill them. When no more bubbles emerged I pointed the gun at the floor again. With a deep breath I placed extra shields between myself and the small gun. Once I was ready I squeezed the trigger gently. Instantly the round exploded against the water. The entire gun blew up in my face. Shrapnel and debris slammed against my shields as the immense pain of the impact shot up my arm.
I danced in the water cursing and screaming as I shook my hand trying to will the pain out of it. As soon as the pain left, the entire arm went numb. I couldn’t use the hand at all. Someone behind me began to laugh. I yanked off my glasses and shot a glare over my shoulder. The werecat called Derrick was trying to stifle a laugh as the vampire next to him rolled with ridicule. My glare must have been even more evil than I had thought it was, because as soon as the vampire caught a glance at my fury filled eyes he stopped his laughing and apologized.
Revenge's Web (Kieran Grey Psionic Hunter) Page 20
