36
Noah
Thomas estimated it would take a maximum of fifteen minutes for us to break into the bunker, and a minimum of five. Breaking in too early—before everyone got settled in the dining hall for lunch—would result in complete pandemonium. Since we had a forty-five minute window to work with, it was better to be slightly late than slightly early.
We gathered in the living room again at ten minutes to Nebraska’s midnight, geared up and ready to go.
The television screen was now split into two sections. One side showed views from the cameras inside the bunker. Raven and the others were finishing up their mid-morning workouts. They’d be headed to lunch soon.
The other side showed satellite images of the farmhouse above the bunker. Surrounding the house were cornfields as far as we could see. I’d never seen so much flat land in my life.
“This shouldn’t be hard,” Cassandra said as she studied the farmhouse. “If we don’t land right outside of the house, we’ll land somewhere in the fields. It’ll be easy to make our way to the house from there.”
Thomas and I each needed a witch to teleport us to the bunker, and Cassandra and Bella had been quick to volunteer. Cassandra and Thomas were a duo, so she’d teleport him. The Devereux’s hadn’t liked the idea of any of them leaving the safety of the mansion, but they all agreed that Bella was the best in combat. So they’d agreed it made the most sense for her to accompany me. Especially since she was getting stir-crazy staying inside all day.
The rest of them—Amber, Evie, and Doreen—would stay behind. Amber couldn’t leave, since she needed to use her light magic to maintain the boundary spell around the house. So she, Evie, and Doreen were going to keep investigating the Foster witches and see what they could come up with.
“I never thought I’d ever go to Nebraska.” Bella took a final look at the satellite imagery on the screen, and then held out a hand for me to take. “You ready?”
“More than you know,” I said, since every minute that passed was a minute closer to reuniting with Raven. “But are you sure you’re good in those shoes? It might be hard to run in the corn fields.” I eyed up the shoes in question—knee-high boots with a tall pointed heel in the back.
Sage had once used a special word to describe that type of heel. Something that sounded dangerous.
Sage was a skilled fighter, but even she didn’t fight in shoes like that.
“They’re enspelled for maximum comfort.” Bella smiled and examined her boots with pride. “Plus, the stilettos double as weapons.”
That was the word Sage had used. Stiletto.
Once we were all out of this mess, I’d ask Bella to whip up some magical stilettos for Sage. She’d love them.
“Great.” I took Bella’s hand and glanced at Thomas and Cassandra to see if they were ready to go as well. They were. “Let’s do this.”
37
Noah
Bella used one hand to hold mine and the other to hold Cassandra’s. This way, the four of us would all end up in the same location.
As expected, we landed straight in the middle of a field. But the satellite photos Thomas had shown us must have been old. Because this land wasn’t green and bursting with crops.
It was flat, brown, and dead.
One whiff of the surrounding air, and I could smell that no crops had been planted here yet this season. Whoever owned this land didn’t care about it, had abandoned it, or had been killed for it.
Since the farmhouse was now occupied by demons, I suspected the latter.
Once verifying that we’d all arrived in one piece, I turned around to get my bearings. The farmhouse was a dot out on the horizon. It looked like the witches had been a few miles off.
It shouldn’t take us more than a minute or two to cover this distance. Of course, I’d be faster if I shifted into wolf form. But we didn’t know if there were any demons guarding the outside of the house. I didn’t smell any nearby, but they could be wearing cloaking rings. I’d need to stay in human form so I could grab my slicer in a moment’s notice, just in case.
“Not too bad for the first time here,” Bella said, gazing out at the house in the distance.
Thomas glanced down at his watch. “Their lunch is starting in a few minutes,” he said. “Let’s go.”
He didn’t need to say it twice. I was immediately running through the field, the house getting closer by the second. The others were right on my heels.
I was halfway there when the ground rumbled and shook beneath my feet, knocking me off-balance. And the shaking didn’t stop. It got stronger and stronger, until all I could do was dig my fingers into the dirt and brace myself on all fours.
I glanced behind to make sure the others were okay. They were, although they were all on the ground in similar positions.
Then I heard an audible rip. I focused ahead again, just in time to see the ground split open twenty feet ahead of me.
A giant, insect-like monster with a human face emerged from the gap. Its head was as tall as my body, and its tail was like a scorpion’s, but larger. Its body was segmented into three main parts—the head, the middle, and the tail. Six spindly legs protruded straight out of the middle section.
Once it was fully above ground, the ground sealed beneath it.
“Cross onto this land and die,” the monster said, his deep baritone voice echoing through the field. His breath reeked of rot and decay, which I supposed made sense for a creature that had spent who knows how long buried in the dirt.
“We intend to cross.” I looked straight into its eyes, hoping it respected a solid stare like a shifter would. “And we don’t intend to die.”
“Too late.” He cackled. “You already crossed. Now, you die.”
Before I could comprehend what was happening, the creature swung his spiky tail out at me.
I jumped out of its way at the same time as I reached for my slicer.
His tail hit exactly where I’d been standing before, the tip of it lodging into the dirt.
So much for that stare. But with my slicer out, I was ready to fight. A glance over at Thomas—who was wielding the longsword he’d brought with him like a pro—showed he was ready as well.
I gave the vampire a single nod, and the two of us attacked.
The monster’s front two legs seemed like a good place to start. Remove the legs, and it would be immobilized.
I ran to one leg, and Thomas must have understood my plan, because he ran to the other.
I expected the leg to be easy to cut through, like a normal limb. But my dagger clanged against it, a sound of metal on metal echoing through the air.
This creature’s legs were as strong and solid as a sword.
It used its legs like swords, too. On instinct, I met each of its attacks with one of my own, defending myself.
Thomas did the same. He took three legs, and I took the other three. Hopefully we could divide and conquer.
Except the creature had no problem keeping up. It wasn’t even tiring.
In the meantime, Cassandra was shooting arrows at the creature from a distance. It used its tail to ward off most of them. The few that landed in its body didn’t bother it at all.
The arrows that landed on the ground whooshed back into Cassandra’s quiver, ready to be used again.
That was a pretty neat spell. I’d have to ask her about it later.
The monster finally grunted when an arrow embedded itself into one of its eyes. So Cassandra switched up her aim to try for the eyes. A few got close, but she had yet to get another into the target.
She was never going to take down the monster like this.
There had to be another way.
As I continued fending off the legs, I sized the creature up to figure out another method of attack.
The two thin parts holding the three sections of its body together looked the weakest. Snap off the head or abdomen, and maybe the creature would be toast.
I just needed a break in fighting of
f these three legs so I could have a chance to see if my idea worked.
Hopefully Cassandra would hit an eye again soon to give me the precious few seconds I needed.
But it wasn’t Cassandra who got me those seconds. It was Bella.
The Devereux witch launched a potion pod straight at the monster’s nose. The pod collided with its target and exploded into a dark blue mist.
The creature faltered.
I’d never seen dark blue potion before, so I had no idea what it was for. Knowing Bella, it was some kind of secret dark magic.
But whatever the potion was, it gave me the seconds I needed to enact my plan.
I launched myself into the air in an attempt to dismember the middle section from the abdomen. I was just about there when I saw something descending from the corner of my eye—the creature’s tail.
I didn’t know what a sting from this beast would do to me, and I didn’t want to find out. So I aborted the mission, using my knife against the tail instead of slashing it through the thin skin between its middle section and abdomen.
Its tail was just as hard as its legs. The force of my knife pushed the dangerous stinger away from me, but it also pushed me back onto the ground.
I rolled and recovered just in time to get out of the way as the tail went in for another blow.
Bella launched three potion pods in a row at the creature—one at each of its sections. The blue mist exploded again, and this time, the creature didn’t just falter.
It froze entirely.
“Try again!” she yelled. “Both of you.”
Thomas jumped up for the spot between the head and the middle, and I jumped back to where I’d gone before. Between the middle and the abdomen.
This time, I hit my mark.
My dagger slid through the thin membrane holding the two parts together.
Without the middle part holding it up, the abdomen fell onto the ground. A glance to my side showed that the head was also on the ground. Thomas had been successful too.
Without the head or abdomen attached any longer, the creature’s legs shuddered and crumpled inward. The lone middle section collapsed onto the ground.
Dirt poofed out around it. One of the legs gave a final twitch, and then went still.
“Is it dead?” Cassandra asked. She had an arrow poised and ready to launch straight at its unblinking eye, just in case.
I wasn’t sure any of us knew the answer. We were all ready with our weapons ourselves.
Seconds later, all three separated sections of the monster disintegrated into dirt. It blended into the rest of the dirt in the field, as if the creature had never been there at all.
If there was one thing I’d learned from the past few weeks of demon hunting, it was that when something disintegrated, it was pretty darn dead. So I relaxed, although I kept my slicer out and ready.
“What the hell was that thing?” I asked, looking at the others for answers.
“That thing was one of Abaddon’s Locusts,” Thomas said as he sheathed his sword. “A monster that serves the demons.”
“Right,” I said, although I’d never heard of Abaddon or his locusts. “Why didn’t you see it when you tapped into the satellites?”
“Satellites only detect what’s above ground—not below it,” he said. “I’m a technopath. I don’t have X-ray vision.”
His point was fair, so I nodded and slid my dagger back inside my jacket.
“I have a better question,” Cassandra said, completely focused on Bella.
“What’s that?” Bella smiled, like she not only knew what was coming, but welcomed it.
“Why did you have complacent potion?”
“I abduct some of the most dangerous human criminals in the world to kill them for my potions and spells,” she said. “Having complacent potion on hand helps the abducting part go smoother than it would otherwise.”
Cassandra pressed her lips into a firm line. “Complacent potion is illegal,” she said simply.
“It’s only illegal if you get caught.” Bella shrugged.
“The law doesn’t work like that.” Cassandra’s eyes were bugging out, like she was afraid of getting arrested in a moment’s notice.
I was on Bella’s side here. Whatever she’d done had saved us.
But the witches could work it out later. After we saved Raven and the other humans from that bunker.
“The complacent potion just saved your asses,” Bella said. “You should be thanking me—not chastising me.”
“How much more do you have left?” I asked.
“None,” she said. “That monster was huge. It took four times a normal dose just to placate him for the time it did.”
There went any possibility of using it against the demons. Oh well. Complacent potion hadn’t been in our plan to begin with.
We could handle breaking into the bunker just fine on our own.
38
Noah
We whizzed past an abandoned barn and stopped in front of the farmhouse.
It was a simple dwelling, two stories tall with white wood paneling. From the outside, there were no signs that an elaborate bunker existed directly beneath it.
It also didn’t seem like there was a magical barrier around the house. That was a relief, but not a surprise.
It took a strong light witch to cast and hold a magical barrier. The chance of a witch like that working with the demons was slim to none.
Back at the Devereux mansion, Cassandra had promised us that a secret spell passed down through generations of her family would allow her to get us through any magical barrier. But I was glad she didn’t have to use it.
It was best for the witches to save all their energy for fighting the demons.
Thanks to Thomas, we knew the only security cameras in this area were in the bunker—not inside or outside the house. We also knew that except for when a catering truck arrived at six each morning, no one entered or left the house. The blinds were closed at all times, as if the place was abandoned.
We all wore cloaking rings to cover our scents. Now, we all formed a circle and Bella muttered a string of words in Latin. A sound barrier spell.
She’d killed one of the criminals in the dungeon and had a vial of his blood in her weapons belt specifically for this moment. As she spoke the spell, a tingle rushed through my body, like I’d been zapped.
“It’s done,” she said, unclasping her hands from ours and lowering them to her sides.
Because we were all holding on to each other when she’d cast the spell, we could still hear each other. But no one else would be able to hear us.
There was one final step to our master plan—invisibility potion.
Now that we were right outside the house, we each reached for the vial we’d brought with us. Amber had made it in the same batch, so that after taking it, we’d still be able to see each other.
We uncapped our vials, clinked them together in a toast, and downed the contents. It buzzed through my body as it took hold.
Within seconds, all four of us had the hazy, transparent look of ghosts.
Without the demons being able to smell, hear, or see us, we’d be undetectable. They wouldn’t know what had hit them until they were dead.
We probably should have taken the invisibility potion before teleporting over here. Maybe then the fight against Abaddon’s Locust would have been easier.
But the potion only lasted for so long. We had no clue how close the witches would get us to the farmhouse, and sending them to scout ahead of time would have been unnecessarily risky. So the plan had been to wait to take it until reaching the farmhouse.
Lesson learned.
Now that we were undetectable, I led the others up the steps to the front porch and opened the front door. It creaked when it moved, alerting anyone inside that someone was here.
Immediately upon walking inside the foyer, I was blasted with the distinguishable metallic scent of vampire. It wasn’t just a leftover aroma. The vampire was
in the house, now.
There was a staircase straight ahead and two rooms to the side—a dining room and living room. Both of the rooms were empty.
Thomas was the last of us in. Right after he clicked the front door shut, a vampire turned the corner to investigate.
She held up duel daggers as she examined the room. She was short and thin, with dishwasher blonde hair and cunning eyes. Of course, she couldn’t see or smell us, and we all stood in place so we didn’t risk setting off a creaky floorboard. As long as she didn’t walk straight into one of us, she wouldn’t know we were here.
“Who’s there?” another vampire called from the other room—a male. He had a strange accent I couldn’t place.
“No one,” she said in a matching accent, although she still looked around suspiciously. “It must have been the wind.”
She didn’t sound like she believed it.
But she didn’t have time to speculate further, because I whipped out my slicer and rammed it through her heart.
She collapsed to the floor, dead.
I would have taken one of her weapons and given the other to another our group. But while our weapons were all invisible since we’d had them on us while drinking the invisibility potion, her weapons were visible. Holding onto them would ruin our element of surprise.
“Natasha?” the man asked, sounding worried. “Is everything okay?”
Not getting a response, he came around the same corner as Natasha. He was short and thin, with similar dishwater blond hair. They were likely siblings.
His eyes widened when he saw his sister crumpled on the floor. He ran to her and repeated her name, rolling her over to see the hole my dagger had left in her chest.
Before he could process Natasha’s death, Bella whipped out her longsword and sliced it clean through his neck.
His head clunked to the ground beside him, his body falling down on top of his sister’s corpse.
The silence of death descended upon the room.
The Angel Trials- The Complete Series Page 60
