See No: Hidden Evil #2

by Lizzy Ford

  Someone tripped over them and landed in the mud, unmoving.

  Silence fell.

  Kaylee lifted her head.

  “Hey, there, sunshine.” Eddy’s camp counselor voice sent fresh fear and relief through her. “Great shooting. I taught you well.”

  Of everyone who could have possibly found her, why him? “Hi, Eddy,” Kaylee said. Any resistance she could muster fled when she acknowledged him as being the lesser of two evils again.

  “Duck.”

  She dropped without a second thought.

  Eddy fired four times, and a body dropped behind the fallen tree. “Ready to ditch this party?” He wrapped a hand around her arm and pulled her up.

  Kaylee reached for Shanti. “I can’t – ”

  Eddy pointed the firearm at Shanti’s head. “You sure?” he asked. “I’m good either way.”

  Kaylee froze. If she left Shanti, she risked her new friend being murdered by 3G.

  If she refused to do what Eddy wanted, Shanti would be shot within seconds.

  Kaylee ceased fighting.

  “Good choice.” He pulled her away, through the brush, away from the path.

  Fed up with being dragged, coerced, and lied to, Kaylee stretched for the firearm at her thigh. She pulled it out and yanked free of Eddy, lifting the gun. She aimed it at him.

  Eddy whirled.

  Kaylee’s heart raced as she challenged one of the two most dangerous men she’d ever met.

  Eddy appeared to be frozen in place, as if he was waiting for her to back down, like she always did.

  “I’m not leaving her here to die,” Kaylee said through chattering teeth. “You might maim me, but you won’t kill me. Keep in mind hurting me will make our getaway harder.” She breathed deeply, on the verge of panicking when she thought about what Eddy might do to her in retaliation.

  “So you’d shoot me?” he asked, amused.

  “Maybe. I don’t know. Maybe not in the head, but if I shoot your leg, I’m going to slow you down,” Kaylee replied.

  Eddy approached her, unafraid. “Unlike the guides, if you shoot me, I could die,” he reminded her. He stopped when his chest bumped the muzzle of her weapon. “We both know you’re not a killer, Kaylee.”

  She hated him in that second and herself more for not being able to pull the trigger on the murderer who could very well torture her before the night ended. He was right; he could die. She’d seen him vulnerable before, and she understood he didn’t have the extra supply of lives like the guides.

  “I don’t want to hurt you. But I’m not leaving my friend here. She has to come with us,” she said.

  Eddy shifted, looking past her at Shanti. To Kaylee’s surprise, he appeared to be considering it. He was still, as if listening.

  “A direct gateway to Hell would be nice to have around,” he said, considering. He brushed past Kaylee and went to Shanti, who was on her feet. Eddy slung the small woman over his shoulder. “We’ve got a bus to catch!” he called and strode into the forest.

  Kaylee lowered the weapon, shaking from more than cold. She replaced the gun at her thigh and hurried after Eddy. Was this a good idea or a terrible one? Eddy had a use for Shanti as much as 3G did.

  Eddy led her through the forest and to a campground, where a small day-trip sized tour bus waited, as promised. He climbed into it and set Shanti down in a row of empty seats.

  Kaylee stepped into the warm, bright bus. Her eyes fell to the splotches of blood around the driver’s seat and on the floor leading to the back. She swallowed hard.

  Eddy flung himself down into the front row of seats and wiped the rain from his face and hands. “Let’s go!” he said.

  Kaylee sat without a word, closed the doors, and put the bus into gear. The heater was on full blast. Soon after pulling onto the road, her fingers and toes began to thaw. She didn’t dare look at Eddy for fear he’d either be smiling or plotting how many toes he’d chop off. That he had backed down in the forest shocked her. She had no real leverage, and he’d called her bluff.

  She drove for forty-five minutes, towards DC, before venturing to look at Eddy in the rearview mirror.

  He was playing a game on his cell phone.

  Shanti was perfectly still, seated two rows behind the assassin on the opposite side of the aisle. She was as tense as she had been when Maggy dropped them off at the cabin.

  “Are you mad at me?” Kaylee asked, uncertain how to ask Eddy how many fingers he planned on chopping off.

  “Nah. I don’t get mad,” he replied.

  “You just get even?”

  Eddy smiled without looking up.

  I hate this man, Kaylee thought. She gripped the steering wheel tightly. She didn’t want to imagine what Eddy, or Bullet, had in store for her or Shanti.

  “I really like my toes and fingers,” she murmured.

  “Which of them are your favorites?” Eddy asked.

  Kaylee’s breath caught in her throat.

  At her silence, he lowered the phone and twisted to Shanti, whispering a few words.

  Shanti began crying.

  Startled, Kaylee glanced back.

  The pretty woman had her face in her hands and was sobbing. Sobbing. Her shoulders shook.

  “Are you hurt?” Kaylee asked instantly.

  Shanti shook her head.

  Eddy appeared unconcerned. Kaylee couldn’t explain Shanti’s strange behavior. The sweet incarnated angel had been cool under pressure, even when being shot at.

  “What’s wrong, Shanti?” Kaylee asked. “You’re scaring me.”

  Shanti shook her head again.

  “Eyes on the road, Kaylee,” Eddy said. He stood and shifted to sit in the row of seats across from Shanti.

  Kaylee bit back her words. Had she given Shanti a strong enough warning about Eddy? Did the gatekeeper understand he was not the kind of person anyone messed with? That he could read lies and predict what those around him were going to do?

  Eddy leaned forward, elbows on knees, and spoke a sentence or two to Shanti. Kaylee strained to hear what he said but picked up nothing.

  Shanti responded in fewer words.

  Eddy smiled, an expression Kaylee had no idea how to read. He went from cheerleader to murderer and back again in the span of a breath.

  “Don’t worry,” he said and stood. He returned to his seat.

  Shanti continued to cry.

  Kaylee couldn’t begin to imagine what the hell had just passed between them.

  Sixteen

  The movement outside their locker grew quiet after a while. Nathan judged there to be the four guards and no roving guards. He had heard some foot traffic and greetings but not for half an hour. Either Henry and friends were content Nathan was caged, or the bulk of 3G’s forces were resting and packing up to leave soon.

  He motioned to Amira to join him and knelt beside the lock in the door. She moved tentatively at first. When her foot didn’t cause her pain or collapse beneath her weight, she crowded him nervously.

  “I’m going to melt the lock and take out the guards. I want you to stay here, okay?” he told her.

  She nodded, worry creasing the skin around her eyes.

  Nathan focused on the task at hand: melting the lock. It wasn’t his first choice, since generating that amount of heat put him near the point of implosion. He nudged Amira back to protect her and closed his eyes. Opening himself to collect all the energy he could reach, he pulled from the Other Side as well. He placed a hand over the deadbolt and began channeling.

  Within seconds, Amira backed away of her own accord. Sweat dripped down Nathan’s face. The heat quickly turned the locker into a sauna. Dropping his hands, he blew out a breath and wiped sweat from his face.

  The lock was molten. Amira had retreated to the corner farthest from the door. Her features were flushed, and sweat sparkled at her hairline.

  Nathan rose and pulled at the door. The lock gave silently, easily. He motioned for Amira to stay in the locker and peeked around the cor
ner of the door.

  Four guards, as he believed, all armed to the teeth. Nathan calculated who to tackle first and then eased out of the locker. He crept up behind the man nearest the locker and snaked an arm around his neck. Before the 3G member could shout, Nathan had snapped his neck.

  Their scuffle drew the attention of the others. Using the dead man as a shield, Nathan snatched a weapon and shot one of the others before the other two opened fire on him and his human shield. He ducked his head down behind the man and spotted the grenade strapped to the man’s belt. Snatching it, he pulled the pin and flung it and then bolted for the locker.

  Amira was at the door, watching. Nathan pulled her back, away from the door. An explosion ripped through the hallway. The walls shuddered, and then silence fell.

  He took her hand and sprinted away from the locker. His attempt at being subtle, at a quiet escape had just turned loud enough to draw all of 3G. Nathan led Amira down the hallways and back towards the room where Eddy’s hiding spot was located. He darted into the locker, whose floors and walls were still bloody, and dropped to his knees. A flare of heat slid through him and out, into the floor. The concealed trap door materialized and slid aside in response to his energy.

  He motioned Amira down into the darkness before following her.

  As he closed the trap door, he heard the beating of boots on cement and the shouts of 3G members looking for him.

  Nathan stepped away from the ladder, eyes on the trap door entrance, in case someone had seen them enter the locker and followed. After ten minutes, no one charged down the ladder or tried to smash the entrance open. He turned away.

  It was too dark to see Amira, and she wouldn’t hear him if he called to her. Eddy and Kaylee had lit a candle and perched it on the box of MREs on the opposite side of the small hiding spot. Nathan moved across the area, not wanting to trip over or hurt Amira. Reaching the box, he patted around it with his hand. The cool, cylindrical shape of a candle greeted his fingers, along with the lighter beside it.

  He lit the candle’s wick and turned around.

  Amira was huddled against one wall. Her eyes went to him when she saw the light, and she smiled.

  Nathan tossed her a bottle of water, grabbed one for himself, and sat down beside her. He tapped her arm. She looked at him.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  Amira nodded.

  “We may be here a while.”

  “I feel better being with you,” she said. “But what do we do about the portal? They’re going to figure it out when they get there, Nathan.”

  “I don’t understand what that means,” he said, studying her features. “How can it be half a gateway?”

  Amira hesitated and chewed her lower lip, her gaze conflicted. “It’s not just a location. But if they go to this place, they’ll figure that out.”

  “It’s a decoy?”

  “It’s not only a place, Nathan,” Amira’s voice was hushed. “It’s a person. Me.”

  “You’re the gateway,” Nathan said softly. “You and the gatekeepers.”

  “Yes. I have to be at the gateway.” Her voice was tiny. “I believe we all see the first portal until it’s opened. Then we will all know the location of the second and the third after the second is open.”

  “Are the portals assigned? Or can the nearest gatekeeper be used to open it, once the location is identified.”

  “I don’t know. It’s never happened.”

  Nathan shifted forward, pensive. “What does it take to open a gateway? Or close one?”

  “I don’t know that either. It has never been a threat in all the generations the stones have been passed down. But I think Kaylee has something to do with it, too. Do you know where she is?”

  Nathan’s eyes went to the dark ceiling. “No,” he replied. “I don’t know if she’s safe or if 3G has found her.” Eddy would likely deliver her back to his people, assuming the cult hadn’t all been wiped out by 3G by now. In that circumstance, where would Eddy go?

  “I fucked up with Kaylee again,” he said. “I gave her Maggy’s contact information without knowing Maggy was with 3G.”

  Amira’s gaze was warm. “She is strong, Nathan. She has to be in order to host Shadowman. We’ll find her and Troy.”

  Nathan smiled in return. He wasn’t going to upset her by expressing the extent of his fear and doubt.

  “Do you know what 3G plans to do when they find the gateway’s location?” he asked.

  Amira nodded. “I don’t think they realized I can read their lips. They had someone signing to me. But one of them mentioned Zyra wants to open a gate to Hell. She wants to end this.”

  A few seconds passed before Nathan could digest these words. “By opening a gate?” he asked, hoping he’d heard wrong. “She’s not crazy enough to challenge the Fallen One!”

  “Maybe she is,” Amira replied. “Doesn’t 3G want to destroy evil?”

  “Yes, but that’s insane, even for Zyra.” Nathan frowned, struggling to make sense of what Zyra was doing. “If that’s the case, why would they want Kaylee dead?”

  “Who says they do?” Amira asked.

  Nathan gazed at her. “Zyra admitted as much.”

  “But she tried to revive Kaylee after she shot you. I was on the mountain. I saw you … kill your soul mate.” These words were hushed, sorrowful.

  “I was wrong.” Never had he said anything harder to admit! “Zyra shot me. What happened then?”

  “Zyra put Kaylee in the back of a car and tried to revive her. She failed, and then that Satanist guy charged in and stole Kaylee.”

  “Zyra claimed she wanted Kaylee dead,” Nathan mused. “What reason would she have to keep either Kaylee or Shadowman alive, once she knew where the portal was?”

  Amira shrugged. “

  “Did Eddy bring Kaylee back to life before leaving?”

  “No,” Amira said.

  “Then she was dead for …” Nathan didn’t know how long. The firefight could have taken two minutes or ten, and where had Eddy gone next? To someone who could revive her? How long had that taken? He wasn’t able to do it on his own. He would have had to known the right person, probably a demon, who could summon a soul back to its body.

  Why was this starting to sound worse and worse, the more Nathan delved into the politics of the DC spirit guides and Kaylee? He’d distanced himself too far from the corps, and he was paying the price.

  Amira sighed and rested her head against the wall, drained and pale. The bruises marring her skin were mostly gone and healing quickly.

  Sensing she was exhausted, Nathan didn’t press her to talk more about the night he killed Kaylee. He wanted to purge that memory from his head. It was impossible, but thinking of it caused him pain. He’d made Kaylee suffer, and for what? So she could wind up being tortured either by Satanists or 3G?

  He stretched out on the floor. He puzzled over what the intentions of everyone involved were. There was no real way of knowing, unless he spoke to someone in the midst of the mayhem directly.

  Would Pedro help him more than usual? The angel preferred not to involve himself in earthly matters, but perhaps he would make an exception if the fate of the universe was at stake.

  After I find Kaylee, I’ll do whatever it takes to find the answers, Nathan vowed. She had suffered enough; he wasn’t going to make her wait longer.

  Nathan feel asleep as soon as he lay down and awoke some time later with a jerk. The candlelight flickered across the floor and walls nearest it. The cellar was peaceful, quiet, cool. He had been slumbering unusually well when Amira’s soft murmuring awoke him.

  The deaf teen was tossing and turning on the ground, caught in a nightmare. He stretched out and touched her arm. Instantly, she settled into deep slumber.

  Nathan remained on the ground, exhausted. He’d used more of his energy than normal the past few days, and he was starting to feel the drain. He’d need a long vacation, if he survived the mess he’d made worse.

  He stood and str
etched before checking the weapon he’d grabbed from the guard outside the locker where he and Amira had been imprisoned. He had one handgun with five bullets as well as a hunting knife he’d snagged before running. If he encountered a few members of 3G, he was set. But he wouldn’t be able to fight off the main 3G force.

  He tucked the weapons into his waistband.

  There were no windows or doors or clocks in the cellar, and neither he nor Amira had a cell. He wouldn’t know until he left the cellar whether or not Zyra and her people had left.

  With a glance at Amira, Nathan went to the ladder and climbed it, paused to listen, and then placed a hand on the trap door. It lifted at his touch and slid to the side.

  The room was as dark as the cellar. Nathan strained to hear anything at all before silently climbing the rest of the way out of the hiding place.

  The hallways were dark, too. Crossing to the door, he planted a hand on each side of the doorway. No sounds reached him, and no light brightened either direction.

  He crept down the hallway to the corner and around the intersection, senses on high alert as he moved along the wall. He wouldn’t put it past Zyra to leave a few booby traps behind, just in case. He was met with no tripwires or mines as he crept down the hall. When he reached a second intersection, he noticed the faint lift in darkness. This corridor remained unlit, but light came from a second intersection about a hundred feet down.

  Nathan continued, inching his way down the hall. When he reached the second corridor, he spotted the light coming from one side of a cracked door. His senses picked up nothing to alert him, and no colorful auras came from either direction. He removed his knife and went to the door. He nudged it open while remaining to the side, in case someone fired upon anyone entering.

  Nothing.

  He peered around the door and then stepped out from behind the doorframe.

  “Fool,” he said and lowered his weapon.

  Tied to a chair in the middle of the room was Henry, or what was left of Zyra’s admirer. Her lieutenant’s head sat in his lap, severed from his body in this very room, while he was still alive, according to the pond of blood covering the floor.

  Nathan shook his head, pitying anyone who underestimated Zyra. Had Maggy done the same? Waded into something too deep to find her way out of? It didn’t excuse her betrayal of Amira, but Nathan couldn’t help wanting Maggy to be different than Zyra. He wasn’t accustomed to being the patsy or used and tossed aside.