by Alana Melos
“This is bad,” Adira said staring at them with me.
“There’s no radiation,” Rebekah supplied. “I would know. It’s safe.”
“If they’re… if that’s nuclear… that’s impossible,” I said as I glanced to my companions.
Rebekah shrugged. “It’s safe to be in here, without a mask,” she said. “I would not try opening one of them, though. Just to be safe.”
My eye throbbed suddenly and I raised a hand to it, shaking my head. “Physics and engineering really isn’t in my sphere or knowledge,” I said. “If it’s been working all these years… let’s not mess with it. It’ll last a few more days, til we can get a brain here to look it over.”
“There was the scientist from the invasion!” Rebekah chirped, ever helpful. “I remember him. He looked at the tracker.”
I nodded in agreement, remembering him as well. “Yeah, he might… he might do.” I only barely knew him, but it would at least be a place to start from. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to bring any real engineers down here that I would actually trust, much less any super villainous engineers. Yet, tech like this was beyond me… and beyond anyone I knew. If it was magic? I knew a ton of magic people. Tech, not so much. Maybe it was time to rectify that lack.
“There is nothing else we can do here,” Adira remarked. “You have found your power source and answered your question. It seems to be stable, and you have what you came for. Is there anything else that we require here?”
“Jeez, pushy much?” Rebekah asked as she tilted her captain’s hat back.
“It’s odd here,” she said. “I don’t like how it feels, and Huraiva had a bad feeling outside in the tunnels.”
“A bad feeling,” Siren chuckled. “It was just dark, that’s all! And rats.” She wrinkled her nose up. “I don’t like rats either.”
The vampire shrugged off her comments and exited. “I don’t think there’s much else I want here,” I said as I massaged my left temple. “It’ll all keep until we come back.”
“What was it you were looking for?” she asked we walked down the hallway, following Adira back to the entrance room.
“Something to help with my telepathy,” I replied. “It’s a shot, anyway.”
“I hope it works,” she said, and I heard the bright smile in her voice. “You’ve been very cranky without it.”
I glanced at her and bit back a snappish response. “Well, it’s a part of me that’s gone.”
She laughed and raised her stump. “I know that feeling!”
The former Reich member had a point, in more ways than one. I knew she didn’t understand how crippled I felt without my ‘pathy, how much it sucked being mindblind. I adjusted, certainly, but I wasn’t as effective. Some of my best tricks were denied me, and… it was like a part of me was missing. An arm, a hand, a leg… all of those would have been better. Missing my telepathy was like missing the better half of my mind, the one which fed me color and light, which told me who was true and who wasn’t, which gave pleasure and pain in equal measure, and which gave me early warning of danger when I couldn’t see it. I felt the bottle in the front pocket. This had better work.
So far as I could tell, there wasn’t anything else to be done to shut things down except leave. Waving my hand in front of a panel to the right, that silvery portal opened before us. I exited with my companions following close behind me. The darkness of the abandoned subway tunnel greeted us.
Reaching into my pocket to grab my flashlight as the silvery portal closed, I smiled. “That wasn’t so bad, and we found a lot of in--” The last word cut off as something smacked me hard in the face. I heard a squeal from behind me, but my sight grew blurry. Out of instinct, I dodged to the side, anticipating another attack. The brick of the tunnel exploded as the mysterious force missed, pelting me with shards. Switching my light to my other hand and drawing my o-wakizashi with my right, I flicked the light on and stopped in confusion.
The opponent opposite me was a sallow figure, dressed all in black. Her long black hair swirled around her as black bands of energy moved in undulating waves. It wasn’t the magic--though that was a surprise--but rather who was wielding it.
“Emily?” I asked, but then another line of force hit me and sent me sprawling backwards as the magic splashed the subway tunnel in a sickly red glow. To Emily left stood another face I never thought I’d see again: Oberst Richter, the mad necromancer from the Reich.
“Surprised to see me, liebling?” he asked behind his smile of a thousand teeth.
Chapter Four
They had caught us by surprise, but didn’t retain the ambush advantage long. I scrabbled backwards, letting go of my flashlight as I concentrated on gaining my feet. Adira was nowhere to be seen. She must have shadowstepped to wait for her moment to strike. The Nacht Sirene stood on the threshold of the portal. She stared at the oberst with wide blue-green eyes. Richter’s attention turned to her and he smiled that smarmy grin of his. My attention went back to Emily.
She had grown more sallow--if that was even possible--since I’d killed her boyfriend. It wasn’t my fault. He’d deserved it since he double crossed me. She didn’t see it that way, and had had it out for me ever since. After causing some minor trouble with the cops, I hadn’t seen her or bumped into her “accidentally” in months. She’d never been important to me, so out of sight, out of mind. The sight of her shocked me to speechlessness.
She wasn’t unattractive, if you liked that goth look. Her lips were done up in dark crimson, and her eyes rimmed in black. The stark colors made the paleness of her flesh stick out in the flashlight’s beam, though you could tell she still lived. There was a certain indefinable quality to dead flesh which she lacked, though those black orbs of magic around her black gloved hands were new. I had no idea she practiced, pardon the pun, the dark arts.
“I’ve been waiting for this,” she said, her voice strong and clear, sounding eager. “Make a move. Try it.”
“Well, since you gave me an invitation....” I pushed to my feet and only wobbled a little. That hit had really cleaned my clock and might have disorientated me if I weren’t already on painkillers for my constant headache. The smart move was to rabbit. I threw out my teke to simply shove her aside and clear the path. Cold washed through me as the telekinetic energy disappeared, fading into nothingness as it touched her. Her smile grew wider, making her looking savage.
“My turn,” she said. She raised her hands. The Sirene broke her staredown with Richter and shadowstepped into darkness, reappearing next to Emily. Her good hand lashed out, landing a solid strike on Emily’s cheek. She wavered and fell back. Richter worked his magic as he muttered Latin under his breath. Red octopus tentacles erupted from his hands, seeking the Siren. She squeaked when the first one touched her and disappeared. The tentacles surged forward, thrusting into the shadows as they searched.
I took the opening the Siren gave me to stab at Emily. The sorceress moved to the side, avoiding the blow, falling for the feint. I raised my knee savagely, striking her on her hip. She backed up a pace, wobbling. The orbs around her hands blinked in and out in rapid succession as her concentration wavered. A muffled cry from behind me drew my attention. I glanced over my shoulder. The glowing red appendages seized the Siren, yanking her out of the darkness. They pulled her towards Richter. She struggled in their grasp, swearing in German. Even with her enhanced strength, they were too strong.
Turning back to Emily with the intent on finishing her quickly, I aimed for her wrist. She couldn’t cast magic if she had no hands, right? My sword struck the inky darkness and bounced off without so much as a scratch. I swore under my breath and thrusted. A shield formed from the energies she wielded, turning my blade aside. I went to slash her when a body slammed into me from the side like a truck. The body and I flew through the air and crashed into the wall of the tunnel. I pushed it off with my teke, rolling the body aside. It was Adira. Blood streaked her face and she lay motionless. I looked to the source of the th
row and blinked. It was a cyborg, but not like the other corpses Richter had created before, melding them in crazy ways with machinery to make them a deadly army of the walking Ginsu dead. The metal shone, reflecting the red light of Richter’s magic as dragged the Nacht Sirene towards him. An entire arm had been cast in that shiny metal, and a good part of the chest, covering the cyborg’s heart. The metal wound its way up the borg’s throat and coated the jaw, leaving his face untouched. The flesh around the smooth metallic parts was dead, but intelligence gleamed in the corpse’s red eyes.
He had made a vampire cyborg.
“Do you like him, liebling?” Richter taunted as Emily lowered her shield, staring at me coolly. “He is my greatest work. A new generation, built upon the ashes of the old.”
I looked around at the struggling Siren, to Adira’s unconscious body, to Emily and Richter, and finally the cybervamp. Somehow, these three had found and followed us. They couldn’t follow us inside the--
At that thought, I whirled and dove straight for the hand reader for the portal, using my teke to propel me. If I could, I’d grab Adira too, but this wasn’t a fight I could win. Maybe with time, I could regroup and escape to grab my allies and take them out, but I couldn’t fight magic effectively. The last time, Richter had let his cyborg zombies take the lead, underestimating us. Not so this time.
“Stop her!” Richter cried as I pushed my hand against the stone. Those damn few seconds…! I put up a telekinetic shield around me, and the cybervamp bounced off of it. He regrouped in an instant, pounding at my shield with terrible strength heightened by magic and technology both. I only had to hold it a few seconds. The silvery portal opened… and everything went dark. My senses spun, confused, and I lunged for where I thought the portal was, only to trip over something. I slashed out with my sword, skittering it along the wall until it hit something solid. A slight grunt told me I’d hit something alive, and I pushed in that direction with my teke. I hit the body, and sent it flying.
A blow landed on the side of my head, narrowly missing my left temple. Pain flared behind my eye, sending the persistent agony which lurked there into overdrive. Stars flashed in my sight. Lashing out, I spun a web of teke around me, trying to feel through the energy. I knew it was possible, but I wasn’t strong enough. I thought I ran into something with it, but another blow landed on my jaw. It wasn’t anything I could block, goddamn magic using assholes. A crack on my wrist sent my sword flying. Something enveloped me in a tight embrace. All at once, my sight cleared. Thick black bonds sprang from Emily’s hands, holding me still. Looking over, I saw Rebekah still struggling in Richter’s red tentacles, refusing to give in.
I joined her in pushing against our captors, but it was no use. I was caught, good and proper. I looked over at Richter with his glowing red hands and Emily with her black ones, then started laughing. “Are all mages Lanterns? I mean really… green, red, now black….” From the depths of my memory, a half-remembered phrase came to me, “In blackest day, in brightest night….” That was all I could recall, though I knew there was more to it. I wasn’t sure that was right anyway. I followed it up with another laugh as I thought about Alistair’s green, though his will was easily broken. By me, at least.
“What are you talking about?” Emily asked, her voice full of scorn with just a shade of confusion.
“Let me go and I’ll tell you,” I said, giving her a pretty smile. Of course she didn’t get it. Hardly anyone got my jokes. For my troubles, she gave me a hit with a bolt of that black energy, rattling my skull and loosening a tooth. I concentrated on poking out her eyes with my teke, but as before, the energy of my telekinetic blow dissipated as it reached her. Cheater McCheatersons. I hated magic. So. Fucking. Much.
“With what’s coming, you’ll cherish the memory of these few minutes,” she sneered. Richter ignored us, more concerned with incanting some spell or another. The sickly crimson glow splashed over the walls, lighting the tunnel with a dread red light.
“If you don’t let me go now, I guarantee you’ll die in the most painful way I can think of,” I said, then spat out a mouthful of blood. “And trust me, I can be pretty damn creative.”
“You already killed me!” she cried, her voice thick. Her dark eyes glistened with repressed emotion as she stepped forward, inches away from me. “When you killed Harry, you killed me.” A slow smile spread over her lips. “But that’ll be fixed soon.”
“Crazy bitch,” I muttered.
“Why do you do that?” she asked, glancing to Richter. “Insult me all you want, but why call me crazy when I’m just showing emotion?” She scoffed. “You’re just like all the men. Don’t you get called a crazy bitch too?”
“Yeah, but I am,” I said with half a snort. “And so are you. Own that fucking shit, man. Don’t be a wuss.”
She might have said something then, but the crimson light grew hot and thick. It surrounded all of us, encircling us with mystic sigils. A flash enveloped the tunnel, burning my eyes with the intense scarlet light. When I blinked and opened them, we were somewhere else.
Chapter Five
When the dots before my eyes cleared, I saw a nondescript warehouse, complete with shipping containers stacked around us. It was chilly, but not cold enough to fog my breath. A warehouse meant only a couple areas of town, mostly near the water, but there were a lot of them in Imperial City. The industrial and shipping sectors were huge. The city had a healthy import/export economy going on in addition to tourism. It would narrow the search for us, but only by a little. It stood to reason we were wanted alive since the smart play would have been to kill and not capture.
“And here is where we must part,” Richter said. At first, I thought he was addressing me, but he was looking at Emily.
“You promised to help!” she said, her voice savage. She turned on him with an intent look upon her face. When his lean face darkened, she amended her tone to something softer. “You promised to help. I’m not sure I can complete it on my own.”
He frowned, then glanced at his watch. “If we hurry and you have the other preparations ready,” he said, glancing to the cybervamp. “Collar her, then bring her along.”
“I do, and thank you,” Emily replied, naked gratitude and relief shining on her pale face.
“Sorry, I’m not into the kinky stuff,” I said as Emily moved towards me. She reached into the blackness and grabbed my wrist. She pulled my hand out of the darkness. I tried to turn it around somehow, but she clamped a thin bracelet upon it then let go. “Or not your kind of kinky stuff, anyway.”
“Shut up,” she said, scowling at me. “You think you’re so funny, but it’s pathetic.”
“Make me,” I snapped at her. “And I am funny. People laugh.”
“At you, maybe,” she snapped. “You don’t need your tongue for what I need you for.” Emily paused, her dark look foreboding yet somehow still trite as she tried to build up dramatic tension. “Or even a mouth.”
That actually shut me up. Body horror wasn’t one of those things I was into, and mages could do a lot of kooky stuff. It was in the realm of possibility for her to actually be able to do as she threatened. She nodded in satisfaction, then muttered a few words. The bonds around me shrank. Once they disappeared, I tried to bolt by leaping into the air with my teke. When I reached for my power, it was gone, just gone. It was like I was normal.
My surprise gave her the chance to finish what she was doing. A few more words and my hands were encased in that inky energy once more, this time shaped like manacles. I glanced at the bracelet on my wrist and frowned. It had to be a power suppressor. The Reich had them, and as I glanced over to Rebekah, I watched the tall cybervamp click a black collar around her neck. Richter spoke to her, too low for me to hear, but I saw the color drain from her flushed face and she nodded. He smiled and patted her on the head like a pet while she looked down at the ground, an angry glare on her face. I hated him even more for that, and the indignity of being captured by these two rankled. I’d kil
l them both if it was the last thing I ever did.
Personal vows aside, Emily stretched a chain of darkness between my manacles and her hand. “Follow,” she said. “Don’t cause trouble, or you’ll start losing parts.”
Humbled for the moment, I followed her, my cheeks burning with rage. It boiled up inside of me, causing bile to rise from my stomach. My head pounded as my painkillers were wearing off. The force of her blows hadn’t been anything to sneeze at either, and at least the different kinds of pain drowned out my headache for now. The cybervamp went to collect the Siren, and she took a swing at him. He moved out of the way, then scooped her up, throwing her over his shoulder as she pounded her cuffed fists into his back in a wasted effort. Instead of struggling, I conserved my energy and scouted the place as surreptitiously as I could. They led us towards the “back” of the warehouse, which wasn’t really a back at all, but another entrance. From there, up the stairs to where the offices stood overlooking the floor. Since it was packed tight, it appeared to be a maze. Once we ascended, it looked as though there was a main path through the building made with the crates, with numerous side ones to fetch the ones stacked in back. We’d appeared somewhere in one of these side passages, and I memorized the layout in anticipation of escape.
I’d dropped my sword when they’d captured me, but I still had my knives. If I was lucky, they wouldn’t do a search. When we arrived at our destination, the cybervamp threw Rebekah down and she landed on the floor with a loud thud. I winced in sympathy, but she bounced to her feet right away, plowing her shoulder into the enhanced vamp. To her credit, he almost toppled backwards, more than likely from the surprise of the attack. Richter waved a hand and separated them with that sickly red glow of his magic.
“Halt!” he snapped. Irritation flowed across his weasly face. “If you continue, you will not like what I do.”
