Serpent's Hold (The Last Serpent, Book 5)

by Morgan, Tansey

  What if there were innocent people inside who weren’t in league with Elroy and the rest of his group?

  I walked up to the building a few seconds after the others had, treading carefully along the sidewalk and keeping my profile low. Even as Eddie there was a risk that I would be spotted by someone who knew who he was, but the sidewalk immediately around the Lion’s Crown itself was empty, save for a little light foot traffic.

  Staring at the building itself, I noticed the external lights were on, but the doors were shut. Careful not to look too suspicious, I tried the front door, giving the handle a good pull, and it opened without any resistance. Perhaps because whoever was in there was awaiting the return of the vampire we had just brought to our side, or maybe because someone had forgotten to lock the door.

  I snuck inside without giving the matter too much thought and quickly shut the door behind me.

  The lobby smelled like popcorn, alcohol, and the sweat of the hundred or so people that had marched out through those very same doors less than an hour ago. If I needed confirmation that this was very much a working theatre, then I had it now. Luckily, there didn’t seem to be any staff around. No one counting the night’s takings behind the register, no janitor steam-cleaning the carpets or wiping down the counters, and definitely no Elroy.

  I decided to find the stairs to the offices, thinking if I was going to find Elroy anywhere in this building, it would probably be in an office, when a voice spoke up and caused me to freeze in my tracks.

  “Show’s over,” a man said, “You can’t be in here.”

  Slowly, I turned. The guy was young, maybe in his twenties, and he was wearing a pair of black slacks, a white shirt, and a red waistcoat. The presence of a name-tag pinned to the waistcoat told me he worked for the theatre. His name was Alan.

  “Sorry,” I said, “I think I left my wallet inside.”

  “Wallet? Where were you sitting?”

  Think. “Seat D16.”

  “Do you still have your ticket?”

  I walked over to the guy, checking first my jeans pockets, then finally my jacket pocket, for a ticket I knew didn’t exist. I shrugged. “I don’t, I must have left it in the car.”

  “If you don’t have a ticket, I can’t let you in.”

  “I don’t mind waiting here? All you’d have to do is go and check. It probably fell between the seats.”

  My attempt at subterfuge was met with suspicious eyes. “Okay, but wait here. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  “Of course,” I said, “Go right ahead, I’ll wait here.”

  I waited until Alan moved through a large set of double doors before making a brisk dash for the set of stairs that seemed to curl behind the ticket office. Though my heart was pounding and my legs were shaking, I managed to quickly compose a message to Vik, letting him know exactly what I was doing and alerting him to Alan’s presence. He probably wasn’t the only person in the building right now, and they needed to be aware of that.

  I reached the next floor up a couple of seconds after I hit send. Just as I was examining the corridor, and the many staff-only doors on it, one of the doors opened, and another member of staff stepped out. He was tall, and thin, and wearing the same uniform as Alan, only he didn’t have a name tag on him, and his skin was noticeably pale. That didn’t necessarily mean he was a vampire, but the sight of him made me hesitate all the same.

  The worst part was, there was nowhere to hide; no room to sneak into. All of the doors were shut, and I had no idea what was behind them. I ducked back into the stairwell, but a voice called out behind me.

  “Hey! Who’s there?”

  Fuck. My heart was hammering now, a pulse so fast and hard it was making my vision quake, but I stepped out of the stairwell and came into view of the man on the other side of the hall. “Hi,” I said.

  “Who the hell are you?”

  “I’m Eddie…”

  “Eddie?”

  “Yeah, I, uh, lost my wallet during the show. The guy downstairs, Alan, told me to wait while he went to look for it, but I got lost looking for the bathroom.”

  The man in the uniform advanced on me so fast I didn’t have time to turn my body away from his grasping hand as it grabbed my collar. His hand was ice cold. “Wait a second. Don’t I know you from somewhere?”

  I tried to shrug. “I’m Eddie?” I repeated.

  He narrowed his eyes, then shoved me down the corridor and ushered me unceremoniously into a staff-only room. I thought I was done. Where there was one vampire, there were more. I knew Leo and Aiden were nearby, but if the vampire with his hands on my back chose to snap my neck, not even they would be able to stop him before he got the job done.

  Inside what looked like an administrative office which reeked of cigar smoke, however, where the filing cabinets were overflowing, where the carpet hadn’t been changed in years, where the PC on the desk looked like an artefact straight out of the stone age, was the man I had come to find. Elroy was sitting at the desk, with his face buried in an old, dusty book without a title.

  Elroy’s eyes tilted up. He arched an eyebrow. “Yes?” he asked.

  “Found this one lurking in the halls,” the vampire said, shoving me into the room.

  Elroy set the book down and shut it. “Who are you?” he asked.

  “I’m Eddie,” I said, for the third time tonight.

  “And what were you doing out in the halls, Eddie?”

  I turned my head and looked at the vampire. “Mind if we have a little privacy? I have business to discuss with you.”

  “Business of what kind?”

  “The business of the drugs I sell for you.”

  Elroy scanned me up and down, and for an anxious moment I wondered if he could see my true form even through my shapeshifting powers, but the worry faded away like morning mist as adrenaline replaced anxious nerves. “Leave us,” he said, and the vampire turned around and exited the room, shutting the door as he left.

  “Okay,” Elroy said, “Now you have my attention, why are you here, Eddie?”

  I took a breath. “You clearly don’t know who I am. I’m just an underling that works on street level, delivering your quality produce to the hungry masses, but I had a business idea I wanted to run by the man sitting at the top.”

  “Did you, now?”

  “I did, and instead of going through proper channels and risking someone squeezing the information out of me before I was able to deliver it to you in person, I thought I would just sneak my way through.”

  “I’m impressed that you were able to figure out where I was. Who told you?”

  “Is it important?”

  “Privacy is important to me. If someone violated my privacy, I want to know who it was so that I may reprimand them accordingly.”

  “And if I don’t tell you?”

  “Then I’m going to have to assume you’re here with hostile intentions, and I’ll have to reprimand you for thinking you could just walk into my office and interrupt my work.”

  “I don’t know his name, but he’s my guy. The one I meet to get the goods directly from you. He’s on his way here now.”

  Elroy stood and walked around his desk. “Very well. Now, onto this business of yours…”

  “Yes, right… of course. So, I had this idea…”

  My mind blanked. I didn’t have an idea. In fact, I didn’t even know what I was doing in this room, alone, with a vampire guard standing on the other side of the door. If Leo and Aiden were in the room with me, I didn’t know. Maybe they were, but they couldn’t make themselves known to me because Elroy would be able to sense their presence. Leo had said a demon and a warlocks’ powers were similar in nature, so maybe Aiden and Leo had to keep a low profile. The problem with that was, I didn’t know what I had to do, or for how long I had to do it.

  “I’m waiting?” Elroy said.

  “Right, so, you know how you have your distribution chain,” I said, saying something, anything.

  “What about it?�
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  “Well, considering your product is so rare and valuable, I don’t think entrusting it to vampires is doing you any favors.”

  “And why’s that?”

  “Vampires are parasites, aren’t they? Who’s to say they aren’t pinching a little off the top?”

  Elroy walked around the desk, hands behind his back. “The thought had crossed my mind. Of course, the same can be said for any supernatural, considering the drug is designed to work for everyone, and not just vampires.”

  “Right, but vampires are dodgy creatures, and they steal in order to survive… how do you know they aren’t stealing from you?”

  “The same way I know that you’re not Eddie.”

  A cold wash ran through me, rooting me to the spot. “What?” I asked.

  Elroy pistoned his large hand toward me and grabbed my throat, and with one hard thrust managed to pin me up against a wall. For an older man, he was a lot stronger than he looked, and faster.

  “Think you could fool me, succubus?” Elroy asked, his hot breath against my face. “Your disguise may be good enough to fool vampires, but I am a warlock of the highest caliber, and your illusions aren’t going to work on me.”

  I struggled, unable to speak, eyes scrambling to my left, my right, looking for something—anything—I could use to defend myself against him. I saw a fire extinguisher, but it was too far away. Closer than that was the filing cabinet, but that was too heavy. Instead I worked at Elroy’s fingers, trying to loosen his grip around my neck even as my disguise fell apart around me, revealing me for who I really was.

  “There she is,” Elroy said, grinning at me, “The succubus, in the flesh. It would appear that I have you now.”

  There was only one thing to do. As my vision darkened around me, my oxygen supply fading fast, I bid my claws to grow from my right hand and I dug them into his meaty arm. The claws sank in deep, punching through flesh and causing warm blood to come gushing out. Elroy dropped me, and I fell to my knees, hacking and coughing, but I couldn’t stay where I was, so I started moving toward the door we had come through, all the while trying to get my throat to work, trying to speak, or scream, or make any kind of sound, but nothing was happening.

  “You bitch!” Elroy yelled.

  I turned around to look at him just as I managed to get on my feet, only to see him wind back his arm and hurl a bolt of crackling green light at me. I threw myself forward, managing to only barely avoid being struck by that magic bolt, feeling it buzzing as it sailed through the air, past me. The energy bolt smashed into the door I had come through and blasted it into a hail of splinters, and sending the vampire that had been standing guard there flying right into the opposite wall.

  Without thinking about it, I turned and headed into the mess of splintered wood, making a be-line for the hallway, but Elroy grabbed my leg and pulled me to the floor with enough force to split my chin as it hit the ground.

  When I turned my head, I saw it wasn’t exactly Elroy who had grabbed my foot, but an invisible hand he was controlling with his mind—a hand with a vice-like grip.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  I struggled to stand, but there was no escaping the invisible hand gripping my leg and pinning it to the floor, not a snowball’s chance in hell. As the vice tightened, and my muscles began to rip, I felt the scream escape my throat. Powerless to stop it from coming, I turned my head up and cried out from the pain, gritting my teeth as much as I could so as not to give the bastard the satisfaction.

  “I want to thank you, Lilith,” Elroy said as he nurtured his injured arm, “You coming here has saved me a great deal of trouble. I had a plan on how to pull you out of the Alexandria and then capture you, but here you are.”

  I wanted to speak, but the pain was too much, too intense. Opening my mouth would have resulted in nothing but more screaming, so I didn’t open it.

  “Tell me, why do you insist on trying to stop me from running my business?” Elroy asked, “Do you do it out of some misplaced sense of chivalry, or nobility? Or is it maybe guilt and shame that fuel your actions?” Elroy squatted in front of me. “Yes,” he said, “It’s shame, isn’t it? Shame that you are just as much a parasite as the very things you are fighting against. It’s sad, really. You have so much potential. The last succubus, the last serpent—you could do so much with your life, but you choose to fight people like me, people who simply understand the needs of the people, and do what they can to see those needs met.”

  “Fuck. You.” I managed.

  Elroy stared me in the eyes. “You may have roped four other idiots to give into your whims, but I won’t be swayed quite so easily. In fact—” Elroy’s eyes suddenly widened, and he put his hands up to protect himself, but two huge, dark masses came crashing into Elroy, sending him staggering back.

  It was Aiden and Leo!

  One of the shades swiped across Elroy’s chest, tearing across the shirt he was wearing and leaving three bleeding lines on his chest. The other shade circled around Elroy’s back, its form slightly transforming to that of a man but whose face was misshapen and nightmarish, pointed and entirely black, with eyes that burned like a fire made of blood. This shade drew a hand across the warlock’s back, causing him to stare into the ceiling and howl with pain. The invisible hand around my leg suddenly let go, and despite the pain, I took the opportunity to deliver a swift kick to one of Elroy’s knees, sending him toppling to the floor.

  Leo and Aiden manifested next to me in their normal, human bodies, their chests heaving, looking like gladiators as they towered over Elroy’s downed body. Meanwhile, rushing down the corridor, I could hear Vik, Liam, and Raph making their approach.

  “This way!” Vik said, his voice now as clear as day.

  Aiden moved to pin Elroy to the floor, but Leo stopped him. “Listen,” he said.

  There was a whistle in the air, a sound that seemed to float above another, deeper sound, like floorboards rumbling beneath many, many feet. As the seconds passed, the whisper became static, growing louder and louder. At first it sounded like advancing rain, but it wasn’t rain—it was the hissing of approaching vampires, and lots of them.

  Leo helped me up, and immediately I dashed back into the hall where Vik, Raph, and Liam were, but the hissing out here was louder. Worse, there were a number of doors on either side of the hall, and another stairwell heading into a floor above the one we were in. The hissing was all around us now, and as I scanned the hallway, it became apparent the vampires had a number of entry points to descend on us from.

  We were trapped.

  “How many are there!” I yelled.

  “Too many, we have to leave,” Leo said.

  “Leave? No! We almost have him!”

  “We don’t have anything, but we’re going to get killed if we stay!”

  “What about the sun gem?”

  “Fuck the sun gem! We need to get—”

  Leo suddenly staggered back, as if he’d been hit in the stomach and had the wind knocked out of him.

  “Leo!” I yelled, but he didn’t respond.

  I went to touch him, but my hand began to burn as soon as I got close, as if I had put it in front of an open flame. I sucked in a breath of air and pulled my hand away, then watched as an invisible hand punched Leo across the face, sending a splatter of blood across the floor. Leo steadied himself, but his legs were swept out from under him and he fell back.

  I screamed for Aiden, but when I turned to look at him, I saw him being held aloft by an invisible hand wrapped around his neck. Doors burst open on both sides of the corridors, and vampires came pouring out, hissing and snarling, and throwing themselves at anyone close enough. For a dazed moment I didn’t know what to do, who to help, but the choice became clear quickly enough. I turned to Leo, who seemed to be fighting off an invisible assailant hell-bent on trying to strangle him to death. His teeth were bloody, the veins on his neck were bulging and he couldn’t seem to be able to use his power to teleport out of harm’s way.

&n
bsp; Elroy had been hurt, but he wasn’t out of the fight, and he was keeping both Leo and Aiden busy.

  There was only one thing to do. I dove toward Leo, and as soon as I got close, my entire body began to burn, starting with my face, my chest, my arms. I could feel my skin sizzling, blistering. I screamed as I threw myself to the ground next to Leo and grabbed the sun gem, ripping it free from his chest and holding it up. Leo had told me all I had to do was think of the sun, wish for the magic to work, and the gem would activate.

  The pulse of light the gem gave off was as bright as the sun itself. I had to shut my eyes tight to shield them from the brilliance, but I could still sense it touching every corner of the room, its rays striking every single walking corpse, causing a cacophony of pained hissing to erupt around me. I could almost feel a vibration in my chest as the sun gem’s magic worked; a warm, soothing sensation that helped to dull the agony I was in, if only while the magic was in effect. But I leaned into it, exulting in the freedom I had been afforded from my own injuries.

  Until the gem’s magic wore off, and the pain came crashing back into me.

  I dropped the gem as I fell to the ground, no longer able to hold myself up with my own strength. But as I lay on the ground, staring at my surroundings, I noticed something. There was dust in the air, shimmering dust floating lazily along, and in the dust, there were people standing, some completely still, others writhing in pain. It’s ash, I thought, the gem worked.

  Though I was barely conscious at this point, I was conscious enough to see Vikram rushing to my side. He pressed his hands against my shoulder, and more soothing magic pulsed through me, only this time it didn’t only numb the pain, it began to take the pain away completely. I wanted to thank him, to hug him, but a shadow descend upon him. Using up all of my breath, I screamed at Vik to get out of the way, but it was too late.