by Kimbra Swain
“We have eyes on that elevator?” Abby asked.
“Yes. It’s being monitored. Tony and Tommy are here. They intend to stay until the last person is gone. Vince is in the back packing the last of his boxes. Jay went to his apartment to get a few last-minute items. Both of yours are already packed and gone. I was elbow-deep in Tadeas’ underwear drawer. Woo-hoo,” Ashley teased.
I blushed. Abby laughed. Ichiro shook his head and gave the “Sorry, dude” look. I just waved it off.
“Where are Aiden and Fayola?” Abby asked.
“They have already gone. Setting everything up in the new place,” Ashley said.
“Where is the new place?” I asked. They kept talking about it, but no one would say where it was. They all looked at each other.
“Oh, good grief, the new place is actually an abandoned town that was sold at auction several years ago. It has a very old west feel to it, to say the least. The unknown buyers, ahem, have owned the place since 2005. It’s a little town called Palisade, Nevada. No living underground for now. Two years ago, we started building homes, and restoring the buildings. Tommy and Tony have been working on technology to secure the town. We are going there ahead of schedule. It’s not completely ready. We will be spread out right now until security is set up completely,” Abby explained.
“Why was that hard?” I asked.
“Because I have a hush order on it. They aren’t allowed to talk about it. If you want to be upset about it, you may direct that toward me. Not keeping you out, just haven’t got there yet. As far as that goes, guys, Tadeas is part of us now. If I know it, he’s allowed to know it. Don’t assume he knows everything. The learning curve is going to be steep,” she said looking at me with raised eyebrows.
I nodded at her and accepted the explanation. I knew there were things I still didn’t know. I could roll with it now. Two weeks ago, maybe not so much, but now, I’m signed up for the long haul.
The doors to the lab opened, and Jay Stafford walked in. “Well, welcome back, you two,” he said with a smile on his face. Everyone in the room tensed. I could feel all of them holding their breath, except Abby, she just rolled her eyes. Jay walked up to me. He didn’t say anything. He just shook my hand. I nodded at him, and the tension left the room. Then he walked over to Abby and hugged her. She winced and pushed him away.
“Stop that, you goof,” she said smiling.
“Glad you are still with us,” he said quietly to her. She just nodded at him. He meant it. His feelings for her were real, and I understood why now. I understood how he could look at her with both love and pain. I knew that he would do anything for her, and that was good enough for me. He walked away, and I sat down on one of the couches and watched them all bustle about discussing which equipment in that room needed to be moved. Abby would occasionally look at me and smile. I watched her several times drift from the conversations. I knew the information George gave her weighed heavily on her heart. Frankly, none of it surprised me. I didn’t understand from the beginning why an archangel would be directly involved in a person’s life, and how she got chosen in the first place to carry the sword. I couldn’t put a name on it. She immediately thought the worst, an abomination. A child cursed because the act of an angel of God. George told her that she had real parents. I didn’t believe she was cursed. If anything, they blessed her with gifts beyond normal wielders. In return, the responsibility of the sword fell to her. All of these were assumptions on my part. Gabriel said he had faith in both of us. She had her responsibilities, and my responsibility involved taking care of her.
She came over and sat down next to me. “What are you thinking about?”
“Just everything from Paris to George in the vineyard,” I said.
“Conversations we can’t have here,” she said.
“Yeah I know. As long as you are holding up okay, I’m fine. You need more rest. How much longer are we going to be here?” I asked.
“A day or two. Just got to start getting this equipment upstairs. You prepared to use your muscle?” she asked pinching my bicep.
“What muscle?” I asked and watched her face turn from playful to embarrassed. I laughed. “I didn’t mean that muscle, Abby. Damn, your head is in a gutter.”
“No, that’s not what I thought,” she protested.
“The hell you didn’t!” I said. “I saw it all over your face.”
“Ashley, you got some boxes for Tadeas to take to the surface?” she asked.
“Deflecting,” I said.
“Shut up,” she said.
“Actually, I do, just paperwork and stuff. There is a van up there in the parking garage. Just put all of them in it. And try not to drop any of them. My filing system is going to be a mess to sort out,” Ashley explained.
“I can help,” Jay offered.
“Yea, me too. I need some fresh air,” Ichiro said.
We all grabbed boxes, and started out the door.
“We can revisit that conversation when I get back,” I teased.
“No, we can’t,” she shouted through the door. I just laughed. The guys looked at me and questioned. “Women!” I said.
“For real,” Jay said.
“Tell me about it,” Ichiro added.
Vince came out the door carrying two boxes and said, “What did I miss?” The three of us laughed. He looked puzzled.
We rode the elevator up in silence. When we got to the top, we walked through the abandoned building to the parking deck. I helped the guys load the boxes in, and we turned to go back toward the elevator. I stopped dead in my tracks. My body tensed. I searched the area for something off. Someone hiding. I couldn’t place it.
“What’s wrong, Tadeas?” Jay asked.
“Something is not right,” I said. Then it hit me, the intense smell of lavender and sage. “No, it can’t be. Did you all ever find Meredith?”
Ichiro said, “No, Tony and Tommy looked the compound up and down. They set trap spells throughout her apartment. In fact, her apartment hasn’t been cleaned out. We just left everything. Why?”
“She’s here. Or was here not very long ago.” I stayed tense.
Jay walked back into the abandoned offices and out the front door of the building. “He’s right. There is a car out here.”
I ran that way, but didn’t see the car. “What car?”
He waved his hand and the glamour on the car wobbled just enough for us to see it.
“Holy shit, she’s here,” I said.
Jay turned and sprinted to the elevator. “No Jay, don’t use the elevator. They have to get out,” I yelled. I’ll tell Abby, hang on. I concentrated on her. I could feel her much more strongly than I ever could before now, “Abby, you and Ashley need to come to the surface right now. Meredith is here somewhere. We need to go. Something's wrong.”
“Tommy and Tony already have Ashley in the elevator, they are on their way to the surface. I’m going down to warn the crews downstairs. Someone cut the power. We activated the emergency generator for the elevator. We will come up the secondary elevator. Go there and wait on me. I’m fine.”
“No!” I screamed gritting my teeth.
“What is it?” Ichiro said.
“Ashley, Tommy and Tony are coming up in the elevator. The power is out in the facility. Abby went downstairs to get the people out of the training center. As soon as they get up here, I’m going down after her. You guys get in the van and head toward Boulder, okay?” I said giving them orders. Vince was already running back to the van. I heard him crank it up.
“I’m going with you,” Jay said.
“No, we already have one too many people down there. I’ll go. You get them out of here Jay. She would want you to,” I said.
He shook his head no. I knew what was going through his head. The doors to the elevator opened and as Ashley started to step out the ground started to shake beneath us. A low rumble. “What the fuck is that?” Jay said.
“Go! To the van now! Go!” I yelled.
&n
bsp; Ichiro ran to Ashley, and they ran hand in hand to the van. Tommy and Tony were close behind. I watched them all get in. The shaking was very subtle. Ashley screamed back at me, “Don’t you leave without her!”
“I won’t,” I said and went into the elevator as the ground continued to rumble.
“Abby, earthquake?”
“She’s here. She’s going to bring it all down.”
“I’m coming down the elevator, come to me. Let’s go. This is one of those moments when we run. There is nothing to stay and fight for now,” I tried to persuade her.
“She’s got Blake,” she said.
“Abby, Blake knows what he signed up for, you meet me at the elevator. What floor are you on?”
“One,” she said.
“It had to be the fucking bottom!” I screamed to the elevator, and punched the button for the training center floor. I reached down to my ankle, and pulled out the 9mm I’d carried with me since Paris. I checked it for ammo. I had reloaded it on the island. I looked at the counter for the elevator. The elevator stopped on four. Just a few more floors and I could get us both out of here. The earth started to shake harder, and the elevator stopped. It felt like one of the cables snapped. I grabbed the doors and forced them open. Fortunately, I wasn’t between floors, I pushed the outer doors open and stepped out in the hallway near Abby’s office. I hit the stairwell and sprinted down steps until I got to the bottom. I busted through the bottom door screaming her name, “ABBY! WHERE ARE YOU?” I could feel her nearby. I ran down the hallway to the cafeteria. When I rushed through the doors, a large gaping hole widened in the center of the room. Meredith stood on the other side with her hand raised toward Blake who was pinned against the wall by her force. Abby stood right in front of me near the edge of the hole.
“Meredith, please let him go. He’s not a part of this. You don’t want to kill anyone,” Abby said.
“Well, Tadeas, I’m glad you could join us. I’ve missed you. I came back here just for you and Abby. I knew we had some unfinished business,” she said to me.
I walked up behind Abby, and stood close to her. I didn’t aim the gun at Meredith. I kept it down, but I had a bullet chambered and ready to go. “Let’s just go. The elevator is broken. We need to take the portal,” I said to her.
“Damn Tadeas. That’s heartless. Even Abby wants to try to save Blake. Some friend you are. All those classes he covered for you, so you could go around fucking your new girlfriend,” she seethed anger. Blake looked terrified, but resigned to his fate. I knew there were others down here with him. I did not know whether they had gotten out or had fallen into the hole.
I was determined to ignore her. I put my hand on Abby’s back and leaned into her ear, “Please Abby, this whole place is going to come down on top of us. Let’s go.”
“She doesn’t want to go. She wants to know why I’m doing this,” Meredith said as the earth shook harder. The emergency lights went out. Meredith immediately called to her hand an orb of light that illuminated the room.
“She has a way out or she wouldn’t be here,” Abby said.
“Yes, but we don’t. Let’s go,” I said, and reached to pull her out of there by force if I had to. The earth shook again and the hole grew. I latched on to her and lunged back toward the door as the earth opened beneath us both. We scrambled closer to the door as the hole grew. I looked at her desperately. “Please, let's go, Abby.”
She finally nodded, and I pulled her off the floor with me. I opened the cafeteria door, and we ran out. As we ran down the hallway, Meredith came through cafeteria door and threw a wave of force at us. Abby latched onto my wrist on top of the bracelet that she made for me, and murmured “Resus.” The wave ripped tiles and brick from the walls, but blew past us. We remained unmoved. I raised the gun and pointed it at her. “No,” Abby yelled and pushed it back down. She stood between Meredith and I. “You would never forgive yourself. I won’t let you kill her.”
“How sweet, she doesn’t want you to have to live with killing me. I assure you Tadeas, your little gun wouldn’t do anything to me. You see, I’m far more powerful than either of you know. You know how easy it is for me to pick out someone that’s binding their magic? It’s easy because I bound my own. Diluvio.”
Once she spoke the word, the water rushed in the hallway like the water pipes had burst. The whole floor started filling with water. The ground shook harder. Abby started backing up toward me keeping her eye on Meredith. “I’m watching her. Guide me to the door.”
“You know Tadeas, I’ve got a way out of here. You can come with me, as long as you agree to leave her behind. I’m sure someone will come along to save her. Someone always does. She should have died long, long ago, and yet here she is. She is a plague. Everywhere she goes people die. It’s her fault poor Blake fell in the hole back there. It’s her fault that Travis and Samantha were killed by a sex-crazed necromancer.”
“Almost there, keep backing up to me. Once we hit the door, you go up the steps as fast as you can, I’ll follow.”
“Tadeas, you won’t be able to get out that way. I made sure the elevator was sabotaged. I’m actually thankful you made it down in it. I surprised you didn’t plummet to your death coming after her. She will be the death of you. Or they will torture you like they did poor Lukas. Turned him into a monster just to punish her. He lives a life of torment, because he loved her. Then she left him. She will do the same to you when you are no longer useful to her.”
“Oh Meredith, shut the fuck up, we are leaving together, or we don’t leave at all. I don’t give a rip about your diatribe,” I said. She reached her hand forward, and pulled it back toward her like she was playing tug of war. The door behind me exploded forward and hit me in the back. I hit the water hard, and I felt blood running down my cheek. I stood up, but it was too late to stop Abby. She charged Meredith hitting her in the mid-section, and they both went sliding back down the hallway in the water. It rose up to our knees. The concrete walls started to crack as the earth rumbled. Meredith shoved Abby off of her, and launched a fireball the size of a basketball at Abby.
Abby screamed, “Murus.” She lifted her hands upward and the water rose from the floor making a wall in front of her. The fireball hit it and died out. She looked back at me, and I waved her back to me. She started walking backwards with her hand up guiding the wall of water back in front of her. Meredith jumped through the wall, and tackled Abigail to her back. She wrapped her hands around her neck and held her head under the water. I rushed her, and as I hit her, I felt a stinging sensation in my side. I pulled away from Meredith, and she smiled at me as the dagger she had in her hand slowly retracted from my body. It hurt like hell, but it wasn’t going to stop me. I turned and ran back to Abby. She raised up out of the water after almost being drowned. I didn’t stop my momentum, and she turned to run with me as I reached her. We almost got to the steps with a shadow figure coalesced between us and the stairs. We stopped, and stared at Nalusa Chito.
“I do believe my partner, Miss Spence, isn’t quite done with the two of you just yet,” he said calmly as the ground shook and the water rose. Abby turned to face Meredith, and I kept my eyes on Chito.
“He’s right. I was just getting to the good part when you rudely interrupted,” Meredith said.
“What do we do?”
“I don’t know. I’m out of ideas. I can’t fight them both.”
“Don’t give up. Just be patient. Wait for an opening.” I could hear the resignation in her voice in my head. We were pinned in an underground bunker that was about to come down on our heads. If it didn’t, the water would rise and drown us. Or we could go with option three which was being blown to bits by a sorcerer and his partner, my ex-best friend. I felt her shudder.
“If you shift planes, you can get out of here, and I will cover you,” she said quietly.
“I am not having this discussion with you right now,” I replied.
“I had to try,” she said.
“Ah y
es, the reality is sinking in. She is going to be responsible for the death of another partner. Another lover down. Because I assure you Tadeas, she will live. They always find a way for her to live like her life is any more important than yours, or mine, or Lincoln’s,” she spouted.
I felt fiery anger well up in Abigail. “You have no right to speak his name. Don’t you ever speak his name again,” Abby screamed at her. She had nothing left she could do, but lash out verbally. I nodded to Chito, and turned my back on him. Something struck me that this wasn’t his fight. He just observed. I put my arms around her waist. I could feel the power surging through her. She could probably strike Meredith down cleanly if she wanted to do so.
“I have every right to speak his name. He was my blood. Mine, not yours. You took him from me,” Meredith screamed.
Abby gasped and backed into me. “No, you aren’t.”
“I am. He abandoned me for you,” Meredith said.
I squeezed her tighter. “I don’t know what this is Abby, but you need to think of a way to get us out of here.” She did not respond to me.
“No, we looked for you,” Abby said. “We looked everywhere for you.”
“I didn’t want you. I wanted him. He was my father. You had no right to him. You should have let him go. You should have let him find me,” Meredith said.
“Madre de Dios,” I said.
“That’s right Tadeas. There was a time when Lincoln couldn’t stand the sight of Abby. He fell in love with my mother. He abandoned us for her. I searched my whole life for him, but every time I found him, he was with this filthy bitch.”
“We wanted to find you Meredith. We wanted a family,” Abby cried.
“She took him from me, Tadeas. She let him die. He gave up his only child to die, because he loved her,” Meredith screamed with tears streaming down her face. “She will ruin you. She does not love you. She is using you for her own purposes.”
