Each mythic pulled out a wand with a red stone on the end. They spoke the incantation, their words lost in the splashing clamor, and the end of each artifact lit with a faint glow. Was I supposed to have one of those?
Zora answered my unspoken question by holding out a spare, the end already lit with magic. “Gotcha covered, Robin. Cameron, you have the gas meter, so take the lead.”
Cameron grinned at his team and splashed away from the chute. My chest constricted as I fell into step beside Zora, last in line.
What on earth was I, a bookworm who didn’t practice magic, doing down here?
We followed the tunnel, water pushing on the backs of our legs. I was here because Amalia and I needed to find out why vampires were searching for Uncle Jack. While I tackled the “bloodsucking monsters” angle, she was searching for her father the old-fashioned way—by asking everyone who knew him for information. I wished we could switch jobs.
“So,” Darren began, raising his voice above the water’s clamor. He glanced back at me. “How many vampires have you tagged, Robin?”
“Three.”
He hesitated. He’d probably expected me to say none. “I suppose it isn’t difficult for a contractor. All you have to do is stand there while your demon does all the work.”
Darren had no idea how right he was.
“Vampire hunting is a bit different when you have to get your hands dirty. Ever been bitten, Robin?”
“No.” I glanced at Zora. “Wouldn’t I turn into a vampire?”
“A bite increases the risk of infection,” she said. “As long as you get to a healer fast enough, the infection rate is less than one percent.”
“Assuming you survive long enough to reach a healer,” Darren called back. “A bite will put you down like a shot of horse tranquilizer. Once a vamp starts sucking on you, you can’t do a damn thing to stop it.”
I cringed fearfully.
“Oh,” he added, “and unlike shifters, there’s no spell, potion, or exorcism that can save you if you do get infected.”
“Thanks, Darren.” Zora adjusted her sword hilt. “I love when teammates bolster each other’s confidence. I’ll remember it next time I put together a job.”
He shot an alarmed look over his shoulder.
“Let’s stay focused,” she called to the group. “Echoes carry far in here and we don’t want to tip off the nest—if there is one.”
I looked down at my blood tracker, but the faint red glow hadn’t brightened. No sign of trouble yet.
Our headlamps flickered and flashed across the tunnel in dizzying patterns as we sloshed downstream. Small pipes connected with the main tunnel at regular intervals, disgorging frothing spouts riddled with leaves, mud, and bits of garbage. The water level crept over my knees.
“Heads up,” Laetitia called back.
I looked up and my light beam hit the tunnel’s slimy ceiling. A swarm of two- and three-inch-long cockroaches scuttled away from the light. Shuddering, I sloshed faster.
The tunnel gradually widened as more pipes connected to it, dumping runoff into the system. My breath puffed from exertion and foul air coated my mouth. Was it my imagination, or was the current picking up?
“Okay!” Zora called just loud enough to grab everyone’s attention. We clustered around her. “A hundred yards farther along, this tunnel empties into the main channel, and that’s where we’ve found nests in the past. Laetitia, you have our safety line?”
The tall hydromage pulled a coil of climbing rope from under her overalls, the end clinking with a dozen heavy carabiner clips.
“Good. We’ll approach the end of this tunnel with caution. If our blood trackers light, that’s it, we’re done. We know they’re here. If they don’t light, we’ll have to descend into the main channel. It has a walkway along one side that should be above the water. We’ll start by—”
A foaming wave splashed into our group, almost throwing Zora and me off our feet. Drew grabbed my arm and Cameron supported Zora, the taller mythics bracing against the increased current. The water broke across my thighs.
“Zora!” Laetitia’s voice was sharp with warning. “The water is rising too fast. It must be raining upstream.”
“Get the safety line ready. There’s a drain access just ahead. Move!”
Laetitia and Darren rushed forward while Cameron and Drew held on to me and Zora, helping us stay grounded as the water rose up to my hips. I stuffed my blood tracker down the front of my shirt as we waded after them.
Metal ladder rungs protruded from the cement wall, and Laetitia clipped carabiners onto the lowest rung. She snapped one onto a sturdy loop built into her fitted combat vest, then tossed the rope to Darren. He clipped himself in, then slung the rope to Cameron.
A deep roar was growing louder, the cacophony rolling down the tunnel from somewhere upstream.
Cameron snapped a carabiner onto his vest, then clipped Zora in as the water broke over my waist. Drew caught another loop of rope, one arm hooked around me, and snapped himself in. He held a carabiner out to me.
I stared at it in terror.
His eyes widened as he realized what no one had noticed before: I wasn’t in combat gear like they were. I wasn’t wearing a fitted, secure, heavy-duty vest with loops that could be clipped onto the line.
The deafening roar boomed in warning.
Drew snapped the clip over the strap of my overalls, then grabbed me by the waist and heaved me toward the wall. Cameron and Darren gripped my arms, fingers biting down hard. Our headlamps flashed as we all looked up the tunnel.
A frothing wall of water charged toward us.
Laetitia thrust her hands out. The wave bent as though diverted by an invisible barrier, but the water level kept climbing.
“Get out!” Laetitia gasped, arms trembling.
Drew threw Zora up into the chute. He must’ve added a boost of telekinesis, because she flew upward and grabbed the ladder rungs. She climbed for the hatch, boots slipping on the rungs, and Drew caught me next. As Darren and Cameron released my arms, he heaved me out of the waist-deep water.
Laetitia’s sharp cry rang out as water smashed into her. Her invisible diversion vanished and the full force of the torrent hit us.
The impact slammed me into the concrete wall, my hard hat bouncing off a ladder rung. As the water struck them, Cameron and Darren made wild grabs for me, but the raging current swept us all off our feet.
The safety line snapped taut. The men jerked to a halt, water breaking over them. Hanging by my overalls’ strap, I flailed desperately as icy liquid hammered my head. I couldn’t see, could scarcely breathe.
“Robin!” a voice shouted urgently.
Water pounded over me, pulling hard on my overalls. They’d become an underwater parachute, the current dragging at them with inexorable force. I stretched my arm up, blindly searching for the rope. My fingers brushed the braided cord.
The plastic buckle on my overalls snapped.
Chapter Eleven
The violent torrent whipped me down the tunnel on a foaming wave, gaining speed by the second. My headlamp flashed across the concrete walls and illuminated a square opening ahead. The water echoed even louder.
The end of the tunnel. I sucked in a breath and clamped my hand over my nose.
I shot out of the tunnel like it was the world’s most terrifying waterslide and plunged into deeper water. My hard hat tore off my head, the light spinning away. I caught a glimpse of the cavernous new tunnel I’d fallen into. Water poured in on both sides from huge pipes, and a platform ran along the right side, with drains gushing down onto it.
My tumbling headlamp blinked out and darkness swept in.
As I spun in the deluge, I shoved the remaining strap of my overalls off. The water tore the garment away and I kicked, hands flailing in search of a solid surface. My bulky coat dragged me under.
I yanked the zipper down and my head dunked beneath the freezing water. As I was sucked into the spiraling turbulence wher
e a pipe dumped into the main channel, I ripped my jacket off and let the water take it too. Freed of its weight, I kicked back to the surface.
When my head broke free, I gasped. Light! Dim light illuminated the channel and the platform speeding past me. I flung my hands out, reaching frantically for a handhold as the water carried me along. My fingers scraped across the rough concrete, then caught on a lip.
I jarred to a painful halt. The current pulled at me, splashing over my face and filling my mouth. I spat, coughed, and shook the water from my eyes. My handhold was a one-foot-diameter pipe. Hooking my arm into it, I felt upward with the other and found the edge of the platform.
Gasping for air, I dragged one leg up and stuck my foot into the hole. A terrified voice in the back of my head screamed I couldn’t do it, that I’d slip and fall and drown. I grabbed the ledge and launched myself upward as hard as I could. Arms grasping at the slick concrete, I heaved myself onto the solid platform. The water rushed by, dark as ink in the dim light.
Lying on my back, I panted harshly, my throat aching and limbs trembling. I was alive. Somehow.
The infernus under my drenched sweater pulsed, a brief flash of heat and vibration. With unsteady arms, I pushed myself into a sitting position and reached into my shirt. My numb fingers found a smooth stick. I tugged the blood tracker out and dropped it beside me, then slid the infernus out of my sweater.
“Zylas,” I rasped.
Red light flared across it. The power ballooned into his shape and he solidified beside me in a final blaze.
“Drādah.” He crouched, swiftly assessing my condition. “Are you hurt?”
I coughed up water. “Don’t think so.”
“I could feel your fear. You did not call me!”
Startled by his angry exclamation, I waved vaguely at the water. “I couldn’t. You might’ve drowned. Do you know how to swim?”
“Var! Why would I not swim?”
He wrapped his hands around my arms and pulled me up. I wobbled, my knees trembling and teeth chattering. Water dripped off my clothes and pooled around my feet.
“Where is this place?” he asked sharply.
“Under the c-c-city,” I chattered. “Need to f-f-find a way t-to the s-s-surface.”
He stared around, hands tightening on my arms, then pushed me backward until I bumped into the side of the channel, as far from the water as possible.
“Wait here,” he ordered. “I will find a way out.”
“I’ll c-come too. We should s-stay t—”
“You are slow. I will be faster.”
As he stepped away, I grabbed his wrist. My breath rasped with a hysterical edge. “Don’t leave me alone.”
His eyes moved across my face, his dark, dilated pupils more pronounced than usual in the red glow. A wolfish smile pulled at his lips, flashing one pointed canine. “Na, drādah, did you forget?”
“Forget w-what?”
He tapped a claw against the infernus. “I am never far from you. Now be drādah ahktallis and wait here. Quietly.”
Pulling away from my hand, he prowled swiftly down the platform and ducked through the spray falling from a four-foot-diameter pipe high on the channel wall. With a snap of his barbed tail, he disappeared.
Drādah ahktallis. “Smart prey.” If Zylas wanted me to wait quietly, then I would wait quietly.
I sucked in air, my whole body trembling. My coat would’ve drowned me if I hadn’t discarded it, but I regretted its loss anyway. The damp chill permeated my skin and my sweater stuck to my body. I slid down the wall and curled into a tight ball, my arms tucked between my stomach and my thighs.
Seconds dragged into minutes. I lost all sense of time as I shivered in the dim light. My gaze darted across the pipes and tunnels that vomited frothing water into the main channel. Had I fallen from one of those, or was that tunnel farther upstream, out of sight?
Would the others search for me? Had the rising water forced them back to the surface? I squinted nervously at the underground river, but it would take way more water to flood this massive channel. Hard to believe all this existed beneath the downtown streets, unseen by the hundreds of thousands of people who walked above it every day.
At least it wasn’t a sewer. It stank like rotting things, but it wasn’t that bad. Though my shivering continued, I didn’t feel as cold anymore. And it wasn’t pitch dark either. I glanced toward a small bulb, leaking a faint orange glow, that dangled from a black wire looped around a fat, rusty nail. The wire trailed along the wall to another nail and matching bulb twenty feet away. Crude, but better than darkness.
Nerves prickled through me but I had no idea why.
I wished Zylas would hurry. My muscles were tired from shivering and my body ached. Plus, I was tired. So tired I could scarcely keep my head up. How long had he been gone? Shouldn’t he be back by now?
Blinking drowsily, I wondered why everything had a reddish haze. Was there something wrong with my vision? The friendly little light bulb glowed orange. It wasn’t red, so what …
The marble-like end of the blood-tracker artifact, lying in the middle of the platform where I’d dropped it, was blazing with scarlet light.
Lips quirking, I pushed my cold, weary body up. My numb feet stumbled across the floor, and it took my clumsy fingers three tries to pick up the narrow stick. Straightening, I watched the tracker’s red light glint off the wet walls. The jewel glowed even brighter. My dull thoughts prodded at the realization, trying to remember what it meant. Shivers racked my exhausted body.
Warm air brushed across the back of my neck as an unfamiliar voice said, “What’s a pretty little thing like you doing down here?”
Strong arms pulled me back into a solid body. A hand closed over my jaw and forced my head to one side. Terror burst through me, clearing the drowsy haze from my mind.
A wet mouth closed over the side of my neck and teeth sank into my skin. Pain shot into my collarbone, spreading from the sharp fangs buried in my flesh. Numbness swept outward in the wake of the pain, bringing intense dizziness with it.
My legs buckled. The vampire held me against his chest, mouth clamped on my neck. Numbness deadened my limbs. I twitched helplessly, the concrete platform swimming in my vision.
Then I remembered.
Daimon, hesychaze! The command screamed through my head, laced with terror. For an agonizing heartbeat, nothing happened. The vampire gulped down another mouthful of my blood.
The infernus jumped against my chest. Heat burned through my wet sweater.
A streak of crimson light burst out of the channel’s ceiling like it was an illusion instead of solid concrete. The power leaped downward, hit the infernus, and shot right back out. Zylas materialized in front of me, his eyes blazing as brightly as his power.
The vampire’s head jerked up—and Zylas’s glowing talons shot past my face. Bone crunched. The vampire’s arms fell away and I crumpled. Zylas caught me, sweeping me against him.
“Kasht!” he hissed. “Drādah, can you hear me?”
I couldn’t close my sagging mouth, let alone form words. My limbs spasmed as I fought to stand under my own power.
I can’t move. Panic screeched in my head. I can’t move!
“The vampire bite. The hh’ainun warned of it.” He pressed a hand to my cheek, his palm blazing hot. “You are too cold. Your heart has slowed.”
Considering my level of terror, my heart should’ve been racing. A stinging sensation built in my neck and the alarming numbness slowly morphed into cold and pain.
Crimson power flickered, followed by a strange buzz of magic that slid into my body from beneath his hand. “I do not know the vīsh to fix you.”
Just get us out of here!
“We will leave,” he agreed, scooping me up into his arms. “I found a way—”
He broke off, looking down. With a huge effort, I forced my head to turn.
The blood-tracker artifact lay on the concrete, dropped yet again. It had dimmed when the vamp
ire died, but it was brightening fast. And this time, my thoughts were clear enough that I knew what it meant.
Vampires are coming!
Chapter Twelve
Zylas heard my telepathic warning. Holding my limp form, he kicked the artifact off the platform, then jammed his foot against the dead vampire and shoved. The body rolled limply. With a second kick, it tumbled over the edge and hit the black water with a splash.
He took two quick steps, then froze, head cocked as he listened. Hissing under his breath, he threw me over his shoulder, the air whooshing from my lungs. With a powerful leap, he grabbed the lip of a pipe high on the wall and hauled us up with one arm, then pushed me into the confined space.
Water drenched my front. Zylas shoved me in deeper, then crawled in after me. As I spluttered helplessly, he tugged on the back of my sweater to get my head out of the water.
“Quiet,” he whispered.
Somewhere in the main channel, voices echoed beneath the ever-present noise.
Zylas scooted deeper into the pipe’s confines, pushing me ahead of him. Icy water washed over me, stealing the last of my body heat. I shivered violently as more sensation returned to my body.
With half his attention on the opening into the main channel, Zylas reached for his shoulder. His dexterous fingers snapped across the leather straps of his chest plate and they came apart. He shoved the armor off so it hung behind his left arm, then lifted the fabric underlayer over his head.
Beneath the numbing cold and fear, confusion buzzed through my head.
He unbuckled his armguard and set it just above the line of flowing water, then stripped the fabric from his arms.
“What …” I slurred in a whisper, “are … you …”
Turning to me, he grasped the bottom of my sweater and pulled it up.
I squeaked in disbelief, feebly twisting away. He dragged the soaked material over my head and tossed it aside. I forced my shaking arms up to cover my bra.
Zylas! I cried furiously in my head. Stop—
His hands closed around my waist. Vertigo swept over me as he pulled me up—and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on top of him as he leaned back into the curved pipe, his knees bent and feet pressed against the opposite side.
Slaying Monsters for the Feeble: The Guild Codex: Demonized / Two Page 10
