“It’s disgusting,” I said.
“Yes,” he agreed.
“How do you know about it?” I asked.
“It’s my business to know about it,” he said. He hesitated. “Did you get a look at the girl?” he asked.
It was obvious he was afraid of even bringing up the possibility that the girl was Alex.
“It’s not her,” I said.
“She has blonde hair,” Reaper pointed out.
“It’s not her,” I said again. “I can still feel Alex. She’s alive.”
The pulse of light and energy in my chest had not faded. In fact, it had grown stronger. It was the pulse of Alex being near. The pull was from the bottom of the cavern. She was alive and she was still a Nightstalker. I could tell that much.
“This complicates things,” Reaper said. “They have patrols. It’d be my guess that these tunnels connect to the fortress somehow. They probably keep prisoners somewhere in here…away from the Watchers inside. It’s less noisy when they get around to killing.”
“Prisoners…” I said in a low, thoughtful voice.
“We don’t have time for another rescue mission,” Reaper warned me. “And if we do try to free them, it might mean that Han and Beatrice don’t get rescued.”
His words were rough logic. A price had to be paid for what we were trying to accomplish. I couldn’t risk Han and Beatrice’s rescue on a foolish idea that I could save everyone. I had learned my lesson on that regard.
“You’re right…of course, you’re right,” I said.
“Where do you feel Alex?” he asked.
“Down there,” I said. “In a tunnel to our left. She’s getting further away, though.”
“We need to be quiet and fast,” he said. “We’ll try to hide from the patrols, but if we can’t evade them…we have to take them out as quickly as possible.”
“I understand,” I said.
“Sparing lives is for times when we’re not at war,” he added. “It’s deadly to be kind.”
“I understand,” I repeated.
I didn’t like the idea, but I knew we would have to do whatever it took to survive. The Seekers would not be so generous as to keep us alive, if it came down to it.
“We should leave the light here,” Reaper added. “It’s too risky to keep it on us.”
“I can’t see very well in the dark,” I pointed out.
“Do you have a lighter?” he asked.
“No,” I replied.
He took out his – a silver one with wings on either side – and handed it to me. It was a lighter than only those inducted in to the ranks of the Saints carried.
“Use it only if you need it,” he said.
I nodded and stuck the lighter in to my pocket.
“You lead the way,” he added.
“Thanks,” I said dryly.
I pulled my knife out of my boot and, my body held low, I walked back out in to the massive cavern. The stench of death was overwhelming as I made my way down the narrow trail. My eyes kept moving to the girl left to rot on the cave floor. My ears were alert for the sound of patrols or Nightstalkers. My heart pounded in my chest with preternatural alertness. I was in unusual circumstances, but I had never felt more at home. I knew what to do. The violent impulses were easy. My body knew how to respond without my brain having to tell it what to do. I realized the violent impulses were getting easier. I wasn’t sure if it was the torture I had endured or my looming birthday. I just knew killing wasn’t as hard as it used to be. It didn’t help that the missions I went on for Reaper – usually with Daniel at my side – always included violence of some sort. It was becoming second nature. It was a nature I feared beyond words.
We reached the bottom of the cavern without incident. No Watchers or Nightstalkers came out of the depths of the many tunnels to attack us. I took that as a hopeful sign that there was less in the tunnels than my imagination had conceived.
The tunnel I felt drawn toward was empty as well. I ducked in to it, Reaper hot on my heels, and cautiously made my way down it. It was a taller tunnel, the tops of it reaching up in to a different kind of darkness. I felt life at the top – bats. Our feet were soon covered in their droppings. It made walking complicated and stealth difficult. The tunnel moved downward and our pace became a gentle slide as the droppings made ‘walking’ in the normal sense impossible. It was more ‘slipping’ than anything.
The feeling of Alex tugged me onward.
Other sounds permeated the dark as slid down the tunnel. Rock sliding against rock, voices that echoed back a thousand times from caves either very far away or very close – it was hard to tell. The sound of breathing and the dull hum of electricity was a never-ending call that people were somewhere nearby.
The sounds of humanity slowly got closer. After an hour of walking, we found their source. Reaper pulled me in to a recess in the tunnel when he saw what was ahead of us. He face was doubtful as he took in the scenery.
It was another cavern, larger than the first. It was wide and irregular, carved out of stone by millennia of flowing water. I sensed the water far below, between a gorge in the cavern. I could barely hear the water moving and knew it was a mile down, at least. Crude stone bridges spanned across the gorge at regular intervals. Yellow lights lit the impossibly large space. Cords ran to buildings, which then led to generators. The generators all had cords that collected at a central tunnel that went out of sight. Collections of buildings were spaced throughout the massive cavern, some high, some low. The buildings were forged out of the very rock they sat on. There was no hint of tool used on the rock. It looked as if the buildings had merely shaped themselves of their own freewill. Reaper’s face told another story.
He held out his hand to explain, seeing the questioning look in my eyes. I took his hand, feeling odd about sharing my thoughts with anyone beyond Daniel. Reaper’s mind was as foreign as Daniel’s, but the strong pressure of thought was not there. His mind lacked the overwhelming power Daniel’s held, though his mind was still powerful enough.
They have a person who can shape rock. This person can change rock and bend it to their will. It’s how they carved the fortress…it’s how they carved the buildings here.
What does that mean? I asked.
It means that if we run in to him or her, they could seal us up in the stone forever.
I suppose we should avoid that, then, I said. I pointed to the buildings formed out of the rock. What are those buildings? Do you know?
Prisons as well outposts, to keep an eye on things. I think this is one of the outlying areas. The first of several, I’m sure. Marcus is a fan of redundancy.
Can we get by, without being seen? I asked.
Reaper’s eyes narrowed and he looked at the collection of buildings again. People were moving along the buildings – Seekers keeping an eye on things. Nightstalkers moved where there weren’t people. The Seekers and Nightstalkers kept to themselves, herded in to separate areas. The Nightstalkers had collars on and a deadly burning passion for death in their eyes. The Seekers outnumbered the Nightstalkers, but I wasn’t eager to face down either group. The Seekers had on black robes with a red insignia in the middle of their chest. It was the same insignia – a snake eating its own tail – I had seen in Marcus’ nest in New Orleans.
How closely do you think they’ll look at our faces if we’re wearing a robe? Reaper asked.
I watched as Seekers came and went. No one paid them any attention. No one stood guard, to make sure they were who they said they were. They trusted their scouts and their reputation to keep enemies at bay. They weren’t counting on two crazy people who were in search of a friend.
I think it’s time to go Seeker hunting, I said.
Reaper smirked back and dropped his hand. He pointed to the building closest to us. It was small. Through the glassless window, I saw three guards, playing cards and drinking. One guard was on the outside, keeping an eye on things. The guard was helpfully keeping an eye on the opposite s
ide of the cavern from us. His back was to us, the perfect opening.
Reaper looked at me once – a question on his face. He wanted to know if I was ready to take them down. I nodded and gripped my knife with more determination. There was no choice, if we were to find Alex before she got hurt.
Reaper slid around the corner of the tunnel on silent feet; ghosts made more noise than him. I followed him closely, doing my best to be just as noiseless. We kept our bodies low, so that the guards couldn’t see us through the window. We finally reached the guard. Reaper didn’t waste time with artificial moves designed to impress. He grabbed the guard from behind and broke his neck with a signal maneuver. His task done, he gently lowered the man to the ground. Then, he put his hand on the door. My body raced with adrenaline, and I felt as if there was nothing keeping me from the void of violence we were about to enter.
He opened the door and I went in first. The men around the table scrambled to their feet when they saw us, but we didn’t give them time to respond. I grabbed the man closest to me and stabbed him in the throat. He toppled over, blood running out of his wound. I pulled my knife out and looked for another enemy, my heart beating faster with the action. But there was no one left to face. Reaper had killed both men in the time it had taken me to kill one. I hadn’t noticed. I had been so focused on the one guy.
My breathing heavy and irregular, I wiped my knife off on the pant leg of the man I had killed. It was weird to kill a man after sneaking up on him. Usually, I found myself in situations where fighting was the only option. It felt mercenary to do it Reaper’s way. It was worse in that it was so necessary. Reaper understood the emotions pounding through my chest.
“Are you okay?” Reaper asked in a quiet voice.
“Peachy,” I said dryly.
“You look like you’re about to be sick.”
I swallowed the bile in my throat and fixed my expression.
“I’m fine,” I said.
Take this,” he said.
He held out one of the robes to me. I put the robe on mechanically and watched as Reaper drug the first guard he had killed in to the room. Our disguises on, we stepped out and closed the door behind us, sealing away the bodies of the dead.
“Try to look casual,” Reaper warned.
“Yeah, right,” I said.
“Which way?” he asked.
I had to focus doubly hard to find the pulse that was Alex. It was masked by the people walking around the cavern and by the distance that had formed between us while Reaper and I had claimed our robes. I felt her to our left, running down another tunnel directly across from us. A bridge and two more small outposts were in our way – not to mention the crude prisons that dotted the area.
“That way,” I said, pointing out the path to Reaper.
I tucked my knife in to the pocket of the loose-fitting robe and did my best to look as if I belonged. I kept my face impassive and tried to stop my heart from beating so fast. Sweat poured down my back; the weight of my winter clothes added to the adrenaline-induced sweat I was already experiencing. As we passed our first Seeker in the cave, I felt there was nothing keeping her from knowing we didn’t belong. The Seeker barely glanced at us, however. Disinterest was in her black eyes. She didn’t care for anything beyond where she was going.
I let out a low sigh when she passed us. My confidence increased with the meeting. I walked an even pace through the prisons, past the guards. I did my best to ignore the prisoners in their cells, but it was difficult. Many of them were human, which meant their thoughts of terror reached out and brushed me with alarming strength. It was all I could do to keep walking and not free every last one. I sensed Reaper battling the same impulse. Neither of us was geared toward letting innocent people suffer.
Finally, we were past the guards. We moved in to a different tunnel. It was smaller, quiet. The feeling of Alex was close, closer than it had been on the other side. She had slowed down. She was no longer running.
I walked faster, wanting to catch up with her before she escaped again. I knew if I could just get to her everything would be okay. I could talk her down and make her see reason. Sound reached out to us as I hurried toward the feeling of her presence. It was snarling, yelling, and the sound of people crying out in pain. There was also the sound of bone against bone. Ripping. Tearing. Slashing.
There was another fight. I had no doubt that this one involved Alex.
Reaper close on my heels, we reached the end of the tunnel. It opened up in to a much smaller cavern that looked more like a crossroads than a proper outpost. There was another network of tunnels branching off in all directions. In the center of the cavern there were fifteen Nightstalkers; they were all fighting. Three men circled the Nightstalkers, looking for a way to break up the fight. All of the Nightstalkers, except for one, wore collars. The one without a collar had milky white eyes I recognized. Alex had finally found trouble.
The Nightstalkers were fighting her, ganging up on the newcomer with a vengeance that was terrifying. Alex wasn’t going down easily. She tore in to the others, meeting tooth and claw with tooth and claw. She held her ground. She kept the others at bay with her fierce anger, though wounds appeared in her flesh. Their superior numbers were wearing her down.
The three men used their electric sticks to fight their way through the Nightstalkers. They were indiscriminate about who they shocked, they just cared about keeping order. One of them reached Alex. He put the stick to her side and shocked her as he had the others. She roared in anger at the unfamiliar feeling of the electricity against her skin– the shock didn’t cowl her as it had the others. It just made her angrier. She tore in to the man without pause. She killed him easily, without mercy.
When he was in pieces, Alex roared again. The other Nightstalkers backed away from her, finally giving her space. The two men that were left backed away as well. As they backed away, they pulled out guns. They were through with cowling her in to submitting. They were going to kill her. They would not think twice. They did not waste time with creatures who did not behave.
My heart caught in my throat as they raised their guns in tandem and pointed at Alex. I felt frozen. There was not enough time. I could not reach them or Alex before they fired. I was about to lose my best friend and there was nothing I could do about it.
Chapter 4
I had forgotten that Reaper was carrying a gun…two of them.
He didn’t know that the Nightstalker was really Alex. He didn’t need to know. He saw my face and knew that the guys with guns were about to do something we would all regret.
He shot them both before they could adapt to our appearance. His aim was perfect. The men fell to the ground and the other Nightstalkers, taking advantage of the situation, tore in to their former masters. As the men were ripped to pieces by the others, Alex turned to face the new threat: us. Reaper pointed his gun at her, thinking her as much of a threat as the men. I stepped in front of him and held my hands up to her.
“Calm down,” I said to Alex.
“Clare…” Reaper tried to warn me.
“Be quiet,” I said over my shoulder. I directed my voice at Alex again. “Calm down. Everything’s fine. You’re going to hurt someone. You know you won’t like that.”
“Clare…” Reaper said again.
“I’m talking here,” I said, thinking he was still upset over the fact that I was trying to reason with a Nightstalker.
“I can see that, but I thought you would want to know that we’re surrounded,” Reaper said.
“What?” I asked.
I turned around and saw that the tunnel behind us was no longer empty. Two Nightstalkers filled the space. The other tunnels were equally occupied. Our shooting, and the fighting, had drawn the attention of others. There were only Nightstalkers – no Seekers had noticed us yet, but I knew it was only a matter of time. The tunnels in front of us were also filling up with Nightstalkers. Their red eyes illuminated the dark.
“Oh,” I said.
&nb
sp; Alex started growling. Her white eyes shifted from the people behind us to the fifteen Nightstalkers near her, and on to the Nightstalkers closing in through the other tunnels. I hoped she wasn’t planning on fighting them all. I would have to stay and help her – there was no way I would leave her to fight alone. And I wasn’t sure that was a fight we could win, not with just the three of us.
She answered my unasked question. Her growl a constant thing of warning, she came over to us. Her white eyes were full of vicious fury, but there was clarity in them. She knew who we were. My words had given her reason, though she did not change back. She bumped my hand with her snout.
Run, she commanded through our touch.
Not without you, I replied.
Together.
She lowered her body down enough for me to get on her back and waited for me to jump up. I did so without thinking, trusting her to take us away from the danger. I gestured for Reaper to join us. He hesitated, looking at Alex and my position on her back with shocked awe.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“We’re about to die if you don’t get your ass up here,” I said.
He didn’t need long to think that through. He jumped behind me with a graceful leap. The second he was on Alex’s back, she scrambled to her feet and took off down another tunnel. She blasted through the lone Nightstalker blocking the way with a roll of her shoulders and ran full speed away from the danger. The Nightstalkers followed after us, doing their best to catch up to Alex’s wild pace.
The chase did not go unnoticed.
The Seekers realized we didn’t belong in the caves the moment they saw us riding Alex. No sane Watcher would ever ride a Nightstalker. It wasn’t done. It was madness. They started firing whatever weapon they had on them and shockwaves of their respective talents flew over our heads. Reaper and I stayed low against Alex’s back as she dodged the majority of the violence. One or two bullets grazed her and black blood oozed from her side, but she didn’t slow – she didn’t even act as if she felt the wounds. She was too determined on escape to focus on the pain.
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