by ST Branton
“Most humans,” I corrected him. “That happens to be exactly where I need to go.”
A grin broke out on his face. He looked at me, down at Jules, and finally at the two giants. “It looks like you’re on your own for now, boys. Do the old captain a favor and carry on, all right? No one else comes through here. Humans need to be protected.”
“What about that one?” the first giant asked. “And that one.” He pointed at me and Jules.
Brax planted another kiss on Jules. “I’ve got this one,” he said. He jerked his thumb at me. “That one can take care of herself. She would’ve thrashed the shit out of you if I let her.”
They frowned and trudged away to take up posts on either side of the wall. Brax and Jules retreated to their truck, smiling like goons into each other’s eyes. As I slipped behind the wheel, I heard a loud, metallic, grating sound as the giants peeled the cars apart to allow us through.
“Was that Brax?” Deacon asked. “And Jules?”
“Yep.” I started the engine. “Long, weird story.”
“Damn,” he said. “Demons get around.”
Chapter Eleven
Almost nine hours after we left Pennsylvania, our battle caravan drove into a shadow that spread like a thick dark blanket across the Midwestern cornfields. The menacing, craggy shape of a mountain jutted from the flatlands, surrounded by absolutely nothing. None of us needed to be told that it hadn’t been created by any natural force. There were no damn mountains of any kind in Indiana.
Especially not mountains with temples on top.
It was large enough that we could see part of it from where we stood—a soaring, many-columned thing perched precariously on the plateau at the mountain’s zenith. In a twisted way, it reminded me of the Lincoln Memorial, as if someone had built a tainted caricature. The glittering silver threads of a waterfall poured off the sheer northern side and vaporized into mist that cloaked the base of the landmass.
We looked at each other. “This is our stop,” I said.
“Don’t kill me for this,” Frank said, “but it’s pretty fucking cool.”
Steph shot him the dirtiest look I’d ever seen, even from her. “You’re a pig,” she told him. “Don’t compliment the enemy.”
The vampire threw his hands up. “I was speaking from a friggin’ architectural standpoint. Sue me for thinking the scumbag’s mountaintop lair is a slick piece of work.”
“That’s an idea,” Steph said. She turned to Jules. “You’re a lawyer, aren’t you?”
Frank groaned. “Give me a break, woman. I swear I can’t go ten minutes without you busting my balls.”
Jules stifled a laugh. “I’m not that kind of lawyer,” she said apologetically. “I can definitely refer you, though.”
“Excellent.” The FBI agent threw a pointed glance in Frank’s direction. “I’ll keep that in mind. For the future.”
“All right.” I clapped my hands to get everyone’s attention. “Let me interrupt you for a minute so we can discuss the game plan.” I gestured toward the temple on the peak. “We currently stand on the long approach to Delano’s temple. This is where we’ve arranged to meet with the team from D.C. When they get here, we’ll go in and assassinate that slimy fucker. Then we call in his men after word gets out that Delano is dead because the shit will hit the fan in a major way. Are we all clear?” A murmur of general assent rippled around the circle. I smiled. “Good. Now, I guess we wait.”
Idle conversation resumed. I looked at my watch. We had actually turned up a little later than we’d arranged but there was no sign of the smoking man or any of his cohorts. I hoped they hadn’t run into anything meaner than ogres or bigger than giants on their way.
Fret not, Victoria. This smoking man strikes me as one who lives by his own parameters. I have no doubt he will get by just fine.
I frowned. “Somehow, that doesn’t make me feel any better.” Everyone else seemed to enjoy the downtime, so I tried to force a veneer of calm over my expression. Deacon sauntered over and slipped an arm around my waist.
“Hurry up and wait,” he said. “It’s always the way.”
I folded my arms but a corner of my cool façade had already slipped. He had a way of bringing all my feelings to the forefront, whether I liked it or not. “He should be here by now,” I said. “It’s not like we were early.”
Deacon looked at the road and down the way we had come. “Yeah, well, he’s on bureaucracy time. You know as well as I do that they do whatever they want, however they want. Everyone else’s schedules can pack it off to hell.”
I made a noise of disgust and irritation. Hours of uninterrupted introspection in the truck had already frayed my nerves and now, I felt like I was tightrope walking along power lines.
“We’re not meeting up for a fucking lunch date,” I said.
He rubbed my shoulder. “I know that, and trust me, I know how big a deal this is. But we need his help, Vic. There’s no way we can go in alone and expect to come out of there alive. Nobody’s said as much, but everyone knows it. We have to wait.” He turned to face me directly. “Take a deep breath, babe. It’s gonna be okay. They were probably held up dealing with the same kind of dumb bullshit we ran into.”
I gazed into Deacon’s dark eyes and felt the monumental pressure of the world fall away for a few seconds. All the storm clouds that had gradually accumulated in my head blew away. I leaned in and put my arms around him.
“That’s the first time you’ve ever called me babe,” I mumbled into his chest.
“Uh, yeah. Yeah, it is.” He hesitated. “Too weird?”
I tilted my head to the side, my cheek against his amazingly solid pecs, and grinned at him. “I’ll be honest. If you were any other guy, I’d have knocked your block off the moment it came out of your mouth. But I can let it slide this time.”
“Thanks.” He touched my cheek. “I’m pretty attached to this old block.”
“Yeah.” I stood on my toes and kissed him gently. “Me too.”
The minutes transformed slowly into hours as we waited under the vast Indiana sky. The sun, which had hung low over the horizon on arrival, disappeared completely behind the opaque mass of Delano’s mountain and a wave of fresh cold swept in. Frank, Maya, and Steph, who had waged snowball wars in the dregs of the afternoon light, had to stop for lack of visibility.
I took another peek at my watch. “Where the hell is this guy?” I asked out loud to no one in particular. “He turns up everywhere else uninvited. He should be here by now.”
While I understand your impatience, I maintain that it would be unwise to attempt the operation without the agreed-upon reinforcements present, said Marcus.
“I’m not saying you’re wrong about that but look at how much time we’ve lost.” I jabbed my hand at the rapidly darkening sky. “Delano could be doing anything in there while we dick around in some shitty cornfield and wait for our buddies. By the time we get in there, it could be too late.”
I am confident that we would know the moment our window of opportunity closed. Delano has lost much of his subtlety in recent weeks.
“Sure, but that doesn’t mean we can stand here with our thumbs up our asses.” I kicked at a clump of snow.
“Maybe he decided it would be better to go in at night,” Maya suggested and hugged herself against the cold.
“Then he shouldn’t have told us to meet him in the fucking afternoon.” I pinched the bridge of my nose and willed my temper not to flare. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap. I can’t help feeling that we’ve been stood up.”
“I get it.” The Were adjusted her coat. “We have waited here a long time.”
Brax shoved open the door of the truck where he and Jules had been holed up together. “Are we doing this or not?” he asked as he strode across the frozen ground. Jules was right behind him.
I looked toward the foreboding outline of the mountain which somehow seemed darker than the surrounding night. Delano’s temple blazed with lights like a
n arrogant, defiant beacon. “You know what?” I cracked my knuckles and then my neck. “Screw it. We’re going in.”
“That’s what I’m talking about!” The demon grinned, obviously ready for action. I made a brief survey of my small, dedicated team. Maya gave me a thumbs-up. Steph checked her gun. Frank shrugged and nodded.
Deacon said, “That might not be the best idea.”
All eyes went instantly to him, including mine. I refused to admit that his sudden lack of faith made me both hurt and angry—he didn’t have to say that in front of the whole crew, at least. “I got this, remember?” I asked pointedly.
“For the second time, it’s not because of you,” he replied. “Do you really want to make this guy into a wildcard out here? Let’s say we leave, he shows up, and we’re gone. He could make all kinds of crazy assumptions about why he thinks we didn’t show. If he tells his network we double-crossed him, we’ll be in serious trouble.”
Deacon’s concerns have merit, said Marcus. This enigmatic man could quickly turn into an uncontrollable variable.
“We’ll leave him a note,” I said tersely. “Piss it into the damn snow for all I care. It’s a risk I’m willing to take. We need to do this, and we need to do it now.”
“Hear, hear,” Brax said gruffly. “Are you in or out, Feddie?”
Deacon held his hands up in surrender. “Okay. You’re the boss. I’m all the way in.”
“So am I,” said Jules.
Brax and I glanced at her.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she said stubbornly. “You’ll need someone to get out and get help should things go south.” The fiery determination in her eyes was one I’d seen a billion times over the course of our friendship. She had her mind made up.
Still, the idea of throwing her into the deep end made my stomach churn. I turned toward Brax. He wasn’t happy, but he held her hand tightly. “I’ll protect her,” he said. “With my life.”
I nodded solemnly. “I’ll hold you to that.” I glanced at the rest of the group. “It’s time to go.”
We set off across the field and directly toward the foot of the god-made mountain.
Chapter Twelve
The temple approach was a couple of miles long by the GPS’s estimate, and the plan was to sneak through as much of it as possible. We remained low and quiet for the first mile, our eyes and ears alert for the slightest hint of hostile life. The area appeared to be completely devoid of anything except us. Which was great, because no matter how carefully we moved, the crunch of our boots in the snow might as well have been gunshots to my hypersensitive ears.
At the one-mile mark, the scene changed. Frosted dead leaves and a thin, crusty snowpack gave way abruptly to scorched earth littered with cinders. Not a single blade of grass grew as far as the eye could see, right up to the start of the mountain climb. The fire that had scoured the landscape had burned fast and hot before it died. Its mark was everywhere.
Brax grunted. “It looks like Asphodel, although the cold’s an improvement.”
“Speak for yourself,” Frank said. He’d swapped his old hat for a grey woolen winter cap that he pulled down over his ears. “I’ve never known any other kind of winter, and it still makes me want to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge.”
A sardonic smile crept onto the demon’s face. “That’s what happens when you lose all your insulation.”
The vampire barked out a laugh. “Asshole.”
“Cool it, you pricks,” Steph hissed. “Let’s try to get inside before we fuck it up.”
Frank dropped back to walk beside her and made a big show of checking behind her back.
“What are you doing?” she demanded.
“Looking to see if you grew wings when I wasn’t looking,” he said. “Those harpies could use a new recruit after what Vic did to ʼem.” He smiled widely and kissed her on the cheek.
“Ugh, you are such a goon.” She tried not to smile but it didn’t quite work. “Seriously, shut your pie hole. The closer we can get without them noticing, the better off we’ll be.”
Frank saluted. “Yes, ma’am.” He actually did shut his mouth and remained close by her side. I caught Steph’s eye and gave her a nod of silent approval. She winked.
The road snaked to the foot of the crag. A weird shape protruded from the sooty ashes in the shallow ditch alongside the shoulder.
Frank mentioned it first. “What the hell is that thing?” He had already veered off to take a look and we all gravitated toward his trajectory. It proved to be larger than I’d expected, and soon, I was close enough to identify the protruding piece as a limb, now stiff with rigor mortis. The muscles had shriveled inside a strangely olive-toned skin.
The vampire reached the edge of the depression and looked down. He whistled. A moment later, I stepped beside him. There was no mistaking the corpse sprawled on the blackened dirt. Beleza’s eyes were open and so was his mouth. His features clung to the gaunt frame of his skull, and his once voluminous hair was lank and dull. He had been drained and his withered husk left to rot in the open.
A very bad omen, Marcus intoned. Although I am not sure Beleza could have mustered much of a fight. He was never very warlike.
I thought about the way Beleza had clashed with me and I had to agree. Even if he had fought back, at this point, a punch was likely the same as a tickle to Delano.
“Keep going,” I whispered to my team. “But be careful.”
The mountain grew larger as we approached until it was all we could see. Its surface was rough and crumbly, made of stones and boulders packed in dirt. It was like Delano had simply ordered his thralls to mound up the earth as high as they could make it. I realized that it might be more treacherous to climb it than I’d expected.
The mountain itself, however, quickly became a secondary concern. Voices floated toward us through the shadows from the right. I signaled for everyone to hit the dirt. We sprawled on our stomachs and held a collective breath. The chill seeped in through the front of my coat but I waited despite the discomfort.
The voices came from a patrol unit made up of a cadre of satyrs. We heard their peals of braying laughter long before they entered striking range. Like always, they held a variety of spray-and-pray guns to their skinny chests. Most of them no longer hid their hooves. The stench of booze drifted to my nostrils—so strong that one of them must have had an open container. I shrugged, unfazed by that. A drunk enemy was a dead one.
I raised a closed fist to my crew. We held our position until the unit crossed almost directly in front of us and we ambushed them from the darkness. All but one dropped instantly. A few shots rattled off in the eerie silence, but the skirmish was over within a minute. They hadn’t stood a fraction of a chance.
I knelt on the chest of the sole survivor and my blade shriveled the coarse hair that covered his throat. He was crying and snot ran down his boorish face, his fear naked in his eyes.
“I guess a good security detail wasn’t in the budget,” I remarked. “Tell me the best way to get inside and I might not kill you.”
He sniffed and with a surprising show of boldness, sneered through his tears. “Usually, I’d make you buy me dinner first.”
I drew back my hand and whipped him across the face with the butt of the Gladius Solis, so fast he didn’t have time to flinch. “Cut the crap, Casanova,” I ordered. “Murder’s still on the table.”
He issued a pitiful yelp as his head rolled back to center. A deep red mark bloomed on his cheekbone. The next time he spoke, blood colored his teeth, and the words were slightly garbled. “South side,” he mumbled. His terrified gaze was fixed on my sword hand. “It’s the weakest. They only put one patrol out there because that’s where they process all the slaves.”
I smiled sweetly. “See? That’s all you had to say.”
I knocked him out cold.
I straightened and turned to the group. “Hear that? You guys head south. Try to keep a low profile but be ready to free any slaves you see. The suppl
y chain that feeds this place needs to be severed as quickly as possible.”
“You’re not coming with us?” Maya asked. She scowled her disapproved.
I shook my head. “I’ll take the north side express to the temple. Delano’s about to get a nasty little surprise.”
“Are you crazy?” Frank erupted. “That’s a one-way ticket. We’re supposed to be in the shit together, Vic.” The others echoed this sentiment and the volume swelled.
“There’s no way we can let you go off alone,” Maya insisted. “Not this time. Delano’s a different breed.”
“I know,” I said. Strangely, all my prior anxieties had been replaced by a sense of energized serenity. It was the way I always felt when I knew I was about to get shit done. “But you’ll have to trust me on this. I’ll be fine, and you will be too. We’ll meet up on the flip side, okay? This is a fight I need to take on my own.”
“Bullshit,” Brax said. “I won’t fight you on this but I want you to know you’re full of it.” He stared hard at me and his gaze somehow seemed to pierce through the sunglasses he still wore on his face. I wondered if he knew I had thought about what both Marcus and the smoking man had said about trusting my friends too deeply. When this was all over, maybe I’d have to ask him to forgive me.
But it wasn’t over yet, and we were running out of time.
“Vic, why?” Jules gave me a searching, confused look. I wanted to answer her, but the arrival of a second patrol prevented it. My team assumed battle stations in record time and channeled their emotions into a furious, whirlwind attack. Blood and scraggly patches of satyr fur were soon scattered over the vicinity.
“You’re really doing this,” Steph said. She examined me closely, her face as impassive as ever.
