Page 63

THIRTY

Sorsha

In taking on the Company of Light, we’d faced old office buildings, modern lab facilities, and now what might as well have been a castle, set well back on its sprawling lawn. I wouldn’t be surprised if the man who owned the old mansion figured he really was some kind of king. Victor Bane—that was a super-villain name if I’d ever heard one. If that even was his real name and not yet another layer of subterfuge.

Thanks to Birch’s healing efforts just before we’d headed out, my no-longer-wounded stomach could rest against my thighs in my crouched position without pain prickling through it. I scanned the yard from my perch on the branch of an oak tree in Bane’s neighbor’s backyard. Thorn’s initial scouting through the shadows had shown him about twenty armed guards on the premises outside the building, and I could make out several of them stalking along in their patrols.

No big deal. We were more than ready for them. Bane or whoever couldn’t know that we’d more than doubled our numbers since the Company’s last assault on us, or I suspected he’d have called in every man he could.

Of course, maybe he already had. Thorn, Omen, and the others had torn through quite a few last night.

We had to crash their party before they got the chance to find out about our latest plans. The Company had eyes and ears in too many places—nothing we did seemed to stay secret for long. The only times we’d really turned the tables on them was when we’d acted on our information right away.

I just wished this plan didn’t depend so much on my powers kicking in when they should. Or on keeping those powers secret even from our new allies.

Omen had pulled me aside after we’d finished settling our strategy, in which he’d claimed responsibility for setting a few things alight once we were at the Bane property.

“You know which parts you were meant to handle,” he’d said in a dark undertone. “Stick to the original plan on that count—I’ll be with Thorn focusing on cutting down as many of the guards as we can. But don’t let Rex or his lackeys see you at it if you can help it. Easier for us to keep you as our ace up our sleeve if word doesn’t get out too widely.”

I already didn’t love the way Rex tended to eye me as if speculating how he’d carve me up into steaks given the opportunity. Keeping any additional attention off me sounded just dandy.

I would hold my own tonight—I’d be more an asset than a liability, even if some of the help I offered went under most of our allies’ radar. If we lost anyone else tonight because of my actions or my mortal limitations…

My jaw tightened. No, I wasn’t even going to think that far. It wouldn’t happen. I wouldn’t let it.

To begin with, our main trick would be creating small enough diversions that the shadowkind could pick off one or two guards at a time without them realizing they were under attack. We’d rather no one clued in that an assault was underway until we’d reduced their numbers already. If we could make it all the way to wherever the Company was keeping its imprisoned shadowkind, even better—but I didn’t expect our luck would stretch that far.

The shadowkind could pull off a hell of a lot on their own, but they were going to need me to open those silver-and-iron cages, and I couldn’t waltz in through the shadows unseen. Without Snap to taste the locks, I wasn’t even sure how long it’d take me to break into whatever cages the captives were currently being held in. We might have to rely on Ruse charming an employee who happened to know the entry codes or Rex’s techie guy to find the details in the computer system.

So, yeah, the more of our opposition we picked off ahead of time, the better for all of us. Particularly, for me making it out of this alive and without taking anyone else down with me.

A light flickered on and off around the back of the Bane property. I tensed on my perch. That was my cue. I was supposed to wait ten seconds.

As I counted, I sang under my breath to bolster my nerve. “We’ll laugh and flare, woo-oah, giving them a scare.”

Holy mother of margaritas, did I wish I had Snap’s upbeat presence by my side now. If these assholes had caught him in their nets and hurt him in any way… I’d happily join the shadowkind in the bloodier part of this rampage.

That thought sent a little spurt of adrenaline through me, just enough to kick my pulse up a notch—and to fuel my inner flames. With the narrowing of my eyes, I flung the energy out toward the electrical wire that cut across the sky from a nearby post.

Sparks leapt from the cable. Then a lick of fire spurted up, sizzling over the rubbery coating.

Shouts volleyed across the lawn. Some of the security force had noticed. My heart thumped even faster as I aimed my attention at the post itself. Another flame flickered into being where the cables hooked onto it.

Just a little electrical issue threatening to cut off the entire property’s power. Wouldn’t want to have to explain to the big man how they’d let that happen.

Someone was talking into a phone in urgent tones, and a few of the guards approached the front gate. That was right—just walk on out past the wall like it’s an ordinary night, just a little hassle with the utilities…

The gate’s metal bars clanged shut behind them, and my perked ears caught the faintest grunt as a couple of the shadowkind must have toppled that bunch. I didn’t have time to waste on wondering how the skirmish was playing out or how horribly my allies might be eviscerating the Company dudes right now. My gaze darted across the grounds to the trees closest to the utility post.

A little smoldering here, a little flare of heat there. At least, that’s what I wanted to happen. The branches stayed dark and unburnt as ever.

Come on, come on . I gritted my teeth and thought again of Snap—of Snap on one of those metal tables where the Company did their experiments, pinned with silver and iron bindings so he was in too much distress to be able to shed his physical form, his body pierced with scalpels and needles and whatever other horrors these people inflected on their prisoners?—

Flames darted across a few twigs at the top of the trees, as if they’d leapt from somewhere along the burning cable. I willed them higher until another round of shouts rang out.

A few more guards headed out through the gate to their doom, and a handful more hustled into the stand of trees near the northern wall by me, where monsters lurked in the darkness.

The distraction part of the plan wasn’t all on me. A motor growled, and footsteps thumped around the back of the yard too, where Ruse would have activated the ride-on lawnmower. On the far side of the mansion, a few of the gang members would be standing on the other side of the wall hooting with laughter and smashing bottles against the stones like drunken hooligans.

How many of the guards had we drawn away between all our efforts? I edged farther along my oak branch, readying myself to spring onto the top of the wall and then down when I got a signal that the coast was clear.

Hardly any guards were in sight now. The two I could see striding across the lawn to check on their colleagues toppled abruptly under the impact of two burly shadowkind who burst from the shadows. Silver and iron might protect these people from shadowkind voodoo, but it couldn’t do anything to stop those fists from smashing their skulls in.

A molten orange glow streaked across the grass toward the building’s side door—Omen, making himself visible in hellhound form just long enough for me to see him. We were heading inside. Time for the hard part.

I threw myself onto the wall and then landed with a thump on the grass just inside the property. A voice started to bellow in alarm, but the sound was cut off with a bloody gurgle. Fickle fates willing, no one up at the house had taken note of that first sound the guard had barely managed to get out.

The grass whispered under my sneakers as I darted across the lawn. The side door swung open, its lock released, just as I reached it. Quieting my rasping breath, I ducked into the hall on the other side.

Thorn solidified completely just long enough to give me a nod and an encouraging squeeze of my arm. We’ll be right there with you , he’d said when we’d discussed this phase of the mission, and the same sentiment was etched all over his face.

Here I was, the most essential piece in the plan and also the most breakable.

The shadowkind intruders had already gotten to work on clearing my way. I darted past a body slumped against the wall, her gut gouged open beneath her metal vest, and pushed through the doorway ahead of me.

In the first second as the wavering blueish light washed over me, I thought I’d stumbled on a mad scientist’s lab already. Then my eyes adjusted to the dim light—and the stink of chlorine. The bastard had his own indoor pool, for fuck’s sake.

I skirted the still water and the glow of the lights beneath it. I’d made it halfway around the pool when a guard pushed past the far door. From his stern but not frantic expression and the energy to his stride, he was concerned about whatever he’d come down here to investigate but not yet aware it was an all-out invasion.

At least, until he spotted me. “Halt right there!” he shouted, his gun hand jerking up.

He had better instincts than Leland, but not good enough. I’d already grabbed a life preserver that’d been mounted on the wall beside me. I hurled it at him like a massive discus in time to smack his arm to the side.

The good news: I remained bullet-free. The bad news: His finger still squeezed the trigger, sending one of those bullets into the far wall with an unmistakable boom that echoed through the building around us.

There went our advantage of stealth. Our chances of victory were really ticking away now.

I dove at the guard’s legs, aiming to stay out of the line of fire while I knocked him on his ass. Unfortunately, there are rules about running on pool decks for a reason. My feet skidded on a slick patch, and I tumbled over on my ass.

Ruse materialized beside me looking ready to come to my defense however he could, but at the same moment, Bow leapt from the shadows in full centaur form. “I can’t touch your head in that helmet, but the diving board doesn’t have the same problem,” he declared, and spun so he could slam his hind horse legs into the guard’s gut.

The man hurtled across the water. The back of his skull smacked into the edge of the diving board so hard the helmet dented halfway through his head. He dropped like a sack of potatoes into the pool. Bow wiped his hands together with an unusually vicious expression.

Possibly too vicious. “Maybe a little lighter on the hoof power next time?” Ruse said as we dashed to the door the guard had emerged from. “We need at least one of these fools alive—and conscious enough—for me to charm them into leading the way to their prison.”

“Sorry,” Bow said, not looking as if he meant the apology all that much. “I just—I think that’s one of the guys who attacked Gisele.”

“And payback was a bitch. Just remember the best payback will be getting the rest of our kind free before we cave in the rest of their skulls.”

They both slipped back into the darkness. I hustled through a small change room, down a short hall on the other side, and burst through the next doorway into—a personal bowling alley ?

Victor Bane must take plenty of time for his recreational pursuits in between attempts to destroy all shadowkind.

Three guards were just charging in from an entrance across the room. I ducked behind one of the bowling ball dispensers by the two lanes, the tang of wood polish saturating my lungs.

Another shot rang out—and then a gasp and a fleshy ripping sound reached my ears. Maybe I should question my life choices when that sound was actually familiar at this point.

I bobbed back up to see Laz twisting the neck of the third of the guards, gripping the man by the jaw so he could wrench his head off without touching the toxic metals of the man’s helmet. Two other headless figures already sprawled on the floor, leaking blood all over the gleaming boards.

The troll, whose skin had deepened to a darker blue and who’d grown at least a foot in both height and width in his full shadowkind form, grinned to reveal two rows of uneven teeth and tossed the heads one by one down the lane. The first clanged into the pins helmet-first and scored him a strike.

Ruse had reappeared. “Again,” he chided, “could we please be at least a tad more careful with the mortals? Spare one for me to do my work?”

Laz grunted. “Either I go straight for the throat or the gut, or they bash me with their stupid weapons before I can do much. Fucking armor makes it pretty hard to be subtle. I don’t see you felling any of the pricks.”

“Fair. Come on, let’s keep moving.”

We came out into a wider hall at the base of a stairwell. Thorn appeared next to us a second later. “We’ve searched the entire basement. Wherever the cages are, they’re not down here.”

I raised my chin, ignoring the increasingly frenetic beat of my heart. “Upward and onward it is, then.”

Footsteps thundered toward us before we’d made it to the first landing where the staircase split in two. Thorn took one side and Laz the other, and a moment later two more gouged bodies tumbled down next to Ruse and me.

“It’s raining corpses,” I said with a shudder.

“As long as they’re not ours.” The incubus grasped my arm. “Better catch up before they tear through the entire population of this building.”

We rounded the corner after Thorn, and Omen blinked into being at the top of the stairs. He’d kept his human-ish form, but traces of his hellish nature showed all over his body, from the orange blaze in his eyes to the mottled lava-gray and magma-glow twining across his skin.

“This way,” he said with a jab of his hand, fangs glinting in his mouth. He sprang back into the shadows in the direction he’d pointed to.

Racing after him, we found ourselves in a music room: a grand piano at one end, a circle of wing chairs at the other, books of music and a few other instruments propped along the wall. But we didn’t arrive alone. More guards dashed after us inside.

As Thorn introduced his crystalline fists to two of their throats, I snatched up a violin by the neck. When I whirled around, the nearest guard was almost on me, brandishing one of those brilliant whips. My pulse hiccupped, I slashed out with my free hand, and he jolted backward with a flinch at the wave of heat I’d sent at him without thinking.

I couldn’t care at this point whether Laz or any of the other gang members who might be watching from the shadows had noticed. Without missing a beat, I swung the violin at his helmet, knocking it to the floor and giving him a good wallop to the temple at the same time. The groaning of the violin as it cracked matched that of Thorn’s current opponent, who was crumpling at the warrior’s blow.

The guard I was facing off with swayed but righted himself, just in time for me to land a kick that smacked the whip from his hand. I threw myself at him with all my weight to knock him to the floor. While I yanked at the clasps on the silver-and-iron vest, Ruse danced around me, wavering in and out of view as he alternately dodged other guards and attempted to prevent our allies from obliterating this one.

The jerk managed to clock me hard enough in the head that my thoughts scrambled, but I wrenched off his last piece of armor at the same time. Ruse dropped with his knees, pinning the man’s chest, and gazed intently into his startled eyes.

“Hello, friend,” he said with the full force of his cubi charm. “You’re going to help us free the poor wounded creatures locked up somewhere in this place.”

“Hopefully quickly,” Omen snapped. He’d shoved back a bookcase at the far end of the room to reveal a hidden door. His gaze snagged on me. “Let’s go, Disaster. It’s time for you to take the starring role.”

I wished my gut hadn’t lurched so much at that statement. Wished this was one of my usual capers where it was just me vs. one minor asshole collector and not a mission where the fate of all shadowkind—of Snap, of Bow and Gisele’s friend, of the many other beings the Company might have captured and those they wished to destroy—hung in the balance. But here I was. I couldn’t even say I hadn’t signed up for it.

Resolve swelled inside me as I met Omen’s eyes. “Ready when you are.”

I skirted pools of blood and gore on my way across the room, the stench of ruined human flesh making my stomach churn even more than it already was from my nerves.

Just focus on the doorway. Focus on the beings in need on the other side.

In just a few more minutes, I might have Snap with me again.

Ruse’s voice rose and fell in lilting tones as he and his increasingly charmed companion followed me. The doorway Omen had revealed led to a narrow flight of stairs down into a second, hidden basement.

As I descended, cool air licked over my skin, raising goosebumps on my arms. A chemical scent tickled my nose.

The room we emerged into had clearly been prepared in a rush. Crates and cardboard boxes had been shoved into stacks on one side somewhat haphazardly. The rest of the room was full of what looked like huge freestanding lockers, similar to the one the Company had brought to their hand-off with the collector. Their outsides gleamed stainless steel, but I’d be willing to stake my life and my love of curry on there being plenty of silver and pure iron embedded inside.

They were locked with keycode panels on the right side of the doors. Those gleamed less severe shades of gray, the base of the pad silver and the keys iron. No one on this mission would be able to touch them except me—or our charmed guard.

I jerked the guard over to one, my eyes watering in the glare of the overhead lights. Ruse came along too but with a grimace at the toxic vibes the metals must have been giving off around us.

“Do you know the codes?” I demanded.

“No,” the guard said. “None of us—they were so strict about that—but I believe—it should all be on the computers. I don’t know the password for that either?—”

He’d motioned to a flashy, high-tech set-up on a desk in a corner beyond the cells. “Rex!” Omen barked.

The werewolf appeared a moment later with one of his lackeys at his side. “On it,” he said, and gave the guy a shove toward the computer.

Thanks to his tech guy’s expertise, we shouldn’t need to run off with any equipment, only grab the data before destroying it—and hopefully the data on every computer in Bane’s network as well. The lackey dropped into the chair and launched his digital assault with a clatter of the keyboard.

I turned back to Ruse and the guard. “They’ll figure out that we’re down here sooner rather than later, even with the doorway closed again. We should get this guy to divert the others—to say he’s seen us moving to a different part of the house.” Might as well make as much use of the dude as we could.

As Ruse cajoled the guard into giving frantic commands over his radio, the guy at the computer raised his hands with a brief whoop. “And we’re in! Codes for the cages, where are you…?” His fingers resumed their clattering.

Omen frowned at the blank steel sides of the cells. “How will we know which code is for which cage? They don’t appear to be conveniently numbered.” He snapped his fingers toward Ruse. “Get that man back over here.”

Ruse nudged the guard toward us. The man drew in a shaky breath. “How can I help?”

Omen’s fiery eyes had simmered down now that we’d reached our goal, but they lit with a new glint that might have been partly amused at the guard’s cooperative attitude. “These metal boxes have got to be labeled somehow. How do you tell which is which?”

The guard’s head bobbed in eager agreement. “There are dots on the sides of the keypads. Blue first and then red.”

I squinted at the edge of the panel and made out the little flecks of paint now that I knew to look for them. “This one is 3-5 then.” There had to be close to twenty of the things in this space. I glanced toward the computer guy. “Do you have those codes for us yet?”

“Working on it, working on it.” He tapped vigorously, sucking his lower lip under his teeth. The spines that poked from his hair at the nape of his neck quivered.

Thorn and Rex both vanished into the shadows, I assumed to fend off any guards who headed this way despite our efforts. I paced, my chest constricting.

Omen cast me a baleful look. “Too much excitement for you, mortal?”

“No,” I said. “I just want us—all of us—out of here.” He should know as well as I did that every passing second might mean fewer shadowkind freed—might mean our plan failed altogether. Last time we’d only managed to get him out before we’d had to run for our lives.

“There!” the computer guy said with obvious relief. “Okay, I’m going to start the virus uploading while I read out the numbers. The code for cage 3-5 is 6-9-0-2.”

I braced myself as I typed in the code. Omen had already moved to the next cell, dragging the guard with him. He bent close, flinching just at being close to the toxic metals, and read off the number on the keypad there. The metals in the keys would have burned him—or any of our other shadowkind companions—too badly for him to use them, but at least we could free the captives twice as fast if the guard was punching in codes too.

As the lock thudded and the cell door in front of me swung open, Ruse stepped up to peer inside with one of his warmest smiles but wary eyes. Shadowkind didn’t tend to be in a friendly state when they’d been locked away for who knew how long.

Even starker light filled the inner space from a panel up above. A streak of darkness quivered in the center of that light where the captive being had drawn its least substantial form in on itself. I couldn’t make out any of its features, but somehow just looking at it, I knew we hadn’t found Snap—not yet, anyway.

“Please, my friend, make your escape,” Ruse said, extending his hand. “We’re getting all of you out of here. And feel free to enact a little revenge on your captors as you flee.”

The patch of shadow hesitated and then sprang from its confines with a shudder of knobby haunches and a clicking of scales. I didn’t wait to see how it would react to its newfound freedom—I was already rushing to the next cell.

Omen and I volleyed numbers back and forth with the tech guy, and one by one the cell doors gaped open. After the first, I leapt to the next the moment the lock clicked over, not waiting to see who might be inside, as much as I might have wanted to.

A couple of the freed beings lingered in the room, watching our progress: an emaciated fae man hunched by the stack of boxes, shivering, and a shifter woman with cat-like irises prowled back and forth with darted looks toward the staircase as if she wasn’t convinced it was actually any safer up there than down here. The others vanished straight into the shadows.

“Don’t hang around here too long,” Ruse called to them. “Take a few jabs on your way out if you like, but don’t give these bastards a chance to snare you again.”

We were down to the last few cells when voices crackled from the charmed guard’s radio loud enough for me to hear. “The east basement! All units head there now!”

Shit. They’d realized we’d made it this far. “The rest of the numbers, fast!” I shouted, darting to another cell.

As the computer guy rattled the digits off, my fingers flew over the keypad. There were only two cells left. The guard hesitated as Omen urged him to open the cell they were at, and the hellhound shifter snarled.

“Type in the fucking code!”

Panic flashed across the guard’s face. Ruse dashed over, seeing his magical influence fracturing.

I waved the computer guy on. “I can do the rest. Hurry!”

Despite the cool air, sweat trickled down my back as I jabbed in the last two codes, not even waiting to make sure they worked first. “That’s it!” the computer guy shouted to me after the final one, and mashed at the keyboard a little more. “I’ve downloaded all the other data I can, and the virus is in the network. Should I activate it?”

“Yes, yes, get on with it!” Omen said. “We’re going to burn this whole place down… in every possible way.”

He shot a meaningful glance at me. At least this part I could do by regular means, no worries about uncertain powers or witnesses.

“Everyone out, now!” I hollered, just as the first figures in the new wave of guards barreled down the stairs.

Thorn, Laz, and other shadowkind I couldn’t recognize from a glimpse shot in and out of the shadows between them, mashing a skull into the wall here, cracking a spine in half there. The less combat-inclined beings hurtled past them. I caught sight of smoke streaming from open wounds on Thorn’s back and stiffened against the urge to run to him. I had other work to do.

I splashed the kerosene from the pouch at my hip across the crates and boxes and lit them up with a flick of my lighter.

I’d gotten too used to the struggle of using my power for the same purpose. The flames roared up faster than I was prepared for. I yanked myself backwards, slapping at a few sparks that singed my hair, and bolted for the stairs my shadowkind allies were just clearing.

My foot slipped on a smear of blood, and then Thorn was whipping me up into his arms. He barged up the stairs with me over his shoulder, smashing past another guard who’d just appeared at the top. But as he tore through the music room, a man he hadn’t seen sprang from behind the piano and hurled a huge net at my warrior.

It didn’t quite cover Thorn’s hulking form, but it fell over enough of him that his muscles locked up with a spasm of pain. I wrenched at the silver-and-iron cords, shoving them off him as quickly as I could. More smoke poured from the fresh wounds on his back and face that would add to his collection of scars. He fell to his knees, and my feet hit the ground too.

As I hauled the net the rest of the way off the warrior, Omen leapt from the shadows to slash a claw across our attacker’s throat. “Out the front!” he shouted at us, and flashed out of sight again.

Thorn staggered upright. We ran out into the hall together, his hand clutching mine as tightly as I was clutching him. With the amount of essence billowing out of him, I wasn’t sure he could have carried me now if he’d wanted to.

“Did you see—” he said roughly. “Was Snap?—?”

“I don’t know,” I said, but the hollow in my stomach didn’t hold much hope. If Snap had been in one of those cells, surely he’d have stayed long enough to show himself and reunite with us properly?

If we didn’t get the hell out of here, there’d be none of us left to reunite with him , wherever he was. Silver and iron glinted everywhere I looked—armor, nets, knives. The remaining guards were converging on us.

I wasn’t finished with this place, though. We’d meant to see the whole building burn. The thick cement walls in the secret basement wouldn’t let the fire seep from below into the rest of the mansion.

I grasped at my bottle of kerosene—and it slid from my hasty fingers to rattle across the rug and under a hall table behind us. Behind us, where a dozen or so guards were currently storming our way. Sayonara to that one.

We burst into a grand entrance room with woven tapestries hanging from the walls and an actual red carpet slashing down the middle of the marble floor. Ahead of us, the double doors hung open to the night, but another dozen guards stood between us and that escape.

In seconds, we’d be surrounded. I spun around, a searing heat mingling with the burst of panic in my chest.

These assholes had destroyed who knew how many beings, had tormented Omen, had nearly killed Gisele, and if they’d gotten their hands on Snap…

My jaw clenched as the heat flared into a surge of fury. They had no idea who they were dealing with. I could clear our way this time, and I didn’t need so much as a match to do it.

I flung out my arms and hurled all the searing rage inside me at our attackers.

The carpet and the tapestries went up in a blaze. So did most of the bodies between us and the door. The guards stumbled, toppled, or flailed with shrieks of agony as the flames ate across every part of them not made of metal.

A horrified lump clogged my throat, but this was what I’d wanted. It wasn’t anywhere near as horrifying as the genocide they’d planned to enact.

If I’d been thinking clearer, I might have been a little more careful. Flames raged across the entire room around us, cutting off our escape as well. I tightened my grip on Thorn’s hand. He squeezed mine back with a curt nod.

“And so we dance into the fire,” I muttered, and threw myself toward the doors.

The flames snagged on my sleeves and the pouch at my hip. As I soared through the doorway, I let go of Thorn so I could flip into a roll. The cool blades of the lawn’s grass snuffed out the hungry tufts of fire.

I sprawled on my back, staring up at the mansion. I’d incited my blaze even higher than I’d realized. Yellow-orange light roared through broken glass on the second-floor windows. More flames leapt out to crawl across the roof.

We’d done it. We’d taken back what the Company of Light had stolen and then razed their data and their last hide-out to the ground.

And now I’d better get the hell out of here before anyone gave me the same treatment.

A few figures had charged out of the building in my wake. The guards stared at me, one of them pointing. He dashed away while the other two came at us.

Thorn swung around so swiftly you’d never have guessed he was producing nearly as much smoke as the entire mansion. His punch slammed into one guard’s face, but in the warrior’s weakening state, his knuckles only scraped her cheek instead of crushing it. I grabbed his elbow.

“We’ve got to get out of here, now!”

Laz and Rex flickered from the shadows to topple our attackers. With the mortals’ shrieks and the warbling of the fire following at our heels, we ran across the lawn, leaving the remains of the Company to sink into its own ashes.