Black Fallen (18 page)

We’re in one big chamber right now, all of us, and Jake shines his flashlight to his
face. “We need to split up and check out these other rooms and be done with this place.
I dunna like it.”

I don’t like it, either. Feels like . . . death. Old death. Like plague-riddled death.

“We’ll break into twos. Search the walls near corners for a misplaced stone. You’ll
have to feel it with your fingers for the cross, more likely than not. It’s been here
for almost a thousand years.”

“Come on,” Noah says, and grabs my elbow. “You’re with me.”

“I’m the one with the flashlight,” I answer, and yank my arm free. “You’re with me.”

Noah chuckles. “That’s my girl.”

We head off down a ribbonlike corridor to another chamber. Noah has to turn sideways
to wedge through the narrow gap of rock. Inside the chamber, I arc my flashlight,
the beam sweeping the stone room. “Let’s start on opposite sides of the room and feel
with our hands,” I say. “You take that corner; I’ll take this one.”

“Yep,” Noah says, and moves across the room.

Within minutes, we’re done. “I don’t feel anything,” he says.

“Me neither,” I answer. “Let’s go into the next chamber.”

We do, and again find nothing.

The
tink-tink
of water dripping and hitting something reverberates in my ears. It’s weird how stone
has a scent, but it does. It smells like cold and wet. And something else. Years.
It smells like lots and lots of years.

Then, I hear it. It’s louder now. That annoying hum in my head. It’s almost like a
ringing in my ears now. Borderline painful.

“What’s wrong?” Noah asks.

I shake my head and glance around. “I don’t know. I . . . hear something—”

“Whoa!” Noah yells, and pushes me aside just before something flies straight at me.
I stumble against the wall and look up.

“Riley, run!” Noah yells as he morphs into a full-fledged vampire.

I rub my eyes and look. Old decaying cherub statues have loosened from their places,
only they’re not sweet little fat-faced babies. They have long, jagged teeth, and
there’s at least a half dozen of them flying straight at us. What the hell?

“Riley, damn it, run!” Noah hollers.

I take off down a dank passage, running as fast as the narrow, low-ceilinged corridors
will allow. I take turn after turn, those freaky little fanged cherubs crashing into
walls as they chase me down. Further back, I hear Noah swearing.

I stumble into a chamber and immediately notice it’s different in here. Not the same.
Am I in an alternative catacombs now? How the hell did that happen? Everything is
in sepia, overgrown with moss, darkened by shadows. A light flickers. When I blink,
Eli is standing there. It’s him. I see his face. “Eli!” I yell. I try to run toward
him, but I can’t. My feet won’t move. Slowly, though, he steps toward me. I knew he
wasn’t dead. “Eli, hurry!” I call to him.

Then, his beautiful smile drops, and dozens of sharp pointed teeth lower from his
gums. He’s moving straight toward me. “Eli! Goddamn it!” I try to run, but I can’t
even lift my foot. I think to grab my silver blade, but my hands won’t budge, either.

A figure flies past me and slams into the alternative Eli. Both hit the wall, and
when one rises, he flies toward me so fast, I don’t have time to blink. It’s Noah.
I know his scent. He grabs me and rushes me out of the chamber. Through darkened passageways
we race, my feet barely touching the stone flooring. Finally, we stumble into another
chamber. I drop to my knees immediately. That humming sound. It’s so potent in my
ears, it’s making me sick.

“What happened?” Jake is there, asking. The ringing in my ears is so loud, I can barely
hear Noah’s words as he explains. “Riley?” Jake is shaking me, then helping me up.
I cup my hands over my ears. The pain is searing into my brain.

“What is wrong with you, girl?” Jake yells at me.

“Got it,” I hear Ginger’s voice in a distant chamber. “I think I found it.”

Noah, standing right next to me, grabs my hand holding the flashlight and points it
at his face. “Are you okay?”

The ringing is overwhelming. I take off running. Blindly. I don’t even know where
I’m heading. Just . . . away from that sound. I think I’m moving toward the exit of
the catacombs, but even as I hear Noah’s swears softening behind me, I duck into another
chamber. The ringing isn’t quite as loud now. I must be near the street side. I see
a door. I move toward it.

Riley, wait. Don’t go.

I stop in my tracks and tune in my hearing. Only that dripping water sound. The other
WUP members in another chamber. The wind, squeaking in through some miniscule cracks,
and it’s almost a whine or a moan. Not a voice.

This way. Please.

My body turns toward the voice, and I arc my light across the room. Empty.

Left.

I shine my light left, and it falls on a small passageway. Something is drawing me
that way. More than the voice. A familiar sensation comes over me, and the first thing
that pops into my head is Eli.

Hurrying now, I squeeze into the passage, and it empties into a long threadlike hallway
of stone. I move as quickly as possible, my flashlight providing only a small patch
of light to keep me from stepping into holes or tripping over loose stones. Far ahead,
a light flickers.

You’re almost here. Hurry.

Eli. All I can think of is Eli. It might be him. How, I don’t know, but it might.
I have to find him.

I step into the chamber with the flickering light, and all at once it extinguishes.
A force—not a hand, but a force—knocks the flashlight from me. It clamors to the stone
floor and goes out, leaving me in total darkness.

All at once the sensation of being crowded envelopes me. Warmth. Sensual arousal penetrates
my rock-hard senses, and I feel weak. It’s like a drug, and my body involuntarily
moves toward it.

“I’ve not been able to think of anything else, save you,” a seductively raspy voice
says. “I had to see you again.”

I blink in the darkness. “I can’t see you now. Who are you? And what . . . are you
doing to me?”

“I’m not who you think I am,” he answers. His voice is oddly ancient, with a medieval
accent, sort of like Darius’s. Yet different. “I have no intentions of harming you,
Riley.” He gives a low, soft laugh. “Trust me. That’s anything but my intention.”

“I didn’t ask if you were going to harm me,” I say, forcing my eyes to remain open,
even in the pitch-darkness. “Who the hell are you?” I’m not physically restrained.
Yet . . . I can’t seem to move. Except closer to him.

“That doesn’t matter right now. I just . . . had to see you,” his words brush my jaw,
my throat, and it’s intoxicating. I can’t help it. I lean into it. Into him. “I will
watch over you,” he whispers, his lips grazing mine. “I vow, nothing will happen to
you.”

“Riley!”

An arc of light sweeps the cold, dank room, and immediately my body is released from
the shackles even I can’t detect. I shake my head a few times, just long enough for
Noah to reach me. I look at him, and his face is angry.

Seriously angry.

“What the hell are you doing?” he says, and looks me over. “Where did you go?”

“Well, apparently I went here,” I answer. “I thought I heard something.”

“So your best course of action is to find that something instead of alerting the rest
of us?” he answers. “Come on. Let’s go.”

Meet me, Riley. Beneath lights, so I am no longer a shadow to you. In three days,
at the Marimae House, in New Town. Seven p.m. Dress formal. I’ll find you. And come
alone. I don’t wish to share you with another soul. . . .

Quietly, I push the seductive voice out of my head and follow a fuming Noah, who has
confiscated someone’s flashlight out of the chambers. That humming, ringing in my
ears is strengthening again, and its pain rips into the side of my head. I almost
drop to my knees. I stumble along, following Noah. We wind through the passageways
of the catacombs until we meet up with Jake and the others. Ginger is pointing her
light toward him. In his hand, Jake holds a small, old-as-dirt-looking cross. Part
of it is broken off. He looks up at me. “Let’s get out of here.”

That’s when I notice the shadows.

All at once, medieval shit hits the fan.

“You’ll not take that anywhere, I fear,” a voice says from the darkness. It’s a voice
I don’t recognize; poignant, refined, and sophisticated. He almost sounds apologetic.

“I fucking damn well will take it,” Jake says, not quite so refined. Even in the darkness,
I can hear the tone and pitch of his voice change. He’s morphed. Ready for a fight.

Someone, I think Ginger, arcs her beam in the direction of the voice.

What the light illuminates is somewhat shocking. Even if for a second.

A woman. Midthirties, maybe, with an abundance of blond hair. Suddenly I recognize
her. She’s the tour group leader in the long cloak. I’d also seen her outside of Bene’s.
She’s wearing head-to-toe black—I can’t make out exactly what, other than the color.
She looks dead ahead at Jake and pulls a knife. Silver. Sharp.

And smiles.

Hey, Blondie. Ease on out of the chamber. Now.
I say to the stranger, in my mind.

She stands there, still smiling, but slowly starts to back out. She doesn’t see me,
though, and that’s a good thing.
That’s right. Keep going. When you’re on the street, head to the castle. Don’t stop
until you reach the front gates, and then shout to be let inside.

The woman says nothing as she continues to back out of the chamber and into the close.
She’s almost ready to turn when behind her emerge four more figures from the close.
They’re big. And I’d smelled them before I’d seen them.

Jodís. And the one in front grabs the woman and in one movement rips her heart from
her chest. The ringing in my ears now is deafening. I can’t hear anything else. The
woman’s scream dies on the misty night even before her body hits the stone, jerking
and kicking. It sort of shocks me. I’m not ready for it, and it’s shaken me up a bit.

Pull it together, Riley,
Jake says in my head. After a deep breath, I do.

Only a small stream of light from the lamp on the close shines through, just enough
illumination to see the Jodís lunge toward us. I hear Noah curse. Lucian says something.
I don’t know what it is. Gaelic, maybe.

“Riley,” Ginger calls, inching closer.

“Right here,” I answer her, and we’re back to back now. Lucian wants her as far away
from him right now as possible. I hear her heart racing. “Stay with me,” I say, and
I reach for my sword. God almighty, I hope I lop off the right head. Ginger has reached
for her sword, too.

Then it begins.

One Jodís lunges toward us, and I use the point of my sword as a brace, rear back,
and kick both feet into its chest. Hard. It falls back but bounces right up and lunges
again. Another lunges at the same time, and I hear Ginger’s sword make contact. Then
we’re separated.

I’m fighting one alone now, and from the sounds going on around me, everyone has their
own Jodís to fight. I concentrate on mine alone, and the ringing in my ears is getting
harder to ignore. It’s confusing me, and my balance if thrown off. Still, I fight.
I wait, weigh, calculate; then it charges me, arm reaching out to grab my throat.
With an uppercut, I swing.

One Jodís head rolls across the stone.

The aftermath of a dying Jodís is just too nasty to stand by and watch. I’ve seen
it once before, when Sydney touched me. They melt into this screaming, gross puddle
of white pus. The screaming has already begun. I seek out the others.

Another head hits the floor, and from Noah’s curse, he did it. Two more soon follow,
and the squirming piles of Jodís are just too much to take. I literally fall out of
the catacomb entrance and onto the close. Only then do I notice something.

The woman’s body has disappeared.

“Where’d she go?” I ask, looking around. I shove my sword back into its sheath.

Jake’s face has not returned to its human form. His eerie eyes, now white with a pinpoint
dot of red, scan the close.

“They weren’t here for us,” Gabriel says. “They came for her,” he says, referring
to the woman. “I know who she is. I’ve encountered her before. She’s one of the Gemini.”
His gaze finds mine. “A small sect of modern-day monster hunters determined to take
back the city of Edinburgh. Just like that group of humans from before. They know
of us. They know of the Jodís. And they probably know of the Fallen.” He searches
the area once more, then inclines his head. “Let’s go.”

Thank God, because that freaking hum in my ears is so loud now, I think I’m going
to pass out. We all separate and head back to the Crescent. The humming is weak now.
I can still hear it, but it’s tolerable. Maybe I’ve got an ear infection or something . . .
human like that? Who knows? The activity on the streets has slowed to a drag, only
a truck or two still out along with the cabs. People still mill about, locals leaving
pubs and heading home. We’re almost to Old Tolbooth Wynd when a woman’s scream breaks
through the misty night. My ears pick up a muffled whimpering. It’s one lane over
from Old Tolbooth. And the stench is unmistakable.

Another Jodís.

The kirk. I run toward it, not waiting to see who follows me. I hear Noah swear and
say my name under his breath, and he’s probably right behind me. The girl . . . her
pulse is fast. Her breaths are faster. The distinct sound of fingernails clawing at
gravel cuts through my senses, and I hurry. Although a lamp illuminates the churchyard,
it’s empty, and I make the black wrought-iron gate in an effortless leap. Crouching
as I land, I scan the area. The kirk’s front is adorned by a circular glass window
at the top and flanked by a pair of oblong windows with a crest in between. No lights
are on. No one is here. Her heartbeat, so slow now it barely beats, is coming from
around the back of the church. Then the beating stops altogether. Silence.