Darkness Divides (Sensor #3) (32 page)

In the end, I resorted to kicking and pounded on the door with all my force. Surely Kerbasi could hear the noise since the door connected to the room and he’d never expect me to be on the other side when he opened it. It took several minutes of me beating my fists bloody before he moved in my direction. I took a deep—useless—breath and pulled my Sig from its holster. I’d reloaded after taking down the last guard so I had a full clip ready to go.

He didn’t pull the door farther than a foot and then just ducked his head around it. I recognized his long black hair and shifty silver eyes from my dreams. It was impossible to forget such a harsh, cruel visage.

“What could possibly be so important…” he started to say.

I shot him in the eye. He didn’t go down like the others, but he did reach up to clutch at his wound. I yanked the door the rest of the way open and shot at him some more, hitting his face, stomach, chest, and anything else that looked like it needed to be damaged.

He kept stumbling backwards and trying to cover himself as if that would save him from my bullets. Anger like I’d never felt before fueled me. I’d imagined this moment more times than I could count.

“You motherfucker,” I said. “You thought you could keep getting away with your bullshit torture, knowing I was seeing it and that I wouldn’t come after you?”

My clip ran dry and I let the magazine fall, reaching for another one. Kerbasi kept putting distance between us, but as long as he went in a different direction than Lucas I didn’t care. I purposely avoided looking toward the side of the room where he was located. My peripheral vision had already caught him hanging in chains. A full-on look might make me forget about the guardian.

“How
did
you get in here?” he asked, shock registering on what was left of his damaged face.

Kerbasi was four and a half millennia old so he wasn’t going down easy, but I was actually thankful for that. It meant I could keep hurting him for a little while.

“Surprised?” I shot him in the stomach. “There’s an old human saying that I think fits best in this situation…‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way.’”

He clutched at his newest wound where it spouted blood. “What is this strange weapon you’re using?”

Kerbasi wasn’t staring at my gun in horror like he should have been, but with curiosity. I could see the wheels turning in his head and it just made me angrier. He would consider using a gun as a torture device. It was time to finish him off. I put the Sig away and pulled the RPG out, quickly loading it with one of the three warheads I had left. All along, I’d hoped to use one of them on the guardian.

“You might have the corner market on torture, guardian, but humans are the masters of destruction,” I paused. “This might sting a little.”

I fired the RPG at his chest before ducking behind a sturdy metal tub. The explosion rocked the room, shaking anything that wasn’t bolted down. Using it inside a closed space had a much greater concussive effect than outside. My ears were left ringing and small bits of debris had fallen on me.

I stood up and brushed myself off. Kerbasi’s body was lying even farther away than before on the stone floor. Pieces of his body were scattered all around and his arms were hanging on by a thread. Damn, but he could take a hit. He was still awake and blinking his one good eye, too.

A few pieces of singed wood from a nearby torture device had fallen on him. I stepped around plenty more of it as I made my way over. At least he wouldn’t have as much equipment to use on Bartol after I left.

Once I reached Kerbasi, I kicked him in the balls. “How’s it feel to be on the receiving end, huh?”

He moaned and rolled to his side where a bit of his guts spilled out.

“I can see why Lucas likes you so much,” he said. “Your poor attitude is just like his.”

The Smartass.

I pulled out my gun and shot him in his good eye. Now he was completely blind—for the moment. I looked around the room until my gaze settled on a rack. It had those special chains attached that depleted an immortal’s powers. It also had a preservation spell so it couldn’t be easily broken. The device was one of the few that had remained intact, which worked out for me.

It took a lot of grunting and cursing, but I managed to haul Kerbasi’s body onto it and lock him down. He was weakened enough that he couldn’t struggle much, especially since his arms were useless. I still chained them up since I could see they were already starting to heal—slowly. As a final touch, I took a silver stake from a cache of them nearby and shoved that into his stuttering heart. All his movements stopped after that. I grabbed a few more stakes and stuck them in my pack in case I needed them for more guards.

Feeling marginally better after getting the worst of my anger out, I worked my way over to Lucas. It hurt to look at him, though I could only see his torn back. Kerbasi had strung him up with chains in a small alcove semi-separate from the rest of the room.

There was a pile of whips that must have hung on the wall, but now lay on the floor after being knocked down by the blast. Whips. That’s what he’d been using on Lucas when I arrived. I had to resist the urge to grab one and use it on the guardian.

Revenge was sweet, but you had to know when it was time to call it quits and move on to more important things in life.

My chest tightened as I got my first really good look at Lucas. The skin on his back, chest and legs was ripped to shreds. Blood lay in a puddle on the floor beneath him. His eyes lifted to half-mast when I walked up to him.

“Sensor, what are you doing here?” he asked. His voice came out raspy.

I shrugged, trying not to show how upset I was at seeing him this way. He wouldn’t want to see pity on my face. Lucas had more pride than any man I’d ever met.

“I happened to be in the neighborhood and thought I’d drop by.” I stopped to look around. “How do I get you out of this?”

“There’s a pulley directly behind me to lower the chains.”

I wasn’t sure how I missed it—other than he’d drawn all my attention since seeing him. Walking over to it, I wound the crank slowly so he’d have a chance to gain his footing as the weight was taken off his arms. Once he could bend his arms, I stopped. His legs were wobbling a little too much for my comfort and it didn’t look like he’d be able to hold his full weight.

It took pulling a nearby wooden box over to get high enough to release him. As soon as I did, he began to fall. I barely caught him in time. It took considerable effort to slowly lower him to the floor and away from the puddle of blood. I had to wrap my arms around his torn body to pull him to a cleaner spot. I could feel his pain ratcheting up with every tug and felt awful I’d helped cause it.

I dug through my pack until I found more protein bars and another bottle of water. “Here, take these. We’ve got to get you stronger if we’re going to get you out of here.”

He took my offerings with a glare. “You need to leave, Melena. They will punish you for coming here, but if you go now they might not be as harsh.”

“Forget it.” I shook my head. “I’m not leaving without you even if that means getting imprisoned myself. You’re just going to have to trust me that I know what I’m doing.”

He guzzled down the water, holding the bottle with both of his shackled hands before replying. “How did you get here?”

“It wasn’t too difficult.” I gave him a nonchalant look as if it really had been easy. “Zoe stole the fae device that opens the portal to Purgatory, so I stole it from her.”

“Oh, is that all? How did you know where to look?” He’d moved on to crunching down on a protein bar.

“About a week ago she and her army took over Fairbanks. It was just a matter of figuring out where she’d headquartered herself and then getting around her security.”

He finished off the second protein bar, so I dug out some cheese crackers for him. He chowed down on those with a speed like I’d never seen before. Then again, I hadn’t actually watched him eat that many times. When he was at full strength he didn’t need food as often, though his twin brother had no problem cooking up a storm.

“Just a moment,” Lucas said after he finished chewing. “You’re saying Zoe took Fairbanks from Nik?”

“Yes.” I looked around us. “Where is the key to those chains?” Now that he was getting a bit of his strength back, I wanted to get them off of him.

“Kerbasi usually keeps them on him. I do hope you didn’t blow them up during your revenge spree—not that I didn’t appreciate the show.” There was a slight glimmer in his eyes as he said that.

“Be right back.” I got up quickly and moved toward the guardian.

He was still lying there unmoving. I dug through his torn and shredded robe, but couldn’t find anything. Next I checked over the area where he’d fallen. It took peeking under various torture apparatuses, but eventually I spotted the ring of keys. I snatched them up and breathed a sigh of relief when I found them unbroken.

Lucas gave me a puzzled look when I returned. “If Zoe took over Fairbanks, what happened to Nik and the others? How did you avoid her?”

I studied the keys and picked one to try.

“Well Nik, Derrick and I were at the fae city when it happened. She took advantage of our absence to take his territory.”

The first key didn’t work so I tried another one.

“The fae allowed you into their city?” Lucas rarely looked surprised by anything, but that must have got him.

“Yes, they did. They needed my help finding the culprit who blew up their city. As it turns out, it was Zoe—though we didn’t know that at first.”

“She did it?” Lucas’ face turned dark.

I gritted my teeth, feeling my own anger rise again over what she’d done. My thoughts became so chaotic that I almost missed discovering that I’d found the right key. It turned easily in the lock and the manacles fell from Lucas’ wrists. I went after his leg shackles next.

“Yes, she did. And while you were busy making me immortal, she was having one of her minions steal the fae device that opens the portal here. I have no idea why she’d want to get into this place.” I shook my head.

The same key worked on the leg shackles, so I got them off next. I grabbed both sets that had been on Lucas and stuffed them into my pack. Using up so much ammo had freed up some room for them. I stuffed the keys into my pocket where they’d be easy to reach.

“I’m sure she has her reasons,” Lucas mused. “Why didn’t the fae ask Micah for help? They love to use any excuse to get him there.”

I stiffened. I’d really hoped we could avoid that subject until we were comfortably settled back at Charlie’s place.

Lucas took hold of my arm. “What, Melena?”

“They did ask Micah for help.” I worked to get everything in my pack organized while avoiding eye contact with him.

“Yet they still asked you to come?” There was suspicion in his voice.

“Only after Zoe had Micah abducted. We haven’t been able to find him yet, but that was another reason I needed to get you out. Nik’s forces have been cut to less than half and we have no one who is strong enough to take on Zoe. That’s why you have to come back with me.”

Lucas’ temper rose and he struggled to stand up. “That bitch is going to pay for this.”

I slung my pack over my shoulder, along with my rifle, and took hold of his arm so he could lean on me. He tried not to at first, but relented when he nearly stumbled with his first step. Taking the shackles off and getting food in him had helped, but he’d need more than a few minutes to recover from a year of abuse and torture—even for an immortal as old as him.

“Now you’re starting to see things my way,” I said, pulling his arm over my shoulder.

I normally would have appreciated having him walk next to me naked, but not with him in the shape he was in now. There hadn’t been any room in my pack to bring him clothes. I doubted he’d want to wear anything yet anyway with so many open wounds. Fallon had a set waiting for him as soon as he got through the portal. Lucas would just have to make it there and we could get him cleaned up.

He couldn’t move fast. With every step my senses picked up the excruciating pain he was feeling as he forced himself to keep going. How he managed to walk at all I had no idea. It seemed to take forever before we got to the intersection with the boulder.

When we made the turn and started down the next tunnel I checked for the guard I’d stashed in the alcove. At some point he’d managed to stick his arm out so it could be seen by any passerby. The look of disappointment in his eyes when he saw Lucas and me was almost comical.

I nudged his arm with my foot to force it back into the darkness. “Get that back in there, naughty boy.”

The guard moaned.

“Your handiwork, I presume?” Lucas asked. There was a glint of humor in his eyes.

“These guys heal faster than the sups back on earth. I had to find some way to keep them down for awhile.” Apparently the lack of oxygen didn’t affect them as much.

“That’s my sensor. Always resourceful.” He hugged the arm he had around my shoulder tighter.

With each step, I could feel a bit of his strength returning. Those shackles had been a major power drain and getting them off made a difference. All Lucas needed was time and he’d get back to normal. Too bad we were in such short supply of it at the moment.

The tunnel opened up ahead and I recognized the cells beyond. Bartol looked up when we entered.

“Glad to see you made it,” he said. Then gave a short nod at Lucas. “And you, too. That’s some woman you’ve gotten for yourself.”

Lucas let go of me and slowly made his way over to Bartol’s cell. “When you get out next year, come find us in Fairbanks. We’ll help you in any way we can.”

“I’ll do that,” the younger nephilim said.

His answer was murky. It was hard to say if he’d really let us help him or not. I drew the ring from my pants and pulled off the key to Lucas’ shackles, putting just that one back in my pocket. As my final act of defiance toward Kerbasi, I shoved the rest of the keys into Bartol’s cell.

“I’m assuming you know what these are,” I told him. “Kerbasi is a bit…tied up for the moment, but he’ll come looking for them sooner or later. Keep these hidden and he’ll be looking a little longer.”