Fallen Angel of Mine (39 page)

I looked up and saw her and Beck
forming a chain. I nodded, trusting the Templars had solid footing.
Fausta and Beck pulled us to the opposite side of the waterfall
with little effort where Elyssa and I lay on the dry stone panting
and staring at the void that had almost claimed us.

"How did you do that?" Fausta asked,
shaking her head at the knife embedded in the stone.

I shrugged. "I just stabbed it in. I
wasn't really thinking."

"Cheap metal like that usually
shatters."

"Cheap?" I glanced up at her. "What do
you mean?"

She pulled out a katana. It seemed to
glow in the light of the lanterns. "I'm an expert on blades. I
don't know where you got the knife, but it's a piece of
junk."

I didn't know how to answer her
question. I really didn't want to think about it. About how
stupidly my quest for love had almost ended.

After testing a cautious path through
the middle of the waterfall, we helped the rest of the group
across. Either the creature following us had stopped roaring, or I
couldn't hear it over the waterfall. Nonetheless, I spurred the
others across as quickly as was safe, hoping the creature might
have the same difficulties we were having. Aside from a few
indignant outbursts at the cold water, everyone made it across,
lanterns intact. I couldn't help but notice what cold water did to
female anatomy, especially while in a skintight Templar uniform.
The results were mesmerizing. Beck's gaze was locked on Fausta's
chest.

She growled and snapped him from
another one of his boob trances.

Another of the bizarre lion-donkey
roars echoed from what was hopefully far behind us, but it was hard
to tell. We sprinted for the other end of the cavern and entered a
tunnel, but slowed so Curtis and Alejandro could catch up. Neither
of the sorcerers had supernatural strength or endurance, and Curtis
and Alejandro were still carrying Pokito.

We hadn't gone much farther before
discovering a new challenge. Around the next curve, our single
tunnel split into three.

"What the hell!" Beck shouted, staring
ahead. "Game over, man. Game over."

"Maybe not," Bella said, pulling out
her wand.

"Aren't you drained?" I
asked.

"There's plenty of magic in this
place," she said. "If you'll recall, I told you about the powerful
ley lines running through here."

"You're recharged?"

"Perhaps enough to figure this out."
She popped the micro-magic generator from the wand and examined it.
Put it back in and fiddled with it. The sorceress took a deep
breath and concentrated for a long moment before casting a spell.
Three little hummingbirds hovered before her, their wings thrumming
the air. Before I could get a good look at them, they darted away,
each one taking a tunnel.

"What now?" Elyssa asked.

Bella took a seat. "We
wait."

Curtis dropped to the floor muttering
curses in the way only an abused Irishman could.

Fausta and Beck prowled the perimeter,
swords out and ready in case the beast stalking us made an
appearance. Elyssa had her own swords out, eyes wary. I felt
antsy—ready to plunge into the unknown, but we were between a rock
and a hard place. Running down the wrong tunnel might trap us in a
dead end or drop us a thousand feet onto spikes. We had no choice
but to wait and hope Bella's little spell operated
quickly.

Alejandro pulled out his wand, shook it
a few times, and put it back in its holster. "It's taking me
forever to store any magic in my well," he said to Bella. "How did
you recharge so fast?"

"A combination of age and experience,"
she said.

I gave them a quizzical look. "Is the
well a term for your internal store of magic?"

Bella nodded. "Filling and replenishing
your well is an elementary course for Arcanes. Otherwise, your
magic would rely solely on external sources."

"Like when I make a circle?"

"Yes, in a way. Circles are used to
make external wells, so to speak. I use them all the time to
increase the power of my own spells."

"Why is it so hard for me to recharge?"
Alejandro said. "There's so much power in this place, I should fill
up in no time. Instead, it's like squeezing a river through a
straw."

Bella offered an understanding smile.
"The rune we encountered sucked us completely dry. I don't believe
there was any way to cross it with stored magic. The trauma caused
by such a violent leeching from our systems has had lingering
effects, like an overtired muscle." She sighed and glanced over at
Curtis. "I have been through great trauma before, Alejandro. I have
known pain that should have stripped me of humanity. Somehow, I
survived, and by surviving, increased my ability to recover from
such traumas."

"What happened?" Elyssa said, her wary
eyes softening as she regarded Bella.

"Life happened, dear."

Elyssa lowered her sword. "My mother
went through some awful times. Some so bad she won't even tell me
the whole story."

Bella reached up and patted her hand.
"Many dhampyrs do, child, except perhaps those like you who are
born of two loving parents instead of turned by vampires while
pregnant."

I thought about the women in Franco's
compound and shuddered with revulsion. "Bastards. Sick, abusive
bastards."

I felt a warm hand settle on my
shoulder and was surprised to see it belonged to Elyssa. She seemed
just as surprised and pulled it back

The scuff of what sounded like paws
echoed from somewhere behind us. Everyone tensed.

"How long does this spell take?" Beck
asked, his voice tight.

She sighed. "It all depends on how long
the passages are."

"Yeah? Well Mr. Snuffleupagus could
show up any minute. Maybe one of you should throw up a
shield."

Bella arched an imperious eyebrow.
"Perhaps you weren't listening to our conversation, Beck. None of
us could raise a shield much less maintain it right
now."

The hum of wings drew our attention to
the middle tunnel. A hummingbird emerged and puffed into a cloud of
red smoke.

I glanced at Bella. "And the verdict
is?"

"Not that tunnel."

I jumped to my feet, unable to relax
with the threat still lingering behind us. I felt reasonably
certain three well-trained Templars could hold off just about
anything short of a giant nuclear robot. These tunnels were fairly
narrow and constrained, however, so the creature stalking us
couldn't be too large. That didn't make it any less
dangerous.

Another minute of eternity passed until
the second bird appeared from the right-hand tunnel and vanished in
a haze of red smoke. The predator back down the tunnel somewhere
roared again, reminding us we didn't have all day to sit around
waiting on Bella's hummingbirds.

"The left-hand tunnel it is," I said,
rising to my feet.

Bella gripped my wrist. "We should
wait. There may be more forks ahead."

"How do those stupid birds know the
tunnels are bad?" Beck asked. He leaned against the wall on the
opposite side of the room and stared down the right-hand passage,
his hand fidgeting with a sword.

Bella took a deep breath and pushed to
her feet. Looked at her wand. "I suppose I still have
enough."

"Enough of what?" Beck
asked.

The red mist from the first bird still
hovered where it had appeared. Bella rotated her wand through it
until it whirled in a vortex of red smoke. An image appeared in the
center. Everyone crowded around. The image showed the route from
the perspective of the bird as it zipped at hyper-speed down the
winding tunnel. I could hardly keep up with the twisting and
turning, but it was obvious the passage went on for at least a mile
or two before turning into a slick slide leading straight to hell
via a terrifying fall into pitch black.

Beck grimaced. "Holy crap."

Bella showed us the feedback from the
second bird. Its tunnel stopped at a wall of rock. But the bird
swooped down and hovered to expose a line in the floor. It slammed
its tiny body against the line and the dead end vanished, leaving
only a void beneath.

"Very cunning," Bella said, though her
face had gone a bit pale. "A magical barrier that feels solid until
you trip the trap and it vanishes."

I could picture everyone's legs
spinning in mid-air like cartoon characters before dropping like
rocks, our screams fading into the depths.

Beck gulped, his face even paler than
Bella's. She looked drained. Exhausted.

He was about to speak when the third
hummingbird emerged from the left tunnel and dissolved into a green
mist.

"Green for go?" I asked.

Bella smiled and nodded.

Beck didn't seem convinced. "Uh, you
sure that green bird found a safe way?"

"My seeker spell has never failed me
before," she said.

"How many times have you been lost in
tunnels underneath a cursed city?" Beck asked, disbelief on his
face.

"Only once. But the spell works for
more than just tunnels. It plots safe routes through all sorts of
dangerous terrain."

"I guess if it ever did fail, you
wouldn't be around to tell anyone."

She chuckled wryly.
"Indeed."

Curtis groaned and pushed to his feet.
"I, for one, am beyond exhausted from carrying Pokito." He ran a
hand through his carrot-colored hair and gave us expectant
looks.

The small Asian man still hadn't
snapped out of his blank-eyed trance.

"Beck, you mind helping out?" I
asked.

"What do I look like to you, a
babysitter?" He snorted.

"Well, if you're not strong
enough—"

"Yeah, buddy. Reverse psychology isn't
gonna work. You don't want me burdened down with that guy. If that
thing following us attacks, you'll want me ready and primed to go.
I might be the only thing standing between you and mealtime for a
monster."

"My knight in shining armor," Fausta
said, an amused grin on her face. She braced both fists on her hips
and tilted them. "Whatever would we do without you?"

Elyssa seemed to overcome whatever
aversion she had for the Italian girl and nodded. "You just let the
pros handle that monster, Beck. Mr. Pokey needs you."

Fausta snorted with laughter, barely
stifling it with her hand.

Another roar from behind us seemed to
settle the matter.

Beck glared at them. "You know what?
I'll carry him and still save your asses when the monster catches
up." He slung the little man over his shoulder like a sack of beans
and stormed down the left tunnel.

Bella and the two girls set off after
him while Alejandro, Curtis, and I took up the rear. We hadn't gone
more than twenty feet when the entire tunnel rumbled, rocking back
and forth. It threw us around like lace thongs in a strip club. The
rock splintered and cracked beneath our feet. Behind us, the
ceiling collapsed in a blanket of rubble.

"Run!" I screamed above the roar of
crumbling rock. "Run!"

We ran.

A problem quickly became apparent.
Curtis panted and wheezed, stumbling along and barely keeping his
feet. He had no supernatural speed or strength. Alejandro was young
and quick, but nothing compared to those of us blessed with demonic
or vampiric speed. And the crumbling tunnel was catching up to
them. I did the only thing I could. Without pausing in my sprint, I
slung Curtis, staff and all, over a shoulder, and grabbed Alejandro
around the waist, picking him up and racing for all I was worth
after the girls.

Curtis shouted something. I could feel
his back arch as he craned his neck to look behind us. The creak
and groan of tortured rock drowned out his words. I looked back.
What I saw set fire to my stride: Parietal eyes the size of
boulders gleamed red like burning rubies above a long, narrow
muzzle filled with jagged, black teeth, obsidian shards set in a
tunnel to oblivion.

"It's a leyworm!" Curtis screamed
frantically into my ear.

I almost tripped as the ground went out
from beneath me. Leapt a small gap. Poured on the speed. "A
leyworm?" Yet another denizen of the Overworld out to kill
me.

"They're giant reptiles. Attracted to
powerful ley lines." Curtis gasped as I jumped over a fallen rock.
He caught his breath. "Feed off them. They can tunnel through solid
rock."

"Reptiles? Like a snake?"

"No, more like an—oof!" He caught his
breath. "A dragon."

He had to be kidding me. A dragon? "Is
it the same monster that's been following us?"

I felt his lungs inflate against my
shoulders. "No. This is something else." He didn't sound exhausted
anymore. In fact, he sounded pretty alert. Terror has a way of
doing that. "No idea why it's after us."