King Cave (6 page)

Rounding the impressive structure, a grin suddenly lit my features.

Antonio had used the owner’s front lawn as a parking lot. It was full of cars, SUVs, and trucks. More than likely pilfered from various locations.

No further instructions for our people were needed with the sight before us, as my orders were already given, so the four of us maneuvered around the numerous vehicles, heading toward the far end of the rows of vehicles. Closer to the beachfront road, in complete unison, we stopped…at my Hummer. Antonio had brought it here, placing it dead-on to continue leading this swarm of Mysticals.

Shaking my head at his ingenuity — I had parked my Hummer on King Hall’s property earlier that morning — I advanced to the driver’s seat as my friends took their normal places within. Hearing engines start, I strapped on my seatbelt and ordered my besties to do so, too — like normal. I turned my key that had been perfectly placed in the ignition, waiting just for me. A quick glance over my shoulder through the rear window showed there would, indeed, be just enough vehicles. No Mys left behind.

Jerking my Hummer into drive, I glanced in my rear-view mirror to the back seat. “Pearl, can you do something about that gate up ahead?” I could exit my Hummer when we got closer and break it with my Shifter strength, but I preferred getting on the road as soon as possible.

“Yes.” Pearl rolled her window down, and stuck one arm out.

From the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of gold outside my window as she murmured a spell under her breath. Keeping my Hummer traveling forward on the driveway at a sedate speed, I waited for her to finish. The gates shimmered golden, then opened immediately. I glanced in the rear-view mirror when she quit whispering. “Thank you.” Pressing harder on the gas pedal, I took a right on the beachfront road, driving east. “Ezra, would you listen for any sirens or too many heartbeats in one place, please?”

He peered in my direction, staring at my profile, as a small smile played on his lips and as he rolled down his own window. “You’re really good at this.” Cocking his head, his eyes flashed spring green for the barest moment as he listened to the sounds of the oncoming night. He brushed my whipping hair behind my ear as the incoming wind rustled
it. “I didn’t realize this until now, since he never taught you to fight, but Elder Farrar did right by you.”

I snorted. Of course Antonio had. He kept me alive when I should have been dead thanks to my hybrid nature. Antonio knew what the hell he was doing, and apparently he knew way more about the future than a normal Mage, having elaborated our escape before there was even a problem.

“He said to watch for the golden protection,” Jack murmured.

Pearl chuckled when the rest of us were stumped. “Hello? It shouldn’t take a fellow Mage to figure this one out.” When we still sat confused, her hilarity only heightened, and she waved one hand forward, continuing to snicker. “For the love of bloody Christ, look up.”

The three of us leaned forward, peering up through the front windshield.

As one, we blinked.

Uh.
Wow
.

Focusing on the road and our immediate surroundings, I hadn’t seen it, but in the outlying distance straight ahead was a massive, shimmering golden bubble. Almost like a small mountain, but round and translucent. “I would have noticed in a minute.”

“Yeah,” Jack grumbled. “Definitely.”

Ezra grunted as he gradually sat back on his seat, still staring at the view.

Pearl cracked up from her perch, relaxing. “I guess King Cave isn’t a myth.”

Ezra glanced at me. “Do you know the story?” He was assuming I didn’t because I wasn’t completely up-to-date with Mys knowledge, all due to my mother and Antonio hiding me with Commoners as I grew up, to the point where I had even attended Com schools under the guise of being one.

I knew this story though. “When Antonio told me bedtime stories as a child, this was one of his favorites.” I smiled softly, remembering him lying on the bed with me, both of us staring at the ceiling as he used gigantic hand gestures to speak of King Cave. “It’s a sanctuary in times of Mystical need, it having been a protected area ever since Mysticals came to North America.” It had sounded like a wonderland the way Antonio had explained it. “It’s enormous inside, its depths incredible. It is hidden to all Commoners, but was founded by exploring Elders.” I shrugged a shoulder. “It’s protection against all evils.”

Ezra nodded, watching me. “My dad did the same, except he spoke of it at the dinner table.” His arched black brows suddenly furrowed and his eyes danced forward while he rubbed the back of his neck. “We’re about to enter a small town from the sound of it. Their heartbeats are accelerated.”

Nodding quickly, I stated, “Jack, I’ve got a hat in the back. Will you grab it for me?”

Jack leaned over the back seat, rummaging until he found it.

I took my gun out of my waistband and set it on the console. I used my left knee to drive as I lifted my hair up under the hat and tugged the hat neatly so my hair didn’t show. “Roll your windows up and get down.” I was small enough that most Coms wouldn’t give me a second glance, but Ezra, with his black and red spiked hair, shouted Vampire, while Pearl’s luxurious gold hair and bronze skin publicized a Mage, and Jack’s neon blue hair declared him a water Elemental.

Jack and Pearl hid easily enough, lying haphazardly on the back seat.

But Ezra was a huge, muscle-bound man sitting shotgun.

Slipping his seatbelt off, he started to recline his seat, but appeared to think better of it — it would be too obvious with a seat laid back — and ended placing his head on my lap.

After readjusting my seat so he wasn’t squashed against the wheel, I rested my right hand on the side of his face, nervously running my thumb back and forth across his cheek as I saw the town ahead. Squinting to evaluate the wafting smoke I detected in the dying light, I warned, “There’s another fire. This could get a little bumpy. Hang on.”

Jack and Pearl assented, hunkering further on each other.

Ezra grunted. “Don’t get shot.”

Speaking of which, his huge frame was covering my weapon. “My gun.”

He lifted a smidge and grabbed my firearm, then re-positioned himself easily, holding my gun against my knee. “Let me know if you need it.”

I hummed in agreement, placing both my hands on the wheel as the main road into the tiny town, full of white and blue shops, came into open view. Panting became my way of breathing as I saw what the townsfolk were doing. Even though I had seen plenty of death that day, the sun now set and only a slight scarlet coloring the darkening horizon, my body still broke out in a heated perspiration. Tears swelled in my eyes, and I had to quickly blink their burning dampness away to see the road properly.

Smack in the center of town were two buildings on fire. I wished that had been all.

Directly opposite those once homey establishments, now blackened and burning, were eight Mysticals of various factions, their swaying bodies illuminated by the flickering flames. Each deceased Mystical hung high in the air from silvered nooses tied to picturesque shops signs, their necks broken from where the Commoners had tied the debilitating ropes around their throats.

In the street, Coms were celebrating. Drunk on their sadistic accomplishment.

“Give me my gun,” I growled softly, my voice dry and cracking. I began rolling my window down. “I’m not stopping, but those fuckers are dying.”

Ezra’s head rapidly lifted, and he stilled as he assessed the main street.

“Roll your window up,” he whispered, and rolled his down. “Drive. I’ll shoot.”

I nodded, quickly agreeing this was best. Turning off my lights, I stepped on the gas.

Pearl and Jack shot up, no longer able to be submissive at hearing the fury in our predators’ intermittent growls. They were motionless for all of a heartbeat before their windows began lowering noiselessly. Silent, no words were needed.

As I knew they were going to have a little fun, just like the front end of my Hummer was going to, I ordered quietly, “Seatbelts back on.”

Mute, they obeyed.

I stomped on the gas even harder, roaring into the town.

The Coms were so intoxicated from the alcohol held in their murdering hands, and so high on endorphins from their massacre that they didn’t notice the procession of cars headed their way.

Ah…but they did notice when my Hummer rammed their wretched bodies.

The minute Ezra started shooting the butchers.

The exact second Pearl blasted the slaughterers straight into the air.

Directly as Jack blew water into their mouths and drowned the heartless bastards.

I sped through the packed street. Coms tumbled over the hood of my Hummer to hit the windshield, cracking it, and then flew over the roof into the air. It was a simplistic eruption of Com bodies. My tires bumped along at our accelerated pace as I ran them over.

I kept my vehicle moving, minding Antonio’s instructions. Not stopping.

But damn, these Coms were going to die.

By the time I glanced into the rear-view mirror three minutes later, I could see the Coms weren’t celebrating any longer. The vehicles behind us had taken care of the few we had missed, and the streets were flooded with Com corpses. In death, they now lay at the feet of the suspended Mystical departed.

We drove in soundlessness, the minutes passing by in our new reality.

Until Jack muttered, “How the
hell
did the MIA miss this?”

Instantly, Ezra answered, “Elly.” His Vampire growled softly. “If their leader was sleeping with her, he could have had access to alter our intel. I’m pretty sure Lily’s right that Elly’s father is a major player inside the MIA, and like any other prominent man within the organization I’m sure he brought technology home for his work. Their leader could have broken into our databases from her house easily enough.”

I damn near ripped the steering wheel off, my fingers creating categorical divots. “If she’s still alive, her death will be all-encompassing.”

“Agreed.” Ezra scratched his chin before adding delicately, “I think every Mys group will want a piece of her once this information’s out there.”

My lips pursed, and after a moment, I nodded once. “If King Kincaid agrees.” That had been Ezra’s way of asking if the other factions could have a hand in her death. Since she was Shifter, she was ours to deal with. Not the Vampires’, the Mages’, or the Elementals’. But I could understand their need to take part in it. Truly, she hadn’t affected just Shifters. She had brought down a possibly worldwide war on all Mysticals by taking the wrong man into her bed.

Ezra rested his heated palm on my thigh, squeezing in silent thank you, but the closer we progressed to the mammoth golden dome, the more frequently he anxiously rubbed his thumb back and forth against my leg.

Resting my hand on top of his, I gave it a light squeeze.

In the condemned hush, he twisted his wrist and entwined our fingers together.

We gripped one another’s hand, not letting go, knowing full well that the nearer King Cave loomed, the less time Pearl and Jack had for peace. Once we had entered and the chaos settled, we would have to complete the spell. Their pain would really begin.

Pearl sat forward, gazing out the cracked windshield. “Just drive through it. It should be spelled to allow any Mystical entrance.”

We were driving on a gravel road, the one that had veered off from the main paved beachfront lane, which had run parallel by only fifty yards to the curved golden barrier. This road headed straight to our destination. I couldn’t imagine what a Com saw peering at this. It could have been the ocean, or trees, or they may have seen nothing at all if the prickling of the spell meant to dissuade them from glancing in this direction. Either way, we were steady on our target to enter a heavily forested area behind the golden dome, the gravel road acting as the access point to the transparent, rounded wall surrounding the area, the edge of which disappeared out into the Sound.

“Okay,” I whispered, gripping Ezra’s hand tighter. Holding my breath, I pressed on the gas more heavily, thinking it would probably be best to go at it quickly. So I didn’t chicken out. “You don’t think the Com blood all over the front of the hood will affect it?”

“Um,” Pearl murmured, sounding unsure. “I…”

Too late. My Hummer plowed right into the dome.

I gasped.

So did my best friends.

A zap like an electrical current jolted through my body. And also theirs by their flinches.

It felt primarily of spells and time — Mage magic — as we crossed the barrier.

Ezra shook his head hard, rumbling, “Keep going until we see the Elder.”

Shuddering at the uncomfortable impact of the immense protection that had zinged through my system, I nodded jerkily, but slowed our pace to scrutinize the darkness beyond the thick trunks of the trees. Gravel crunched under the tires, and two hundred yards inside the deep forest, I started braking and turned on my brights.

After stopping our progress, I stared in stunned amazement. “Is that Richard?”