The Purification: Book 3 of the Evaran Chronicles (17 page)

Delia studied Lord Vygon for a moment. “You have proven yourself in the past to be trustworthy. We have watched you from afar. Based on this new testimony, we will suspend any justice.”

Evaran nodded. “You have my word that if they are coming to help, they will help. The Lord Noskov I know is honorable, despite what his past might be.”

Delia nodded. “Let’s hope so.”

After an hour, they approached the landing site where they met Lord Noskov. The beach was packed with several hundred or so bone-clad vampires.

A chill went through Dr. Snowden as he surveyed them. Although he knew they were there to help, he could not help thinking about how many people they must have killed between them.

The Torvatta landed, and they exited it.

Lord Noskov raised his head a bit. “Delia Everoak.”

“Lord Noskov. We meet again,” said Delia.

“On better terms this time, I hope,” said Lord Noskov, flashing a fanged smile.

Delia nodded. “For now. Evaran and Lord Vygon have vouched for you, and I have suspended any retribution. How you act will determine the next steps.”

Lord Noskov glanced at Evaran and Lord Vygon, then back at Delia. He dipped his head.

Lord Vygon stepped forward. “I’m glad you came. What made you decide to help?”

“You vouched for him,” said Lord Noskov. He looked at Evaran. “That and I’ve never lost a fight. You’re pretty tough.”

“Relative to an ancient vampire, perhaps.”

“I suspect you went easy on me. Why?” asked Lord Noskov.

Evaran half smiled. “I am honoring a request.”

Lord Noskov narrowed his eyes.

Evaran nodded. “V will guide you to where you need to go. Afterward, please join us in the command area.”

Lord Noskov nodded and then waved for his group to board the Torvatta. Dr. Snowden helped V guide them to the living quarters. It made sense to keep them separated from the Ollikrin. After they were all boarded, Lord Noskov joined them in the command area and sat next to Dr. Snowden.

“Nice ship,” said Lord Noskov. “It’s more advanced than anything I’ve seen from the Helians.”

“The Torvatta is unique. You will never see another like it,” said Evaran. “V, engage stealth mode and take us to Atlantis.”

“Acknowledged.”

The Torvatta flew into space, and after jumping forward an hour, descended to Atlantis. As it approached, the front right screen picked up the chaos of the sentinels swarming on the landing pads.

“In five minutes, our previous selves will be leaving the city to go back in time,” said Evaran. “Two minutes after that, they will be back in time. V, at that point, contact Helian command.”

“Acknowledged.”

Dr. Snowden’s attention focused on the front screen. Five minutes later, it showed another Torvatta flying out of the city. He shook his head. It was weird to think that he just saw the Torvatta with a past version of him in it. The concept of what is now intrigued him. At least they could get the city cleared, then hit the pyramid. Then they would be one step closer to finding Emily.

After two more minutes, V interacted with the front console.

An elder Helian dressed similarly to the other robed Helians appeared. The difference was that his robe was gold and his mantle was black. A symbol of a hollow gold circle with a line through it was on the left side of the mantle, and the right side had ten silver bars. He had gray hair and bronze skin. “Who is this?”

“I am Evaran, and I have with me Lord Noskov of House Noskov, Delia Everoak of the Ollikrin Nation, Lord Vygon of House Vygon, and my friends V and Dr. Albert Snowden. We are here to offer assistance.”

“I’m Cyrus, first elder of the Helians. We welcome any support.”

Evaran nodded. “I am sending you coordinates where we will land. Lord Noskov and Delia have with them their respective groups. If you can send all available Helian guards to that location, they can come with me and Lord Vygon.”

Cyrus eyed Evaran. “How can I trust you?”

“The alternative is we do not help and your city is lost.”

Cyrus paused as he sighed. “Send your coordinates.”

“Excellent. When the city is safe, we will meet in person.”

Cyrus nodded, and the screen went blank.

“V, send the coordinates.”

“Acknowledged.”

“Delia, Lord Noskov, the Torvatta will land in a place with only a handful of sentinels. Prepare your groups for combat.”

They nodded and headed to their respective rooms.

The Torvatta landed in an open square area of the city. Evaran and Lord Vygon stood at the end of the Torvatta’s ramp as V and Dr. Snowden helped Delia and Lord Noskov unload their groups. Dr. Snowden saw some snarling and jawing going on between the groups, but they were shut down immediately by Delia and Lord Noskov. Dr. Snowden pulled out his PSD as he watched the nonhumans begin to move forward.

Evaran extended a hand, palm facing forward. “I will need you to stay on the Torvatta.”

“Again?” said Dr. Snowden.

“I need you on the Torvatta alongside V to help coordinate this.”

Dr. Snowden sighed. “Fine … what do you need me to do?”

“The Torvatta will sit above the city doing a continuous scan,” said Evaran. “It will detect the sentinels and nonhumans. Delia and Lord Noskov have communicator devices, and we have a shared channel. The city overlay will be divided into grid cells. You just need to call out the cells that have sentinel activity and direct where everyone needs to go.”

“I’m not a tactician …”

“I know,” said Evaran, lightly squeezing Dr. Snowden’s shoulder. “But you are more capable than you realize.”

Lord Vygon slapped Dr. Snowden’s arm. “Trust me, there are only a few people I would trust to do this. You’re one of them.”

Dr. Snowden raised his hands with palms out and shook them. “All right, all right. I’ll give it my best shot.”

“Excellent,” said Evaran.

Dr. Snowden watched as the last of the nonhumans left the Torvatta. Lord Noskov and Delia had taken off with their groups, and Evaran and Lord Vygon had left with a sizable Helian group that met them at the landing spot. He went back to the command area and stood next to V at the front console. The front screen was halved, the right side showing the city with a grid over it and the left side showing a real-time view of the city. The grid had colored dots to represent a sentinel or nonhuman. V showed him the basics of how to interact with the console. He was glad to have V there to help him figure out how to interact with it.

For the next seven hours, Dr. Snowden coordinated the movements of the various groups. The ebb and flow of the battle was nonstop. He found it fascinating to watch as each cell was secured. It was almost like playing a video game. The grid highlighted once all cells were secured.

Looking at the number of dots left, it seemed there were some losses. He had moved Evaran’s group to the center of the city, where the sentinels had massed up. Lord Noskov’s group was sent to the landing pads to take out the teleporting patterns since their speed gave them an advantage against the sentinels’ ranged weaponry. Delia’s group swept through the areas of the city with more obstructions. Dr. Snowden moved them there because with their size and speed, they would make more effective use of cover. He figured if they could fight on a battlefield like a forest, fighting in a city would not be too much different.

Managing the groups was easier than he thought it would be. Although he could communicate with Lord Noskov and Delia, he was not sure how they were able to communicate to their respective groups. Maybe something he could talk to them about later.

The next step was to meet with Cyrus and the Helian council. Dr. Snowden’s mind was not on the meeting. It was on Emily. Although he had been focused on helping secure the city, he could not help but wonder if Emily was holding up. He grinned as he thought of the loss the sentinels were just handed. It did not make him feel that much better, but at least he contributed to punishing them. He was coming for Emily. She just had to survive, wherever she was.

09

E
mily coughed as her eyes tried to open. Her right eye did not budge, but her left eye was able to squeeze open a bit. Pain raced throughout her body, making her clench her jaw.

She took a moment to focus on breathing, but even that hurt. Small stones slid around her as she struggled to sit up. She moved her right arm to her face but abandoned that after the pain told her to. Using her left arm, she was able to feel her right eye. It was puffed up, and tingling surrounded it. From her understanding of the nanobots, she knew they were trying to repair whatever damage was there.

The tingling sensations were stronger than she could recall. It was almost like she could feel them at a lower level. As bad of a shape as she was in, the nanobots must have been working overtime.

She reached down to her pants pocket. Her eyebrows wrinkled as she realized she was naked.

It took her roughly ten minutes of small movements to sit up. Her breathing had stabilized, and the pain had given her a headache.

Looking around, she saw she was in a stand-alone cone-shaped cell made of metal bars. Several other empty cells were around her. It was like pillars of metal from different structures had been ripped out and then stuck at a slant into the ground. There was a hole in the floor a few steps away. She could tell what the purpose of the hole was based on the nauseating smell that emanated from it. Looking through the bars, she found herself inside a dimly lit cave. Torches around the perimeter lit up the interior. Another smell caught her nose just as she looked at a table near the cells.

It was the smell of rotting flesh.

She dry heaved and looked away.

The table had various human bones and parts slopped into buckets on and around it. A rack of various knives hung over the table, along with a crude rack containing bowls of something. In the center of the room was a pit fire with a pot hanging over it. Several rocks serving as chairs circled it.

The pot caught her eye. Whatever lived here was not a senseless monster. Her breath staggered as the image of the creature that attacked her ran through her mind. She swept her eyes across the entirety of the cave but did not see it. Was this its home? Regardless of what it was, she was in no condition to move.

She saw her clothes on another table. It looked like every piece had been cut off instead of pulled off.

She took stock of her body and noticed bruising was everywhere on her right side. That must be what was causing all the pain. The memory of being slammed into the cliff wall roared back into her mind. She had turned instinctively to the left, making her right side take the impact. Probably some broken bones, although after testing her movement, she did not think so.

Using one of the cell bars, she was able to stand after several more minutes. It took her a moment to orient herself. She rolled her head to the side gently, then to the other side. It felt good to stretch. She repeated this with her arms and legs.

Squeezing the bars confirmed to her that they were metal. The top had a ring where all the bars tied to it. The bars appeared to extend deep into the ground.

She knew this was engineered. After pulling and pushing on one of the bars, she sighed.

The bar did not budge.

After grabbing two bars, she tried to pull them apart, but stopped as pain took her breath away. Despair washed over her as she sat down and began to cry. The PSD had become her constant companion, and now even it had left her. She remembered it dropping out of her hand during the attack. Listening to Evaran’s voice always calmed her down. In the cell, though, there was nothing, not even her clothes. She sighed as she lay down on her good side and closed her eyes.

Several hours later, her eyes popped open at the sound of something coming in from the other side of the cave. Out of the entrance appeared the creature she had seen earlier. Her heartbeat ramped up, and her breath went shallow as she studied the creature. It had a middle-aged female human slung over its shoulder but carried her like she weighed nothing.

The creature walked over to her cell and peered in. White, curled, bony horns shaped like a ram’s sat on either side of its head. Its skin was semihairless, and its hands ended in large claws on each finger. Tiny black eyes with pointed ears on either side sat above a mouth with large, sharp teeth. The creature snorted, then carried the woman over to a horizontal metal spike that jutted from the wall.

Emily’s eyes widened as she saw that the woman was alive and barely breathing.

The woman’s eyes moved a bit in reaction to being impaled on the spike.

A shiver went through Emily as she swallowed hard. It was evident this creature was a killer. Her attention focused on a scraping sound.

The creature had pulled up a chair next to her cell.

She crawled over to the opposite side.

After several minutes of the creature staring at her, it spoke in a deep, gravelly voice. “Do you understand me?”

She tried to talk, but it was as if her throat was not moving. It took her a few moments before she could respond. “Yes …”