Dreams of a Dark Warrior

THIRTY-EIGHT

The group plunged into the forest, with Declan in the lead, making for an older abandoned facility. He’d been there a decade ago when he’d taken over the island.

In the background, they could hear the ongoing fighting, with earthshaking explosions and sporadic gun chatter.

Maybe Lothaire would be decapitated in the coming battle. And rob me of the joy of doing it myself?

Other creatures moved among the trees from time to time, though not the deadly Wendigos. Not yet.

The gale buffeted them, hampering their vision. They leaned into the wind, toiling up an ever-ascending terrain toward one of the many mountains in the island’s interior.

Normally he’d be sprinting this trek so easily, but he’d been weakened from the berserkrage that had probably saved him in the crash.

And weakened from blood loss.

Worse, Lothaire seemed to have sucked out any medicine left in him.

Still Declan wanted Regin in his arms. “Untie me.”

“So you can carry her?” Brandr ducked under a branch. “Now that I’ve got her, I’m not giving her over.”

“Then free me, in case we meet an enemy.”

Natalya said, “You are an enemy. You might have some weird reincarnation history with Regin and Brandr, but our history’s only four weeks long, and it hasn’t exactly endeared you to me.” She leapt over a washout. “Let’s see. Charge thrower to the face during my capture, imprisonment, threat of torture hanging over my head, enforced abstinence.”

Brandr did a double take at that. “We might have a history with Chase, but that didn’t stop us from being strapped down to a table and eviscerated without anesthesia.” His ire growing with every word, he said, “Our rib cages were cracked open, then wired together—under his orders.”

Declan grated, “Not Regin.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right. You didn’t know about her. Even though you run everything here? Or ran everything.”

From behind them, the halfling said, “Is there really another way off the island?” He was out of breath, no doubt from lugging that pack—what must be a week’s worth of food.

“Aye.”

Brandr snapped, “Well, tell us what it is.”

Declan shot him a look. “You’re still an immortal to me. The fey’s right. We are enemies. Seems that knowledge might just keep me alive.”

“We didn’t have to be enemies,” Brandr said. “You’re the one who fucked up, Aidan.”

“Don’t call me that!”

“Aidan, asshole, whatever.” He shoved Declan along. “Just shut up and keep moving.”

Taking orders from the male infuriated him, but Declan had no berserker strength left to break his bonds, no choice but to lead them forward.

They continued in silence for at least half an hour before they reached the old research facility, a bunker tunneled into the side of a mountain. It was the first modern one on this island, circa nineteen fifty.

Declan led them through a series of rock cutouts, much like a labyrinth, winding deeper into the mountainside. When the trail appeared to dead-end at a sheer rock face, he edged to the right and kept going.

“An optical illusion,” the halfling murmured. “Coo-ell.”

They finally arrived at the bunker entrance, a thick metal door covered with lichen and moss.

“All right.” Brandr said, “So how do we get in?”

“Untie me, so I can enter a code.”

“Just tell me how to do it.”

At the man’s implacable expression, Declan said, “Tear away the moss. There’s a manual code pad. If I can remember the code.”

When Brandr uncovered it, Declan rattled off a series of numbers for Brandr to enter.

Clicking gears sounded. With a hiss, the door cracked opened. Declan entered, and the others followed. The air was stale, the inside pitch dark. Regin’s glow was so dim it barely made a dent in the pressing black.

Brandr shut and locked the door behind them with an echoing clang, and Declan led them down a flight of narrow stairs into a large room. The exam room. Rows of metal tables—with restraints—stood in the center. Cages lined either side, while desks and cabinets occupied the front and back walls.

Oversize ventilation grates covered the ceiling. Blood drains dotted the tiled floor. Archaic-looking tools hung from wall pegs.

Thad whispered, “This place gives me the creeps.”

Brandr rubbed his chest, no doubt reliving his own torture. “The ones in the cages had to watch?”

Natalya added, “Regin’s going to lose it when she sees all this.”

Declan gazed around, trying to see it from their point of view. Though the Order’s research work hadn’t changed much in sixty years, the manner of it had. The new facility’s atmosphere was sterile, distanced.

This was raw, blatant, leaving nothing to the imagination.

Regin would lose it. She should. He glanced at her in Brandr’s arms. She was shivering and soaking wet. And still not waking.

Brandr gently laid her on one of the desks, then began exploring. “There are more rooms?”

“Smaller exam rooms and some lavatories. The water should still work.”

“Will there be a key here to remove the torques?”

“No, none.” Wanting Regin close, Declan sat on the end of the desk beside her, ignoring Brandr’s scowl.

“I guess we’re bunking here tonight,” Brandr told the others. “It’ll give all of us a chance to recover.”

“And to eat.” The halfling began unpacking his bag atop another desk, pulling out energy bars and bottles of Coke. He, Brandr, and the fey began splitting the take.

“Where did you get all this?” Brandr asked.

Natalya said, “Thad cleaned out the PX store. He’s a natural at looting. I was quite proud.”

Thad beamed. “Well, the Scout motto is Be Pre-pared.”

Declan realized that he hadn’t eaten in eighteen hours and had no more medicine in his system to dull his appetite. Withdrawal already threatened. He was alternately starving then nauseated, hungering for food while missing his nightly shot with a feverish intensity.

But he’d be damned before he asked them for something to eat.

They’d just finished their meal when banging on the door sounded. Everyone tensed.

Natalya said, “Has to be Lothaire. Are we certain we want to let that vampire in?”

Thad felt his busted lip. “He cleaned my clock.”

“We all swore allegiance, remember?” Brandr started for the stairs. “Besides, he will help us keep Chase alive for the time being. He stays for now.”

Moments later, Brandr returned with the vampire.

So much for my hope that Lothaire would die.

The vampire strolled in, casting his surroundings a bored look. “Breathe a sigh of relief. I’ve returned.” While he’d been out, Lothaire had acquired a hooded camo jacket and a bush hat. More claw marks riddled his shirt and pants, and blood trickled from a wound down his chest.

My blood. Filthy leeches. Declan’s hands fisted as he reminded himself that Lothaire had saved them all this night. And might come in handy in the future.

But at what price? Make no bargains with vampires.

Lothaire leapt onto a tall cage, sitting atop it with his back against the wall. He began removing his many weapons—one of which was Declan’s sword. A vampire wielded his weapon. Just as I’d threatened to do with Regin’s.

“Yes, you returned,” Natalya’s eyes narrowed, “but you’ve got Wendigo scratches. You’ll transform into one of them.”

“Luckily, I have salt.” He took a handful from his pocket, rubbing it into the laceration on his torso.

Natalya raised her brows. “Salt halts the trans-formation?”

“Do you know how many people I had to drain to come by that knowledge? You’re welcome, fey.”

“Good to know. Now, what’s happening out there?”

“More fighting. The facility is one giant kill box.”

“What do we do now?”

“We get information from Chase.” Lothaire winced as he tended a particularly deep gash. “How long before more mortal troops arrive?”

“They won’t. I said the Order would strike. Not how. They’ll bomb after one hundred and fifty hours.”

Lothaire said, “Why so much time?”

“It’s a Hail Mary protocol. The island is seeded with incendiary bombs for a total self-destruct, but for some reason, they didn’t detonate.”

Natalya said, “Technopaths could have detected them and disarmed them.”

Declan had suspected the same. “The soonest the Order can deploy an aerial attack is six and a half days. They can’t strike before Friday at noon.” It didn’t escape his notice that he’d begun saying they instead of we.

His life with the Order was over. But Webb had it wrong. That didn’t mean Declan had to throw in with these miscreats any more than necessity demanded.

Unfortunately, it looked like they’d be along for the ride—all the way to the escape boat and beyond. “In the meantime, there are other adversaries to contend with.”

Lothaire said, “Some of the vampires and demons will simply trace from here now that their torques are gone.”

“Some?” Brandr swigged his Coke.

“Others will remain to pick off the Vertas while they’re at their weakest. It’s what I would do. Actually, I’d trace more of my brethren back to this place and exterminate them all.”

Brandr whistled low. “Fish in a barrel.”

In a thoughtful tone, Lothaire said, “We will have to chance that they don’t.”

“Then what?” Thad said. “How do we get out of this place? How do we get home?”

Declan grudgingly said, “There’s a boat on the far west coast of the island. It would take about three days through the forest on foot.”

Brandr said, “Which is the Wendigos’ natural habitat. The woods will be crawling with them.”

“The only other option is to stay above the tree line while crossing the mountains. Which will tack on two days.”

Thad belched into his fist, then said, “Never been on a mountain before!”

“So the mountains it is,” Natalya said. “Doesn’t sound too bad. We only have to stay alive for a spell, then we cruise home.”

Declan gazed at Regin. And then she would leave him and never look back. Or maybe she would remember that he’d rescued her from those vampires and feel gratitude. Aye, gratitude.

Brandr added, “When we get back, we can get a witch to remove the torques. Regin’s good friends with several of them.” Then he frowned at Declan. “Wait a second. You said the mainland is eight hundred miles away. What kind of boat are you taking us to?”

“A bloody big one.”

“What do I do then?” Thad asked. “Can I go back home?”

Everyone looked at Declan. At length, he said, “No. Your family is mortal, so they’re safe, but if you return, that magister will simply recapture you. Take you to another facility.”

“There are more of these places?” Natalya cried.

Declan shrugged. Four others.

Thad said, “Thanks for letting me know Mom and Gram are okay. I appreciate it.”

Gratitude from the kid, after all that had been done to him.

“Hey, is there like a witness relocation program for us?”

Natalya said, “We’ll figure something out for you and your family, lad. I promise.” Then she turned to Lothaire, “So, vampire, who is La Dorada?”

Thad asked, “What’d she keep screaming about a ring for?”

Declan grated, “And how the hell did she get into my facility?”

His tone dripping condescension, Lothaire crooned, “Ah, children, it’s not yet story time.” He closed his eyes and turned away, saying over his shoulder, “To anyone who contemplates even nearing me while I sleep: I will garrote you with your own viscera.”

Declan was about to demand an answer when he heard a muted whimper. Was Regin waking at last?

Yes, her eyes were darting behind her lids, her brows drawn. He leaned closer, hands clenching behind his back again. He would fix this with her. She’d never known a man with a will like his. I’ll make her want me back—

She opened her eyes. Narrowed them on him.

Then she hissed.

Regin shot upright, locking gazes with Chase. He’d been looming over her while she was defenseless?

She wasn’t now.

Launching herself at his throat, she shrieked, “I’ll kill you!” She dug her claws in around his Adam’s apple, but he wouldn’t fight back.

Brandr lunged forward, prying her from Chase’s throat. “You can’t, Valkyrie!” He looped an arm around her waist, pulling her away.

“Watch me!” She lashed out at Brandr, knocking her head back against his face.

Chase simply stood there, tense as a board, his neck bleeding.

Brandr muttered, “I can’t let you do that, Regin.”

“Why not?”

“He knows a way off the island, a boat just a few days from here. He’s going to lead us to it.” At her ear, he said, “You know I can’t let you kill him anyway.”

“Did you not see what he had done to me?” she cried. “They cut me open by his order!”

Chase’s eyes blazed. “I didn’t order it, didn’t know about it!”

Brandr released her, standing between her and Chase.

“And I’m supposed to believe that? How could you not have known?” Natalya had told her she’d thrown off electricity like a reactor. “Were you gone?”

Even after everything, part of her wished he’d been gone, wished he’d had absolutely no part in it.

“I swear that I didn’t know,” he answered, his tone evasive. “And that I would’ve stopped it if I had.”

Lying about something. She was too drained to think, too injured. She gazed around with growing disbelief. Saws, scalpels, exam tables, and cages surrounded her. “Ah, gods, where are we?” She rubbed her chest, reeling on her feet. It was like a warehouse of old torture tools.

Then she spied Lothaire atop one of the cages, relaxing with his hands folded behind his head as if he’d just been napping. “Him?” She reached to her back—for swords that weren’t there. “Do you know what he’s done to the Valkyrie? What the hell is wrong with you people?” Her breaths grew shallow, wheezing. “I can’t be around them … I can’t.” She coughed, a rattling sound. “And I-I can’t stay in this place—”

Regin’s legs gave out. Her knees met the hard floor as blood bubbled from her lips.