Chapter 10
We drove long enough for me to doze, the low hum of the radio vanishing not long after we crossed.
Maybe they didn’t have radio waves this deep across the Veil, or maybe the air itself swallowed transmissions.
I jolted awake to a strange, keening wail in the distance, high and thin like a dying animal.
No one else reacted. Familiar, then. Or maybe I was the only one who heard it.
Bobby rolled up his window as we went deeper, the glass fogging with a strange temperature change, which wriggled on the road like heat for a moment but crackled over the windows as if ice were trying to form.
Through the condensation, I watched the NHV vehicle’s taillights ahead of us flicker like will-o’-the-wisps in the thickening gloom.
Small crossings to Angel’s apartment or the community center had almost begun to feel benign, the differences subtle and manageable.
Streets and buildings similar, creatures varied, but not terrifying.
This was something else entirely. The world around us changing into something only previously possible in my imagination.
The necropolis clarified around us in stages.
First came the smell, ozone and fire, like a lightning storm rising on the horizon.
Then the air changed, charging with a static that made my teeth ache.
My magic snapped and crackled the deeper we traveled until I fought to keep it down, and Angel stripped off a glove to rest his warm palm on the back of my neck, lending me his strength.
Then the light shifted.
The vast, bruise-colored sky pulsed with veins of green, red, orange, and black.
Not clouds, or even a sun or moon, but something alive and watching, like a giant nebulous heart beating overhead.
Beneath it, the city rose in jagged tiers, its architecture an impossible mess of twisted buildings and warped roads weaving through structures, under them, and vanishing into darkness.
Shadows lingered everywhere, peeling themselves from walls to track our progress.
Nearer to the road, hunched figures shuffled through the ruins, some humanoid, others.
.. not. A woman with a mouth split ear-to-ear turned to watch us pass, her teeth gleaming like polished obsidian knives.
The van drove by her, and I held my breath, hoping she’d ignore us.
Right as Bobby’s window aligned with her twisted features, she slashed at the glass.
Her black talons scored deep grooves in the bulletproof glass, sending spiderweb cracks radiating outward.
Bobby flinched, though thankfully the glass held.
Her smile widened, insanely wide, until her face seemed nothing but teeth and hunger. Claws digging into his side of the van.
“Fucking Lamia,” Wade cursed as he stomped on the accelerator. The van lurched forward, but she clung to the side, digging in like Wolverine, clawing at the edge of the door.
Ezra slammed a blue button on the dashboard, and a high-pitched vibration echoed outward.
I flinched, feeling like a chord had been struck at the base of my spine, and it vaguely hurt.
But the reaction was instant; the woman recoiled with a screech, half-shifting into something with a snake tail and vanishing away from the road.
A roar shook the ground, and Angel’s grip on me tightened. “Keep driving,” Angel commanded. Whatever Cthulhu of nightmares awaited behind us to comfort the snake lady; I didn’t want to see. Wrapped in Angel’s arms, the rest didn’t matter, and I was grateful, as it was all a little overwhelming.
“Victor says the building is on the far east side,” Wade said, silencing the alarm. “We either have to cross the river or go through the demon district.”
“I vote river of blood,” Tiana said, her gaze focused on the scans. “Threat level is yellow, so pretty clear sailing.”
“Do I want to know?” I whispered to Angel.
“If we go around, it means entering demon territory, which is never recommended. But the river has issues, too.”
“You practice your shields this weekend?” Remi asked without opening his eyes. “Or spend the whole time in bed?”
“Why limit ourselves to just one kind of endurance training?” I threw at him. Still annoyed that he’d sucked power out of me with a kiss, even if it had been to keep monsters from spilling through the tear.
Tiana snorted. “Pretty sure his shield wasn’t the only thing getting drilled.”
“Hey!” I growled at her. “Maybe I’m a top.”
“Totally a bottom,” Remi said.
“I’ll have you know I’m verse,” I told them. “You’re all jealous my weekend had better hands-on lessons with the hottest member of our team.”
Angel snorted but made no attempt to defend me.
The road ahead dipped sharply, funneling us toward a bridge spanning a river of boiling red. The surface churned with half-formed faces that rose screaming before dissolving back into the crimson goo. My gut clenched as my magic swelled, and I blinked back stars. What the hell?
“No, seriously, how recharged are you?” Remi asked. “Heard you encountered something at your apartment and had to pull a quick shield.”
Despite food and rest, I still felt like I was running on empty. How long did it take for magical energy to regenerate?
“I have a shield up,” I offered. Not that I felt all that confident with it yet. From a book on basic shields, it was all I could get to stick.
A sickly-sweet stench of rot and copper blood flooded the van.
“River of the Dead is a bad idea right now,” Remi said with a raised tone meant to call attention.
“The rest of our team is already crossing,” Ezra complained.
Wade hesitated at the entrance to the bridge. A strange white noise flooded my ears, and I felt like the air pressure changed. After a few seconds, everything else muted but the static. I flinched at the sound.
“Is the river usually this loud?” I asked Angel.
He stared at me, said something, but I couldn’t hear it.
The bridge groaned under the weight of the NHV van ahead of us, the cables vibrating. Something massive moved beneath the blood river’s surface, a shadow the size of a subway car that trailed us lazily before sinking into the depths.
A million faces peered from the bloody depths, and while I could only glimpse them, my magic recognized them for what they were. Ghosts, the dead, or at least something dead. The noise grew in volume until I heard nothing but their wails. I covered my ears to block out the sound.
Angel slipped his hands under my shirt, finding my skin to try to ground me, but I blinked at him. The grip on my shield held, though it felt like a flimsy barrier against the onslaught, and we were a dozen yards from the bridge.
Remi slid wobbly off the bunk and across to us.
I felt, rather than heard, Angel’s growl, but when I looked at him, his gaze was focused on me.
Remi slid his fingertips into my hair, gentle but warm, a tentative and questing touch.
I sucked in air, unable to look at him, but Angel nodded a second later, expression tight.
His arms locked around me, holding me tight as Remi leaned in to whisper in my ear, or maybe he shouted, since I could finally hear him, “Don’t fight it. Let us help.”
His magic snaked around me like silver coils, sharp and shocking, but clear, as it strengthened the barrier around me, and the noise began to recede. I gasped as the rising death energy recoiled, and I could breathe.
“Go now,” Remi said.
“Floor it,” Angel agreed.
Wade slammed the gas pedal to the floor, and the van lurched forward onto the rickety bridge, bouncing and weaving as if the thing weren’t made for vehicles.
If I hadn’t been locked between Remi and Angel, I’d have upchucked at all the swaying.
Angel gripped my chin in his hands, gentle but firm, forehead on mine as he met my gaze and locked me there, while Remi seemed to pull strength from the three of us to keep me sane.
The van raced across, and I had a few seconds to glimpse something rising from the bloody river, like a typhoon growing, but we jolted across to the main road and freedom.
The strength of Remi’s power faded, and a trickle of warmth pulsed on my back.
Nox, aware and helping. Remi said nothing, though I knew he had to sense the creature.
“That wasn’t fun,” Bobby remarked.
I could only nod as the bridge’s groans faded behind us.
“Next time,” Wade said, his fists white-knuckling around the steering wheel, “demons.”
Tiana glanced my way with wide eyes.
I sank into Angel’s arms as Remi relaxed into the bench behind us, too tired to do more.
We were in shit shape for this first day of fieldwork, and I hoped we weren’t on the first round of watch, since as we finally approached the site of the apartment building and new tear, electric barriers humming and snapping, the place wriggled with a dark purple energy that set my teeth on edge.
I stared up at the building, which danced and flickered like a thousand shadows lingered inside.
And maybe there were. I couldn’t recall which windows might have belonged to Brandon.
Was there anything left of him? Would he be tied to this nightmare?
Or was he truly a meat suit for whatever shadow thing had nabbed him? I wasn’t certain I wanted answers.
“Nothing like being haunted by the ghosts of boyfriend’s past,” I grumbled, not looking forward to the week ahead.