44. Chapter 44
44
I stood between Gavin and Bastian in the cemetery, Ash at my back, and watched the elemental murmur an incantation that would open a new portal in the Moon Sanctuary Gate. It was the same mundane-looking iron gate that had anchored the portal that had brought us here. Goddess, was that really only two days ago? I couldn’t help but wonder what made this a mystical anchor point and not merely a regular old gate. Could any gate be used as such? Or was the very iron imbued with magical properties I couldn’t see and didn’t understand?
The elemental’s incantation gradually rose from a murmur to a near shout. She extended her arms out in front of her, slowly moving her right arm in a clockwise, circular motion. The air in front of the gate grew fuzzy and distorted, and ever so slowly, a dark vortex formed, spinning relative to the motion of the elemental’s hand. Streaks of dark energy shot out of the vortex like miniature black bolts of lightning. As the elemental’s arm motions grew more exaggerated, the size of the vortex increased.
I glanced around at the waiting immortals. Along with Gavin and Ash, seven more vampires fanned out in our little patch of the ancient, sacred graveyard, all decked out in black tactical gear and armed with both ordinary and enchanted weapons. Bastian stood at my side, his barely contained tension seeming to agitate the air around him.
I peered over my shoulder. More had wanted to come, and those who hadn’t been chosen for the rescue mission watched from the lawn down at the bottom of the hill, nearer to the mansion. Remotely, I wondered if the Sun Keep was the only immortal facility with extensive underground levels because, despite the Moon Sanctuary’s size, I simply couldn’t imagine how that many people could call this their home without having some of its own.
A crackle reached my ears, and the air suddenly felt charged with energy. I returned my attention to the portal, which now seethed with a barely contained storm. I was supposed to voluntarily walk into that maelstrom? It was all I could do not to cower and retreat.
Bastian curved an arm around my waist, and Ash settled one large hand on my shoulder, my consorts apparently picking up on my unease.
My heart raced with a mixture of fear and anticipation. Somewhere on the other side of that portal, Javier, the man who had shaped my life in so many ways, who had loved me and protected me when I had no one else, was waiting for me. I had spent so long mourning his loss, so long believing I would never see him again. But now, with the chance to save him within my grasp, I felt a renewed sense of purpose coursing through my veins. I squared my shoulders, squashing my fear. I would find him, no matter the cost. I would bring him home.
The elemental lowered her arms and turned around, finding Gavin in the small crowd. “It’s done,” she said, her chin elevated.
“And the gate ward?” Gavin asked, his arms crossed over his chest, neither impressed nor intimidated by the open portal.
“I’ll enter the ward code right before you pass through,” she said. “They’ll sense it and will expect incoming travelers.” Her level stare told me she wasn’t the least bit cowed by Gavin’s domineering presence, and I wondered how long she had been working with, or for, the House of the Moon. “I’m assuming you have a plan to take care of whoever awaits you on the other side,” she said. Not a question exactly.
Gavin turned his head to look at another of the vampires, one whose name I didn’t know. Gavin nodded once at the other man. The vampire he had singled out stepped forward, along with two others, and all three approached the open portal. Each raised both hands and uncurled their fingers to reveal a subtly glowing orb about the size of a golf ball on each of their palms, one orb red and one purple.
The elemental looked shaken, her unflappable expression faltering as she took three stumbling steps to the side. She quickly regained her composure, halting her retreat, and looked from the glowing orbs to me and back. “Hypnos gas?” Her eyes were wild, and she licked her lips. “She’s mortal. You’ll kill her,” she warned. “Just one breath of that, and she’ll be dead.”
Eyes widening, I looked from the frightened elemental to the stoic vampire. But before I could ask Gavin what she meant, he pulled what appeared to be a pair of svelte gas masks from a hook on his tactical vest and handed one to me, then held the other out to Bastian.
I accepted the mask automatically, but Bastian stared at his mask for several long seconds.
“It won’t kill the other shifters,” Gavin told Bastian.
Bastian begrudgingly took the mask. “But it’ll make them wish they were dead.”
Gavin shrugged one shoulder, unconcerned. “Not my problem.” Now that his hands were free, he reclaimed my mask and slipped it on over my head, carefully tightening the straps that wrapped around the back of my head. “How does it feel?” he asked me, giving the lower strap at the base of my skull a gentle tug, then resting his hand on the crook of my shoulder.
“Tight,” I told him. I could barely move my jaw to talk, and my peripheral vision had been cut down to basically nothing.
Gavin’s eyes locked with mine, and he nodded once. “Good,” he said. “Do not take this off until I say so.” He glanced at the elemental. “She spoke the truth. The gas will kill you.” His stare returned to mine. “Do you understand?”
I didn’t want to die, so yeah, I got it. I nodded.
Gavin brushed the pad of his thumb over his mark on my throat, almost like he was imagining kissing me there. “Stay with her,” he murmured, looking first at Ash, then at Bastian.
“Obviously,” Bastian said, his mask in place on his head. He took hold of my hand, threading his thicker fingers between mine.
“Until death,” Ash swore, shifting closer so the front of him was flush with the back of me. His large hands settled possessively on my hips. I was nervous enough that, for once, the contact was more comforting than exciting.
Gavin removed his hand from my shoulder and turned away from me, scanning the assembled vampires. “Deep breath and hold it,” he ordered.
I felt Ash’s chest rise against my shoulder blades as he filled his lungs. Apparently, this was the last breath they would all be taking for some time to avoid the effects of the gas. Since vampires didn’t need to breathe more than a few times an hour, I figured it wouldn’t be too hard for them.
Gavin stepped forward to stand in line with the trio holding those small, glowing orbs of death. “Enter the ward code,” he said, looking at the elemental.
Eyeing Gavin and then the orbs, the elemental slowly approached the portal vortex. When she reached the storming surface, she reached out one hand and traced her fingers through the roiling darkness swiftly and deliberately. Tiny bolts of lightning flashed around her hand, and a glowing crimson design took shape, hovering in front of her in the vortex. Each sweep of her fingers added more to the sigil until it became something akin to an elaborate Celtic knot.
The sigil flared brighter suddenly, and the red faded to burning white. The witch lowered her hand and stepped back, then turned to face Gavin. “The gate ward is unlocked,” she told him, fidgeting with her fingers and shooting nervous glances at the three vampires holding the small orbs.
“Thank you, Marie,” he said. “You may go.”
The elemental didn’t hesitate for even a second. She hurried away, her furtive glances continuing until she was past us and making her way down the grave-lined hillside.
“Kenji,” Gavin said, and one of the vampires waiting at the portal’s threshold raised his hands, holding the glowing orbs out in front of him. Small streaks of lightning reached for his hands.
Stepping forward, Kenji drew the red and purple orbs apart, then swiftly brought them together, like he was clapping his hands. The vortex swallowed him whole before the orbs made contact, shooting out larger bolts of lightning that struck and singed the ground.
“Carmen,” Gavin said, and the next vampire followed Kenji, again vanishing through the vortex the moment before she smashed her orbs together. “Jin,” Gavin said, and the last vampire waiting to deploy the deadly gas stepped through as well.
Gavin turned to the side and scanned first Bastian, Ash, and me, then the four remaining vampires who made up our team. They stood at attention, as still as the graveyard statues around them.
I held my breath, waiting for something to happen.
“Next wave,” Gavin ordered, jerking his chin toward the vortex.
The vampires came to life, lunging forward in a staggered line. One by one, they vanished through the vortex, until my consorts and I were left standing alone in the ancient graveyard.
Gavin gazed at me, his stare intense and lingering, leaving behind the residue of things unsaid. For a heartbeat, I thought he might declare his feelings for me. As impossible as it seemed, and though I barely knew the man, I could feel myself falling for him. Not instead of Bastian—or Wes, for that matter—but in addition to. It seemed there was plenty of room in my heart for each of them.
But then Gavin turned without saying a word and marched through the portal until all that remained of him was the lightning disturbance he created in the vortex.
“We’re up, Soph,” Bastian said, his voice slightly muffled by his gas mask. He pulled me forward with his grip on my hand as he, too, approached the portal. “When we reach the other side, try to ignore what you see and focus only on what you feel. We won’t be able to leave level one until you get a lock on Thane’s location.”
“No pressure,” I said.
Bastian gave my hand a squeeze, and Ash fell in step on my other side. “Take as long as you need,” the hulking vampire rumbled, the unspoken threat in his voice to destroy any shifters besides Bastian who came close to me loud and clear.
Tiny lightning bolts shot out of the vortex as we neared, latching onto various parts of our bodies. They tingled but didn’t burn as I had expected. The last time I passed through a portal, I hadn’t had much of a chance to dissect the experience. I had basically been thrown through the portal as we fled for our lives.
“Exhale,” Bastian said, pausing at the threshold and looking at me. “Push out as much air from your lungs as you can.”
Fear made my breaths shallow, and I blew out a quick puff of air that fogged up the lower half of my mask. At the same moment, Bastian tugged me forward, and darkness swallowed me whole.