Stormwind (The Storm Chronicles Book 3) (23 page)

Once in the entryway she leaned against the stone door and pulled Aspen into her arms to warm the girl after their climb. She could feel a pulse in Aspen’s neck, but it was weak. She didn’t have long.

Raven set Aspen against the wall and began searching for something that would release the door. The center of the door was dished and she pushed, rubbed, put her hand and fist in every position she could think of inside the oddly shaped depression but nothing happened. The door remained locked tight, a half ton of solid stone.

In desperation Raven began to beat on the stone with her fists, sending stone chips and blood flying until she couldn’t move her arms. With all her strength and fury she’d barely made a dent in the ancient stone.

She leaned up against the door and cradled her broken and bleeding hands in her lap. She felt weak and tired; she just wanted to sleep for a month but if she dozed off she and Aspen would both die. There had to be a way out.

She pulled stone chips out of her hands and wiped the blood off on her remaining shirt. She then wriggled over to Aspen and checked her pulse; it was almost gone and fading fast.

Raven closed her eyes and sat back on her heels, tears running down her cheeks. She allowed herself to cry for a few minutes before shaking it off and leaning back over her friend.

“You’re not dead yet,” she said. “I feel you. You’re not dead, you hear me you stubborn brat? You’re not dead, you stay with me, that’s an order!”

She squeezed more blood from her hand into the wound and then wrapped both hands in pieces torn from her remaining shirt. When she was finished she turned and addressed the door again. She had just reared back to kick the door as hard as she could when it slid aside to reveal Rupert Levac standing in another tunnel. He was holding an old-fashioned flashlight and the red disk he’d collected from Diarmait’s dresser. On his face was the most surprised and confused look Raven had ever seen.

Raven breathed a sigh of relief and almost fell into Levac’s arms, blood staining his coat.

“I guess you missed me,” Levac said, hugging her.

“Perfect timing as usual, Rupert,” Raven muttered. “Aspen’s dying. We have to get her to some help.”

“You’re hurt too, Raven, your hands are broken and you’re covered in cuts,” Levac said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much blood.”

“It’s nothing a blanket and some claret won’t cure,” Raven replied.

Levac helped Raven to lay down on the ground and put his coat over her before handing her a blood pack.

“It’s room temperature but it’s probably better than nothing.”

Raven took the blood gratefully and bit into it, draining the contents before laying back.

“Get Aspen, Rupe, please.”

“I’m on it,” Levac said, turning away.

“And, Rupe?” Raven asked.

Levac looked back down. “Yeah?”

“Thanks for coming back.”

Levac winked and ducked back into the tunnel to retrieve Aspen. He came out a moment later with the smaller woman cradled in his arms. He placed her next to Raven and pulled his coat over them both.

“She doesn’t have much of a pulse, Ray,” he said quietly.

Raven sat up and drained another pouch of blood from Levac’s pocket.

“I know,” she said when she’d finished. “But I feel her. I’m not giving up yet.”

She stood and picked up Aspen’s limp body. “Which way is out?”

“That way,” Levac said, pointing down the tunnel. “It leads straight to the basement of the Green Mill. They’ve got a whole selection of tunnels that go all over the place down here. I’ve been looking for you for three days, ever since Sanchez turned up dead with a 30 caliber in his brain.”

“He turned out to be the killer’s informant within the department,” Raven said, walking along the tunnel. “I’m pretty sure Caito is involved somehow too, but neither is the one pulling the strings.”

“Do you know who is? What happened down there?” Levac asked.

“We were kidnapped. A bunch of ancient lycans were using us as practice dummies and they’re the ones doing the skinning,” Raven replied.

“So we need to go down there and what, arrest them?”

Raven snorted. “You can’t arrest corpses. I’m pretty sure all but the alpha female and male are dead. I left the alpha female under a pile of rocks; She’s probably free by now, but I haven’t seen her. She probably did the smart thing and decided to go lick her wounds. I have no clue where the alpha male might be, but I intend to find him when I get the chance.”

“I’m sorry I missed it,” Levac said.

Raven stopped and looked over her shoulder at Levac’s feet. “If you’d been there, who would have saved me?”

She met Levac’s eyes for a before turning forward again. She looked down at Aspen as she walked and gently stroked her hair. She could still feel the girl’s presence and refused to believe she was gone. Not after all they’d been through together.

They were nearing the end of the tunnel when she felt Levac slide something into her jeans at the small of her back. She knew the comforting weight when she felt it seat itself.

“We may encounter some trouble on the way out and I thought you might want something a little more high tech than that longbow you’re rocking,” Levac said.

“Trouble?” Raven asked.

“Yeah, the club owners weren’t exactly thrilled I busted into the old tunnels,” Levac said.

“Tough,” Raven replied. “I’m not here to thrill them. If there is a tunnel from the club to the lycan temple then these assholes know about it and probably know all about this stupid ritual.”

Raven handed Aspen to Levac and drew the Automag he’d given her. It wasn’t her father’s, but it still felt right in her hand, like an extension of her own body. She chambered a round and stepped through the exit into a sub-basement beneath Green Mills. Four men in suits were seated at an old card table in the middle of the stone walled room. Half a dozen or more tunnels exited the room in all directions and a staircase led up toward distant music.

The men jumped up when Raven entered and reached for Mp5 submachine guns hanging from slings under their jackets. Raven’s pistol spat flame and all four men went down in a hail of copper-jacketed slugs.

“I’m guessing you’re pissed,” Levac said from behind her.

“I’m so far beyond pissed it’s a distant memory,” Raven muttered back.

Levac turned and pointed toward the stairs. “That leads to the basement under the club, we can get out to the street from there and not have to bother going all the way out.”

Raven pulled a spare magazine from Levac’s pocket and ran toward the stairs, stuffing the magazine in her pocket as she took the steps two at a time. She paused at the top and looked back at Levac who was looking down at Aspen. Raven’s heart ached when she looked at her friends. If Aspen wasn’t gone she would be soon and it was hurting Levac as much as it did her.

Levac looked up and Raven nodded. He nodded back and Raven turned back to the door. She gave it a kick and followed through. The door had hit a waiting guard in the face and knocked him to the floor; several others were spread around the room, their weapons held at the ready. Raven shot the guard on the floor and kicked the next one in the face, breaking his nose. She shot the next three and shoulder rolled behind a crate to reload. Bullets bounced around her taking chunks out of the wooden crate and the wall behind her but Raven simply moved her head as if she knew where the bullets were going to strike.

She stepped out from behind the crate and shot two more of the guards, leaving only the one holding his shattered nose and one reloading his rifle. Raven shot the one reloading his gun and squatted next to the injured one. She placed the hot barrel of her pistol on the side of his head and leaned close.

“Okay, bub, my friend is dead or dying and I’ve had a really bad day. Give me a straight answer and you might just live through the night. Got it?”

The man tried to shy away from the sizzling barrel, blood squirting from between his fingers.

“Yeah…yeah, I got it, what do you want to know?”

“Where is the alpha lycan?” Raven asked.

“The what?” the guard asked.

Raven pushed the hot barrel into his head, making a circular burn. “Once more. Where is the alpha?”

The guard tried to shake his head, smoke rising from his skin. “I don’t know, if she’s not in the temple I don’t know!”

“What about the male? What about Eliazarr?”

“He’s never here, she handles everything,” the guard replied.

“If you see her, if she comes out of that hole, you tell her a Storm is coming. You tell that bitch I’m coming and I’m bringing hell with me,” Raven said, her eyes glowing like the fires of Hades. “She will wish she had never been stupid enough to kill anyone in my city.”

The man fainted from fear and pain. Raven glared at him in disgust and turned to Levac, who had stepped out of the stairwell.

“Which way is out?” she asked.

“Behind the barrels and up the stairs into the alley behind the club,” Levac said.

Raven looked in the direction Levac had indicated and saw the barrels. A partially concealed door was just visible behind them.

“Got any more rounds?” she asked.

Levac shook his head. “No. That was all I could grab when I found out you were missing.”

“I’ll get some from the Shelby,” Raven said.

“Um… I don’t have the Shelby,” Levac said. “It was towed into the impound lot when you were found missing and Sanchez dead with one your bullets in his brainpan. Your Automag and stuff is in evidence.”

“Fabulous. So we’ve got the Nash and I’m almost out of bullets.”

“And you’re still breathing and I’ve forgiven you,” Levac said. “Don’t forget that part.”

Raven gave Levac a look and ran across the room. She vaulted the barrels and kicked the exit door, making sure no one was behind. Nothing but cool night air came through the gap. She motioned for Levac to follow and passed through the door into the night. She shot the two guards at the top of the stairs and stepped into an alleyway, checking the building on either side for lycans or snipers. Seeing nothing, she drew her bow and side stepped down the alley, still checking all around for any danger.

Levac joined her at the mouth of the alley, Aspen still held close to his chest.

“The Nash is down the street toward the front of the club.”

Raven heard him, but she was looking at a nearby classic GTO Judge.

“Shouldn’t we go?” Levac asked.

Raven glanced at him, stepped off the curb and put her fist through the GTO’s driver side window. A second later the car’s big block V-8 roared to life and she leaned over to open the passenger door and push the seat forward.

Levac slid Aspen into the back seat and joined Raven in the front.

“So we’re adding destruction of property and auto theft to our repertoire?” he asked.

Raven laughed. “You need to read my record, Rupe. We aren’t adding anything.”

She pressed the gas and the large car roared down the street, ran a red light and passed into a narrow alley with millimeters to spare. Raven ignored the garbage cans that came flying up the windshield to disappear behind them and just kept pushing the car, racing through dark alleyways and narrow side-streets until Old Towne came into view. She skidded to a halt in the no parking zone near Marie’s and slid out. A few seconds later she had Aspen cradled in her arms.

“We’re not going to a hospital?” Levac asked.

“She’ll die in a hospital,” Raven replied. “Or be paralyzed. We need magik.”

The door to Marie’s was locked, but it didn’t stop Raven. She kicked it open with one foot and stepped through, sending Marie’s magpie fleeing for his life.

Raven laid Aspen gently on the counter.

“Marie? Marie it’s Ravenel, I need your help right away!”

Marie came through the beaded curtain, her ebony face etched with lines of anger.

“Ravenel, what is going on? I’m in the middle of a séance.”

“Tell them to get the hell out,” Raven replied. “I’ll gladly play twice their fee and they can come back later. This is more important.”

“Ravenel, who is that?” Marie asked, looking at Aspen.

“Her name is Aspen, ma’am,” Levac said, closing the door as best he could. “She is Raven’s familiar and she’s dying. Raven believes you can heal her.”

Marie checked Aspen’s pulse and shook her head. “I can do little, Ravenel. She is very nearly on Charon’s boat.”

Raven grabbed Marie by the throat and picked her up off the ground. “Marie. Marie LaVeau. How stupid do you think I am, houngon? I know exactly who you are and what you can do. Bring her back or I will snap your neck like an old pencil!”

She set Marie down and glared at her with feral green eyes. The mambo rubbed her neck and looked at Raven with a mixture of fear and respect.

“Give me one moment, Fürstin Ravenel,” Marie said.

She disappeared into the back room while Raven leaned on the counter and tried to get her vampire under control. Once she’d let the Sanguinarch out of the bag she seemed unwilling to go back.