Only it was no longer just me in this body, but
we
.
Amaya was once again within me, sharing my flesh and my thoughts, even as we shared powers and abilities. It was a strange, unsettling sensation, but one I was more than happy to put up with if it saved both my butt and Azriel’s.
I called to the Aedh. The magic’s response was both swifter and more powerful than ever before, and I couldn’t help wondering whether the union with a demon spirit had amplified its power. In particle form, we turned and headed for the warehouse as fast as possible. The night blurred around us, and the headlights of the cars and trucks on the streets below were little more than bright streaks of light.
It didn’t take us long to reach the old defense site in Maribyrnong, where the second of Lauren’s warehouses was located. There were several other similarly old warehouses located along the same section of road, all of them little more than large concrete boxes. There were no cars in this immediate area, and there didn’t seem to be anyone moving about.
Which didn’t mean there wasn’t anyone here.
Azriel was, for starters. Ilianna’s finding spells were never wrong, and I seriously doubted Lauren would have been able to move him in the brief time it had taken me to get here. Besides, it took almost as much time and effort to dismantle spells as it did to create them. She’d hardly have set this place up as a trap, then flee the minute I didn’t step into it precisely how she’d planned.
We did a quick circle around the building. It was a two-story structure, with small, evenly spaced windows lining both levels. The bottom ones were protected by metal bars, but not the top. I couldn’t see anything unusual or out of place, nor could I feel any sort of magic. But I had no doubt that it was here.
We arrowed closer. Tension rolled through us—mine
more fear based, Amaya’s filled with the need to rent and tear and consume. She really
was
a bloodthirsty little demon.
Is,
she said, her voice echoing weirdly through the mass that was the two of us,
what demons meant to do.
I guessed it was—and it wasn’t like I could complain given that very bloodthirstiness had saved my backside more than once.
As we drew close enough to look through some of the windows, energy began to flicker across my particles. Its touch was unclean but powerful, and warning enough that magic
was
active here. But what, exactly, it was set to do was undoubtedly the question we would soon find an answer to.
I spun around and headed for the rear of the building. When Jak and I had come here, we’d gotten into the warehouse through a window left partially open at the back of the building. We’d left it as we’d found it, so unless Lauren had discovered it was open, it might still be possible to get in that way. If the magic didn’t stop us, that was.
The window was still open. I hesitated, then cursed myself for doing so and slipped in through the small gap. Energy crawled across me, pinpricks of power that nipped and stung my particles, but they didn’t impede our entry in any way.
But maybe
that
wasn’t the intent behind the magic. Maybe it was nothing more than an early warning system. If it was, then Lauren would now undoubtedly be aware of my presence, and
that
meant I had to be more cautious.
I looked around. This room hadn’t changed any since the last time I was here. Metal shelving lined the walls, but there was little else except dust. I scooted under the small gap between the door and the concrete floor, then checked out the various rooms on this upper level—all
of which were still empty—before making my way downstairs.
The foul bite of magic got stronger. Amaya hissed in annoyance, the sound grating as it echoed through our joined beings. I ignored it and swept around the room, trying to see what traps—if any—Lauren might have left here. Again, there was nothing to see but dust, and it was only the magic that nipped at our particles that told me anything had changed since the last time we were here. There were certainly no obvious signs of magic—no black candles, pentagrams, or other magical accoutrements, and certainly no conventional types of security, like cameras, guards, or demons.
But then, most of the other times we’d been attacked by some form of demon, they hadn’t actually appeared until we’d gained flesh form.
I did another run around the inside perimeter, just to be certain I hadn’t missed anything obvious—and given my current state of tiredness, that was certainly a possibility. But other than the furniture remnants left in offices that lined the street side of the building, this place was a vast, empty space. Which left only the stairs—or rather, the hole Azriel had created under them when we’d raided this place and discovered the tunnels and caverns our sorceress had created beneath the building.
That was where Lauren was.
That was where Azriel was.
And it was undoubtedly also where any trap would be.
But it wasn’t like I had any other choice. Not if I wanted to save Azriel and kill the bitch who held him.
We one,
Amaya said.
Magic not stick.
I hope like hell you’re right, my friend, because otherwise we could be in trouble.
Trouble not,
she said.
Trust must.
I did trust her. It was the sorceress I didn’t trust.
We went over to the hole and carefully looked down,
every particle tense, ready to run or fight, depending on what happened. Nothing did, but that only made the tension worse, not better. The hole revealed nothing more than a deep well of blackness, and everything was silent, still.
I half thought about dropping down in Aedh form, but that would probably be a move she’d expect. So I edged away from the hole, hunkered down to present less of a target to anything that might attack the minute we appeared, and called to the Aedh again.
The madmen in my head did their usual mad dance around my brain as I regained flesh form, but I had a feeling the lack of food was causing that rather than it being an aftereffect of the change.
I remained where I was, gaze roaming the building’s shadowed interior, body tense as we waited for something to happen. The concrete was cold against my knees and the air chill as it caressed my body through the newly created holes in my clothes.
But again, there was no response from the magic I could still feel. There wasn’t even any familiar scent in the air. Lauren and Azriel were certainly here, but they
weren’t
in the chamber immediately below the perfectly circular hole in the concrete.
My gaze returned to it. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that there was a trap waiting in one of the rooms below, and that we
would
spring it, sooner rather than later. But if Amaya was right, and Lauren
couldn’t
spell us when we were combined, then maybe our best chance of beating the bitch was to make her think she
had
.
Amaya,
I said,
can your steel still merge with my flesh when you’re inside me rather than it?
Yes,
she said.
Steel still connected to us. Magic still within.
Excellent.
And would it be possible for Valdis to take on a darker shade of steel?
Yes,
she said again.
Sneaky you are.
I half smiled.
I think it’s the company I’ve been keeping. Can you ask Valdis to take on your coloring?
Am.
She fell silent for a moment; then flames flickered down Valdis’s sides, blue at first, then gradually shifting to a darker violet. Her steel went from bright silver to a gray that was almost, but not quite, black.
Best can do,
Amaya said.
Shadowed steel hard to copy.
It’ll do.
Neither Lauren nor Mike had actually seen Amaya, so they’d only be going on what Lucian might have told them.
Okay, now we need to conceal your blade.
Hold flat,
she said.
Press.
I rose and pressed her blade against my chest and stomach. Energy stirred, prickling across my skin, its touch heated and clean compared to the foul feel of magic that filled this warehouse.
Harder,
Amaya said.
Hurt not.
I pressed harder. The hilt dug into my skin but, as she’d promised, didn’t actually hurt. The prickle of energy increased, and the sword began to disappear. It seeped into my flesh, the sharp tip of the blade the first to merge, but the rest of it soon followed, until my hands were pressing against my chest rather than the hilt of the blade. I could feel it within me—it was a weight that was oddly warm, an energy ready and waiting to be called and used—but it wasn’t restricting in any way. I twisted from side to side just to be sure, then smiled and hefted Valdis. Lilac fire rippled down her sides and my smile grew. Lauren would see precisely what she expected to see. Nothing more, nothing less.
Hopefully, it would be enough.
I jumped into the hole and dropped swiftly into the darkness, landing lightly and half-crouched. It was pitch-black and as still as death. There was no sense that anything or anyone was near; even the foul bite of magic seemed to have disappeared.
Anything?
I asked Amaya.
Something,
she said.
Not here.
That wasn’t really surprising. This chamber had appeared to be little more than a storage area; the place where she’d had her pentagram and where she’d performed her magic had been in one of the chambers that ran off the two tunnels that were accessed from this one. I did destroy that particular pentagram, but I guess for a sorceress of her power, that wouldn’t have been much of an impediment.
Could you ask Valdis to provide a little light?
The last thing I wanted was to be moving around in this utter ink and stumble into a more conventional trap.
Flames flared brighter down Valdis’s sides, half lifting the shadows and lending the rough-hewn walls a faint lilac glow. Nothing appeared to have changed since the last time we’d been here. The few small tables that had been hacked out of the soil and stone were still empty, but the clean spots in the thick grime that had items she’d moved before we’d raided the place were disappearing under yet more dust.
I turned and headed for the first of the two tunnels that led from this room. I chose the one that had held her pentagram, as it was the most likely place for a trap to wait. The tunnel was small and narrow and cut so roughly into the earth that the sharp edges tore at my already shredded clothing and down into skin. Thankfully, it wasn’t all that long, and I soon found myself standing in another chamber. This also held empty shelves and tables hewn out of the earth, but there was one major difference here. A very elaborate protection circle had been etched into the stone floor, and the melted remains of black candles sat on each of the four cardinal points.
The twin scents of frankincense and cedar that had been so evident last time had faded greatly, however, as had the sharper, almost caustic aroma that Azriel had
said was the scent of hell. My gaze went to the floor; the place where I’d scored the circle that had been etched into the stone—therefore breaking the circle and its ability to protect—had not been fixed. The magic within this room was no longer active.
They weren’t here.
I squeezed back through the rough-hewn tunnel, gaining yet more scratches—some of them deep enough to bleed. The sharp scent seemed to fill the air, and somewhere out there in the deeper darkness, evil stirred.
Find,
Amaya muttered.
Kill.
That’s the plan.
I just hoped it was Lauren’s presence I was sensing, and not another of her traps.
The second tunnel was wide enough to walk down normally and led into a chamber as large as the main one. I scanned the floor, but once again there was little more than dirt here. The shelves and tables that had been hacked out of the earth held various dusty items, none of which appeared to have been touched or moved since we were here last.
I frowned and slowly turned around. There was nothing here—nothing that hadn’t been here previously. Yet the nip of magic was stronger, indicating we were at least closer to whatever it was Lauren had planned.
So where in hell was she?
There was nothing else in this underground system—no other rooms or tunnels. Or was there? It wasn’t like she hadn’t concealed entranceways before—she’d certainly done it in the underground system we’d discovered under that warehouse near Stane’s.
Amaya?
Something,
she said.
Trace not.
Which wasn’t a lot of help. I flexed the fingers on my free hand, though it didn’t do a lot to ease the tension that was growing stronger by the moment, then walked across to the wall and pressed my fingers against it. The magic
that continued to nip at my skin had no pulse in the warm earth, so I moved on, keeping my fingers against the stone and earth as I slowly moved around the room.
As my touch ran across one of the half-filled shelf slots, energy stirred, the sensation cold and oddly flat. Amaya hissed, the sound filled with excitement as it echoed through me.
Evil,
she said.
Down.
Down?
She didn’t answer, instead briefly taking control and forcing me to squat. The cold bite of magic got stronger. I ran my fingers across the space between the shelf and the floor. If this was a doorway, then it was a damn small one. At barely two feet square, there certainly would be little enough room to maneuver, let alone fight.
And that was probably the whole point.
I pressed my hand hard against the cold, flat magic concealed within the wall of earth. It resisted briefly; then, with a slight sucking sound, my hand went through. Damp air briefly caressed my fingertips before I jerked my hand back. There was definitely a tunnel behind the magic, and one I very definitely had to explore, even if every instinct within me screamed to do the exact opposite.