Torment (Soul Savers Book 6) (39 page)

I turned to Tristan,
Owen, Vanessa, and Charlotte. “I say we have to check it out.”

Tristan nodded. “He’s
right about the tunnels under there. They connect all the important
buildings and sites. The Daemoni have been focused on those for ages.
Lucas had me studying them all the time.”

“Victor and me,
too,” Vanessa said. “But Lucas had never gained access to
them before.”

“We know he can
now, though,” I said. “He’s probably sitting in the
damn Oval Office this minute, telling the president what to do.”

“Or having him
turned,” Vanessa muttered, the bitterness of her own turning
leaking through her tone.

“When are we
going?” I asked.

Tristan’s eyes
narrowed for a moment. “Tomorrow afternoon. Gives us time to
rest up and regenerate. We’ll scope it out in daylight and
watch for the Daemoni to leave for their nightly hunt. I don’t
know how much security they’ll really have in place since
they’re pretty much in control anyway.”

“Except they know
we’re close,” Owen pointed out.

“I don’t
think we should all go,” I said. “Blossom and Jax will
want to stay with Sheree and the Normans, just in case something
happens. They prefer helping like that.”

“I’m not so
sure Jax does, but he’ll stick with Blossom regardless,”
Tristan said. “Charlotte, are you willing to stay behind? Keep
this place locked down?”

She grimaced. “I’d
rather not. I’m one of your strongest fighters.”

“Which is why we
need you here,” Tristan said. “If the Daemoni know we’re
here and then we show up there, they’ll know this place is
vulnerable.”

“They haven’t
attacked them yet. It’s sacred,” I reminded him.

“They can still
shoot spells and fire inside from beyond the line,” Owen said.

“And they didn’t
know these people had any ties to us before,” Tristan
countered. “Now they do. Now they know this place and the
people here are our weakness. They need a shield.”

Char pressed her lips
together and blew air out of her nose. “Fine. I’ll stay.
Blossom and I will shield it.”

“Can you keep an
eye out on Dorian, too?” I asked. “I’m worried
about him.”

“Yes. Of course.”

“Thank you,”
I said. “So it’s the four of us?”

“Three of us,”
Tristan corrected. “Owen, Vanessa, and me. You can keep an eye
on Dorian yourself.”

“Hey!” I
protested. He glanced down at my abdomen. I narrowed my eyes and
shook my head. “Don’t you even go there.”

“Lex—”

“Don’t
Lex
me. I’m going with you. You need me and my mind.”

His brows lifted as his
gaze locked on mine. “You’re broken, remember?”

I frowned. “Not
completely. And maybe my power will come back.”

“You’ll
need more than three of you,” Noah said.

“Shut up,”
everyone but me replied at the same time.

“You’re not
leaving me here, Tristan. I swore to my people I would not cower and
hide. That I would be out there, like everyone else. That I would not
send anyone off to do what I would not do myself.”

“You weren’t
pregnant then,” Char said unhelpfully. “You probably
should—” She cut herself off when I gave her a
death-glare, and she sighed. “You’re as stubborn as your
mother, you know that? But you’re the matriarch. If you think
it’s best for the Amadis and humanity for you to go, by all
means, go.”

I scowled as I
considered this very valid point, but then made up my mind. If we
didn’t succeed in disconnecting the Summoned and the Norman
soldiers from Lucas, we’d never have a chance of defeating him.
There would be no Amadis or humanity to worry about. No future for a
baby. I was one of our strongest fighters, and we needed all we could
get, especially if Char stayed here, where she was needed more than I
was.

“We each have our
role to play,” I said. “Mine is to be a warrior. And I
will
be there to cut those stones out.”

I looked to each one of
them, challenging them, but nobody argued with me further.

“I’m going
to let the others know, including Carlie,” I said.

“I’ll come
with you.” Tristan looked at Owen. “You’re good
here, Scarecrow?”

Owen rubbed his
stomach. “Just bring me some grub.”

Char stayed with her
son and Vanessa, in case Noah decided to give them a hard time. I
told Tristan about Dorian’s attitude as we crossed back over to
campus.

“He obviously
knows who Noah is,” I said. “He knows what’s
expected of him in the future. Kali probably brainwashed him while
she had him, and now he thinks he has no choice.”

Tristan took my hand
into his. “We don’t know what the future holds anymore,
ma lykita
. The best we can do right now is to take one day at
a time. And for the rest of today and tomorrow morning, I say we try
to have a little peace as a family.”

We didn’t know
where to look for Dorian, but our noses and stomachs led us to the
cafeteria. He wasn’t there and didn’t show up while we
each ate a bowl of pasta from a can, but when we stepped outside,
Tristan lifted his chin as he gazed across the quad. Dorian sat on
the ground, leaning against a tree trunk and playing with Sasha, who
ran through the fallen leaves. We descended the stairs to join him.

“Alexis!”

I turned to Carlie
jogging across the greenway, her blond ponytail bobbing behind her
head. She panted as she ran up. “I’ve been looking all
over for you.”

“Is Sheree okay?”
I asked immediately.

She drew in a deep
breath and nodded. “She is for now. We did what we could, and
the rest is up to her. Does she … you know … heal fast?
Is that true about her … kind?”

I nodded. “Depending
on the injury, yeah.”

“Then she might
make it.”

I blew out a breath of
relief. “Thank you!”

“Hey, Carlie. I
don’t know if you remember me—”

Carlie burst into
laughter as she stared at Tristan’s outstretched hand. “Are
you serious? It’s been a long time, and I’ve met a lot of
people, but Tristan, you don’t exactly have a forgettable
face.”

He looked at me as
though he didn’t understand. Yeah, right.

“Uh, anyway,”
he said, “what do you know about what’s happened?
Anything about the rest of the city? Like the Mall?”

“The Mall’s
infested with zombies,” James said from behind us.

I choked down a gag
just at the sound of his voice. Of all the people to emerge from the
past, why him? Tristan took my hand, squeezing it harder than usual.

“How do you know
this douche canoe?” he asked me under his breath, only loud
enough for me to hear. I giggled. I’d never heard him use that
word before. “Learned it from Dorian. It fits.”

I nodded. “Remember
how I had a hard time trusting you in the beginning? This asshole is
one of many reasons why. That crooked nose of his is from my fist.”

He chuckled. “Ah.
I remember the story now. Good girl.”

“Zombies, huh?”
I asked, turning toward James and wishing someone else could give us
this crucial information, but he seemed to be our only choice. Him
and a couple of other hunters standing with him, all dressed in black
cargo pants, black t-shirts, and black combat boots, with weapons
hanging on their backs and belts.

“Something like
that,” said one of his friends, a black guy. “They ain’t
alive, that’s for sure. But they ain’t dead, because they
move around, mostly just wanderin’ around like they’re
drunk. Until they smell fresh meat. Then they get all worked up.”

I cut my eyes sideways
to look at Tristan and spoke under my breath again. “I thought
the outbreaks were limited to the other side of the world.”

“Apparently not.”

“What else is
going on out there?” I asked the others.

“Pretty much
hell,” James said.

I suppressed the urge
to roll my eyes. Or slam my fist into his face again.

“We need
details,” Tristan said. “We have a mission, and the more
we know, the better.”

Carlie stared at us
with huge blue eyes. “You want to go out there?”

“We don’t
have a choice,” I said. “It’s something only we can
do.”

“I bet we can
handle it.” James smirked. “Better than you. You seem to
have a soft spot for the supes. Besides, what are you going to do?
Punch them?”

My hand balled into a
fist, ready to remind him of the power in said punch, which was even
more than it had been last time his nose had met my fist. Instead, I
threw a bolt of electricity at his feet, making him jump backwards.
Carlie gasped and covered her mouth with her palm.

“You are going
out there, aren’t you?” she asked, her voice muffled
behind her hand.

“We have to. It’s
the whole reason we’re even here.”

She pressed her lips
together as she studied me, and then she grabbed my hand.

“Come with me.”
She tugged me along as she headed toward the big building at the
front of campus.

James and the other
hunters didn’t follow, thank God.

“I can’t
stand being around him,” Carlie said as she led Tristan and me
inside the arched doorway. We went up some wide steps, turned a
corner, then entered an enclosed stairwell. “Some of the
hunters are okay, but he and his friends are dicks. Unfortunately, he
seems to think he’s in charge. Did you date him or something?”

“Hell no! He
wanted something, though, that I wouldn’t give. When he pushed
it, I punched him.”

Carlie laughed. “Good
for you!”

I shrugged. “It
was a long time ago, but he hasn’t changed. Maybe grown worse.”

We continued climbing
the steps to the top of the stairwell. She took us through the door,
a short ways down the top floor hall and through another door that
led outside. Four columns surrounded us with more steps. I looked up
as we climbed, into the bottom of a huge bell, its clapper looking
like a long, bulbous tongue. When we reached the top of the clock
tower, Carlie turned to look out.

“I thought you
should see this,” she said.

I followed her gaze and
gasped at the view of the city spread out before me. What should have
been a beautiful landscape of trees in autumn and interesting
architecture broke my heart and soul with the utter destruction.

Buildings were
demolished or only half-standing. Several pillars of black smoke rose
to the sky all around the city. The top of the Washington Monument in
the distance ended at jagged edges instead of its normal point. Cars
and buses littered the streets, some in the middle of the roads, many
with their doors hanging open. The tops of some trees had been broken
off, and others were only blackened trunks, their leaves and branches
fried.

And dead bodies lay
scattered everywhere.

Legs and other body
parts protruded from underneath fallen buildings. Charred corpses lay
in the ashes of burning piles of rubbish. And mounds of bodies were
piled on street corners, as though waiting for the trash service to
collect them. Bile rose in my throat, and my eyes watered.

Buildings that hadn’t
been destroyed suffered broken windows with half their contents
spilling out, what looters had left behind. Were they really even
looters anymore or scavengers simply trying to feed themselves?
Whoever they’d been, they were long gone now. The only living
beings roaming the streets were Daemoni and military. From what we
could see from here, the Normans were locked up in a camp like the
one in London—another Norman farm, about halfway between here
and the National Mall.

“I …”
I shook my head, unable to form words in my shock. “What
happened? What do you know?”

Carlie pressed her lips
together as she gazed out at the devastating scene in front of us. “I
was here, working the night shift as the surgeon on call when the
evil creatures attacked. All of the injuries coming in … it
was insane. And what the people were saying? I mean, the news had
been reporting all day on what was happening everywhere else, but you
just don’t think it’ll happen to you, you know?”
She sighed. “People locked themselves up in their homes, which
didn’t do a lot of good if the monsters really wanted in, but
they backed off a little. Like they’d swooped in for their
shock-and-awe and then knew they had us by the balls. My sister
called me when the news showed that part about you being the head of
all this. She just couldn’t believe it. She knew I’d
known you before, and I told her I couldn’t believe it either.
That’s when she started talking to the others about this A.K.’s
Angels idea. When the bombs started dropping, the phones went out,
and I didn’t hear from her again. I was so scared.”

“Bombs dropped
here, too?” I saw the destruction before me, but I just
couldn’t believe it.

“It was horrible,
Alexis. You don’t think it can happen here. I mean, when it
comes to bombs and war, this city is the number one place the
military’s supposed to protect, right? But there were no F16s
scaring off the planes that came in, even when they entered the
no-fly zone. There weren’t any land-to-air missiles being shot
off to destroy the bombs in midair. It’s like the government
and military abandoned the rest of the city, leaving us for dead.”

“No warnings?”
Tristan asked. “Nobody fighting back?”

She hunched her
shoulders as she crossed her arms over her stomach. “The news
was all over the place with bombings and assassinations and war
breaking out everywhere. I had a hard time keeping track of
everything going on. It was like the civilized world fell into a
free-for-all street brawl.” She shook her head, the ends of her
ponytail whisking over her neck. “There were militias here
trying to make sure we were protected, but our president and leaders
kept saying everything was under control. Whatever the hell that
means. Does that look like everything was under control?”