BOOK 2 - Viktoria Ch. 06

Jael dashed down the spiral staircase in Selene's tower, his boots making no sound. Viktoria wouldn't even know he'd been there. His Draga was going to turn herself over to the man who'd kidnapped Musette and the mage who had hurt her.

She would fight with him about him going with her. And Viktoria and her sisters would be welcomed beyond the wards where he wouldn't be provided they went as victims. She could fight with shadows, but what if that wasn't enough? If she was bitten, her magic could be compromised, just like Musette's.

Well, she wasn't going in alone, but he'd let her think she was. She could hate him if she wanted to, but he would kill every man in that compound before they touched her.

He parked in the garage under Club Saol, got in the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor, holding it in until the elevator descended. When the doors opened he entered the maze of interconnected tunnels that ran beneath the blocks of real estate the Vitiate owned in downtown Port Storm.

Over the thousands of years they'd lived as vampires all of them managed to acquire enough wealth a job wasn't necessary, but they couldn't sit around doing nothing. And sometimes returning to the compound on the cliff wasn't a feasible option before sunrise, so each member of the Vitiate had a room in Club Saol where they fed, as well as a suite in the tunnels under their property.

Jael passed his dojo, the arena, the theater, a series of shops and warehouses, a tattoo parlor, a hotel and small convention center, and an apartment building. Bypassing a modern office, Jael entered an downward sloping offshoot that led to a cavern carved into bedrock.

The space was vast, at least two hundred feet tall, and the same distance wide. Heavy metal music played at an eardrum rupturing volume, and Jael had to take a few moments to adjust to the change in temperature as the cool of the tunnel turned uncomfortably hot.

A smokeless inferno burned along one side of the cave, and in the center was a man nearly seven feet tall and powerfully built with enough muscle Jael was glad he would never be set against him as an enemy. He wielded a flame thrower at a metal statue, melting it into a silver river that cascaded into metal vats arranged around its base.

Drake was forever melting and reforging the same woman in different forms.

The music cut off and Jael resisted the urge to take a step back, assaulted by the sudden quiet.

"Jael."

"Hello, Drake."

"I will not move back."

"I didn't come here to ask you to move back to the house."

"What do you want?"

"I need some help, my friend."

"Ha!" Drake scoffed. "Since when do you need my help, assassin?"

"Since speed became more important than stealth."

Drake's body tensed. "So, it has happened for you as well. Selene told me things would happen quickly." His shoulders sagged and his voice dropped to a whisper. "Strygoi do not like to be alone." He extinguished the flame thrower and set it down. "What do you need from me?"

"A distraction."

Drake turned around, finally interested. "Of what kind?"

"The kind that goes boom. I need to empty out an apartment building that takes up nearly a block. The more chaos the better."

"Only chaos? You're sure?" At Jael's nod, a smile spread across Drake's face and the black pupils in his red eyes shifted from round to vertical slits. "I have just the thing."

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Drake held what looked like a grenade launcher on his shoulder, aiming it at the mage's apartment building from the rooftop of a higher building across the street.

"What's that?" Jael asked. While he'd do anything to protect Viktoria, even when she didn't know he was doing it, he'd been wary asking Drake for this favor, thinking he'd have to scale down what Drake wanted to do. The man, for good reason, maintained a 'scorch the earth' policy when it came to dealing with mages, sometimes literally, but sometimes he scorched the earth just for fun. When Jael asked for a distraction to empty out an entire building, he'd been positive they'd have to negotiate from 'reduce the block to rubble' to 'leave most of it standing'.

"Something new." Drake pulled the trigger, and a projectile flew out of the tube. It soared in an arc, landing on the roof of the apartment building where it exploded with a loud bang. Dark black smoke poured out of the canister. It flowed over the surface, staying close to the roof rather than rising into the sky. When it reached the edges, it streamed downward, pouring into the building through open windows.

He took aim and fired a second time. Clouds of smoke burst from the canister, this time in hues of red and orange and flowed into the sky. Laughing, Drake aimed lower and sent the next volley through a window.

Smoke alarms went off and people screamed, rushing from the upper floors to the lower floors down the outside fire escapes. Sirens wailed, closing in on the smoking building. Drake raised a bigger tube to his shoulder.

"What's that one?" Jael asked.

"You know what they say." Drake grinned. "Where there's smoke..." He pulled the trigger on the larger weapon, and when this projectile hit the roof, it exploded into flames. "We only get one Draga. I don't begrudge you, Idris, or Stryx finding yours. You are hesitant to bond, but four thousand years wasn't enough time with mine. You find her, and you do whatever you have to." Drake slapped Jael on the back. "I'll keep them evacuating. Their wards will be going crazy with all the emergency personnel going in and out of the building."

Jael raced down the stairs to street level, and made his way through the crush of people leaving the apartment building. Fire trucks and ambulances pulled up and emergency workers gathered their equipment and entered the building.

Swords drawn and hidden under a bulky, yellow turnout coat, Jael entered the building. The wards stretched, close to their breaking point with all the traffic crossing them. Jael broke away from the crowds, following the pull of his swords towards the stronger spells.

He followed the trail to the basement level, and hit a wall. The hilts of his blades burned hot in his hands as he touched the tips to the brick. Bringing both swords up he slashed them in diagonal lines through the ward, expecting the wards to dissolve.

Jael threw up an arm to protect his eyes as the ward flashed a bright white and hot liquid splashed over him, burning his skin like acid.

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"I'm bored." Dream huffed. "Are we done with this plan yet?"

Viktoria arched an eyebrow at her sister. "We've been locked up for two minutes."

"Getting kidnapped isn't fun like it used to be. Where is the castle? And the musicians?" Dream glared pointedly at the chair they were bound to. "The cushions? Why do we have to be manacled in this disgusting basement?"

"And the horses! Driving isn't as romantic as being swept away on horseback." Memory sighed. "And a handsome, muscular man would have to put his arms around you and hold you close, so you could feel his hard—"

"Memory!" Dream shrieked.

"—thigh muscles."

Dream giggled and Viktoria snorted. "No wonder Mother doesn't let you two out of Pohjola. I'm glad I was never so naive as you."

"You don't get to make fun of us! You're the one who thought that old man Väinämöinen was handsome."

"He was a demigod and had a nice singing voice!"

"He was a creepy liar." Memory retorted. "He promised Mother the Sampo to save his life after she caught him spying on us, and when Ilmarinen made it, Väinämöinen stole it and tried to kidnap you. And he told Ilmarinen he could have one of us!"

Viktoria sighed. There was no point in arguing with Memory. "Okay, so one time I chose wrong. And don't talk about Mother. She is always listening and might show up."

"Are you going to choose Jael?" Dream asked.

"She can't!" Memory elbowed Dream. "He'll ruin everything."

Viktoria changed the subject. "Let's focus on finding out what happened to Musette. The sooner we find the mage the sooner we can get out of this place."

"I think you gave Tom too much beer of oblivion." Memory shifted in her chair. "He wasn't looking so good when he left. Maybe he forgot where he's supposed to go."

"It's not an exact science."

A key rattled in the lock, and Tom entered the cell with three other men. They were all shirtless, with enormous spiders tattooed on their backs, long legs tipped in claws stretching down their arms, the spiders' heads on the back of their necks.

A man with red pupils prowled towards Viktoria."These aren't bad. Asim will be here soon. We'll have to hurry. Did you search them?"

Tom screwed up his face in concentration, then shrugged. "Search them for what?"

"Oh, I don't know," the red-eyed man replied. "Weapons? Spells? Anything we can have fun with?"

"Ummmm." Tom frowned, concentrating hard. "No!" he shouted in triumph.

"For fuck's sake, what is wrong with you?"

Viktoria tried not to shudder as the red-eyed ran his hands over her, patting her down. He removed her cell phone and the flask from her pockets.

"What's this?" He uncapped the flask and sniffed it before taking a large swig. "Not bad." He handed the flask to another man, who tipped it up, swallowed a big gulp and passed it to the fourth man. "Looks like we can have a real party this time."

Tom snatched the flask away from the man and drank.

"Good boys. Drink up." As the men passed the flask around, Viktoria turned her attention to Dream's manacles. She pulled a small piece of shadow to her fingertips. Manipulating it into the keyhole, she let the sliver twist and shape itself into a key shape. A moment later one of the cuffs clicked open and she went to work on the other one.

"I feel sick." The red-eyed man doubled over and clutched his stomach. "What was... in... that?"

"A little something our grandmother makes." Viktoria smirked. "I think for this batch, she used frog spawn, worms, and poisonous snakes. I'd say you could ask her when you soul arrives in Tuonela, but you're about to forget you ever existed."

All four men flushed an bright shade of red and broke out in a sweat.

The spiders on the mens' backs writhed under their skin.

"I don't like that," Dream murmured as she rubbed her wrists and stood.

"Me either." Viktoria kept her voice low as she freed Memory from her restraints.

"Heeeeey," one of the men slurred as he swayed on his feet, "you can't get out of those. They stop witch magic."

"Maybe these would work if we were witches, but we are goddess born." Viktoria stood as her manacles clunked to the floor. "And they won't work on us. Where's the mage?"

Tom raised a hand like a schoolboy with the answer, took a step, reeled around, and stumbled into two of the other men. The three of them toppled to the floor in a tangle of limbs and didn't move.

"Finally." Viktoria took the red-eyed man by the shoulders and shook him. "Where is Asim?"

A frown furrowed his brow. "Got... Scourge." He blinked a few times and collapsed in slow motion. His mouth gaped, his chin sagged to his chest, his knees hit the floor, and he fell onto his face with a crunch.

Jael was here? Viktoria heaved an inward sigh.

"That's gross. Scourge sounds like some disease dogs get." Dream wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Their memories are gone." Memory prodded one of the unconscious men with her shoe. "They're... empty. How interesting. I've never seen grandmother's beer work like this before."

Four spider legs erupted from the men, two from each of their arms.

"Get behind me." Viktoria ordered her sisters. "Break one of of these lights if you can, to give me some more shadows to work with."

Memory swung one of the chairs towards a light fixture in the ceiling, plunging half the room into darkness. "I never need to see any spiders ever again."

Wet squelching sounds came from the men as the four huge arachnids pushed against the floor for leverage, ripping the rest of their bodies free. They shook themselves, as if glad to be rid of the men, and sixteen pairs of eyes focused on Viktoria. Fangs glistened with venom.

Viktoria readied whips of shadow, but the spiders made no move towards them. "Good spiders. You don't want to bite us."

A green-striped spider moved towards them. Tripping over its own legs, it bumped into the orange-striped spider, and the two fell in a squirming heap. The red-striped spider tried to take a step forward, but its legs gave out, and it settled to the floor, legs splayed in eight directions. The yellow-striped spider rocked back and forth, leaning almost to the tipping point one way, then over-correcting to lean the other.

"Stay behind me, but move towards the door." Viktoria approached the two spiders struggling to right themselves, keeping herself between them and her sisters. They stopped their frantic movements and the green-striped one extended a leg to her in a plaintive plea for help to right itself. Biting her lip, she gripped it, tugging the creature upright with a gentle pull.

Dream knelt to help the orange-striped spider to its feet and it rubbed its head against her. She giggled. "I think they're drunk. They're kind of cute when they stumble around like this. Do you think they forgot they exist, too?"

"I don't know if they ever had enough identity to exist on their own." Memory laughed as she lifted the red-striped spider to stand and it sank back to its belly when its legs slid from under it. "Maybe some of the toxins in Grandmother's beer are reacting with their venom somehow." She lifted the spider again and held it as it got its legs steady.

"Or maybe it was something in the sweat. There was a lot of that." Viktoria scooped up her cell phone, the flask, and a ring of keys one of the men had dropped. "Musette's magic is poisoned. If Serene can't fix her, maybe we can find someone to make an anti-venom from the venom of these guys. Come on. We can lock them in here with Tom and his friends while we search for Asim."

The spiders moved fast, staggering into and careening off of one another as they scuttled out of the room and lurched into the corridor.

"I don't think they want to stay here." Dream giggled.

"Maybe they know where the mage is." Viktoria waited for Dream and Memory to exit and locked the door. "They seemed to move when I said his name."

When Tom brought them in, the hallway had been dark. With the lights on now, doors lined the length of it on both sides. The spiders had turned right out of their cell and wove side to side down the hallway with purpose.

"We're not in a basement, we're in a dungeon." Viktoria peered into one of the cells. A woman lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling. A peek into another cell showed the same view. She handed the keys to Dream. "I'll follow the spiders. You two use the keys and open these cells. You can help the women forget what's happened to them and let them sleep until we can figure out where to take them when we're done here."

"You don't know they know where they're going," Memory protested.

"If they had scattered in different directions I'd agree, but they're all going together, no hesitation. Worst case, I'll come back and find you."

"I know you're a good fighter, but be careful, Shadow." Dream said.

"Yes," Memory added. "I'm pretty sure if you get killed, the deal's off so don't do that."

"Not everything is about the deal."

"It is for us!"

"I promise I won't get killed. You two do what you can for everyone you find. I'll be back as soon as I can." Viktoria turned to follow the spiders. They'd turned a corner the end of the corridor when she caught up with them.

Several times the spiders stopped in the middle of the passage, turning in circles as if they were confused. A couple times one of them returned to her and lifted two of its front legs, like a child wanting to be picked up.

Unable to bring herself to pick up the spider, Viktoria crouched and patted its head instead. "Go on." She waved a hand in the direction they'd been going. "Find Asim."

The spiders made three more turns before they teetered over one another to enter a doorway on the left.

"Little ones, what are you doing here?" a low voice asked. "I didn't summon you."

Viktoria chanced a glance around the doorway. They were still in the dungeon, but instead of a cell, this area was arranged as living quarters, with rugs on floor, comfortable looking furniture arranged in front of a fireplace, and a bed in a corner.

The spiders crowded around a tall man. Asim crouched and held out his hands.

"Why have you left your posts? Show me."

The spiders backed away from him.

"What is wrong?" The mage grabbed one of the spiders' faces in his hands, forcing its jaw open, and swiped a finger across its fangs. He put the collected venom in his mouth and closed his eyes. "Ah, you have led the Scourge's witch to me."

The Scourge's witch. Viktoria huffed.

"Come in, witch." Asim opened his eyes and rose to his feet, scattering he spiders. "I know you are here. I saw what my little ones—" The mage lurched, holding onto the back of the couch. "What have you done to my little ones?" He leaned over and dry heaved.

Viktoria stepped into the room. There were too many lights on, and only a few shadows. Most of the lamps were beyond the mage, and she couldn't reach the ceiling fixtures. The light glinted off something round and silver on the floor in front of the fireplace. She ran towards it.

She was almost there when Asim crashed into her, knocking her down. She craned her head.

The mage's skin had a greenish pallor to it, but he was still strong as he tried to hold her down. Viktoria shoved her arm back, her elbow catching Asim in the face. He snarled, tangled a hand in her hair, and smashed her face into the floor.

She gasped as she saw stars. Fighting through the pain in her cheek, she pushed and kicked with her feet. Bucking, she gained enough freedom to scramble forward. Her hand closed around the fireplace poker and she rolled to her back. She froze as she saw what had glinted before. It was one of the medallions from Lurky's swords.

The distraction cost her as Asim threw himself on her again, his lanky body heavier than it appeared. "Yes, your vampire is here. Not so formidable without his swords. I've been enjoying watching him languish. Maybe I will wait until he wakes, so he can watch me make another witch suffer because of him." He straddled her, his cold white gaze staring at her as he tried to pin her wrists. "Come little ones, some venom to calm this one."

Viktoria swung the poker into his shoulder, earning a howl of pain, then threw the poker at the ceiling, where it smashed into a bulb. Shadows bloomed and she called them to her.

"You like watching so much? Watch this." Viktoria shoved shadows into his eyes.

Asim screamed as the whites of his eyes clouded, light grey as the first of the shadows took hold, turning darker to black when Viktoria poured more shadows into him.

Viktoria stifled a scream as the spiders lurched. It turned into a relieved breath out as the spiders landed on the mage and sank their fangs into him. He thrashed trying to shake and swat the spiders off, and she found herself in unexpected position of defending the spiders trying to help her. Shadows leapt from the wall and wrapped around Asim's wrists, holding him in place.

Squirming from under the mage she got to her knees, searching for the medallion. She scooped it from the floor, and found the second in the fireplace. Where was Lurky?

"Lurky, what did they do to make you give up your swords?"

Asim quieted as the venom from his spiders went to work on him. Viktoria was binding him in more shadows when Dream and Memory came in, laughing at the spiders sitting in a row atop the mage's motionless body.