Dread Nemesis of Mine

chapter 22

My heart dropped, bounced off my liver, and gave me a queasy feeling. I almost blurted out Maximus's demand, but one look at Adam's tormented face told me it would be a bad idea. He was already skirting the edge of sanity. I'd been there before and knew how it felt. Pushing him now might be the final straw.

I replied: Don't hurt her! I'll come back!

I hoped my text might give the rogue vampire pause. By the time the Templar surprise attack started, he might not have a chance to hurt her. My phone vibrated. I checked for a response.

You have thirty minutes, spawn.

I responded again and told him I would. Now all I had to do was hope Fausta's plan was brilliant.

Gunfire echoed from ahead, popping and snapping like fireworks.

Fausta motioned us close. "The vamps have two Templar squads pinned down. We'll sneak up behind and take out the attackers."

"How many OPFORs?" Elyssa asked.

"No idea. A hundred or more. They've got the place warded against fly-eyes, so I can't get exact positions."

Adam's lip curled into a snarl. "I'll take care of that." He pulled out his arcphone. Several long seconds passed. "Damn it. Whoever set up these wards knows what they're doing. Looks like there's a magic power source keeping me from overriding it."

Bella's hands, wrapped tight around her staff, eyes closed in concentration nodded. "Maximus has a very powerful source of supernatural power somewhere below us." Her eyes opened. "The wards are barely draining it. I have a terrible feeling there is an Arcane working for them, and whoever it is might have even more in store for us."

"Dash Armstrong," I said. "At least, I think that's his name. It sounds almost too stupid to be a real name."

Adam wrinkled his forehead. "You've got to be kidding me."

"I kid you not. The dude's name really sounds like some kind of action figure from the fifties."

"No, that's not what I meant," Adam said, shaking his head. "Dash is one of the Dream Team from the Arcane Tourney. He studied under Aston Beaumont himself."

"Why does that name seem familiar?"

"Beaumont is the one who lost an arm as payment to Underborn."

My mind flashed back to before I'd ever met the slimy asshat. "Beaumont's the sorcerer who won the tourney every year, right?"

"Yeah, until Folder Reeves came along, and Beaumont had Underborn kill him."

Fausta held up a hand. "Can you stop this Dash Armstrong?"

Adam's eyes blazed with determination. "If he stands between me and Felicia, he's a dead man."

Bella extended her wand and turned in a slow circle before stopping, the tip angled slightly down. "I have the source located." She looked at Adam. "You stay with Fausta. I will take care of the source. Get a fly-eye up the moment I do."

"Why don't we do this the old-fashioned way?" Elyssa said. "And use our eyes. Chasing after that power source might be a waste of time."

"Maybe," Fausta said, a distant look of concentration on her face. "But there are other reasons to take down the wards."

I waved off their arguments. "I'll go with Bella. If we don't have the power source down within fifteen minutes, go ahead with the attack."

"I'll scout around the old-fashioned way," Michael said, his eyes meeting Elyssa's. "We need to know their positions and numbers if this doesn't work."

Fausta narrowed her eyes. Nodded and pointed at the wall. "Okay. Recruit Borathen, it looks like you could climb the wall and keep cover behind the buildings. Use it for a scouting position and tell me what you find." She looked at Michael. "See if you can find our trapped squads. If you can take any attackers out without detection, go for it. Meanwhile, I'll sneak around to the left side of the courtyard and see what I can see. Meet here in fifteen and we'll go with whatever option is left to us."

Elyssa gripped my hand and squeezed three times. I love you. It was our top-secret code.

I squeezed back and smiled. "Kick ass, baby."

She raised an eyebrow. "Don't I always?"

I motioned to Bella and led her to the exit of the dumpster corral. The area was clear. We sneaked down the stairs. The same groups of noms were still below, partying it up, somehow oblivious to the battle raging topside. One kid with a mop of curly hair offered us a toke on a joint the size of a cigar as we passed. I waved him off.

"How interesting," Bella said as we made our way down a side hall. "Instead of donkeys, these kids turn into vampires."

"Donkeys?"

She led me around a corner and shook her head. "Kids these days."

"Did I miss some reference?"

She rolled the wand between her fingers in an absent-minded motion. "What do you think about Harry?"

Women and their ability to change the subject. "You mean Shelton?"

"Who else, dear?"

"Uh, well, he's quite a character." I wasn't sure what she was getting at. "I mean, I think you can trust him even though he definitely has secrets."

"Hmm." Bella stopped all of a sudden, and I almost bowled her over. The hall terminated in a stone wall. The short Arcane said a few words, and let go of her wand. Instead of falling, it hovered in midair. She thumped the narrow end, spinning it. It spun slower and slower until, like a compass drawn to the north, pointed right at the wall.

"It must be on this level," she said. "Or it would point down."

"Illusion?" I asked.

She picked up a loose bit of mortar and tossed it at the wall. It bounced off with a convincing thunk. "It could be a solid illusion." She sighed. "I could use the path-finding spell I used under El Dorado, but it might give us away to the Arcane."

"Maybe there's an easier way," I said, walking the remaining length of the hall while trailing my fingers down it. A third of the way on the other side of the corridor, my fingers went through the stone. "Aha!"

"Excellent work, Justin." Bella patted me on the arm. "Sometimes, we Arcanes forget there are many ways to skin a goat."

"Are there really that many ways?"

She nodded and walked toward the fake wall. "But one way is usually better than the others." She held a finger to her lips and vanished into the fake wall.

I followed. We'd gone about a hundred yards down the dark passage when the rumbling growl of what sounded like a wounded animal echoed off the stone walls. My eyes met Bella's glowing peepers. I motioned her behind me and crept to the corner. Light flickered from beneath a closed door. The handle turned without noise and I eased it open. Inside was a laboratory straight out of a mad scientist's wet dreams.

Opened crates were scattered everywhere. A large stack of them leaned ponderously against the wall next to the entrance. I saw a partially disassembled gray man strapped to a worktable in the corner to our left. Metal cages, all empty from what I could tell, cluttered the back of the room.

Dash sat before a large aluminum table, manipulating a three-dimensional holograph of the courtyard upstairs, zooming in and out to look at two groups of Templars, which looked like they were pinned behind one of the stone buildings in the courtyard. He circled a group of vampires in the image and they glowed. As he dragged his finger from one location to the other, I saw one of the vampires touch a headset and motion for his group to go to the location.

Good god, it's like a freaking video game.

As Dash zoomed into another area, I saw inert bodies of black-armored Templars mingled with those of vampires in an open space between the building and the vampire army. I realized if I could take over Dash's display, I could pinpoint all the enemy locations. Not only that, but I could tell them to move into strategically bad areas to give the Templars an even better chance at beating them.

I whispered my idea to Bella. She jabbed a finger at a huge Tesla coil in the center of the room, streaks of black and white energy racing around its edges as it occasionally gave off a burst of radiance in all directions.

"Is that the source?" I whispered.

She shook her head. "No, it's only a focus."

Another bellow of pain echoed from somewhere in the room, but a quick glance revealed nothing, thanks to all the stone columns holding up the ceiling. The bellow sounded somewhat familiar to me.

"Does he have a crazy supernatural animal guarding him?" I thought back to Yolo, Vadaemos's companion beneath El Dorado. The strange animal turned out to have more bark than bite, and I hoped Dash hadn't captured the poor thing.

Bella shrugged. "I don't know. But whatever is powering the coil must be attached to it somehow." She pointed to a thick cable running across the floor and behind a thick column. "It must be behind there. You sneak up to it and detach the cables." She held a hand out as the tesla coil spilled another flash of energy into the air. "Dash has attuned his focus, the coil, so it benefits only him with the energy. If it's not disabled, he'll be able to replenish his magical energy at a rate I can't hope to compete with."

I nodded. "I'm on it."

Hard-soled shoes echoed in the hallway we'd just come through. I grabbed Bella and pulled her behind the closest stack of crates.

She whispered something and waved her wand. I hoped she was cloaking us in invisibility, though it didn't seem to be the case.

"Why haven't you moved our forces in for the kill?" said Maximus.

I poked my head up and saw the rogue vampire towering over Dash's seat.

Dash looked up at him. "I guess it depends on how many soldiers you want to lose. They're cornered but still dangerous."

"We have far more soldiers than they do. Send them in. This isn't one of your games where you have to get it perfect." Maximus's eyes wandered somewhere to his right. "Have you finished with the potion?"

"It came out perfect. Even though we didn't have much of the spawn's blood left to work with, it diluted a lot better than I thought it would."

Maximus nodded. "Excellent." He motioned at the screen. "Finish them off. I'll deliver this batch of potion to Atlanta."

"Is the next attack still on schedule?"

Maximus paused in his turn. "Two more days. By then, we'll have the spawn back and can resume production of the potion."

Dash looked uncertain. "You really think he'll show?"

"He has a weakness for weakness." A grin split the vampire's red lips. "The girl is broken and worthless, but I have no doubt he'll return to claim her."

I sure didn’t like the sound of that and hoped Felicia was really okay.

He checked his watch. "I'll be back soon. I expect the Templars to be in body bags when I return. "With that, Maximus walked behind a column.

The Tesla coil hummed louder and louder, energy flashing off it in waves. The air crackled and the smell of ozone permeated the place. It flashed bright one last time and the hum faded and died.

"What the hell?" I said in the lowest whisper possible.

"An arch," Bella whispered back. "Good heavens, they have one here."

If that was true, Maximus was gone, probably back to Atlanta. No wonder Christian's people hadn't seen him using La Casona. This was bad. Really bad. This meant Maximus could set up arches in other cities. He could distribute the vampire potion all over the world. I gritted my teeth. Not on my watch, damn it.

I motioned toward the Tesla coil and made a breaking gesture with my hands. Bella nodded. Slipping out from behind the crates, I stayed low and skulked my way toward the other side of the thick columns in the middle of the room. I probably could have stalked over with a marching band behind me and Dash, absorbed in annihilation, never would have noticed, but I took no chances. Using a column for cover, I peeked around it and saw the arch. It wasn't a large one, just wide and tall enough for a car to drive through, embedded in a pedestal of polished black stone like the huge ones. Obviously, it wasn't like the portable, expanding ones Kassallandra and Pokito had used.

Either Dash knew how to make the things or, more likely, Daelissa had helped him move one from another location, and showed him how to attune it. Hopefully disabling the power source for the Tesla would render the arch unusable. I didn't want to worry about Maximus returning with reinforcements.

"What the hell?" Dash said.

I glanced at the holograph and saw him zoom in on Elyssa, perched on the wall and peering out across the buildings toward the gunfire. He studied her for a moment, and flicked the view, searching until he found the rest of the group hiding out near the dumpster corral.

"Son of a—" he centered the image on a group of patrolling vamps and highlighted them.

I couldn't waste any more time. Keeping low, I followed the thick cables back toward the cages in the back of the room. Something hissed to my right and clanged hard against the cage. I looked up in time to see a vampire—no a vampling—straining against the bars to reach me, its eyes glazed with death, rotting lips peeled back from broken teeth. I backed away and heard a cooing noise behind me. I spun.

"Da nah," said a cherub from inside a barred cage of some kind of clear material.

The dark creature's skin glistened like oil. A round orifice lined with sharp teeth opened on its otherwise featureless face. My knees went weak at the sight and I almost fell on my butt and back into the vampling's arms in an effort to avoid the thing, even though it probably couldn't reach me through the strange container imprisoning it.

My foot found the thick cable, however, and I tumbled to the ground. Rolling away from the danger zone, I pushed myself up and looked at the creatures. What the hell was Dash doing with these things? Was he experimenting on them? I didn't have time to ponder. Turning, I followed the cables where they led into a small room in the back.

I raced through the doorway. Giant jaws snapped in my face as I nearly smacked into a creature the size of a really, really big snake strapped to the floor with diamond fiber. The breath caught in my throat as I looked down the glowing maw of the monster. It was nowhere near full size—a baby perhaps? Whatever the case, I now knew where the power was coming from.

A leyworm.