Crimson Midnight (A New Adult Dark Urban Fantasy Series) (The Crimson Series Book 1) (32 page)

42.

 MIDNIGHT SUNSET

Rose landed on her knees on hard
packed earth, she gasped hungrily for breath, her head spinning like a top. 
She panted, her eyes fixed on the brown earth. The characters on Stargate made
the portal stuff look so easy. If she’d realised it would feel as if she was
being pulled apart and then reassembled she would have taken a moment to brace
herself.  After allowing herself a few more seconds to acclimatise, she stood
up, brushing the dirt off her knees. Turning to look the way she had come, she
found only a craggy rock wall.

There was no going back. The portal
had closed, just as Faye had promised. 

Gathering herself she looked
around. It seemed that she had been transported to some kind of underground
tunnel. She sensed that she was deep underground and that it should be pitch
black. But the walls either side of her glowed weakly with an eerie greenish
light. There was only one way forward and no way back. 

Okay, Rose,
she told
herself,
there’s a party to go to
. Squaring her shoulders she set off
down the dark corridor.

The corridor ended abruptly in a
roughly cut arch, leading into a cavern, lit by some sort of lights fixed to
the rocky walls. Rose blinked, allowing her eyes to adjust, and then stifled a
gasp at the sight that met her eyes.

Five figures were crouched in a semi-circle,
three of which she recognised instantly– Thistle, Raven and Erin.  The other
two were strangers to her, a plump woman and a gaunt looking middle-aged man.

“Ah, our special guest star,
everyone!” Faye’s melodious voice echoed around the cavern. “Thank you sooo
much for joining us at such short notice, and welcome to Emain Macha in the
quaint little city of Ard Mhacha…oh, sorry, Armagh.” 

Rose noticed that she had added an
accessory to her earlier ensemble– a thick silver rope belt. 

Nice to see she still has time
to accessorise,
she thought sarcastically.

Raven’s head snapped up, his eyes
widening in shock then dimming in dismay as they settled on her.  Erin whimpered, calling out her name.  Thistle’s head remained bowed– the only indication
that she was affected by Rose’s presence was the curling of her hands into
fists at her sides.

Faye stepped forward, her heels
tapping on the hard ground.  “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist playing
hero.” She smiled smugly.

“What the hell is going on here?”
Rose asked perplexed.

“Why don’t you take your place?”
Faye indicated a small raised metal platform beside Erin, and Rose realised
that all the other captives were also perched on similar platforms.  “All will
be revealed,” Faye promised with an enigmatic flourish of her hands.

Rose’s glance moved from the
platform back to Faye.  She didn’t have a clue what was happening here but she
knew, from the eager look on Faye’s face, that whatever it was, Rose herself
was an important part of making it happen. Rose drew on her bravado reserves.
“If you wanted an audience all you had to do was ask. Isn’t this a little
extreme?” She cocked an eyebrow.

Faye glared at her, not amused.
“Sit!” All playfulness was gone from her tone.

“Er, no.” Rose folded her arms
across her chest. “Make me, bitch,” she said levelly.

Faye’s lips curved in a sadistic
smile. “My pleasure.” Raising her arm she waved it toward the lights closest to
Rose.

Rose frowned. What the hell was
Faye doing?  Her question was answered a second later as the lights detached
themselves from the wall, rising away from the rock in a swarming mass. They
headed toward her.  She waved her arms to ward them off as they surrounded
her.  “What the fuck!”  Her hand connected with something firm, dry and
fleshy.  She heard a high pitched scream and the mass surged toward her with
renewed vigour.  Her eyes caught the flash of tiny razor sharp teeth, and large
bug-like eyes.

“I wouldn’t aggravate them if I
were you”’ Faye said conversationally. “They love the taste of blood, one cut
and they’ll go crazy. And I don’t know if even I could call them off before
some damage was done.”

“Rose, listen to her!” Raven
called. “They’re dangerous!”

Rose stilled immediately, her chest
rising and falling with restrained panic as the psycho Tinkerbells dug their
tiny claws into her clothing and tugged her toward the platform.  Once she was
appropriately positioned they surged downward.  She heard the clang of metal
and felt its grip on her ankle.  Then they were gone, back to their positions
on the walls. 

“You have no idea how gratifying it
is to finally have you here.” Faye knelt before Rose.

“Excuse me if I don’t burst with
honour.” Rose was well aware that she was in exactly the position she shouldn’t
be, well aware that she had played right into Faye’s hand, and had the sneaky
suspicion that if she hadn’t followed Faye then whatever Faye was planning
would not have succeeded.

“Oh, but you should be.” Faye’s
eyes widened in surprise. “You managed to evade me quite thoroughly. The demon,
the wolves, not to mention all the other little summoning’s I had to perform to
keep the council on their toes.”

“That’s not possible.  You couldn’t
have done the summoning’s. You don’t have that kind of power.” Raven said.

She shot Raven a sly look “Let’s
just say I know a guy, who knows a guy.” She shrugged.  “Convincing him did
take a bit of work, but he caved…eventually.” She sighed.  “It’s all been such
hard work. Not to mention the juice that goes into taking over a pack mind,” she
pouted.

Raven looked up. “So the other
attacks were smoke screens?”

“Certainly had you chasing your
tails.” She giggled. “Pardon the pun.” She dismissed Raven turning her
attention back to Rose. “
You
were a nuisance but then you did have a little
help.” Her gaze slid to Thistle.  Then she smiled. “But then I thought why not
kill two birds with one stone, but unfortunately my little wolves failed.  I
just had to bide my time until I knew you two would be apart.” She stood taking
a step back. “Of course you have a little power of your own, and I knew that it
was there somewhere, the mugging when you were fifteen didn’t bring it out but
I knew it was only a matter of time.”

Rose felt herself go cold. “You…the
mugging…that was you?”

“Not personally, although that
would have been fun.” She sighed wistfully. “No, I merely orchestrated it. I
needed to know what I was dealing with, and you…you were such an unsuspecting
soul, completely unaware of what you were.”

Rose felt the anger rising within
her, the familiar rush of power coming easier than it had ever come before,
urged on by her desire to smash Faye’s smug face.

“Now, now, Rose, I think you should
calm down.”  Faye was staring at Rose’s hands, which had begun to glow.  “You
wouldn’t want anything to happen to your godmother would you?”

The blood drained from Rose’s
face.  Flo. How could she have forgotten about Flo? And Roman, where was
Roman? 

Raven’s head snapped up, his eyes
narrow slits of fury.

“At the risk of sounding clichéd,
you hurt me and Flo gets it.” Faye giggled.

“Roman, where’s Roman?” Rose asked.

“Oh, he’s around, I’m sure he’ll be
partying with us later.” She winked.

Rose took a deep breath, reigning
in her power– she hid her fear behind sarcasm. “Some party.”

Faye’s eyes gleamed with
anticipation. “Oh yes, blood fear and power, this party will have it all!” She
raised her hands to the roof in a dramatic gesture. 

Rose waited for the thunder and
lightning that, in a movie, would have accompanied the gesture.  None came and
she had to make do with Faye grinning like a maniac. A poor substitute but then
you couldn’t have everything because, if she could, then she’d be asking for a
semi-automatic, the knowledge of how to use it and killer aim.

Erin whimpered again and Rose shot
him a reassuring look.

Faye turned and walked toward the
wall behind her.  As she approached it there was a flash of light and a door
opened within it.  She turned back to the group. “Now I have some last minute
preparations to make, why don’t you lot catch up?”  Tossing her hair over her
shoulder she turned her back on them before disappearing through the door. 

“We have to get out of here.” Rose
pulled on her ankle restraint. “Wherever this is.”

“Ireland,” Raven said. “We’re in Ireland.”

“I want my mum.” Erin began to sob
softly.

“I know, honey, I know. It’s going
to be okay.” Rose tried to reach for him but the distance between the platforms
was too great.

Raven sighed. “Even if we could get
out of these chains, there’s no exit. This place is locked tight.”

“What about through there?” Thistle
spoke softly pointing toward the still open doorway Faye had created.

Rose held up her chain quirking an
eyebrow.

The curvy woman sighed in
exasperation. “It’s a simple enough spell to release the chains but I can’t seem
to get any spell to work, I think these restraints are charmed, they’re
blocking my magic.”

“And I assume that if it were that
easy to escape we would never have been left alone.” Raven pointed out.
“Besides they have Flo and Roman.  We’re not going anywhere.”

“We’re not alone,” the gaunt man
said in a raspy voice, “don’t forget the crazy lights.”

“Wait, you’re a witch?”  Raven
addressed the woman.

“Yes, sorry.  My name is Liza and
this is Henry.” She indicated the scrawny man to her right who nodded weakly in
response to the introduction as if speaking a moment before had tapped out his
last reserves of energy.  Liza frowned. “I think he’s been here the longest,
he’s really weak.  They’re not too big about feeding us.” Her frown deepened. 
“Henry is a warlock– I’m a witch, what are you lot?”

“Werewolf,” Raven said.

“Vampire,” Thistle whispered. 

Rose studied her friend.  Her face
was as white as a sheet, almost translucent.  It was obvious she hadn’t fed for
a while.  How much longer could the vampire go without feeding?  Raven caught
her eye and they shared a worried look. 

“I’m not sure.” He answered her
unspoken question. He turned to address Henry. “The council thought you were
dead.”

“And me?” Liza asked.

Raven shook his head.  “I don’t
think you’ve been reported missing yet.”

Liza grimaced.  “Tom, my fiancé is
away on business, I work mainly from home…I guess it would be a while before I
was missed.”  Her gaze flicked to Erin whose eyes had gone as wide as saucers.
“What about you, honey? What are you?” she asked, wanting to involve him in the
conversation.

“A boy.” Erin’s tone was wary.

Liza frowned looking confused.

Raven and Rose exchanged a worried
look. With everything going on they had completely forgotten that Erin was oblivious to their true natures. 

Thistle emitted a choked laugh.
“Talk about throwing him in at the deep end.”

Raven made a shushing motion with
his hand wincing in pain as his shackles chafed against his skin. And for the
first time Rose noticed that unlike the rest of them, he was bound hands and
feet and that his shackles gleamed brightly in the light.

“Silver,” Thistle said. “The only
element to hold a werewolf.”

Erin shifted backwards on his
platform as if subconsciously trying to distance himself. A pained look flitted
across Raven’s face, this time it had nothing to do with his shackles. “Erin
I…” Raven looked warily at the little boy at a loss for words.

“Do you eat people?” Erin asked in a small voice.

Raven looked taken aback but
quickly composed himself.  “No, most definitely not,” he said firmly.

“Okay.” Erin bit his bottom lip.
“Witches and warlocks and werewolves and vampires…they’re all real?”

“Yes.” Rose looked him steadily in
the eyes trying to gauge his reaction.

After a moment he nodded, lifting
his small chin. “I can handle this, don’t worry. I know I’m only little but I’m
strong for my age and I’m not…I’m not scared.”

Rose smiled at this show of courage–
he really was a remarkable boy. 

He smiled shakily back at her. “
She
has my mum and brother.” He blinked rapidly as if to hold back tears. “She put
this silver stuff on her and she…hurt her.  What is she?”

Rose glanced at Raven.

Raven leaned toward Erin. “You’ve heard of fairies, right?”

Erin nodded slowly.

“Faye is one of the fey people. 
She is what we call a fairy.”

Erin looked confused.  Everything
he knew about fairies would have come from fairy tales and cartoons.

Rose licked her lips. “I don’t know
much about them, but you can see their nothing like the fairy tales, they’re a
lot bigger and nastier.”

“I guess the stories got it wrong,
huh?” Erin smiled wryly.

“Yep, something like that.” She
grinned.

Liza was studying Erin and looking
a little perplexed. “So he’s just a little boy?”

Erin glared at her indignantly.
“I’m going to be a fireman when I grow up!” 

Rose stifled a giggle at Liza’s
shocked expression.

Raven turned to Liza. His eyes full
of sorrow. “He is human.”

Liza turned her attention to Rose.
“And you?”

Rose shrugged. “Not sure, but the
council is looking into it.”

“Okay, so we have a warlock, a
witch, a werewolf, a vampire a…little boy who’s going to be a fireman.” She
smiled at Erin who nodded firmly, then returned her smile, indicating that he
had forgiven her. She continued. “And a…whatever.”  She finished lamely,
looking at Rose.

“That’s about the size of it.
Whatever they’re doing they’ve obviously picked us for a reason.”

Liza gnawed at her lip. “I’ve been
here for a while and it’s been pretty uneventful.  I mean, they had me in this
cage thing for a while, they only moved me here today.  Anyway, I heard them
talking today, something about a ritual and, er, power and one of them
mentioned something…Samhain, I think.” She looked apologetic. “I didn’t catch
much more because they noticed I was paying attention and, um, decided to knock
me out.”  She pushed her long dark hair away from her forehead exposing a deep
purple bruise.