Infernal Father of Mine (47 page)

The right side of the room looked mostly empty,
though we spotted a few ghouls and Nazdal wandering through the
maze of contraptions as if they had nothing better to do while a
battle raged. I heard the din of battle emanating from inside the
arch room. I heard a huge cheer erupt and wondered if that meant
the minders arrived and were locking down the fortress
sentinels.

I heard a stern female voice nearby. Dad and I
ducked behind a large silver box and peered around the corner.
Serena was speaking with Jarvis and some of the other humans who
Dad and I had seen during our first escape attempt from the Gloom.
"…do you understand?"

Jarvis nodded. "We'll take care of it. The
Templars will never know what hit them."

The others in his group hefted bulging duffel
bags. I strained to get a look at them, but could only make out
rectangular forms pressing against the fabric. Jarvis and his gang
ran toward us. Dad and I ducked around the other side of the box. I
peered around and watched as they left the same way we'd come
in.

"What do you think they're up to?" I
whispered.

"Nothing good," Dad replied. "We have another
problem." He slid his back to the opposite corner of the box and
nodded toward the front of the room. "What do you see?"

I shrugged. "Nazdal and ghouls."

"That's right. The minders are
gone."

"Serena must have moved them." The fortress was
massive. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack, and we
had no time to spare.

"Why would she move them?" I asked.

Dad shrugged. "Maybe to get them out of the way
of her army."

I blew out a frustrated breath. I felt at a
complete loss as to what we should do next.

"They might still be in this room," Dad
said.

"What makes you think that?"

He nodded his head toward the arch chamber.
"They might need to be close enough to the battle to dreamcast the
sentinels."

"Maybe." I hadn't thought of that.

Dad's eyes lit up. "We're being dumb about
this. Let's use our incubus abilities. The minders have a pretty
distinct aura."

"Of course." I resisted the urge to snap my
fingers as was usually appropriate when a bright idea hit me. I
probed the area with my senses, extending them further and further.
They drifted over a nearby Nazdal. I recoiled and felt as though
the mere contact had drained a little life from me. An odd tingle
sent a shiver up my spine.

"I found the minders," I said. "Not too far
from here."

"I feel them too." Dad, looked around, and then
dashed to cover behind what looked like a steel coffin standing on
end. I followed him. We made our way across the room, hugging
various contraptions along the way until we found our
targets.

The minders hovered close to one another,
tentacles drifting. They were so tantalizingly close but impossibly
far away. We couldn't simply drag them inside the disruptor. The
second they touched us, we'd be immobilized, caught in their waking
dreams.

"How are we supposed to move them?" I
asked.

Dad hissed out a breath between his teeth. "We
need bait."

I felt my eyes widen. "That would be
suicide."

"No, not suicide, just a very risky
gambit."

"I'll do it," I said. My insides writhed at the
thought.

He gripped my arm. "No, Justin, I'll do
it."

"But—"

"Listen to me," he said in a stern voice. "I'll
present myself to them, lure them into the disruptor. They'll know
I'm not with Serena and should come after me. You activate the
control panel. At the last second, use one of those magic ropes you
used to scale the building and jerk me out of there."

"I don't like this plan."

"Neither do I, but it's our only shot." He bit
his lower lip. "Get to the control panel, and be ready."

A lump formed in my throat. "Look, I know we
didn't get off to the best start, but I kind of like having you
around."

He grinned and put a hand on my back. "I'm
proud of you. No matter what happens, never give up."

I took his hand and shook it. "Good luck,
Dad."

"Good luck, son." He released my hand and
nodded toward the hexagonal ring of Tesla coils comprising the
disruptor. "Time to pull off a caper."

We sneaked to the closest Tesla coil and hid
behind it. The control panel sat atop a platform against the wall
just outside the ring of pylons.

"Any idea if the minders can see me sneaking up
behind them?" Dad asked.

I shrugged. "Your guess is as good as
mine."

"Here goes nothing," he said, and made his way
toward the targets, hiding behind crates and other contraptions
spaced around the room. The bulk of the Nazdal army swarmed far
enough away I hoped they wouldn't spot him.

I turned and crept to the control panel and
waited as Dad sneaked to the brain. When he closed to within a few
yards, he stepped from behind a crate. As one, the minders turned
toward him, tentacles writhing. He backed away a step, the
creatures closing in, drifting almost languorously after him. I
pressed the symbols on the control panel in the order Cinder had
shown me. Each one stayed lit as I touched it. Holding my finger
above the final symbol, I ducked behind the control panel, breath
locked in my throat, and peered over the edge.

Dad walked backward, leading them until finally
he reached the perimeter of the disruptor, his position about fifty
feet from me. The minders stopped, seeming to realize his intent.
He waited for a moment, but they didn't advance. David took a
cautious step forward. Tentacles strained for him, stopping just
short of his face.

I wanted to shout at him, tell him to come up
with another plan, but a calm look of resignation came over his
face. He looked at me and said, "Get ready." With that, he stepped
forward. The minders swarmed him.

A cry swelled in my throat. Clenching my teeth,
I cast a strand of Murk at Dad. It caught his waist. I jerked him
inside the disruptor, his body trailing the minders with it. Then I
pressed my hand on the final symbol.

Static crackled. A whining noise like a jet
engine powering on vibrated the air. The Tesla coil on the ceiling
glowed blue. The whining sound grew louder and louder until it
overpowered every other sound in the room. I knew it was only
seconds away from discharging into the structure with all the rings
directly below it.

I had no idea if the disruptor would kill my
father. I only knew I had to pull him out of the ring before it
engaged. To do that, I'd have to pull him out at the last second
without dragging the minders with him. Unfortunately, the minders
seemed to realize their peril and released their prey, making for
safety outside the perimeter of Tesla coils.

Dad slumped to the floor, unmoving. I
remembered Minder Justin telling me minders couldn't phase through
solid objects. I channeled Murk and threw up a wall around the
creatures, trapping them. Dad pushed himself unsteadily to his
knees. His unfocused gaze met mine as the whining noise reached a
fever pitch.

In my panic to block the minders, I'd released
the Murk rope. I shot another strand at him. Something pounded
against my back. I crashed face-first onto the platform. The raspy
breath of a Nazdal warmed my ear. On instinct, I reached back and
flung the creature off, throwing him inside the perimeter of the
disruptor. I still held the lifeline to my father. I saw the Nazdal
preparing for a lunge at Dad and pulled the rope with all my might,
but the creature pinned him to the ground.

A brilliant bolt of blue energy blasted from
the Tesla coil on the ceiling. It pulsed into the sphere in the
center of the rings. They spun to a blur. Dad threw his attacker
off. Azure beams lanced out from the rotating orb in five
directions, each one intersecting a pylon. I gave another pull on
the rope, but a kinetic barrier whirled around the pylons and
sliced the bond, trapping my father inside.

Dad looked at me. A devilish smile curled his
lip just before a blinding flash sent me reeling backwards. I
squeezed my eyes shut saw the shadow of my father in the
afterimage. The disruptor wound down, fading to silence.

Dad lay on the floor, eyes closed. The minders
drifted down, brainy heads shriveling like deflating balloons,
tentacles limp and unmoving. They settled onto the floor and
started to fade. The Nazdal trapped inside the disruptor lay on his
back, all fours straight up in the air, twitching.

"No," I said in a whisper, looking at Dad's
still form. "No!" I staggered to my feet and raced across the space
between us. I knelt and shook his shoulders. "Wake up, Dad. Wake
up!" I peeled back his eyelids. I saw just from looking at him, the
light was gone from his eyes. I'd failed to save him. I'd killed my
father.

I heard a huge cheer from inside the arch
chamber, probably because the sentinels were decomposing with the
minder brain defeated.

"We did it, Dad." I choked back a sob. "We did
it."

But the cost had been staggering.

More Nazdal appeared, apparently drawn by the
noise from the disruptor. I roared and shot a beam of Brilliance,
severing limbs and incinerating them before they drew close.
Slinging my father over a shoulder, I raced from the lab, back the
way we'd come until I reached the stairwell near the front. I
paused, panting, and listening for anything following me, but heard
nothing.

The mission wasn't over yet. Not even close.
Dad had killed the brain, but Jarvis and his people were up to
something. My lips trembled with grief as I looked down at Dad. I
couldn't just leave him here. I had to get his body back to Mom.
The fighting had weakened me. Supernatural strength or not, I was
tired as hell.

I climbed the stairs and sat down next to one
of the large turrets. Fumbling my phone from my pocket, I called
Elyssa to warn her about Jarvis.

"You did it, Justin!" she said. The sounds of
yelling and fighting nearly overwhelmed her voice.

"It's not over." I almost told her about Dad,
but decided now wasn't the time. "Some of Serena's men are up to
something, I don't know what. I suspect some kind of sneak
attack."

"I don't know how they could sneak in here
unless there's a secret entrance," she said.

"There's the hole Dad and I made to get
out."

"They won't be getting in there," she assured
me. She shouted a command to someone else. "I have to go. You and
your father be careful coming back."

I swallowed a lump. "Okay."

I bent down and picked up Dad. Just as I took
my first step, I heard running footsteps from somewhere ahead.
Someone cursed. I set down my human cargo as carefully as possible
and ducked behind the block.

"Send me running like his errand boy, will he?"
someone growled as he approached.

I looked and saw Gavin with two empty duffels
slung over either shoulder. His shirt was soaked with sweat. As he
passed the turret I was using for cover, I jumped out, grabbed him,
and knocked him out with a swift punch to the jaw. He went limp. I
dragged him down the stairs and left him on a landing. When I ran
back up to the roof, I peered toward the domed roof of the arch
building. I saw silhouettes climbing around on it. From this
vantage, the Atlanta skyline stood against a gray sky. It had to be
nighttime in the real world for all the fog to be gone. I figured
with the brain minders dead, the fortress would once again be
filled with fog during the daytime.

I made sure Dad was lying comfortably on his
back and looked toward the dome. Whatever Jarvis and the others
were up to, I would put a stop to it. I'd already gotten Dad killed
today. I wouldn't allow anyone else to die.

Mom will be heartbroken.

I choked back a sob. Mom was still in love with
him as much as he was with her. It was so obvious when they were
together. Every time he said her name, he sounded so vulnerable. I
couldn't imagine the pain it had caused them to decide he should
preserve the alliance and marry Kassallandra. I'd hated him for
that. My god, I'd even told him he was dead to me. And now he
really was.

My eyes watered with tears and the world
blurred. I wiped them away with the back of my hand. Now wasn't the
time to turn into a big crybaby. I had to protect the others. There
was no way I could ever atone for what I'd let happen to
Dad—
Stop dwelling on it!

I knew I wouldn't get close to the dome without
Jarvis and the others seeing me. Gavin was a little shorter than
me, but he had black hair. Mine was slightly longer, but I hoped
they wouldn't notice from a distance. I ran back to Gavin's
unconscious form, took off his T-shirt and put it over my tattered
Nightingale armor. Grimacing, I pulled off his shoes and pants and
stuffed them into a duffel bag to make it look full as possible.
Then I raced back toward the dome, focusing my supernatural vision
on the people there.