Ascension (8 page)

Ryker picked up a rock and tossed it down the hole, counting as it fell, and fell . . . and fell. Finally, there was a faint splash and thud. It had landed.

On his hands and knees again, his nose tucked in the collar of his shirt, Ryker felt around the ledge of the hole, backed up, and brushed off his hands. “No ladder. There’s no way down other than jumping.” He looked at Haven. “You’ll have to stay here.”

“Oh, I don’t think so. I’ve seen
Lost
. There’s no way I’m going to wait around for the mysterious polar bear to come out of hiding and eat me.”

Ryker pushed himself to his feet. “I don’t know the math for how fast a stone falls is equal to so many feet, but I do know it sums up to that being one deep-ass hole. The fall would break your kneecaps, or your neck. Depending on how graceful a faller you are.” He turned to Kyana. “I know you could make that jump without problem in your normal state, but how ’bout in Lychen?”

She gave a low bark.

“Good.” Without giving Haven time to prepare, he scooped her into his arms. “Hold on tight. We’re going down.”

He pushed off the ground and leaped into the dark, unknown cesspool.

Chapter Nine

W
hen she hit the bottom of the hole, Kyana landed just behind Ryker, sending dirty, foul-smelling water in every direction, drenching her coat. She shook her neck to make sure the Illusion Charm still hung around it. When it thudded against her chest, she shifted. Disgusted by the rank water on her bare flesh, she stood naked and shivering behind Ryker and Haven and gave the charm a moment to work its magic so, to them, she’d appear to have on clothes.

“I can’t believe you did that!” Haven smacked Ryker’s shoulder. “Don’t you put me down. I’m not walking in this filth.”

Ryker set her on her feet anyway. “You said you weren’t staying behind.”

Haven buried her face in her shirt. “Yeah, which meant one of you should have stayed up there with me.”

That never would have worked. Kyana wouldn’t sit by while Ryker explored the hole. And he wouldn’t let her go alone. Stalemate. Ignoring the tirade, Kyana scanned the area. The water barely reached her knees. Bones floated on the murky surface, much like the ones they’d stumbled across above. However, these were accompanied by carcasses—fresh and large, bloated and decomposing. She moved slowly forward, trying not to disturb the filthy water any more than necessary.

Her breathing as shallow as possible, Kyana scanned the walls. It took her brain a second to realize that she was looking at dirt and tree roots. Through the darkness, she could see a fork ahead, and paths leading north and south. It looked like some sort of crude tunnel system.

Ryker stopped beside her, his mouth and nose hidden beneath the collar of his shirt. His gaze raked over her. Up and down, a slow smile stretching his mouth wide. Kyana looked down. Though she was naked, she could see leather and cotton covering her body. What was he staring at?

Kyana continued on to the fork, and stopped at the intersection. No light or sound drifted from either opening. With the rankness surrounding them, Kyana had no hope of picking up the scent of anything else.

Only one way to find answers. Kyana turned to the left. “You two check out the right fork. If you find something, yell.” She’d barely moved a foot when Ryker’s hand bit into her arm, stopping her progress.

With a hiss, she faced him.

His silver eyes swirled. “We’re not going in there.”

Like hell she wasn’t. She shook off his grasp. “This tunnel could hold the secret to what happened to the key.” It didn’t matter if she had to go it alone, she wasn’t turning back until she’d at least checked it out.

“Don’t fight me on this, please,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Whatever lurks in here is pure evil.”

How the hell do you know?
she wanted to scream at him. But she didn’t need to. Now that she was still, and wasn’t thinking about what she might find, she could feel it too. It settled around her, pressing in on her like a physical being. The hair at her nape stood on end. Whatever was down here, it was unnatural. More unnatural even than Kyana’s screwed-up genetics.

Still, she couldn’t leave this island without some hint as to where that key might have gone. This was the only thing they’d found that had given her any hope. She turned back to face Ryker, intent on telling him to take Haven and go back—that she’d go it alone. But the look on his face froze her in place. His normally tanned skin had grown so pale, he practically glowed in the stark black tunnel. He leaned against the muddied wall, clutching his chest, his features twisted and distorted. He looked like he was having a heart attack.

Forgetting everything other than the fact that Ryker looked ready to croak, Kyana rushed to his side. She gripped his shoulder, shaking him, trying to get him to snap out of whatever had taken hold of him.

His eyes fluttered open.

“Are you okay? What’s happening?”

He panted, and when she took his arm, the trembling muscle beneath his skin sent a tremor of fear through her.

“Talk to me.”

“Don’t know.” He bowed his head, sank lower against the wall. “Can’t breathe.”

Worry had her reaching for his pocket. “Is it the ring? Get rid of the damned conduit.”

He shook his head and grabbed her hand, a drop of perspiration slipping onto his nose. “Not the ring. It’s . . . this place, I think.”

She tugged his arm, pulling him back a few feet to stand beneath the opening above. The minute he stepped into the ventilated area, he gulped in a huge amount of air, and color slowly painted his cheeks. Kyana backed up, not willing to chance a stray ray of sun poking through the opening, but kept her eyes on him.

“I’m okay,” Ryker said. He released his death grip on his shirt, flexed his fingers, and bent over his knees. With his head that close to the water, she was afraid he’d suffocate again.

“Look at me, Ryker.”

He lifted his head. His eyes had gone red. They were doing that cloudy, swirly thing again. “I’m all right, Kyana.”

Pointing to the tunnels behind her, he shook his head. “I can’t go down there. I don’t know what it is, but something . . . There’s something in there that’s evil, Ky. And not Dark Breed evil. Evil enough that the mere nearness of them was about to kill me.”

“I don’t get it. Dark Breeds
are
evil, but you fight them, no problem.”

“We have to get off this island.”

“Go. I’ll be up in a few minutes—”

“You’re not going in there either!”

He hadn’t yelled the demand. More like roared it. Kyana jerked, surprised by how important this seemed to him. “It didn’t affect me, Ryker. You can’t expect me to leave this place empty-handed.”

“We’re not empty-handed. We have the ring.”

“Kyana, maybe you should listen to him,” Haven insisted, trying to pull Kyana to the opening. “I really want us out of here.”

Kyana pushed Haven at Ryker. “She doesn’t need to be down here either. Take her with you.” The red of his eyes deepened to near maroon as he glared at her. “I’m leaving. I’m taking Haven and we’re gone. If you want a port out of here, you’ll come now.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You’d leave me here?”

“In a heartbeat.”

She bit her tongue, ready to give him a piece of her mind regarding his ultimatum. But there wasn’t time for another argument. “One hour. Take Haven, get back to camp, and if I’m not back in one hour, start your circle without me.”

“Ky, don’t!”

But his words echoed behind her, and she strode into the shadows.

She didn’t look back until she reached the fork. The emotions on Ryker’s face filtered from rage to concern. Finally, he nodded. “I can’t go in there. It will kill me. That means I can’t go in there to stop you either. Or to save you, Ky. One hour. Don’t make me leave you here.” With that, he wrapped Haven in his arms, knelt, and shoved off with his feet. As Haven screamed for Kyana to come with them, Ryker’s body clung to the sides of the vertical tunnel like Spider-Man and he leaped from side to side until he’d pulled them through the opening.

“Get your butt up here right now! No, we’re not leaving her down there. Kyana!”

Haven’s voice faded. Kyana guessed Ryker had dragged her away from the opening. Haven would be safe. Ryker would protect her. With a sour feeling in her stomach, Kyana turned back to the fork, checking both tunnels. North or South? South had always been good for her.

Her senses on overload, she moved slowly. Most of the forks she’d come to were caving in or completely blocked. She stayed on the main branch, checking the dirt, water, and darkness for any signs of life. There weren’t even any spiders in this hellhole. No beetles mucking around in the mud. No worms to be seen anywhere.

She’d been in some pretty nasty places before. Crypts and tombs, graveyards and mausoleums. Never had she been creeped out the way she was now. Her instincts told her to turn back and follow Ryker out of here. But she’d yet to fail at a job, and returning to Artemis empty-handed felt exactly like failure.

Pushing forward, she came to a wide chamber flanked on either side by narrow hallways that looked impassable for anyone over four feet tall. In the center, a mound of dirt and debris formed a tiny island in the pool of murky, stagnant water. Kyana lowered herself closer to the ground in preparation to defend herself, then climbed onto the island. Fresh air wafted in from somewhere. She didn’t know if it was imagined because she was no longer walking in shit or if there was another entrance nearby.

She dug through the debris highest on the mound. Clay pottery. Cooking utensils. A crude comb. Had whatever lurked in the shadows killed the inhabitants? Something was still here. She could hear it breathing.

The scent of danger clogged whatever fresh air she’d imagined, and her skin tingled as if a million eyes watched her from every direction.

Okay, time to bail. She wasn’t taking on whatever this was alone on their turf. Her gaze surfed the dripping ceiling, searching for the source of her unease and finding nothing. She wanted to back slowly from the room, but not knowing which direction the danger was coming from, she wasn’t sure which way to face.

As if sensing her pending retreat, the shadows moved. Kyana charged off in the direction from which she’d come. This time, she didn’t take it slow. She summoned her Vampyric strength to push her way through the water, leaping and bounding toward the exit.

When she stood beneath the opening, she skidded to a halt. She strained her neck, trying to see the sun. Eerie, skin-crawling grunts were closing in, accompanied by countless slaps of water splashing in her direction. She’d have to risk it.

Unlike Ryker, she didn’t need to climb her way out of the hole. Pressing herself as low to the ground as possible, she jumped and made the vertical ascension gracefully, landing just outside the opening before falling to her knees. Dusk and exhaustion greeted her. She didn’t have time to rejoice over not being deep-fried. The creatures below were close enough now that she could smell them. The stench of shit hadn’t come from actual fecal matter. It had come from whatever was hunting her.

She swung around, frantically grabbing for the hatch, desperate to lock whatever was chasing her inside. She slammed the lid closed, but before the lock could catch, the hatch exploded off its hinges. It soared overhead, clattering into the trees, removing all hopes of locking the beasts inside. She caught the faintest glimpse of a white hand protruding from the opening before she was on her feet again and running back toward the clearing. She leaped over fallen logs, forced her way through crude paths. Vines and branches whipped at her face, her arms, her legs. Thorns ripped at her breasts and sliced at her thighs. Illusion Charm or no, sheer determination not to die bare-ass naked kept her moving.

“Ryker!” She hoped her voice would carry on the wind.

Only the snarls of her pursuers answered.

Kyana risked a quick glance over her shoulder. There had to be dozens behind her, but they were moving in a blur, making it impossible to get a good look at them. They moved through the trees, trying to surround her. They were strong. And fast. And blindingly white.

It had been too long since she’d last potioned up. She didn’t have the strength to call on her Vamp power again and sprint. Shifting had drained her resources. She’d have to outrun them the old-fashioned way.

“Ryker!” She had to be close. It felt like she’d been running for hours. How far had they traveled?

“Ky?” Her name was barely more than a whisper.

Relief made her stumble. She managed to keep her feet. “Get us the hell out of here!”

“He’s starting his incantation,” Haven shouted, her voice louder. She was close. “Hurry!”

Using the last of her energies, she sprinted through a thicket and into the clearing. “Go go go,” Kyana gasped.

“Keep them off me,” Ryker said. “I’m going as fast as I can.”

“What is it?” Haven pressed a vial into Kyana’s hand.

Kyana downed the potion, then grabbed Haven’s arm and moved her closer to Ryker.

“You’re about to see for yourself.” The words were no sooner out of her mouth when the creatures broke into the clearing, a swarm of white blurs spilling out of the trees and onto the beach. “If they get by me, keep them off Ryker so he can finish his spell. I want out of here.”

Haven handed Kyana one of her daggers and gripped the other in her fist. “You and me both.”

Kyana charged into the middle of the clearing, drawing attention to her. Bodies flew at her in every direction, still too fast to get a good glimpse at what they were. Hands pulled at her arms, her legs, her hair, threatening to overpower her before Haven’s potion had unleashed its potency. Without the protection of her real leather attire, she was far more vulnerable than she cared to be. Every inch of her skin was exposed to their attacks. She lost count of the bodies she sliced at. It seemed for each one that fell, two more took its place.

“Hurry up!” Kyana yelled at Ryker, retreating to keep from being completely surrounded.

“Two minutes.”

His voice sounded so weak, it drew Kyana’s attention. He knelt on the sand, one hand gripping his chest. All color had drained from his face, and his breaths were so shallow she could barely see his chest move. The spasms that shook his body hindered his attempts to draw his circle. Was he going to be able to pull off his mojo with these things so close to him?