Cold Blooded (32 page)

“I’m tired of crawling through tunnels in this place,” I growled, because I could. “There has to be an easier way back to the main rooms than taking old venting units.”

Rourke was ahead of me, his massive body barely fitting through the narrow passageway.

“The moment the demons spot you, this battle will start in earnest,” Rourke said. “We have to be methodical about this.” He’d been going over strategy since we started our crawl. The sun had set. We’d spent too much time with Alana and Yuri and now it was time to start planning. “We regroup with everyone and hope they have Ray.” He stopped moving. “I see something with a knob ahead. Let’s try it.”

A whispery voice hit my eardrum. “No, not that way.”

“Hey, where did you come from?” My head hit the top of the tunnel in surprise. “Ow.” It was the same ghost who had stayed with me in the mausoleum. I rubbed my head. “I thought you left with the rest of them.”

“What?” Rourke said. “I’m not leaving.”

“You must stop him,” it said. “That is a gate, not a door. It will lead to agony.”

Rourke started shouldering the small doorway. “Rourke, wait! Don’t open that.”

“Why?” He craned his head toward me. “Let’s see where it leads. If it’s not the right one, then we can keep crawling.”

“It’s not a door. Apparently it’s one of those gates. It could open us up to something shitty, like more Trows.”

“How do you know? I can’t smell anything dangerous.” He leaned his head toward the portal, inhaling.

“Um … a ghost just told me.”

Rourke snapped his head back at me. “What ghost? I thought you said they all left.”

“I have stayed,” it whispered, “because you are still in danger.”

“It says I’m still in danger, so it stayed,” I relayed. “Tell me something I don’t know, Mr. Ghost. So where do we go?”

It brushed by my ear. “You must climb.”

“Climb? You mean up? We’re in a four-foot-square tunnel that happens to be running horizontally.”

“How do we go up?” Rourke maneuvered himself to his back and examined the top of the tunnel. He grabbed on to the flimsy sheet metal of the venting and tore. It opened to expose red brick. “It’s solid above us.”

“The passageway is above you.” The voice was soft and muffled, like it had drifted through the stone as it talked to me.

“The ghost says we have to go up,” I said. “Honestly, I don’t know if we should trust it. But this is the same ghost who aided me with Naomi, and we’re kind of out of options. And this vent is making me edgy. Why did we agree to crawl in here again? I think Alana slipped us some of her Kool-Aid. There’s no other explanation.”

“Fine, we go up,” Rourke grunted. “The reason we’re in here is we believe she’s right.” Without any more discussion, he rammed a powerful fist into the ceiling above our heads. “And she had better be right.”

The old bricks cracked immediately, crumbling down around us.

The top of the tunnel sounded hollow. I covered my mouth and nose as dust flew around the small confines of our space. “If she’s not right, I say we track her down and string her up by her skinny ankles.”

“One more time should be the charm.” Rourke smashed through the stone in another stellar hit and more chunks and debris came crashing down around us.

Once everything settled, there was a hole, but it wasn’t big enough for us to climb through. “Here, let me help. I can use my legs to open it up,” I said. “You’re too big. I can angle myself in a better position than you can.” He slid forward and I rolled once, scooting myself into place. I brought my legs up. They almost touched the top of the tunnel.
Give me some juice
, I told my wolf. My legs bunched under my skin and I shot them upward. They busted straight through the rest of the loose stones, making the hole big enough for us to fit through in one go. I coughed, twisting my body to kneel, ducking my head through the hole to take a look. “It’s an old elevator shaft.” That was a surprise. “And it smells stale. Nobody’s been in here for a long time.”

Beneath me I kicked away errant bricks and rose, lifting my head and shoulders through the small space. There were wooden beams directly above me, and I dug my nails into one to get some leverage. As I continued to pull myself through the hole, I felt Rourke’s hands begin to slide down the length of my body, ending at my hips, where he grabbed on and hoisted me through. “Resorting to cheap feels?” I chuckled.

“At this point, I’ll take what I can get,” he growled. Once I was up, I splayed my feet across one side and made room for him to join me in the small shaft. He started through the hole, knocking away more stone so he could fit. “All these adrenaline jumps are making me nuts. My cat wants a release yesterday.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” I started to climb. I’d gone only a few feet when Tyler’s voice shot into my brain.

Jess, where are you?
His tone was frantic.

How could I explain where I was?
We’re inside the mansion, trying to find a way out. Did you find Ray? Please tell me you found him.

Yes, we found him.
Relief swept through my body so clearly I almost lost my grip.
He was locked in a crypt and is pissed as hell, but there’s more trouble. The sorcerers have set up summoning rings around the perimeter. But that’s not the worst part. The Screamer is loose.

What do you mean it’s loose? It’s fully corporeal?

Yes, and Ray has already fought it once. I’ve been trying to reach you for a half hour. Where have you been? I was about to go balls out ripping down walls in this place.

We ran into an important … complication. Too much to explain. Tell me about the Screamer. I don’t get why Ray is involved.

It’s after you, Jess.

What do you mean
, after me?

It’s linked to your blood somehow and it’s trying to find you. Naomi says it craves your power and it needs more. It’s like a possessed banshee. Everyone is running.

Stay away from it. Once we get out of here, we’ll find you outside.

Jess, it’s in the house.

In the house?

Tyler, don’t worry about me. I’m concealed right now. If the Queen has fueled the new ward and it’s protecting us from the demons, our priority is still finding Dad. I’ll get out of the house as soon as I can. Start searching the grounds—

“It comes too soon,” the ghost cried. “Climb!”

Before I could react, a hand shot through the wall and grabbed me by the neck like a homing pigeon.

“
Jessica!
” Rourke bellowed as my skull crashed into the wall.

At the thing’s touch, a current of pure electricity shot through me, so strong I couldn’t breathe.

In the next instant I was in my Lycan form.

I thrashed, but it wouldn’t let go. Its hand was generating more electricity and it held on like a clamp. I lost my footing and dangled in the air as the Screamer continued to bash me into the wall.

A fierce screech hit my eardrums.

I took hold of its forearm, painful currents washing over me, and tried bracing my legs against the shaft so I could rear back, but its hold was unyielding. It bellowed at me and gave one more huge thrust. My body crashed through the rest of the wall, splinters and broken wood raking my body.

Once it had me on the other side, it tossed me onto the rug.

We were in some kind of parlor.

Then it turned and picked up an armoire like it was nothing and smashed it into the opening, dropping it right over my howling mate.

“Well, hello, Conan,” I said from the floor. “It’s so nice to see you again.”

24

This wasn’t the adorable Conan I knew and loved. This was Conan meets
Hellboy
. “I will drink you dry,” it moaned as it advanced on me. I scuttled backward on my arms and legs. “And feast on your entrails.”

“It cannot be stopped,” came a panicked whisper in my ear. “It has manifested itself.”

“I can see that,” I muttered. “It’s kind of hard to miss.”

“You must leave here,” the ghost urged.

“I’m working on it.” My back hit a wall and I immediately shimmied to the right. There were windows directly on the other side of the room. It was the only viable option. Conan had shoved furniture in front of the only door. It would take too long to dismantle it.

The Screamer had gobbled up so much of Conan there was only a shell left. Its eyelids drooped, its fangs bit into its lower lip, blood leaked down its chin, and its hair was falling out. It resembled a zombie vampire as it shuffled at me.

It was dead, but in a whole different way.

It was double dead.

“It seeks more power.” The ghost pushed against my body, trying to move me.

“I know that. Listen, if you don’t have any helpful advice to give,” I told the ghost, “then do me a favor and keep your breathy comments to yourself.”

Before the Screamer could reach me, I snatched up an end table and hurled it.

It batted it away like a mild irritant.

“What makes them so strong?” I asked. “It’s like the Hercules of the Undead.”

“They are fueled by raw energy,” it whispered in my ear. “It cannot be defeated.”

“Bullshit,” I retorted. “If that were true, Screamers would be running around all over the world eating people’s souls. This thing is going down. We just have to figure how.”

It kept hobbling at me with single-minded intention as I inched my way along the wall. It was a good thing it was slow.
Let’s try and knock its head off and see if that works
, I told my growling wolf.

“That won’t work.”

“Hey,” I accused. “Stay out of my brain. How do you do that anyway?”

“I can hear your thoughts,” the ghost said. “They are the same as speaking them.”

The Screamer lunged and I dove out of the way.

Its arms went through the wall where my head had just been and a horrible keening erupted. Unfortunately I’d had to dive away from freedom.

The Screamer still stood between me and the windows.

“If you want my blood, you have to be faster than that, big guy.” It spun around. “And you’re not moving too quickly with your two … broken kneecaps.” For the first time I noticed its legs weren’t working properly. Conan must have broken bones when Danny tossed him out the window and they hadn’t had time to heal before the Screamer had possessed him.

Ick.

It came at me again, faster this time.

I rolled twice and brought my legs up in a scissor kick behind its head. But instead of sending it flying, a jolt of high-voltage electricity tossed me backward. “
Dammit
,” I yelled as I smashed into an antique desk, shattering it. My leg gave out beneath me. “What just happened?” I panted.

“I told you it is made up of pure energy,” said a whisper. “It cannot feel pain.”

“What, is it made up of lightning bolts? That was a gigantic electrical charge. That amount of energy shouldn’t be possible.”

The ghost gave a hollow chuckle.

“Did you just laugh?”

“Jessica!” Rourke yelled. My head whipped to the hole in the wall. His fury was palpable. He had begun to tear through the rest of the armoire trying to get me.

“Rourke,” I called. “We can’t beat this thing in here. I’m going out the window. Meet me outside.”

The Screamer understood my words and roared its displeasure. “You cannot escape,” its garbled voice cawed at me. It sounded nothing like Conan.

“The only way you can devour me is if you can catch me, asshole. And I’m much faster than you are.” I was close enough to the back windows to act. I sprang, the glass shattered easily. I soared out the window in a semi-graceful dive. But it was dark and I couldn’t fly.
Get ready for a hard landing
, I yelled to my wolf. I was already in my Lycan form, but more power coursed through me courtesy of my wolf.

“You will not die,” the voice sounded in my ear right as I hit the ground feetfirst.

I tucked and rolled and rolled and rolled, finally smashing up against the bushes at the edge of the stone gate that ran around the property.

“I told you,” the ghost whispered.

I groaned. Several bones were broken, including a couple ribs, which made it painful to breathe. They were healing, but I hurt a ridiculous amount while each of them knit back together. They had to heal fast, because I knew the Screamer would be right behind me. I inhaled sharply as my body gave a few jumps as bones shifted. “Who are you anyway?” I asked the ghost through gritted teeth.

“My name is Benjamin.”

“Why are you helping me?”

“I want my property back.”

“So you’re tied to this place? You’re its rightful owner?”

“No.”

“Well, you’re certainly good at answering all my burning questions, Ben.” I lay there for a second, trying not to breathe as my ribs mended. “Please don’t tell me you’re my ghost pal for life. My heart can’t take it—”

Jessica.

My head shot up, the pain forgotten.

I was on my feet in the next moment. “Dad? Dad! Where are you? Are you hurt?” His voice had been shallow.
Dad! Tell me where you are!