Drop Dead Demons (30 page)

“It wasn’t funny,” Tristan said.

Blake yanked a spear out of Fido’s side. “It was a little funny. But a whole lotta mean.”

Matthias smirked at me. “Only time I wish I could’ve seen your face.”

He, Tristan, and Logan were trying to open the gate with weapons they took from the cache on the table.

The lever had
turned off the security. Best guess was that the lights turning on and off was some kind of reboot, shutting the mechanized treasures down. The screams had been mostly Tristan and Logan being terrified, and Matthias’s comment was him scaring me to death which solidified his jerk status.

Like there was ever a question.

With a pathetic whimper, Fido slumped onto her belly. Her large mottled tongue started licking her wounds. Blake hopped onto the table, petting her affectionately with one hand as, with the other, he pulled out the weapons that had made it past her plated armor and embedded into her skin.

Ayden sat on a wooden trunk, Jayden hovering beside him. I was on my back on the ground in front of them, knees bent. Relieved and exhausted. 

“Jayden, I’m fine. Stop it. I don’t need to take off my shirt.” Ayden pushed off his brother’s attempts to look at the wound on his back. “The tip of the spear just nicked my shoulder. Nothing deep.”

Jayden was clearly concerned. “But you collapsed. I can better assess the wound if you take off your shirt.”

A sudden image of smooth, taut muscle flashed through my imagination. I propped on my elbows for better viewing because it suddenly dawned on me that Ayden was the only Hex Boy I had yet to see shirtless — he was the only one I’d felt-up so I had an idea — a problem that would be corrected in mere seconds. I tried not to salivate too heavily.

“No,” Ayden said. “Just lift it up in the back.”

Suddenly playing the shy schoolboy? And he wouldn’t look at me. Hmmm.

While Jayden checked out the wound, Ayden nudged my shoulder with his toe. “So did I totally impress you with my ninjistic dart-evadement skills?”

“Absolutely,” I said. “You also took twenty years off my life. Sure you’re okay? You should take off your shirt.”

Ayden raised a brow.

Too obvious? Probably.

“You know.” I shrugged. “For medical purposes only.” 

There was
clanging
and
banging
then Matthias said, “It’s no bloody use.”

“Good.” Blake pulled the last dart out of Fido and grinned ear-to-ear. “
Now
do we get to go treasure hunting?”

No one had a better plan so…

We’d been here for what seemed like hours. Currently, Ayden and I were scouring the paperwork on a heavy wooden table for clues that might hint about a stone. The rest of the guys were scattered around the room. When I tossed aside another sheet of parchment like it was Lucian’s dirty laundry, Ayden caught it one-handed, wincing slightly before unrolling it with great care.

“Oh my God!” he exclaimed looking over the elegant script. “This was signed by King Louis the ninth!”

“Nerd,” Blake chuckled from somewhere across the room.

“Aurora,” Ayden said, “maybe you should look at things that are…less fragile.” He set the document aside like it was a precious artifact.

Okay, so maybe it was, but a lot less precious than my life.

“Fine. I’ll go through more chests of jewels.” I looked around with despair. “But this seems so hopeless.”

“I’ll help.” As Ayden pushed off the table to stand, he grimaced and reached a hand to his chest. At my worried look, he started to shrug, then thought better of it and stilled. “I told you, it’s nothing.”

He kept saying that, but something wasn’t right. Jayden had inspected the spear wound and deemed it a “minor puncture” that was “not life-threatening,” although, the “anomalous stippling” around the injury was “disconcerting,” and he wanted to get home to the lab for some tests. Ayden’s movements made it clear he was in pain, but he remained tight-lipped and wouldn’t let me get close enough to check it out myself. I was worried.

There was a crash.

“Stupid bloody— Blake!” Matthias yelled. “I can’t reach! This stupid no-powers business — ugh! There’s another room over here. Tristan follow me.”

“Why me?”

“Hurry up. Everyone keep looking for an exit.”

We’d checked out the back where Fido had emerged from, but it was a maze of a dozen dark tunnels branching out in different directions that nobody wanted to risk getting lost in just yet. When I’d tried to get her to “go fetch” us an exit, she’d rolled over to get her belly scratched. My demon whisperer techniques needed some work.

In the back, we’d found some cool looking construction machinery. Flint’s weird, warped versions of modern day equipment. Tractors, bulldozers, tunnel drillers, and much more. If push came to shove, we could dig our way out with the same machines Flint had used to make this place.

I yawned and tripped over a fallen urn as I followed Ayden down an aisle. I was cold, wet, exhausted, covered in dust, trapped, exhausted, banged up,
exhausted
, and, best of all, lacking the one thing that would keep me alive. Rose’s precious stone.

Treasure hunting sucked.

In my peripherals, an angel statue moved. I squealed and dived for cover. I was about to yell for Ayden to do the same when the angel spoke.

“Aurora?” Jayden popped out from behind the statue.

“Jeez!” I growled. “Don’t do that. I thought another statue had come to life to eat me.”

Jayden shook my arm. “We require your assistance to discern if there is an egress.”

I was too tired to ask for a vocab lesson.

“Go. I got this.” Ayden nudged me away then turned to sift through another treasure chest.

Jayden lead me through the labyrinth of luxury antiquities to a far off chamber where Logan waited by a wall. 

“What am I digressing?” I rubbed my eyes.

Jayden frowned. “Nothing, you haven’t said a thing.”

“Touch this.” Logan tapped a double spiral carved on the wall.

“It’s Flint’s symbol for the Divinicus and Bellator.” Jayden held up the journal. “The more commonly seen circular, smoothly curved spiral denotes sensors that react to you, while the more geometric, quadrangular spiral marks sensors that react to the Bellator. Together they’ll react to either one.”

“This is the only one we could find close by,” Logan said. “See if it opens —”

“An egress.” Jayden seemed excited. “I already told her.”

At my blank look, Logan clarified, “Exit.”

I slapped my hand on the Divinicus/Bellator symbol. Heat flared. Something rumbled beneath it. I jumped back and watched the top layer of rock on the wall just…disappear.

In its place was revealed a mish-mash of metal that looked part massive puzzle box, part Fort Knox vault door. Thick rods, rectangular bars, gears of various sizes, sliding bolts, knobs, handles, levers, all conjoined in an intricate and massively complicated deadlock machination. Then, like some enmeshed cluster of serpents, it unraveled before our eyes with more rumbles and a series of
whirrs
,
clicks
,
clacks
, and sliding metal. Finally, with a colossal sigh, as if we’d awakened a giant sleeping for a zillion years, the door rolled open.

“Welcome to the sanctuary,” Sally Security intoned.

Coughing on dead air and dust, we gazed into darkness.

“Well?” I said.

Logan gave me a weak smile. “It likes you best, so…”

“Tag. You’re it.” Jayden smiled. “See how I’m learning playful colloquialisms. It refers to the game of tag and your turn to —”

“Yeah, I get it.” I gave him a level look. So much for big, bad demon hunters.

I took one tentative step forward. Then another, ears and eyes stretching their limits to reach through the dark and silent space, nerves twitching, on edge. As I crossed the threshold, lights flickered on. I squealed and reeled back, crashing into Logan and Jayden.

“Don’t stop,” Jayden urged. “We’re on the brink—”

“Of getting shot by poison darts,” I snapped. “Maybe. I don’t know and neither do you. Don’t rush me.”

Jayden made an exasperated noise, but Logan put a comforting hand on my shoulder.

I moved deeper into the room, almost having to push through the dense atmosphere. A faint smell of ozone twitched my nostrils. Thick, dry air crawled over my skin bringing a chill that made me shiver. I initially flinched as Victorian lamps
ca-chunked
to life, but then the space illuminated and my head swiveled up, down, and sideways. 

“Holy crap,” I breathed.

The far end of the room was still in darkness, but I could tell it was massive and reached about four stories high. Stone walls were carved with numerous words, neatly organized in columns and rows. I couldn’t read it but guessed the language as Latin.

Lines of bookcases made of carved rock rose up across the center of the room, each shelf stacked with volume after volume of books. Mostly leather-bound. All old.

We walked down the aisles, necks threatening to dislocate as we craned to take it all in.

Sure it was impressive, but I sighed. “Great. More crap to look through.”

“What is this place?” Logan sounded awestruck.

“One heck of a library.”  Blake turned in circles.

Jayden jumped. “When did you get here? You’re supposed to be looking for Rose’s requested stone artifact. You’re the earth expert.”

“I’m letting Matthias yell at Tristan for a change.”

“Go back!”

“No. I’m tired. It’s too hard. It’s like trying to find a potato chip in a bag of sand.”

I ran my fingers across the leather spines, noting titles in Latin. Some also had ranges of dates listed, all of centuries past.

A light flickered from the front of the room. By the time I made it past the last aisle, the glow had become stable. There was no exit, but despite my exhausted — did I mention that? — state, I recognized cool when I saw it.

It was like a small apartment. From a different century.

Front and center was a huge desk. It looked old and French. There was a seating area, a small kitchen that housed an old-fashioned iron stove and a granite sink with large metal water taps. Nearby, a small pine table with two chairs sat across from a doorway that led into darkness.

Further back, one corner held an enormous clawfoot tub. In another, near a full-length gilded mirror, was a brightly colored collection of vintage Victorian era fashion. Racks of gorgeous dresses in vibrant hues and yards of shimmering fabric. Shelves of elaborate hats decorated with feathers, lace, and ribbon. Rows of dainty shoes and boots.

Tucked against the wall was a four-poster bed draped in heavy tapestries. It had an enormous, extra fluffy mattress covered in pale lace. Way less picky than Goldilocks, my weary body ached to rest on that pretty pile of dust. If only for a minute. Or twenty.

I yawned as I passed the desk, glancing at something resting on top. I stumbled. My heart vomited to my throat and I bolted, screaming with gusto.

Blake caught me by the waist.

Logan dropped into a hunter’s stance, arms up like he held an invisible bow, fingers grasping at nothing. He scowled. “I hate this.”

Jayden frowned briefly at his empty hands as Blake moved me behind his bulk.

“What is it, babe?”

I pointed and gagged. Logan and Jayden stalked to either side of the desk, fists up, ready to strike. Then they looked at each other and relaxed.

“Hardly a danger,” Jayden said.

“Didn’t say it was dangerous,” I finally managed. “That was my ‘It scared the crap out of me!’ reaction.”

Jayden leaned over the desk, studying the object of my horror. “A skeleton. Female. Sixties, I’d guess.”

Why would any teenage guy know that?

“Who is she?” I slapped my cheeks, trying to keep my eyes open as the adrenaline faded. Didn’t work. I leaned against Blake who ruffled my hair.

The skeleton sat in the chair, slumped over the desk, like she’d laid her head down for a nap and never woke up. Empty eye sockets stared at me, gray hair, surprisingly long and thick, draped behind her. The remnants of a blue dress hung off the bones. A gold chain was around what was left of her neck, a gold pocket watch hanging upon it.

From underneath her bony hand, which still had a silver and black fountain pen entwined within, Logan picked up a leather bound book and flipped it open. “Pages are blank.”

“Fantastic.” I felt like chucking something so I grabbed the book.  

Heat zapped into my hands, up my arms. Words, sounds, and images jettisoned toward me, blurred, then stabbed into my eyes, burrowed into my head. Towers, cold steel bars, cloaked figures, faces lost behind dark hoods.
Run!
My brain sizzled on overload.

I dropped the book. But the wave of visions kept crashing. I clutched my skull. Opened my mouth to speak, but a torrent rushed into my head. Everything went black. And I gave in to the relief of unconsciousness.