Jar of Souls (6 page)

“No, not really.”

He made the motion for me to follow him again. As I did, he pointed out several tracks. I couldn’t tell what they could be from, maybe the world’s largest dog. Then he pointed out one set of human footprints winding their way through the yard. He looked back at me, his eyes asking if I had seen everything he pointed out.

I nodded. “The only question I have is did they start from inside or end up there.”

“There is only one way to find out.” I swear I saw him smile as he made his way to the cellar door. The man must have been slightly insane; all of my instincts said,
do not go into the creepy cellar.
When the inspector went down the stairs, there was nothing I could do but follow him. The other half of my instincts were screaming just as loud,
I don’t want to be out here alone
.

The inspector flipped the lights on, and there were muddy footprints moving into the building as well as out of it. There was no way to be sure if the assailants were still inside or not. I called on my gift and created a shield behind me that spanned the entire hallway. It wouldn’t hold up to a strong magical assault, but when it broke, I would know about it, giving us a warning that someone was coming in behind us. I anchored the spell to the wall, feeding it a little more power. Based off of the practice I had done with Marcus, it should last for a few hours. As we continued further into the cellar, I cast a few more shields just to feel safe.

The inspector looked back at me as I cast the last one. “That’s a nifty little spell. Not much good in a fight, but as an early warning system, it’s incredible.”

“My friend Marcus taught it to me.”

“I might have to try and pick his brain.”

“I’m sure he would like that.”

“Let me know if anything comes up from behind us. Otherwise follow me and keep your eyes open.”

If there hadn’t been sets of muddy footprints leading further into the cellar, then I wouldn’t have been as scared. The inspector kept his eyes forward, and I was thankful because there was no way he would miss seeing the fear in my eyes if he looked back at me now. Right now we were in a long tiled hallway. Nothing much to look at; it kind of reminded me of a hospital. At the end of the hallway was a large steel door. It was hanging from one hinge, the rest of it sprawled across the hallway floor. Something big or powerful had definitely forced its way inside of the room. I hoped that meant that the footprints leading out meant they were already gone.

Before we got to the door, the inspector’s hands burst into bright blue flames. I took that as a cue and put my personal shield in place and got ready for a battle. I felt my heart start to race at the thought of what could be coming next. I had never done anything but practice magic and fighting. Being involved in something that could result in my death was terrifying. The inspector sprang into the room, and I followed after pushing my fear of the unknown back where it belonged.

I saw a few more dead bodies burst into flame, and then everything was quiet. I gagged as the smell of the room hit me. This is what it must have smelled like when they found a mass grave or exhumed a body. It was the worst thing I had ever smelled. I started to retch and then spun around when I heard laughter. I shot the inspector a withering glare.

“It’s awful, isn’t it? The smell, I mean.”

“I can’t think of anything worse. The rest of this place is pretty horrible. What do you think happened here?”

“It’s hard to say, really. I can’t be sure if the blood and bodies are from something that was being done before we got here or something that happened afterward. Either way, something horrible happened here.”

“That might be the understatement of the year.”

I looked around the single room we were in. Streaks of blood lined the walls; parts of bodies were in glass jars against one wall. Medical instruments or torture devices were lined up on polished silver trays. The back of the room had a single door that had a glass window. Right now that window was frosted over, and I thanked God for small favors. This had to be a morgue of some kind but a scary movie version of one. Just what in the hell had they been doing down here? What kind of experiments?

I tried to shove those thoughts away when I felt the first of my shields break. “Inspector, we are going to be getting some company soon.”

“More than you know,” he said.

A solid
thump
sounded from the back of the room. “Is that coming from inside the freezer?” I asked as several more thumps and scrapes came from that direction.

“It sure did,” the inspector said, turning to face the threat at the back of the room.

That left me all alone to face whatever was coming toward us from outside. I felt my next shield crack under the pressure of what was coming. I had one more in place, and then I was going to have to cast some real magic. This is what I had been training for, right? To go on missions. You know, save the cheerleader, save the world type of stuff. This was my first chance to get it done. Why was I so scared?

The thumps and scrapes from the freezer started to grow louder, making it hard to concentrate. I tried to push that noise to the side and focus on what was going to be coming my way. Each of my shields continued to fall as whatever was coming continued down the hallway. I filled the hallway with flames and then sent the wall of fire screaming in the direction of what was coming. I stumbled back as I felt someone else dispel the flames.

“Inspector, I think we have a big problem.”

“Yeah, I noticed.”

Casting a furtive look over my shoulder, I noticed a huge claw had scraped its way through the steel door and was scraping and pulling against the outside. Its continued frenzy of activity was starting to shred the steel door. “Maybe we have an even bigger problem. There is someone coming down the hall, and they were able to deflect the spell I cast.” I continued to move closer to the inspector, angling away from the freezer while keeping the opening to the hallway in front of me.

The inspector cast a quick glance my way. “Think you can handle the freezer?”

“No, but I can try.”

“I guess that will have to do.” As he finished talking, he moved away from the freezer and raced toward the hallway.

I moved across the room, keeping an eye on the freezer door. The large claw continued to rip at the hole it had started in the door. I wasn’t sure what I could do to slow it down. My first thought was to seal the door, but the thing had claws that could rip through steel. All it would do was buy me some time. Calling on my gift, I melted the steel door into the frame, hoping to make it harder to open. The claw pulled back from the hole, and a milky white eye looked out at me. A hideous noise somewhere between a growl and a gurgle escaped from the hole.

What in the hell was that? I cast a quick look over my shoulder only to see the inspector flying through the air and back into the room. He came crashing down onto one of the steel medical tables. He rolled over it as it fell, and somehow ended up back on his feet. Then the table flew across the room at the hallway. Right before it would have hit the dark-robed figure, the table flew to the side, imbedding itself into the tile wall. The scraping noise behind me grew more insistent, and I noticed with horror that the hole had grown big enough for the beast inside to fit its head through.

Two milky white eyes turned in my direction, following my movement. The head was scarred, and the fur had been removed in places. Huge staples seemed to be all that was holding the misshapen head together. All I could think of was that this was my first look at a werewolf, but somehow it was twisted and wrong. I knew for certain I didn’t want that thing anywhere near me.

I heated the hole it had made, causing liquid steel to drop around the creature’s neck. The fur singed and even caught on fire in a few places, but the beast never cried out. Slipping its head back inside the freezer, it attacked the door violently again. This time the creature’s claws ripped through the heated steel as if it was butter.
Note to self, when battling something locked in a separate room, in no way should you weaken the integrity of the door holding it back.

The Lycan launched itself at the hole, and it made it halfway through before the steel stuck into it enough that it was trapped. Its front paws swung violently at me as if willing itself closer. The huge white eyes focused on me and me alone. I felt terror grab my heart. My first instinct was to turn and run, but if it got free, I would be dead in an instant. A quick look confirmed the inspector still had his hands full behind me. I tried to think of what Marcus or April would have done. Next time there was no way I was leaving home without my swords.

With nothing left that I could do but use my gift, I tried to think of the right spell to use. This thing didn’t feel pain, so whatever I did would have to kill it or dismember it enough to where it couldn’t get me. There wasn’t enough time to think. The beast was pulling itself free from the door, leaving long, bloodless holes down its sides. Taking a step back I cast out a lance of power. It was something Marcus had shown me recently. It took almost all of my power to do it, but a concentrated blast could rip through almost anything.

Somehow I missed the creature in front of me almost completely. When I told this story to Britta, I was going to have to leave this part out. The bolt of power sheared through the side of the freezer door, taking part of the beast’s back leg with it. The bad news was I had also freed it from its confinement. The huge monster stood on its back legs and let out another of the horrible gurgle growls before crashing back to all fours and charging straight at me.

This was the moment they had been telling us about in training at the academy. The moment when it came down to you versus whatever you were fighting, with death on the line. This was your chance to react and maybe one day be the quality fighter the Ascendancy needed, or die. I didn’t want to die. I cast another bolt of power—this time my aim was true. The creature lunged at me. My bolt slammed into its head, blowing it apart. The momentum had sent the now lifeless body crashing into me, its claws tearing a gash down my chest. I rolled away and hit it with every ounce of power I had. The body burst into a bright white light, and then there was nothing but ash.

The inspector was behind me, and it seemed as if he had things well in hand. His opponent circled him, trying to keep him off center, but must have forgotten about me. I cast a spell out that sent him crashing to his knees. The inspector leaped forward to finish him but was thrown back once again. He gave me a look, and I thought I knew what he wanted. The man in front of us slowly rose to his feet. I could feel him gathering his magic for one final burst. I cast my magic out and shattered what he had been gathering, leaving him defenseless. In a move I hadn’t expected, the inspector pulled out a gun and fired at the man three times. The man’s body shook with each impact, and he fell forward.

I watched the smoke flow from the barrel of the inspector’s gun. He gave me a wink and blew on the tip as if he was in an old Western movie. “I knew that we had firearms training, but I’ve never seen one of the gifted use a gun before.”

“Well, they don’t do a lot of good against other gifted; our personal shields will deflect most bullets. But when you shattered his magic, I thought why not end it with something he wouldn’t be expecting.”

“What does it matter? Dead is dead. Wouldn’t it be better just to make sure he died instead of trying to look amazing while doing it?”

“Dead? Oh, he isn’t dead, just in a lot of pain.”

I looked back over at the man on the ground, the puddle of blood quickly pooling around him. “Inspector, are you sure?”

“Yeah, it takes a lot more than a few bullet holes to bring one of us down. Our natural healing kicks in, so as long as he was to receive proper medical care before being killed outright, he will be ok.”

“I’m not sure I want him to be ok. Did you see that thing he was controlling?”

“You mean the huge undead werewolf? It was kind of hard to miss.”

“So why risk keeping him alive?”

“Well, we need answers, and unfortunately I don’t know how to get them out of dead bodies.”

“Do some people know how to do that?”

“I think that is a good question for you to ask Adam next time you see him.”

I’d been around enough people in power now to know when I wasn’t going to get a straight answer or any answer at all if I kept prying. The inspector knelt down and slung the body over his shoulder. He stepped to a door built into the side of the room I hadn’t noticed before. I felt the pull of his magic, and when the door opened, it was looking into the same tunnel under the arena that we had left not more than two hours ago. He walked through the door, and I followed, closing it behind me. It felt good to be home, to be safe. It felt even better knowing I left that death and destruction a thousand miles away in a single step.

Looking up at the inspector for guidance, he waved me away. “Go get cleaned up, and if that wound needs any care, stop by medical. If Adam has any questions, I’m sure he will call you to his office when he is ready.”

“Thanks, Inspector.”

He made a little grunt. I couldn’t tell if it was from shifting the body around on his shoulder or if it was in acknowledgement of what I said. Either way, he started walking back to administration, leaving me standing in the tunnel alone. Running footsteps from behind me sent me spinning in that direction, my gift burning at the edge of my fingers, lighting the dark tunnel.

Marcus came skidding to a stop in front of me. “Whoa, Jackson. Relax, it’s just me.”

“Damn it! After what I just saw, you’re lucky I didn’t send you flying.”

“As if you could hit me.”

“Whatever, dude, I got you at least three times last week.”

“Three out of a thousand isn’t that great, bro.”

I gave him a look that plainly said
fuck off
before responding. “So, what’s up?”

“I have to tell you something important, but first let’s get you back to your room. That wound looks nasty. I can probably heal it closed, and then you can change.”