Motor City Mage (8 page)

“I hear them coming,”
Fish said. Des nodded and they all took up their positions. Theirs was the second cell the guards would come to. The Gravaki trio in the first would try to take them, but Des and company had to be ready in case their neighbors failed. He and the glass guy in the next cell had both picked their locks, so they could burst into the hallway as soon as the Gravakis made their move. Des had his shirt back on and laid his hand on Lana’s furry head where she leaned against his thigh. One thing was certain—he wasn’t about go home without her. And not just because her cousins would take him apart.

Sounds of a struggle were muffled by the stone, but Fish nodded. The Gravakis had made their attack. Fish yanked their door open, allowing Des, Lana and Ordwel to erupt into the corridor. The first thing Des did was slam a spell down the hall, hopefully jamming the Gravaki’s guns. Based on the cursing, he’d succeeded.

On the other side, the angel-vampire thing emerged, and she flew alongside Ordwel, while Des and Lana sprinted toward the other. Des felt a force spell slam into his chest, but he’d warded himself and his cellmates so it slowed him only a little. One or two more, though, would be all his defenses could cope with.

He used his makeshift shiv to stab one of the guards, a red Gravaki, while Lana attacked the green with teeth and claws. Fish was close behind her. Des had no idea what the purple, drooling demon was able to do, but he didn’t have time to worry about it. He blasted a bolt of light into the Gravaki’s eyes, hopefully blinding him.

The creature raked Des with his talons, opening a series of gouges deep into Des’s shoulder. Afraid he would bleed out, Des made one last effort, jabbing his wire-turned-blade deep into the Gravaki’s throat.

It gurgled and fell.

Pressing his hand down on the deepest cut, Des looked over to see that Fish had some interesting abilities. His webbed hand had expanded to cover the Gravaki guard’s face, apparently suffocating him while Lana picked up the creature’s own gun and shot it.

When had she shifted? Des didn’t want to ask. He pulled a bloody tunic from the guard he’d killed and threw it to her after he spent the minimum possible magic to stop the bleeding from his shoulder.

The fight at the end of the hall was over. Ordwel limped down the stone floor with another guard’s gun, bleeding from a dozen or more wounds. “Let’s go.”

“Can you make it?” Des had expended a lot of magic, but he wasn’t going to let an ally die if he could help it.

Ordwel responded with a curt nod. “Let’s get the hell out of Dodge, partners.” The western twang rang through the corridor. He wrapped his arm around a female Gravaki, who also limped pretty badly.

The others emerged from their rooms—all except for one of the Gravakis, the addict, who had been killed trying to subdue the guards. Knowing there was no help for him, Des left the body behind and followed Ordwel down the passage to the midpoint, where double doors opened onto a set of stairs that led up and down. The stairway itself wasn’t guarded at this level, though both sets of guards they’d taken out had had eyes on it. That meant it probably was guarded wherever it opened out.

“We go down,” Ordwel said. “There is a secret door on the lowest level that leads to a tunnel as well as a portal. If Malen has discovered it, then it will be heavily guarded, so be ready for another fight. Also, any of his people with access to this level will be the best he has.”

Lana, who had shrugged on the loose, bloodstained tunic, cocked the weapon in her hand. “Bring it.”

Des resisted the urge to shove her behind him. It was getting harder and harder to remember she didn’t respond well to his treating her as a liability rather than an asset. He did wish she’d keep in mind that he had a lot more combat experience than she did. Probably most of this motley crew did, for that matter, possibly excluding the severely wounded female Gravaki and the pale gray, thin creature with big eyes. He looked like he came from Area 51. Had the human notion of aliens come from the Margetto? Glass-like bones, Ordwel had said, so no good in a fight. That left eight combatants. Fish had a pistol, plus his weird stretching ability. Even the gnome had picked up one of the rifles and looked like he knew how to use it, never mind it was taller than he was. Their force was small but determined, and it would have to be enough.

“You want me to cast a sound-dampening spell on us?” Des asked the others. That one didn’t take a lot of power. “We won’t be totally silent, but we shouldn’t attract attention unless we do something loud, like scream or fire a weapon.”

The others nodded and they moved together into the stairwell for Des to cast the spell.

Ordwel paused at the top of the stairs, clearly torn between helping his woman and leading them. “Let me take her,” Lana said, her voice no more than a whisper due to the spell. “You know the way, and you’re a better fighter than me, but I am strong enough to carry someone, if it comes to that.”

With obvious reluctance Ordwel nodded. Odd how Des had learned to read Gravaki expressions in such a short time.

Lana slung her rifle over her back. She wrapped an arm around the other female, supporting most of her weight. “Hi there. I’m Lana. Don’t worry, we’re going to get you out of this.”

“Nissettin,” the other female whispered, leaning heavily and giving Lana a small smile. “Thank you.”

Ordwel and Vin led the way, with Des and Fish right behind them. The gnome and the gray guy followed Lana and Nissettin, while the vampire-angel and the other green Gravaki brought up the rear. It was creepy as hell to have demons at his back, but Des knew Lana was watching the rear as well. He trusted her. Even in fight, though most of his instincts screamed at the idea of her being anywhere near one.

They paused at a landing one story down. Vin listened at the door. After a moment, he shook his head and motioned for them all to keep moving. They went down three flights that way, finally coming to the very bottom of the stairwell.

Once again, Ordwel and Vin both listened at the door. Ordwel held up two fingers and Vin shook his head, holding up four.

Lana eased her charge down onto a step. “Rest and watch our backs.”

Nissettin nodded. The gray man nodded as well, standing beside her, facing up the stairs after he allowed the others to pass.

“Close your eyes when you open the doors,” Des told the Gravakis. He knew they were sensitive to light, so a flash spell would slow the guards.

The others nodded and lined up beside the doors. On Des’s count, they flung them open, and he cast his flash, another low-power spell that didn’t cost him much in the way of energy. Then he brought up his makeshift knife and slit the throat of the first guard he found. Their scaled skin didn’t pierce easily, so the Gravaki got in a few claw wounds before Des was done.

When he fell, Des grabbed his semiautomatic.
Much better.

Shots were fired, and one of their number fell. So much for silence. The Pethit, which really did resemble a cross between a vampire and an angel, howled as her cellmate dropped. She flew forward and savagely ripped out the throat of the guard who’d shot, taking several bullets herself in the process. Both fell to the ground. Lana and the gnome fired down the hallway, killing another who had just started to run toward the fray. Bullets peppered the area, and the gnome dropped as well.

To Des’s horror, Lana did too. He emptied his own gun on the last of the guards, and turned back to Lana. Instead of a woman, a wolf lay on the floor, bleeding but watching him steadily, still tangled up in the tunic she’d had on. As the others checked the carnage, she shifted back to human, then back to wolf twice, finally staying human.

“Thankfully, it was a through-and-through, so I didn’t heal the bullet inside my leg,” she said. She looked around at the others. “Oh, fuck. How many did we lose?”

Vin stood, battered, but not down. “Three. Taslev, the gnome, and the Pethit.” Taslev must have been the other green Gravaki. It would be harder to fight them, now that Des thought of them as people. No wonder the
Wyndewin
had trained him not to.

Lana leaned over the gnome and closed its eyes. She stood, still biting her lip as if to hold back tears, but her shoulders were square and her jaw firm.
What a woman.

Ordwel looked out into the stairwell. “Come on.” He hugged Nissettin before handing her off to Lana. “Their sacrifice shouldn’t be in vain.”

“No,” Des said. “Now where’s this secret passage?”

“Just around that corner.” Ordwel hugged the wall as he approached the corner. “Wait here,” he told the others. Des watched around the corner as Vin and Ordwel kicked open a wooden door and fired into a room. Vin threw a magical bolt into the area, and both fired their stolen guns on full automatic. Soon, Ordwel yelled back at the rest of them. “Hurry up.”

Des led the others into the room, trying not to look at the three mangled Gravaki bodies, though he did switch out his empty gun for one of theirs.

The room was some sort of lounge or break room. The three guards in it had been eating, based on the food now covered in blood on the table they sat around. Ordwel moved something off a shelf in the back corner of the room, and the shelf eased aside, revealing a darkened tunnel, with steps leading downward. After flicking on a light with a short spell, Vin took the lead, with Des close behind him, and the others following one by one, except for Nissettin, who still leaned on Lana. Ordwel pushed the shelf back into place and followed Fish.

The tunnel leveled out after perhaps fifty feet of dipping lower as if going under a moat.

After another hundred feet or so, it sloped upward again and halfway to the end, Ordwel stopped and pushed a brick on the wall. Des could just barely tell it held a small marking. A section of the wall opened into the shimmering darkness of a portal.

“Time to go our separate ways,” Ordwel said. “I have to get Nissettin to a healer in the village. He’ll hide us until she can teleport us away.”

The gray guy stood with them. He said something and Vin, in his Gravaki shape but still wearing his sweatpants and tight tank top from Detroit, translated. “His people will be looking for him on this world. He’s going with them.” Vin looked at Fish. “This portal goes to your world, though it’s on a different continent. That cool with you? I can transport you home from there.”

Fish nodded and saluted Ordwel as he stepped through the portal. Lana waved and went through as well.

“You first.” Des still didn’t entirely trust Vin. The guy had led them into an ambush once before.

Vin nodded and vanished, with Des following closely behind.

Lana dragged in a breath after stepping through the portal. The land on the other side was wooded and dark, the air desert-dry and hot.

Fish groaned.
“This dryness hurts.”

Des and Vin stepped out of the shimmer and Lana breathed a little easier, even though the four of them were on their own now.

Vin cast a small light spell. The glow was dim, but it was enough to see that everyone, except Lana, in their little party was a bloody mess, and she wore nothing but a torn and blood-stained tunic. Des scowled and she carefully tugged it so it at least covered her breasts. He took off his shirt and handed it to her but she shook her head. No way she could wear flannel in this heat. He sighed and tied it around his waist.

“Smart. You might need it later.”

“It’s not safe in these woods at night,” Vin said. If the Gravaki was affected by the heat, he didn’t show it. Fish, however, looked miserable. “There are venomous insects and meat-eating vines. I’m going to flash this guy the hell out of here, before the climate kills him. You two, do you see that village down the hill?”

Lana and Des both nodded. There were a few faint flickers of light in the distance.

“There are some farms between the woods and the town. Make for the first barn you see. I’ll try to find you there come morning.”

Des raised one eyebrow. “Morning?”

“I’m almost out of magic,” Vin said with a shrug. “I’ll have to rest before I flash back.”

“Understood.” Des said. He was just about drained as well.

Lana thought to hug Fish, though she wasn’t sure exactly how.
“Goodbye,”
she told him instead.
“Enjoy your wife and little ones.”

“Goodbye, friend,”
he said in return, patting her on the back. His hand squeezed her shoulder. It was sort of slimy and squishy, but he was her friend so she didn’t let herself be grossed out. “
Be safe.”

Then Fish and Vin locked arms and with a flash they were gone.

Even without Vin’s light, Lana could see. Her eyes had adapted to the darkness. She took a moment then to study Des, who appeared to be in rough shape.

“Heal yourself, you idiot,” she snapped.

“I don’t have much power left,” he told her. “Might need it for defense.”

“Might need it more if I kick your ass for being stubborn. Heal as much as you can before we go on.”

“Fine.” He concentrated for a few moments, a slight halo of light circling his body. Some of the visible wounds on his shoulders closed, and he stood straighter. “There. Just scratches left. Happy?”

“Fucking ecstatic,” she snarled. Then she flung herself into his arms. “Try not to get yourself killed, you jackass. Your sister will eat me for lunch.” To her horror, tears clogged her throat, making the last few words all but incoherent.

“Oh, shit,
chán-láng
, don’t fall apart on me now.” There was a note of panic in his voice, even as his arms closed around her, holding her tight.

She’d probably never cried in front of him before, not even at her grandfather’s funeral. It was more her style to hold things in until she was alone, but after all they’d been through, he could bloody well live with her cracking for five minutes.

He rubbed his lips in her hair. “We’ll get back somehow. I promise.”

“Shh.” She lifted her head from his chest. “’S okay. I just needed to…” She choked back a sob. “Let it out for a minute.” There’d been so much death that she was reminded of the night her grandfather and other packmates had died. Jeez, had that only been a month ago?

“It’s all right.” He seemed to understand and just held her, stroking his hands up and down her back until she pulled herself back together.

A few minutes later, she wiped her tears with the back of her hand and nodded. “So. First barn we see, right?”

“That’s what the man—and I use the term loosely—said,” he agreed. He used his thumb to catch one stray tear she’d missed.

“It’s hard to see them the same way now, isn’t it?” She asked as they began to walk, hand in hand, down the narrow, winding path toward the clear valley at the base of the hill where the portal was apparently hidden. “Before they were just demons. Now they’re
people.
”

“Right,” he said shortly. “Just don’t let anyone in the League know I admitted that, okay? I’d like to keep my job.”

“Have they really given you trouble about Elise marrying a Fae, or being friends with my pack?” That idea pissed her off to no end. The
Wyndewin
should be working to minimize tension between the races, not encouraging it.
Bastards.

“Yeah. Though mainly it’s been my direct boss, and since we just found out he’s in bed with the demons—bad ones—hell, who knows? The League has a lot of updating to do on its policies regarding other species. Maybe this will give them a little nudge.” He started to push a vine out of his way, but stopped just short. “Wait. What did Vin say about vines?”

“Carnivorous,” Lana replied. She picked up a stick and threw it at the vine, which wrapped around it and carried it off the path. “I’m guessing we want to steer clear of those.”

“You think?”

So they were back to being snarky at each other. That was probably good. Even if it sucked, which it did. Part of her wanted to jump him, here, now, and to hell with the vines. They’d broken out of a demon prison and both survived, while others hadn’t. Even her tears hadn’t quite dissipated the adrenaline rush that came with unadulterated terror. On the other hand, now that they were at least sort of safe, what her rational side wanted to do was find water, food and a place to sleep. And she wouldn’t mind at all if that sleeping was done curled up in Des’s arms. Maybe they could even work off a little of that adrenaline in a nice, cozy hayloft somewhere.

Somehow she doubted it would be that easy.

An insect ran over her toe, and she remembered Vin’s other warning. “There are also supposed to be toxic insects. I should probably turn furry—my pelt is thicker than my skin.” There was also the fact that she didn’t have shoes.

“You have better night vision that way, too, and a better chance of scenting any trouble,” he agreed. “Go ahead. I’ll carry your gun. And I have enough juice left for a little spell. It should keep the bugs off but won’t have enough oomph for the vines.”

Lana peeled off her tunic and handed him that, along with her stolen rifle. She dropped a quick kiss on his cheek and said, “Thanks for letting me fall apart for a minute,” before she changed.

Now that she was in wolf form, she took the lead, her nose and ears on full alert as she guided them down the hill. More than once, she stopped and waited while Des threw a stick, distracting a vine.

Finally, they reached the open fields below.

“There. Farmstead about a quarter mile that way.” He pointed to the left. “Think that’s the one he meant?”

Lana nodded. There was one off to the right, but that was farther away by half. She smelled wood smoke, which might mean this world was a low-tech one, or could just indicate that someone had lit a fire for some other reason. It was a chilly night, but not frigid—warmer than it had been in Detroit, anyway. Two moons shone in the sky, one bluish and one more of a sickly green.
Hell, Toto, I guess we’re not in Kansas anymore.
Oh wait—in this case, she was the one on four legs. She didn’t think Des would be amused at being called Dorothy.

The path grew wider and straighter once it was out of the brush at the verge of the woods. She trotted between fields toward the barn and potential shelter.

A barn should at least have water for the animals, she hoped. Maybe even food. If it came down to it, she could hunt in her wolf form, but that was a poor choice as she’d thrown the rabbits back up, each of the two times she’d tried.

Sometimes it sucked, being an urban, grocery-store kind of werewolf.

They followed the path, which eventually met up with a wider, gravel road. Something that looked kind of like wheat, if she squinted in the dim light, grew in the tidy fields that lined either side. They weren’t far from the farm when Lana heard a wagon approaching in the distance. They weren’t going to make the barn in time, so they ducked into the field, crouching between rows of the crops until the vehicle passed. Her impression of a low-tech world had been right. The vehicle had been drawn by some kind of six-legged animal, the size of a cow, but with a trunk like an elephant. It had sniffed that giant snout in their general direction, but the driver, who did bear a small resemblance to Fish except that he seemed to have four arms, clicked and whirred something at the animal that was pretty understandable even without translation. It probably meant something like,
Quit fooling around, it’s late and time to get home.
With a grunt, the animal put its trunk down and shambled on its way.

Now they just had to get past the house. The thatch-roofed wooden structure was up on low stilts, unlike the barn, which was ground level and round, though still with a grass roof. Lana wondered if the house was raised because of flooding or predators. Hopefully floods, which had to be out of season due to the dryness of the air.

Half a dozen windows were dark, but one at the top of the two-and-a-half-story structure had a soft, flickering light. Someone was awake. She wondered if they had gunpowder yet. Magic, almost certainly. And Des was fresh out.
Here’s hoping the barn isn’t guarded
. Even in her fur, she was tired and dragging. Des’s long strides had slowed. She didn’t think they were up for another fight.

They skirted the house by ducking into the field across the road. Once past the circle of light from the window, they crept across the road and followed the dirt drive to the round barn. The door faced the house, but none of the windows on this side were lit, so when Des moved up to the door in his dark clothes, she didn’t think he’d be spotted.

“No lock,” he whispered and opened the door a few inches. No alarms or screams. So far, so good.

Lana moved up to his side and slipped into the small opening ahead of him, knowing she’d be able to see more. One side was sectioned into five stalls filled with snoozing ele-cows, or whatever had been pulling the cart outside. A couple of the draft animals snorted and sniffed at them as they moved inside and shut the door, but none of them put up too big a fuss.

Along the section of wall opposite the door sat a similar cart and a variety of farm implements, probably pulled the same way. Across from the animals was a raised pen that held something small—maybe the local version of rabbits or chickens? Above those, a loft held, wonder of wonders, hay. They’d have a place to sleep.

The floor was smooth, packed dirt that wouldn’t cut her feet. Lana shifted into her human shape and moved toward a barrel beside the rear stall. “I smell water. Thank heavens.” After sniffing it carefully, she decided it was clean and scooped some up with her hands and drank.

“There’s some kind of fruit here.” Des peered into the next barrel over. “Are we hungry enough to take a chance on it?”

Lana picked up one of the fruits and sniffed it while Des drank. “Smells okay. Kind of lemony-papaya.” She took a test bite, knowing as a werewolf, she’d likely throw up anything her system couldn’t handle. The taste was a blend of sweet and tart, maybe a little too tart, but certainly edible. When no apparent ill effects occurred, she took another bite and handed one to Des.

One of the cow-ephants made a quiet gurgling noise and waved its snout at them. The other soon joined in and the noise began to swell.

“I think we’re stealing their treats,” Des said. “A friend had horses when I was growing up, and they’d act like this if you gave one of them an apple and not the others.”

“Well, then, treats all the way around.” She handed a piece of fruit to the nearest beast, who slurped it up with its trunk, soft bristly whiskers brushing against Lana’s hand. It chewed, and a slow rumble shook its massive belly.

Des laughed softly. “I think it’s purring. You may have made a friend for life.”

Even so, he doled out the treats to two more of the animals, while Lana dealt with the others, returning to the first to tentatively stroke its trunk while she nibbled on her own snack. It rumbled more, which she took to be a happy sound.

They each ate two pieces of fruit, enough to stop their stomachs from rumbling, but not enough to make them feel full. Lana scrubbed at her face with a tiny bit of the water, loath to use too much, in case it was hard for the farmers to come by, given the dryness of the weather.

“The hayloft or the wagon?” Des asked when they were done. He peeked into the wagon and came up with some kind of coarsely woven blanket or rug. “This should give us something to lie on.”

“The hayloft is a better hiding place in case the farmer comes in before Vin.” And with the mat, they wouldn’t wake up full of scratches.

“Smart as well as sexy.” He motioned her toward the ladder set into the wall beside the hutch or coop or whatever it was.

She gave the ele-cow one last scratch on the nose and wiped her hands on the seat of her tunic. “I hope Vin can come up with some clothes,” she muttered. “Preferably with only two sleeves.”

“I just hope he comes up with a way to get us home,” he said. “Then I can figure out how to prove Brewer is corrupted.”

“You’re looking up my tunic, aren’t you?” She could practically feel the heat of his gaze on her skin. The tunic was baggy and torn, and didn’t cover much even when she wasn’t climbing a ladder above him.

“I can’t see much in the dark,” he assured her. “Nothing I haven’t seen before anyway.”

“Jeez, you are
such
a guy.” She stepped off the ladder into the hayloft. It was big, leaving them plenty of room to sleep at the back without any worry of rolling off. There’d be plenty sufficient space for other activities too. Her body responded instantly to that thought, although she knew it was a bad idea.

“Glad you noticed.” He handed up the guns, tossed her the blanket and then made his way up. “Not bad.” Without comment, they spread the blanket as close as possible to the curved outside wall. It was almost too warm up here, so they wouldn’t need to use it as a cover.