Revenant (4 page)

“I want to see them. And
not just for a few seconds. I want to be with them.”

“Of course, of course,”
he answered, waving a hand flippantly. “Whatever you like. Sonja will take you
someplace you can clean up and then we will gather your friends together. You
can all come to tonight’s feast. We have all the luxuries here. We have a
fantastic staff that is cooking up a fabulous meal. We can all break bread
together. I’m not your enemy. If you give me a chance, I will prove to you that
I’m your savior. Sonja, show our guest to a proper room.”

Kindness,
consideration—was this a new form of torture? Gage was changing his
tactics and the very thought unnerved me.

Caleb, my eternal
bodyguard, was there beside me to manhandle me again. Every chance he got he
made a grab for me, his grip always too tight. I had bruises on my arm after
each encounter with him. I knew he took pleasure in causing me pain. He put his
hand on my arm and I shook it off. A wicked grin spread across his face and the
anger returned to his eyes. Caleb wants to hurt me. How long did I have before
that anger in his eyes erupted into more than just a few bruises? A fleeting
thought entered my mind.

How long would Gage’s protection keep me safe?
The only out was to make Gage think I was playing along.
I needed to convince him I was
cooperating and going along with his plan. If Gage let his guard down, if he
learned to trust me…we might all have a chance of getting out of here in one
piece.

I followed Caleb and Sonja out
of the cavern and into another set of tunnels that sloped uphill
. I had no idea where we were
going. Gage promised better living conditions, but was it all a ruse? Would I
find myself in another field of dead bodies? I watched them walking in front of
me, and for a brief moment I wondered if I could take Caleb. I brought fire
forth once—I used it to turn banshees into ash. What would happen if I
used it on a person? Could I bring the flames roaring out from my mind and
consume Caleb? Once he was dead, maybe I could make my way to Luke’s side. The
two of us could overpower Jacob. We could make a run for it and be free.
And if it doesn’t work
?
a
small voice inside me whispered. Was I
willing to bet Luke’s life again on a risky, half-baked plan?

If we were going to get out of here, I had to
think it through. I had to find a way that would give us the best odds of
getting out. Gage was not the type of man to make idle threats. When I
displeased him, Luke suffered. I
knew if
I did anything truly foolhardy, he would see Luke die to make me pay—I
was sure of it. He needed me to create his zombie army, but that only meant he
needed me alive. Luke, Dean, Wendy…he could do away with them at anytime. The
only reason he hadn’t so far was because he wanted my cooperation.

I can’t be consumed by fear and hopelessness. I have
to be smart. I have to prepare like I did before I went into the asylum.
It
took me months of planning to get into that
place—and out of it.

As we walked, we passed shambling zombies
moving up and down the passages. Normally I averted my eyes when I passed them.
The guilt I felt about raising the dead was something I might never be able to
wash away. But this time I took a long look, inspecting each one. Gage was
right
—they weren’t holding up well. It
appeared that he’d decided to get what use he could out of them as slave labor.
They carried heavy loads, used like pack mules and grunt labor. If I
passed too
close, the stench of death hit me
with such sudden intensity that I gagged desperately, swallowing bile and
horror with the same intense distaste.

I learned quickly to keep my eyes down,
staying well clear of the shuffling feet I passed. None of them tried to speak
to me as Wanda once had, but I didn’t know if it was a spell that silenced them,
or if they were as afraid of our captors as I was.
That thought chilled my blood. But
I wondered,
Why
would they be afraid of Gage
?

How could he, or anyone else, hurt or even
intimidate a zombie? If the bodies were damaged enough, I was willing to bet
that the souls would be free again. They didn’t seem to feel any pain. It
seemed to me that
I
was the only one
who could hurt them. After all, I’d trapped them in prisons of rotting flesh.
What could Gage do worse than that?

Sonja stepped aside, Caleb stopped abruptly,
and I barely managed to stop
short of him. They stood in front of a steel door with a chain to one side.
What sort of new hellhole were they taking
me to
? Gage said he was moving me to a better
place and
that I could be with my friends. I
wanted to believe he was telling the truth. My only burning desire was to hold
Luke close, to be with him again. Whatever happens…as long as we’re together,
we can get through it.

Caleb
reached over and grabbed a torch from the wall. Holding it in one hand, he
pulled hard on the chain with his other, and the door slowly opened.
Sonja
stepped
over the threshold and Caleb followed. He motioned for me to come through, and
as I stepped through the doorway a small gasp of surprise left my lips at the
scene before me.

The
walls were no longer rock. We were inside some
type
of
wooden structure. It looked like a basement. Work tools lined wooden
shelves, and a set of wooden stairs led up to
a
door.

Caleb
gestured for me to follow him before heading up the stairs and through the
door. I stepped after him and found myself surrounded by light. Sunlight blazed
through windows, momentarily blinding me. I’ve been living in the dark for too
long. I raised a hand up to shield my eyes and followed Caleb’s outline as he
walked into the room.

Dusty
green-and-gold paneling lined each wall alongside old, faded paintings of
horses and dogs. A huge chandelier spiraled above, hanging from a brass chain.
The place had obviously once been grand, but the cracked, peeling paintings and
worn, dirty paneling betrayed how long this place had stood dormant. Cobwebs
crisscrossed the chandelier. It was a place
long abandoned and forgotten.

Sonja
stood in the doorway while Caleb walked into the room and pointed to a dusty green
chair with a gold frame. “Wait here.”

I’d
already learned that it wasn’t worth asking Caleb any questions, so I didn’t
bother. He gave me a glare and went out through a set of tall doors.

I
made my way to the chair. The material
was
embroidered
with little gold birds and flowers, but a thick layer of
dust covered the surface. The frame was ornate and gold. I looked down at my muddy,
smelly clothing and realized that, at the moment, I was as dirty as the chair.
I didn’t bother brushing the dust aside—I just sat down and looked around
the room. There was a window across from me that ran almost the whole length of
the wall, but so much dirt
caked
it that I
couldn’t clearly see out. Sunlight peeked in between the dirt smears, causing
beams of light to shimmer in different spots all around the room.

The
door opened. I expected to see Caleb standing there glaring at me, but it
wasn’t him—it was Wendy. I almost didn’t recognize her. She wore a pair
of torn jeans and an orange short-sleeved T-shirt that
was ripped
across the stomach. Wicked red cuts crisscrossed both
her forearms, and there were bruises on what I could see of her face. Her long
dark hair hung down, matted and dirty. She stood in the doorway, motionless.
Her gaze scanned my way, and for a moment I wondered if she didn’t know who I
was.

“Wendy?”
I said her name softly.

Her
eyes focused on me, though not a word came out of her mouth. A single tear ran
down her dirt-stained cheek.

I
got up from my chair and rushed to her side. “Are you all right?” I reached out
to touch her,
but she flinched away from
me.

There
was no way to describe the look in her eyes. It was pure and utter despair.
Everything in me screamed to pull her into my arms and hug her, to give her
comfort. But as if reading my thoughts, she sidestepped and put one of the
threadbare chairs between us, making it clear that my sympathy was not welcome.

“I’m
all right.” Her voice came out as a harsh whisper.

We
both jumped when another door on the other side of the room burst open.

My
heart
leaped
when I recognized Luke.
Caleb followed closely behind him. I started toward him. I half expected Caleb
to make a mad dash forward and step in between us, but he just stood in the doorway.
I took another hesitant step toward Luke and then, almost as if on cue, we both
ran to each other.

Luke
pulled me tightly into his arms. “Thank the Goddess you’re both alive.” As soon
as I heard his voice, I realized it wasn’t Luke holding me—it was Dean. I
pulled back out of his embrace and looked up into a pair of blue eyes.
Of
course
it’s Dean. It’s daytime
.

Gage had kept Luke and I from physically touching—Gage
had some misguided idea that somehow if Luke and I touched we might be able to
combine our powers and overpower the magic collar that kept Luke enslaved.
But apparently Gage was not
worried about contact between Dean and me. Luke had some power when he was in
Dean’s body, but Dean had never finished the trials. The strange power that
Dean possessed only came out when he was charged up by someone else’s magic.
Dean had no magic of his own.

I
took a few steps back and stared at him, trying to clear my fogged thoughts. “Dean.”

“Colina.”
He moved toward me, but again I retreated. He stopped and gave me a wry half smile.
“I’m so glad to see you.”

I
paused, unsure what to say.

Dean’s
expression was not hard to read.
He was hurt by
my reaction
, but he was trying not to show it. I didn’t have to be a
mind reader like Wendy to realize Dean saw the disappointment in my eyes when I
realized he wasn’t Luke.

Unexpectedly,
Dean’s nose wrinkled, and I flushed in embarrassment when I realized it was me
he smelled.

I
knew I stank. I’d been touching decomposing bodies. But then again, none of us
were clean. We’d been kept in cages that sat on dirt floors. I waited for Dean
to comment on the smell, but he didn’t.

Instead
he turned back to Wendy, moving cautiously in her direction. “Hey, are you
okay? What happened to you?”

Wendy
rubbed her arms and hugged herself as if she were trying to hold herself
together. I could tell by her closed-off expression that whatever had happened,
she wasn’t about to confide in us.

Dean
looked around the room, glancing back at Caleb, who still lurked in the doorway.
He lowered his voice and asked, “Where are we?”

“I
have no idea,” I answered.

Dean
walked around the room and stopped in front of a black grand piano. His fingers
ran across the keys and off-tune
chords
floated in the air. He looked up and gave us both a wide smile. “Well, it beats
being underground. At least we’re together.”

I
looked over at Caleb and then back at Dean. “For now. Who knows what Gage will
do next?”

“What
does he want from us? From you?” Dean asked.

I
wanted to tell him. I wanted to explain the ghastly nightmare my life had
turned into over the past ten days. The field of bodies they forced me to wade
through each night.
How I touched the bodies and
brought the dead to life.
But if I told them, they would see me as a
dark and evil monster, no better than the zombies I raised. No better than
Gage. And if I told Dean, then
Luke—whose
spirit was somewhere inside him
—would hear.

“Gage
works for the demon,” Wendy whispered. She was watching me.
She’s picking up my thoughts.
It was
pointless to try and hide from her what I’d been up to. The realization was a
relief. I
wanted
to come clean. I
wanted to say the words out loud, but I couldn’t. I gave Wendy a hard stare and
thought loudly in my mind.
Right, go on. Tell
Dean. Tell him what I’ve become. Shout about the evil I’m bringing forth into the
world.

Her
eyes lowered and she slowly shook her head back and forth.

Why won’t she tell?

I
heard
a door
shut and saw that Caleb and
Sonja had left the room. We were alone for the first time since we’d
been taken
.

Dean
glanced toward the closed door. “No more guards?”

I
walked over to the window and used my already-dirty sleeve to rub the glass. I
couldn’t see much, but what I could make out was a man standing not far off in
the distance, leaning in the shadow of another old building. I wiped away more
dirt and took in our surroundings through the dusty pane. Spread out before us
were a couple dozen houses. They were all wood structures in a variety of
shapes and sizes. Each was old and in a stage of decomposition. A couple of the
houses were nothing but empty shells with only one or two exterior walls still
standing. “I’m guessing there are still guards, but now they’re on the outside.”

Dean
joined me at the window. “Which finally gives us an opportunity to try and come
up with a plan to get the hell out of here.”

Wendy
was still standing in the same place with her head lowered and her
hair
hanging down in her face.
What happened to her
?

“Wendy?
Are you okay?” I whispered. Gage said she tried to hurt herself. Were those
cuts on her arms and bruises on her face self-inflicted?

Without
warning, Wendy lifted her head and shouted, “Stop asking me if I’m okay!”

Dean
and I both looked at her in shock.

She
seemed to catch herself from saying more. She took a breath and gave me a small
smile. “Sorry. I…I’m
all right,
I
really
am. I just don’t need anyone fussing
over me.”

I
raised my hands as if in surrender. “No more fussing.”

She
walked over and sat down on the piano bench.

“Anyone
have a plan of action?” Dean demanded.

The
question took me by surprise. As much as I wanted to escape, I had no ideas. I
was happy to be out of the cavern, but it seemed that they had just
moved
me from one prison to another. Gage wasn’t
going to let any of us go. Not until I did what he wanted. What would he do to
us once he had his dark army?