The Company of Darkness (34 page)

The four casters pressed themselves to the walls, sliding past the guards to flee into the corridor and Cady supposed she couldn’t blame them.  She would’ve hightailed it out of there if she could manage it.  Instead, she had to face down these two yahoos and hope her Taser touch kicked in again, even though she had no idea how it worked. 

“I came to help Ethan out, Ash wouldn’t let him go.  They wouldn’t have been able to do it without me,” Cady insisted.  “You should be thanking me, not taking me down.”

“Don’t let her touch you, she’s got something on her to sap your strength,” Alma warned, ignoring her pleas.

Shit
.  So much for her secret weapon. 

Batons came out next, and a pair of cuffs.  “Put these on, hands in front where I can see them,” the guard closest to her said, tossing them at her, which she caught but gave him a raised brow before dropping them at her feet.  Like she was going to
willingly
put them on. 
Yeah right.
 

“You’re only making this harder on yourself, sweetie,” Alma warned, but Cady ignored her, keeping her eyes on the two guards, who both looked mean enough to crack her head open.  “Engage then.  I tried to spare you any pain, but you’ve left us with no choice.”

Not that she had all that much personal experience, but Cady did know a thing or two about bar room brawls, having watched her brother break up (or instigate) a few in her lifetime.  She knew the person who threw the first punch had the advantage of surprise, and hopefully the ability to follow up with another hit if the first one landed squarely.  Cady didn’t think she was strong enough to knock either of them out with one hit, but she counted on their underestimating her in general, hoping that would give her enough of an edge to get past them.  Where she’d go after that… she’d have to cross that bridge when she came to it. 

They watched her warily, trying to gauge how best to take her down, as Alma put it, and they didn’t anticipate her stepping in to shove one guard in the solar plexus, trying her damnedest to knock the breath out of him.  What
no one
anticipated, was for the guard to go flying off his feet as if he’d been tackled by a linebacker.  In fact, they were all so surprised, Cady included, that they all stood there gaping at him for long seconds after he landed in a crumpled heap, and Cady completely lost her window to escape. 

In the next instant, the other guard charged her, slamming her against the wall hard enough to make her see stars.  He kept her pinned in place with his hip while he went for his cuffs until she got a hand on his elbow and he went still, his face frozen in a rictus of pain as her touch zapped him.  No… it wasn’t a zap at all.  This time she could feel the exchange of energy between them.  As he grew weaker, she grew stronger, and by the time he fell to his knees twitching, Cady felt like she could bust right through the walls and break them out of there.

“Very impressive,” Alma said with a trace of smugness that probably came from the pistol in her hands.  “You keep on surprising, don’t you?  But how about you pick up the matching bracelets and put ‘em on before I decide this experiment is over?”

“Ah, balls…” Cady let out a long breath, stooping to pick up the pair of cuffs still looped over the fallen guard’s hand.

“Put ‘em on,” Alma shook the gun, and Cady couldn’t help but notice the waver in her voice.  Cuffs in hand, Cady didn’t immediately snap them on, instead she stepped clear of the guard’s body, circling closer to Ethan.  “I ain’t fuckin’ around now, y’hear?”  Her accent grew more pronounced as Alma gestured again.  “Put ‘em on now or I will shoot ya.”

Shit
.  What was she supposed to do?  If she surrendered she was dead.  Dead or a permanent lab rat, given her new ability, which was almost as bad.  And what would happen to Ethan?  They’d send him away for sure. 

“Calm down before you do something we’ll both regret,” Cady said, her hands coming up in a defensive gesture. 

“Put ‘em the fuck on… now,” she persisted, cocking back the hammer to illustrate her point.  “I ain’t gonna say it ag…”  Alma went down like a sack of potatoes, the gun clattering uselessly to the floor.  Cady looked up in surprise to see Rikard standing there, the butt of his gun in hand, which he’d clocked her with.

“Hurry now, there isn’t much time,” he said, hopping over her to roll Ethan up to a sitting position on the table. 

“You just… why did you…?” Cady blinked, more than a little confused by the sudden change of events.  “Since when did you switch over to the dark side?”      

“Let’s just say I’m partial to both sides,” he replied with a crooked grin.  “Come on then, we’d better get out of here before any of them come to and give the alarm.”  Grabbing Ethan up under his arm, he half carried, half dragged him from the room. 

Cady followed along, hopping over bodies and stooping to pick up Alma’s gun, just in case.  “Here, let me help you with him,” she offered, taking up Ethan’s other arm and insinuating herself under his armpit, reminding her of the first night they’d met.  

“Seems to me you’ve gotten a mite stronger since the last time we tussled,” Rikard chuckled, leading them to a side door. 

“I don’t suppose you have any idea why?”

“You don’t know?”

“Would I ask you if I did?  What happened back there was as much a surprise to me as it was to you.”  He seemed to accept that easily enough, but didn’t answer the question.  Maybe he didn’t know the answer.  Suddenly, Cady remembered her brother, her steps slowing as her loyalties divided her actions.

“I can take him if you’re tiring,” he offered.

“No, but we have to go back for Ian.  Do you know where she’s keeping him?”

Rikard’s expression grew shuttered, harder to read but she still knew what he was going to say before he said it.  “We can’t go back, there isn’t time.  Besides, he’s already made his choice, and it wasn’t you.”

Cady wanted to argue, wanted to drop hold of Ethan and go pound some sense into her idiot brother and drag him out the door by his hair, but Rikard was right.  He’d made his choice.  With a short nod, she shifted her hold on Ethan and resumed their pace.

He led them out the side door and into the night air that still clung to the heat of the day.  There was a ramp built for wheelchairs that led down to an area of packed earth where the cars were parked. 

“Do you have a car?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t happen to bring my keys with so it’ll take a few minutes to get us going.” 

“Do we have a few minutes?”

He didn’t answer, stopping beside a red Jeep Cherokee, not hesitating to smash his elbow into the rear passenger window to unlock the door.  Cady helped get Ethan into the back while Rikard opened the other doors and messed around under the dash.  By the time she made it into the passenger’s seat, the engine roared to life and he threw her a triumphant grin. 

“Open your window,” he ordered, and Cady hurried to comply, not sure why he asked.  Maybe it’d give him better visibility in the dark or something?

Instead of driving off, Rikard hopped out of the car, coming around the front, his eyes on the big house, but so far there was no sign of pursuit.  Still, Cady didn’t think they had time to go back for anything.  Or was he leaving them there?  “Wait… where are you going?” she called out, craning her head to watch him.  

“Give me the gun.”  His hand stuck in the window, fingers waggling with impatience.  Reluctant to give it up, Cady hesitated, but handed it over.  Almost the instant his hand closed around it, he took aim, shooting out the front tires of the other cars lined in the makeshift parking lot in rapid succession.  “Here you go, mind the barrel, it’s hot,” he grinned, tossing the gun into her lap. 

There were shouts in the distance now.  Having heard the gunfire, they’d be in hot pursuit, but Rikard came around to the driver’s seat with unhurried steps, cool as a cucumber. 

“Come on, let’s go,” she urged, practically vibrating with the desire to get out of there before they threw something else in their way. 

“Relax, I’ve got this,” he winked, throwing the car into gear and peeling off with a gout of dust and pine needles.  “You’ve never done that before then?” Rikard asked, picking up the thread of conversation they’d abandoned in the hallway.  “Just since… say… you had that demon bound to you?”

All of a sudden she remembered the cut Ash had
healed
for her right after Alma’s cutting test.  What if it hadn’t been Ash’s doing at all?  What if it was part of the demon inside her?  So far it’d happened when she’d needed defending, only what if it wasn’t protecting her, but itself?  “Christ, what did that thing do to me?”

“Try not to let it bother you, luv, it saved your ass back there.  And knocked me on mine, I might add.”

“I’m sorry about that, I didn’t mean to.”  Cady looked back to Ethan’s inert body stretched across the back seat.  “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

“It’s Alma’s own fault.  She’s gotten too big for her britches, it was bound to happen sooner or later.  He’ll be fine,” he added, noting the direction of her gaze.  “An hour or two’s rest and he’ll be right as rain.”

They rode along in silence, bouncing on the uneven dirt road.  “Thank you for what you did back there, for helping us,” she said softly, her hand reaching for his where it rested on the gearshift, but then pulling away as she thought better of it.  Best not to give him too many mixed messages, her own impulses were doing a good enough job of that and she didn’t like how jumbled it made her feel.  Besides, for all she knew he’d pass out at her touch and crash them into a tree, and then where would they be?

Still, he saw the movement, and the corners of his mouth twitched higher.  “Didn’t do it for him, I did it for you,” he said, flashing her a sidelong grin before returning his attention to the path ahead of them.

He seemed awfully blasé about flushing his career down the drain, almost happy to be on the run.  “But now you’re on Alma’s hit list too.  That can’t be good.”

“Never you mind about me, I’ll manage well enough.” 

She didn’t doubt it.  He’d managed their impromptu escape well enough, at least until he brought the jeep to a slow crawl, edging forward painfully slowly until it ground to a halt. 

“Wait, why are we stopping?” Cady demanded, looking back over her shoulder, but the road behind them was dark. 

Rikard ignored the question, getting out of the jeep, leaving the engine running.  His hands came up to probe the air in front of the car, stopping when they found what he was looking for.  “Can you feel it?  We can’t leave, not with the barrier still up.”

Cady came out of the car, her hands reaching out until she met the invisible force field.  “Damn, I almost forgot about that.  Do you know how to get past it?”

He rubbed his hands on his jeans and stepped back.  “Not take it down, but carve a hole into it large enough for us to slip through.  It’ll be rough to accomplish on the fly, but I think I can manage it.”

“I can help you, Ethan was training me to do it with him.”

“You know the ritual?”  His brows came up in surprise.

“I know the components, I’ve never tried it before.”  She didn’t want to oversell her ability, but he seemed relieved by the news. 

“Even better.  I can get behind these odds,” he grinned.  “Hurry then, there’s no time to lose.”

They set to work, drawing the sigils in the dirt, starting on one side of the car, continuing behind it and to the other side of the road, creating a pocket around the jeep.  Once he was satisfied, Rikard brought her within the semi-circle in front of the car. 

“Let’s hear the words, I want to make sure you’ve got them down properly.”  She recited them back in chunks, stopping to let any errant energy dissipate until they were ready to begin the spell in earnest.  “Good girl, I knew you were an adept at this.” He grinned openly by the time she was done, but before she could ask what an adept was, he reached for her hands. “Right now, give me your hand and let’s begin.” 

It was both harder and easier than she’d thought it would be to get through the spell with him.  On the one hand, it was distracting to feel his hands in hers, his energy at odds with her own while she tried to concentrate on the spell.  On the other hand, his power surged through her and lent her strength to push through the words when they started to fight back.  It was a rush unlike any other she’d ever felt before, and when the final words of the spell were uttered, the flash of power left her body tingling in some interesting places. 

Cady could tell he felt it too from the way his body canted toward hers, the crackle of energy sparking between them drawing her with magnetic force, wanting to complete that circuit and erase the empty space between them. 

Rikard’s brows drew closer as he swallowed, and he took a deliberate step backwards.  “Hurry now, get in the car,” he said, letting his hands fall away from hers.  She almost moaned at the loss of contact, but managed to pull herself together enough to do as he said.  Not wanting to question how she could feel something so strong out of nowhere, she slipped into the Jeep, pushing it away for later. 

She’d only just clicked on her seatbelt when Rikard pulled the car over a few feet on the other side of the barrier.  He left the engine on again while he hopped out, running a hand over his closely cropped hair in agitation.