The End of Darkness (19 page)

He searched the house, finding packed suitcases and a stash of twenty, fifty, and hundred dollar bills. Money they would not need back in Surfacia. He went downstairs into the basement and encountered a scene even more gruesome. He remembered Lanna's white-blond hair, and the few tufts that were not stained with blood were that color. 

With the tunnel door open, Swanson's disappearance now held even more ominous overtones. He called his new second-in-command—his first had also gone missing last month. “We have trouble. Sound the alarm and tell everyone to meet at the finestra immediately. But don't sound it in the tunnel. We're moving up detonation.”

“We still have two people in the tunnel: Swanson and Yurek, who went to look for him.”

“If they're not back in time, we'll have to proceed anyway.” Torus closed the door to the tunnel and pushed the latch in, then ‘ported back to the detonation switch at headquarters.

CHAPTER 17

Pope and Suza worked their way down the tunnel, pulling down those sinister white boxes and stuffing them into the trash bag they each carried. Hers was getting so heavy she had to drag it. 

Pope moved faster than she did but kept glancing back to keep an eye on her. Every so often they would trade places so they remained close. He might be from another dimension. He might be scary and a killer, but he was risking his life to save others. People he didn't even know. 

“You are thinking good thoughts about me,” he said, pulling down another box. “I like the way it feels.”

“Yeah, me, too. I just hope we get to explore this thing between us.”

“I'd like to take you on a date.” He said the word 'date' as though he'd never used it before. “I have heard a lot about dates. I think I'll like them.”

He gave her such a goofy, innocent smile she had to laugh. Which doused the smile. 

“I have a lot to learn,” he said. “Petra took me to task for calling a date a social interaction with sexual motivation.”

“Mm, I can understand how that might dampen the fire. Except for the sexual part. I hope we get to explore that, too.”

Pope made a cute sound in his throat but continued with his task. 

A noise echoed down the tunnel in the direction of the compound. Pope came up beside her, all protective, and watched the dim lights. A black panther materialized, coming up fast. Pope stepped in front of her.

The panther came to a stop only a few feet away and materialized to the man they'd seen earlier in Strasford. The one who would kill Pope.

Yurek gave him a phony smile. “Fancy meeting you here. I thought you might have something to do with Swanson's disappearance.” He took in the bags filled with the white boxes. “Torus would have your head, but I have no intention of letting him know about you. You think you can stop this? There are miles of explosives.”

He turned into one of the ugliest wolves she had ever seen and lunged at Pope. The two fell to the ground, the wolf's mouth clamped around Pope's wrist. Blood dripped down his arm as they tussled. Pope thrust out his hand. A glow emanated from his palm and then fizzled out. 

He couldn't blast the guy. Suza's heart tightened into a tiny ball as she watched the two fight, unarmed man and a wolf-creature with sharp teeth that kept swiping toward Pope's throat. 

She took out her gun, tucked in her waistband, and inched closer. She had to shoot where the bullet would go straight into the wall and not down the tunnel. Following their movements, inching closer, she aimed. 

Pope threw Yurek, bumping into her and knocking her to her ass. The gun fell to the ground a few feet away. Yurek's snout-full of teeth came at her, but Pope dragged him back. He wouldn’t ‘port away. Not only because he wanted to save his power, but she knew in her heart that he wouldn't leave her there. She scrambled on hands and knees to where the gun landed in the shadows. 

She turned, crouching, and readied. 
Please don't let me hit Pope by mistake.
 
 

Pope got the upper hand with the beast, wrestling it to the ground. It wasn't defeated though. It pulled back its hind legs, claws sharp and extended, and readied to push Pope off. 

“Suza, wait,” he gritted out and slapped his palm to the beast's head. A small Flare threw it back. It hit the wall and became Yurek again. He started to shift back.

“Now,” Pope said.

She pulled the trigger. The blast echoed, jabbing into her head like a boxing glove. Pope jumped to his feet, surveying the dead man. 

“Nicely done,” he said. 

She tapped the handle. “Good to know the human weapon can kick otherworldly ass.”

“Pope!” Magnus's voice, a distance down the tunnel.

“We're all right,” Suza shouted. Profound relief washed over her. They were almost ready. And they still had an hour to spare. 

Two silhouettes, dragging their full bags like Santa Clauses, materialized in the gloom. 

Magnus said, “I figure we're on the north end of Strasford. I can still feel Darkness.”

Pope took them all in with their bags. “Put your hands on my arm. I should be able to bring us close to the compound.”

In a flash, they were back where they'd started taking down the explosive devices. Pope looked relieved. He still had one more very important ‘port to do. Or else they died, but she didn't want to think about that.

Pope rubbed his hands together. “This is going to take split-second timing. You all must be ready, hands on me and on your bags. The moment I set this device off, we're out of here. If the bags get left behind, there will still be enough explosives to damage the town.”

She hated this part of the plan, not that any part of it was great. Pope would start the blast with his Flare on the first device, sending the chain reaction toward the compound. They'd taken enough of the explosives out along the way so that it wouldn't extend outward much. 

A man materialized in front of them. His eyes widened as he took in four strangers. “Who are you people, and why are you sabotaging my project?”

“Because the people here shouldn't die for our mistakes, Torus,” Pope said. 

He narrowed his eyes. “You're one of us but they are not.” He saw the bags with the square devices pushing against the plastic. “I will not allow you to destroy everything I've worked years to put into place.” He held out his hand, and there was nothing wrong with 
his
 glow. “In ten minutes everything will be detonated, so you've failed anyway.”
 

Suza shot him, throwing him back several feet. “I know I took a chance,” she said, rushing the words together. “But I couldn't let him kill us. Not after all the work 
we've
 done.”
 

Magnus stepped up next to Pope. “You didn't even try to zap him.”

“My Flare isn't as strong as I'd like.” He flexed his hand and tried to summon it. Hardly a glimmer. “I’ve overused my powers. I won't be able to detonate the devices.”

Suza lifted her gun. “I'll shoot one.” 

They got into position, and she aimed at the first device on the wall. 
Click.
 She checked the gun. “Hell. Empty.”
 

“I'll do it.” 

Everyone turned to Erica. She was holding out her hand, a glow pulsing in her palm. “I've got enough power.”

Magnus said, “No, you—”

“I know I'll die. So go now, all of you. Take everything. As soon as you're gone I'll set them off. That way you're safe.” She gripped Magnus's arm. “It's the only way. You heard him. They're going to set it off in ten minutes. 
Go.
”
 

Magnus's voice was raw when he said, “I'm not going without you.”

Erica gave Pope a secret nod that told him to make sure Magnus went. “Magnus, I was going to end up dying anyway. So now I get to save a lot more lives than one killer would have taken.”

A sound caught their attention. Torus had crawled to the bag closest to him and was reaching for one of the devices. His hand glowed. He was going to set it off—

Suza felt that now-familiar 
whoosh
 and blinked, finding herself on the hill where they'd scoped out the compound. The sound of an explosion riveted her attention below. The ground erupted, as though a gigantic earthworm was making its way toward them. Each device exploded in domino fashion, just as planned. But those explosions were coming toward the compound. Wherever there was an explosion, the ground collapsed in a several-yards wide swath, shaking the sand in either direction for a mile. 
 

What hovered above the ground was even wilder. A dark mist shimmered like heat, a wave of it rolling toward the compound.

“Darkness,” Pope said.

She looked at their group, Magnus and Erica and all their bags. Magnus had his arms around Erica, holding her fast against his chest. Suza stepped closer to Pope, needing that connection as she turned back to the devastation below. 

It reached the compound, buildings and cars falling into the gaping hole. She saw no people; they'd all been evacuated. The explosions finally stopped, but the wave of Darkness kept going, drawn toward that portal thing Pope talked about.

High like a tidal wave, it washed over the mountain next to theirs and disappeared right into it. The mountains shuddered. Magnus took a halted breath and stumbled back, as though someone had punched him. Erica turned in his arms, and he shook his head. “I'm fine. The air got thin all of a sudden. I couldn’t breathe.”

Pope surveyed the area. “I don't feel Darkness. It’s gone.” He gestured to the bags. “I have to take these back to my dimension. They're too dangerous to leave here.”

Suza now sucked in a breath. “But from everything you've told me it’s too dangerous for you to go back there.”

Pope touched her chin. “I have to. I cannot risk anyone finding these explosives. They are made from materials not of this dimension. I will take you to your truck, and then I'll go to the finestra on the south side of Strasford.”

“We'll go,” Magnus said. “And we'll wait for you to come back.”

Forty minutes later, Magnus watched Pope step into what looked like a wall of shimmering heat and disappeared. 

Suza leaned against the front of the truck, wringing her fingers. “Will he come back?”

“If he can, he will.” Magnus squeezed her shoulder. “He's got a reason.” Unless he got caught, but no need to mention that. 

They'd stopped at a store where they bought coats and a pair of shoes for Suza. The night air bit into his cheeks and stung his lips. He took Erica's hand. “We'll be right back.”

He pulled her away, though not out of sight of Suza. He then tugged her into his arms. “That was the maddest, bravest thing I've ever seen. 
You
 are the maddest, bravest thing I've seen.”
 

“I was scared to death to die. I've spent a lot of years taking that sort of risk, willing to die for a good cause. But I've never had anything to live for.” She tilted her head, the breeze blowing her hair across her cheek. “And I don't care if you've got Darkness, that you turn into a beast or that you'll get wildly possessive. I can deal with that.”

He started to protest her willingness to once again put herself in harm's way, but no words came out. Because he realized something. He stepped back and patted his stomach. “I don't feel it.”

“Feel what?”

“Darkness. I don't feel the heaviness.” He held out his hand and stared at it, summoning the lion. Nothing. “I don't have it anymore. I don't have it!” He swung her into his arms and spun her around. “It must have gone when the whole of it went. Remember when I sucked in that breath? I felt something pass through me. But I was so preoccupied with everything else I didn't realize that dark heaviness wasn't in me anymore.”

She leaned down and kissed him, a beautiful light in her eyes. 

“You would have stayed with me anyway,” he said, feeling that sacrifice as much as the one she'd almost made in the tunnel. “Even though I was a beast.”

She put her hand to his cheek. “
You
 weren't a beast.”
 

She hadn't always felt that way, but he wasn't about to remind her. “Come home with me to Maryland. I need to see my brother.”

She gave him a teasing smile. “And Jessie?”

“Who?”

She kissed him again. “I'd love to come home with you.”

Suza was watching them, a wistful smile on her face. They joined her, and he could pick up her worried thoughts about Pope. She really cared about him. He knew Pope cared about her, too. 

An hour passed, the longest of their lives. “He's not coming back,” Suza said, her arms tight around her waist. “The best man I ever fell in love with, and he's gone.” Tears glittered on her eyelashes and spilled down cheeks red from the cold. 

Magnus pulled her close. “Don't give up yet.”

“I haven't given up, I just…oh, Magnus, it's not looking good.”

Her grief vibrated through him. He reached out and grasped Erica's hand, pulling her up next to him. She patted Suza's back, clearly as uncomfortable with this comforting business as he was. 

Erica sucked in a breath, pointing. The air shimmered in the weird way it had when Pope had gone through. He stepped out of the finestra, looking the way he had when they'd first met: shaved head, tall, and with violet eyes. Suza rushed toward him, which baffled Magnus because as far as he knew, she'd only seen him the way he'd looked when he left.

“You're back,” she said, running her fingers over her face. “I like you this way.”

“My façade stripped away when I entered my dimension. I took on my old one when I came back.” He held Suza tight for a few moments, squeezing his eyes shut. Finally he moved back. “The group who was here never made it back. Darkness exploded as it went through the finestra, most likely taking everyone with it. The government will have to come clean, I suppose, and explain why they no longer have the power they once did. But that is not my problem.” He gave them a guileless smile. “I have a date to prepare for.”

“A lot of them,” Suza said, her gaze never leaving him.