The second dark ages box.., p.58
The Second Dark Ages Boxed Set, page 58
part #1 of The Second Dark Ages Series
The guy—no, just a kid—was watching her pistol as best he could. Her finger was on the trigger and his eyes kept trying to see how hard she was squeezing. The noise in the landing came back to her in a rush. She could hear some moaning. “Kill him or what?”
“No!” The boy tried to get his nerves under control. “We weren’t sent to kill you.”
Michael walked up next to the young man and bent down. “Name?”
The teenager swallowed. “Erich.”
You can put your pistol away, Sabine.
She brought her pistol down and holstered it.
“Well, Erich.” Michael allowed his eyes to flash red a moment, mesmerizing the boy when he realized what kind of being he was looking at, “I need directions to a certain area down here in the sewers. Are you available?”
Erich’s head jerked up and down.
“Good.” Michael straightened up. “I expect you to provide the necessary signals so that we are allowed safe passage, or you will be my first kill of the evening.”
Michael turned and headed toward the door. Erich called, “Herr…uh…” Michael turned and raised an eyebrow. Erich pointed. “There are more on the other side.”
“You will do,” Michael told him and waved him to the door. “There are none at the moment. We need to go to the Dark Corners area.”
Erich stepped over the prone body of Frederic and grabbed the door handle. Yanking it open, he called, “It’s me, Erich. Safe passage, and if anyone can hear me, we have three down.”
No one responded. He stuck his head through the door and looked both ways. Stepping in, he was confused.
The man in the coat and hat walked in behind him. “Don’t worry, they were scared and ran. They will be back later. Your friends live, and we don’t have much time. The way, Erich?”
Erich turned to Michael’s left and started walking down the passage. The walls were lined with white ceramic tile and the floors were concrete. There were LED lights every ten feet that lit the hallway enough that even Sabine could see very well.
“The Dark Corners,” Erich started chattering, “have a bad reputation for people disappearing.” He chuckled. “I think it’s just someone trying to keep others away.”
“Oh, it’s probably true,” Michael responded.
“Which part?” Erich asked as he turned and pushed on a door. It opened into another set of stairwells. “This will drop us another three levels to the main concourse. I’ll get us through the toll there and then we have one hallway and another five levels to go down.”
“Both parts,” Michael read the instructions and directions from Erich’s mind. “People probably did disappear, and it was so others wouldn’t go there.”
“But why?” Erich asked as they descended to the third level. He grabbed the door and opened it. Stepping out, he turned to his right and jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Aren, Burk, these three are with me.”
Aren was a big guy with blond hair and hazel eyes. He looked past Erich. “Are you playing with me?”
“What?” Erich turned around, but there was no one behind him. He stepped back over to the door to the stairway and pushed it open, then stuck his head inside and called out.
Aren’s smile dropped when he saw the look on Erich’s face. Reaching for a pistol and placing it in his waistband, Aren asked him, “What’s going on?”
Erich saw him grab the pistol and shook his head. “You don’t want to make them angry.”
“’Them’ who?” Aren asked as he waved to Burk to get his own weapon ready.
“I swear I’m not making this up.” Erich looked down the way he had told the man to go. “His eyes glowed red, and he wanted to know how to get to the Dark Corners.” Erich pointed back the way they came. “He and his two people took out the team I was on to require toll.”
“Dark Corners?” Aren turned to the hallway that went in that direction. “Well, let’s go lock the doors. If they got ahead of you somehow, that will stop them from coming back. They will have to bang on the doors to get us to open them.”
“I don’t think doors are their problem,” Erich whispered.
Michael looked at the three doors in front of him. “Well, shit.”
“He didn’t show any doors in his mind, did he?” Akio asked. Michael had turned to Myst, grabbed the two of them, and gone down the hallway and into the correct stairwell.
Unfortunately, after five levels it stopped. There were three doors and each one was going in a different direction.
“Nope,” Michael agreed.
“It’s easy,” Sabine told them. She walked over and grabbed the left door and pulled it open. “After you two gentlemen…”
Michael raised an eyebrow. “What?” She pointed to the floor. “No foot traffic like the other two doors. This one isn’t used much anymore. Trust men to not see dirt.”
Michael resisted the urge to pet her head as he walked into the hallway beyond. She was right; this hallway still had light, but it wasn’t used.
Akio was behind him. “Left or right?”
“Left,” Sabine answered as the door clicked shut behind her. “and no, not because of dirt. It just feels creepy.” She looked at both men, who looked back at her. “You guys don’t feel it?”
Akio chuckled. “Sabine, we are the ones who make people feel creepy.”
“Oh, right.” She shrugged. “I guess I’ve acclimated to your version of creepy.” She stepped around him and started walking down the hallway, muttering to herself, “What’s that say about me?”
The security guard was standard-sized. Which was to say huge, Noah thought, looking up at him. The scar on the guard’s face just missed his left eye and ended up somewhere under his brown hair. “We are here to meet our boss,” Noah responded to the guard’s question. “His name is William, but he goes by Duke.”
“Not here,” the man responded. He was looking at Noah’s two compatriots with their eyes flicking everywhere.
“Of course he is.” Noah slipped the man some gold and a note. “Let’s make sure I have the right address, ok?”
The man’s eyes narrowed and he reached out to grab Noah’s wrist. In a second Noah twisted his hand, grabbing the guard’s wrist and pulling him forward, then slamming his left fist into the guard’s stomach.
His eyes bulged in pain, then rolled up a second later when Beatrice whipped out with a nightstick and popped him in the back of the head.
The guard dropped to the floor.
Noah looked at Keith. “What?” Keith asked. “Did I miss something here?”
Noah shook his head. “Pick him up and place him back in his booth,” he said as he stepped over the huge man’s back. “You have the extra strength, so use it.”
Keith looked to Beatrice. “What did I do?” he asked as he reached down to grab the guard under his arms.
“You could have helped a little,” she replied and stepped around him as well. Seconds later, four more team members swept into view and helped Keith move the guard out of the way.
“You take rearguard now.” Keith’s friend Tommy slapped him on the back as they left the little shack in the hallway. This was the least-used entrance into the rich area of the Sewers. The wealthy called it something else, but as far as everyone else was concerned, it was just the nicer part of the same place.
Kind of how you might expect hell to be. Nowhere in hell would be nice, but perhaps certain areas might be less hot.
At least, one could hope.
Chapter Seventeen
The Sewers, Frankfurt, Germany
The seven humans used their enhanced speed to rush down the tunnels. Noah had purchased plans to allow them to use some tunnels that were for infrastructure and stay out of the main hallways. Less chance of problems, they hoped.
It took the team three minutes to traverse to the Duke’s residence in Frankfurt. One could hope that either the Duke or the new vampire would be here.
Noah was hoping to bag them both. His team had been notified of Thomas and his team’s demise the day before.
He held up his hand. The team slowed down and stopped by a door, pipes all around them. Noah pointed through the door. “On the other side is a hallway. It goes both right and left. Right is back the way we came in, and to the left is the entrance to the living quarters the Duke has here.”
“We know where his exit is?” Keith asked.
“Nope,” Noah answered. “According to the plans, he would have to dig through fifty feet of rock to make a way to get out. I’m not saying it’s impossible, and he might have started on it, but he seems to be the arrogant type and will probably believe he can just kill us.”
“Don’t they all?” Beatrice asked, and the guys chuckled.
“Oh no, humans!” Keith sing-songed in a high voice. “Whatever shall I do with myself?” He changed his voice to a lower pitch. “I shall kill you all!” The chuckles continued for a moment.
Noah paused, then continued. “Ok, we open this door, team one comes with me, we set the charge. We blow the door and go in. Second team sets up our defense. All shares are equal.”
Noah might be a bastard—hell, he himself would admit he was a bastard—but he was also a team player, and those who protected your back door were just as important as those who rushed the door.
“Go!” he yelled. Beatrice yanked the door open and Noah slipped through.
“My, my, my.” Michael heard a vase crash to the floor. “Hope that wasn’t priceless,” he murmured as he looked around a bedroom. Akio chuckled in the other room.
The three had found the back entrance to William’s place nicely decorated with skeletons and other stuff that was just smelly and gross. He had made sure that anyone looking around would become another decoration that said, “Stay away.”
Michael took them through as Myst and followed the rough tunnel into William’s apartment, bypassing, Michael was sure, plenty of traps that would stop interested parties from figuring out where the tunnel led.
He doubted any who had helped build the tunnel were still alive. Well, he supposed they could be alive, just changed into vampires.
The bedroom was particularly opulent, with rich tapestries hanging from the walls and a bed so massive that Michael wasn’t sure how they had brought it this far underground.
“Sabine?” he called. A moment later he heard her boots clop-clop-clopping down the hallway.
She stuck her head into the room. “You called?”
Michael nodded. “Would you be so kind as to leave some of the furniture? We aren’t going to burn this one to the ground, and those who come later might enjoy what are,” he pointed to the tapestries, “undoubtedly priceless historical artifacts.”
“Sorry about that.” She blushed. “I didn’t actually mean to break that vase. I was scared by my own damn reflection and jumped.”
Michael stared at her a moment. “You’re kidding, right?”
She shook her head.
“Michael!” Akio called. “I believe we are going to have company.”
Michael stepped around Sabine, who moved aside to let him pass. He walked down the small hallway into a much larger room. Akio was pointing down the hall with his right hand; his left was pointing to his head.
Michael released his senses too, and he focused in the same area Akio was pointing to. Soon Michael was shaking his head. “Well…hell.”
Michael started walking down the hallway. “I’ll be right back.”
Sabine looked at Akio. “Is he taking them on all by himself?”
Akio shrugged. “He is the ArchAngel,” he told her. “There was a reason that whole groups of the UnknownWorld would move to other cities if he was coming to town.”
“You’re kidding, right?” she asked, and Akio turned and shook his head.
“You were blessed to meet Michael after he spent time with Bethany Anne.” He turned back to the hallway that dogged right before going to the front entrance. “The old Michael would not have thought twice about killing first and not bothering to ask questions later. The new Michael will at least ask questions.”
“What questions?” Sabine made sure her pistols were loose in their holsters. “I didn’t hear him ask any questions.”
“Up here.” Akio touched his head. “He reads their minds and figures out what they are planning and what type of people they are.”
“And what type are they?” Sabine asked. “You read them too, right?
Akio’s answer was short and to the point.
“Dead.”
Noah loved this part of a takedown. His senses were heightened, his speed enhanced, and his ability to dish out pain could damn near cause him to orgasm.
I AM THE ONE…
Noah, his feet driving forward, the door at the end of the ten-foot-wide hallway clearly in his sights, twisted to look behind him to see who was yelling at them.
I AM THE DARK MESSIAH…
Noah noted that his team had made it into the hall. Two right behind him, and the rest looking both ways.
MY NAME IS MICHAEL…
Noah put up his hand, fist clenched. “FORM UP!” he yelled and stopped running.
AND I AM DEATH, the voice finished.
“Welcome to hell.” A male’s voice caused Noah to turn around.
In front of the door was a man in a long coat with a black leather hat on his head. His eyes glowed red and the coat was pulled back to show two pistols in holsters on his hips.
Noah was lifting his rifle when the man drew his pistol and shot Keith, who was next to him. Noah’s round blew a small hole in the door.
But the vampire was gone.
“What the hell?” Noah spun, noticing the look of shock in Keith’s blind, staring eyes, half his skull blown out the back.
Remember those you killed? The voice was back in their brains. Remember the ones you put on tables so you could bleed them dry?
“They were monsters, just like you!” Noah called. “Everyone pull together, back to back. He can’t…”
Beatrice’s scream turned to gurgles. Noah caught just a hint of a hand appearing out of thin air, nails four-inches long. They sliced across her neck, her arterial blood spraying out as she collapsed to the ground.
That’s two down.
“Come out here and fight like a man!” Bensen screamed.
But you say I’m a monster. Since when do monsters fight like men?
“You say you…Argffhf.” Bensen, all two hundred and fifty pounds of him, had been lifted into the air, and the vampire was using his clawed hand to strangle him. Three guns fired simultaneously, but all they hit was Bensen.
The vampire was gone.
Three.
Noah considered whether he needed to cut his losses.
“Four, Five, Six,” a voice called. With each word, another of his team was cut down by pistol shots coming from behind him.
Noah whipped back to the door and fired. He wasn’t sure if the vampire was solid or stopping them from seeing him in their minds or what.
He just felt like he needed to fire his weapon.
Sabine bit a fingernail. “Seems like a lot of gunshots.” She looked at Akio, who was reading a magazine. She bent down to see what he was reading; the front of the magazine had a car on the cover.
“Yes,” Akio agreed with her comment on the bullets. “It says here the new Tellyson SP-600 aerodynamic antigrav car has room for six and a sixty-five kilometer range this year.”
Several shots blasted the wall in the hallway, having come through the front door. Sabine looked at the damage, then at Akio still reading the magazine, then back to the damage. “They are blowing a hole in the door.”
“Mmmm hmmm,” Akio replied and turned the magazine in her direction, pointing to a picture of the inside of the aircar. “I do rather like this dark burgundy color for the leather. What do you think?”
“Oohhh,” Sabine stepped closer and leaned in. “That is pretty.” She looked at him. “You really aren’t worried about Michael?”
Akio blinked twice before asking, “Are you?”
Sabine glanced at the wall and the holes that had been produced by the bullets a moment before. She shrugged. “If you aren’t, why should I be?”
“That is correct.” He took the magazine back and flipped the page. “Besides, he is having too much fun.”
“Should we be doing something?” She gazed around the suite.
“For Michael?” Akio asked.
She turned back to him. “No, to see if we can find something to figure out where the Duke went.”
Akio put down the magazine. “Yes, I suppose so. Michael isn’t going to leave any for me to play with,” He paused for a moment, then added, “I believe Jacqueline would add, ‘the greedy bastard.’”
Sabine smiled, shaking her head, and walked away from the front door, ignoring the sounds of fighting.
Are you good and finished? The voice dripped malicious humor into Noah’s mind. His gun was not responding, the action having locked open on the empty magazine as he squeezed the trigger.
Noah dropped the weapon and yanked a ten-inch silver-laced blade out of his holster, then moved backward until he was against the wall directly opposite Keith’s body. “Bring it! I’m not scared.”
“Who wants you to be scared, Noah?” the man asked him, his voice carefully neutral when he appeared close to the door that Noah and his team had used to get into the hallway.
“Certainly not me.” The man walked toward Noah. “How about we go tit-for-tat, hmm?” He stepped over Benson’s body. “You strike once, I strike once, and see what happens?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Noah licked his lips. “How about I kill you a final time?”
Noah, his reaction time increased with vampire blood, barely registered the movement as his arm twitched and thrust the knife blade out.
When time caught up, the man was smiling. Noah’s blade was stuck through his shirt into his stomach. “The thing about living over a thousand years, Noah,” he whispered, pinning Noah’s knife hand to him, not allowing him to pull it out or move at all, “is that you learn how to handle pain. Real pain, not the stubbing-your-toe kind.” Noah looked at the man’s face. His teeth were growing sharp, eyes blazing red. “Can you handle pain, Noah?”
