A Shade of Vampire 28: A Touch of Truth (11 page)

A
s the night wore on
, I was beginning to fear that the streets might never empty—these roads surrounding us which previously had been fairly quiet had become busy with inmates and hunters. But when the early morning hours drew in, finally, the area became less populated. Not empty, for sure—but emptier. Which would have to be good enough for us.

Because we couldn’t wait much longer—after all, morning would arrive in a few hours and it would start getting lighter. It was now or never. And Maura had realized it as she gazed nervously out of the window.

The siblings met each other’s eyes, and they nodded in silent understanding.

“I should go now,” Maura said quietly.

Wordlessly, Orlando stooped to pick up his wheel. He handed it to her. “Let’s just check that it’s working okay first,” he murmured.

After donning her gas-mask helmet, Maura gripped the wheel and raised it above her head. Once she had indicated to her brother that she was ready, he nudged the remote and the blades began to spin. He put it on full speed, and thankfully, it still worked—it managed to lift her off the ground, however slowly. She looked strained as she clung on, rising higher and higher toward the ceiling. Orlando made the wheel hover for a while, still testing its endurance.

Then he lowered it, returning Maura’s feet to the floor.

“So, it’s still working,” he said to her. “Are you ready?”

“I’ll never be more ready,” she replied.

“Right.”

Maura moved forward, closer to Orlando, and wrapped her arms around him. She buried her head against his chest while he hugged her back. I stepped away and turned my back on them to look out of the window and allow them at least some semblance of privacy.

It was hard to imagine what Orlando must have been feeling in that moment. I didn’t have any siblings, but the thought of being responsible for anybody embarking on this crazy flight was enough to give me chills, let alone someone as close to me as my own sister.

“We are going to do this,” Orlando said. “And we’re going to succeed.
You’re
going to succeed.” He spoke firmly, though his uneven tone of voice betrayed his doubt. “You’re going to reach the other side of the fence. And then you’re going to find a phone. And all three of us are going to get out of here.”

Maura arrived next to me, her fingers curving around the window sill.

Orlando approached with the blade wheel. He handed it to her again. Luckily, the window was wide enough to hold the diameter of the contraption, which would definitely make takeoff easier. Maura stood with her feet apart, the wheel raised over her head.

Orlando and I stepped back.

It was hard to believe that the moment had finally arrived. But for the sake of all of our sanity, it was a moment that we could not prolong.

Maura realized this. She nodded a final time to her brother and tightened her grip on the wheel’s handles.

Orlando started up the rotor, which began to spin and lift her into the air. She hovered upward until her feet were level with the window sill. And then Orlando moved her outward… Outward, outward, away from the safety of the bathroom floor, and over the hair-raising drop of more than a dozen stories.

If only she could have zip lined this distance instead.

I dared not even budge an inch from my spot, lest it distract Orlando. He looked like he had broken out into a sudden, heavy sweat, as perspiration dripped from his forehead. His eyes were so intensely fixed on the remote and his sister that they bulged in their sockets.

I could no longer make out Maura’s expression clearly as she moved deeper into the darkness of the night. Though I could imagine the terror flashing in her eyes. Thankfully, the wind was no longer strong, and I realized that it had even stopped raining.

All good omens.

Now we just need to continue this lucky streak.

She’ll make it to the other side. She will. I know it.

I tried to cram my head with as many positive thoughts as I possibly could to drown out the fear eating away at me.

I scanned the streets that she was directly above now for signs of movement. There was nobody, at least not in the stretch that she was soaring over. Slowly but steadily, she crossed all of the roads and reached the green area, moving closer to the trees.

Hold on, Maura. Keep holding on. You’re doing a good job.
Her hands and arms must have been aching by now. I wished that I could call out to her, that Orlando could—that we could both try to comfort her, assure her somehow—but she was on her own.

I watched with bated breath as Orlando navigated the wheel over the trees. “You’re doing well, Orlando,” I whispered. “You’re doing well…”

“I’m worried about the fence,” he croaked.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I just had a thought,” he replied. “What if it sends some kind of… energy upward? Some kind of forcefield?”

I frowned. Unless a witch had done something to the fence, I figured that Orlando was just overthinking things because of his nerves. It struck me as just a normal electric fence—like the one I had escaped over back in IBSI’s base on the other side of the river.

“Just keep going,” I encouraged him. “She’s almost there…”

My voice drained away as a bloodcurdling screech lit up the night. A potential forcefield above the fence had suddenly become the very least of our worries.

I didn’t often swear—it wasn’t something my parents had ever approved of. But on catching sight of a giant figure zooming through the sky from our right, a slew of curses escaped my lips.

A mutant. I had been so preoccupied by all the other damn obstacles we were surrounded by—the IBSI, inmates and Bloodless—that I had forgotten all about the hunters’ mutants. Besides, I hadn’t seen a single one since I’d been in this part of the city. It hadn’t even occurred to me that the IBSI could have them patrolling the night skies.

Everything that happened next was a blur of panic and confusion. Even though we’d both heard the screeching at the same time, Orlando had spotted it later than I had—being forced to keep his concentration on Maura. But now that he stole a glance at the monster, he cursed louder than I had.

I wasn’t sure what he tried to do next as he began moving the remote’s dials frantically. Pull Maura back toward us? Urge her onward, crossing the final stretch before the lake? I would never find out. The mutant was too quick. With supernatural speed it slammed into Maura, deftly avoiding the blades, and scooped her up in its talons. Letting go of the wheel, Maura shrieked and flailed, but there was nothing she could do. There was nothing any of us could do as the mutant beat its wings ferociously, turning in the sky, and launched toward the opposite direction—back toward the densely populated IBSI area.

Orlando couldn’t send the blade wheel after the creature in case he ended up injuring Maura. And even if he only managed to damage the mutant with the knives, he still risked Maura’s demise—if the thing dropped her from this height, I doubted she had any chance of surviving.

The two of us gaped as the mutant soared off with the girl. But then Orlando snapped out of his stupor. He called the wheel back to us—it was ten times faster now that it no longer carried Maura’s weight—and grabbed it as it came flying through the window. Then, without a backward glance, he darted out of the bathroom and into the corridor. I sprinted after him as he raced to the staircase and we both rushed down the stairs. It was a small mercy that no Bloodless slowed our journey to the ground level. We leapt the last of the stairs leading to the lobby and dashed to the exit. Orlando, in his panic and blind desperation, barely even looked around the street to check that it was empty before lurching out. I could only be a little more cautious in my attempt to keep up with him—I donned my gas-mask helmet before hurtling onto the sidewalk.

Orlando’s eyes were on the sky. We could still see the mutant in the distance.

“Where do you think it could be taking her?” I gasped. It looked like it was heading toward… the crematorium.

Orlando did not answer. He was in too much of a daze. His focus remained fixed on the sky as we roamed through the streets, getting dangerously closer to the hubbub of hunter activity.
Crap
. I could hardly ask Orlando to slow down and think when his sister was in such mortal danger. But heck, this wasn’t a good idea. If we got in trouble too, there would be no chance of helping her. Besides, if the mutant had wanted to kill Maura, eat or rip into her, surely it would’ve just done that already in the sky? It seemed to be taking her somewhere, which indicated that it meant to keep her alive, at least for the time being.

As much as it killed me to do it, I reached out and grabbed Orlando’s arm. “Wait,” I gasped, struggling to pull him to a stop. “Wait,” I repeated. “We need to think this through. Just running ahead blindly isn’t going to help get your sister back!”

He shoved me aside, ignoring my words as if I had not spoken, and continued in his race. And again, I had no choice but to follow him.

He only slowed down as we reached the end of the road because he was forced to. We found ourselves face to face with a group of men turning a corner—a gang of criminals with shaven heads, tattered clothes and weapons. Lots of weapons. Knives and guns stuck out from their belts and protruded beneath their garments. I could only assume, on hearing the commotion—Maura’s screaming and then Orlando’s and my yelling—they had come running.

I thanked God that I’d had the sense to put my gas mask on before venturing out here. At least they couldn’t recognize me instantly.

Orlando, on the other hand, was not wearing his, but he wasn’t a wanted person around here.

Orlando moved to dodge them, slip by the sidewalk on the opposite side of the road, but they quickly hurried toward him. They pulled out guns and pointed them at Orlando, forcing him to a stop, while I found myself backing away from four intimidating men moving toward me. At the lead was Paul Stokes. I could make out his features more clearly now that he was so close. He was a muscled man with cropped hair—like everyone in this place seemed to have, be they men or women—and a wide scar that stretched from his right eye down to his jawline.

Since I was dressed pretty bulkily—wearing not only my helmet but also my waterproof overalls—and since my long hair was tucked away, it was possible that he couldn’t even tell my gender yet. And I had to keep it that way.

The mutant had flown out of sight by now, Maura’s screams fading into the distance. But all Orlando and I had to think about now was getting away from these men. Far away.

“Reveal yourself!” Paul demanded of me.

I looked anxiously toward Orlando. My instinct was to bolt right now, but I couldn’t just leave him. I was also torn as to how, exactly, I ought to defend myself. The easiest way would’ve been to make use of my fire powers, but that would be a dead giveaway. The IBSI knew about my powers by now—they had witnessed them enough back in their base. They had probably already described me to this gang.

They would instantly know who I was, and any onlookers who arrived at all the noise and disruption a battle would cause would also know.

Orlando’s finger twitched over the wheel’s remote. Fear gripped me for him. One wrong move, and they’d shoot him.

“Put the wheel down,” one of the men shouted at him, “along with every other weapon you’re carrying.”

Oh, God. Where are those damn Bloodless when you need them?
Some of those nasty creatures causing a distraction here would really be useful about now.

Orlando didn’t budge. He stared back at them defiantly, his jaw twitching. “Let me pass.” He spoke up in a voice that was surprisingly level. “I’m of no interest to you.”

The men glanced at me, me and my hidden face.

Paul cocked his gun and raised it to me. “Remove your mask,” he commanded me again. “I will not ask you a third time.”

In the split second that every one of the criminals looked at me, Orlando made his move. He dropped the wheel and pressed down hard on his controls. The rotor roared to life and went slashing toward the men.

Then came a gunshot. The men hadn’t been distracted by me long enough.

The blade wheel stopped spinning and crashed to the waterlogged ground. Orlando staggered back, dropping the remote.

I couldn’t stop myself from yelling out to him—which instantly gave away my gender.

I hadn’t seen exactly through this gloom where one of them had shot him, or which one exactly, but Orlando clutched his shoulder with one hand. He let out a deep groan, his face contorting in agony.

No. No!

Paul lurched for me while the other men crowded around Orlando.

There was no time for games anymore.

Pulling the lighter from my pocket, I sparked it and blazed a fire in my palms. Paul leapt back. The IBSI should have warned him of my powers, but he still looked alarmed.
Never met a fae before, huh?
I made the flames billow toward him, forcing him to dart backward to avoid being scorched to a crisp.

The men who’d been closing in on Orlando whirled around, their focus on me, Orlando momentarily forgotten.

Gripping my mask, I pulled it from my head and threw it to the ground, revealing my face. My loose hair flailed wildly in the breeze as I glowered at each of them.

My only objective right now was to distract them from Orlando. I was already foreseeing them ending him. Kicking him to the ground and lodging bullets into him until he released his final breath. These people saw no value in other people’s lives.

Except mine.

They did value mine.

They would not shoot at me now that they had seen who I was—I was sure of that. The IBSI didn’t want me dead yet, at least not until they had reclaimed and interrogated me. I knew that much from my previous experience of being their prisoner.

I was the key to these inmates’ freedom. They needed me alive.

“As my friend said,” I called to the men, “he is of no interest to you. I, however,
am
…” My fingers cradled my lighter as I narrowed my eyes on them. Dropping my voice to a menacing tone, I dared, “Come and get me.”