“Angel Tit’s on.” Wrassler coughed, the sound hoarse. “He’s trying to call out. Get help. Friends at the Marine Corps Support Facility on Opelousas Avenue. Water,” he said to Eli.
Eli gave him the rest of the water and set a new bottle down by his good right hand. With Beast’s hearing I could tell that Wrassler’s heart was beating far too fast. If we didn’t get him help, he’d die, and soon. But if we took him for help, others would likely die.
“Where are Sabina and Bethany?” I asked.
“Sabina’s off-site, at her lair in the graveyard,” Wrassler whispered, mumbling. Dying. He was dying. “Bethany . . . She was here,” he said, sounding dazed. “She’s hurt. She was . . . she was shouting about riding the dragon. The arcenciel. She was crying bloody tears.” Wrassler stopped to breathe again. Eli gave him more water. He drank it fast, some dribbling out of his mouth. “She was talking about them taking her magic. I saw her fall.”
“Taking her magic . . .” I didn’t know what that meant, not exactly, but I remembered the pain when Peregrinus had put the crystal on my chest. The feeling like I was dying before the hatchling had appeared and he’d turned his attention from me. Somewhere deep inside, it all came together. This was about the Gray Between, and the ability to fold time. This was about stealing and storing power for later use. Any vamp who had control over time and could steal the magical ability from other supernats, and who had access to stored witch power, on top of the power of magical icons, would be unstoppable.
Access to the White House. The Kremlin. Fort Knox. Whoever had all that power could do anything, anytime, anywhere. And no one could stop them.
“What do you want to do, Jane?” Eli asked.
I didn’t know what to do. This was more than “pull a stake and charge in fighting.” This was military tactics and strategies—hard to think through when you don’t know what the enemy wants. The enemy was still here, so he wanted something stored here. Sub-four. That was where it attacked Wrassler. My head felt like it was stuffed with wool. We had no coms, no security, no electricity. My breath sped up and the palms of my hands started to tingle with hyperventilation.
I said, “Peregrinus has all our security info, building plans, Reach’s thoughts and guesses about what’s on every level.” I banged my head on the wall once, the sound soft and hollow. “He’s had a week to play with it all. A week when the elevator’s been doing strange things and the electricity’s been wonky. Peregrinus probably even has the stuff I changed after I heard about Reach.”
“The brownouts and the electrical troubles,” Eli said. “Peregrinus caused them, searching for something?”
“I don’t think so. I honestly think that’s just the old electrical system showing its age. But the elevator, maybe. Peregrinus wants something stored on sub-four, which he can’t get to without help, unless he can override the system with Reach’s IT data. I think he’s been testing to see if he can get in remotely. And he can.
“There’s a safe on sub-four, probably filled with magical items. I should have gone snooping, no matter what Leo said.” Sweat trickled down my torso. Beast pressed a paw onto my mind, the same way that she might calm or reprimand a kit, her claws pricking. The discomfort cleared my head and the moment of panic passed. I pulled the magical fishhook out and thought about our attacker. “It makes sense that Peregrinus caused everything—the troubles started after he got Reach—but I can’t prove it.” I looked down at the wolf, who was watching me with the kind of patience canines show for the human in charge. I patted his head and rubbed his ears while talking to Eli. “I want you to take Wrassler and retreat. Get us some coms. Get us help. We need fighters. Shooters. We need Sabina and her weapons.”
“No, skinwalker, Enforcer, pest.” The words were whispered with the hissing ssss of a snake, and an electric shock zinged through me. I shifted the Judge, cradling the huge weapon in two hands again, scanning back and forth, trying to find the source—because it hadn’t come from one of us. “You need only me,” the voice said. “And that obscene charm you hold upon your person. Together we can ride the arcenciel.”
From her words I guessed the speaker. The more-than-half-crazy priestess. “Bethany?”
She appeared at my side with a tiny pop of air, moving vamp-fast. Her black skin blended into the dim light, her skirts swirling, stinking of her own blood, the cut on her neck from my house mostly healed. Her eyes glistened with an internal light that was way worse than spine-chilling. It looked like a tiny candle flame was lit inside her skull. There was blood around her mouth and I smelled both vamps and humans on her breath. Bethany had been drinking people down to heal herself. I stepped between Bethany and the guys.
“Leo is in great danger,” she said, her mouth too close to my ear. “The gift is in great danger. Grégoire is in danger. Katie is near unto true-dead. There is no one else to save them but you and me.”
She pointed to the charm I had hooked into my T-shirt. “With your charm you can immobilize Batildis. I can fight the Devil with my magic until you are free to do so. Then I can charm the dragon. That will allow the human fighters who await you to save the Master of the City. And together we can protect the reward I bestowed upon my Leo.”
“Yeah? Peregrinus is gonna give us the arcenciel?”
“No. She is solid. I will ride her. She will be mine.”
No way am I letting you be in charge of time, I thought. But, under the circumstances, that was a battle to fight another time. I pulled out the small charmed fishhook and stared at it. Then at Eli. “Get Wrassler to safety. Get us some help. I’m going with the crazy vamp lady, and hope she really knows that some of our humans are down there, near enough to help.” Beast, I thought. I need more of us to . . . I don’t know. Just more of us.
Instantly the bones of my arms and legs twisted and broke. I landed on my knees in the Gray Between, my back bowing so tight that my forehead met my knees with a bang. I saw stars, glittering white motes on a black background. Then my body snapped into an arch that threw back my head. I body-slammed the floor. All breath was squeezed out of my chest.
My eyes were open, however, and I could see Eli, watching, possibly with a look of concern on his face. Yeah. His mouth was turned down on one corner. Maybe. Just a little. If I’d had air in my lungs, I might have laughed.