Morio swept him up and shook the crap out him. “One. More. Comment. To. My. Wife. Just one more…” He set the bone golem down again, and this time, Rodney kept his eyes—or what passed for them—to himself.

Camille snorted as Rodney cracked his neck back into place. “That something could be anything. Did you see anything, or just sense it?”

“Just sensed it.” Rodney muttered something under his breath but quickly stopped when Morio leaned down to stare at him. “What? I’m not saying nuthin’ . . .”

“Precisely. Now grow. We need you full size. There have been too many dangers tonight. We need more firepower and we don’t have time to summon anyone else. Chances are we’ll never make it in again after they discover the breach in their security. But remember: One misstep and—”

“I’m bone dust. Bag o’ bones. Graveyard fodder. Sparkly like a pony. I know, I know.” Rodney let out an exasperated sigh.

As we watched, he began to grow to full size. This was one ability none of us were comfortable with, but there was little we could do about it. So we made use of it whenever possible, or when we could stand to have the freak around.

As he stood there, gleaming ivory bones the size of a grown man, it struck me how odd our lives had become. We were steeped in death—all around us—from losing friends, to relying on perverted bone golems, to fighting zombies, to dealing with our own personal paths. I was a vampire—one of the undead. Delilah was pledged to one of the Harvestmen—a harbinger of death. And Camille was a Dark Moon Priestess and a practitioner of death magic. We’d all strayed down the dark alley so far that there was no going back. And that… that was okay.

“I guess then we head out?” I moved to the lead, stopping beside Rodney. “You come up front with me and Rozurial. And no funny stuff, no jokes, no butt pinches or boob grabs. Got it?”

“Color me a rainbow and poop sparkle turds. Yeah, I got it.”

“Then, Delilah and Tanne, you take second flank. Camille and Morio, third, and Smoky, watch our backs, dude.”

“Will do, Captain Menolly. Lead on.” The dragon saluted me, but there was a twinkle in his eye that told me he had no intention of trying to take over. In fact, all our lovers let us lead. They might offer suggestions and sweep in to save the day now and then, but they knew we three were at the foremost helm of this little war, and they gave us all the space and freedom we needed to make our decisions. And for that, I was ever grateful.

“Okay, then. Let’s get a move on, and let’s go rescue those prisoners.”

“I just hope one of them is Violet,” Tanne whispered behind me.

I turned to him. “I hope so, too,” I said. “I hope so, too.”

Chapter 14

As Rodney led us through the hall, it ran through my mind that if the golem could sense a dangerous energy, then whatever it was had to be strong. Rodney wasn’t the brightest bulb in the psychic socket, and he’d never been one to be sensitive in any other direction either.

The area we were in looked like it had been tunneled long after Underground Seattle had come to be, but it wasn’t new or fresh. I wondered who had originally built it, and why? Had it been Lowestar, or had the original architect been up to some other low-life project?

The walls were cool and slightly damp, and they were shored up by a dark brick façade. Whether it was dirt or stone beneath the wall, I didn’t know and it didn’t really matter. The floor was smooth, and I thought it might be concrete. Lights—electric and dim—ran the length of the corridor.

We hurried, making quick time. We’d been lucky since we killed off the guards back at the secret entrance, but who knew how long that luck would hold up?

As we rounded a corner, Rodney pointed to the passageway that unfolded in front of us. “There are your cells.”

Along the tunnel, on either side, were iron-barred cells. They were dank, and Camille and Delilah coughed. I deliberately inhaled, and the smell of feces and urine, of mold and decay, filled my lungs.

“Great Bastus… I’ve been here before.” Delilah quickly began to move forward, not touching the bars but looking through them. “I was here when I was in Gerald’s mind—when I saw the girl sitting in the cell. And—there she is!”

We hurried forward, but not before I noticed another woman in the cell next to hers. The woman looked up at me, and in the depths of the despair on her face, a hope blossomed. Hell yes, we had to get them all out.

I stared at the iron bars, willing them to break open. Of course, they didn’t. But Smoky moved to the front, with Morio beside him. They motioned the rest of us aside, and Morio took his demon shape. Smokey took hold of one bar, Morio took hold of the one next to it, and they pulled, their muscles straining against the heavy iron bars. I wanted to help, too, but the bars were unalloyed iron, pure and harmful to me. Even though I’d heal, it would be a nasty burn to my hands since my half-Fae nature still ran within my veins.

The bars groaned as they bent, resisting the call to open. And then, a moment later, a siren pierced the air.

“Fuck! Alarm!” I turned, readying myself for a fight.

“Enough with this.” Smoky closed his eyes and vanished. Within moments, he appeared on the inside of the cell. The woman looked up at him. “Is your name Violet?”

She nodded, speechless, and he broke the chain that tethered her to the wall, gathered her up, and vanished. Roz raced down to the cell next to hers and did the same, only he used one of his firebombs to blow the chain out of the wall. Since he had originally been Fae, he groaned when the iron shrapnel singed his arm. But ignoring the burn, he gathered up the woman in his arms and vanished.

That was all well and good, I thought, but we still had three prisoners, and now we were down two of our best fighters.

Delilah, Tanne, and Rodney took one side. I took the other, and Camille and Morio stood in the middle, preparing a spell. We had no clue what was going to answer the sound of those alarms, but no doubt, something would.

A moment later, we had our answer. Something swooped in on us. It wasn’t a daeflier—that much even I could tell. No, it was translucent and hard to see, except for the concentric circles rippling around it, like stones landing on water in a pond. Whatever it was made no noise, but the next moment, it soared up toward the ceiling and dove for Camille and Morio.

They raised their hands, joined together, and shouted, “Reflect!” and a thin shield of purple covered them, emanating out of their hands. Another second and the creature bounced off it, spun in the air, and came toward me.

I had no clue how to fight it, or whether its attack would even be physical. But that question was put to rest as it slammed into and through me. A rush of icy cold air curdled my veins, making it hard to move. I was fairly immune to the cold, so whatever this was must be damned chill because if it could affect me, I dreaded to think what it might do to the others.

It launched itself at me again, and this time, I tried to fight back—swiping at it as it came near, but my hand hit the rippling air and pain nearly knocked me senseless. I reeled back as it barreled through me again, and this time I could barely move; it felt like my body was frozen.

“What the fuck is this thing?”

Tanne ran to my side. “I think I know. I fought one of these in the Black Forest. I’m surprised to see it here!”

“W-w-what is it? H-h-how can we fight it?” I was stuttering, my lips barely able to form words. Every movement was a struggle, like I was sinking in quicksand or molasses.

At that moment, Smoky reappeared, along with Roz.

Tanne motioned to Roz. “A sichbarmon is attacking her! ‘Invisible ghost demon’ is the best translation I can give you. They are from the Netherworld and they use the power of cold to drain the life force from their enemies. We fight it with fire. The fiery explosives you have? Do you have more?”

“Will they work on a ghost?” Roz hunted through his pockets.

“If they are magical, they will.”

At that moment, the creature dove at me again and, once more, blasted a wave of snow and ice and bone-chilling cold through me. If I’d been alive, I’d now be a corpsesickle. I let out a croaking sound as Camille and Morio fired off a spell at the thing, but their magic bounced off.

The next moment, Roz shouted, “Close your eyes!” and I struggled to obey. I’d no sooner shut my eyes than a wave of warmth and heat spread over me, and a shockwave so loud I couldn’t hear a thing after that except for a nasty ringing in my ears.

But the paralysis began to lift and I was able to move a little. Tanne raced in, grabbing me and dragging me to the side, as the sichbarmon dove again. Roz tossed another bomb at it, and this time, the ripple in the air lit up in a brilliant flash, then vanished.

Tanne’s mouth moved and he said something but I couldn’t hear it. Then he turned to me. I watched his lips. “Are you all right?”

I nodded, slowly dragging myself up to my feet, using his shoulder to balance on. “I can’t hear. How long will this ringing last?”

Everybody stopped and turned to look at me. Great, I was the center of attention and so not for a helpful reason. Tanne turned me to face him and pointed to his lips. I nodded and watched as he mouthed, “It will wear off of you quickly, being vampire. But if you were human? Or Fae without the vampire? You’d be dead, as well as deaf.”

Smoky and Roz hurried to bring the other three prisoners out. I couldn’t make out any of the conversation, but Smoky grabbed two of them around the waist—a man and woman—and Roz took hold of the last woman, and they vanished again.

Delilah grabbed me by the arm and motioned to turn around. Torn, I resisted. We’d come this far—could we find out more? But then the realization of our current state hit me. We’d found Violet. We’d rescued the other four prisoners who were trapped there with her. I was running zero in the hearing category. And we were dreadfully undermanned for a mission of this sort. We’d managed to luck out with some nasty bruises and scars, but who knew what lay farther beyond in this complex. Reluctantly, I nodded, and we headed back the way we had come at a quick jog. The sooner we were out of here, the better.

By the time we reached the secret passage, I was relieved we’d turned around. I was also beginning to hear again. Lowestar would find out about this soon enough, and he’d probably bring an army with him. Morio, Camille, and Tanne’s magical signatures were probably all over the place, and no doubt they’d figure out who had rampaged through, killed the guards and hellhounds, and stolen their merchandise.

And tonight, I really didn’t want to find myself on the end of a pissed-off major daemon.

We made it out without incident, skirting the dead bodies. I stopped and picked up several of the bullwhips by the entrance to the secret passageway. They fascinated me and I thought it might be fun to have them around.

Morio confined Rodney to his coffin again and the bone golem went without so much as a peep.

“We don’t have far to go, but the longer we stay down here, the more nervous I get.” Camille glanced around. “I have the feeling something is looming and I don’t know what, so it’s making me antsy.”

We sped up, and by the time we reached the door with the alarm, Smoky and Roz were waiting on the other side.

“We figured that you would be on the move, so we decided to wait here for you rather than try to backtrack and find you. Come on—we’ve accomplished this mission and we better not hang around. Besides…” Smoky paused, then drew a long breath. “Trenyth called on the Whispering Mirror. News from the war front. Not good, he says. But he wouldn’t tell us till you get home and are there to hear.”

Great. Another thing to worry about. But I tried to focus on the positive. We’d rescued five people tonight who would otherwise have been sold into slavery. They couldn’t go back to their daily lives, though—too much chance Lowestar would track them down and wreak revenge, or try to silence them before they could give out any information.

In fact, the thought occurred to me that, once he realized they were gone, he couldn’t just go back to his SOP. We knew too much about his operation, and so he’d either have to hide it beneath something else, or ramp up some other aspect of it. Suddenly unsettled, I realized that our actions tonight would have far-reaching ramifications. And considering we didn’t have a clue as to how powerful he was, or what the extent of his reach was, I wondered just what the fuck can of worms we’d opened up now. But we’d had no choice. We couldn’t leave five prisoners there, set to be sold. We had to rescue them, regardless of the fallout.

We reached the cars and split up, hightailing it out of there as quickly as we could. All the way home, Delilah nervously watched the rearview mirror, making certain that nobody was following us. I called Camille, and Morio answered.

“Put me on speaker. I don’t want to wait till we get home and caught up with whatever Trenyth’s news is to tell you what I’ve been thinking about.”

“One sec… okay, go ahead. You’re on speaker.” Morio’s voice crackled with the static that speaker phones always picked up.

I spilled out what I’d been thinking about. “I think we may have just escalated whatever this thing with Lowestar is. We threw a nasty monkey wrench in the works, and who knows what he’ll do next?”

From Camille’s car, Smoky’s voice sounded. “If he’s truly trying to raise some ancient, crusty demigod, that might become his major focus. If he knows we’re on to his slavery operation, he might decide to bring in the big guns, so to speak.”