A Midsummer Night's Scream (The Dulcie O'Neil Series Book 7) (11 page)

SIX

“What the hell was that?” I asked Jax as soon as the rumbling died down. My heart was tightly lodged in my throat, but still pounding like an SOB. I was panting so hard, I was finding it hard to breathe.

“An earthquake?” he asked, but his lack of surprise or concern threw me. Furthermore, I didn’t see any fear or anxiety in his eyes, which I found odd.

“I don’t think so,” I said, studying him pointedly.

But he simply shrugged as if he didn’t have an answer for me and wasn’t concerned enough to try to find one. His reaction initially struck me as strange, but I was too nervous to focus on it, or him. Instead, I glanced to my left and then to my right in an attempt to take stock of the room. Nothing seemed to be damaged as far as I could tell.

As soon as I looked back at Jax, the floor beneath me started to heave back and forth, then up and down. This time, I was a little more convinced that we could have been experiencing an earthquake, since the rumbling seemed faintly familiar. Wally’s chair began to skip forward from the end of the hallway, and the pixie’s cage swung back and forth violently, knocking her from one side to the other. I worried that it might pop itself right off the hook, which was coming out of the ceiling.

“Get me the hell outta here!” she screamed in her helium voice, as she clung to the bars of her tiny prison and beat her wings frantically.

Meanwhile, the two weres in the holding cells located at the front of the hallway were also getting understandably freaked out.

“What the hell is that sound?” One of them yelled out, his tone revealing his panic.

“Earthquake!” the other one answered and due to my keen sense of smell, I could detect their increased perspiration. They both smelled earthier than usual.

“Let me out of this cage!” the pixie continued, but I couldn’t say my mind was on either the pixie or the weres. Instead, I was trying to figure out just what the hell was going on because I still wasn’t convinced we’d just experienced an earthquake.

There was no sign of Wally, Ernie, or Judah, which was probably a good thing. Hopefully, they’d found cover, or were somewhere safer than here.

“It sounds like the rumbling stopped,” I said as I faced Jax, who still looked completely unconcerned, bored even. Neither of us said anything else for the span of a few seconds as I stood stock still, testing the truth in my words. I looked down at the floor, studying it for a moment or two before I glanced back up at the walls, trying to detect if they were still moving. They didn’t appear to be.

I returned my attention to Jax, who remained very solemn. No sooner did my eyes meet his than the floor started to shake again, making a horrible grinding noise as it did so. Jax immediately grasped onto the iron bars to remain upright. As the floor swayed beneath us, going up and then down again, my knees buckled before my legs flew out from underneath me. The floor suddenly shoved me forward and I was hurled headlong into the wall, landing beside Jax’s cell. I had to brace myself for the impact with both arms against the wall to avoid breaking my neck or nose.

“Are you okay?” he called out, finally looking worried.

“I’m fine,” I said as I tried to stand up but it suddenly felt like someone was pulling me backwards into the room with a pair of invisible hands. I started to trip over my own feet again and had to right myself against the wall, trying to stand in place long enough to plan my way back to Jax.

Regaining my balance, however, was nearly impossible when the ground continued to rumble and buckle beneath me like a feral horse. I fell over again, this time, landing on my butt. I was so freaked out, I couldn’t register any pain and wasn’t even sure if I was hurt or not.

Immediately rolling over, I got onto my hands and knees, assuming my chances for getting hurt decreased the closer to the ground I was. I inched forward, heading for Jax’s cell. My only thought was to get us both to safety.

When I reached his cell, I tried to right myself again, but the floor kept swaying and rolling to such an extent, it made it impossible to stand up.

“Look to your right!” Jax yelled out as I glanced over my shoulder, only to see Wally’s chair flying past me, one of its legs narrowly missing my head. It crashed into the wall at the far end of the room.

Dulcie, you have to take cover!
I told myself.

The only problem was that there weren’t any tables under which I could shelter myself, and the doorway to the hall was a long way off, which meant I wouldn’t be able to secure myself inside the door frame.

“Just grab hold of the bars,” Jax interjected, his voice much louder than the grumbling, angry quake. “Nothing in the room can hurt you because it’s all fastened down.”

“You mean aside from that chair that nearly knocked me out?” I ground out while struggling beside the wall. The floor was rolling back and forth, but also jerking from side-to-side, and out from underneath me. It was impossible to walk, almost impossible even to stand up.

“Yes, aside from that,” Jax answered. His smile seemed too nonchalant, given what was going on. “The only other thing to worry about are the lights in the ceiling; but those seem to be still intact. Grab the bars and hold on tight; you’re about to have the ride of your life!”

Considering his was the only option I had, I leapt forward and wrapped my fingers around the bars in front of me. Just then the ground buckled beneath me and I felt myself drop. I tightened my grip around the bars and gradually lifted myself back up. Barely a half second later, the ground heaved upward again, and I worried my head would ram into the ceiling. My stomach climbed up into my throat and dropped again just as fast, making me feel sick. The vertigo reminded me of how it feels when you drive up and down a twisting, mountainous road at too high a speed.

“Woo hoo!” Jax yelled with a laugh that seemed way too excited, given the circumstances.

“What is wrong with you?” I screamed at him.

“The Gods must be pissed that I’m locked up!” he yelled back with an outstretched smile, his voice barely audible over the din in the room.

I couldn’t respond because it felt like the floor was ready to give out beneath me. Gripping the bars of Jax’s cell as tightly as I could, I hoisted myself upright again. I tried to catch my breath and tried even harder to stay standing, despite the ground breaking up and bucking beneath me.

“I got you now,” he said. “Just don’t let go,” Jax said as he covered my hands with his and pushed his weight against them, obviously trying to keep me secured in place.

I didn’t take a whole lot of relief from his comment though. If the seesawing activity of the ground got any worse, there was no way I could remain steady. And I doubted that Jax had a good enough grip on me to make him any more successful.

“Put your feet on the bars like I’m doing,” he said. Glancing down, I noticed he was keeping the soles of his feet on the side of the bars. It looked like he was climbing on them like some sort of tree-dwelling animal. “You’ll have to support the weight of your body with your arms,” he explained.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be able to manage that,” I admitted. My upper body strength was definitely inferior to my lower.

“You have no other choice,” he answered calmly, narrowing his eyes on me in a serious expression. “The bars are the only things in the room that aren’t moving.”

On that point, it seemed he was correct. I checked out the floor again, and even though it didn’t seem like the rumbling had gained any momentum, the ground continued to rise and fall beneath us as if we were on the sea, at the mercy of the waves. The incessant bobbing motion made it nearly impossible for my feet to gain any purchase on the bars, but I continued to try.

“This is no earthquake!” I shouted, shaking my head as I faced Jax again. He just looked at me vacantly, not bothering to respond. But, really, he didn’t have to say anything because I was already convinced we were dealing with something else. As a native Californian, I’d had my share of earthquakes, and knew what to expect—usually a sudden jolt, followed by violent shaking that lasted for several long seconds.

But this shaking was very different. It was a rolling vibration that pulsed and throbbed through the ground beneath us. And it had been going on now for a few minutes, not seconds. It almost felt like something huge was beneath the floor, trying to escape, and causing the floor to arch up and drop back down again. Almost like a plow tilling the earth, but upside down.

“Dulcie! What’s happening?”

Hearing Sam’s panicked voice, I glanced over my shoulder only to find her staring at me, open-mouthed. She stood in the doorway of the jail cell and she wasn’t grasping onto anything. She was also standing up straight, and it appeared as though the ground beneath her wasn’t rumbling or shaking. But how was that possible when it felt like Jax and I were adrift on an angry ocean?

She took a couple of steps closer until I yelled at her. “Stay where you are!” I warned her. “Don’t come any closer!”

As soon as the words left my mouth, my right foot slid off the bar. Then both of my feet landed on the floor again. As if reacting, the ground heaved upward and dropped down again, making me nearly knee myself in the chin before ramming my butt into the ground. Without even realizing what I was doing, I released the bars and plummeted to the floor.

“Get up and wrap your hands around the bars again!” Jax yelled at me. “You have to keep yourself off the floor!”

I nodded even though it was a Herculean effort to pick myself up and attempt to grip the bars again. Once I was able to right myself, I lurched forward, narrowly missing the bars and landed, face first on the ground, which surged up to meet me. Luckily I braced myself with the palms of my hands so my face didn’t crash into the cement.

“Get up!” Jax yelled.

I rolled onto my butt and then pushed myself up, all the while feeling like I was on a tiny boat in a rough ocean.

“Give me your hand!” Jax ordered as he released one of the bars and then stretched his arm through the opening between it and the bar next to it. I hoisted myself forward and gripped his hand as hard as I could, even as the floor completely dropped at least a foot or so underneath me.

But Jax’s hold on my hand was sure and strong and with one healthy tug, he pulled me right up to him.

“Grab the bars!” he said as I wrapped my hands around them, straining to stay upright, and trying desperately to control my flailing legs. I made several attempts to get my feet up and onto the sides of the bars, but my arms by then were physically exhausted.

“I can’t hold on,” I said, sounding defeated. “My arms are too tired.”

“I will help you,” he answered with a quick nod as his eyes bored into mine. “Your only job is not to let go.”

“I can try,” I said but there was no way I could continue holding on like he’d instructed me. Instead, I wrapped my legs around the bars as tightly as possible. Jax also helped ensure I wouldn’t fall off the bars by tightening his grip on my hands until his knuckles turned white.

“Dulcie, hold on!” Sam yelled out and when I turned to face her, I noticed she’d taken a few steps back up the hallway, apparently heeding my warning and avoiding getting into the thick of it, thank God.

“I heard something that sounded like an explosion! What’s going on?” Elsie called out as she appeared beside Sam. She visibly held herself back from entering the room once she saw me hanging from the cell bars while the ground continued to buckle and roll beneath me. She wore the same expression of horror that decorated Sam’s face.

“Something’s beneath us! It’s moving the ground up and down,” I cried, figuring that was the only explanation that made any sense. And from what I could tell, whatever that something was, it was centered directly underneath Jax’s cell, which meant Jax was directly in the line of fire.

I have to get him out,
I thought to myself, even as I realized how futile my words were.

Futile because the only key to open the cell was located on a chain, which was currently wrapped around Wally’s waist. And who the hell knew where Wally was? I would have attempted to open the cell with my magic, but the bars were reinforced with magical wards to make sure the only way to open them was with the key.

At the sound of the floor heaving beneath us, I glanced down, only to find it rippling and buckling, the concrete breaking apart as if it were as frail as pastry crust.

“Dulcie, get away from his cell!” Sam called back, her voice cracking. “Whatever is under the ground is directly beneath you both!”

“I can’t leave him here by himself, Sam,” I countered, audibly conveying my frustration. Not waiting for Sam’s response, I addressed Elsie instead. “Elsie, get Wally! Tell him we need the key to the cell so we can get Jax out!” Elsie nodded at me before turning on her toes and running back up the hallway. I added, “And get back as quickly as you can!”

I prayed and hoped she’d find Wally immediately because I had no idea how much time we had before whatever lay beneath us would make itself known. And that was one moment I really didn’t look forward to. Something that could burrow up through the ground and cause the floor to buckle and shake like it had only meant it was gargantuan in size …

“Who knows how long it’ll take Elsie to find Wally?” Sam asked. The sound of dread in her voice was more pronounced when she added, “It may take more time than you have!”