Death Wish (32 page)

“Where do we even begin?” Brogan sounded reluctant. “Should we all go in? It feels bad in there. Scary bad.”

“It does,” Arys agreed. “It feels like they’re waiting for us.”

“They?” Jez echoed.

“The spirits. They know we’re not all human. They’re intrigued.” Arys was looking a little intrigued himself. Perhaps too intrigued.

“If we all go in, it could seem too aggressive,” I spoke up. “I want this to be as peaceful as possible. There are two people in there I care about. I’m not looking for a fight.”

Arys met my gaze with a spark of excitement in his blue eyes. “Someone should wait outside. It would be wise to leave two people out here. If we run into trouble in there, having backup would be nice.”

“Volunteers?” I asked.

“I’d be happy to wait out here.” Jez raised a hand. “This place scares the ever loving crap out of me.”

“Ditto. I’ll stay here, too.” Quiet and apprehensive, Brogan volunteered with a small wave.

I left my car keys with Jez but kept my phone with me. I stared at the Dragon Claw, unsure whether bringing it would be in my best interest. In the end, I left it with Jez. Having that kind of weaponry on me wouldn’t help my attempt to come in peace. The FPA was made up mostly of humans. Any supernatural help they may have inside wouldn’t be more than the three of us could handle… I hoped.

“Aw hell, let’s get this over with.”

“Call or text me if you need us,” Jez called after us as we left the car. “If you’re not out in an hour, we’re coming in after you.”

“If I’m not out in an hour, call Shya.” I wasn’t sure he’d be much help, but it was all I could think of.

Arys and Shaz were on either side of me as we approached an opening in the fence. The tiny hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and despite the leather jacket I wore to hide the dragon on my wrist, I broke out everywhere in goosebumps. Something horrifying dwelled in this place.

The closer we drew to the hospital, the thicker the negative energy became. I shielded hard against it, but it slapped against my shields, seeking a way in. Shaz shivered slightly in the warm night air, but Arys seemed entirely unaffected.

We crossed the expanse of lawn, and I searched the upper windows for the beings I felt watching us. I saw nothing.

We reached a small side door. It was locked, but Arys had no trouble getting in. He went first, and I followed with quickly growing trepidation. My instinct screamed at me to turn back. Only the steadily humming cross kept me going.

“Feel that?” Arys’s voice echoed inside. “The energy in this place is wild. The FPA probably has no idea how massive it is.”

I paused to take in our surroundings. My eyes easily adjusted to the dark. I still would have given just about anything for a light. We stood in a long, white hall. It was littered with broken boards, fallen beams and glass. Graffiti marred the walls, but it was messy and hard to make out.

“It’s insanely cold in here,” Shaz said in a loud whisper. “It feels like we’re being watched.”

“It feels like something is trying to shove its way inside me.” With gritted teeth, I pushed back against the unwelcome spirit. It was a human spirit and no match for me.

“They’re attracted to us,” Arys mused, “because we are so in tune to them. They can feel it.” His vampire energy was lively and hot. He was vibing off the building and its long deceased occupants.

“Are you enjoying this?” Shaz muttered in disdain, picking his way along behind me through the debris. “Good Lord, this place is a health hazard.”

“I am actually.” The low chuckle that echoed around us was creepy, even for Arys. “Don’t worry, pup. I imagine the FPA have had the asbestos cleaned up. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be making this their Edmonton home base.”

“That’s reassuring.”

We reached the end of the hall where the elevator was. In a sketchy building with no power, it wasn’t a viable option. I glanced around, looking for the stairs. As I passed the elevator, the doors slid open.

I shrieked and jumped straight into Shaz who swore. Arys’s laughter quickly turned my fear into anger.

“If you can’t stop being creepy, then stay down here while we go up,” I snapped at the smirking vampire. “The fact that you’re enjoying this place is really making my skin crawl.”

Arys sobered, his smile fading. “I’m a vampire, Alexa. Are you not used to it by now? This place reeks of death and power. I feel at one with a place like this. It’s… comfortable.”

A stray beam of light made its way through a broken window to slant across Arys’s face. His pupils were huge, drowning out the color in his eyes. He was right at home here while I was ready to run screaming back the way I’d come like a soon-to-be victim in a horror movie.

I felt the shadows all around me, slinking about in the darkest corners and crevices. The energy here did not entice me. It terrified me. I wanted nothing to do with it.

The dark and the light, as twin flames, this was where we differed. It was unsettling to see the absolute darkness in Arys’s eyes, and I saw it clearly. The way I felt in the forest, being one with the earth and all it encompassed, that’s what Arys felt in a place like this. The realization was harsh and a little sad.

“This is starting to feel way too much like a scary movie,” Shaz laughed, a high nervous unnatural sound. “Are you sure the FPA has a base in here?”

I clutched the cross necklace tightly between my fingers. Focusing hard on the pendant, I searched its energy for its link to Kale. It was hard to ignore the pressing negative entity outside my realm of focus. The spell Brogan created continued to hum, steady and stronger now that we were inside.

“Yes. They are here. And, I wouldn’t doubt that they already know we are, too.”

We pushed on, moving as fast as we could in the pitch-black stairwell with rusty barbed wire wound around the handrail. As good as my vision was in the dark, it wasn’t as good as Arys’s. We reached the second floor and found what appeared to have been a laboratory of some kind. Fewer windows were boarded up here. Right away, I saw the old bloodstains on the floor.

I backed out of the lab, toward the stairs. “Higher,” I whispered. “This isn’t the floor.”

Something horrible had taken place in that lab, something that promised to reveal itself if we didn’t leave. My heart pounded in my ears. I was beyond scared. An unseen threatening force far outweighed a physical threat like a vampire group beating. I don’t do ghosts, and I sure as hell don’t do pissed off ghosts with a serious need for vengeance.

Shaz stuck close to me as we made our way up. He was oozing fear as well. Arys must have been drowning in it. Fear was a lovely intoxicant. Unfortunately, not for the one feeling it.

We bypassed the next few floors, stopping when we reached the sixth. We were much closer now, though we still saw no sign of habitation by anything alive. Entering the hall of the sixth floor, I gasped when I felt a tug on my hair.

“Please tell me one of you just grabbed my hair.”

“Nope,” Shaz’s response was accompanied by Arys’s amused, “Sorry, love. Not me.”

“Don’t touch me,” I hissed at the spirit that lingered too close for comfort. It darted in close to grab my hair again before fleeing. I proceeded to curse up a storm that left Arys chuckling like an immature teenage boy. “This isn’t funny, dammit!”

The sixth floor housed several rooms, each of them containing beds with restraints. My stomach shriveled as I passed the rooms, glancing into each one with fear of what I would see. I knew the government was getting their hands dirty in places where they didn’t belong, but this was just ridiculous. The unrest here was violently disturbing.

I paused in the middle of the hall, listening carefully. It was faint, but I could just barely make out the high frequency squeal given off by electricity.

“They’re upstairs. The top floor. They have power up there.”

I was ready to stop stumbling around in the dark. The debris was potentially deadly. Even with keen eyesight, it was impossible to see every fallen board, nail or shard of glass.

A blood-curdling scream rang out. It was followed by the slamming of a door at the far end of the hall. My heart thundered so hard in my ears that I thought for sure it would burst. Shaz moved in close to me, reaching to grasp my hand. His palm was clammy and cold. Panic flowed openly from him.

Arys was already heading down the hall toward the sounds. Shaz and I exchanged a glance before following him slowly. I was keenly aware that we were also being followed. A look back revealed nothing, but I felt them there, creeping along behind us.

“I can’t understand why anyone would willingly walk into this place.” Shaz gripped my hand so hard it hurt. The bones in my fingers began to grind together, and I winced.

With my free hand, I pulled my phone out to check the time. We’d only been in there for ten minutes. It felt like forever. I couldn’t wait to get out. I noted that, though there was no clear reason for it, the signal was almost dead in here. Fantastic.

Arys stopped at the end of the hall, peering through the window of the closed door. He didn’t hesitate before grabbing the knob and turning. I felt the sudden urge to shout at him to stop. It was too late.

I stopped dead in my tracks. A grey mist burst from the room to cover Arys. The mist pulled apart into separate shapes. Several figures circled him, reaching out with wispy tendrils of energy to touch him.

“Are you seeing this?” I whispered to Shaz, scared even to breathe for fear of attracting the unwelcome attention of those things down the hall.

“Oh, yeah.”

Arys stared into the room before turning to look at us. His eyes were solid black. The heavy energy was really getting to him. He was vibing off it and clearly enjoying it.

“You’re not going to believe what’s in this room.” Without another word, he strode inside the room with the ghostly figures trailing after him.

Continuing on down the hall couldn’t possibly be a good idea, but I did it anyway. Shaz tugged on my hand as if trying to stop me. I could feel his wolf’s unease. The wolf didn’t understand ghosts nor did it want to.

Another scream rang out. It turned my legs to jelly. Each step that brought me closer to the room was harder to take. I forced myself to turn the corner and peek inside. I felt the blood rush from my face. Vertigo hit me and I lost my balance. I would have hit the nasty, contaminated floor if it weren’t for Shaz.

Arys stood in the doorway watching the ghostly scene play out before him. A woman lay strapped to the bed. She was a spirit, re-enacting her horrific death. The ghosts dispersed from Arys to take their places and play their roles. One of them, a doctor, smiled at me before reaching for a phantom tool that no longer truly existed.

He approached the bed with his macabre little medical saw raised high. Nurses stood off to either side, watching intently. Their faces showed little expression. They felt nothing as they witnessed yet another murder. How many times had they watched something like this take place?

The air seemed to have been sucked from the room. I felt like I was suffocating as I watched the doctor turn on the rotating blade and lower it to the imprisoned woman’s forehead. I couldn’t look away, couldn’t do anything but listen as the blade sliced through her flesh and into the bone beneath.

She screamed, that same scream I’d heard twice already. The nurses moved in to hold her as she flailed, straining at her bonds. The doctor didn’t let up as blood spattered his hands and face. Only when the woman lay dead and still did he stop. Then the scenario restarted, and the entire thing began again.

I shook my head, my mouth open in a silent scream of my own. I couldn’t watch that again. Holding tight to Shaz’s arm, I dragged him with me away from the door. Arys turned to us with a strange sort of half smile tugging at his lips. The dark power in this building was affecting him in a bad way.

“Arys, we’ve got to get out of here. This place, it’s not good for someone with power like ours.” I tried to appeal to his sense of reason, but I could see that it was long gone.

He advanced on Shaz and me with a predatory gait. “There’s something very bad here. I know it’s dangerous, and yet, all I can think about is which one of you I want to bleed first.”

Oh, great. This was just what we needed.

I gathered my power, ready to use it on Arys if I had to. The act of tapping my power drew the attention of the spirits inside the room, and they all turned to gaze at me as if I were interrupting their gruesome scenario.

“Arys, we have to get upstairs. You need to keep it together. You don’t want to hurt us.”

My pleas fell on deaf ears. He was lost in the rush of the hospital’s influence. His voice was low and smooth, seductive. “I always want to hurt you, my wolf. I’ve just had many years to practice restraint.”

“This is not the time nor place to lose your mind,” I growled, my fingertips dancing with gold and blue energy. “I have business here. Enough of this horror movie shit.”

The last few words echoed in the silent hall. Where my fear ended, my fury began. I was ready to knock Arys on his ass if he couldn’t control what the place was doing to him. I was here only to make demands of the FPA, not to be harassed by dead people that I did not kill, and most certainly not to fend off Arys.