Resistance (Dark Realm Series) (3 page)

BOOK: Resistance (Dark Realm Series)
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"No," Cam cried, snatching the
pistol from the Lieutenant. Driscoll blinked rapidly then gaped at the young
man, as if just remembering Cam was there.

"You shall be executed for
that," Driscoll choked out. "Return my gun at once."

"And allow you to shoot us? Not a
chance." Cam handed the pistol to me.

Holding the gun was excruciatingly
painful because of the wounds on my hands and arms, but better than trusting it
to anyone else.

"Wanker," Cam muttered.
Gripping my upper arm he pulled me to my feet. Despite the gaping wound to his
shoulder still oozing blood he seemed in surprisingly good shape.
Much better shape
than me
, I thought, glancing at the raw meat that used to be my arms.

"Come Amy," Driscoll ordered
eyeing the gun in my hand. "We should've been at our meeting fifteen
minutes ago."

"I don't take orders from you
anymore, Driscoll."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm removing you from
command of this operation for dereliction of duty."

"That's mutiny," Driscoll
cried.

"Mutiny is only on a ship,
moron." Bending over the decapitated body, I observed one of the ghoul's
hands still clenched in a fist. The fingers wouldn't budge. "Help
me," I said to Cam.

The two of us pried at the hand until
finally a snap, snap, snap signaled the breaking of the bones. The hand opened
to reveal a multi-faceted crystal the size of a pinecone; the interior of the
crystal glowed red, while outside was a bluish-grey.

"Why would the ghoul hold a crystal
to your chest and what was that glow?" I asked Cam.

He shook his head. "I don't know. I
only know it felt as if my intestines were being pulled out of my body through
my nostrils."

Reaching down I picked up the crystal and
at first it singed my fingers. With a hiss of pain, my hand pulled back automatically.
But then I noticed the red glow abating and, testing with the tip of my index
finger I found it had cooled enough so that I could pick it up. As I examined
it, the crystal continued to grow cooler.

"Do come on, Amy," Driscoll
said, twitching and seesawing from foot to foot. "And get rid of
him." He pointed at Cam.

Reflexively, I glanced at the young man
and noticed the wound in his shoulder no longer bled. Then the wound visibly
knit together before disappearing all together.

My arm swung up before I fixed the muzzle
of the pistol firmly against Cam's gut. "What are you?" I demanded

Cam's eyes widened. "I'm
h-h-human."

"I don't think so," I accused
with a nod toward his shoulder. "Humans don't heal that fast."

His right hand flew to his shoulder and
he explored it with tentative fingers. "I don't understand—"

"He must be a ghoul," Driscoll
said. "Give me the gun. I'll protect us from him."

"He's not a ghoul," I snapped,
no yellow glowing eyes. No pointy teeth. "What are you doing in this
alley?" I demanded.

"My father and I came to London from
the country." Cam tugged a hand through his hair.

"Who cares about that,"
Driscoll said, his voice quivering. "He still has your dagger, Amy. Shoot
him."

"And from the haystack you wandered
into this alley?" I spoke to Cam, ignoring Driscoll.

The young man's eyes locked with mine.
"My father and I were in the Resistance in Hampshire. We came here to find
the London section. My father was told we could get information from a merchant
called Fenwick about where they are. So we set up a meeting for tonight."

I had difficulty suppressing my instinct
to believe him, but I tried anyway, fearing my instinct might be overly
influenced by Cam's looks. He was almost beautiful in fact. Even though I was
only twenty-one, I knew the tug at my insides must be akin to something like
maternal feelings.

Agh. Terrible.

"What rank are you?" I asked
the question even though I knew it was useless. Anyone could lie about such a
ranking, particularly since I had heard the Hampshire section had been
decimated by the prince's forces.

"I'm a private." Cam glanced
down with embarrassment before his gaze returned to mine.

I believed him. No one would lie to
become a private.

"Where's your father?" I asked.

Cam pointed into the distance. "Out
at the front of the shop."

Helpful when the ghoul was around back.

The young man's eyes strayed from mine.
"What are you?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Your wounds are healing too."
Cam pointed to my forearms.

Glancing down, I saw he was right. The shredded
raw meat was gone and only pink lines remained where the claw marks had been.
"What the—"

Could it have been the crystal? That
seemed to be the only explanation I could come up with for the spontaneous
healing. Cam and I had both been touched by the glowing crystal. The rock in my
left hand was now all blue-grey and cold. My gun arm fell to my side.

"What is going on, Amy?"
Driscoll demanded. "Are you a ghoul, too?"

"Of course not you nutter." I
rolled my eyes. "We're all human."

"Well, whatever you are, come the
hell on." Driscoll gave a large huff and turned on his heel.

"Cam is coming with us," I
said.

The young man's eyebrows arched in
surprise and then I realized I'd used his name when he hadn't spoken it.

"Oh all right." Driscoll
motioned us to follow. "But hurry. If we don't make this meeting, the
general will have my hide. Of course you both will certainly be executed either
way."

"That gives us a lot of incentive to
accompany you." I laughed, my eyes meeting Cam's. He smirked in response.

Retrieving my coat, I put it on and then
pocketed the crystal. I followed Driscoll down the alley with Cam at my heels.
About ten meters down the alley we arrived at Fenwick's back door. Driscoll
attempted to enter and found it locked. He pounded three times and then paused.
No one answered.

"He probably left, thinking we
weren't coming," Driscoll groused.

"Oh, let me," I muttered taking
a skeleton key from my pocket. After inserting the key into the lock, I twisted
it and the lock gave way easily.

Tossing a grim smile over my shoulder, I
turned the knob and the door swung open. The backroom was crammed with
Fenwick's typical shop inventory—junk. Skirting by a chest piled high
with old newspapers, before inching by a collection of salt and pepper shakers
perched atop a column of boxes, I weaved my way through the room, followed by
Cam with Driscoll bringing up the rear.

At the doorway that allowed passage from
the back to the front of the shop, I swept aside the drape barrier and went in.
No sign of Fenwick. The shop seemed undisturbed, but a fire burned in the
hearth. A teacup with wisps of steam rising from its contents sat on the
counter.

"He's gone." Driscoll pursed
his lips and shot an angry glare in my direction.

"So it seems," I said, scanning
the room.

"The general will be furious."
Absently, Driscoll picked up a book from a stack on a table in the corner.

"Uhummm." I crept closer to the
counter.

"I'm not taking the fall for
this," Driscoll said.

Cam's brows rose as I edged by him.

"What—" Cam began.

I put my finger to my lips and he
quieted. With a sudden leap I came around the counter to peer behind it. I'm
not sure what I expected to see, but in fact I saw nothing, except the
nothing
seemed to shimmer with an odd veneer as if there really was something there
hidden within the nothing.

So stepping forward I reached into the
shimmering "nothing" and when my hand met fabric-covered flesh I
grasped a hold of it and pulled. A high-pitched squeal echoed in the room and
out of the nothing, the short, stocky Fenwick emerged dangling from the
waistcoat I was grasping. His eyes scrunched shut hiding what I knew would be
eyes with pink irises that turned red with ire. The demon's sharp nose and
pointed chin were in profile as he twisted away from me. As usual he wore the
white face make-up he'd previously told me was a remnant of his early life
training as a mime. I wasn't sure about the truth of that, but I really didn't
care much, either.

"Fenwick, you little shite," I
said, shaking the three foot tall demon before I set him on the counter.
"Open your eyes."

At my words, his eyes snapped open
revealing a pink frightened gaze. "Corporal Amy," he said with a
laugh that rang with tinny falsity. "I'm so happy to see you."

"Right," I scoffed. "Then
why were you hiding from us?"

"Oh, not from you, my friends,"
he assured me. "I was hiding from...I was hiding because...I wasn't sure
who was coming into my shop at this time of night."

"But you were expecting us," I
said. "And you must have heard us talking just now."

"Ummm," Fenwick hedged.

A thought occurred. "But you also
expected the ghoul," I accused. "You sold us to that foul creature.
That's why he was in the alley. He was waiting for us."

Hate warred with reason. Pointing the gun
at him, my hand shook. The Resistance relied on Fenwick for intel. The general
would be upset to lose him, but what did I care for that right now when I
quivered so close to losing my famous temper, and blowing the demon to
oblivion. The first shot might not do it but part of me relished the idea of
dismembering him and then torching his remains.

"You're dead, you little
traitor," I said. Fenwick obviously saw the murderous intent in my face.
I'd been told my blue eyes appeared almost black in times of rage. Perhaps that
was what he saw.

"No. No," Fenwick screamed
throwing up his hands in front of his face and cowering. "I would never
sell you. The ghoul was to have come and gone by the time you arrived."
Fenwick pointed at Cam. "I sold
him
to the ghoul."

"Wwwhat?" Cam sputtered.

Fenwick glanced up and shrugged. "A
demon's got to make a living."

"I don't believe you."
Fingering the trigger I waved the gun at him. "You sold me to the
ghoul." I did believe him but he didn't have to know that. Chambering a
round made him cower deeper into his shoulders.

"Wait," Fenwick cried. "I
have information to give you."

"For free?" I asked.

"For....free." The demon''s
mouth twisted and his tongue protruded on the last word as if it created a
nasty taste in his mouth.

Lowering the gun I said, "All right.
Speak quickly. What information do you have?"

The calculating wheels inside his mind
were clearly visible as he considered whether to hedge.

"Fenwick," I said in a warning
tone and raised the gun again.

"Pax," he screeched giving in.

"The portal to an off world
dimension opened again yesterday and a hand came through from the other
side."

"What?" Driscoll whined his
question. "Off world dimension? That old myth? There is no such
thing."

"The prince believes in the
myth," Fenwick hurried to respond. "He's been sending his agents
every day since the equinox to check the location of a portal that opened
almost thirty years ago. His astrologers claimed it was time that it opened
again."

"Where?" I asked.

"On the top walkway of Tower
Bridge."

"Ridiculous." Driscoll huffed.

"It's true," Fenwick insisted.

"Whether it's true or not, that
information is useless to us." I tightened my grip on the gun again and
its muzzle went from relaxed to menacing. "What else have you got?"

"Prince Leopold's wizard, Gethin,"
Fenwick cried, cowering again. "He has a factory in London where he is
manufacturing a weapon. A crystal within a crystal."

Thinking back to the red glow within the
bluish-grey crystal now in my pocket, I wondered if this was one such crystal.

"And what about these
crystals?" I asked.

"They have healing properties,"
the demon hurried to say.

"Why would Gethin create something
so altruistic? And how does that make them a weapon?" Driscoll asked with
more insight than he usually exhibited.

"Healing is not their primary
purpose, of course." Fenwick smirked

"What
is
their primary purpose?" Lord,
the extraction of this information was like pulling the eyes from a fairy gnat.

"I do not know," Fenwick
answered.

"I
will
shoot you." I waved the gun
threateningly.

"I don't know." The demon's red
lips quivered and a tear slipped down his white, painted cheek.

Lowering the gun, I asked, "Do you
know where the factory is?"

"I can show you on the map."
After leaping up, Fenwick scurried to a shelf and extracted a parchment. He
unrolled a map of the city and environs onto the counter.

BOOK: Resistance (Dark Realm Series)
12.68Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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