Siren's Call (A Rainshadow Novel) (21 page)

They broke through the last of the psi-generated hallucinations a moment later. Rafe drew Ella to a halt and released her hand. She took a wary breath, mentally braced for more grim visions. But no ghosts or demons rose up out of the darkness.

“We’re in,” Rafe said. “We should be safe from those bastards but we need to find some cover and we need to stay close to the fence. This is dino hunting territory at night.”

Ella looked around in wonder. The Preserve sang to her senses, just as the catacombs and Wonderland did. In spite of the close call on the road a short time ago, she was suddenly buzzed.

“This place is amazing,” she said. “Like Wonderland but in a different way. Everything here is alive. And hot.”

There was no need for a flashlight. It was midnight but
everywhere she looked the landscape was gently illuminated with psi. Each blade of grass emitted an eerie green light. Ferns glowed. The petals of flowers were iridescent. The forest was gently, darkly radiant.

The effect on her senses was exhilarating.

“The Aliens didn’t succeed in destroying Rainshadow with their experiments, but the place is still a hot zone as a result of all the paranormal forces they were fooling around with here,” Rafe said. “Come on, I see a waterfall. That’ll work.”

She looked across the meadow and saw radiant water spilling over a rocky outcropping and splashing heavily into a glowing pool of gem-dark water.

“Why are we interested in a waterfall at this particular moment?” she asked.

“There’s power locked in water. Think about it. You can run an engine or flood a town with the force of water. It gives off a hell of a lot of natural energy, especially when it’s crashing over a chunk of rock like that.”

“Got it. The energy released in the waterfall will mask our psi-tracks.”

“That’s the plan. Even if those Vortex guys don’t try to follow us, we’ve still got the critters to worry about.”

“Does it occur to you that all we ever do when we go out is run from bad guys?”

“One of these days we’ll do coffee. I swear it.”

“Promises, promises.”

The fierce music of the Alien bell shivered through the psi-laden atmosphere just as they reached the waterfall pool.

“The bastards did follow us,” Rafe said. “They must be crazy.”

“Or desperate. They seem to want you very, very badly.”

“We’re in luck, there’s a cavern behind the waterfall. Hold tight. The rocks will be slippery.”

He helped her up onto a wet, rocky ledge.

“Hold your breath,” he said.

She obeyed. He drew her through the rushing waters. In an instant she was drenched. So was Lorelei, who evidently considered the waterfall trip grand entertainment. The water was warm and sparkling with energy.

Once they were on the other side, Lorelei gave herself a shake and chortled exuberantly.

Ella pushed her wet hair behind her ears and let the wild energy of the water flash across her senses.

“Okay,” she said. “That was different. Maybe when we get home to Crystal City Lorelei and I will start hanging out at the local car wash on slow nights.”

“Are you still cancelling out the bell vibe?” Rafe asked.

“No. That’s the effect of the water that’s distorting the wavelengths now, not me. Or maybe the bell just doesn’t work as well inside the fence.”

The forces in the muffled music were still strong but their summoning power had lessened considerably.

Rafe moved to the edge of the roaring water and looked out at the meadow.

“Looks like two of them made it through the fence,” he said. “The guy with the bell and one member of the team. Perfect.”

Ella frowned. “I beg your pardon?”

“Evens the odds. Two of us, two of them. Plus we’ve got Lorelei.”

Hearing her name, Lorelei chortled agreement.

“You’re going to try to grab one of them?” Ella asked, dismayed.

“That’s the plan.”

“Rafe, I hate to point this out but they’ve still got that damned bell.”

“You take care of the bell,” he said. “I’ll deal with the two Vortex guys.”

“How, exactly, do you propose that we take out two mobsters who are armed with Alien tech? Your fancy little knockout gun won’t work in this environment.”

“Distraction is the key in a situation like this.”

She was about to ask several more questions when she heard the faint, eerie music. Not the summoning wavelengths of the bell this time—a gentle lullaby. Lorelei suddenly went still and sleeked out, all four eyes gazing intently through the waterfall as though she could see something on the other side.

“Damn,” Rafe said. “Did you hear that?”

A shiver swept through Ella. “Yes.”

“The bell. It drew one of the dinos.”

“Maybe. Or maybe four humans running around inside the fence were enough to catch the attention of one of the critters.”

“You know,” Rafe said, sounding thoughtful. “This could be just the distraction I need.”

Ella listened intently to the sweet harmony. The waterfall muffled some of the energy of the monster’s music,
just as it did the music of the bell, but the very fact that the lullaby was coming through so clearly was an indication of raw power.

“It’s strong, Rafe. Whatever is coming this way is very big and very dangerous.”

“Can you handle it?”

She raised her senses a little, feeling her way into the music. The process was complicated because of the water energy.

“I can probably deflect its attention from us if necessary. But it’s not hunting us. I’m guessing it can’t detect us because of the waterfall. We just got caught in the net that it’s using to fish for the Vortex guys.”

“I might be able to work with that.”

She looked past Rafe’s shoulder and saw two men at the far edge of the glowing meadow. They appeared to be entirely unaware of their plight. Both wore headphones. One held a familiar-looking, vase-shaped artifact in his hands.

“I don’t think they know they’re being hunted,” she said. “Not yet at any rate.”

“I’ll bet the headphones are interfering. The dino is aware of them but they can’t hear it.”

“Either that or they simply don’t recognize the music for what it is. They’re going to be easy prey for the creature when it gets here. Rafe, we can’t just stand by and let those two get eaten. I mean, they’re bad guys, but the thought of watching two humans torn limb from limb by a monster—”

“Don’t worry. I don’t want to see them get eaten, either.
If that happens, I won’t be able to get my answers from them.”

She was about to ask him how he planned to save the pair but she was interrupted by a thundering roar. The rocks on which they were standing shuddered.

Lorelei hissed.

“It’s here,” Rafe said.

The great beast stalked into the radiant meadow. Ella caught her breath. The thing was twice as big as the one she had sent fleeing in Wonderland. The head was reptilian. The eyes glowed yellow. The wide mouth was filled with multiple rows of huge teeth. The creature moved on four of its six legs. The two front limbs were armlike appendages tipped with claws that were probably used to rip apart the belly of its prey.

The creature seemed to lumber forward but it crossed the meadow with unnerving speed. Its silvery scales sparked in the ambient psi-light, but in the lush, green environment of the Preserve they did not provide the camouflage that they did in Wonderland. Engineered for a very different ecosystem, the beast was plainly visible in the night light.

Not that it needed to hide, Ella thought. This was a top-of-the-line predator.

The monster’s hunting cry must have finally pierced the headphones. The Vortex men ripped off the gear and whirled to confront the dinosaur. The one holding the bell dropped it and instinctively yanked out his mag-rez.

“No,” the second one pleaded. “You’re crazy. Run for it.”

But the warning came too late or, perhaps in his panic,
the first man simply didn’t hear it. He rezzed the pistol, which promptly exploded in a small fireball.

The shooter screamed. The burning weapon fell to the ground.

The second man tried to flee in the direction of the psi-fence but he froze. The first man went abruptly motionless, too. Ella knew that the creature’s music had transfixed them. They could see their doom bearing down on them but they were helpless to run.

“Are you sure you can handle this thing?” Rafe asked. “Because if you’re not, we’re staying here, behind the waterfall.”

“Those two men—”

“Shouldn’t have followed us.”

She listened to the monster’s music. It was no longer a soft, sweet psychic lullaby. The wavelengths of a violent hunting song crashed and roared in the night, rolling across the spectrum, audible to both the normal and the paranormal senses. It was the dark music of a primal hunger; a deep, unending, desperate hunger that could only be satisfied with blood.

But it was still music, Ella thought. And she was a Siren.

“I can handle the dinosaur,” she said.

She moved around Rafe and emerged at the edge of the waterfall. Bracing one hand on the wet rock wall to steady herself, she raised her talent.

Lorelei dug in her little claws and growled softly. She clearly did not approve of taking on a dinosaur but she was sticking with her partner.

Rafe gripped Ella’s arm, ready to pull her back to the relative safety of the waterfall if necessary.

Ella focused on the hellish wavelengths of the killing music and began to sing.

She wove her harmonies into the thundering waves, seeking to disturb and destabilize the powerful, primitive forces generated by the monster.

Her goal was to send it fleeing in confusion when it lost its connection to its prey. She was working on the theory that disrupting the vibe would bewilder the predator. It was a theory that had worked well in Wonderland.

But this wasn’t Wonderland; this was a different environment, and the creature she was trying to repel was not only more powerful physically than the first one she had encountered; its paranormal hunting senses were stronger, as well.

For a moment it seemed that it would succumb to the confusing feedback it was receiving. It stopped and lashed its spiked tale from side to side in what looked like the dinosaur equivalent of frustration and rage.

Ella increased the power of her song, sending the distorting energy in a relentless tide. The monster roared its fury and then went still. For an instant it looked like it would turn away and go in search of other prey.

Instead, it seemed to get a new, if uncertain, fix on the Vortex agents. It started to advance again, more tentatively this time. It lowered its massive head, its yellow eyes brightening with a merciless fire.

“I think it has a visual on its quarry,” Rafe said. “It’s
using eyesight to override whatever its paranormal senses are telling it.”

“It’s still generating enough energy to keep those two men pinned down.” Ella pushed her talent higher. “I need to go for what Mom calls the money notes.”

“Money notes?”

“Never mind. The thing is—just so you know—I’ve never done this before.”

“Meaning?”

“You might need a Plan B.”

“You’re my Plan B. Sing.”

She sang, going farther out on the spectrum, weaving the music of the dark and the light into chilling, spectral harmonies. She hurled the terrible waves at the monster.

She sensed she was reaching her own limits. Like a runner pushing her body to the edge, she was burning psi at an enormous rate. She was strong but she was dealing with a creature that had evolved an ability to trap its prey in a paranormal web fashioned of strands of music.

The world around her began to waver. She was getting light-headed. She could not hold out much longer.

Lorelei huddled close and muttered encouragingly into her ear. Rafe’s hand tightened on her arm. She was not alone, she thought. She could do this.

It seemed to her that she was suddenly drawing energy from Rafe and Lorelei and the forces of the paranormal landscape around her. The crashing, churning water, the mysterious darkness of the pool, even the forces of the night-bound atmosphere rushed through her. She created music of shattering power.

She sensed the exact instant when the creature’s life-force began to fail. It came to a shambling halt, swaying on its great clawed feet. It lifted its massive head to the night sky and howled, a strangely mournful cry that carried the irreversible wavelengths of death.

Uncomprehending of what was happening, it sank slowly to the ground and toppled onto its side. The rocks beneath Ella’s feet trembled again.

The energy in the monster’s strange eyes dimmed. Dark blood ran from its gaping mouth. The link between Ella and the monster snapped.

The shock washed over her in a heavy tide. She would have crumpled to her knees if Rafe hadn’t steadied her. Lorelei mumbled anxiously in her ear.