The Curse (Belador #3)(111)

Casper lifted his customized double-barrel shotgun and blasted the creature dead center. This thing must have thicker skin than the one they caught in the pasture, because the blast didn’t faze the creature.

The next shot hit the creature in his eye, which exploded and blasted part of its head away, but that still didn’t stop it.

Evalle could see through the opening in the wall to where steps went down to a long hallway with doors.

One of the doors opened and another creature came out, turning toward them, too. Evalle stomped her boots to release hidden blades and flipped her dagger from its sheath.

Tzader ordered, “Trey and I’ll put up a field of energy. The rest of you cover us.” They threw up a massive kinetic wall to halt the first creature’s attack, but the minute they did, energy bounced through the room, ricocheting against the walls and ceiling. Sparks of heat struck Evalle in the back and across her shoulder.

Grunts of pain indicated she hadn’t been the only one hit before the men dropped the energy field.

Even the creature paused, throwing its hands up in defense.

Crud, their kinetics were backlashing in here. “Are we linking?” she asked.

Tzader didn’t hesitate to say, “No. Too dangerous with no kinetics and no idea what we’re up against.”

The first creature headed for them again.

Tzader pulled out his sentient blades and sent one flying at the creature’s throat. The thing tried to bat the blade aside but the blade split down its length and turned into two razor sharp pieces that cut like scissors, lopping off fingers.

The creature screamed and fisted its hands, sending the blade flying across the room without touching it.

“Damn thing has kinetic powers that actually work in here,” Casper yelled.

Evalle searched the ceiling and corners for any sign of a possible beam of power that was affecting the VIPER agents, but there was no laser unit or camera or evidence of any high-tech equipment in use.

The second creature entered, snarling and screeching … with a third hand growing out of its chest. Eww.

Quinn swung silver three-sided discs shaped as razor-sharp Belador Triquetras and struck the second creature in the head with both, but it kept coming.

How thick were their skulls? She shouted at Quinn, “Can you get inside their heads?”

“Trying to. Keep getting shoved out. All I can see is rage and the need to kill.”

Evalle fought off the second one with her death-spelled dagger, which would kill a demon if she struck it between the eyes. But these things didn’t appear to be demons. She kicked her feet, cutting a deep gash in the monster’s leg. “You can’t explode its brain?”

Quinn sent another series of blades spinning at the creatures, but the discs skipped away as though blocked by kinetics. “Can’t stay inside long enough to gain control. I’ll try zapping them in short bursts. Might slow them up.”

Tzader called out, “Evalle. Casper. Get ready. Quinn, Trey and I will draw them to the side. You get past. Find who’s controlling this and stop him.”

“Got it.” The minute the fight shifted to Tzader’s side of the room, Evalle and Casper rushed behind the creatures into the hallway lit with yellow security beams.

The minute they stepped into the hall, the metal panel access to the parlor slammed shut.





CHAPTER THREE

“Ah, hell.”

Evalle mentally echoed Casper’s sentiments. She signaled to him that she would go ahead, and he nodded that he’d cover her back. They had to find the operation center, but rushing through here could get both of them killed, which would not help Tzader, Quinn and Trey.

She moved quietly down eight steps and into a chilly six-foot-wide hall with sallow lighting. The place had a sterile feel with concrete walls and steel doors, but it smelled like a septic tank that had been backed up for months. She had to run a close second in the stink department with cow manure smeared on her shirt and pants.

A series of rooms ran along both sides of the hallway with over-sized doors of thick steel. Each had a small square observation opening protected with sturdy vertical bars, but no doorknobs or keyholes. Her gaze traveled down to the dry-erase panels beside each door.

The first one she reached had a handwritten note: Level Three.

Leaning close, she peered through the bars of the observation window to see what was inside the dark room.

Another part-human-looking creature lay curled on the filthy floor, which was ankle deep with what had to be its own excrement, sleeping from what she could see.

No wonder the place was rank.

Who could have created these things? A witch or a mage?

At the next room, she eased up to the observation window and looked into the black hole, not seeing anything until a face slammed the bars.

She jumped back. A tongue slapped at her through the bars, then yellow eyes glowed out of the darkness. When she got out of here, she’d have nightmares about those eyes.

Continuing on, she found something similar in most of the rooms, with notes of Level One, Two or Three beside the doors. All except for two empty rooms where the notes read, “Failed Kill Test – Approved for Food.”

She stood in front of the second empty room. That notation had to mean the critter inside had been used as a meal for the others.

What sick bastard was doing this?

Dismissing the cell as vacant, Evalle stepped forward toward the next doorway. Then she heard a gurgling noise from the empty room.