Death Wish (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #5)(78)

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.