Riding the Veil Read online

  All at once, sirens began going off in sequence and she looked at Dog. His face got dark with concern and he whispered, “The escapees have breached another exit…”

  Hell didn’t just break loose, it exploded in every direction.

  Men in uniforms, gas masks, and helmets that looked like something out of Star Wars came running out of a door that must have led to another part of the Dank.

  The colonel was on them, handing them a rather large pill capsule and snapping irritably, “Take these…air pills,” he said.

  It all became clear. They could even bring them down in the corridors. They could close off enough air vents to make it impossible for them to function properly.

  She could hear the snap of metal as air vents shut down. The lack of air would certainly derail Retaal’s attempt to escape the building.

  The team consumed the pills and looked towards a door that opened onto the hidden stairs to the next level.

  Jacie went very still and listened. She could hear fellow supernaturals above them rooting and shouting gleefully, “Run, run, run.”

  The colonel and the others had their weapons ready as they took the stairs. Dog and Jacie followed, and she made an attempt to look the part.

  All resolves faded when she reached the top landing and stared at the supernaturals only half dressed in ragged prison pants and sandals. Retaal! Retaal was one of them. She knew he would be, but there he was, and she was blown away.

  He had his arm out before him and his palm facing nothing in particular, and she saw clearly that he was trying to create and open a portal. How could he? Did he know how to get past the witch’s containment spell?

  She saw that he had lost weight, and she could see he had suffered during his time in the Dank, but he was, as he had always been, absolutely beautiful.

  He was calling on his power over earth, wind, water, and fire, but she could see that he was having difficulty breathing. She saw him reach out and steady the demigod at his side, who was already failing because so much of the oxygen was being cut off.

  Retaal, standing there, his dark blond hair dirty and limp around his still magnificent face, stole her breath away, and for a moment, she just couldn’t think.

  He turned and saw her and his silver eyes locked on her.

  The Anunn he was attempting to hold up with his free arm totally collapsed, and Jacie’s heart cracked with concern. They both showed the signs of starvation and now of air deprivation. What could she do? Nothing, nothing right now, but soon, very soon!

  Screaming…humans shouting, yelling.

  Humans cannot see portals. It escapes their vision capabilities and therefore portal control is a supernatural advantage, however, they saw the two Cumas and opened fire!

  Retaal, with his last surge of strength, created a barrier between his friend, himself, and the onslaught of bullets, but Jacie knew he couldn’t keep it up much longer.

  “What the hell is he doing?” the colonel said as much to himself as to the team. “Damn the soulless…”

  “They are not soulless,” Jacie couldn’t stop herself from saying.

  Dog pinched her arm.

  The colonel swung around to snarl at her, “I suppose you are one of those who think dogs and animals have souls?”

  “I do,” she answered, and did not back down. “I think it would be helpful not to underestimate them.”

  The humans couldn’t see the portal opening and had no idea what he was doing with his hands or what he was chanting beneath his breath.

  “You, there! Stand your ground!” the colonel ordered.

  Retaal’s eyes moved away from Jacie as he turned to sneer at the colonel. “My ground is where I wish it to be!”

  Jacie’s heart was pounding so hard she was sure it would explode from her chest and take flight. For a moment, she was lost. Here and now, if Retaal was mortally threatened, she would freeze all the human combatants. Emotion had taken over logic. She determined that she would take everyone to safety and then turn the prison into ash. The problem was the witch’s spell. She first had to take it apart to get the prisoners out.

  And then Retaal collapsed and joined his friend on the concrete floor.

  “Get them,” Thomas ordered. “Return them to their cell, then report back to me. We need to investigate and discover how they got out of their cage and then got this far.”

  Dog and Jacie ran forward, followed by two of their team. Dog and Jacie made it look like a bit of a struggle to get a hold of Retaal and pick him up enough to drag him along. Jacie and Dog both had supernatural strength, and even so, Jacie felt Retaal’s weight as they pulled his unconscious body down the corridor to an elevator. The elevator stopped and they repositioned Retaal so that one arm was slung over each of them before they dragged him to his cell.

  Jacie felt a breeze from a passing vent and realized the air was beginning to circulate again.

  “Hurry, damn it to hell,” Beth yelled after them.

  Dog and Jacie placed Retaal in his cell, whose breathing was labored, as gently as they could without drawing notice.

  Beth sneered and turned to her partner. “Shark,” she snapped, “wait!”

  Shark dropped the Anunn he was carrying along immediately, and grinned when he saw Beth lift her leg. Jacie winced as she watched Beth kick the unconscious Anunn in the side a few times before saying, “Okay…shove him inside now.”

  Jacie noted there were only two beds in Retaal’s cell. She looked around for any weak spots and sized up the area.

  All at once, Retaal opened his eyes and he made a grab for Jacie, who tried not to gasp. Instead, her gaze met that of his and she was filled with a rush of memories and sensations that made heat course through her body. Beth looked their way and Jacie had no choice but to make a show of pulling out of Retaal’s weak grasp.

  Jacie knew what he was trying to tell her. She knew, even now, even while he suffered unimaginable indignities and pain, he wanted her to go home. She had seen it in his speaking silver eyes.

  The colonel stepped inside the cell and shouted, “Out!”

  They did as they were ordered. They left, but as Jacie was the last one to file past the colonel, she left the door to Retaal’s cell open.

  Oxygen was returning to the Dank and to the cells, and Jacie took note that the vent was in the wooden flooring.

  Her head snapped up and her nostrils flared when she witnessed the colonel, much like Beth, taking advantage of Retaal’s weakened state. He shoved Retaal onto his back and kicked him repeatedly before stepping on his middle and shouting, “How did you escape? Tell me and it will go easier for you!”

  Retaal just smiled at the colonel and said nothing.

  Jacie wanted to zap Thomas into the next galaxy! Her hands formed fists at her sides as she tried to hold herself in check. Think, Jacie, she told herself, think. Finally, she called out to the colonel, “Sir…those two…they must have left a trail of sorts. Hadn’t we better investigate before the trail goes cold? I think questioning him is a waste of time…he won’t talk.”

  “She is right,” Dog added. “These freaks never talk, and his cage has the gold link over the door. Orders from The Big Man. We can’t kill him.”

  Thomas turned to look at Jacie. “Investigate? Where do you suggest we start?”

  “Where we found him. Perhaps our tracker…” She nodded towards Beth’s partner, a large surly man known as Shark. “He can trace their movements to some degree…while the guards check the surveillance tapes again. What we need to find out is how this door was opened. Did one of the guards open it?” Jacie wanted to draw attention away from Retaal. “I can’t think of any other explanation.”

  Jacie didn’t want to throw suspicion on an innocent guard, but was certain the evidence would eventually disprove that theory. And as to innocent, she told herself, none of these humans were innocent. They had all, in one form or another, participated in the torture of her brethren.

  How had Retaal managed to get out
of his cage? Had he stored up just enough energy to open a portal? Of course. A portal would open in the room, but the humans would not be able to see it. All Retaal and his cellmate would have to do is step through. That was how he got out. Apparently he didn’t have the strength to open the portal farther than the upper tunnel, and perhaps even Retaal’s portal couldn’t get past the witch’s containment spell?

  “Agreed,” the colonel said after a moment, interrupting her thoughts. He nodded at Shark. “Go…take Dog and Beth with you. Jacie, you come with me.” He turned and nodded to the others to follow.

  “My honor, sir,” Jacie said, but wanted to puke. She would have to be careful with the colonel. Any display of admiration might give him the wrong idea. If he made a move on her, she wasn’t sure she could hide her revulsion. He was like a creepy crawly insect, forever popping up and making her want to scream.

  All at once, she knew. She knew what she had to do! With just a thought, only a thought, she picked out a bevy of special insects known in the human world as termites. She almost laughed out loud as she set them to work beneath the floorboards under the bed in Retaal’s cell.

  Her magic infused the little group of termites to burrow through the wood with a strength and speed that would give Retaal enough air holes to help him and his Cuma cellmate to regain their energy. No one would notice until it was too late. How she would then get them past the witch’s spelled prison walls was something she would have to work on later.

  Jacie smiled to herself because she could hear the little creatures already at work!

  ~ Four ~

  SHARK WAS A LARGE MAN with some height, and a head far too small for his body. Jacie hadn’t really interacted very much with him, but had found when she did, that he didn’t seem as ‘hate-filled’ as some of the other agents.

  She and the colonel followed Shark’s lead to where Retaal had been trying to open a second portal to freedom. Jacie knew that little fact, but, of course, the humans did not.

  “What could he have wanted here? This section is on the opposite side of the stairwell, nowhere near the elevator or a way out,” the colonel said as much to himself as to Shark.

  Shark shrugged. “Those Cumas…well, they may have been confused…didn’t know where the exits were, and not strong enough yet to bust through anything.”

  “Yeah, but that one…Retaal…he stood with his arm out, as though trying to conjure magic.” The colonel shook his head. “Maybe that is why The Big Man doesn’t want him seriously harmed. Maybe Crawly wants…” He glanced at Jacie and clammed up.

  Dog and Beth arrived at the scene and Dog said, “Jared is working with the guards on the surveillance tapes.”

  The colonel nodded and turned back to Jacie. “You have a thought. I see it. Spill!”

  Jacie eyed him for a moment and finally said, “Could be he simply was looking for a way out and got stalled. As simple as that. We shouldn’t give him credit where it isn’t warranted.”

  And then the unexpected.

  A huge boom and one that made the three of them actually duck! An explosion, and Jacie watched the colonel and Shark drop to the floor.

  “Down,” Shark yelled at her. “Get cover, girl!”

  Instead, Jacie started forward. She could hear the shouts of the Crawly guards, but it sounded like pandemonium from every direction of the Lower Planet. She had to filter out some sounds to zero in on others.

  She ran towards the elevator door. The colonel and Shark followed her, but as they paced, Jacie was aware of a shift in the atmosphere and knew exactly what it was, but too late.

  A portal was opening. What the hell? How had anyone gotten past the witch’s wards?

  Three rebel operatives, completely disguised in what looked like black space suits and dark windowed helmets, stepped out of the dark blue portal. Each held automatic weapons of some size and obvious power. Their explosives were for show. They knew better than to set off anything major underground. What were they up to? And damn, how did they get past the walls? Could portals bypass the spell?

  Jacie stood very still. She knew what was happening, although the colonel and Shark had been taken by surprise and were unsure what they were facing.

  These were Cuma rebels who, unlike Apollo, wanted to retaliate against the humans and then enslave them for their atrocities against the supernaturals. The question she put to herself was, how did she help them without being noticed by the humans? Yes, they were renegades, but they all wanted the same thing, didn’t they? Free the prisoners.

  Apollo had told her that many members of this rebel band were young in the sense that they hadn’t seen the rise and fall of glorious Egypt, Rome, and Greece. Thus, their interactions with humans had not been in a positive light. In fact, they held humans in contempt.

  The Cuma rebels had formed an army of operatives and weren’t asking for their rights, they were taking them at all costs.

  Jacie knew that these rebels were fighting to the death. Apollo had told her they would rather die than submit to a world that identified them as freaks to be feared and captured.

  Many of them had used their powers to attain great wealth and were lodged in the heart of those human communities unnoticed.

  Their methods, Apollo had insisted, were destructive, and that was not how he wanted to achieve his goals, but Jacie had a certain sympathy for the rebel’s hard line fight. However, right now…she and Dog might be in a sticky situation.

  She couldn’t see his face, but the one who appeared to be the leader was huge and he took command as he stepped forward. She couldn’t see his eyes through the dark shield over his face, but she believed he was staring at her. He was certainly looking her way.

  This proved true when he spoke, rough, hard and with authority. “You!” He motioned with his gun at Jacie. “Come with me.”

  The colonel shouted back, “No.”

  Without hesitation, without a care, the rebel shot a guard at the colonel’s back. Shot him dead, and as Jacie watched the man’s blood cover the concrete, she gasped. Yes, she hated humans, sorta, but…this was cold-blooded.

  She hadn’t expected this.

  Until this moment, she had believed the rebels only killed when they absolutely had to. Apparently they also killed just to make a point.

  “No?” the rebel leader said. “Want to be next?”

  The colonel gritted his teeth. “I’ll see you fed to your own kind, piece by piece.”

  All the rebels had dark helmets and Jacie could not see past this without using her magic. “Come with me or another one of your friends dies now—maybe your colonel,” the rebel leader said to Jacie, totally ignoring the colonel’s remark.

  “Okay, no argument. Coming…”Jacie said at once. “Colonel…” she threw over her shoulder, “live to fight another day, right?”

  The colonel remained oddly quiet.

  “You, too.” The rebel leader nodded towards Dog.

  Okay, Jacie thought, he had singled out both supernaturals in the ACE team. He knows. He absolutely knows.

  Does he think we are traitors working with ACE? she wondered.

  “Both of you,” he snapped. “Take me to Retaal’s cell now, and don’t pretend you don’t know where he is,” the rebel leader snarled this out, but Jacie’s attention was elsewhere.

  Not exceptionally far off, her very fine hearing had picked up on a ticking sound. What was that? Then suddenly, she knew what it was. She grabbed Dog and threw him on the ground and covered him with her body. This could be life or death, she told herself, and covered them both with a protection spell, chanting under her breath.

  Another explosion, a small one, but this one expelled a canister. Smoke burst from the canister and began filling the room.

  Jacie saw the ACE members as they donned their gas masks and wondered if the chemical was harmful to humans. She watched the rebel leader flick his wrist and heard a small explosion before he and his team rushed into their waiting portal.

  Dog groaned an
d she hurriedly inspected him. He was an immortal shifter, but shifters are far more easily susceptible to death than many of the immortals. However, the gas had not gotten past her protection shield.

  Dog handed her a gas mask, as he had thought to bring one for each of them, and she realized they would need to put them on to rejoin the ACE team.

  This done, they went towards the elevator.

  Guards were on the floor, everywhere, but they seemed more dazed than hurt. They reached the elevator to find the door had been blown off and loose wires hung everywhere. The rebel leader had done that to no doubt stop any of the ACE team from trying to follow.

  Some of the guards had been near the elevator when the door exploded outward. There was blood everywhere.

  Many of those guards were badly injured and moaning in pain.

  “Hey, kid,” Dog said weakly. “Do you hear that?”

  Jacie saw that the elevator explosion, though a small one, had triggered a domino effect. Some upper weight beams had cracked.

  Beth and Shark had taken a hit from the debris and were just getting to their feet. However, they were about to be smashed by the creaking, falling steel beam.

  Magic? Life and death?

  As the beam began its descent, Jacie flicked her finger and sent it a few feet away from where it would have otherwise landed, which would have been directly on top of the two ACE humans.

  What was wrong with her? Beth was a horrible human being. She should have allowed nature to take its course. Well, she was finding out a lot about herself, wasn’t she? Apollo had made her softer than she wanted to be!

  Beth came towards Jacie and Dog and demanded, “What the hell was that?”

  “An explosion, and a gas bomb,” Dog said with a crooked smile.

  “Who? How?”

  They shrugged. “Don’t know.”

  “Yeah, well…” Beth stopped as the colonel spoke into her earphone. “Okay…come on, we have to get our asses over to the colonel. He says the elevator explosion blew a hole through the shaft.”