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Ethan provided some last words of wisdom before we left Seth’s cone of silence. “Combatants are to be considered hostile. Deadly force is authorized. Stay safe, folks, and don’t get bit.”
Quite the orator, that one.
Our troops moved like ninja, all silent feet and hand signals, as we entered the mouth of the cave. They broke into three groups, one down each side and the third into the middle, guns at the ready. It was rather impressive to watch.
The last and only time I’d been involved with a group like this was back when Captain Long’s daughter went missing, but the size of that group had been significantly smaller than what ran in front of us now. That one had ended with a dead bad guy and a rescued little girl.
I had high hopes that we’d enjoy the same success tonight.
“Can you see any naga?” Mike careened his head above mine.
I shook my head. “I need more time to adjust. Seth?”
The naga turned, his eyes wider, golden with a dark slit down the middle.
Mike took a step back.
I grabbed his arm and shook my head again.
“Sorry.” The good doctor blinked twice, and his baby blues returned. “I can’t see them yet, but their scent is everywhere.”
I raised my nose and sniffed. That sulfuric scent from my encounter with Aatmaj was heavier here, hanging in the air and on the rock face like something large had marked its territory. “Yeah, it is.” I sniffed again. “There’s something else, too.”
Underneath the overwhelming scent, there were more than two dozen separate ones. I closed my eyes and reopened them in my Other sight, and the cave lit up in a myriad of colored lines. I counted thirty.
“Thirty’s not so bad,” Seth whispered from beside me.
I shot him a suspicious look. “Are we still connected?”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so, but I can count.”
Every response I could think of sounded juvenile and petty, so I wandered away to examine one of the lines. After all, if you can’t say something nice....
It was light purple, the line at my feet, and it pulsed with a white light, a familiar magick. I reached down and lifted it off the ground. It had more heft than the lines at the warehouse, felt cooler, and was thicker, too. A low hum emanated from it, vibrating against my skin.
“Be careful with that.” Seth slipped it out of my grasp and laid it back on the ground.
“What was that?” Mike asked.
“It’s a lifeline,” I said, nudging it with the toe of my shoe. “What does it go to?”
“Energy comes from more than just humans.” The doctor pointed back outside the cave, and the purple line trailed out of the entrance and along a thick tree trunk. “We can survive without it, but when you’re about to fight, you want all the reserves you can get. Trees, especially old trees, are great batteries.”
Mike grunted and shook his head. “A tree? Seriously?”
“It’s more than just a tree, my new friend. It’s a conduit to the power of the earth. That’s our—” He whirled one hand in the air. “—our totem. When we are near death, we can replenish ourselves by burrowing underground.”
I frowned. “Well, that’s just great.” Then a light bulb popped on in my head. “Or maybe it really is. What happens if I break them?”
Seth raised a brow. “Break the lines to the reserves?”
“Um, yes. Duh.”
“Well, they’re going to know we’re here.”
“They already know we’re here.”
He shot me a look of disdain. “No, O’ Impatient One, they’re going to know we’re in here.” He gestured to the cave.
“I can scent them. You don’t think they’re doing the same?”
Poor Seth closed his eyes and rubbed at his temples. “You are impossible, you know that? The answer to your question is no, I do not think they know we’re physically inside the cave. They are probably deeper in, where they have the advantage and we have less light. So yes, cutting their reserves is going to get their attention and cost us what little surprise we have.”
I grimaced. What he said was probably true, and I didn’t want us just wandering deeper into the snake pit, but it didn’t make me happy—not by a long shot.
“When we’re in the thick of it,” he offered like a consolation prize. “You may rend the lifelines to shreds. No sense in allowing them that extra.”
I gave him a begrudging smile. “Fine.”
“‘I do not think that word means what you think it means,’” the doctor quipped.
Mike chuckled. “All right, the sparring is over. We’ve got snakes to kill and babies to save.”
I started to say ‘fine’ again, but bit my tongue. I focused on not tripping on all the rock formations and exposing my complete lack of grace. I let the guys walk ahead of me, needing silence and solitude.
The gun on my hip felt heavy, larger than my own weapon.
Ethan had said we didn’t have time to fetch my stuff, and he hadn’t wanted me walking in here unarmed. “Even with your special abilities, sometimes the best option is a bullet to the head.”
I agreed, despite the overwhelming need to sink my hands into Simon’s flesh and rip out his organs. Man, I needed a vacation. The gun was loaded and ready to go with just a flick of the safety. The kick was a bitch, he’d said, but the extra-strength wolf perk should keep me on my feet.
I leaned against one of the stalagmites, and as my fingers touched the smooth surface, humming vibrations filled my head. “They’re coming!” I hissed, catching and passing Mike and Seth to reach Ethan. Danger made me graceful, and I flew like a leaf on the wind between stalagmites and debris, the tremors from the nagas like a drumbeat every time a foot touched the ground.
He was busy talking to a couple of his lieutenants.
I felt like the kid in the room, and managed enough restraint not to tug on his shirt. “Ethan.”
“I’m in the middle of—”
“Ethan.” The earth under my feet silenced. “They’re here.”
He snapped his head up to look at me, then nodded and gestured to the men. They tapped tiny earpieces, whispering furiously as they ran into the darkness. The captain grabbed me and moved us both behind a large column where a stalactite and stalagmite had merged. For a half second, Seth and Mike appeared, before dissolving into the edge of darkness and reappearing near us.
I snuck a peek around the column and saw nothing, not even when I flipped on my Other sight. Oh, these guys were good. I couldn’t see them, but I could smell them, and my wolf whined and paced the width of me. If I could smell them....
A small contingency of naga entered the cave, armed with wicked-looking machetes and scimitars and a few guns.
“Cover your ears.” Ethan stuck a hand out, gestured, and the ground shook beneath us amid the pop of a dozen blinding flashbangs.
Now I understood why everyone wore earplugs. My hands and the column muted the impact, but my ears still rang slightly, making my wolf howl, paws on her face. The pain was intense, like a sharp knife to my head, and it dropped me to my knees.
Mike tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to his eyes. He mouthed, “Are you okay?”
I shook my head, but the pain started to recede. Looking around, I saw that I wasn’t the only one affected.
The nagas were screaming inside the smoke, and Seth looked none too thrilled either.
“The vibration,” he yelled, hands on his ears. “It hurts!”
“Ethan!” I pointed at the doctor. “The vibration hurts them!”
He nodded, tagged Mike, and the two of them moved around the column, weapons drawn.
A half dozen of our closest troops popped up and, well, popped a cap in the heads of the nearest nagas.
Six fell in a clatter of dropped weaponry, and of the remaining four, two raced between boulders on either side, sharp blades slicing through the air, and two opened fire.
The flashbangs were loud, but the sensory overload lasted maybe five minutes. The sound of rifle fire inside the cave was louder, and it echoed. In the chaos of noise and lead, one of our first line of guys went down, just as everyone opened fire on the remaining nagas.
Mike and Ethan dropped behind a couple of boulders, positioning themselves with their arms atop the rock to get a better shot. There was no way to follow the trajectory, not that it mattered. In a matter of seconds, all ten naga lay in a messy pile.
“That was too easy,” I whispered.
Seth grabbed me and pressed me against the column, hands on my shoulders. His eyes were golden again and a long slip of tongue unfurled between his lips.
Fear bubbled up, but I shoved it back down; Seth was a white hat. “Uh, doc?”
“Simon is coming, and he’s brought an army.”
