Chapter Thirty
The smell of damp stone hit me, and I recognized the scent that had been coming off Mia and Remus tonight. They'd been here before, and I moved quickly to the conventional steel door at the back of the empty room. The doorjamb had been broken from the inside, and feeling this was really wrong, I pulled it open to see a staircase going down.
"Down," I muttered as I hiked my dress up. "Why is it always down?" Gun in hand, I felt the rough cement walls as I descended. There was a bare bulb glowing, showing that the way was straight and even. Wires ran along the sloping ceiling, as if put in after the building was constructed. My steps were silent because I was barefoot, and my feet were numb on the old but unworn cement. It stank like mold and dust.
People were talking, their voices unclear but echoing. I heard a small, feminine gasp, and then Ford shouted, "Mia! It's just me. It's okay. I'm trying to help you. You have to come in, but I promise I won't let them take Holly from you."
"I don't need your help," Mia said tightly. "I never should have wished for love. How do you live like this? He's dead. That witch killed Remus!"
"He's not dead, Mia," Ford said. "It was a sleeping charm."
"Not dead?" Mia said.
It was a pain-filled whisper, and thinking Mia was ready to break, I ghosted down the rest of the stairs. The light from the bulb in the stairway was overpowered by the shifting beam of a high-powered flashlight. Slowing, I crept to the end of the stairway, and with my hands on my splat gun, I peeked around the archway.
The echoing room was huge, stretching fifteen feet high at least, with beautiful vaulted ceilings. Mia was standing in the middle with a lantern-like flashlight in her grip-Ford was before her with his back to me. I think he sensed my emotions, but he didn't turn.
Behind Mia was a sunken tunnel stretching in two directions. It looked like a subway tube, but there were no rails or tracks. There was no electricity, no benches, no graffiti. There was nothing but empty walls and forgotten bits of trash smelling of dust.
Mia's face was proud and determined in the light reflecting off the walls as she tried to soothe the toddler, to no avail since she was upset herself. She hadn't had the lantern in the coffee shop. It must have been in the little room upstairs. And it suddenly hit me that this was how Mia and Remus had been getting around, moving under the city to evade the FIB and the I.S. I hadn't even known the tunnels existed, but Mia had probably witnessed their construction.
Mia's eyes flicked to mine, and discovered by my emotions, I stepped out. "Remus is fine, Mia. You have to turn yourself in."
"No I don't," she said, the defiant pride in her voice telling me she wasn't giving up. Ever. "This is my city."
I shook my head. "Things are different." I slowly moved forward. It was frigid down here, and I shivered, edging closer yet. Almost close enough to make the splat ball gun a sure thing. "If you don't come in, the FIB will bring everything against you. I know they look stupid, but they aren't. Without a show of goodwill, Ms. Walker will leave with Holly." I stopped when Mia's chin lifted. "Mia, I swear I will do everything I can to keep Walker from taking her, but you have to help me."
Mia shook her head and backed up. The light in her hand swung wildly over the cold walls, and Holly started to cry. "Remus is right. I'm going back to the old ways. They've kept me alive for hundreds of years. Give me Remus, and leave me and my child alone, or there will be more deaths. You've been warned."
Turning her back on us, Mia headed for the black arch of the tunnel.
My gun swung up, and Ford got in my way. "Mia!" he exclaimed as I tried to edge around him for a clear shot. "Think about your future."
"My future?" The words were a cold, imperialistic bark, and she stopped at the edge of the three-foot drop. "You are children! You are all children! I saw the birth of this city, when she was a wallowing hole that pigs ran through heedlessly. I helped her grow by removing the people who would keep her ignorant and small. This is my city. I built her. How dare you think to put your laws and rules on me and lecture me about the future! I'm not running away. Tell Captain Edden that if the FIB follows me, his son will be in a casket, not a hospital bed. You," she said, child on one hip and light in her hand, "are nothing. Animals to be culled and sucked dry. I am still living among pigs."
I had my gun aimed at her, but I'd have to hit her face for it to do any good with her wearing that heavy winter coat.
"Mia," Ford said in his best psychologist voice, "I'm not as old as you are, but I've lived more heartache and joy than you can comprehend. Don't do this. Love is worth the trial. It's what defines us. Nothing can stain your love for Holly. And you do love her. It is as clear as your voice. Isn't that purity worth some pain? Don't risk losing that from pride!"
From behind me in the stairway came the soft scuffing of shoes. Adrenaline surged, but I couldn't take my eyes from Mia. I'd give anything for Edden or Glenn right about now. Mia's eyes tracked behind me, and her face grew even more determined as I heard the presence of only one person, not the ten I wanted.
"The Turn take it, Morgan, you are worse than my mother," a masculine voice mocked. "Always showing up at the wrong place at the wrong time to mess up my day."
I spun around. I couldn't help it. "Tom!" I exclaimed, backing up and not knowing who to point my gun at anymore. "Get out of here. Mia is my tag!"
Mia's brow furrowed. Dropping my nylons, Tom came even with Ford, his bandaged hand out in warning to me and pointing his wand at the banshee, looking like a bad actor in a fantasy flick. His expression was far too condescending for him to get out of this alive. "You can have her," he said. "All I want is the baby."
Mia's face went white, and my jaw dropped as it all came together. He wasn't trying to bring in Mia. He was working for The Walker. He was a freaking baby snatcher. He hadn't been spying on me when I kept finding him at crime scenes; I'd been messing up his takes.
My face burned, and I shifted the aim of my weapon to him. Slime. And how is the FIB going to find me now? "What do you think you are doing?" I said, but it was obvious. "You can't touch Holly, and Mia sure as hell isn't going to help you."
"Unlike you, Morgan, I don't mind a little smut on my soul," he said grimly, his brow furrowing to tell me that whatever was in his wand wasn't legal-not to mention nasty enough that it bothered him. "Ms. Harbor is going to walk up those stairs and hand that kid to whoever I say." He smiled an ugly smile at the angry woman, standing with her heel at the edge of the drop-off.
"And you walk away with a pocketful of change, huh?" I said, backing up to better get him in my sights. "Subjection spells are nasty, Tom. Did you take the tongue out of the goat yourself, or did you pay someone to do it?"
Tom's jaw clenched, but he didn't move. "What's it going to be, Mia?" he said. "Either walk up those stairs on your own, or you do it charmed."
"Bloody hell witch," she cursed, her head lowered to eye him from under her hair. It was the look of a predator, her eyes black and her muscles tense. Mia let Holly slide from her, and I retreated-getting out of the way; Ford was doing the same. "You won't have her," Mia said, setting her lantern down as well. Hands free, she stepped forward. "I earned this child with blood and death."
Oh, this isn't looking good... Oblivious, Holly patted the floor where the light fell, fascinated with the shadow her chubby hand made and trying to catch it. Getting to her knees, she started crawling, chasing the echoes. I eyed the drop-off. It was far too close for my comfort. "Mia...," I warned, but she wasn't listening.
Mia's eyes had narrowed and her stance shifted. Pulling herself up tall, she became a wronged goddess, her face beautiful and calm, savage and without pity. She was a queen, a giver of life and death, and her eyes shone like black coals. Oh, she was pissed.
"Tom, look out!" I shouted as Mia leapt at him, her hands bent like ugly claws.
Tom panicked, and Mia easily knocked the wand from him. It skittered to the base of the stairs. "You will all die to feed my child," she said, looking small as she stood in front of him. "And I will weep tears to suck your life for all of eternity."
"Mia! Stop!" I shouted, my gun pointed at her. "I won't let you kill him. I'm not going to let him take your baby either. Just stop. Back off and we can find a way. I promise!"
Mia hesitated, either considering it or trying to think of a way to kill us all at once.
"I mean it, Mia," I intoned, and her grip on Tom trembled. A bead of sweat rolled down his face. He understood how close he was to death, not knowing if I'd really bother to save his sorry ass or not. I honestly didn't know why I cared.
Holly squealed in delight, and my eyes darted to her. Fear pulsed through me, and I almost jerked into a run. Oblivious to the anger of the adults, immune to it because of her history, the child was contentedly playing in the shifting light, wobbling on her feet and entranced as she reached for the shadows we were making on the curved wall of the tunnel. She was at the edge of the drop-off. Teetering, she cooed, and Mia's face was riven with indecision. If she moved, Tom would run for his wand. If she didn't, her baby would fall.
"Ford! No!" I shouted as he lunged for the little girl in her pink snowsuit.
"Got you," he exhaled as she tipped into a fall and he pulled her back at the last instant. The two of them landed against the cold floor with a puff of Ford's breath. Holly thumped into his chest, safe. But Ford was holding her.
"Oh God...Ford," I breathed as the little girl peered up at him and smiled that same smile she had given me-right before she pulled my aura away and ate my soul. I couldn't move. If I did, Mia would kill us all.
Holly's chubby hand reached up and patted Ford's face. Ford gasped in pain. Mia's eyes narrowed in satisfaction. My anger burned, and I tightened my grip on my gun. Damn it, I didn't know who to shoot. Maybe the girl, and throat tight, I swung my gun to her.
"No," Ford breathed, and my finger, tightening on the trigger, jerked loose. He's okay?
We all stared as Ford hunched around Holly, shaking in a spasm before he took a deep breath. "It's gone," he moaned, the words almost a sob. Oblivious to us, the tears ran down his tired, lined face. "Not that one, Holly," he whispered, sounding exhausted. "That's mine. Take the rest. You're an angel. You're a beautiful, innocent angel."
My pulse hammered. Mia stared at Ford in stark, shocked wonder. The little girl was patting his face, feeling the beginnings of his six o'clock shadow and babbling. She wasn't killing him. She was...I didn't know what she was doing, but Ford's tears were in relief, not pain.
"What the hell is going on?" Tom said, and I felt him tap a line.
Damn it, I couldn't tap a line. I was playing patty-cake with a black arts witch, and all I had was a sleepy-time charm?
"I don't know." I shifted my attention to Mia. "Maybe she's gotten control of herself."
Mia's lips parted. Clearly the woman was stunned to see another man holding her child. "It's too soon," she breathed. Her feet scuffed as she turned to them. "Holly?"
Holly babbled in Ford's arms, the purity of the sound echoing against the curved, cold ceilings far overhead.
"Then I guess I don't need you anymore, do I?" Tom said suddenly.
I felt a drop in the ley line. Instinct kicked in. I swung my gun around and pulled the trigger. A little blue ball hit Tom squarely in the chest, but it was too late. A nasty green ball of something was already in the air.
"Down!" I shouted, then dropped to the hard cement as an explosion of green sparkles pushed my hair back. My ears hurt, and I looked to see Mia picking herself up off the floor. Ford was out cold, a shimmering green haze marking his aura. Tom's spell apparently. Tom wasn't moving either. Tag, you're it.
Pushing myself up, I went for Mia, landing a side kick squarely in her gut. I fell from the impact, and the woman was shoved into the wall. Her head hit the cement, and she collapsed. Whoops. My bad. But damn, that had felt good.
I turned to Ford to see that the green shimmer was gone and that Holly was crying beside him, in the curve of his body. Ford shifted his face off the cement and relief spilled into me. He was alive. Thank you, God. I got to my feet and tugged my coat straight, rubbing my sore hand where a new scrape and probably another bruise would run come morning. But it was done. All that was left was the mopping up.
He was going to snatch her baby? I thought, shivering as I turned Mia over with a foot. Glancing at the gun in my hand, I debated hitting her with one of my few remaining sleepy-time potions since I couldn't make a circle to contain her. But if I'd given her a concussion, the charm might send her into a coma. I'd just have to watch her like the predator she was until the FIB caught up with me. And Mia was a predator. A freaking tiger. A crocodile shedding crocodile tears.
"Stay there, sweetheart," I whispered to Holly when she crawled to pat at her mother's face and cry baby tears. I couldn't help her. God help me, why did I feel like such a bad guy?
The soft scrape of wood on cement whispered, and I spun, gun pointed. Not only was Tom awake, but he was moving, and I gaped at him as he scooped his wand up from the floor with his bandaged hand and looked at me from under his raggedy bangs, hatred in his every motion. I'd hit him. I knew I'd hit him! This wasn't fair!
"Anticharm gear," he explained, rubbing his nose and wiping away the blood. "You think I'd come against you without something to defuse your infamous little blue sleepy-time charms? You need to diversify, Rachel."
My eyes narrowed, and my grip shifted. "It will probably hurt if I hit you in the eye," I threatened.
"Don't. Move," he said, and I froze. That wand was a lot more dangerous. Seeing Holly unattended, his eyes took on a satisfied glint.
"Tom," I said, shaking my head in warning. "Don't be stupid. You give Holly to Walker, and Mia will freaking kill you."
"I think she'll be more angry at you than me," he said, twirling the wand dexterously. "Or at least she will be when I get done with her. Back up. Get away from the kid."
I had nothing. Well, I could talk him to death, maybe. "This is a bad idea," I said as I edged away while he moved closer, pushing me from Holly with his presence. "Think about this. You're not going to walk away from it, and if you do, you won't be alive for long."
"Like you know a bad idea from a good one," he said, motioning with his wand for me to keep moving back. "If a human can touch the kid, then I can, too," he added as he scooped her up.
"Tom, don't!" I exclaimed, and Holly keened, an eerie coo of pleasure and delight that chilled me to my core. The man stiffened. His eyes bulged, and his mouth opened in a silent scream. He fell to his knees, and I tensed to knock the child from him, only to fall back and cower as a wave of bright force burst from him. I couldn't see it-my eyes were blind to it-but it was there. I could feel it, and my skin tingled, as if a thousand summers were pressing on me in the smothering dark of the sunken room.