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I remember thinking, Get off me, and I . . . shoved and it vanished.”
“Shoved . . . do you know if you touched it physical y or with your mind?” Camil e swung around, eyeing the detective.
He shook his head. “Don’t know. I real y don’t remember.”
I gave Camil e a warning shake of the head. Chase was obviously opening up in his abilities, but what they were, and what they would become, we didn’t have time to find out standing here below the streets of Seattle. “Wel , whatever you did, it worked. As to what next . . . hel , I don’t know. We could explore each of those passages, but I’m afraid we might get lost.”
“Why don’t we head back to the main tunnel and see where it leads?” Vanzir nodded back toward the way we’d come. “This area seems too dangerous right now.” He seemed antsy.
I stared at him. “What’s up with you?”
He blinked. “Nothing. I just don’t want anybody hurt.”
Camil e shrugged. “He may be right.”
“Okay,” I said. “The tunnels leading out of this chamber look too dark and too narrow anyway.
And our flashlights aren’t working in here.” I led them back through the narrow passage, hurrying to get us back out to the main tunnel. Once we were there, our lights came back on.
“I don’t like it down here,” Camil e said. She drew close to Morio. He put his arm around her shoulder. “I hate being underground.”
“I know. Let’s get a move on.”
We fel back in formation again. We’d been traversing the passage for another ten minutes when I stopped and looked up. Slivers of dim light filtered down.
“Wait here,” I said, then slid my gloves back on and headed up the iron-rung ladder again. As I came to the top and cautiously slid the manhole cover aside, I blinked, surprised to find myself smack in the middle of the park in which I’d found the girl’s body. About ten yards from where I’d found her body, to be exact. That meant our serial kil er was probably using this tunnel system to come and go. If I was right, he had built himself a nest down here somewhere.
I scrambled back down the ladder. As I jumped the last five feet and turned to tel them what I’d found out, there was a loud shriek and a laugh, and one of the broken slats from the wooden floor sailed into the air, directly at me. Morio was standing nearest and he leaped to push me out of the way, but as he did so, the splintered end of the board lodged into his side. Deep. Blood began to flow heavily from the wound and he groaned, sinking to the floor.
“Crap!” I leaped to his side. Camil e was already there, kneeling by him as Vanzir and Chase looked in vain for the attacker. The next moment, a hail of pebbles rained down on al of us, including a few stones as big as my fist. They hit hard, and we were al under attack.
“What do we do?” Chase yel ed, trying to shield Camil e and Morio.
Vanzir pushed Chase out of the way. “Get the kitsune above ground,” he said. “I can’t take him.
If I tried to move him through the astral, it might worsen that wound.”
“I can do it,” I said, prying Camil e’s hands off Morio. She was sobbing, trying to wake him up.
Morio had fainted—probably from the pain. Demon or not, a large wooden stake in the side had to hurt. I gathered him in my arms and slowly began to rise toward the manhole, floating up. Carrying someone made it doubly hard to control the power—passengers were always problematic, but we didn’t have a choice. I’d done it a few times and I could do it again. My main goal was to get him up topside before the ghost decided to attack us while we were airborne. I bit my lip, concentrating on keeping us afloat.
Vanzir pushed Chase toward the rungs. “Get the fuck up there, Johnson. Menol y wil need your help once she’s topside with Morio.” He turned back to the direction the stones had pelted us from.
Camil e raced to his side, cal ing up the Moon Mother’s energy. As I neared the manhole cover, I heard Vanzir shout something, and then he laughed in that deep, terrifying throaty way he had.
Crap. What was going on? But I couldn’t go back to check. Morio’s skin was clammy. He’d gone into shock and the scent of his blood was driving me nuts. As I came to the manhole cover, I knocked it away, driving straight into it with the top of my head. Sometimes, vampire strength rocked.
I hovered up and out of the tunnels, coming to rest on the street next to the manhole. Quickly, I darted to the lawn next to the sidewalk and laid Morio down on the snow-covered grass. Fuck. We needed something to cover him with. I could strip off my turtleneck, but that wouldn’t do much good. Wil ing Chase to hurry up, I examined Morio’s wound.
We were under a streetlamp, thank gods, and I could see the long, narrow board. Oh hel . It had driven itself a good five inches into his side. The good news was that it hadn’t been near his heart.
The bad news was that he was bleeding far too much and the scent was so strong and sweet that my fangs had descended. I wil ed them up, pushed back the hunger, and pressed my hands against the wound, trying not to jostle the stake until we knew what was going on.
Chase climbed over the side of the manhole and yanked out his cel phone, yel ing on it as he raced over to my side.
“Sharah, get a team out here now. Fuck, where is here?” He stopped to glance around, then caught sight of the street signs. “Cross streets: Greenbelt Drive and Vader Way East. Morio’s been severely injured. He’s losing blood.” He paused. “I have no idea what blood type a youkai-kitsune takes. And Camil e’s stil . . . hel , Camil e and Vanzir are stil down there with that thing.
Just get here stat!” He stuck the phone in his pocket and joined me.
