“What is this place?” I whispered, succumbing to the unease rumbling through my body.
“If you want to survive the next minute or so,” Laurie replied, his voice dangerously calm, “I suggest you stop talking.”
With that, both Gil and Laurie moved to take the lead, or maybe put me behind them. If my pulse had been fast before, it was practically wild now. Still holding the pocketknife in one hand, I reached out with my arms to use the walls as a guide. But we’d entered a bigger space, I discovered instantly. There was nothing on either side, and yards off in both directions, there were deeper pockets of shadow, like the uneven walls of a cave.
Then a stench assaulted me. It was so powerful that I started breathing out of my mouth. Gil and Laurie didn’t stop, though. I held back a gag and kept going.
I’d only taken a few steps when something squelched beneath my foot. I looked down and frowned at the sight of something… glowing. I lifted my leg gingerly, trying not to gag at the strings of slime stretching between the ground and the bottom of my shoe. The substance gave off a slightly greenish shine.
Where the hell had Laurie taken us?
“Holy fuck,” I heard Gil hiss. Before I could ask him what was wrong, or ask Laurie about the source of that smell, something dropped in front of me. I recoiled, an instinctive scream hurtling up my throat. Laurie’s hand clapped over my mouth and stifled the sound. My body heaved as I struggled to breathe.
A wing hung in our path.
Slowly, I followed its length up to the ceiling.
Cherubim slept above us. They clung to rafters like bats. I struggled to breathe as I peered into the darkness again, dreading what I would see now that my eyes had adjusted. Those weren’t gaps of shadow, I discovered with slow horror. They were cherubim, too, sleeping in piles throughout the room. There were so many of them, even more than the large groups that had attacked Bea’s bar or come to the hospital.
A bubble of panic swelled and popped in my chest. Why would you bring us here? What kind of plan is this? I wanted to shriek. Just as I tensed, preparing to turn back and go back the way we’d come, I thought of Laurie’s comment when he opened the door.
This is the only place the guards won’t search, he had said. Not only because the reek of the cherubim disguised our own, but also because no one sane would come down here. He must’ve been truly desperate, if this was the best course of action. For Laurie to endanger his own life, along with ours…
Somewhere in the darkness, one of the cherubim growled, and my thought cut short.
Laurie’s fingers bit into my cheeks. He’d probably thought I was trying to scream again. As quietly as I could, I patted his wrist. Yes, I’ve gotten my shit together, I hoped it said.
A head’s up about the cherubim would’ve been nice, though.
Slowly, Laurie released his hold on me. He eased past, crept around the fallen wing, and continued on through Hell.
Suddenly there was a scraping sound, followed by something brushing against my ankle. It felt like my heart stopped. I didn’t dare to breathe as I looked down. A massive paw rested in the dirt. It was attached to a lion, which made low sounds in its sleep, his mane matted and draped over the ground. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying not to tremble, because I knew even that small movement might wake the creature. And if the cherubim made a single sound, it would alert the others.
I didn’t take any calming breaths, not with that foul stench all around, but I found the courage to move again. I had to get my foot out from beneath the lion’s leg. I eased back gently, twisting to slip free. Laurie and Gil hadn’t noticed I’d stopped. I turned…
…and my gaze met the bright, milky eyes of a cherubim.
The creature had four heads, but the one shaped like a man seemed to be the only one that had awoken. His nostrils flared with excitement. It felt like everything was moving in slow motion as the thing began to open its mouth, doubtless to alert the rest of our presence.
I acted on adrenaline and instinct. With Laurie’s knife, I stabbed the man head at the back of its throat, and any sounds it might’ve made drowned in a gush of blood. It was too dark to watch the life leave its eyes. It was still obvious when it happened, because the tension abruptly left the creature’s body and it slumped like a dead limb.
But now I had a new problem—the lion attached to the dead man was starting to stir.
Oh, God, if it woke the cherub, the baby’s piercing cry would echo through the entire room. I needed to kill it now. Quietly. I tried to yank the knife out of the man’s head. The handle was slick with blood, and I lost my grip on it when I pulled. I tried again. Same problem. A curse lodged in my throat.
I wasn’t a person who prayed, but in those few seconds, I did. Send it back to sleep, please, send it back to sleep…
The lion’s golden eyes opened.
I saw a flash of long, gleaming canines before I clamped my hands around its maw, gagging at the smell, and an instant later I felt claws swipe across my bare abdomen. I ground my teeth to contain an agonized scream, trying to arch away from its paws so the animal couldn’t cause more damage. It was struggling in earnest now, and I wasn’t stronger than a fucking lion. In a matter of seconds, the enormous cat would break free of my grip and it would all be over.
Then I saw the eagle’s eyes snap open.
Fuck, I thought, knowing it would probably be the last one I ever had. I was out of hands and weapons. The eagle’s head swiveled toward me, and I braced myself for that beak to part and let out an ear-splitting shriek. The lion swiped its paws again, and I managed to dodge it this time.
Laurie and Gil had finally noticed what was happening—they were blurs as they leaped forward to help. The battle was swift, soundless, and vicious. As I frantically tried to staunch the bleeding along my stomach, worried the coppery smell would rouse more of the beasts or break Gil, I caught a glimpse of Laurie ripping out the lion’s tongue and Gil snapping the eagle’s neck.
They’d both turned their attention to the drowsy cherub when my vision went black around the edges. The lion must’ve struck something vital, or I’d lost more blood than I realized. I stood there, swaying.
An arm clamped around my waist, and I felt myself being hauled backward. I would’ve been alarmed were it not for the familiar scent surrounding me, almost blocking the fetid odor of the cherubim. Laurie.
There was another rasping sound, and my mind was slow to place it. The bars of a second gate, sliding home into the wall. We were safe. If I weren’t already slumped and motionless, I would’ve bent over from the overwhelming rush of relief. Laurie and Gil would be okay. They’d make it out of here.
Laurie set me down, propping me against the dirt wall.
“The lion mangled my arm,” I heard him say above me. “It’ll take at least twenty minutes to heal. Can you carry her?”
“There’s too much blood, man,” Gil answered, his voice tight. “If I go near her…”
He didn’t finish his sentence, but he didn’t need to. We all knew how it ended. I felt, rather than saw, Laurie kneel in front of me. “You need to feed, Fortuna.”
His tone caught my attention, even through the haze of pain. “Feed?” I echoed faintly.
“Yes. On me.”
I finally managed to look at Laurie, blinking a few extra times to make edges more solid. His eyes were luminous, almost as bright as the lion’s. I felt no fear, though. They made me think of moonlight on water.