Page 72 of Soulmarked
We pressed against the wall, communicating silently through gestures honed by weeks of working together. Three guards ahead, moving in formation. Not human. The sort of things that made me reach for silver instead of lead.
“Incoming,” Lex's voice whispered through our comms.
Another scream echoed up the stairwell, the sound fracturing into multiple tones simultaneously. Cade tensed beside me, that federal conscience warring with tactical necessity. His hand twitched toward the stairs, and I caught his wrist before he could move.
Our eyes met in the darkness. His screamed rescue, mine argued mission. We were running out of time. The chanting was building, the wrongness in the air getting thicker with each passing moment.
Finally, he nodded. Mission first. We could save people by stopping whatever was being built, not by charging in half-cocked.
We moved like smoke down the stairs, years of training making our steps silent despite the arsenal we carried. The basement opened into what had once been a massive treatment chamber. What we found there made even my hardened hunter's instincts recoil.
The chamber sprawled impossibly large, bigger than the building above should allow. What looked like scientists moved between points of a massive pentagram etched into the floor, their bodies swaying in perfect synchronization like a single organism with multiple limbs. They glided rather than walked, feet barely seeming to touch the ground, joints bending at unnatural angles as they reached for instruments with fingers that stretched too long for their hands. Their white coats seemed to shift and ripple, like glamours struggling to maintain human form.
“Those aren't just possessed people,” Lex muttered beside us. “Witches. Old ones, by the look of it. The kind that traded their humanity for power.”
He was right. When they turned, their eyes glowed with unnatural light, and beneath their scientific disguises, I caught glimpses of markings that writhed across their skin like living things.
“Jaysus, Mary, and Joseph,” I breathed. “This is gonna be a fun night.”
Dr. Chen stood at the center of the ritual space, her body unnaturally still where moments before it had convulsed in violent spasms. The pentagram etched into the concrete had gone dark, its symbols now burnt black and smoking faintly. Only hours ago, it had pulsed with malevolent energy, now it was just ash and scorched stone, its purpose already fulfilled.
“We're too late,” Cade whispered, his gun trained on Chen's motionless form.
I tightened my grip on my blade, the familiar weight doing little to calm the dread pooling in my gut. “Ya think? I was hoping for a nice simple salt-and-burn, not... whatever this is.”
Chen's head snapped up with mechanical precision. Her neck cracked as it rotated too far, eyes opening to reveal an electric blue glow that cast unnatural shadows across her contorted face. A smile spread slowly, stretching her cheeks to breaking point.
“Hunters,” she said, but the voice wasn't hers. “How kind of you to witness my resurrection.”
Cade shifted beside me, shoulders squared despite the fear I could practically smell on him. “Who are you?”
“Who I am isn't important,” the thing wearing Chen's skin replied, examining her hands with detached curiosity. “What matters is what I can offer you, marked one.”
The temperature in the chamber plummeted. Frost crystallized along the edges of the burnt pentagram, spreading outward as the creature took a single step forward. Reality itself seemed to bend around it, colors bleeding wrong at the edges of my vision.
“We need to move,” I muttered, already calculating distances to the exits. Behind us, the witches who'd performed the ritual lay scattered on the floor, their bodies drained husks with expressions of ecstatic horror frozen on their faces.
“The boy doesn't even know what he carries,” Chen said, tilting her head at an impossible angle as she studied Cade.
Cade's face hardened, but I caught the flash of uncertainty in his eyes. “What are you talking about?”
I moved closer to him, instinctively protective. “Don't listen to it. Demons lie. It's kinda their whole thing.”
“Sean...” The warning in his voice failed to mask the tremor.
A sound like cracking bones filled the chamber as Chen's form shifted, bones realigning beneath her skin. “Shall we educate him? Show him what true power looks like when it's not trapped behind walls of flesh and choice?”
Hidden panels slid open throughout the chamber, revealing twisted shapes that unfolded from impossible spaces. The Fetches moved like oil on water, their forms constantly shifting as they advanced.
“We need to move!” I grabbed Cade's arm, pulling him behind a concrete pillar as the first wave of creatures surged forward. “Now!”
We fought back-to-back, muscle memory from countless training sessions taking over. My blade whispered through the air, finding vital spots with practiced precision. Cade's gun barked beside me, each shot placed with deadly accuracy despite the chaos.
“Exits are sealing!” Lex's voice crackled through our comms. “Something's generating an energy barrier around the entire building!”
“Little late on the warning!” I snarled, ducking under claws that would have taken my head off, coming up to drive blessed silver into a Fetch's chest. “What is it with these things? Can't we ever catch a break?”
The Fetch dissolved into black smoke, but three more took its place, their forms shifting and adapting to our attacks with terrifying speed. I spun to avoid another strike, my silver-edged blade slicing through what might have been an arm before it reformed into something with too many joints.
