Austin shot him his best smile, and looped up to the demon-angel. “As a matter of fact, Aaron is a Nephilim. You’d like him. He’s righteous, a lover of Heaven. And yes, he’s friends with Archangel Michael, come on. Let’s get you home.”
Relief washed through me.If it was this easy, maybe we could empty the cells before Adara knew it.
“Austin?” I called softly, “We’ll carry on, though.”
Jax interrupted, “I’ll go with the mage. I don’t like the thought of him coming back here on his own. Plus, I’m interested in meeting Michael.”
Glancing up and down the corridor, Anthony added, “I’ll help, too. Between us we can transport them if need be without losing too much of our power.”
I nodded.
Lycaon was up ahead, pacing and peering into more rooms. Hakon led the other two to Jax. “There you go, mates, just follow old Austin.”
They stared at him incredulously. Another time, they’d probably try to kill him.
So, Lycaon and Hakon and I made our way through the rest of the level.
Lycaon mumbled, “The rest of the rooms down here, there’s one with some dead fae. I checked their pulses, you probably want to see. Looks like they’ve tried to cross with vampires, unless fae have suddenly sprouted fangs.”
“I need to see this atrocity with my own eyes, which room?” Hakon spat.
“Over there.”
Maybe it was the tension, but Lycaon looked angry. Or frustrated. It was hard to read him, except that he wasn’t happy. Especially as we’d stopped to help the angels. Or demons...
He leant against the wall as Hakon and I went into the room he’d indicated.
The two fae, one woman, one man, lay in a pool of dried blood. It seemed that they’d turned on each other. Hakon made a gurgling sound, his face wrinkled in disgust as he crouched over them, then carefully rolled the bodies over. Both were young, perhaps early twenties, maybe younger. Though I didn’t know much about their species. It was obvious that they were fae, their ear tips slightly pointed, but their fangs were overly large, and their dead eyes were completely black.
I noticed their fingers, or where they would’ve had fingers, and like the angel hybrids, they had claws. Leaning into Hakon, I whispered, “We need to find the spell that did this.”
He nodded, standing slowly. “Yes. If we can find that, we can, in theory, make an antidote. Even if I could bring them back to life,” he shot me a stare, “I wouldn’t. Those angels are lucky.”
“I hope so. So this level seems to be where they put their mistakes, the hybrids that fail. Upstairs perhaps...”
“Yes. We need to step up our vigilance. If they’ve succeeded with others, they could be our undoing.” He wiped his brow with the back of his arm. “God Elsa, I’m sorry I was so angry back there. I feel a great fatigue in this place, and I should tell you, I never, as a vampire, feel that.”
Now I shuddered. Him, too? I eyed Lycaon through the window that faced into the corridor. Was that why he was feeling tired, was that why he was so grouchy? It could be a spell, or it could be the shadow creatures that filled every room, spilling into the corridor trying to suck the life out of us? The only way I knew how to get rid of them would be to use magic, but don’t get me wrong, I personally had no idea what magic.
As we walked out, Lycaon had walked ahead and was picking the lock at the end of the corridor. Slowly, he pulled back the door, which grated metal on metal.
Without waiting he stepped through. Hakon raised his brows at me, and we strode quicker to catch up. We had to go up a flight of metal stairs, and we tried to be quick without making a noise.
The aroma of wood and sickly-sweet air washed over us. “Nightshade! Loads of it,” I said.
Sounds of vats bubbling, the scent thicker as we strode down the corridor, the windows looking into rooms had silos inside with the sign, poison. Skull and crossbones.
Lycaon grunted, “I don’t like this at all. Who are they planning to poison, the whole country?”
“Psst, over here!” Hakon whispered. He darted inside the room.
Lycaon grabbed my arm, his eyes at first avoiding my gaze, then he held it. “Look, I know you want to save everyone. And that’s commendable. But please, Elsa, have a care for yourself. Those things could’ve killed you.”
I went to speak, but he interrupted, “No!” Gesturing, he waved his hand. “I could not bear it to lose you. It’s fine, I guess, if you want to save everyone, I will help you. But please let me go first. I guess I just had to say that.” He shrugged and darted into the room with Hakon before I could answer.
“Aha, what do pharmaceuticals use nightshade, or as it’s more commonly known, belladonna for?” Hakon cackled.
Lycaon added, “That’s Elsa’s area.”
