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24. Journey to Hell i
~ Ava was back in the Mountain. She ran into Zigor and Ichiro as they made their rounds. Preparations were on in earnest to create the New Colony. Marx was finally facing the fact that there would not be a happy accord with the humans. Their collective fears outweighed their common sense, and that meant more deaths on both sides. Pulling back from them was the only way to have some resolution to the problem. Squashing the dispute with the humans would free up their resources to focus and take down the actual threat—Salvay—and his ever-elusive partner, Passerini.
“Heard you were back,” Zigor said. “In more ways than one.”
Dressed like the others, Ava no longer wore her cloak. It had been more for a disguise than fashion. With a solid form, she could move about without the garb to keep her unstable form hidden. Ava could dress as the others did and althoug
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Enter the Shadows Journey to Hell ii
~Tracking Passerini, Ava, and Penny ran into trouble. Not the trouble they were looking for, but one they could not in good conscience ignore. By the looks of it, the Purists were expanding their reach further from Pentorium. Amid dealing with the fallout from the virus and trying to figure out Salvay’s plans, they did little to cut the head off the Purist snake. One could say the snake had two heads, Salvay and Passerini, but when they weren’t around to keep the fires burning, someone else was. Ava saw the opportunity to rip up the revolution from its roots, and she took it. Penny did not mind the detour. A loud explosion drew their attention to the makeshift army post. The road leading to the militarized federal building had blockades at both ends. None of their weapons fared well against the vampires, who were stronger, faster, and harder to kill. Fo
Enter the Shadows Journey to Hell iii
~The first man gave them six locations. The first yielded less than a dozen armed men in a small safe house. None of them had anything of value. They were just more foot soldiers following a cause they did not understand. Ava incapacitated them as she did the first man in the underpass. She didn’t feel it fair to kill them for being stupid. At the following two locations, Ava did the same thing, Penny snorting her disappointment. They were halfway through with no actionable information, leading them to the head of the snake. Zeroing in on location number four, Ava felt a trace of shadow magic. They were in a train yard; the tracks occupied with unattached carriages. Some possibly in use, others left to gather rust and vagrant occupants. Penny picked up the trail leading the way to the source. She stopped Ava, stretching out a hand to block her path. Ava looked up at the werewolf, who had her n
Enter the Shadows Journey to Hell iv
~ Seeing the sign, Ava knew where they needed to be. Using another portal, she cut their journey short. They came through some distance away from their destination, intending to make the rest of the way on foot. They did not get far before they came under attack. “Shadows.” They broke away from the shadows of the trees coming at her and Penny from all angles. Confusion and panic tugged Ava’s mind in a million different directions. The only other person she knew who could wield shadow magic in this world was soul-dead on an examination table in Pentorium. Salvay had the magic he stole from the temple in Zanu, but it was one of light, not death. He would not have been able to do this. Several shadows tried to overpower Penny, one going for her soul. It looked like it was trying to suck a tennis ball through a
Enter the Shadows Journey to Hell v
~Half of the ride to the courthouse went by in silence. Marx sat on the passenger side, staring through the window. He could feel Helick’s unease. His constant sideways glances. The other man had heard everything Anabella said. Celeste was Marx’s mate, but she raised Helick and Garrick from the time they were babies. She was the only mother they knew. Her death was as painful for them as it was for him, or even more. When the tragedy was fresh, he hadn’t taken that into account. Raw from the grief, Marx went off to lick his own wounds, leaving Garrick, Helick, Daniel, and Shea to tend their own. Shea found solace in going cold and distant while the twins and Daniel went out defending those who could not defend themselves. Lochlan was the only one who stayed with him on the Mountain. Not because Marx did much to accommodate him, but out of stubborn loyal
Enter the Shadows Journey to Hell vi
~Marx and Helick returned to Anax Corp to a message that the others were waiting for them. The first thing he noticed when he walked into Anabella’s office was Penny’s unconscious body on the sofa. He ran over to her, dropping to his knees. Her wolf was lying on Anabella’s couch, half of its body hanging off the side, the sofa too short to accommodate her full length. “Penny?” “I’m over here… too.” Marx turned to see Penny’s spirit waving at him. He slumped on the ground in relief. “You stupid girl.” “You grumpy old man.” Penny smiled, and it reached her eyes. Locked up inside of the beast, he sometimes forgot how innocent she was. How determined she had been. Despite the trouble she brought raging into his life, M
Enter the Shadows Journey to Hell vii
~ Ava opened a portal for Penny. The werewolf’s massive size did not allow her to pass through the door of the office with ease. On top of that, Penny on an elevator was not going to happen. Ava left with Anabella and Philippe, Helick following behind her. Before the three could step into the elevator, she called Philippe aside. The other two left without them. “What’s on your mind?” Philippe asked her. She adjusted the books in her hand. “Do you still have the chamber? The one you built for Sven?” “Yes, I do.” “Did you tell the others about it?” Ava glanced towards the door leading to Anabella’s office. Vescovi and Marx were still inside. The last thing she wanted was for either to hear their conversation, especially Marx. Ava appreciated him fretting over her
Enter the Shadows Journey to Hell viii
~Ava had an entire speech rehearsed. She knew that the decision she made would not go over well with the others, so she wanted to break it gently. All that went through the door when Daniel woke up inside of Sven’s body and went wandering off. Now the wolf was out of the bag in a big way, and she had just to face it head-on. With the deed already done, Ava had no plans to undo it. Not now. The ‘later’ would have to wait. “I’m sorry,” Daniel said from inside of Sven’s body. “Woke up and saw that I was—” he looked down at the body in which his soul now dwelled. “I knew you were going to do it, but it took some time for the whole thing to—catch up.” “You OK?” she asked him. Ava folded her arms across her chest. She wanted to hug Daniel. Touch him for the first time. He had kissed her once, but that was a long time ago, and her memory of the moment was fogg
Enter the Shadows Journey to Hell ix
~Shea was standing out in the woods. Another busload of evacuees was offloading outside of the dome. Waiting to greet them was the Native’s Shaman. In a line, the humans walked up to him, and he marked each human before they stepped into the protective shield. Those who were vampires or werewolves stepped through, unmarked their link to the shield created by what they were. Ichiro came to stand beside her. “This is not moving fast enough,” she said to him. Shea was feeling antsy, her anxiety building with the savagery of the storm overhead. “And what if vampires attack us? The humans might need a mark, but those like us do not.” “If anything supernatural tries to attack us, they will trigger the traps. Ava has this place fortified enough to keep the odds in our favor if we are.” Shea chewed on her lips, una
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