January in Atlantis, Alyssa Day [read any book txt] 📗
- Author: Alyssa Day
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Flynn turned and started for Eva. She was perfectly fine though, standing next to Zach and rubbing her arm where Flynn had grabbed her too hard. He felt an overwhelming wave of shame that nearly knocked him to his knees.
“I’m so sorry,” he said. “I had to put on an act. They wouldn’t believe I was keeping you if I—”
But Eva wasn’t listening. She ran across the distance between them and jumped into his arms. “I thought you were dead. I thought they were going to shoot you, and I would have to watch you die right in front of my eyes. Never, ever do that to me again.”
Flynn held on as tight as he could until Eva raised her head and smiled. “I do still have to breathe, big guy.”
He stopped crushing her in his embrace but kept his arm around her waist and turned to face Zach, who’d claimed to be an undercover operative. Evidently it had been the truth. Jake was securing Monkey and Rock with zip ties and gags, which meant they must have both survived. Too bad.
“Okay, Zach, if that’s really your name, what’s the deal?”
Zach’s eyes narrowed when he heard Flynn’s harsh tone. “Yes,” he said shortly. “Zach is my name. Zachary Ford, Special Agent, FBI, P-Ops division. I’ve been undercover with the Dark Angels for months, and they finally let me into the inner circle today. I think that’s only because they needed more manpower for their nasty rites.” He scanned the group. “Bottom line: I know where the girls are.”
“They’re inside the copper mine,” Eva said. “We told you last night. The copper masks any magic being used, and what better place to hide people than in what’s basically a hole in the ground?”
Zach shot her an admiring glance, and Flynn contemplated the wisdom of smashing a federal agent into the side of the building.
Maybe later.
“Perhaps you should join my team, Ms. Calandar,” Zach added, “because it took us a while to come to see that one. And, yes, your tip last night helped us find the right place. It’s not the mine in use either. That would be too easy.”
“Of course. It’s one of the old abandoned mines. One that’s played out, or at least people thought it was played out,” Flynn said, groaning. “Do you know where it is?”
“He had help,” an arrogant voice drawled from above their heads.
Flynn looked up to see Griffin materialize from mist and float gently to the ground. When he landed, he was already walking toward them.
“That’s really cool,” Eva said, and Griffin smiled at her.
Flynn hadn’t known the mage knew how to smile that widely. He glared at Griffin and made a growling noise in his throat. Maybe he could do a twofer and smash the FBI agent’s head against the mage’s.
He’d let Jake live. Jake was helpful.
“When are we going?” Everybody looked at Eva, who’d asked the question in a quiet but steady voice. “We know where they are. You have me. Zach’s on the inside. It’s time to go get those girls.”
Flynn thought he’d never been more in awe of any person—man or woman—ever in his life than he was of Eva and her incredible courage.
“We go now,” Zach said, his face grim. “They’re planning to start some of what they call the ‘lesser sacrifices’ an hour from now. They’ve kept the girls safe and sequestered until now. Innocents always make the best sacrifices, don’t you know?” He turned his head and spit on the ground as if trying to get a foul taste out of his mouth.
Considering the fact that the agent had been undercover with the Dark Angels for more than half a year, Flynn didn’t doubt it.
“The sooner we get there, the sooner we get them out before they’re harmed. Narco promised he’d let some of his minions have some fun,” Jake said, looking sick.
Flynn glanced at the thugs on the ground. “First, I propose we get rid of these two. And then, Zach, you can say you asked Jake to come along for backup just in case, and it was a good thing because I shot Rock and Monkey and they’re dead. You get all the credit for bringing us in. I have a feeling that, at this point, Snake will be happy to sacrifice me too.”
“My team will pick up these two,” Zach said. “They’re on the way. And yes, I agree that’s the best plan now.”
“But it’s a different plan,” Eva said staring at Flynn. “You’ll have to be in restraints. How can you fight? How can you help those girls?”
Jake smiled at her and pulled a pair of handcuffs out of one of the many pockets on the inside of his ratty-looking trench coat. “Special cuffs,” he said, grinning. “Watch.”
He snapped one of the cuffs on Flynn’s left wrist and then gave the chain a quick yank. The cuff, which was made of solid steel and looked extremely sturdy, snapped right open.
Zach’s eyes narrowed. “Where did you get those? Those would even fool me, and I’ve been at this for a long time.”
“I have my ways,” Jake said.
“Let’s talk about handcuffs later. Let’s go get those girls right now,” Eva said impatiently. “I’m not sure how much longer I can be brave.”
In the end, it was much easier to get inside the mine than Eva would have ever believed. Apparently, a huge part of any Dark Angel celebration involved barrels and barrels of demon rum, a beverage guaranteed to cause unconsciousness, liver failure, and blindness in humans, and that was only in the lucky ones.
Guards were scattered around like dying roaches when they drove up at four a.m. The last man standing waved them in, not bothering to check for ID.
“Who’d be damn fool enough to crash a demon party?” the man asked jovially.
“Who indeed?” Griffin said when he materialized inside the dark mine and joined their group.
“We won’t get the girls without a fight,” Zach warned them. “Don’t be fooled by how easy it is to get in. Getting out is going to be the battle. And the actual demons aren’t affected like this by their own rum.”
They headed steadily down, and down, and down, until they reached a vast open area that contained a giant pit filled with fire, exactly in the center of an enormous inlaid copper circle. Inside the circle, twenty nightgown-clad girls huddled together, terror and shock stark in their faces. They were surrounded by row after row of minor demons, the firelight playing on the deep liquid-vinyl red-and-black texture of their skin. Fangs and tusks abounded; demons with giant drooling mouths stood next to demons with huge, bulbous eyes. Long, whip like tails next to razor-sharp tusks. So many of them. So very many that Eva could feel the pressure of their heartbeats in her bones.
“It’s too late,” Zach groaned. “They’re already in the circle. None of us can breach it; our magic isn’t strong enough.”
“Watch out!” Jake pulled a pair of daggers and headed into the fray when a demon who wasn’t in the circle started running toward them, claws out.
“I see Narco,” Griffin shouted at them, already halfway across the mine toward the sorcerer. The two met in a crash of light and sound, hurling magic at each other too fast and furiously for anyone else to follow.
Flynn whirled to fight off a couple of the human Dark Angels who’d managed to stay conscious, and while he was busy, Eva walked forward, step by step by step, feeling her determination and will swirl around her as if she were floating through a dimly remembered dream.
“I can walk right through it,” she told them dreamily. “I don’t have any magic at all. Not that kind of magic.”
Flynn grabbed at her arm, but he was too late. She was already at the circle. She simply stepped across and felt nothing more than a mild tingling sensation. Behind her, Flynn roared in frustration, and she saw him try to smash through the invisible magic barrier, but it kept him out. He was slicing and hacking at it with a sword he’d gotten somewhere, but it all seemed somehow distant to her because something was calling to her, calling so powerfully.
The girls surrounded her, weeping, and she touched as many of them as she could. “It’s all right, girls. I’ll get you out of here.”
At her words, the demons all turned toward her, moving as one in a shockingly coordinated motion. Scott—Snake—sauntered out from behind them.
“I always knew you’d come back to me, babe,” he said, and his eyes glowed red in the
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