“Wow…” I said in astonishment. The transports were powered by Mageians. There were no motors to betray their passage.
“The Goddess seems to be giving us some amazing gifts,” I said.
All thoughts of the Goddess fled as we approached the tunnel entrance to Hel’s base. It didn’t take Hel’s enhanced sense to tell me something was wrong.
The entrance to the tunnels was through a dilapidated warehouse. It had had doors large enough for two of the automobiles Hel had told us about, but we had always used a small door to one side to enter and exit.
Now, all the doors hung open, and the smell of ozone and gunpowder was strong in the air.
Hel’s face went white.
“Betts!” He said in alarm then took off toward the tunnels.
I raced after him, throwing a sound shield around us.
As we rounded the corner, we saw two guards in black armor at the front door. Alexandrians, and at least one of the, was Elusian.
I felt him attempt to Suppress my power as we came around the corner. The pain and nausea barely had time to register before he was on the ground, Hel’s claws driven through his throat. He hadn’t been expecting a Soma.
I snapped an Air shield at the other guard, intending to knock him unconscious, only to feel a sudden surge of power. Instead of encircling him and allowing me to cut off his air supply, the shield snapped clean through his neck, leaving a cauterized stump as his head rolled away.
I looked down at my hands, shaking in awe and fear, the elemental circles whizzing faster and faster. What the hell had happened to me?
Hel didn’t pause, only headed to the door of the tunnel.
“Hel! Stop!” I called out when he sprang toward the door, rebounding off the shield I placed over the door. He began attacking the shield with his claws as if it were something he could kill.
“Hel! Helios!” I yelled finally, and he turned to look at me. My gentle lover of the night before was gone, in his place… was a Beast.
His ears were long and tufted, his teeth elongated. The nails he had sported before were replaced by claws that were inches long.
“Let. Me. Through.” He snarled, his words garbled by his rage and transfigured face.
I nodded.
“I will. Of course I will, but we just can’t go running in without a plan, without knowing what’s going on,” I said. “You won’t be any good to anyone—to Betts—to me, if you get yourself killed.”
“You’re my Bonded now, right?” I asked him, laying a hand on his arm. He growled.
“You die, I die too,” I said. “We need to be smart about this.”
For a tense moment I thought he was going to ignore me and fling himself at the shield again. His chest was heaving, his eyes wide, but slowly the silver in them receded and it seemed my words were reaching him.
“Let me do a little recon,” I said. “Protect me for a few minutes.”
I sat down to drop into a trance, not looking to see if he was staying. I trusted him to protect me. I paused for a moment when I realized I did trust him to protect me. Just like he was trusting me to find our friends.
I fell into a trance faster than I ever had before. I suspected that with a little effort and practice now I would have been able to trance and walk at the same time, but I didn’t want to risk it right now.
I sent my awareness sweeping through the tunnel system ahead of us. The image lit up in my head, but it was so different from what I normally saw.
The faerie fire that usually outlined any voids where air gathered was there, but there was also so much more. I could sense the water in the aquifer beneath us. I felt the stone under my feet, the sublevels that sank beneath us, farther even than Hel had ever explored. Within the tunnels I was familiar with,I could see vague humanoid shapes moving, something glowing and pulsing through them. There were a few shapeless piles of cooling fluid scattered through the tunnels.
It took me a minute to realize those pulses were people. I was looking at their hearts pumping and pushing blood through their bodies. The cooling piles were dead bodies. Air, Earth, Fire and Water. Goddess. What was this?
Trying not to get distracted, I tried to count intruders. It was harder than I expected. It was hard to discern who was who. Everyone looked the same with this vision. I focused my thoughts, trying to figure out how many invaders were below. After a few minutes, I had to give up. They all looked the same to me. I pulled myself back to my body and got to my feet.
“Go on, I’ll protect you,” I heard Hel say, his harsh panting the only noise in the room.
