As much as I wanted to ventilate his smug lupine face, it wouldn’t help Abraham. Not that I expected mercy from the bastards. Certain they would kill Abe the second they got what they wanted, I could at least delay and hope to pull something out of my ass. My putting a bullet in Rampage would guarantee Abraham’s death, and it would be on my shoulders.
Shit. I hated having a conscience.
The stare down lasted only a second longer before I gave in and lowered my gun. I was only delaying the inevitable.
He crept out from behind the door. “Smart move, demon. Now put it away so we can get going.”
A bit surprised he didn’t take it from me, I certainly wasn’t gonna complain. Though on the other hand, not disarming me meant they didn’t think I was a threat. They had to believe they held all the cards or they wouldn’t risk leaving me armed. That blew a big hole in my dreamy concept of hope.
“Take me to your leader.” My pistol stuffed into my pants, I gestured to the gate. Might as well get it over with.
Rampage chuckled and turned his back on me as he went and stood inside the gate. Nothing to do but follow, I stepped onto the pentagram right after. Uncomfortable standing so close to the werewolf, I inched back as far as I could go, making sure I faced him the whole time. Once we were both situated, the gate throttled to life and zipped us on down the line.
We appeared inside the secure entryway inside the main DRAC headquarters. My heart skipped a beat as the room came into focus. It wasn’t secure anymore.
The array of defensive wards had been scoured from the walls. Their colorful faces were marred, blackened singe marks lay overtop of each, their energies neutralized. The room smelled of sulfur and bitter ash, the taste of it stung my tongue.
My moist eyes drifted upward toward the behemoth roof and I couldn’t help but stare. The thirty ton weight was warped and disfigured, twisted so badly it had dug into the walls around it and failed to drop.
The door leading into the main complex had been ripped free of its sunken hinges. It lay on the floor beside us. The outer edge was bent inward, the three foot thick steel mangled and crumpled like paper.
Amazed and horrified all at the same time, I couldn’t imagine the kind of power it would take to bypass the security system so casually. Despite the presence of the werewolf, there was no doubt in mind that it hadn’t been Grawwl. While powerful in a physical way, he didn’t possess the kind of mystical aptitude it took to lay waste to DRAC. I had a pretty good idea who did.
I glanced over at Rampage’s smiling face and he just chuckled, waving me down the hall. It took some willpower to get my feet moving, but I managed to follow him after a second or two.
Out in the corridor, I saw several of DRAC’s security team scattered about. They lay on the floor motionless, obviously dead, but there were no signs of trauma on any of them. No blood or bruises were visible. Their uniforms were immaculate as though they hadn’t even put up a fight. It was if they’d just dropped dead where they stood.
Seeing that made it real clear as to why Rampage hadn’t cared whether I kept my gun or not. Compared to the defense array and the firepower the security forces could bring to bear, one measly little pistol wasn’t but a drop of spit in the ocean.
It suddenly felt like I was taking my last walk, a condemned man’s final journey.
Rampage wound his way through the compound with confidence, his head held high and his arms easy at his side. The lifeless men we passed at every turn only reinforced his seeming invulnerability, a casual swagger seeping into his gait.
I thought about all the people who worked at headquarters and then pictured them all dead. My stomach churned with bile and I could feel my face growing flush, but there was nothing I could do for them. The men already gone, I needed to think about Abraham and the rest of the world. The longer this went on, the more people who were gonna die.
Certain I knew where we were headed, I slipped past Rampage and picked up the pace. He chuckled behind me and matched me stride for stride. After a moment I reached Abraham’s office and opened the door. As it always did, the smell of old wisdom met me at the door, but I wasn’t there for that. The feedback on my senses told me I’d been right in my assumption.
Once inside, Rampage shut the door behind us and took up a position right in front of it. The werewolf the least of my concerns, my eyes swung toward the desk and saw Abraham uncomfortable in his chair behind it. He met my gaze with a palpable sadness that stole my breath away. I nodded to Abe and looked away to the skeletal figure beside him before his sorrow could infect me.
“Not pulling any punches are you?”
Azrael floated around the desk and drifted closer. “I warned you to stay out of the conflict, Triggaltheron, yet you persisted. You have only yourself to blame for what has happened here.” He gestured around him.
“That may well be true, but seeing how all life on Earth is probably gonna be wiped out in a day or two, I can live with my guilt that long.” The way things were going, I didn’t really think I’d make it through the day.
A rumbling laugh spilled from his blackened lips. “You are so much like your sire, defiant even in the face of overwhelming odds.”
“I’m nothing like my father.” Incensed at the comparison, the words spewed out like razors.
Azrael broke into a cadaverous grin. “You are, young Triggaltheron, you are. I see him in your face, in the spiteful fury that courses through your veins. Yet unlike him, you have no sense of ambition. You’re content to wile away your time amongst the pitiful humans as if they’ll ever accept you as one of them. You disgrace the glory of your bloodline.”
I spit at him, but Azrael batted it away with but a thought.
“Be grateful I hold your father in such high regard, little demon, otherwise I would have your soul for such impudence.”
My eyes flickered to Abraham, hoping I had his attention. We were only gonna get one shot at this. “You can shove that regard up your bony ass.”
The words out, I spun, pulling my pistol free, and went for Rampage. He needed to go if Abraham had any chance of getting away.
Caught off guard, the werewolf’s eyes went wide as he suddenly came face to face with the business end of the barrel. No time to aim, I squeezed the trigger like a madman.
An invisible force slapped the gun from my hand right then. The two rounds I’d managed to get off struck the wall just to the left of Rampage’s fuzzy head. They weren’t even close.
Rampage stood there wide-eyed and stiff-limbed as I was yanked off my feet and spun about. The room a blur, I felt gravity take hold again and I was rag-dolled onto my back, my breath knocked from my lungs.
When my eyes stopped spinning, I saw Azrael’s drawn out face just inches above mine. “There is no time for your childish heroics.”
A deep, gasping breath supplied me with enough air to answer, my voice hoarse. “What do you want?” It’s not as if I didn’t know, I just liked being difficult.
Azrael drifted back and I took advantage of the space and got to my feet. Abraham still sat in his chair, his glasses magnifying the sadness in his eyes. Everything happened so fast, he didn’t have time to budge, not that it would have done him any good.
“You well know what I want, Triggaltheron. Tell the wolf where to find Eve’s key piece and let’s be done with this.”
“I know what Marmaduke back there gets out of all this, but what’s in it for you?”
“My interests don’t concern you.”
“I’m thinking otherwise, seeing how you went out of your way to bring me here.” He obviously didn’t want to reveal his role in the bigger picture. Bad villain. He was breaking rule number one: the onus of the monologue is on the antagonist. Fortunately, Abraham was clued in.
“Like his lycanthrope minions, he stands to inherit the world.” Azrael shot him a murderous look, but Abraham kept going, undeterred. “His dominion death, Azrael has long since evolved from an angel to something far more closely related to the creatures that live in the shadows between worlds. When the Tree dies, he becomes a god; the only one left.”