“I’ll be back soon,” he said when he lifted his head.
Serena frowned. “I can go with—”
“You know I don’t want you around Lotho and Sin, and you know I’ll be fine,” he reassured her. “Lore has promised to keep you entertained.”
Lore nodded as he pursed his lips.
Serena still didn’t look happy, and if she was afraid for Hunter and what he was about to embark on, I thought we needed to seriously rethink this.
But we didn’t have any other options.
She hugged him fiercely, clinging to him for a few moments, and then she let go. Stepping around him, she patted his behind. “I’ll be waiting.”
The look Hunter sent her caused my cheeks to flush, but then Serena stopped and faced us. “Look, I’ve had some real bad experiences with Luxen in the past—the kind of Luxen who knew the rest of them were coming.”
Daemon and I exchanged looks. “Care to give a little more detail?” he asked.
She took a deep breath. “There was a senator who was a Luxen, and he had two sons. My best friend . . . she accidentally saw them do their glow thing, and they killed her to keep her silent. They tried to kill me.”
“Oh God,” I whispered.
“Hunter was brought in by the government to keep me safe. Not because they really cared about me, but they didn’t like how the Luxen thought they could kill whenever they wanted to—not following the rules.” A sad look filled her eyes. “But it was more than that. My friend overheard the brothers talking about this—about Project Eagle. Something that had to do with Pennsylvania and some kids.”
“Anything else?” Archer asked, gaze sharpening shrewdly.
She glanced at Hunter before nodding. “Project Eagle was in response to Daedalus—it was about contacting the other Luxen who were out there, wherever there is. It was about world domination. They’ve been planning this, and they were using the Origins to do it. We thought they were talking about kids—like little people right now.”
“But they weren’t,” Hunter said, frowning. “We did a little digging. They were talking about Origins like him.”
A muscle flexed along Archer’s jaw. “As in, Origins fully grown?”
He nodded. “Yep.”
Holy crap, we were totally right.
“We knew something like this was going to happen, or at least that they were going to try, but we couldn’t do anything,” she said.
“We have prices on our heads,” Hunter explained. “Let’s just say I pissed off the Luxen, some of the Arum, and Daedalus. We were between a rock and a really screwed-up hard place.”
“We wanted to do something but couldn’t, so helping you guys out . . . well, that’s better than doing nothing again.” And suddenly, I knew that Serena was probably the driving force behind Hunter fulfilling the favor he owed Luc. Her gaze drifted over to Daemon. “I know you don’t trust Hunter, but we don’t trust you, either. So if you do anything that puts him in danger, I know how to take a Luxen out, and I’m not afraid to.”
Daemon’s chest rose with a deep breath. “I got you.”
“Good,” she replied.
I liked her.
Hunter grinned. “Come on, guys. We don’t have far to go.”
The three of us followed Hunter over to a lamppost, which was like thirty feet from the car, and then he stopped. “We’re here.”
My brows rose as I looked around, seeing nothing. “Is this like some kind of magical Harry Potter door? Or something?”
He stared at me.
“What?” I asked sheepishly. “You know, like the Room of Requirement? The door kind of just appears . . . Oh, never mind.”
“Okay.” He gestured down by our feet. “We’re going down.”
All I saw was a manhole cover, and then he bent down, lifting the heavy steel, and my heart sank. We were literally going down.
“Here?” Archer asked.
He nodded with a tight smile. “Why else do you think I suggested the airport? It’s not like I like to hang out here.”
“How were we supposed to know?” Daemon responded, eyeing the manhole like it was the last thing he wanted to climb into. Ditto. “You’re an Arum, so . . .”
“I really was hoping you’d drop that damn attitude by now.”
Daemon smirked. “Kiss my ass.”
“No, thank you,” he replied, but neither of them had any real heat behind their words. Looking up, Hunter glanced at me, and then at Daemon. “I’m guessing you’re going to want to get down there first before she does.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as I tugged my hair up into a quick ponytail. Archer crept over to the edge, saluted us, and then disappeared down the ladder. A few seconds later, his voice traveled from the great beyond. “It stinks. Really bad.”
Great.
We quickly descended, and Archer hadn’t been lying. The dimly lit tunnel smelled of mold and butt—moldy butt.
Hunter was the last one down. Not even taking the ladder, he landed in a nimble crouch beside us, since he was all kinds of special, apparently.
Straightening, he glanced over his shoulder as he strode forward. “We’ve got a ways to walk.”
Turned out that “a ways to walk” equaled about a hundred miles to Hunter. In spite of my mutated genes, my legs ached as we walked for forever in the empty subway, which was silent with the exception of our footfalls. We traveled from one tunnel to the next, passing the underground commuter trains that had been abandoned and seemed to be the source of the nasty smell. I was eyeing the dirtied and broken windows on one of the trains when Hunter appeared right in front of me. Startled, I stumbled a step to the side.
Pale eyes met mine. “I wouldn’t look too closely at those trains. They’re not empty. Some of the Luxen got hold of them. Lit up the insides. People were onboard and this is where the trains stopped. You get what I’m saying?”
My stomach roiled as I nodded. So much unnecessary death—it was horrifying, and it took a long time for me to clear my head. We went deep in the maze of tunnels, going through a steel door that looked like it hadn’t been opened in the last decade, and entered a wide tunnel brightly lit with torches shoved into the grooves of the wall. Hunter stopped in front of a door up ahead, a circular steel one.
I bit down on my lip, sensing something was off. Like the air had suddenly turned stale, and it was hard to catch my next breath. A nervous sensation crept into my core like a thousand little ants.
Daemon stopped in front of me, stretching out an arm as he cocked his head to the side. Muscles up and down his spine rolled with tension. “There’re a lot of Arum beyond that door.”
Hunter smirked as he faced us. “I’ve told you. There are thousands down here.”
I couldn’t believe it. “How can there be so many? These are just subways.”
The Arum placed a large hand on the door. “They’ve created a world here, little one.”
I got hung up on the odd endearment. “Little” was the last adjective I’d use to describe myself.
“Lotho has been down here for years with many of the Arum, carving out an underground city with the help of those who are loyal to them. They come and go as they please, but they always come back.” He reached for a heavy lever. “The way they live is a bit archaic, so what you’re about to see—”
“Will probably result in my needing therapy later?” I nodded with a sigh. “Got it.”
One side of his lips kicked up, and then he looked at Daemon. “Ready?”
“Let’s get this over with.” Daemon reached for my hand, circling his around mine, and I didn’t mind.
I knew that what we were about to see, what we were about to walk into, was beyond dangerous, and we were going to do this together.