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CHAPTER 23

The tunnel got narrower and narrower until I was really struggling to fit. The bricks stopped and it was just dirt and rocks and tree roots, but there was night sky ahead. I noticed something white on the ground and snatched it up. It was a piece of notebook paper with a map on it, like what Atticus had told me about. Sonya must have dropped this on her way out. I’d gotten lucky.

I shut my light off to not give away my position. There had been a metal grate over this exit to keep the racoons out, but Sonya must have knocked it open because it was lying in the weeds. The tunnel exit was on a little hillside covered in bushes. I crawled out and gasped in a lungful of fresh air. Blessed, blessed air.

Standing up, I got my bearings. I was about ten yards on the other side of the fence, but at the far end of the compound, out of sight of the main building where all the Hunters were. However, if the cameras were still working, they’d see me for sure and send help.

It was cold. I’m talking that same unnatural super cold as when I first ran into the Drekavac. It was like we’d come full circle. He was close. At least there was no fog this time, but that was because he’d sucked it all in to become crazy powerful. On the bright side, his still being here was a good sign. If Stricken’s succubus had already whisked Sonya away, he was too mission-oriented to stick around. He’d go after his prize. This meant Sonya was here somewhere.

There was an angry shout deeper in the forest. It sounded like Sonya. I ran in that direction.

Crashing through the trees, I saw a blue fire glow ahead. I stepped into a clearing and into the middle of a standoff.

Sonya was stuck in the middle. In front of her was the last Drekavac, and his twisted, metallic caricature of a face burned with fury. Behind her was the bedraggled succubus who was clearly tired of chasing her through the woods, because she lifted one hand to unfurl a bullwhip. When she snapped it, the whole thing burst into orange flames.

I couldn’t figure out why neither of the two monsters had made a move yet, until I realized that Sonya was holding a hand grenade to her chest and had already pulled the pin. The only thing keeping her from blowing herself and the Ward up was her hand pressure on the spoon.

I slowed down. I’d done something like that once as a bluff because I’d only been armed with a smoke grenade. That was a frag. Sonya wasn’t about to get dragged down to hell alive. Couldn’t say I blamed her.

“She’s coming with me,” the succubus said.

“You are nothing to me, minor spawn,” the Drekavac rumbled as he pointed his blunderbuss at Lana.

“Oh, I’m no pushover,” the succubus said. “This body has gotten some serious combat upgrades recently. I’m working for this human who has got some serious connections.”

Sonya glanced nervously between the two creatures. “Do I get a vote where I go?”

“No,” said the Drekavac. But he didn’t get any closer to her, because as much as he wanted to punish the thief, his contract must have specified that he had to retrieve the Ward undamaged.

“Either of you come any closer and I swear I’ll blow this thing to bits! I’m not messing around!”

“I’m trying to save your life here,” said the succubus.

“I can’t imagine why she doesn’t trust you,” I said as I walked into the clearing with my rifle on the Drekavac. I probably could have just started shooting, but I didn’t know how tough the final body would be so I didn’t know if I could drop him by myself or not. I was really hoping my friends were on the way and needed to buy them some time to get here.

“Owen?” At least Sonya had gotten my name right that time. She was now boxed in on three sides, but MHI was by far her best option. We were mildly inconvenient and didn’t want to give her bags of money, while the blue guy wanted to condemn her to eternal torment, and the sex demon with the flaming whip worked for the spy Sonya had robbed. In that equation my team seemed downright boring in comparison.

“Yeah. Let’s all remain calm.”

And then things got even more complicated as Agent Franks stepped into view across from me, which meant Sonya had no direction left to run. From the looks of him, he’d had about as rough a night as Earl, with his armor covered in scorch marks and bullet impacts. Despite going after the succubus, it appeared that Franks had taken care of a whole lot of Drekavacs for us along the way.

“Franks!” Lana didn’t seem too upset to see him. “I was really hoping you’d show up in time for this.”

Despite her enthusiasm, Franks aimed his rifle at her. “Where’s Stricken?”

“Well, this is awkward,” she said, coy. “You wouldn’t shoot me.”

Franks just grunted in annoyance. I figured the list of all the sentient beings in the universe Franks wouldn’t shoot would fit on a Post-it note, and I sincerely doubted any of us assembled here had made the cut.

“Alright. No need for you to get all huffy. I’ll tell you where Stricken is, but you’re probably going to be upset as usual . . . because he’s right behind you.”

There was the clack of a shotgun bolt being dropped.

Stricken had seemingly materialized out of nowhere, about twenty feet behind Franks. The man must have had gnome-level ninja skills to have gotten that close without any of us seeing him. He had a semiauto shotgun pointed at Franks’ spine and had ditched the suit in exchange for some MCB-style body armor, though he had kept the shades. Of course he’d retained that trademark affectation, even though it was pitch-black out here.

“Don’t move,” Stricken said. Franks was fast, but there was no way he’d be fast enough to not get plugged in the back. Except Stricken must have known that Franks wouldn’t mind getting shot if it meant killing him in the process. “I know what you’re thinking, but I had these armor-piercing slugs made special after our little Project Nemesis debacle. The shells I’ve got loaded in here are filled with a neurotoxin harvested from a jellyfish that is the nastiest poison on Earth. Even as tough as you are, all those redundant organs of yours will basically melt.”

“It’s even lethal to Franks?” Lana said. “Nice.”

“Sugar, this shit would nuke a T. rex.” Stricken looked around the very nervous clearing. He saw me, but I didn’t dare take my gun off the Drekavac in order to shoot Stricken. “So the gang’s all here. Pitt, meet Lana.”

“We met earlier. She kicked me in the head.”

“You told me Pitt was ugly, but I think he’s kinda cute,” she said.

“You say that about everybody . . . And you’ve all met Silas Carver.” Stricken nodded toward the Drekavac. “Cursed witch burner turned whatever the fuck he is now, but we’re going to need a nearly unkillable super monster where we’re going.”

The monster was still staring at Sonya with unquenchable hate, except she was keeping the live grenade pressed against her chest so he didn’t dare move without risking his prize. Sonya was wearing the same face as earlier—her supposedly real one—and she looked downright defiant. It wasn’t that she was unafraid to die. She was obviously terrified. But if you were going to die anyway, better to do it on your terms than on the terms set by some cursed monstrosity determined to punish you for your sins.

“And I believe you’ve all met Sonya, who I originally hadn’t planned on bringing along on our little quest, but I guess Isaac Newton never figured a half breed with spirit blood would dink around with one of his devices and cause a phase shift anomaly either. Trying to make two incompatible types of matter coexist in the same space? What are the odds?”

“Does that mean you know how to fix it?” Sonya asked.

“I do. And I will get that out of you, provided you cooperate. When I looked into your genealogy, it turns out you’re a perfect fit for our endeavor and you’ve got some useful skillsets to boot. So I’m going to roll with this complication and invite Sonya to join our little fellowship. Think of me as your badass Gandalf.”

“Fun,” said Lana. “I don’t have to be the only girl on the team.”

“What team?” Franks growled, probably still thinking about whether getting melted by a jellyfish slug was worth it or not.

“I’m talking about the crew I put together for a very important mission. It took a lot of effort to get you all here. I needed to recruit representatives of certain specific offices and bloodlines in order to tackle one hell of a job. It’s kinda like how I used to put together special teams for the government, only without as much red tape.”

“You’re gonna want to listen to him, Franks,” the succubus warned.

“What are you all jabbering about?” I demanded, because our Mexican standoff had somehow morphed into Stricken’s insane pitch meeting.

“Which brings us to Owen Zastava Pitt, who is contractually obligated to help me save the world because of what he said in front of Veles. Sorry, you know him as Coslow. Same pain in the ass, different millennia. Either way, you really don’t want to go back on your word to somebody like that. Trust me on this one. Along with Franks, that gives us multiple Chosen, and we only need one to survive to fulfill the mission. I love having built-in redundancies.”

“Enough!” shouted the Drekavac. “Be silent, wretched mortal. There is work to be done.”

“I agree with the evil ghost thing,” I muttered.

“Easy there, Mr. Carver. Your work is done for now. Unfortunately for you, I’m no stranger to how your all-important contracts work. I paid for the insurance. You failed to secure my property in the specified time frame. So now you owe me.”

That actually made the Drekavac look away from Sonya. “I grow tired of your words.”

“Read the fine print and then check the clock. You work for me now.”

“Lies,” the Drekavac hissed. But he lifted one hand, and a glowing scroll formed in it. He unfurled it and read, eye beams flicking back and forth. I was tempted to use this distraction to shoot him in the head, but I didn’t know if that would be enough, and I was kind of curious where Stricken was going with this.

“It can’t be.” I hadn’t thought the Drekavac could get any angrier, but I’d been wrong. The blue fire flared up. “What manner of trickery is this?”

“That’s right,” Stricken said. “I insisted on that addendum. You failed to uphold it, so you owe me.”

“These Hunters caused my delay. You must have aided them to deceive and enslave me!”

Stricken laughed. “File a complaint. The Dark Market can send its auditors to check but they’ll discover I’m in the clear. I didn’t give MHI shit. They’re capable of being shockingly meddlesome all on their own. I only stepped in here once you were out of time. Now, in order for you to atone for failing to retrieve the Ward for the rightful auction winner, i.e. me, before the deadline, which was two minutes ago, you now owe me one season of loyal servitude. I only need you for a week, tops. Your other option is your boss punishes you with a thousand years in a fiery pit. I need spectral muscle, and I know how to undo the Vatican Hunter’s little ceremony thing with the ashes so you can be at full strength in time for our mission. You don’t want to spend centuries suffering unimaginable torment. It’s a win-win.”

The Drekavac glared at Stricken. I thought that I’d seen hate on his face for Sonya, but that had been nothing compared to the contempt and loathing the wires curved into now. “You think you can trap me in your web of lies, mortal? You believe that I am some mere pawn like the pathetic monsters you enslaved before? Nay . . . The Hubertian’s rite has temporarily taken me to my final life, but it did nothing to weaken my pride.”

Stricken didn’t dare take his eyes off of Franks even for a second, but for the first time I saw just a crack in the chess master’s calm façade. His pitch wasn’t going the way he’d hoped. “Be smart, Silas. You need me more than I need you. You’re my first-round draft pick, but I’ve got a backup super monster on tap. You’re on your last legs. I’m offering you a really good deal here.”

I could hear Skippy’s helicopter closing in. Search lights were flicking through the trees. My friends were almost here. Franks looked at me and gave a small nod. I think I knew what Franks wanted. I’d shoot Stricken to try and save him. He’d probably shoot the Drekavac. The Drekavac would shoot somebody, hopefully the succubus. And between all that, Sonya would probably do something stupid with that live hand grenade . . . 

I shook my head no.

Franks angry nodded yes.

The next couple seconds were going to get really interesting.

Except then Drekavac said, “This affair has insulted my honor. It would be better to be damned to an eternity of suffering than to bend my knee to a serpent like you. I will accept my punishment and suffer a thousand years, content knowing that I killed you all first.”

The monster tore his contract in half.

“So much for being reasonable,” Stricken said as he tossed something on the ground.

The world was consumed in a blinding flash.



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Framed