Page 10 of Torn Ivy
“What is it?” Bram asks impatiently.
“I’m not sure,” Tate murmurs, eyes closed to focus on his other senses. “There’s some kind of seam or crack here. It’s subtle, but...”
He trails off, pressing harder against the wall. Suddenly, there’s a soft click and a section of stone slides back, revealing a small alcove.
“What the fuck?” I shove him out of the way to peer inside. “Is it me, or was that way too easy to find?”
“Depends on who they usually lock up in here,” Bram remarks. “Vampires with enhanced hearing might not be the norm.”
“True,” I murmur and stoop down a bit so I can get a better look inside the hole in the wall.
Inside, there is a strange object. A sphere about the size of a cricket ball made of some kind of iridescent material that shiftsand swirls as we look at it. Faint whispers are coming from it that are so subtle even my vampire hearing is struggling with it.
“What the fuck is that thing?” Bram asks, leaning in for a closer look.
“I have no idea,” Tate says. “But I bet it’s important.”
We all stare at the shifting, whispering orb for a long moment.
“Fuck it,” I finally say, making a decision. “We don’t have many other options. I say we grab it and see what happens.”
Tate looks uncertain. “Are you sure? This could go very badly.”
I shrug. “We’re already prisoners of Death. How much worse could it get?”
“Oh, you fucking had to, didn’t you?” Bram mutters, but he doesn’t argue further.
Taking a deep breath, I reach out and wrap my hand around the orb. The moment my skin makes contact, a jolt of energy surges through me. The whispers grow louder, becoming a swarm of voices in my head.
“Torin?” Tate mutters.
A door slides open behind us, making us spin rapidly, hands up, ready to fight, but nothing comes through.
“Did you do that?” Bram asks.
“Maybe,” I reply. “Who can tell?”
“Should we go through it?” Tate asks.
“Yeah, we aren’t sitting here with our dicks in our hands,” I snap, moving forward.
“Wait,” Bram says. “We need to talk. I’ve been keeping something from you guys. I’ve aligned myself with an organisation that reckons it wants to take out The Syndicate. I’ve done a couple of jobs for them. The goal was to see if I could move in the same circles as Poison. They want her. They said Ivy is special.”
I stare at him as he rambles on. “Special, how?” The rest doesn’t bother me. I don’t give a fuck what he does in his free time, and anything that takes down The Syndicate is fine by me. It’s my end game, after all. The less work I have to do in order to accomplish this task, the better.
He shrugs. “They didn’t say.”
“Who are they?” Tate asks carefully, less willing to let it go, it seems.
“Not really all that sure. They approached me one night in the forest. It was like they knew what I wanted. But apart from wanting The Syndicate out of the way, their motives are murky, at best.”
Tate runs a hand through his hair, frustration evident in every line of his body. “We don’t have time for this shit. We need to find Ivy before Death does whatever the fuck he’s planning.”
“Agreed,” I say, shoving the orb into my pocket. The voices in my head quiet to a dull murmur. “We can deal with Bram’s extracurricular activities later. Right now, we need to get the hell out of here.”
Without waiting for a response, I stride through the open doorway, senses on alert. The others follow close behind, Tate muttering curses under his breath.
The passage beyond is dark and narrow, the walls slick with moisture. The air is thick with the scent of decay and something else, something ancient and powerful that sets my teeth on edge. It twists and turns, leading us deeper into whatever realm we’ve found ourselves in. The darkness is absolute, but my vampire vision allows me to navigate without issue. Behind me, I hear Tate and Bram stumbling occasionally.
