“How far are you willing to fall?” Brandon asked Dax as they stood in one of the tunnels Jamie thought might be closest to where the portal would open next. The last time the portal had opened, they’d made it in time, but it had displayed nothing but a field of stars, so they’d all stayed put. They hoped the next time would be different. Once they heard the popping sound, if they didn’t actually see the opening at the far end of the tunnel they were standing in, all three of the lucky escapees would run back to the center and take a look down adjoining portals until one of them saw it. Then, they’d run like hell.
“I’ll jump pretty damn far, though not from outer space,” Dax admitted. “I know we won’t have a Healer on the other side waiting for us, but I’d just as soon be out and miserable than trapped in here.”
“What if there are Vampires on the other side?” Brandon countered. “It’s possible, you know.”
“I know. I can’t think about that anymore. I don’t want to be captured, but I don’t want to stay here. I’ve decided the risks here are worse.”
Brandon shook his head, thinking about what Holland’s minions had done to Paul Larson, the Melbourne Area Leader, when she’d taken him prisoner earlier in the year. They’d tortured him in unspeakable ways, and Brandon couldn’t imagine going through that. He thought staying right where he was might be a better option.
“I really wish we had some way of telling how close it was to opening,” Dax said, shuffling around a little bit in the narrow space. “At least before the demon hunters arrived, you could get a sense from the howls getting closer. Now, it’s just an eternity of sameness.”
“Settle down there, kid. We’ll get you out of here,” Elliott assured him, though Brandon had no idea how his dad could be so sure. Brandon had already handed over the extra charger and his phone to Elliott because he wouldn’t need it once they were out. Dax had his, though the battery was extremely low, so if they couldn’t use their IACs when they got back to reality, they might be able to call someone with Dax’s phone, but the little flickers of IAC activity he’d get every time the portal opened, except for the last two times when nothing happened, let him know they should be able to use them just fine. As a backup, he had Alex’s phone in his pocket, but he was hopeful he wouldn’t need that. The phone was for Cassidy, not for him.
He’d also already said goodbye to his dad, which just about enough to send him over the edge emotionally, though he’d managed to hold back his tears until he could walk away. He’d let his mind wander back to what it had been like growing up as a kid who believed his dad didn’t want to have anything to do with him until his mom flat out lied and said his dad was dead. He also remembered how it had felt when he discovered the truth, that his dad was alive—only to find out that he’d just been killed a few days before he came across an email from his dad to his mom. That message told him everything his mom had ever said about Elliott had been a lie. Now, she was one of the people he couldn’t wait to see, but only because his dad had come back into her life and cleaned up the mess she’d made. Walking away from his dad now, leaving him there, seemed like a horrible thing to do, especially since Brandon was aware that his own girlfriend was one of the people anxiously waiting to see Elliott again. But his dad was insistent, and he knew Elliott would feel a lot better about the entire situation once he knew Brandon was safe.
Assuming he would be. And at this point, he had to hope for the best.
Aaron had reminded them to look before they leapt. If the portal opening seemed iffy again, they shouldn’t go. He felt confident they could all make it another six hours or however long they needed to, especially since Jamie wasn’t going anywhere. Of course, Brandon had overheard the Guardian Leader trying to talk the other two into going now as well, but Elliott and Jamie wouldn’t hear of it, so Aaron eventually gave up on that idea. For now. They all knew, when it came down to it, if someone had to stay behind, it would be Aaron. Once LIGHTS had an extraction plan in place, he was sure Jamie and Elliott would come out first, and Aaron would only follow them if it was possible, which meant someone else would have to be in there with him—and demons and demon hunters didn’t count.
Heather had been lounging against the cave wall, but she stood up abruptly, jostling Brandon back to his senses. “Did you hear that?”
He hadn’t heard anything, but he didn’t get a chance to answer her before she was headed toward the cave opening that led to the center circle. He followed behind her, Dax behind him, the others falling into line, and they’d only made it a few steps before he did hear something, the popping and whooshing of the portal opening. What Heather had heard first, he wasn’t sure, and how she’d known which way to run was also beyond him, but he assumed it was due to the fact that she’d been in here a long ass time.
Despite the Guardians speed, she made it to the hub first, running to the closest tunnel to look down it. The rest of them spread out to check the passages already designated for them. Behind him, Brandon heard the wispy, scratching sound he’d heard when the demon hunters first entered and knew they weren’t alone. Jamie’s cry of, “Over here!” made him forget all about the creatures, and when he turned to look down the tunnel the Healer was standing in front of, he could see the opening.
They only had half a minute, and it was a long way to the end of the tunnel. Not only that, they’d need a few seconds to stop and assess the situation before hurrying through the portal opening, which wasn’t exactly at the cave wall. Without another thought, Brandon scooped Heather up by her waist, thinking it would be faster that way. She started to fight him but soon realized this was for her own good and wrapped her arms around his neck as Dax trailed them down the passage.
Running at full speed, he began to count in the back of his head. Figuring they’d lost ten seconds in identifying which tunnel led to the portal opening, that left him about twenty-six more seconds. By the time he got to the end of the tunnel, he had about ten seconds left.
Brandon screeched to a halt, Dax slamming into the back of him. They peered through the hole, trying to figure out where they might be. At first, all he saw was rolling hills lined with trees in the distance. The sky was barely light, like it was early morning, and he had no idea where they were or how long of a fall it would be. Then, he tilted his head down slightly and was able to see the top of a large structure beneath him.
“The Colosseum,” Dax said. “We’ve gotta be at least a hundred feet above it. And it’s a tall building.”
“We can make it,” Brandon said, thinking he could find a way to break their fall on the way down.”
“You think?”
He didn’t have time to argue with Dax or anyone else. Brandon took off running again as Heather, who didn’t seem afraid of anything, buried her face in his neck. At the end of the tunnel, everything got sticky and then slimy. The blackness seemed to overwhelm him, and he couldn’t see or hear anything. All of his senses were overcome by the dense darkness. And then he was falling....
