Incubus Dreams - October 31st
It's after dawn when Anita wakes up. Being metaphysically bound to a vampire -- well, two now, actually -- she's gained an innate sense of always knowing.
"Oh, thank God," Anita hears from somewhere behind her. She tries to see who's talking, but she's still very groggy. People who use drugs on others should really be more careful with the dosages. Anita was a small woman; it doesn't take much to take her down. After a minute, the room stops spinning and things start to come back into focus.
She's in a dimly-lit room. No windows and a cement floor -- probably a basement. The next thing catching her eye is the row of bars in front of her. She staggers to the door of the cage and rattles it. You have to; it's in the rules somewhere. She can sometimes channel some of Richard's or Jean-Claude's strength, but her mind is still too muddled to call on it clearly, so the door remains firmly shut.
The basement is quite large, with stairs on the far end of the room. But it's not the stairs that catch her attention. It's the floor. In the center of the open space is a power circle. A pentagram inscribed in a circle inlaid with silver. To the untrained, it might appear that the whole thing was drawn out in red paint, but Anita knows better. It's blood, of course. Old and dried, but still recognizable.
Finally, she turns around to see the source of the voice that had spoken before. As she expected, there were three other women in the cell with her. She recognizes Violet instantly, and knows enough from Donovan's description to distinguish between Laurie the swanmane and Jessica the witch. Someone's missing, though, she realizes, and then sees a coffin propped up against the wall beside the cage, draped with crosses. That'll be Joanna, then.
Violet moves quickly to Anita and kneels beside her, brushing her head against the necromancer's hand. Anita unconsciously moves to brush her fingers through the wereleopard's hair. "It's okay, Vi. We're going to get out of this."
"Are you a leopard, too?" asks Jessica.
Anita shakes her head. "Not exactly. I'm Nimir-Ra for the pard, but I'm not actually a lycanthrope. I'm actually an animator."
Jessica leans forward a little, examining Anita's face. Her eyes go wide, and she lets out a tiny gasp. "God and Goddess, you're Anita Blake. The one the vampires call the Executioner."
"Yeah," she replies. "Which means that whoever took us is either strong enough to not care who they grabbed, or stupid enough that they didn't realize."
"I like the second choice," Laurie says timidly.
"Me, too," Anita agrees. She closes her eyes and tries to contact Richard, since Jean-Claude would still be out for the day. The drugs haven't worked themselves completely out of her system yet, though, and every time she reaches for that connection, it dances out of her grasp.
"They're going to kill us, aren't they?" Jessica asks, breaking Anita's concentration completely.
"I don't think they are," Anita says. "That pentagram on the floor there pretty much guarantees they're planning on summoning a demon. And since they've grabbed five different supernaturals, I'd wager it's a pretty powerful one. In the 'good news' column, though, the fact that they're obviously planning to do this on Halloween--"
"Samhain," Jessica corrects.
"--tonight, means that they're amateurs. Demons don't have calendars, and there's nothing particularly special about tonight, metaphysically speaking. So there's a very real chance that whatever they're going to try is going to fail spectacularly." She doesn't add that when that happens, the kidnappers will most likely kill them all.
The door at the top of the stairs opens, and Anita tenses. Surely they aren't going to start while it's still daytime? They have to have more brains than that. Which, apparently, they do, as the man who descends the stairs is just carrying a tray. The scent of food wafts over to her as he approaches. At least the girls had been treated reasonably well. Except for Joanna, of course; Anita doubts very much they've fed her at all.
The man sets the tray of food down on the floor beside the door and pulls a key out of his pocket. Anita shifts her weight onto the balls of her feet. If these bastards grabbed women because they thought women were too weak to resist, they were about to get a very nasty lesson.
As soon as the door begins to swing outward, Anita launches herself forward, adding her momentum to the opening. The man hadn't been expecting that and couldn't back up quickly enough to avoid having the side of the door slam into his head. He drops bonelessly to the ground, and Anita doesn't even stop to see if he's still breathing. She crosses the room in quick strides and makes it all the way to the foot of the stairs before the taser wires hit her in the upper chest. The shock stops her in her tracks, and she collapses in a heap as the electricity knocks out her brain's ability to control her muscles. Unfortunately, it also disrupts her ability to control her fall, and her head bounces off the cement floor.
It's several hours later when she wakes up again, almost night. Her head is cradled in Violet's lap, and the other two girls are hovering nearby. Laurie offers her some of the food that they'd saved for her, but Anita shakes her head. She's feeling much clearer now -- the adrenaline and the electricity helped to burn the last of the drugs out of her system. And Jean-Claude would be awake by now. She closes her eyes and pulls together what energy she can, focusing it into a mental cry for help.
"Oh, thank God," Anita hears from somewhere behind her. She tries to see who's talking, but she's still very groggy. People who use drugs on others should really be more careful with the dosages. Anita was a small woman; it doesn't take much to take her down. After a minute, the room stops spinning and things start to come back into focus.
She's in a dimly-lit room. No windows and a cement floor -- probably a basement. The next thing catching her eye is the row of bars in front of her. She staggers to the door of the cage and rattles it. You have to; it's in the rules somewhere. She can sometimes channel some of Richard's or Jean-Claude's strength, but her mind is still too muddled to call on it clearly, so the door remains firmly shut.
The basement is quite large, with stairs on the far end of the room. But it's not the stairs that catch her attention. It's the floor. In the center of the open space is a power circle. A pentagram inscribed in a circle inlaid with silver. To the untrained, it might appear that the whole thing was drawn out in red paint, but Anita knows better. It's blood, of course. Old and dried, but still recognizable.
Finally, she turns around to see the source of the voice that had spoken before. As she expected, there were three other women in the cell with her. She recognizes Violet instantly, and knows enough from Donovan's description to distinguish between Laurie the swanmane and Jessica the witch. Someone's missing, though, she realizes, and then sees a coffin propped up against the wall beside the cage, draped with crosses. That'll be Joanna, then.
Violet moves quickly to Anita and kneels beside her, brushing her head against the necromancer's hand. Anita unconsciously moves to brush her fingers through the wereleopard's hair. "It's okay, Vi. We're going to get out of this."
"Are you a leopard, too?" asks Jessica.
Anita shakes her head. "Not exactly. I'm Nimir-Ra for the pard, but I'm not actually a lycanthrope. I'm actually an animator."
Jessica leans forward a little, examining Anita's face. Her eyes go wide, and she lets out a tiny gasp. "God and Goddess, you're Anita Blake. The one the vampires call the Executioner."
"Yeah," she replies. "Which means that whoever took us is either strong enough to not care who they grabbed, or stupid enough that they didn't realize."
"I like the second choice," Laurie says timidly.
"Me, too," Anita agrees. She closes her eyes and tries to contact Richard, since Jean-Claude would still be out for the day. The drugs haven't worked themselves completely out of her system yet, though, and every time she reaches for that connection, it dances out of her grasp.
"They're going to kill us, aren't they?" Jessica asks, breaking Anita's concentration completely.
"I don't think they are," Anita says. "That pentagram on the floor there pretty much guarantees they're planning on summoning a demon. And since they've grabbed five different supernaturals, I'd wager it's a pretty powerful one. In the 'good news' column, though, the fact that they're obviously planning to do this on Halloween--"
"Samhain," Jessica corrects.
"--tonight, means that they're amateurs. Demons don't have calendars, and there's nothing particularly special about tonight, metaphysically speaking. So there's a very real chance that whatever they're going to try is going to fail spectacularly." She doesn't add that when that happens, the kidnappers will most likely kill them all.
The door at the top of the stairs opens, and Anita tenses. Surely they aren't going to start while it's still daytime? They have to have more brains than that. Which, apparently, they do, as the man who descends the stairs is just carrying a tray. The scent of food wafts over to her as he approaches. At least the girls had been treated reasonably well. Except for Joanna, of course; Anita doubts very much they've fed her at all.
The man sets the tray of food down on the floor beside the door and pulls a key out of his pocket. Anita shifts her weight onto the balls of her feet. If these bastards grabbed women because they thought women were too weak to resist, they were about to get a very nasty lesson.
As soon as the door begins to swing outward, Anita launches herself forward, adding her momentum to the opening. The man hadn't been expecting that and couldn't back up quickly enough to avoid having the side of the door slam into his head. He drops bonelessly to the ground, and Anita doesn't even stop to see if he's still breathing. She crosses the room in quick strides and makes it all the way to the foot of the stairs before the taser wires hit her in the upper chest. The shock stops her in her tracks, and she collapses in a heap as the electricity knocks out her brain's ability to control her muscles. Unfortunately, it also disrupts her ability to control her fall, and her head bounces off the cement floor.
It's several hours later when she wakes up again, almost night. Her head is cradled in Violet's lap, and the other two girls are hovering nearby. Laurie offers her some of the food that they'd saved for her, but Anita shakes her head. She's feeling much clearer now -- the adrenaline and the electricity helped to burn the last of the drugs out of her system. And Jean-Claude would be awake by now. She closes her eyes and pulls together what energy she can, focusing it into a mental cry for help.