Carpathian 23 - Dark Storm

Riley looked over the room and noted several dealers
     in the throng.
    Pietra and her friends didn’t deign to speak to anyone on that level, but swept across
     the room to the other side. The crowd parted for them immediately, never hindering
     their progress, which told Riley a lot about Pietra’s status in the underground club.
     A door on the far side of the room led to another staircase leading down. As far as
     Riley could tell, the place was a firetrap. There were too few exits and too many
     people, most of them bored, drunk and high, a bad combination.
    Riley felt as though she was descending into hell as they followed Pietra down the
     stairs to the next level. They came to a doorway with two men guarding it closely.
     Pietra didn’t say a word, but lifted her chin, and one of the guards hastily opened
     the door. Dax went through fast with Riley. Riordan had to slip beneath the door when
     the guard shut it just as fast.
    Riley nearly gagged. There was a revolting, foul feel to the air. Every breath she
     took felt as if she was drawing something oily and vile into her lungs. Her heart
     jumped in alarm. The stench of evil permeated this level. The music jangled her nerves.
     There were no melancholy strains, but pounding, beating chaotic notes with the crowd
     mindlessly freak dancing in the space much smaller than the one above them.
    The smell of sweat and drugs mixed with soil and blood. The walls of the “club” were
     dirt, as was the floor. They weren’t in a dance club. They were in Mitro’s lair, surrounded
     by his human puppets. Great twisted vines rippled across the walls with obscene life.
     Riley noticed that everyone stayed well away from them.
    Again the crowd parted to allow Pietra through. Davi, Ana and the others followed
     her, winding their way to the front of the room.
    He isn’t here yet, but can you feel the anticipation in this room? They’re all waiting
     for him, Dax said.
    The drug consumption here is appalling, Riordan said, looking around at the frantic, moving bodies.
    There are bloodstains on the floor, the walls and up there on that dais. Dax indicated the platform at the front of the room where Pietra had draped herself
     casually over a chair, her elegant legs crossed, her foot tapping a rhythm to the
     pounding beat.
    Riley studied her face. Her eyes were nearly glazed, her mouth twisted into a grotesque
     parody of a smile. The whites of her eyes were nearly gone. A sick black spread like
     a disease, nearly covering all of her eyes. Riley shuddered. A small sliver of the
     most evil creature on earth dwelled inside of Pietra, binding itself to the woman’s
     own revolting, malevolent nature.
    I need to feel the soil, Dax. She could feel the pain, hear it just underneath the beat of the music.
    That’s not going to happen. If you put your hands into the soil and his resting place
     is anywhere beneath us, and he’s there, he’ll know exactly where you are.
    Riley shook her head. She couldn’t explain, but she already knew Mitro wasn’t in the
     ground. He was out hunting. The soil was calling to her. Begging her. The mutations
     he’d created were in pain. Their eagerness for blood was not natural. The human sacrifices
     fed to them burned like acid, but they had no choice.
    The vines stirred restlessly, the wooden liana clacking against one another, leaves
     lifting as if they might reach for her. Each time the plant moved, it released a gaseous
     stench of evil into the room, threatening to choke her.
    Dax, I can turn the very soil against him. I hear it crying out against an abomination.
     Nature has an order, and he goes against everything nature stands for. This might
     be our edge.
    And he might kill you, Riley. I don’t want to take that chance.
    There is no living without you. You’re here fighting him. I have to fight him in my
     own way. I look at that horrible woman sitting up there all smug, knowing she marked
     six women to be murdered, their babies sacrificed before they were even born, and
     it sickens me. She’s marked Jasmine now, too.
    Riley was passionate about her argument. She was angry and determined this was going
     to end. She might not be a warrior, but she was a child of the earth. She could heal
     the soil and plants before Mitro returned if Dax would just give her the chance. If
     Mitro tried to escape Dax and Riordan through the earth, he would be in for a huge
     shock. She just needed the chance to stop him, and he’d