Immortals After Dark 04 - Wicked Deeds on a Winters Night

time, her ancestors are our ancestors.”
    “Oh, then by that reasoning, she won’t leave me either,” Cade said, sarcasm in his voice. “She and I are both mercenaries. There’s a code there.”
    “It’s incidental if I would leave anyone behind,” Mari finally said. “I don’t know that I could lift it.”
    “What do you mean?” Rydstrom said. “You’re strong. I can feel your power even now.”
    “I... I blow things up,” she admitted. “And I mostly don’t mean to. Mostly.”
    Cade shook his head. “The entire structure’s resting on the portcullis. If you explode that stone, the tomb would come down like a house of cards.”
    Rydstrom said, “Let’s look at odds and make a rational decision—exactly how often do you accidentally blow things up?”
    “The times I can get my magick to work?” she said. “Ninety-nine out of a hundred.”
    As Tierney swore under his breath, Cade said, “So we look for another way out. Did anyone find an exit in any of the chambers?”
    “There aren’t going to be any exits,” Tera said, her attention riveted to a frieze above the portcullis. Intricate animal signs and hieroglyphics were carved into the stone.
    “Why do you say that?” Rydstrom asked.
    Tera squinted up at the carvings, seeming to somehow make sense of the animal and geometrically shaped glyphs. “Because this is... a jail .”
    “You’ve deciphered those marks?” Mari asked Tera.
    Tierney answered for her, “She knows all languages.”
    Tera translated for them. “It says this tomb is a jail holding six demon essence stealers—incubi—for their unnatural crimes against the daughter of a powerful sorcerer.”
    “They probably all seduced her, then pops gets pissed,” Tierney said. “Locks them away here.”
    Tera nodded. “The Mayans were custodians for them, of a sort. Kept them locked up—and fed periodically.”
    “That explains the sacrificial headdresses,” Cade said. “Mayan females were offered up.”
    Tera continued, “They’re cursed never to leave this place—short of death. According to these calendrics, they have been here for eleven hundred and eleven years.”
    “Well, that can’t be right,” Mari said. “No one’s home—”
    Claws scrabbled over stone somewhere in the shadows. Everyone glanced around uneasily.
    They weren’t alone...
    “We left the front door open for hours,” Tierney said. “Why would they remain here?”
    Tera said, “They probably are bound to the tomb, unable to cross the threshold.”
    “If they are still here, it shouldn’t be a problem,” Mari said, even as she backed her way to Rydstrom and Cade. “Right? Especially if Tera can speak their language.”
    The incubi that Mari had known were all charming and hot. Finding one in your bed was supposed to be a good problem to have.
    So why were the tiny hairs of her nape standing up? Gazing up at Rydstrom, she murmured, “Mind if I stick around you, big guy?”
    In answer, he briefly laid his massive hand on the top of her head in a strangely comforting way.
    Suddenly, the scent of rotting flesh pervaded the crypt. Mari felt evil all around them— old evil—circling.
    As her eyes darted around, she unconsciously began to build magick again.
    A drop of something... viscous hit her bare shoulder. In the unnatural lantern light, she slowly raised her face. Her lips parted, her mind unable to comprehend.
    “Mariketa,” Tera whispered, as she crossed to her. “Your face has gone white. What could—?” Her words died in her throat as she followed Mari’s gaze. Tera’s bow and arrow shot up again.
    But arrows couldn’t kill what was already dead.
    “The incubi!” one of the others yelled as shadowy beings swarmed the area, diving and flying all around them. Cade and Rydstrom drew their swords. Just when Mari was praying to Hekate that these people she hardly knew would protect her, Rydstrom used one hand to shove her behind him.
    At the first crazed attack, the demons’ swords struck and deflected. The archers shot wildly. The twang of bow and the clash of steel were deafening in the echoing space.
    Yet the incubi seemed to be focusing their attacks on Rydstrom—and trying to get to her .
    All at once, Rydstrom was besieged. Without his guard, Mari was knocked down, landing on her front so hard her teeth clattered. Blood from a wound somewhere on her head tracked down her cheeks. Power-laden blue light cast erratically from her hands and eyes but struck