Stronger Together chapter 163

I was about to lose my damn mind. I'd been feeling so powerful  lately, taking out all my opponents one by one, and then The Beast shows  up and rakes me over the coals. I felt like I was hurtling down a set  of tracks in a cart and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't stop. I'd  gotten too obsessed with raw power and forgotten that even minimal force  can move mountains with the right leverage. I got cocky and Andi and  these bystanders were paying the price.

I forced myself to  calm down, already heading inside. This was what he wanted. He wanted  to get in my head, to make me freeze up with helplessness. The more I  stood still and freaked out the worse things would get and the more  horrified I'd be by it. I forced myself to take a breath as I headed up  to the top floor. I knew trying to save them both was probably a trap  but it was also the only move I could live with. If I left one of them  to die I'd never forgive myself.

Luckily for me I could  move through solid objects and move fast. If Chastel had set this up  ahead of time I was guessing the test hadn't been set up for someone  with my abilities. The wind aspect was new, and almost no one could  really believe how fast I was. even if they'd seen it for themselves. I  had an advantage here and I was determined to use it. I just had to keep  an eye out for any more bullshit tricks and loopholes. I was starting  to see why everyone was so fucking scared of Chastel, if I was having  this much trouble as powerful as I was I couldn't imagine dealing with  him if I was weaker than he was.

When I reached the top  floor I started darting into room with my wind aspect. Not having to use  doors or deal with walls that had been destroyed was incredibly useful  for a search operation. I activated my magic eye spell, trying to detect  and hint of presence from a living being. I couldn't see anything. I  wondered if Chastel was cloaking them like he had been the people in the  park. In fact thinking back it was obvious that had been a long  distance ability.

If he was watching me from a remote  location with cameras like it seemed likely he was, then he could cloak  and uncloak people from wherever he was. That did not bode well for  whoever was trapped up here. Still, I had options. The magic eye spell  was powerful. I combed over every single room, making sure to check  under each bed, I found nothing in most of the rooms, darting into  several of them to check on weird flashed or shifts of light that turned  out to be the magical presence of rats or spiders or at one point an  actual possum (I made a mental note to call the health board or  something) but I just couldn't find the hostage.

Then  I realized something. Every single inch of this place had magic in it.  Not a ton of it, but the entire world had magic, whether it was residual  stains from emotions people had felt near it or actual life in the case  of living things. They all had magic baked into their very essence.  Except one small room halfway down the hall. The area under the bed had  no magic at all. It was invisible to me. I bolted into the room and  threw back the bed to see...nothing. Not as in an empty bed frame, as in  I literally couldn't see a thing there, it was just a small sea of  darkness.

I'd  found the hostage, now I just needed a way to get rid of this stupid  cloaking spell that didn't require using magic that might accidentally  kill the person I was trying to save. I hadn't really thought this part  through. What the hell was the point of being able to detect stealth if  detecting it didn't break it. Also what the actual fuck was Chastel  doing with his magic that let him do this. I stared down into the  darkness under the bed and grimaced. Then I had another idea, this was  dark, soulfire was the purest light source in the universe.

I muttered a fire spell weak enough to barely light up the end of my  finger, which considering the amplification properties of soulfire was  harder than conjuring a fucking tsunami of the stuff would have been.  The small white flame flickered to life and as it kindled the darkness  under the bed was driven back to reveal...Chastel lunging for my throat.  I screamed and freaked out, hurling myself back as the werewolf came  tearing up from the bed from laughing and grinning like a lunatic and  now wolf gold. The giggling serial killer looked at me "So clone mon  ami, but you only have twenty minutes left now. I would hurry!"

Then  the son of a bitch just vanished. One second he was there then he was  gone. I focused on where he had been in my memory and saw him dart out  of the room at top speed, but by the time I dug through his weird  temporal stealth and ran out into the hallway to try to find him the  bastard was gone. My heart was pounding a mile a minute as a whirled in a  circle looking for any trace of him. The image of him laying in wait in  the dark under the bed, burning gold eyes widened maniacally as he  waited to try to rip out my throat was terrifying enough to make me  shudder.

This  whole thing was going off script. I was being hunted. He was playing  with me, just like he'd said. Even though I was stronger he was the one  in control. Once again I forced down the feelings of worry and doubt. I  refused to be afraid, I wouldn't give the sick bastard the satisfaction.  I focused on my magic eye spell again, trying to find another dark spot  and really hoping this one didn't have a crazy mass murdering werewolf  in it. I managed to track down another I rushed to the room with the  empty spot under the bed and conjured a much bigger handful of soulfire,  prepared to shove it down Chastel's throat if need be.

The  image of me standing over her holding a handful of blazing white  flames, prepared to smite her, might not have been the most comforting  thing for the little girl tied up under the bed to see when the darkness  fell away. I put the flames out immediately, keeping an eye out for  that werewolf asshole as I pulled her out of the frame "Hey there  sweetie, you ok?" The girl looked about ten, with black hair in a french  braid and wide terrified eyes. I pulled her gag off so she could  answer, but when she couldn't seem to form words I kept talking "I'm  here now, it's all going to be alright. You're safe. Do you have a key  around your neck sweetheart?"

Her  big blue eyes blinked up at me as she nodded. I snapped the chords  tying her up and she pulled the key out and handed it to me. Luckily the  key worked on both collars, so I unlocked hers and threw it back over  to the bed. I'd been worried this had been another trick, but apparently  the trick here had been Chastel under the bed trying to kill me and his  certainty I couldn't get up here fast enough to save both of the  hostages. Speaking of which I bolted down the stairs still holding the  little girl, frantically searching around to make sure I wasn't about to  be ambushed as I ran at normal-ish speeds to make sure I didn't hurt  her.

Based on  the taunts from Chastel I had only about fifteen minutes to get  downstairs and find the right room. Plus I had to bring the girl because  I abso fucking lutely was not putting a ten year old girl down to wait  for me alone in a hotel with a maniacal serial killer on the loose.  Luckily the place wasn't too big and we made it to the first floor with  ten minutes to spare. The first floor, unlike the top floor, had actual  people on it.

Luckily Chicago was  full off assholes who didn't say anything about me running through the  hotel with a crying ten year old who looked terrified. Well, either that  or some of Chastel's magic was still clinging to the kid, for the sake  of my own faith in humanity I chose to believe it was the latter. I  checked every room from the outside. Since this particular floor had  people all over it running through walls and potentially into rooms full  of people wasn't really an option. Finally I came to the right room. I  used my enhanced strength to snap the lock and force the door open with a  sharp twist of the knob. Once I was in I used the same white flame  trick to banish the darkness under the bed.

Luckily  it was again, not a crazy french werewolf. The space under the bed this  time had a girl in her mid twenties, tied up just like the little girl  had been. Said little girl was clearly still terrified, and was sitting  in a chair on the far end of the room still crying. I tried to focus on  helping the other girl snapping the chords and removing her gag before  warning her "Hold still, I'm going to take this collar off you ok?" She  nodded very subtly so as not to shake the collar and I unlocked it,  throwing it out the window into a small empty lot behind the hotel now  that I was close enough to the ground to see that I wouldn't be hitting  anyone.

My  only warning that something was wrong was a small scream from behind me  as I spun to see the woman I'd just saved hurt herself at me, turning  into a wolf as she flew. I had enough time as she was in midair to  recognize the wolfskin belt of a hexenwulfen before she was one me. That  wasn't the problem though. The problem was Chastel melting from the  darkness with a grin to grab the little girl and bolt, both of them  vanishing before he hit the door. The hexenwulf was on me, trying to  tear out my throat, but she was fairly week compared to me even without  aspects, a quick punch to her skull knocked her out.

I  climbed to my feet, angry, frustrated, and covered in tiny wounds  across my skin that bled a lot but didn't do much actual damage. As I  contemplated my next move my phone rang. I snarled to myself as I went  to pick it up only to realize the ring tone was my normal ring, not that  obnoxious song. I picked up the phone after checking the caller ID  "Barb, is this important? Because The Beast just took off with a little  girl I need to go rescue, so if it isn't urgent I'm gonna need to call  you back." I did my best to keep my voice even and not betray the panic I  was feeling.

I  heard her cursing "Shit, I was calling to tell you we found Andi. We  have her home now and Raven circumvented quite a few detection wards on  the place he was keeping her. He has no clue we rescued her." I froze as  the other phone rang, playing Bark at the Moon as I smiled for the  first time since this awful night had started. I thanked Barb and then  hung up answering the burner phone. For the first time since we began  this game I had the upper hand. I slipped that upper hand under my  jacket to check the flintlock before answering the burner. I was going  to save that little girl, and Jean Chastel would die tonight.