Vespertine

Quinn’s head was pounding. Whatever they had dosed her with clearly wasn’t agreeing with her. She had only woken up a couple minutes ago, but her vision was slowly adjusting to the dim room she was in.

There was a mirror on the opposite wall, and an empty table in front of her. She sat on a chair, hands cuffed behind her back. She scoffed and pulled a pin from inside one of her pants seams, working the metal into the cuffs. There was a small click, but she kept them on, just in case.

Sure enough, a moment later the door opened and a tall, thin man stepped in. He wore overly large glasses and even though his face was devoid of expression, he wasn’t particularly intimidating.

“Quinn Vespertine,” he said. His voice was weak and decidedly average.

She raised an eyebrow. “Who’s that?”

He scowled. “That’s you.”

“No, I don’t think so,” she said cheerfully. “Probably got me mixed up.”

His scowl deepened. “Do you honestly expect me to fall for that?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. You look kind of dumb.”

He snarled and lunged for her, and she burst from her handcuffs and slammed him over the desk.

“Ow,” he moaned. “How did you do that?”

She snorted. “Buddy, I spent the first sixteen years of my life thinking I was mortal. I know how to get out of handcuffs.”

She flexed her fingers and considered blowing the door off its hinges when she realized she couldn’t feel her magic.

Something like panic bubbled inside of her, but she forced it down. Forced herself to be logical. She pressed down harder on the man’s arm. “What did you do to my magic?”

Even though Quinn clearly had the upper hand, he sneered. “The cell is bound. The flux field steers clear of it, so you can’t access your powers.”

She frowned. “Bring it back.”

He glared at her, a difficult feat considering his face was half smushed into the table. “What do you think I am, stupid?”

Then he sighed. “Don’t answer that.”

Quinn raised an eyebrow. “Look, I’ve already got you pinned. It can’t get much worse, right?”

“I can’t,” he said. “Don’t know how.”

She twisted his arm and he howled. “Don’t lie to me,” she snapped. “My head hurts and I’m not in a very good mood. Tell me how it works and bring it back.”

He stopped yelling as she loosened her grip on his arm. “I-It’s like a signature.”

“Signature?”

“Specific to me. I bound this cell and therefore only I can unlock it. The flux field isn’t gone, just...straying. My power keeps it from noticing us.”

“Interesting,” she mused. “Arette’s must work the same way, yes?”

He made a scornful noise. “She’s young.

Doesn’t know how to control it.”

She tugged on him. “Well, it doesn’t matter. Unlock it.”

He glanced at her imploringly. “I can’t like this. I need to focus.”

“Fine,” she said, stepping back and relinquishing her hold. “But hurry. I haven’t got all day.”

He straightened up and groaned, rubbing his wrist. And then he lunged for Quinn again, this time avoiding her arms and diving for her legs. She kicked him in the chest and he went sprawling.

“Combat isn’t your strong suit, is it?”

“No,” he said sadly. “I’m a scientist.”

“It’s okay. To each their own.”

He glared. “I’m an assassin, you know. I’m one of the best out there. I created the tranquilizer you were dosed with.”

“Could you leave out the migraine side effect next time, then?”

He huffed, sitting up. “People are usually more impressed. Killing is easy, you know. It’s the not getting caught that’s hard.”

Quinn shrugged, but didn’t say anything incriminating. “Unlock the field.”

He raised his hands and made a motion, and within a moment Quinn could feel her magic flooding back. It gave her a sense of relief that she was almost afraid of. I don’t want to get attached to magic. You’re not a sorcerer, Quinn, remember that. Mortal. Mortal.

She turned the door handle before looking at the man, sitting on the floor. “What’s your name?”

He wrinkled his nose. “They call me the Chemist,” he said, in a boastful tone.

“No, they don’t.”

He sagged a little. “Fine. My name is Egbert.”

“Wow,” she said, raising her eyebrow. “I can see why you’d want to be called something else.”

He waved a hand. “Hippie parents, you know.”

She nodded. “Awfully dumb of them to send in someone who doesn’t know combat, Egbert.”

“Agreed,” he said.

Then she opened the door and was instantly ambushed by two guards.

They both held syringes, and she twisted and squirmed to avoid the needles. She kneed one in the stomach, hard, and twisted his wrist hard enough for him to drop the syringe. Egbert scrambled for it, but she kicked it out of the room and into the corridor.

The other guard jabbed the needle in her neck, but before he could depress the plunger Quinn punched him in the face. She yanked the needle out of her neck, cursing. She jabbed it into the arm of the first guard, who was back on his feet and coming for her. She pressed the plunger quickly and within a second he was out, sinking to the floor peacefully.

“Get her!” Egbert was shouting at the other guard. He staggered forward, his nose a bloody mess. He looked as angry as a man with a broken nose could.

Quinn spun and lashed out with a kick, but he caught her leg with his hand and pulled her forward. She coughed in surprise for a second, but quickly adjusted and struck a blow to his knee as she went down. His leg jerked and he lost his balance, and she took advantage of that moment to leap up, relying on his grip on her leg, hoist herself up on his shoulders and knee him right in his broken nose.

He howled and let go of her leg, and she ran out into the hallway, scooping up the other syringe. She turned back and saw the guard lumbering towards her, and she mercifully put him to sleep with a jab to the neck.

She dropped the empty syringe, panting. Egbert was looking at her with an expression of annoyance, as if he were trying to say, did you have to knock them out? , but he made no move to stop her.

“See you later,” she panted, and then ran down the corridor.

She wasn’t sure which way to head when she came to a split in the hallway, but then she heard a bloodcurdling scream from the left and headed that way. She couldn’t be sure, but she thought it was Caiden. Her heart lurched a bit.

She passed several empty cells, and then skidded to a stop when she saw a guard standing outside a cell further down the hall. That was where the screaming was coming from. There was another earsplitting shriek, and the guard in the hall opened the door and looked inside. “What the hell is happening in there?” He asked, sounding annoyed. He was probably talking to the other guard.

Quinn sprang forward, taking advantage of the distraction to put the guard in a sleeper hold. The guard struggled for a moment, but her grip was strong and he sank to the floor, unconscious. The door swung closed as she laid him down, and she took a deep breath before opening the door.

The guard inside the room turned and reached for a weapon inside his belt, but Quinn delivered a swift kick to his head that knocked him aside. He hit his head on the metal table and collapsed, bleeding slightly.

Caiden was sitting in the chair with his hands cuffed behind his back, like she had been. He was also completely unharmed.

She frowned. “Was that you doing all that screaming?”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“Were they…torturing you?”

“No,” he responded. “But they were ignoring me. I figured I would make that a little harder for them to do.”

She shook her head. “You’re a real piece of work.”

She knelt down behind him and used her pin to free his hands from the cuffs, and then they both dragged the other guard inside and used the key on his belt to lock the two inside the room.

“We need to find Arette and get out,” Quinn said, eyes darting around furtively as she surveyed the hallway. “You wouldn’t happen to know where she is, would you?”

“Yes, because I’m best friends with our kidnapper,” he said sarcastically.

Quinn ignored his jibe. “She must be down a different hallway,” she said, pointing in the direction she had come from. “I was all the way over there.” She then ran back in that direction, but instead of turning down the corridor that would lead to her cell, they kept going straight.

“There’s nobody here,” Caiden panted as they ran. “I don’t see any guards.”

“There, then,” Quinn said, pointing ahead. “It splits into two again. You take left, I’ll take right.”

They split up at the intersection, only to meet back up further down the hall.

“Dammit,” Quinn gasped in frustration. “This place is too fucking big.”

“I think we’ve reached some kind of storage area,” Caiden said, looking around. “It’s huge. I wouldn’t be surprised if they could land a plane in here.”

Quinn cursed. “It’s not what we’re looking for. Arette isn’t gonna be in the open.”

“Back in my cell direction?” He suggested.

Quinn nodded reluctantly. “We don’t really have a choice. We probably shouldn’t split up again, though. Egbert’s bound to have sounded some kind of alarm by now.”

“Egbert?”

She sighed. “Long story.”

They made their way back to Caiden’s cell, but their lack of opposition seemed to be a bit eerie. Quinn had a bad feeling; similar to the one she had on her last raid with the V’s. She scowled at the memory and pushed it away, focusing instead on running after Caiden.

The hallway ahead only branched off in one direction, and they rounded the corner, only to find that it turned in another direction. They rounded that corner, too, and then Caiden stopped short.

The hallway led to another open storage space, but that wasn’t the reason for the abrupt halt. Quinn skidded to a stop behind him, peering over her shoulder. Her breath froze.

“Long time no see,” said Scarlett Rowan.