Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2024 02:10:23 -0500 From: Fang Saito Subject: Welcome to Avernus - Chapter 22 This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any real people or places is purely coincidental. This story is the property of the author and is protected under copyright laws. The author retains all rights. No reproduction is allowed without the author's consent. Conversations and feedback are appreciated to Greyson B. via email at hokkaidohotel86it@gmail.com. I love hearing from readers. As always, special thanks to Johnny Kape for the excellent editing assistance he always provides me. If you enjoy this story, please support the Nifty archives today with a thoughtful donation by visiting https://donate.nifty.org/. The next chapter, 23, will close out the story. If you can find an opportunity to help out a favored author, it would be appreciated. https://www.buymeacoffee.com/GreysonB. You can find my other Nifty stories at: https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/adult-youth/cadence/ https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/highschool/a-ghost-finds-a-body/ Welcome to Avernus Chapter 22 "You're damn right you're an asshole," I said. "And what did you mean, telling Garrett that I owed you an apology?" "Is this really the time to have this out?" Wren asked. "Lives in danger and all that?" Was this guy for real? I sighed. Sadly he was right, and I was just going to have to take his help and his attitude, whether I wanted to or not. Boots was too important. Besides, I could punch him through a dumpster later. "Fine. Truce for now," I said. "Tell me what's happened." "Garrett said he filled you in. One of Bai's friends was taken out about a half hour ago." "Friend?" "Co-conspirator. And taken out, I mean destroyed." "How do you kill a Jianshi?" "Don't know," Wren waved me off. "The point is, Plague of Sorrows did it. But that's not all. It's just part of him making a play against Dom." "Oh really," I said, showing my skepticism. "And which side are you on, if you're shooting at Dom's right hand?" "Plague's coming at you so he can weaken Dom and bring him down. He's turned Montgomery to his side." "How do you know that?" "Ask Dom. He's put out a hit on Montgomery with the Si Jing Fu, but didn't say why." "So Montgomery wasn't taking me to the hotel, huh? And how does all this wrap up with my friend?" "Am I not your friend?" God, Wren was being an insecure ass. He actually sounded hurt. We didn't have time for this. "Grow up and answer the question. Where's Boots in all this?" Wren sighed, obviously wanting to pout, but at least answering. "Plague took him. Earlier, before he killed Bai's friend. He wanted to get you out of your house, since you had so many witnesses hanging out at your place. Good call on that, by the way. Accidental or not." "Thanks, I guess," I answered distractedly. "And his parents? They're gone, too?" "Taken away, yes. I'm assuming they aren't dead yet. Even with a power play like this, Plague is probably more looking for cooperation with escape, so he's going to keep casualties light, to try and not piss off Si Jing Fu any more than he has to." I looked him up and down. He looked hot as always, tall and slender, in a pair of jeans so acid washed they were near white, and a pink babydoll hoodie. But I was ignoring all that right now, instead trying to figure out his angle. This was definitely one of those times I wish I had my own mind reading powers. "Can we walk and talk?" I asked. "I feel kind of stupid standing here, when you say so much shit is happening." "Look, Jason, I'm really sorry I was such an ass." "Save it. Get me to wherever Boots is at. When he's not being threatened with death, then I'll better believe whatever you wanna say." "Not worried about his parents?" Wren shot back with a curious look. "I mean, I'd prefer nobody died, but fuck 'em. I've never met the bitches, but they're about as shitty as my dad, from what I've heard." I looked around as we strode down the street, trying to get my bearings. "Where are we going, the store?" "Close, but they'll expect that. Too obvious," Wren said. "The church. Can you run?" "Can you keep up?" I shot back. I took off, assuming he meant the church on the square with the game store. When we were a block away from the town square, I slowed enough for Wren to overtake me, allowing him to lead. But til then, I was damned if I was going to let him show me up and think I was weak. Who, me hold a grudge? Naw. We stopped once we reached the side of the church building, and he led me in a side door. It had been a minute since I'd been in a church, other than my dad's memorial, and I'd never been in one like this. It felt old, made all of stone and heavy dark wood, with lots of cubbies and gargoyles and shit. I was used to white siding or bricks, pale wood, and bright stained glass. Southern Baptist churches, not these northern Methodist or Catholic churches, or whatever this was. Hell, this place was so creepy, between it's design and nighttime lack of lighting, that it absolutely put me in the mood for the Vampyre we were about to be fucking with. "Why not go in through the store," I asked, trying not to sound as unnerved as felt. "It's one of the obvious entrances someone could be watching. There are further entrances, but since we don't know who could be working with Plague, we don't know who's watching where. I'm thinking somewhere close to LGM might slip us in while their backs are turned. City Hall could technically be another option, but since that entrance comes off the public storm bunker, it's more easily monitored." We made our way through some kind of office hallway down to a boiler room under the sanctuary. There was no light at all, so I had turned on the flashlight on my phone. Once there, I had to voice a few questions. "Before we go down, what are we looking at? Who's with us? Who's against us?" Wren looked back at me, and in the near darkness, I couldn't make out his mood. Was he annoyed at my questions? Scared at the situation? Pissed I wasn't fawning over him? Hopefully he was at least glad I wasn't fighting him or acting pissed, myself. "We know Plague is the real problem, and we know he's somehow convinced Montgomery to betray Dom." He sighed. "Other than that, we don't know how many of the Jianshi he has turned against Si Jing Fu, or of he's turned any other Vampyre. "As for our side? I know Bai and Garrett. I don't even know Dom's take on what's happened. Hell, I don't even know how much he even knows yet. He could be incommunicado and doesn't know anything yet, or he could have already suffered his own attack." "Do you know where my friend is?" He wouldn't look at me. "No." There was a reluctance in that word. A hesitancy. "Would you tell me if you did know?" I shot back. "Yes," he responded. There was something like surprise, or maybe offense, in his reply. "I'm not a monster, Jason, whatever you might think of me right now." "Ri-ight," I drawled out. I was being petty and I knew it. I was hurt and pissed, and Wren was available. That made him my victim for the time being. "So what do you know then? Where are we going?" "I know that if I hadn't shown up, Montgomery would have killed you by now." "He would have tried." I guess both of us were being catty. Maybe we needed to fuck it out of our systems. Angry make-up sex? I heard it was supposed to be hot. "Anyway," Wren continued. "I'm taking you to Garrett. He begged me to come find you. He would have come himself, but he's with Bai, trying to save others." "Damn. Sounds like a civil war or something." "It might be." He grabbed my sleeve and pulled me to the end of the walkway we were in. One side was cinder block wall, the other was pipes and machinery at the end was a series of gym lockers stacked against the back wall. "We have to be quiet once we're through here. Move quick, stay down low, and don't lose me. If I say run, it means I'm about to use my Vampyre speed, and you really need to try and keep up." I think he could see the nervousness in my face, because he softened up and added, "I want to save that for immediate danger though. I want a chance to make up with you, so I really want to keep you unhurt." "Got it," I shot back. I wasn't a hundred percent about us getting back together, but I'd rather have Wren as a friend than an enemy. He did something to one of the lockers, and it came away towards us, pulling a section of the wall with it. It was really odd, because it didn't even look mounted, more like the lockers were just leaning back against the wall. Recalling how warm it had always been down in the warrens, I slipped off my heavy coat, hooked it on one of the lockers, and followed Wren into the dimly lit hallway before us. As the wall settled back to its closed position, I said a little prayer to the void, that I'd be in a condition later to come back for my coat. After the creepy darkness of the church basement, it was nice to cut off my phone's flashlight and slip it back into my pocket. The immediate side tunnel we were in wasn't lit, but only a few dozen yards ahead was the well lit main tunnel I remembered from our little golf cart ride to my basement. Once we started down the main tunnel, however, I was hit with a different level of paranoia. Being brightly lit and stretching on indefinitely both front and back, there was no place to hide, should we be discovered. Wren seemed to pick up on my fear, because he reached back and took my hand in his. I felt somewhat comforted in his icy grip as he pulled me up to walk level with him."What are we going to say if someone tries to stop us?" I asked nervously. "Just try to stay relaxed. What I say will depend on who it is. Just remember that technically I outrank a lot of people down here." "That reminds me. Not that this is the best time to talk politics, but exactly how many people are on the Kung Fu Council?" Wren laughed, something that started as nearly a snort, but turned into a giggle. "Si Jing Fu, babe. Again, it's Si Jing Fu. And there are seven. Always an odd number." "Wow. And you and your sister both are on there? There must be some people that hate that." It occurred to me how normal our conversation was, and how casual Wren had us walking along down here. Weren't we supposed to be sneaking in? Didn't we just come in through a side entrance so we could avoid dangerous people? I slowed down. "What's going on? Pull yourself together, maybe." I said, letting go of Wren's hand and taking a step away. "What do you mean?" he asked. "Babe, what's wrong?" Trying to speak more quietly, but at the same time more forcefully, I hissed, "One minute we are sneaking in, life or death, and the next we're holding hands and laughing?" "We're fine. I'll deal with anything we run into." Wren stood there smiling at me, his hand outstretched, waiting for me to take hold again, eyes placid and relaxed. Either Wren was playing me, or Wren wasn't Wren. Was this a trap? Was Montgomery, the complete asshole, really on my side, and Wren was my enemy? "The fuck's going on, Wren? Or are you really Wren?" "Babe, babe," he said with a sly grin. "We're fine. Everything's fine." Taking a step towards me, Wren reached out. I was overwhelmed with his beauty, the glow of his perfect skin, the shimmer of his hair. My stomach tightened in anticipation at his smile, my breath catching at the gleam in his eyes. I wanted him. I wanted him to have me, to feed from me, to make me feel... everything. Right here, right now, Wren meant more to me than anyone. More than my mom. More than Boots. Boots. What? Why was I standing here going nuts for Wren, when Boots was in trouble. Hell, he was in trouble because of me! I slapped Wren's hand away, stepping back even further until I bumped into the wall. He, frowned for the briefest of moments, then smiled again. I concentrated and was able to feel his power washing over me. Now that my hackles were up, I could recognize the mesmir rolling off him. I broke eye contact and fought it off, then looked back up. Now with a clear head, Wren's eyes seemed glossy, almost unfocused. Was something controlling him? He looked so placated, so at easy, so... hypnotized. I did the only thing I could think of, something that struck me to the core and broke my heart, mesmir or no. I reached out, grabbed Wren's hand with my left hand, stepping toward him as I pulled him closer. Then I slapped the shit out of him. I figured, either it might break any hold over him, or if he wasn't controlled then he fucking deserved it. Either way, I earned it. He pulled away from my hand, taking a staggered step back from me. "What the hell was that for?" he asked. He held his hand to his cheek, looking back at me with confusion and frustration. He was hurt, but I also noted that the glaze was gone from his eyes. "You tell me," I said hesitantly. "Do we really have time for joking and making out?" "Making-- Jason, people are in trouble! We could be next!" "I'm curious, are Vampyre susceptible to mesmir?" Wren looked confused. "Targeted, perhaps. Not the general overlaying cloud, if that's what you mean." "Uh huh. And would you know if someone was fucking with you? Would they need to be close?" I desperately wanted to look down both ways of the tunnel, but I was also afraid to lose sight of Wren. Especially when he was practically in arm's reach. "Fuck," muttered Wren. "I'm so sorry. I'm better than this." "So if you know about it, can you fight it off better?" "Yeah," he said distractedly. "Yeah, I can." We moved off down the tunnel, doing our best to move quickly but quietly. I was kind of wondering why we weren't using our super speed, but then realized that if we did, we would have no time to react if we ran into a problem. And no room, either. So far we had not run into anyone, but if we did, especially if it was in one of those mini carts, there wouldn't be a lot of room for maneuvering. After a few minutes, we came up on a side tunnel. It looked somewhat familiar, which was odd, since all the tunnels looked the same. Then I realized it was the tunnel sloping up to the game store. Standing a few dozen yards up, their backs turned to us, were three men. Two of them turned in profile to say something to one another, and I recognized Gregor, the punk that had smashed my head into the wall in this very tunnel. I looked at Wren, and I knew by his look that he was warning me off, because it was obvious that he could see in my face that I wanted nothing more than to charge these bastards. The edges of my vision were already going red, but I knew we needed to skip all this. As much as I wanted to get back at Gregor, we had more important fish to fry. I made myself calm down, and followed Wren as he tiptoed across the mouth of the tunnel, and we moved on. It was only a few minutes later when Wren stopped us, just outside an open room the tunnel dumped into. I recognized it at once as the same rec area where I had been finalized as Dom's Assecla. There were several people in here, none of whom I recognized. I quickly followed Wren's lead as he stood tall and casually walked into the room. I kept expecting any second for one of them to show surprise, or raise an alarm, but they seemed more interested in chatting with one another, and tracking me. I'm guessing they either knew who I was, and were curious about the new Assecla in their midst, or they didn't, and were curious about the new face. Either way, I tried to play it cool, nodding at a few of the ones staring at me, but doing my best to hide my nervousness. Once we skirted the edge of the room, we took off down another of the various side tunnels the open rec room offered. Minutes later, we heard a yell of alarm from up ahead, followed by the sound of boots echoing down the tunnel. Wren spun around, grabbing my arm and sprinting us back the way we had come. When we emptied back into the rec room, the half dozen Vampyre had all stood up, reacting to the vibe of the yelling, and all showing confusion as the ran into their midst. "What's going on, Wren?" called out a girl on the far side of the room. Wren ignored her, frantically scanning the room as if looking for exits. Two of the closest Vampyre stepped forward, but Wren grabbed my hand and maneuvered us to keep one of the couches between us. Then making a decision, he led us into another tunnel. I guess at that point he decided subtlety was out, because he start running faster, quickly pulling us into super speed. We ran for several minutes, and I know I would have pancaked into several walls if I didn't have Wren's icy hand whipping me around random corners. Of course, that didn't help when we ran headlong into a throng of men in the middle of the corridor. We ended up in a heap of arms and legs, and probably a good bit of road burn as well. Climbing to our feet, Wren chuckled and said, "I don't know if that was lucky, or unhelpful. These are some of Dom's goons." And indeed, looking at the four men sprawled out on the floor, they were all his FBI-looking, suit-wearing soldiers. All of them were armed, and two of them even had those compact machine guns on slings under their jackets. Wren knelt down and quickly unhooked one of them, tossing it to me. I juggled it for a moment, panicked it was going to go off in my hands. By the time I got it under control and turned around the right way, Wren was already standing back up, cradling the other one. "Seriously?" I said, not bothering to keep the panic out of my voice. "Are we really going to start mowing people down with fucking machine guns?" "Try to relax, babe. This is just a precaution." He reached over, twisting my gun to its side, peering at it, and flipping a little switch. "Think of it as a scare tactic. It'll get someone's attention." Before I could formulate a response, Wren was already walking off in a half crouch, carrying the gun two handed, like he was stalking through the jungle in some war movie. The guns were both compact, the barrel barely a foot long, with a pistol grip loaded with a long clip, and a second, smaller pistol grip up at the front of the gun. I followed along, trying to make sense of what I was feeling. Before, I had been nervous, anxious to find Boots and figure out what was going on. But now carrying, not some dinky little pistol, but a fucking machine gun? All of this suddenly felt so much more real. Deadly, even. I lifted the gun in the same two handed grip and followed along. I was nervous in a whole new way now, my senses on overdrive. After twisting and turning down various side tunnels, we came to a door, metal with a window set in its center. Wren looked through, then immediately opened it and we sent in. We found ourselves in a section that seemed more like the interior of some office building. It was an open room with around a dozen desks, all facing the entrance we just came in, and empty of people. Off to the right there was an alcove with copy machines, storage filing cabinets, and a counter top with sink and a pair of coffee makers. There was a door to the left, along with two more spread out on the back wall. "Where are we going?" My words were sucked up by the carpeting and the whisper of the air vents pumping heat into the room, making them sound hollow, even in the large room. "We're trying to get to the living quarters." He gestured to the left. "That way will get us there." "It never occurred to you guys to meet somewhere, I don't know, outside?" "We aren't just trying to meet up. We're getting your boyfriend. By now Garrett will know where they are being held." "Wren, I--" "I'm really not trying to start something here, babe. Save the body now, we'll worry about the heart later." "Fine," I muttered under my breath. "You're obviously so over this." I followed Wren across the office and through the door. After more crisscrossing of tunnels, not only was I thoroughly lost, but we hadn't run into anyone in forever. And every minute that passed without seeing anyone, my nerves ratcheted up another notch. Where was Wren taking me? Should I have trusted him after all? Was I being led into a trap? And even if he was being legit, how bad was the situation, if everyone we had run into was against us? I wasn't handling this well. I was staring to fall apart. Oh God. Was it some kind of mesmir? "Wren, wait up," I called out in a stage whisper. "Do you feel that?" I stopped, closed my eyes, and concentrated. Focusing, I could identify what I was feeling. Yeah, I was scared. Who wouldn't be? But there was something else I couldn't quite identify. Something that felt familiar. Then I realized, it was that same oppression I had felt near the hotel one of the first nights. That feeling of fear, of being prey, of someone hunting me, and staring at me from the shadows. Only now I recognized it as a form of mesmir. "Yeah, I do." I jumped when Wren spoke. I was so caught up in trying to identify the mesmir I was feeling that I forgot he was there next to me. Snapping my eyes open, I looked around, verifying my surroundings. "Good call pointing it out," said Wren. "Now we know it's there, we can keep it at bay." "You're not very good at this, are you?" I said with a grin. "Fuck you," he laughed back. "I'm not used to having Vampyre as enemies." "Is it Plague, do you think?" "Probably. Come on, we're close." Five minutes later, Wren turned a corner and immediately stopped, throwing himself back around the corner and pushing me back. He held up two fingers, indicating there were two of them. I I lifted my gun slightly, with a questioning look on my face. He shook his head, placing a hand on my barrel and pushing it down gently. I pointed toward the corner, running my finger across my throat, then put a finger up, before tilting my head to the side as if asleep. He seemed to get my question. Do we kill them, or knock them out? He paused, seeming to think about it. But I knew that if he had to stop and decide, then we shouldn't kill them. I put my hand on him shoulder and smiled. Pulling him back, he took the hint and swapped places with me. After flipping that switch on the side of my gun that I hoped was the safety, I closed my eyes for a moment, concentrating on Boots and thinking of all the things that could be happening to him every minute we delayed. I thought about Montgomery and how he tried to kill me. Then I opened my eyes. The world was swallowed in a red haze. It provided a clarity of purpose. It was simple. Boots was on the other side of whoever was around this corner. I stepped out, planting my foot and moving into super speed before I had even looked up to take anything in. I flashed down the corridor like a charging bull. My targets could have been five feet away or fifty. For good or bad, they were a pretty decent way down the hallway. It meant I had plenty of time to aim myself their way, but they also had time to see me coming. One of them pulled a gun from the back of his waistband, while the other rolled his shoulders and put up his fists. Since Wren had said no guns, but that just meant no shooting at them. My gun still made for an awesome club. I charged toward the guy with his fists up, but at the last second I sidestepped toward the shooter. Just before we hit, I dropped to the ground, dropping to my knees and leaning back. My knees connected with his feet, and moving at super speed, that fucking hurt. Not as bad as what he had to have felt though. The only thing I hit was my knees on his boots. However, he was sent head over heels, clearing me completely, only to slam face first into the concrete floor. That wasn't all I did though. The gun was yanked hard out of my left hand as I flew by. Of course, that was only because I had held it out to my side, tagging boxing guy in the shins at 150 miles an hour. He may not have gone flying as hard as the first guy, but he was definitely going to be walking funny for a while. I came up off my knees, my speed now gone. But that was okay, because I had two black and red opponents behind me. Turning around, boxing guy was already stepping to me, pissed as hell and yelling. I reminded myself that every second dealing with these guys was another second Boots was in trouble. The guy lunged forward with a punch, and so did I. But while he aimed for me, I aimed for his fist. We clashed with the kind of strength I had used to put a dumpster through a brick wall. Pain exploded through my hand, all the way up my arm. I may as well have punched that steel dumpster. But I also realized I was still following through with my punch. He wasn't. Instead, he spun around, doing a 540 before twisting to the ground like a top out of momentum. His hand that he had been punching me with, didn't seem to exist. My mind tried to comprehend what I was seeing, but from the splatter from the impact, it looked like I had literally punched through his hand. Looking at my fist, all I could see was blood, gore, and what looked like bone fragments embedded in my knuckles. Lowering my hand, I looked down at the second guy as he moaned and started getting up to his feet. My vision faded from red into the full color spectrum, not that I could see anything but the red all over my right hand. My vision started to fade out, moving to a tunnel vision. The man's grunts faded out as my ears began to ring, then I doubled over and vomited all over the guy. That seemed to clear my head a bit, and I was able to take a step back out of splash range of my own puke as he froze, probably in disbelief. But as he started shaking his arms, trying to fling the mess off his suit jacket, he froze as we both heard a metallic "tick". Wren had popped the safety on his machine gun and had the nozzle right up against the man's forehead. "Don't do it, Marcus. You're a good guy. I'd rather let you walk away." "I guess they can only expect to push loyalty so far," the man said, tossing his pistol away. "Take it. I hate civil wars." "Nothing civil about this. Beishang de Wenyi is finally making his move against Dom," said Wren. "Why are you helping him?" Marcus shook his head. "That's not what we were told. This is a play by Montgomery and a few of the others. They want a change in Si Jing Fu." Wren laughed. "I promise you. Monty doesn't have the balls to pull a coup. And he certainly doesn't have the resources. You guys are getting played." "Figures," said Marcus, pretty much ignoring Wren's gun as he carefully began peeling his jacket off. "Go on. Take the kid and deal with whatever is going on. I'll clean up Ryan here and go warn the others. The rest of Dom's crew will be out of your hair." Wren nodded and stepped back, lifting his gun to point upward. He reached down and grabbed my machine gun, then stepped around the Marcus, who was already seeing to the other guy. He tucked one of the guns under his arm so he could lay a hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay?" "I mean, I think so?" I looked away from the two men on the floor. My hand was itching and I absentmindedly rubbed it on my jeans. When it stung, I remembered what it had looked like and jerked it away from my leg. Looking at it, my knuckles were still covered in blood and shit, but I could already see that the skin beneath it was closing up. I gagged when I realized the itching was my skin pushing out the bone slivers from the other dude's hand. I brushed off the back of my fingers and did what I could to clear my head. As soon as I could, I looked up and met Wren's eyes, giving him my best smile. "Come on. We're almost there," said Wren, handing me back my gun.