Chapter Sixteen

Cal pointed to Dustin. "Stay here."

When he ripped the rope out of his D-ring and turned, he could barely see Deme disappearing into the swirling dust. He bent under the force of the wind pushing past him and hurried after her.

As he caught up, the blasting air pushed harder against him and the tunnel seemed to close in, his light nothing but a thin beam in the darkness.

Deme came to an abrupt stop at the end of the leg of tunnel. Roots climbed the arching walls, twisting and interlacing with each other to form a tight web, blocking their path.

Still pushing hard to catch up to Deme, Cal wasn't prepared for the sudden cessation of wind. He plowed into her, slamming her body into the web of roots blocking the passageway into the cavernous chamber below the expired Lion Hall.

He grabbed Deme and tugged at her, attempting to pull her away from the vines that had quickly wrapped around her wrists and ankles. Even as he yanked and jerked at the snagging vegetation, the roots inserted themselves between him and Deme, pushing him away as they pulled Deme forward.

Cal reached for the knife attached to his belt and hacked at the roots winding around Deme's wrists and ankles. As he sliced each one away, more appeared and replaced the damaged ones.

When a vine wrapped around his wrist, Cal caught the knife in his free hand and sliced it clean away from him. Before the plants could draw Deme through the web, Cal cut and hacked, finally yanking Deme free. Like a fireman running from a burning building, he hitched her up over his shoulder and hauled her several yards away, where he set her on her feet. When she lunged toward the web again, Cal wrapped his arms around her waist. "Deme, I won't let the Chimera have you."

Deme strained against Cal's arms, leaning toward the seething, slithering mass of living plant life. The roots and vines waved in the air, crawled ten feet into the tunnel and stopped, as though an invisible barrier barred their ability to spread.

"Please," she cried. "Let me go."

"It seems the Chimera is unable to manipulate your powers outside the perimeter ring of buildings surrounding the rose garden."

Deme swayed toward the cavern, her eyes glazed, her face pale. "Can you feel it?"

"Feel what?"

"The energy sucking me in. It's draining me, pulling me toward it."

"I've got you, babe, and I'm not letting go." He hugged her against his body, his wrists locked around her waist.

"You have to let me go. Aurai is in there. I know it. The Chimera used her power of wind to push us away."

"If it wants you to come now, why did it try to push you away? And why the web of roots blocking our approach to the Lion Hall foundation?"

"It wants me, not you." Deme's eyes closed. "Aurai is calling me. She's there." Her eyes opened and she clawed at Cal's arms. "Let me go. She's in there. Aurai is in there, and she's alive."

Cal clenched his teeth and held on tightly even as Deme's fingernails dug into his skin. "I can't let you go, Deme. You'll end up trapped just like Aurai."

"I have to get to her."

"We will. But we need to work it out with your sisters. The Chimera has too strong a pull on you. It defeated your younger sister. You're strong, but it has manipulated you, as well."

Deme ceased her struggles and looked up into Cal's eyes, tears shimmering in the meager light from the top of his helmet. "I can't abandon her."

"You're not. We are going to regroup and come back with a plan to free her. Right now I have to get you out of here."

"No!" she shouted, renewing her efforts to claw her way free of his arms. "I can't leave my sister."

"Deme!" Female voices sounded behind him. Cal and Deme ceased their struggles and turned as one to face the three sisters they'd left topside in the basement.

"I thought we told you to stay put." Deme planted her fists on her hips.

"We couldn't." Gina snorted. "We passed the tunnel expert a few minutes ago. He was shaking and scared."

Deme glared at her sisters. "What if the air down here wasn't breathable?"

"Obviously it is." Brigid started forward, her gaze moving past Deme to the wall of interlaced roots and vines blocking their entry into the area beneath where Lion Hall had once stood. "The Chimera wants us, doesn't it? I can feel its lure."

"Don't get too close," Deme warned. "It tried to drag me through but pushed Cal away." Deme tugged at Cal's hand holding her back from charging into the Chimera's lair.

He refused to release her hand in case the Chimera managed to make another grab for her.

Brigid pushed past Deme and Cal and stood as close as she could get to the blocked entrance without being snagged by the waiting vines. "Why you and not him?"

Gina joined them. "We have the power."

Selene stood behind Cal, her eyes wide, her face pale. "It wants our power."

"The Chimera already has Aurai's power. We can't risk it taking the rest of us."

"It would be catastrophic." Selene's voice shook.

Deme turned toward her brown-haired sister. "Do you know what would happen?"

Selene stared straight ahead, looking at neither her sisters nor Cal, her focus on something none of them could see. "If the Chimera has all our powers, it will be undefeatable."

"Then we won't let it have the rest." Brigid flicked her wrist, cupping her hand. "And we're taking Aurai back." A ball of flame erupted in her palm.

The flame startled Cal and he stepped backward, loosening his grip on Deme.

"No, Brigid. Don't use your powers." Deme made a dive for the entrance to the underground chamber beneath the rose garden.

As if sensing her approach, the vines and roots parted, lashing out to snag her wrists. "Damn!" Deme fought with all her might to free her arms and legs, twisting and kicking to push back the onslaught of vegetation dragging her into the Chimera's lair.

Cal reached for his knife as he ran for Deme.

Before he got more than three feet, Brigid put out a hand, stopping him. "Let me."

"No!" Deme yelled. "Remember what happened to Gina."

His hand on the hilt of his sheathed knife, all Cal could do was watch.

With the ball of fire swirling in her palm, Brigid reared back like an all-star pitcher and launched the fireball into the web in front of Deme.

The roots shrank back, absorbing the fireball, and then with a whoosh of air, they shot it back at the people standing in the tunnel.

Gina ducked, and Selene cried out and fell against the side wall.

Cal dove for the uneven floor, his knee crashing against a fallen brick, sending a sharp pain lancing up his leg.

The fireball ricocheted off the ceiling and bounced back and forth from side to side on the walls, growing in size and intensity, filling the gap behind them, creating an impenetrable wall of fire. Heat built in the confines of the tunnel.

Cal glanced up at the piping carrying natural gas throughout the city. If the pipes grew too hot, they'd explode, possibly leaving a gaping hole in the Chicago cityscape. "We have to get out of here before the gas lines blow."

Deme screamed as vines slithered around her neck and sucked her toward the interior of the chamber. Her cry ended as the air was cut off to her windpipes, the creeper cinching tighter around her throat.

Cal pushed to his feet, yanking his knife from the scabbard. He attacked the vines, slicing them in two and pulling them away from Deme's throat.

Brigid's hand curled again.

"Don't!" Selene and Gina yelled.

Another vine snaked out and snagged Brigid's wrist before she could wind up another fireball.

The vines and roots dragged her toward the chamber. She fought them off, but for every one she freed herself from, two more appeared and wrapped around her limbs.

His hand wielding the knife as fast as he could, Cal cut away at the deadly plant life threatening Deme and Brigid.

Gina and Selene crowded against his back, the heat intensifying, edging closer.

"We'll be burned alive if we stay here." Selene buried her face in her arms, the glow of the fire making her skin red.

Gina raised her hands, closed her eyes and whispered something Cal couldn't hear.

Too busy hacking away at the vegetation intertwining around the other two women, Cal couldn't tell what was happening with the sisters at his side until a sudden swoosh sounded beside him.

His arms tiring, Cal sliced into the last vine holding Deme hostage and he shoved her behind him. He turned to Brigid and cut a root holding her wrist. When he had her free, he pushed her back, as well. The vines turned on him and lashed out.

Cal backed away, his feet splashing through ankle-deep water.

"Gina, what did you do?" Deme shouted.

"I don't know. I only wanted to put out the fire so we wouldn't burn to death."

"Hang on to something," Selene warned.

Cal turned in time to see a wall of water bearing down on them. "Grab the pipes or cables. Don't let it suck you into the chamber."

All four women wrapped their arms and legs around the pipes on the sides of the walls or ceilings.

Cal had barely enough time to latch on to the pipe above him before the wave slammed into him, nearly yanking his hand free. The tunnel around them filled with water, covering the tops of their heads.

Miraculously, the light on his helmet continued to glow an eerie yellow in the swirling fluid. Cal kicked his feet, pushing himself upward to the roof of the tunnel, where he gulped in air. Then he submerged and checked for the women. Gina was closest. Selene's dark hair swirled like black ink in the murky water. Deme kicked and fought to reach the pocket of air above her head and Brigid swam toward him, working her way back through the tunnel.

Cal moved aside and gave Brigid a push to send her on her way. He grabbed Gina and shoved her after Brigid. Selene floated toward him, her face pale, her eyes wide. He squeezed her hand as he pushed her after her sisters. Deme clung to the pipe above, her head tipped back, her mouth and nose pressed against the roof. A ghostly white root slipped through the water toward her.

Cal yelled, the sound muffled by the liquid. He bunched his legs and thrust himself toward her, cleaving through the water, his lungs burning with the need to breathe. He reached Deme at the same time as the root did.

He grabbed Deme and shoved her after her sisters, the movement sending him backward toward the chamber entrance, right into the clutches of the root.

With the ease of a snake, it slipped around his ankle.

Desperate to breathe, Cal kicked and fought to reach the roof and the pocket of air. But the root yanked him down, refusing to let him surface even for a moment.

He'd lost his knife in the blast of water. Cal had nothing to defend himself from the Chimera's hold on him. If he didn't get air soon, he'd die.

* * *

Several yards down the tunnel, Deme emerged from the water and slid across the floor into her sisters' legs. "What the hell just happened?"

Brigid, Gina and Selene reached for her and hauled her to her feet. "The Chimera used Gina's water against us."

"Cal?" Deme spun to face a wall of water, held in place by the force of a being far beyond her limited powers and comprehension.

Selene shook her head. "He hasn't come out yet."

"Damn!" Deme's heart raced, her breathing coming in gasps. She couldn't lose Cal. Not now. She cared too much about him. Hell, she loved him.

Deme shook off her sisters' hands.

"Don't, Deme," Brigid yelled. "He can get out on his own."

"And I should stand here and wait?" Deme sucked in a deep breath and dove back into the water. The light from her helmet provided a narrow beam in the cloudy water.

She swam as fast as she could, using the sides of the walls and the floor to kick off, propelling her forward.

Where was he? Her chest hurt, her lungs desperate for air. Light reflected off something shiny on the tunnel floor. Deme recognized Cal's knife, scooping it up as she swam forward. If the vines had him in their clutches, he didn't have a way to fight them off.

When she finally caught a glimpse of Cal, he was thrashing around in the water, kicking against a thick root that had him by the ankle.

Careful to stay far enough away to keep from being caught up in the same trap, Deme reached for Cal, pressing the knife into his flailing hand.

As quickly as she handed it to him, he sliced through the root and kicked free, bumping into her as he pushed farther away from the web of vines and roots.

Not until he'd gotten several yards away from the wicked vegetation did he swim to the top of the tunnel. Deme joined him, gasping in huge gulps of air. "I thought you were right behind me," she said between breaths.

"I would have been." He grabbed her hand and squeezed, letting go almost immediately. "Ready? Let's get back."

Deme dragged in another deep breath and pushed off the wall, headed back to where her sisters waited.

The farther they moved from Lion Hall, the more shallow the water became until they emerged on their feet, slogging through the tunnel toward Selene, Brigid and Gina. They stood in the dark, their irises contracting as the lights from Cal's and Deme's helmets illuminated their surroundings.

The sisters fell on Deme, hugging her close. "We thought you weren't going to make it out." Gina hugged her so tightly, Deme couldn't breathe.

"But I did." Deme looked back toward the chamber. The water had drained away. The passage appeared as it had when she and Cal had first walked down it what seemed like a lifetime ago.

"We have to go back." Deme took a step back that way. "I can still feel Aurai in there."

"Me, too," Selene whispered.

Cal blocked the tunnel, his feet braced wide, his arms crossed over his chest. "You're not going back. Not now."

"But we have to," Deme insisted. Aurai's voice called to her, desperate, afraid.

"No." Cal twisted her around and slung her over his shoulder. Ducking as low as he could, he ran back down the tunnel.

The wind picked up, this time clutching at him like a giant hand trying to suck them back toward the garden and the subterranean levels below the foundation of Lion Hall.

Deme bounced along, the air whooshing out of her lungs with each jarring step Cal took. Her sisters ran behind them, keeping pace.

When Cal reached Dustin Zoeller, he shouted, "Get out of here!"

Dustin, eyes wide, his face pale, spun on his heels and ran back in the direction of the student commons basement where they'd entered this maze.

When they reached the vertical tunnel, Dustin didn't slow, but grabbed the steel bars of the ladder and pulled himself up, his monitor bumping against the rails.

Cal dropped Deme to her feet and turned her toward the ladder rungs. "Go, Deme. Get out of here. Now."

She hesitated.

Cal lifted her hand and curled it around the ladder sides. "Please." He kissed her neck, his hands cupping her butt, then he shoved her up the ladder.

Pushing her every step of the way, Cal arrived at the top, breathing hard and exhausted.

Deme's sisters emerged behind them, all of them talking at once.

Beyond her endurance and fresh out of steam, Deme swayed, her eyes rolling backward in her head. Before she could respond to any of her sister's questions or concerns, she fell, darkness consuming her.

Cal was there, scooping her up into his arms.

"Is she going to be all right?" Lieutenant Warner asked.

"I don't know." Cal stared down at Deme, lying limp in his arms.

"I tried to keep the other women out, but they wouldn't be deterred." Marty glared at the sisters. "What happened down there?"

Cal snorted, hitching Deme higher in his arms. "The Chattox women are a force unto themselves."

"Holy crap!" Dustin Zoeller joined them, ripping his mask off the top of his head and throwing it to the ground. "I've never seen that kind of wind in the tunnels before." He shook his head. "It shouldn't be that strong. I don't get it." Then for the first time he noticed the others were soaking wet. "How did you get all wet?"

"Slipped in a puddle." Cal locked gazes with the lieutenant, unwilling to enlighten the tunnel expert. The fewer people who knew what was going on beneath the city streets, the better off the residents of Chicago. They couldn't afford a mass panic and the resulting exodus that could cause more deaths than the Chimera could achieve on the campus of Colyer-Fenton College. "We need to get Deme and her sisters away from here."

"I know where we can take her." Brigid nodded toward the steps leading out of the basement. "Let's get her to my apartment. It's only a couple miles from campus. Far enough away that nothing here can affect us." She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath before opening them again. "I feel it even as we stand here."

Cal would rather have taken her to his apartment, but he didn't want to fight the three sisters, whose worried expressions indicated they wouldn't let him waltz away with Deme.

"We can go in my SUV." Gina hurried up the stairs, followed by Cal and Deme. The other two sisters brought up the rear.

When they arrived in the parking lot next to Gina's midsize four-door SUV, Deme's eyes blinked open. "What… Where am I?"

Cal gave her a wry grin. "We're getting you the hell off campus."

"Put me down." She struggled ineffectually against Cal's arms around her.

He shook his head. "No way."

"Why are you carrying me, anyway?" She glared at him and then noticed her sisters standing in a circle around her. "Why are you all staring at me?"

"You passed out, sis." Brigid grabbed the keys from Gina's hand and clicked the button to unlock the door. "We're getting you away from campus so we can discuss what happened and what we plan to do next."

"I felt her." Deme fought against Cal's hold, but he held tighter. "Aurai's down there. We can't leave her there."

"And we can't afford for the Chimera to take another one of us." Selene laid a hand against the side of Deme's face. "Remember, you don't always have to take care of us. We're in this together. Let's make this a group decision and effort."

"We can stand around arguing, or we can get moving." Brigid jerked open the car door. "Either way, you're coming with us. We can talk when we get to my place."

Cal squeezed Deme and set her inside the car in the front passenger seat. "I'll be right behind you."

She looked up at him and nodded, her forehead wrinkled in a stubborn frown. "I'm counting on it."

Selene climbed in the backseat and Gina in the driver's seat. Brigid mounted her Harley.

As the SUV drove away, followed by the motorcycle, Lieutenant Warner joined Cal. "I expect a full report." He held up a hand to stem the flow of words Cal had poised on the tip of his tongue. "I know…after you've had a chance to calm Deme down."

"Thank you, sir."

"I think it's time to evacuate campus. To hell with what the college president might say."

"Good idea." Cal looked back at Colyer-Fenton. With the sun hidden behind a bank of gray clouds, the campus looked hunkered down, ready to weather a tempest. As if sensing an impending storm, students hurried across the manicured lawns, clutching their books to their chests to keep papers from flying out in the rising wind.

Even as Cal observed, the wind increased, neither from the west nor the east, but seeming to come from all around, swirling toward the center of campus and the rose garden where Lion Hall once stood.

Cal nodded again. "Yeah, get the students out."

"I'm on it." Lieutenant Warner wrapped his coat around him and charged back toward the administration building and the office of Dr. Diane Masterson.

Cal slung his leg over his motorcycle seat and reached down to insert his key in the ignition.

A slender hand reached out and grabbed his.

His heart slammed against his chest and his gaze shot up to capture the brown-eyed stare of a student he should know, but couldn't quite place.

"You're Deme Jones's boyfriend, aren't you?"

On the verge of correcting Deme's last name, Cal bit hard on his tongue and nodded, maintaining his cover story.

The girl threaded her fingers together. "Is she going to be all right?"

"Yeah."

"Tell her Rachel said hello and that I hope she feels better soon." Rachel stared down at her clasped hands. "And not to worry. I'll make it right."

Before Cal could ask her what she meant by that, she turned and ran back toward the Gamma Omega dormitory.

Cal glanced to where Gina's car had already disappeared around the street corner headed for the campus exit. He kick-started his motorcycle and drove after Gina's car. As he neared the edge of the parking lot, his gaze shifted back behind him to the girl who'd identified herself as Rachel. If he had it right, she was the young woman whose boyfriend almost raped her near the garden over Lion Hall.

Torn between following the student and following Deme, Cal turned his bike around and parked it. If the girl had any intention of going up against the Chimera, he had to stop her.

Deme had her sisters to look out for her. This college coed had no one and, from what Deme had told him in the early hours of the morning, even her sorority sisters had turned against her when she'd quit taking the potion they'd concocted to make them beautiful.

His mind with Deme and her sisters, Cal dismounted from his Harley and hurried after Rachel.

Cal had stepped into the Gamma Omega dorm and stopped the first girl who passed him. The girl had light blond hair pulled back with a headband, every hair in place. She wore a short jean skirt and a cotton-candy pink tube top that exposed more of her midriff than it covered.

Cal cringed. Another Zoe clone. "Where can I find Rachel Taylor?"

"Men aren't allowed in a girl's dorm without an escort." The blonde's perfect brows arched. "Besides, you're too old for her." She flounced away without having answered his question.

When he turned to find another girl to ask, Zoe Adams stood before him, her head tipped slightly to the side. "That seems to be the sixty-five-thousand-dollar question. When you find Miss Rachel, tell her I'm looking for her." Zoe's eyes narrowed into thin slits. "She has something that belongs to me."

"Me, too." Another girl joined Zoe, then another, and another until the hallway filled with angry Zoe clones.

Cal knew when he should cut his losses. If he really thought Rachel was in the dorm, he might push past the phalanx of beautiful women to find the ugly duckling. But since they were looking for her, too, he decided to look elsewhere.

"Thank you, ladies." Cal tipped an imaginary hat and backed out of the building, pushing through a throng of girls who'd crowded in behind him.

Dr. Masterson hurried toward the dorm, her serviceable low heels clicking on the concrete sidewalk. "Mr. Black, perhaps you could help me clear the boys' dormitory. Lieutenant Warner insisted the students were in danger and should be evacuated at once."

"Yes, ma'am, I'll get right on it."

She paused, her brows pulling together. "You're working with him, aren't you?"

Cal was past needing a cover for his work. "Yes, ma'am."

"Well, I'm certain you'll see to the boys' safety then, won't you?"

Without waiting for his response, she hurried into the Gamma Omega dorm, shouting to the girls as she went.

Cal jogged away from the circle of buildings at the center of campus to the boys' dormitory. Inside, some of the guys had already received word of the evacuation via text message from other students across campus.

Young men streamed out of the dormitory toward the parking lot, carrying suitcases and laundry bags. He tasked one guy per floor to knock on the doors and make sure the dorm was empty before leaving. Once he'd set the evacuation of the boys' dorm in motion, he resumed his search for Rachel, the clock ticking away the minutes since the time he'd told Deme he'd be right behind her.

He returned to the Gamma Omega dormitory one more time to see if Rachel had returned to gather her belongings.

When he stepped through the doors, the dorm was a flurry of activity. All the doors were open and girls shouted across the hallway as they shoved clothing into suitcases.

With no sign of Zoe or a blockade of girls to obstruct his passage, Cal raced up the stairs to the second floor where Deme's room had been. Hadn't she said Rachel had been her sister's roommate and hadn't their room been on the same floor as Deme's?

A scream ripped through the hallway.

Cal raced toward the sound.

A door blasted open and a girl with dirty-blond hair and a pockmarked face stumbled through, her hands covering her cheeks, tears streaming from her eyes. "Where is it? I need more."

Cal grabbed her arms and made her focus on him. "Where is what? What do you need?"

"The vial, the blue vial with the potion. I need it, can't you see?" She clawed at her face, her jagged fingernails leaving deep scrapes across her already scarred skin, blood oozing from the wounds. "I can't go back. I won't go back to being pathetic."

"You're not pathetic. You're human and beautiful in your own right."

"Shut up." She shook his hands free and ran toward the stairs. "Zoe, help me. Make me beautiful again."

Cal stood in the middle of the hallway for a moment longer, then turned to face a door with the words Rachel Must Die written across it in black Magic Marker.

What the hell?

He grabbed the knob and tried to open the door. It was locked from the inside. With heavy, metal door frames, no amount of banging against it would open it. Then he remembered the master key on his assigned key ring. He quickly opened the door and pushed it open.

The room was a wreck. Black fabric lay in shreds across the room, drawers had been emptied onto the floor and everything in the closet was scattered across the room.

Cal's stomach took a steep dive.

The window stood wide open, wind flapping the thin curtains hanging on each side.

He ran across the floor and stuck his head through, expecting the worst. When he looked directly below the window, he let out the breath he'd been holding in a whoosh. "Thank God."

He'd expected to see Rachel's broken body lying in the bushes. But the bushes remained as they had been before all the commotion began. And he still hadn't found her. Based on the cries of the other occupants of the dormitory, she might have found the vials of potion Deme had told him about that made the girls beautiful. If he didn't find Rachel before the sorority sisters did, the Chimera would be the least of her worries.

Cal left the room and raced to Deme's room, peering out her window into the garden below. No Rachel. The garden was empty, appearing calm, serene, no sign of the beast beneath the manicured grass.

If he didn't find the coed soon, he was sure Deme and her sisters would launch some half-cocked plan before he could get to them and inject a voice of reason. Cal left Deme's room and took the stairs to the lower floor, leaping the last four steps entirely. Rachel was nowhere to be found. Where would she have gone? He headed for the student commons. Maybe she'd gone for a bite to eat.

He frowned. Rachel didn't know about the trapdoor in the basement, did she? His footsteps quickened until he was jogging across the campus.

An employee stood outside the glass doors of the student commons, twisting a key in the metal lock. "Sorry, got orders from the big boss, we're shutting down and evacuating campus."

"I'm maintenance staff. Are you sure everyone's out?" Cal looked over the worker's shoulder into the open bay lined with tables, the chairs scattered haphazardly as though they'd been vacated in a hurry.

"Positive."

"Did you check the basement?" Cal pulled the ring of building keys from his pocket.

"Why would I check the basement? Only staff goes down there." The employee nodded toward Cal's key ring. "You have keys, check it out yourself. I'm out of here." The young man turned toward the parking lot. "Just lock up when you leave. I don't want to get blamed if someone loots the place."

Cal didn't bother to respond, wasting precious moments finding the right key to unlock the door. Once inside, he dodged in and out of the tables and dashed through the kitchen to the rear of the building where the door led down to the basement. He ran down the stairs, arriving at the bottom, his heart racing. Where the hell was Rachel?