Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Seven

LAYLA CASSIDY

Washington, DC, Earth Realm

The soldiers in Lafayette Square moved aside to let Chloe, Layla, Selene, Tego, and Jinayca through toward the tent where President Lopez had originally been. It was now full of various high-ranking officials who were trying to decide how to deal with the continued Avalon-centric problems facing the city.

All the soldiers were battle hardened and had seen combat against Avalon forces in the years since Arthur's return. They were dependable and would do their jobs tirelessly to the very best of their abilities. But Jinayca had an expression that suggested that she might fuck someone up for getting in her way, and even Selene would be cautious of that.

The group was stopped by a guard, and Jinayca pushed past him wordlessly. The guard was about to open his mouth to shout something when Layla stopped beside him and whispered, "I would just let her talk to who we need to. Have you seen any shadow elves?"

"Shadow what?" the soldier asked and looked at Tego before swallowing. Jinayca hurried into the tent and started asking questions in a raised voice. Layla had never seen Jinayca so angry, so determined to hunt someone.

Layla described the shadow elves and Lamashtu, both in her own form and in Piper's.

"Yeah, they went over toward New York Avenue," he said. "There's an abandoned building there; we sent some of the Avalon human prisoners there for interrogation."

"Thanks," Layla said as Jinayca exited the tent. "You're going to want to tell everyone in charge that it wasn't Piper but Lamashtu, the same person who masqueraded as the president."

"They've posted guards at each of the elven runes but haven't destroyed them for fear of some kind of booby trap." Jinayca said. "We need to go, now ..." She was already at a full run toward two SUVs that Roberto had requisitioned from the Secret Service members there, and everyone got in. The agents drove as fast as possible toward New York Avenue.

The abandoned building was five stories high, with a revolving door at the front of the gray, drab building. It was far enough away from the mess at the White House that people were still walking around. It was daytime, and the curfew didn't come into force until nightfall.

"Clear the streets," Roberto said to one of his people, who took three other agents and set about doing as they were told.

"Let's try to do this without demolishing any buildings," Roberto continued, talking to everyone else.

Chloe walked up to one of the large plate glass windows and punched it, activating her ability to absorb and redirect kinetic energy. The window shattered, and she stepped into the building.

"That wasn't subtle," Layla said, stepping over the glass as she followed Chloe inside.

"Worked, though," Chloe said.

"That revolving door will take too long," Jinayca said, a battle-ax in her hands.

"This isn't going to be quiet, is it?" Roberto asked. Layla had spotted several newly arrived FBI agents looking slightly concerned about what they'd gotten themselves into.

"Nope," Layla said.

"Where are the prisoners kept?" Jinayca asked.

"Top floor," Roberto said. "Everything above the third floor is rune scribed. No powers. No way of activating them. Zamek himself did it."

"So we're powerless?" Selene asked.

"Inside the building, yes," Roberto said.

"You got any weapons left in here?" Chloe asked.

"No, of course not," Roberto said, motioning to four FBI agents, who were bringing up the rear, each one carrying a crate of guns into the building. "But we brought some with us; I assume these will do."

The guns were mostly a combination of MP5s, Sig Sauer nine millimeters, and Glock 17s, although there were a few that didn't fall into those camps. Layla took a Glock 17 and a handful of magazines. She still had a sword that hung from her hip and a few daggers at her back, but if she was going to lose her power, that meant losing her arm too. That was not something she was going to be able to do much about.

"Tego, you stay here," Layla said. "If any enemies come down, kill them."

Tego snorted and sat down.

When everyone was geared up, the large group separated, each going to one of two stairwells. Roberto took his team, along with Jinayca, Layla, and two Secret Service agents, while everyone else went with the soldiers.

The stair climb was tense, and no one spoke, Layla and Jinayca taking point the whole way up. Jinayca carried a Remington 870 twelve-gauge shotgun, and Layla was a hundred percent certain she knew how to use it. Everyone took a radio, and Layla put the earpiece in place and activated it.

When they reached the fourth floor, Layla's metal forearm and hand melted away. She sighed.

They reached the fifth floor soon after and found the door to be almost bent in half. "Sure about the no-powers thing?" Layla asked, looking back at Roberto.

"Not now," Roberto said with a shake of his head.

Layla pushed the door open and stepped inside the corridor beyond. It was oddly quiet, and she knew that the other half of the team would be moving through an identical door, into an identical corridor, on the other side of the floor.

There were seven dead in the corridor, slumped up against walls. All of them wore tactical gear and still had their weapons in their hands. Blood spray covered large parts of the wall. There were bullet holes in the floor and ceiling, too, but no bodies of their attackers. That didn't bode well for just how dangerous a foe Layla and her team were about to encounter.

"Lamashtu and her elves," Jinayca said. "I'm guessing we found them."

They all moved slowly along the corridor, the FBI agents in their tactical gear checking the various rooms along the way.

They reached the end of the corridor, and the FBI and Roberto took point.

"Can we take out the runes?" Layla asked, looking at the bright purple-and-blue marks all over the walls.

"No," Jinayca said. "I checked them. You cut through them, this whole place explodes. You try to remove them without the proper work-around, they explode. I could do it if I had maybe an hour. I doubt even Zamek could do it in less, and he put them here."

The FBI agents crouched behind the door and placed a camera under it to check for explosives or people who might be waiting to shoot anyone coming through. They turned around and nodded to Roberto.

"It's clear," he said.

The agents opened the door and crept into the room beyond. Layla and Jinayca took up the rear, and as they reached the door, they could already see the FBI agents and soldiers from the other team moving around the edges of the room to converge before the stairwell.

Layla knew that the stairwell leading from the floor they were on to the offices above would be a death trap. She looked out of the large windows that faced the street below. More runes were drawn on them. Zamek was nothing if not thorough. She continued to stare for several seconds; something was off about them.

And then it hit her.

They weren't dwarven.

"Everyone down," Layla shouted as the windows exploded inward toward everyone in the lower part of the office, showering them in glass.

The FBI agents closest were already hunkered behind several overturned tables and chairs that had been piled around the lower level, but the soldiers that had come with Layla from Avalon found themselves bombarded with the blast and the glass it created, which cut through several of them as they dived aside.

Bullets rained down from above, and Layla saw two soldiers die from the gunfire as they retreated back toward the corridor. One of the FBI agents, a young man with short hair, took a bullet to the head and crumpled to the floor as Layla grabbed a second injured agent and dragged him back into the corridor.

"How do we get up there?" Roberto shouted over the sounds of bullets tearing into the furniture, floor, and walls of the main office. Everyone moved away from the wall that joined to the main office and ran into a smaller office that gave more protection from any gunfire.

"We've got wounded here," Selene said through Layla's earpiece.

"Here too," Layla said as another wounded agent was dragged into the room, leaving a trail of blood.

"We've four down here," Selene said.

"Three here," Jinayca said.

"And we have no idea how many enemies are up there," Chloe said.

"I have an idea," Jinayca said. "There are runes all around this place. They used elven runes on those windows. They're less powerful than dwarven, but as you can see, they're still quite potent."

"And the plan is?" Chloe asked.

"We go up and come down on top of them," Jinayca said.

Layla looked over to Roberto. "Is that possible?"

"You'd have to go through several feet of concrete and metal," Roberto said. "But there are runes up there too."

"That's fine; I can change the direction of the blast," Jinayca said. "Where's the door to the roof?"

"Other end of the corridor," Roberto said.

"Selene," Layla said. "You think you guys can keep our trigger-happy friends occupied?"

"Yeah, I think we can do that."

"When I give the signal, the ceiling above the balcony is going to collapse," Jinayca said. "I would advise you not to be under it."

Jinayca, Roberto, and Layla left the FBI agents to tend to the wounded and help keep Lamashtu and her people occupied. It was easy enough to get to the roof, and there was no one up there to bother them as they ran across it, until Roberto pointed to a spot just above the stairwell to the balcony.

Jinayca did some quick measurements in her head and strolled around the roof until she stopped. "We're above where the enemy is," she said.

"What if they've put more runes on the ceiling of the office?" Roberto asked.

Jinayca pointed at him as if to say that was a good point and found a second site a few feet to the side.

Layla and Roberto stood guard while Jinayca went to work, the sounds of gunfire easy to hear from below. Sirens could be heard in the distance, and Layla hoped that none of the police would try to involve themselves. She was all for humans standing up and doing what was right, but human police weren't in a position to help with what they were fighting against. If it weren't for the residential area, she might have just asked Roberto if he could arrange a drone strike, although she wasn't exactly sure how that would go down on the news channels, some of which were still spouting Avalon propaganda.

"I'm done," Jinayca said. "We're going to want to move back."

Everyone did as they were told, crouching down behind a huge air-conditioning unit on the other side of the roof.

Jinayca placed a hand on the floor, where she'd drawn another rune. "Good luck," she said, and the roof imploded.

Layla was already up and running around, her weapon in hand, as the gaping hole in the top of the roof got larger and larger.

Roberto and Jinayca were the first two to jump into the hole, with Layla not too far behind them. All three of them took advantage of the stunned shadow elves that were inside the office they'd landed in.

The fight was brutal and short, and even without Layla's hand once again, the half dozen enemies were no real match for them.

Layla spotted Lamashtu in the office at the far end of the floor. She raised the Glock in her hand and fired twice through the open door of the office she was in. The bullets impacted on the thickened glass that surrounded them. The elf was busy finishing up a drawing on the wall beside him, while Lamashtu bared her teeth and howled with laughter as she raised her hand, showing a detonator in it. She pushed the plunger, and the windows along one side of the floor were blown out. She waved at Layla and pushed the elf out of the window before jumping down after him a moment later.

Chloe and Selene, who had both been in the middle of the floor below just after the roof had caved in, gave chase. Selene turned into dragon-kin form and picked Chloe up, and the pair flew out of the building.

Layla dodged a sword attack from a shadow elf and shot him in the head twice before running past with Roberto and Jinayca behind her.

Layla was at full sprint when she reached the edge of the window and leaped out, dragging as much metal as she could with her, wrapping it around herself and forming spiderlike legs. She turned and caught Jinayca in a web of metal. Together they ran down the side of the building, Layla's new spider legs cracking concrete and glass with every step.

They both reached the bottom of the building and were in a flat-out run a moment later, Layla's arm re-forming as they chased after Selene and Chloe, who were easily spotted in the sky. Tego crashed through one of the windows of the lobby to join them, and Layla and Jinayca climbed up on her back.

"Lamashtu and the elf are on foot," Layla said as they raced through the city toward the White House.

A black SUV pulled up beside them, Roberto winding the window down. "Get in," he shouted.

"This is faster," Layla said, and Tego snorted, increasing her speed.

They followed Selene and Chloe through Washington until Roberto stopped the SUV next to the camp outside the White House.

"What's going on?" Layla asked.

"Lamashtu jumped the gate," he said.

"What's inside there that she might want?" Jinayca asked.

Everyone exited the vehicle, and Selene landed beside Layla.

"The bitch got away," Chloe said.

"And the elf?" Layla asked.

"Not sure," Selene said. "Didn't see him, but possibly."

"Let's go get her, then," Chloe said.

Layla spotted Roberto having a deep conversation with several people, some of whom were in military uniform. He walked over to them.

"Lamashtu killed three of ours when she entered the White House," Roberto said. "We have permission to go reclaim her."

"But?" Chloe asked.

"The White House was damaged last time; try not to do it again," Roberto said. "Please."

Chloe walked over to the partially destroyed gate, everyone else following after.

"Where'd she go?" Jinayca asked.

"West Wing," Roberto said.

There were several dozen armed agents outside the West Wing, all looking very nervous as Layla and her team arrived.

"We'll make sure she doesn't try to leave through the back," Selene said and took to the skies with Chloe.

They'd vanished from view when the remains of the West Wing exploded, showering pieces of brick and stone, killing several of the agents, and knocking everyone else to the ground.

Layla had been hit in the head by a large piece of rock and was dazed when she saw Lamashtu, still wearing Piper's face, walk toward them from the ruin of the West Wing. Jinayca and Roberto ran toward her, the former brandishing her battle-ax and the latter firing his gun. Two bullets hit Jinayca's black leather armor in the chest, causing the runes to spark, but she wasn't harmed. Lamashtu threw her knife at Roberto, who dodged just as Jinayca swung her ax at Lamashtu's head.

Layla got back to her feet in time to see Lamashtu evade the ax swing and spin back toward Roberto, driving her sword into his heart.

Layla avoided a blade thrown at her as Jinayca's and Lamashtu's blades connected time and time again. One would gain the upper hand for a moment, then need to retreat from an attack from their opponent. More than once, Jinayca's ax came close to cutting through Lamashtu's body.

Jinayca continued the offensive until her ax cut through the runes on Lamashtu's armor, and even with the distance between them, Layla saw that Lamashtu's expression of joy melted into desperation and rage. She parried Jinayca's attack and drove her sword into the side of Jinayca's head, twisted it, and pulled it free as Layla screamed in rage.

Lamashtu left Jinayca's body where it fell and strode over to remove Roberto's head.

Layla reached out with every bit of power she had, and Lamashtu stopped walking. Layla sprinted toward her opponent at high speed.

Lamashtu regained the use of her body and threw a plume of fire at Layla, who easily dodged it, just as Tego crashed into Lamashtu, taking her off her feet and using her massive claws to tear through the remains of the now-useless armor.

Lamashtu yelled in pain and created a block of ice around Tego's head, kicking the saber-tooth panther away.

Layla reached out and used the metal in Tego's armor to smash through the ice.

"You can't kill me," Lamashtu said, getting back to her feet and brushing herself down. "Two of your friends are already dead. You're just adding to the tally at this point."

Tego's growl was low and menacing as Lamashtu stalked toward her, a sword in her hand. As Layla charged toward her, manipulating the sword to try to bind Lamashtu's hands, the shape-shifter turned and punched her in the face, sending her flying backward.

Layla smashed into the remains of what had once been an FBI car and was now little more than a heap of scrap, but she was too slow to stop Lamashtu closing the space between them and punching her again in the stomach.

Layla took control of the metal in Lamashtu again, but she laughed as she kicked Layla away.

"That won't work twice, girl," Lamashtu said. "I have too many tricks, too many ways to alter my body."

Layla caught Lamashtu's kick, broke her knee, and pushed the shape-shifter away, who healed her body almost instantly. "I can't die," Lamashtu said mockingly. "You hurt me, I just heal and change my body. You can't win here."

Layla swung her hand toward Lamashtu, changing the metal into a whip in an instant. It cut through Lamashtu's face, the silver causing the shape-shifter to scream and turn to flee. Layla used the same whip to trip her, and Lamashtu fell onto the ground next to Tego, who slashed across Lamashtu's already-injured face, and what had been an unpleasant wound was now almost half of her face gone.

Lamashtu punched Tego in the jaw, and Layla tackled her to the ground before Lamashtu could drive her dagger into the feline. Layla broke Lamashtu's elbow, which began to heal once again, but the face remained a raw, bloody mess, one eye all but gone.

Lamashtu grabbed Layla by the throat and threw her over toward the front of the White House. She gave chase and punched Layla in the side of the head.

"I'm going to tear your face off," Lamashtu said, her words coming out all wrong as the side of her face that was relatively untouched continued to change shape. She grabbed Layla by the throat again and slammed her up against one of the columns leading to the White House entrance.

"You won't win," Lamashtu said. "I was just the decoy."

"And you're not that smart," Layla managed.

Lamashtu turned in time to see Tego launch herself at her. Lamashtu's blade came up, but it was too late—the massive feline clamped her powerful jaws around Lamashtu's arm, dragging her to the ground, where she grabbed her around the back of the head. Tego crushed Lamashtu's skull like a grape.

Layla walked over to Jinayca and crouched beside her friend. "Damn it," she said softly, the tears welling up. They'd been through so much, and to lose her like this ...

Selene landed beside them, and Chloe threw herself over to Layla, hugging her. Selene gathered Jinayca in her arms and keened.

Layla looked over at Roberto. "He was a good man," she said softly.

"The elf isn't here," Layla said. "Lamashtu said she was a decoy."

"A decoy for what?" Selene asked, looking up from Jinayca's body.

A crisscross of light-blue power filled the grounds of the White House, and Layla looked beyond the gates and saw that the magic was the same everywhere as far as she could see. The ground began to shake, and screams sounded out from somewhere in the distance.

"We're not done yet," Layla said.