"Rider, man, what is this?"
"The light," Damali whispered. "The light is burning away the illusion!"
Stepping back fast, Damali's light wand inadvertently touched the floor, which also started vanishing from the point by her boot where her wand had connected with it, creating a cavern that began swallowing her feet. She immediately scrambled, trying not to drop into the yawning opening. Rider yanked Big Mike by his shirt to fall against the eastern wall, but wherever their lights fell seemed to make solid structure evaporate.
The floor was disintegrating so fast that she lost her balance. "Hit the lights!" she yelled as her wand fell into the opening pit around her, along with the duffle bag and some of the unpacked stakes. Floor space kept edging away from her and the team, and she caught herself from dropping into the abyss by holding onto Rider's legs while he and Mike scrambled to anchor themselves to the dissolving door frame.
With one hand, Mike was able to switch off the bright lamp and grab onto the wood frame with other. Rider's wand had been swallowed beneath him. He was clinging to Mike's waist for dear life, as Damali precariously dangled by his boot.
"Hang on, Damali!" Rider yelled. "Pull up on my leg, sweetheart, then take my hand. Mike, move back, slow and easy. Get us out of this, and I'll never rib you about being a big, lurchy motherfucker again! Pull!"
She wrapped her arms around Rider's boot and pressed her face against his pant leg. She could hear Mike's grunts of exertion as he used his raw strength to draw her out of the hole, using Rider as a human rope. Dirt and rock bit into her forearms, scraping her skin, but she could feel progress - then something grabbed hold of her legs.
"Something's got me! Hurry," she yelled. "I can't shake it!"
"If you're scratched, they smell blood, baby - give me your hand!"
Kicking and twisting, but trying not to lose her grasp on Rider, she could feel icy, sharp fingers snatching at her legs. Panic made her struggle wildly at first, hindering Rider's efforts. Then she stopped fighting so he wouldn't lose his grip on her hand, and she tried to keep her body still for a moment to also make the thing about her legs grow confident. She needed to trap it against her to use its own position against it. Her lips murmured a prayer. She let one get a good hold on her legs as the snakelike thing slithered between them. Damali snapped her calves shut, bent her knees, and forcefully brought her shins and the creature's snake-like head forward against the jagged cavern wall.
Immediately, whatever had her dropped away, and she used her remaining strength to push her boots against the wall to climb to safety up Rider's leg.
"We're outta here," she said, panting.
"No argument," Rider said.
"I think we found the lair, li'l sis. I'm good if you are. Let's roll."
"Roger that," Rider said, coughing from the dust that had been kicked up in the struggle, as they all stood and began to run.
They bolted to the adjoining room, and then fled through the next, until they were outside panting and running in the torrential storm, leaving snarling sounds behind them.
"Ain't got nothin' to sweep the car," Mike said, out of breath as they approached it. "Could be infested - the cloud cover and rain don't leave much light."
"Fuck it, dude," Rider said, huffing air. "We're in the car, and we motor!"
"Some things gotta be addressed the old-fashioned way. If it's infested, we kick its ass." Damali flung a car door open and jumped in, brandishing drum anchors as a weapon.
The others jumped in behind her, and they all peered around the car interior as she started the ignition, shifted into gear, and pulled out.
"The flight is going to be delayed, judging by the weather."
Big Mike nodded his agreement to her observation, but was clearly still too charged to speak.
"We're not doing New Orleans in a thunderstorm, at night, after opening a lair with no weapons. That's out. Don't even consider it."
"All right, Rider. Suggestions, then?" Damali glanced at him hard, and kept driving.
"We're in Lake Ponchartrain - which ain't far from New Orleans Lakefront Airport ," Rider said slowly. "I've got an old buddy from 'Nam who's out of his natural mind, and he'd fly us in a small charter, direct to Dallas where we can connect to get to LAX... if the storm dies down a little. He's insane, which is no more than what we just did."
"In a storm, Rider?" Damali shook her head. "I'd feel a lot better in a jumbo seven-forty-seven. Okay?"
"Oh, so now the lady is concerned about the principles of safety. Give me a break. A floor just dropped out from under us with Hell below it, and you are worried about crashing in a storm? I would think that would be the least of your worries, Madame huntress."
"He's got a point, D... By the way," Big Mike said in a very quiet voice, "you nicked?"
"No," she snapped. "But thanks for asking." She softened her voice and patted Big Mike's arm. "Thanks for the bail out. They were demons. Not vamps. Had to be. Vamps deliver a bite when they attack. Plus, Mar did say that she only thought demons had taken over Nuit's old lair - guess she was right? Just like she and her team had found years ago."
"Somehow, li'l sis, that does not make me feel better."