the way. We were ready for trouble.
Huge generators the size of trucks loomed like sleeping giants, casting long, dark shadows. Darkened light fixtures hung from the high ceiling, and it did not take much for my imagination to turn them into hovering predators. I’ve seen pictures of old power plants built around 1900. They had soaring ceilings and big windows, resembling huge railroad terminals like Grand Central Station in New York City. This plant was far too new to have any architectural character. It was a big, concrete box, as ugly as it was functional.
Habitation changes the energy of a place, and so does abandonment. It’s like the difference between sleeping, and dead. The power plant had stood empty for decades, and all the energy imparted by the bustle of living beings going about their business had faded away long ago. What remained was a dead husk, energy-wise, but dead things have a way of coming back to life in the most disturbing and dangerous ways.
“Someone’s called up some bad magic, very strong,” Caliel said as we ventured deeper into the deserted power plant. “Can you feel it?”
We all nodded. To me, the taint of dark magic felt like something sticky and foul on my skin. The feeling grew stronger as we moved farther into the bowels of the abandoned plant.
“Kell said that the big generators and the offices are on this floor,” I said, “and the lower floors are mostly wiring and conduits.”
“Unfortunately, that’s where we’re headed.” Sorren led the way. Dressed all in black, he was ready for a fight. He wore two swords, his favorite weapons.
“There are the stairs.” Teag’s voice was flat. He was probably just as frightened as I was at the prospect of going down those steps where Harry had disappeared. Hell, going down into the underground, lightless subfloor was frightening under the best of circumstances, even when black magic and supernatural monsters weren’t involved. We were going in where fallen angels had not feared to tread.
Somewhere in the distance, water dripped and rats squeaked. I tried not to think about the roaches and other vermin skittering around our boots and I wondered if this was the way the guys who explored those old Egyptian tombs felt as they descended into the unknown.
We stopped at the top of the stairs. Sorren turned to Caliel. “What do you sense?”
Caliel closed his eyes and I felt a ripple of power brush against me as he gathered his magic. “On the stairs, nothing. Lower down, remnants of dirty magic, very dark. And...” his voice drifted off. “I don’t want to say until I know for sure.” He shook his head and muttered something in the island language I had heard him use to invoke the Loas. “Some bad shit happened here.”
“But the stairs are safe?”
Caliel gave me a lopsided grin. “Nothing here is safe, but whatever took Harry is gone from the steps. And if you’re right about the Reapers and the Watchers, then the rest of us are safe, unless you’ve got some past sins you’d like to confess?” He chuckled as he said it, but there was truth beneath the humor.
I couldn’t help glancing toward Sorren. He had been a thief before he had been turned, and what he had done in the centuries since then likely went beyond breaking and entering. Sorren gave me a wan half-smile. “Don’t worry, Cassidy. The Reapers aren’t looking for vampires. We’re not on their menu. They want mortal prey.”
Still, I held my breath as we carefully made our way down the steps. Our heavy-duty flashlights barely made a dent in the pitch black darkness. Sorren didn’t need light to navigate, but Teag, Caliel, and I did. While the power plant was ‘abandoned’, I wasn’t sure that meant the shadows that waited for us were empty.
Sorren was in front. I went next, followed by Teag. Caliel took up the rear, chanting and singing to the Loas to ask for their protection.
Nothing happened. I let out a long breath when we reached the dirty concrete floor of the second level. The ceiling was a lot lower than in the generator room. This level held wiring, pipes, and conduits – a maintenance sub-floor to keep the main generator room from being too cluttered.
Harry had vanished into thin air on those narrow concrete steps.
“Someone came this way,” Sorren said, pointing to smudged footprints in the dust. Cobwebs hung from the exposed rafters and the tangle of wires and pipes overhead was close