Draiks and Angels: Twins

19 - Mark

The name of the residential tower that the cartel was supposed to have a connection to was "Sage Heights." It was located two streets west of the center street in downtown Gannigan. It was twenty stories tall and looked like it was made entirely of glass. Ava wasn't sure how a drug cartel could become so powerful so as to influence as expensive a place as that one had to be.

They walked into the lobby of the building with their hands in their satchels, holding their blessed blades out of sight. The lobby was decidedly empty, though. There were a few fake plants, a couple benches, and two elevators. There was a down button for the elevators, so Satiya pushed it, and they all entered the first elevator to arrive. Nate had said the men who took him put a key in the fire lock and changed the buttons. Satiya was sure she could use her magic to "unlock" the fire lock, but if this was not that elevator, it would cause a huge ruckus. There was a button for "B," the basement, so she opted to just try that.

They exited to a strange sight. It appeared to be a fairly large space, probably, but right in front of them, spanning from wall-to-wall, was a set of black curtains. They were floor-length and medium-weight; impossible to see through. Ava could see wires hanging from standing poles that the curtains would slide along. Looking close, there were three sections to the curtains in front of them.

"Blades," Satiya whispered, and they all pulled out their weapons.

Satiya went first and drew the middle curtain to the side. Past it, were more curtains. One directly in front and one on each side making a box of sorts. The space inside was only large enough for one person, or two if they crammed in tight.

"I don't like this," Husani said.

"We can't just go back," Satiya said gently. "Let's go straight down the middle. Me, then Ava, then Husani, then Tadeas."

They all nodded and rearranged themselves. Satiya walked into the first chamber, opened the next curtain and carefully moved forward. They proceeded through a few more chambers when Satiya thought she heard something.

"Wait!" she hissed.

Tadeas suddenly felt a chill in his bones and fear in his heart. Before he could say anything, a warm arm wrapped around his neck. The pressure on his weakened larynx cut off his voice and only a raspy shot of air came out. To his surprise, freezing cold blackness enveloped his entire face, blacking out his sight and filling his mouth and nose with knockout poison. Humans and Shadows simultaneously?! In a panic, he tried to bring up his blade to stab the Shadow on his face, but just as he started to move, a warm hand grabbed his dagger-holding wrist. He pulled and struggled, but couldn't get it out of the human's grip. He released his other hand's hold on the arm around his neck and cast the knockout spell on that hand. He punched at the human's arm around his throat, but his hand bounced off freezing coldness.

Tadeas was getting frustrated and dizzy. He reached behind him to punch the human in the side. A sudden lash of ice around his wrist pulled his hand to his own side before he could hit the human, and he felt freezing cold wrap around his torso to pin it there. It seemed the main Shadow's power level changed how effective their knockout mist was, because it was taking longer for him to pass out than with Yom Cimil, but he was definitely losing faculties. He pulled against the Shadow lash on his arm and the human grip on his wrist, but his struggles were weakening, and his head was spinning, even though he couldn't see. He felt his dagger slip from his hand but didn't hear it hit the ground.

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Greg stood at the back of the small cell where he woke up that morning, trying to get as far away from the black... thing that stood outside it as possible. It was about ten feet tall and looked like a human man, except that it had glowing red eyes and was made entirely of blackness. Every time it came near him, he was filled with such fear!