Hell's Army

Chapter Twenty-five- No More Fighting

"So, Holly, Felix, and I will take the outside," Ingleseid finished, Holly and Felix staring up at him from the couch. "Morganstone, Holly will teleport you inside."

"Why can't Felix come with me?" she demanded as Ingleseid's dog gave a distressed cry from the kitchen.

"We need the both of him," he said. "The power we're generating- it's massive. Holly can't do it alone."

"No," she said firmly.

"I can do it, Rebecca," Felix murmured.

"You're staying behind."

"What is it with you?" he snapped in a rare display of Felix-assertiveness. "It's like you think I'm a kid."

"I don't-" she began, but he cut her off,

"You don't think I can do anything right. Why can't you just-"

"Because you're all I've got!" she said so suddenly he almost jumped. Everyone's eyes flickered over to her.

"Sorry," she muttered, making a hasty exit to the kitchen. God, she hated teamwork. She almost tripped over the dog, and he gave her a look like she had run at him with a sledgehammer and scampered into the lounge. A moment later, Ingleseid appeared.

"I'll protect him, Morganstone," he said.

"Yeah? And what if you can't?"

"That won't happen. I promise."

"If he does this," she said quietly, "will those people be safe?"

"Yes," he said without a moment's hesitation.

She looked down, swallowed the lump in her throat. "This better freaking work," she muttered, pushing past him.

Holly and Felix looked up at her from the couch like she was an angry bear that might go on a rampage at the slightest movement.

She sighed. "Let's do this thing."

****

That was how Morganstone found herself in the middle of a field, Ingleseid and Felix watching her at a safe distance.

"Hold tight," Holly said as the grass whispered around them. She took a hold of her arm, and the field was rushing away, replaced with a squashed little kitchen.

"You have got to teach Felix how to do that," Morganstone breathed.

"Good luck," Holly murmured, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Morganstone crept out of the kitchen and into a lavish hallway, grumpy looking portraits glaring down at her. Tatters' musty coat hung over her shoulders, meaning the vampires wouldn't immediately be able to sense her, but she sure as Hell didn't want to run into any of them.

"Are you in?" Holly's voice crackled in her ear.

"Yeah."

"Okay, you need to get to the dining room."

"Right," she murmured, slipping down the hall and to the ivory doors at the end. Her hand curled around the brass knob, and it swung open, the pale, empty face of a vampire coming to a halt in front of her. His fanged face split into a gruesome grin.

"Hello, sweetheart," he said.

Well, crap.

He dragged her to the wall, where the portrait split in two, and a sleek room appeared. He pushed her inside. The elevator chimed to a halt, and they appeared in what looked like a warehouse basement, people squashed into a cage spanning the entire length of the room like animals. The vampire shoved her inside, leering at her through the bars.