Terminal (Terminal trilogy #1)

16: Conversion

Sydney's body was still on the table, but two more corpses had joined- her? It? The body. The taurus and the capricorn- Leigh and Charlie. At least the simple stab through the chest wasn't contributing much fresh blood.

The table had been pushed aside to one wall, and the remaining members of The Few sat alongside it, bound up in ropes and cables, and blindfolded with cloth.

Percy wasn't here, but he seemed to be gathering things- someone's laptop was open on the end of the table, as well as a few miscellaneous cables and a phone.

I had motioned for Rhamiel to wait behind the door, and so far he was obeying. A took a few more steps in, accidentally trudging through a rusty puddle of blood as I did so. The sound caused a couple people to flinch.

"Who's there?" Glenn asked desperately. Though some of them seemed a little bruised, none of them were hurt. Besides the dead ones.

"Uh, Mannie," I said.

Someone groaned. Kell was closest to me, and had a nasty hit on his cheek. "Just cut us loose before he gets back," he said.

"Shit, should've brought a knife."

"I have a knife!" The mildly muffled voice of Rhamiel came through from the crack of the door.

"Toss the ring over here and don't come in."

"You know, you could easily burn one of us dead if you miss a cut with that thing- which you probably will," Stacy said.

"If you're going to make quips like that, I definitely will," I muttered, struggling to make the ring-sword work.

"Are you... still with Rhamiel?" Kell asked. For the sake of convenience, I ignored him.

"No, you're doing it wrong. Here, I saw Rhamiel do it more like this-" Blake said, attempting an elaborate trick with his fingers, "Or was it like this? Give me a moment, I'll get it."

"Only angels can use angelswords," Noel said.

"I've gotten it to work before..." I kept the ring on. "Oh well, I guess I'll have to use my hands. Blake, you too."

"I only have one hand."

I shrugged, and started with Kell. Removing the blindfold was simple, but I struggled with the ropes.

"This is going to be it. I am going to die here, after years of warfare, because you are unable to untie a knot." Kell sounded especially bitterly.

"I'll figure it out," I told him.

"I already finished with one of them!" Blake said from somewhere behind me.

"You're so bad at this that the guy with one arm is moving faster than you," Kell complained further.

"Stop."

"How about your friend comes over here and does me first, and you wait in another room while we finish freeing everyone else?" Kell pouted.

"Aren't you a hellhound? Why don't you just shift over and break out."

"Can't do it in these restraints." Kell mumbled.

At that very moment, Percy swaggered in from one of the doors, prepping his twin blades the moment he saw us.

"What are you doing back here?"

"It's been eight and a half hours," I said.

"That's a factual statement, not an explanation."

"Eight and a half hours is quite a long time," Blake added.