BloodRose

21.1. Themis

"Listen very carefully. Do whatever I say and we will make it out of this alive. I promise."

Alias still looks worried and tenses at the words as Kyle laughs. I level my gaze at him. His expression becomes serious for a second before he smirks.

"What's your plan then, newbie?"

Now I return his smile, "I've lived millennia. Pretty sure you're the newbie, newbie." Kyle is still grinning but it's vacant and at this point, I can tell he is certain I've gone insane.

"What are you talking about-What is she talking about?" He directs his confusion to Alias.

"You're a seer."

I turn to Alias. "Always are the first one to the punch, Al."

Kyle lets out a huff, "Suppose I can't call you vampling anymore."

It's my turn to smirk. "Nope." I look back at Alias as he helps me stand. My smirk dissolves. "I've seen thousands of possible ways we break into the compound, thousands of ways we get caught, tortured.........killed."

Images whirl in front of my eyes. I swallow them down. I can't complete the plan if my head is spinning like a top.

"Look," I start and Alias tenses when I pause, "You have to do everything I say. Everything." I wait for him to make eye contact, "Do you trust me?"

His gaze softens, "You know I do."

I nod and then roll my eyes. "Kyle?"

"Hm, what?" He plasters on an innocent look, "Who, me?" I raise an eyebrow. "Yeah, sure. Why not? Lead the way vampling....er....grandma......" He winks. At least after seeing it a thousand times, I'm no longer blushing the same stupid shade of scarlet.

I turn back the way we came from the tunnels, "Then, let's go kill us an Augur."

In one of my visions, Hannah ended up in a cell with us. When I told her what I kept seeing, she spilled out as much information as she could. That vision was a short one. Garret killed Hannah mid sentence. I followed her soon after. I remember only bits and pieces of what she told me, but one of those pieces is the code to gain outside access to the killing ring, the place where she'd let us all go.

The symbols I caught a glimpse of before were Greek letters. Not surprisingly, the symbols for the code spell out Αμβρογιο (Ambrogio). When we get back to the mouth of the slide, I put an arm out to stop Kyle and Alias.

"We only have one shot at this. For right now, we have the element of surprise. The Augur is expecting us to enter from one door. When we come at him from another direction, he's going to wonder why. My guess is it will take him minutes at the most, seconds at the least to figure it out. Alias?"

He puts a hand on my shoulder, "You're right, he's quick on the uptake. One chance. I understand."

"Kyle?"

The lanky form shifts in the dark and I can tell he is squinting at me, "Yeah. Yep. I got it. One shot, screwing up means death. Let's blow this popsicle stand."

I'm glad for the dark. My cringe would only encourage him.

We jump into the mouth of the slide. I'm in the lead and I keep an ear trained on the two bodies behind me. The lock mechanism is exactly where Hannah said it would be and the code works on the first try. We climb soundlessly into the room. It's empty which means Garret already came for Hannah. Before Alias can ask, I hold a finger to my lips. Silence is our best ally right now.

The door is unlocked. Smart as they are, members of Ambrogio do not believe the dead can rise.

How foolish of them.