The Impossible Engineers (The Doorknob Society Saga Book 2) Read online

  “I need to open it.” Edgar struggled up onto his elbows.

  “No,” Val protested and wrapped her arm protectively around Edgar’s chest. He slid his hand over her arm. “It’s the only way.”

  “You’re too weak someone else can do it.” She started crying and kept a firm hold on him. “Tell him Chloe!” She turned to me her eyes wide and pleading. She might not understand our powers but she had witnessed them and could clearly tell what this could cost him.

  The others had gathered behind me and were standing with me. Edgar looked at me and nodded and I turned back to find Slade standing behind me.

  “Get it ready.”

  Slade hurried back to the device and I turned to find Nightshade helping Edgar to his feet. Val stood along with him. Jess and Faith stood off to one side. Jess was biting her lower lip fighting off tears, while Faith watched with keen interest.

  “Are you sure about this?” Nightshade asked Edgar.

  “Yes.”

  “Then I’ll be right next to you.” Nightshade draped Edgar’s arm over his shoulder and Val gave him a quick kiss before Nightshade carried him to the device.

  I hurried over to a trembling Val and hugged her against me.

  “You ready?” Slade asked and Edgar nodded. Slade flipped two of the switches and the sounds of gears churning echoed around the room.

  Nightshade stepped forward placing Edgar gently on his feet. He grabbed the edge of the portal to steady himself. Edgar reached out letting his hand hover over the pad for a moment. Then with relatively light force he depressed the pad and with a click it activated. The gears around the room roared to life turning and whirring. A rush of energy filled the room as the portal reached out searching for a connection. Edgar stiffened and his lips began moving as if he was talking to someone. The air in front of him sprang to life with numbers and equations floating around. The numbers sped past one after the other as if he was discarding things that weren’t working. They moved so fast they became a blur of motion like the flickering of an old movie projector. Until finally an equation glowed brighter than the others and floated down and into the panel by Edgar’s hand.

  The room shook as the portal exploded to life tearing open a doorway. Edgar let out a moan and collapsed. Nightshade was right behind him and caught him.

  “Edgar!” Val tore away from me and rushed to him.

  Nightshade was lying him down on the floor and looked up at our anxious faces. “He passed out; he’s okay.”

  I let out a sigh of relief. Slade rushed forward and was working on the portal. The room shuddered again and I stumbled trying to hold myself steady.

  “That wasn’t the portal.” I turned around.

  “They found us.” Jess pointed down the corridor leading to the room and at the very end instead of howling gremlins were members of the First Kind and they had already blasted through Jess’s first defensive shield.

  “Crap.” Nightshade ran and slammed the door shut pulling out his skeleton key and generating a shield around it.

  “Is it safe to go through the portal?” Val asked as she cradled Edgar’s head against her chest.

  “Yes,” Slade stepped away from the control panel, “but it’s like I thought. We need to close the portal from both ends otherwise it will remain open and they can follow us.”

  “What’s that mean?” Val looked from Slade to me.

  “It means someone has to stay behind and cover everyone else’s escape.” I lowered my head and took a deep breath.

  “I’ll stay,” Jess said softly and I turned to see her focused on me.

  “No,” I snapped.

  “Why not, Cuz, that’s what you were about to offer—to stay behind—wasn’t it?” She scowled at me.

  “You’re not staying, that’s final.” I stared her down.

  “You forget I’m the older cousin; it’s my job.”

  “You can’t stay,” Val yelled from where she was kneeling.

  “Listen you two, I can do this,” I insisted, “Val you need to worry about Edgar and Jess your job is to take care of Gran. I’m the best one here with the chance of surviving if I remain behind. I might be able to talk my way out of this. After all it is my mom I’ll be dealing with.” I lied knowing after that last encounter that my mom had no intention of letting me live. But it worked; I could see Jess considering it. Nightshade, however, was not as easy to convince. He sent me a look that said... you’re lying.

  “Are you sure?” Jess choked back her tears.

  “Help Val and get Edgar through safely for me, will you?” I smiled and she nodded her tears starting to fall as she walked over to Val.

  “Chloe?” Val begged and I waved her off, knowing if I gave it too much thought I might not be able to do it.

  “Chloe,” Slade approached me, reaching out to grab my hands and pull me close. I wasn’t sure what he was going to say but I was hoping he had some magical way out of this for me. “You’re the bravest woman I know. If anyone can survive this you can, and I’ll make certain that the Artifact is kept safe.”

  His hand slid over the bag slung across his chest and he gazed at me with sadness in his eyes. Of all the things I wanted him to say at this moment that definitely wasn’t one of them. He bent over to kiss me and I turned my face and let him kiss my cheek.

  The room shook again as they blasted through another level of our defenses drawing ever closer.

  “I’ll go through first,” Slade instructed. “Jess and Val you bring Edgar through once I say it’s clear. Faith and Nightshade you come through last. Nightshade you need to lock it from our side once you’re through.” Slade looked to Nightshade who nodded in agreement.

  Slade stepped through the portal and I could see him step out on the other side as the shimmering image coalesced into a room. He looked around and ran out of sight for a moment. He returned a bit breathless.

  “It’s safe,” he called out. “It looks like we’re in an old cavern, though not sure where. We’ll have to find our way out from here. Bring Edgar through.”

  Jess turned to me and was about to speak when I raised my hand and waved her through. She wiped at her tears and turned away from me. She reached down grabbing Edgar’s legs while Val took his arms and they stepped through the portal. I watched them make it to the other side and Slade helped lift Edgar, then they walked out of view. Before they disappeared I saw Val look back at me with tears in her eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Chloe.” Faith ran past me and jumped through the portal and kept running once on the other side.

  “Liar.”

  I didn’t turn to face Nightshade, I couldn’t. “I thought you weren’t talking to me anymore?” I couldn’t resist tweaking him one last time.

  “You can’t talk your way out of this. She’s going to kill you.” I heard the anger in his voice and I kept my back to him. I didn’t want him to see how upset I was.

  “Please just go,” I whispered.

  “No.” He was right behind me. I could feel the heat of his body and his warm breath on my neck.

  “What do you want? Do you want me to admit it—yes—I’m lying. My mother is going to kill me and I know it, okay? Happy now?” I shivered at the thought, that my mom planned to kill me and there wasn’t anything that I could do to stop her. It didn’t matter how powerful I was or even if I was a Polymorph. There were too many First Kind to defend against and I was going to die. But at least I was going to die saving my friends. That was worth it wasn’t it, to die fighting for the people you care about?

  The room shook as they broke past another of the shields. I closed my eyes tight and wished I was somewhere else right now. When I opened them I was still in the damn room.

  “Why?” he asked with barely a whisper.

  I thought I caught a quiver of emotion in his voice. But this was Nightshade and the only emotions he had for me were annoyance and anger. Or was there? For all my denial and avoidance, I knew I felt more for him than I would ever let myself admit. Was t
here any chance he felt the same?

  “Because I won’t let my friends die in my place, okay?” I spun turning to face him. My resolve weakened at the sight of him and those damn enticing different colored eyes.

  “Even me?”

  “Yes, damn it, even though you drive me nuts, that includes you.”

  He grabbed my waist and yanked me against him, his mouth crashing down on mine kissing me senseless. His arms wrapped tightly around me, pulling me even closer up against him. His lips pressed against mine with urgency and need and took my breath away. I wanted more, so much more from him. I threw my arms around his neck and pressed my body against his. I didn’t just want him; I needed him, all of him and I lost myself in him. He held me as if he never wanted to let me go, picking me up so that my feet dangled off the ground and walk round and round and how I wished we could simply float away together. Nothing else existed at this moment except Nightshade and I. I spilled all my emotion into the kiss. It was like nothing I had ever felt before and I loved every moment of it.

  How had I denied this passion he brought out in me with the merest touch? I had known it ever since we’d been stuck in that broom closet and I had held back from ever letting myself or him get too close after that. But even so I always sensed him near me and I liked him there close by, even if I had refused to admit it to myself.

  The room shook again. They would break through soon; he had to leave. I didn’t want him to go, to ever leave me. I wanted him next to me all the time. My mind raced with everything I wanted to share with him and would never experience. This first kiss was also destined to be our last. I wanted to cry and scream at myself for what I had ignored for so long. He broke off the kiss and I moaned in pain, not from my side but from the loss.

  “I’m sorry,” he murmured brushing his lips across mine.

  I was about to tell him there was nothing to be sorry for, but he lifted me off him so quickly and thrust me away from him with such force that I didn’t have a chance. I reached out trying to grab him, but he shoved me hard and sent me sailing into the portal, the energy quickly surrounding me as I passed through it and crashed to the floor. I winced in agony as a bolt of pain shot through my injured side when I hit the ground.

  I shook my head disoriented from the pain and passing through the portal so quickly. The portal? I looked up and saw the dark cavern around me lit only by the glowing portal opening in front of me.

  Nightshade stood on the other side his key in hand pointing at it. I jumped up and tried to run and stop him but the burning pain slowed me down. I watched shocked as the blast of crimson energy hit the portal. It shimmered and rippled like the surface of a lake when a pebble is skimmed across it.

  When I finally reached the portal it was solid, locked from the other side. I couldn’t get back through; I couldn’t get to Nightshade.

  “What are you doing?” I screamed at him pounding my hands against the solid surface.

  “What your boyfriend should have done,” he said with a cocky grin standing right next to the portal, so close that I should have been able to touch him. I so wanted to touch him.

  “Please don’t do this,” I begged, my lips quivering as his intentions sank in. “Let me back in.”

  “No, I can’t let you do it.”

  “Why, damn it, why are you doing this?” Warm tears began rolling down my face, I couldn’t stop them. I didn’t want to. This aggravating man always did this to me. I had no control over my emotions around him. No control at all.

  “You really don’t know do you?” He tilted his head and smiled that lopsided grin that always teased my heart.

  “James, please.” I pleaded again. My hands shook uncontrollably, my legs grew weak and I dropped to my knees.

  “You called me James.” He slowly knelt down so that we were eye level.

  “It’s your name,” I whispered tears streaming down my face.

  “You’ve never called me by my first name.” He tilted his head, regarding me with those eyes that had mesmerized me from the first day I had met him. “You have to lock it from your side.”

  “No, I won’t leave you,” I said adamantly and saw the room shake around him.

  “You have to; I’ve already lost one woman I loved... I won’t lose another.”

  “James, no!” I slammed my hands against the portal. “Please let me in. Let me fight.”

  “Lock it, Chloe.” He splayed his hand against the portal and I did the same. Separated by time and space, there we sat with our hands pressed together, yet apart.

  “I can’t... I can’t lose you.” I looked into his eyes and pleaded with him.

  “You never will.”

  “I’m yours,”

  “You were always mine.” He smiled.

  The room shook again and I watched the door in the room shudder and his crimson defenses start to break down. He lifted his key and tendrils of crimson started to slither off of it.

  First Kind rushed into the room and Nightshade whipped his arm in an arc knocking aside the first few through the door. He kept up the assault forming one blast of portal energy after another. But they kept coming and I watched helpless as Nightshade struggled to keep his focus.

  One of the First Kind dove through the doorway and a beam of power shattered through Nightshade defenses and hit him in the shoulder flipping him over. He slammed into the ground with a sickening thud.

  The attacker rushed forward raising his arm and forming an azure dagger, he brought it down toward Nightshade. My scream caught in my throat as Nightshade spun his leg and caught the ankles of his assailant knocking him face first to the ground. For good measure he brought his elbow down hard into the man’s face, his nose exploding in a sea of red.

  Nightshade was back up on his feet but it was too late he had lost the ability to bottle them up at the door and the room was filling with First Kind. His shoulders sagged and I could see the blood dripping from his hand.

  “Nightshade!” I screamed as loud as I could.

  “Close it, Chloe! Save them, save all of them!”

  I dragged myself to my feet and activated my doorknob inching it toward the portal. “I was always yours Nightshade, I always will be.”

  “I know,” he said and sent me one last cocky grin.

  The room exploded with power as Caleb Darker rushed in. Nightshade let out a roar of pure anger and leapt forward lashing out with all the power he had left and again I watched helplessly as Darker and others descended on him. I shoved the knob forward and did as Nightshade had told me. I turned it, locking the portal on my end.

  Like a switch turning off, the portal blinked out of existence and once again I went down on my knees sobbing. I wrapped my arms around my body and rocked myself back and forth.

  “I love you, Nightshade. I love you.”

  Chapter 28

  Status: ......

  “Chloe?” Jess rushed forward and dropped to her knees next to me. She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me close to her chest.

  “He wouldn’t listen to me, Jess. I tried to stop him but he wouldn’t listen to me I swear.” Tears rolled down my cheeks and my voice shook.

  “That dumb bastard.” Jess choked. “It wasn’t your fault. I should have known he wouldn’t let you stay behind.”

  “I tried, I really did.” I sobbed pain filling my heart.

  “I know you did, Cuz. He’s a stubborn bastard.” She cried along with me, not letting me go.

  I don’t know how long we sat there holding each other, but eventually Jess stood up and dragged me to my feet. I was in a daze and she led me out of the cavern. Hot tears were still rolling down my face as we passed from a series of caves into very old carved out tunnels.

  The air began to change from stale and dank to fresh as we climbed up a particularly steep tunnel. At the end I could see light shining in and when we reached the ancient metal door it took both of us to push it open.

  I stepped out onto a grassy hill in the daylight. It took my
eyes a minute to adjust and I looked around and saw Val tending to Edgar. She smiled widely when she saw me.

  “Chloe!” She yelped.

  Edgar stirred and turned to see me. “What happened?”

  I waved them off unable to answer them and turned away more tears coming unbidden. Jess walked out behind me and draped her arm around my shoulders and kissed my cheek.

  “Where are Slade and Faith?”

  “Right here.” Slade came walking up the side of the hill with Faith by his side.

  “Chloe!” Slade ran to me and once he reached me he spread his arms out to hug me and I stepped back shoving my arm out between us. I didn’t want him touching me; not now, not ever. All I could think about was Nightshade and what he had done for me. And what Slade never considered doing.

  “What happened?” He stared at the tears rolling down my face. “Where’s Nightshade?” The anger in his voice told me all I needed to know. He thought Nightshade had done something to me and now he wanted to jump to my defense.

  “Nightshade is dead! He pushed me through the portal and stayed in my place.” I screamed at him.

  Slade backed up, surprised by my anger. “I didn’t know.” He put his hands up and out came his puppy-dog look.

  “How would you know? You were too busy running off with your damn Artifact to worry about what happened to me. But he stayed and took my place and I watched him face down those bastards with everything he had. He didn’t flinch, he wasn’t scared, and he did it for all of us. Don’t you ever use that god damn tone when you talk about him again do you understand me?” I poked Slade in the chest, forcing him back as I yelled.

  “Chloe.” Jess took my arm gently to pull me away. I turned and saw tears in her eyes and broke down again falling to the ground crying. Her arms wrapped around me and I just wanted everyone to go away and leave me alone in my misery.

  I wanted to be back in that damn room with Nightshade, kissing him and feeling his arms wrapped around me. Why was I always so damn stupid not realizing things until it was too late to do anything about it?