Chapter 13

Despite her assertion that she couldn't, Maia fell into fitful, restless sleep the moment her head hit the pillow. She didn't dream, but the darkness that had enveloped her as she lost consciousness was as heavy as the darkness of the living room once she'd switched off the light, and saturated with intense fear and anxiety. Every shadow, every glimmer of light passing through the bare, unshuttered windows of the Spartan kitchenette and living room seeped into her dreamless sleep and inspired reminiscences of the Redcap attack from the night before.

Still, when Tamsin had woken her a little more than an hour later, Maia felt the ache to lie still under her blanket and sleep just a while longer. It was with a worn will and a resigned sigh that she rose and changed and followed the Valkyrie out to the truck, to the day that Maia knew, absolutely, would be as dark and as horrific as her dreamless, panicked sleep.

False dawn blushed against the metropolitan skyline, a thin stretch of rose pushing against the gray film of a cold pre-dawn, promising warmth and clear blue skies and perfect weather more fitting to the late spring than it had been of late. Dew drops mingled with last night's rain over every frigid, misted surface, and a cold, fresh breeze plucked at their coat collars and hair as they stood shivering outside the locked entrance to the Dal. Maia and Tamsin waited wordlessly for an answer to their quiet, insistent knocking, yawning defiantly at the newborn day and refusing to meet each other's tired eyes.

Finally, the sound of tumblers turning broke the uncomfortable silence, and the door stole open with an inviting creak. Vex slipped through, black hair still ruffled and blinking away the effects of sleep that threatened to smudge his mascara. The Mesmer rubbed the bridge of his nose in lieu of scrubbing the corners of his eyes, careful not to ruin the make-up he'd painstakingly applied only minutes ago, and nodded in greeting to the women that waited patiently for him.

Tamsin grasped Vex's arm, her fingers digging sharply into his sleep-numbed skin and eliciting a growl of irritation from the barely awake Mesmer.

"Be careful," she spared a worried, fleeting look at the human beside her, then brushed past him to disappear hurriedly into the dim interior of the Dal Riata, and Vex was sure that her warning wasn't meant for him at all. He rolled his eyes, but didn't deign to reply, only waited for Maia to vanish through the door after her and cast a cursory glance at the empty alleyway before following the human inside.

It hadn't taken long for Hale and Dyson to join them, and it was shortly after dawn finally bathed the sky in a warm array of rose and gold and blue when they set out from the Dal. They'd taken two cars, Tamsin, Dyson and Hale in the Valkyrie's truck, and Vex and Maia in Bo's hotwired Camaro. Maia had been unsure of Vex from the moment she'd seen him at Bo's house, had been struggling with whether to trust the wayward Mesmer both with her own safety and with the case. Though it had been difficult to do so, Maia had been forced to set aside her suspicion and have faith, instead, in the fact that Tamsin and her partner, Dyson, trusted him enough to include him in this rescue mission.

They drove in tense silence, some way ahead of Tamsin's truck, and the tension only thickened as they veered off the road and Vex, very carefully, maneuvered the car between the thick set trees that lined the highway, and over the muddy, uneven earth that threatened to trap the car's tires and keep them mired in the thick, sticky goop that resulted from the previous day's heavy rain.

Maia had barely the chance to experience the promised warmth of the new day. The sun had finally climbed high enough in the sky to turn it a pale, cloudless blue, and the day's warmth had only just begun to settle in, to wake the bugs and the bees and the little woodland animals before she and Vex had found the little burrow they'd been searching for.

"Look, as much as I appreciate the rousing rescue, why the hell isn't Bo with you? What the Fae happened?" Kenzi's voice was dry and cracked, barely above a whisper. She glared fiercely first at Vex, then at Maia, who gave each other tired, wary glances and gestured her drink her water.

The pair had found her just where Cassie had promised they would, hidden deep in a cave far into the labyrinth of the forest that rambled around Jack O'Meara's estate. A couple of nasty-looking humanoid under-Fae had been chained to its entrance, sleeping soundly over enormous bones stripped of their meat, with their hair matted and their skin stained brown and black. She'd been shackled to the ground just out of their reach, none the worse for wear but for an ugly bruise that swelled along her hairline. She was parched, and close to starving – it looked like the Kitsune that had stolen her identity had neither bothered to check on her since the night before and had considered it entirely unnecessary to feed her. Maia had the foresight to bring along a large bottle of water, but they didn't have time for Kenzi to sit down and eat. They'd needed to push on. So they did.

It hadn't taken them very long to find the tunnel that Cassie had told them ran from the hollow into the deep recesses of Jack O'Meara's home. Quietly, they'd unshackled Kenzi, and mouthing silently for her to keep quiet, had crept beneath the curtain of lichen and decaying roots into a dank earthen passageway that seemed more natural than intentional. It wasn't until they'd left the cave's mouth well behind them that they'd finally stopped, if only for a moment, to allow Kenzi the water she desperately craved, and to send Tamsin the text message she waited for. Here, they could speak in whispers, though no ears besides their own were present to hear.

Maia sighed, the air whistling from between her teeth low and soft. She reached for the bottle in Kenzi's hand, afraid that she would drink too much too fast, and would be incapacitated by the cramps that would surely follow.

"It's a long story, Kenzi," she murmured quietly into the darkness that enveloped them. Her flashlight raced wildly across the damp earth walls and ceiling as she struggled to pull the bottle from Kenzi's tight fingers. "You'll give yourself a stomach ache," Maia frowned sternly at the pale-faced girl in front of her, though her features were blurred and indistinct in the darkness. Vex settled the light of his own torch across her face.

In an effort to shield her sensitive eyes from the burning light, Kenzi released her hold on the bottle and her hands flew to cover her face, recoiling from the sudden brightness and grumbling under her breath. She scowled at Maia, who tucked the bottle under her arm with a triumphant, but unhappy, half-smile.

"Well, if we're going to be burrowing into the center of the earth, Jules Verne, I'm pretty sure we got time," Kenzi snapped ill-temperedly. Her eyes squeezed shut against the pained expression that painted Maia's face. Then her lips pursed together, and as suddenly as they'd tensed, her features relaxed. Dry air blew from her chapped lips in a heavy, exhausted sigh, "I'm sorry. There's shit all over the fan, and I just want to know how it got there."

Maia nodded and turned, the halo of light from her flashlight settling on the narrow lane of earth that led ever deeper into the twisted bowels beneath the mansion. Kenzi's apology was unnecessary. As far as Maia was concerned, she felt it was herself that ought to be apologizing to Kenzi, and it showed great strength of character and great compassion from the raven-haired human to offer the apology that Maia couldn't seem to bring herself to offer in return.

"Yeah. A lot's happened. I'll tell you on the way, but we need to keep going," Maia struggled to keep her tone even, to keep the anger and grief that swelled and crashed violently at every memory of the past forty-eight hours at bay, so that they could carry on.

Kenzi hesitated, still a little reluctant, then picked her way carefully over the roots and stones that twisted and jutted from the earth beneath her feet.

"Is Bo okay?" her voice, broken and dry already, seemed small in the crushing darkness. Vex aimed the light of his torch at the ground just ahead of Kenzi, illuminating her path as well as he could for them both while he followed.

"Depends on your definition of 'okay', but yeah, she's just peachy," there was a bitter, sarcastic edge to Vex's tone, the girls could both hear the sneer that pulled the corners of his lips downward as he spoke. But he placed a gentle, supportive hand on the small of Kenzi's back to help her on, and was careful to keep the circle of light just ahead of Kenzi's unsteady feet, his actions thoughtful and considerate despite the roughness of his words.

The Valkyrie tapped her fingernails into her phone nervously. The dawn's promise of a warm day had not been empty, and less than a mile away from Jack O'Meara's home, the weather was more than warm – it was hot and sticky. The windows were all rolled down to invite the warm breeze that drifted past lazily only every so often, too tired to really kick up and cool the sweating occupants of the truck.

Tamsin unlocked her phone and frowned down at the screen as it lit up. No phone calls, no text messages. Vex and Maia were still searching then, for the troublesome human that had gotten herself kidnapped. She pulled in a deep, calming breath, her eyes closing for a moment in an attempt to still the anxious fluttering of her heart.

What she hated most about her anxiety for the human she'd claimed wasn't simply that she felt it, but that she couldn't understand why she felt it so fiercely. Slowly, Tamsin expelled the air she held in her lungs and opened her eyes again. No, that wasn't true. She knew why she felt so nervous about Maia's safety and well-being. The hope that she'd been struggling in vain not to feel welled up in her again – she had to bite her lip to push it back down, to push it away. They were still so uncomfortable with each other, still so wary of one another's motives. But even after all the years of wandering this miserable earth alone, Tamsin could still recognize the smallest seed of potential friendship, of companionship, and she coveted it.

"Any word yet?" Hale's voice beside her ear yanked Tamsin out of her reverie, and she started in her seat. She twisted to scowl at the Siren, grateful that she'd had the prudence to put the truck in park and kill the engine, because she'd floored the gas pedal with her foot in her surprise.

Hale settled his elbows on the front seats on either side of him, a large hand wiping at the thin film of sweat that gleamed against his brow and gathered in little droplets along his nose and upper lip.

"No," Tamsin snapped. Dyson raised an eyebrow at his partner, before it twitched and fell into a pensive frown.

"They'll be fine, Tamsin. The map was clear, and they're not really late for…" Dyson's stormy blue eyes fell to the truck's digital clock, mouth moving silently while he calculated the distance they needed to travel, "… ten more minutes."

"It's just so damn hot!" Hale complained. If Maia had still been in the truck with them, Tamsin was sure she'd have agreed. The backseat was always warmer than the front, especially on humid days like this, when even the slightest warm wind wouldn't even make it past the windows that barely rolled down. The Siren pinched his shirt between his fingers and flapped it, trying to get some air circulating and to cool himself down.

But the thought of what Maia's opinion might have been had she been with them only served to foul Tamsin's mood even more. She settled herself back into her chair, bumping its back violently in an effort to shake Hale's elbow from its shoulder and scowled at the tree line they'd hidden just behind.

"Get over it, Siren," she mumbled grumpily, ignoring the indignant shove Hale aimed at the side of her seat.

His pointed, heavily sarcastic snap about Tamsin's charm and geniality went similarly ignored; Tamsin's phone buzzed quietly between her clammy fingers, tearing the Valkyrie from her oppressive mood to the message that lit the screen.

[- Got her. Dehydrated
and grumpy, but alive
and kicking. See you soon.
Don't die. -]

Tamsin could have shouted with relief, but settled for a wry grin at the prim, grammatically-correct way Maia composed her text message. She locked the phone and dropped it into the cup holders in the panel that separated her seat from Dyson's. Her eyes focused on Hale's, the relieved smile still ghosting across her face, and kicked her door open.

"They found her. We're up."

Hale's hand darted out to grab Tamsin's shoulder before she had a chance to slide out of her seat, yanking her attention back to him.

"Is Kenzi okay?" Worry flashed in his brown eyes, though his mouth was set in a hard line, and Tamsin knew it was an emotion she hadn't been meant to see. The glare that had tightened the corners of her eyes and mouth at the uninvited clutch of his hand on her arm softened into a knowing smirk.

"She's fine, lover boy," Tamsin's eyebrows twitched at him suggestively before she pulled her arm away and slipped out of the truck. Dyson was already beside Hale's door and yanked it open for him.

"You coming, or what?" the Wolf gave his old partner a half-smile, sharing the relief painted across Hale's features at the news that Kenzi was uninjured. The snarky human with the big attitude was important to both of them, and they were both almost as deeply invested in her safety as they were in Bo's.

Hale drew in a deep breath and stepped out of Tamsin's old truck. Deep lines of determination etched his face, softened by the haze of sweat and humidity that clung to them unrelentingly.

The doors of the truck slammed shut in unison. Tamsin grinned at each of the men that stood in front of her, eager to be doing her part and considerably cheered by the prospect of a good, bloody battle.

"Let's chew bubblegum, boys."

Tamsin's eagerness quickly dissipated as they trudged through the thick brush of the woods that jealously guarded O'Meara's mansion. They walked for nearly an hour, sweating and cursing the humidity that brought mosquitos and gnats and flies buzzing and biting at their skin, relentless and hungry for blood.

"Do you even know where we're going?!" Hale snapped, waving his arms frantically around his face in a futile attempt to keep the angry horde of insects at bay. It was a long, winding, frustrated mile to Jack O'Meara's sprawling property, and they'd had to redirect their route at least a dozen times to get past the many, almost deliberate, obstacles the forest had lain across their path.

Tamsin puffed air through her lips, her jaw jutting out to correct the angle so that the thin lock of hair that fell across her face was blown away. She felt her ire rise, her patience with the Siren growing shorter with each carefully placed step and each frustrating hurdle that slowed their progress.

"Yes, I am. Now shut up and let me focus," Tamsin's words were short and terse. Her hands balled into fists on either side of her and she screwed her eyes shut in an effort to concentrate. The faint, fragrant aroma of the flowers in O'Meara's lush garden wafted tantalizingly through the thick, almost stagnant air, goading her onward, teasing her with the impression that they must be oh-so-close to their destination.

"Come on, it's this way. I can smell the flowers," Dyson murmured quietly, aware of the tension that rippled between his new partner and his old. Tamsin was an excellent tracker, but with his powerful sense of smell, so was he. Between the two of them, they'd managed to find their way through the thick, impenetrable undergrowth that guarded O'Meara's property jealously. The Wolf brushed past Tamsin, leading them on a few steps more before she pushed right past him to take over the role of leader once again.

Tamsin pressed forward, her fists unclenching and her confidence returning to her with Dyson's reassurances that they were still on the right path, and swiped a low-lying branch out of her way. A triumphant grin curled her lips as woven metal glittered into view between the reaching, snatching fingers of tree limbs and scraggly brush.

She spared a glance behind her at Hale, a nasty smirk painted across her features. "I won't say I told you so," she taunted, finding petty pleasure in the irritated growl the Ash responded with.

Dyson rolled his eyes and curled his fingers around the warm, thin metal of the fence that barred their access. A lush, green lawn of freshly mowed grass sprawled lazily ahead of them, and the garden whose flowers he and Tamsin had smelled curled affectionately around the enormous Victorian mansion that rambled at its center.

The Valkyrie shook the thin fence, testing its solidity before hooking the toes of her shoes into its diamond-shaped spaces and pulling herself up and over it. It rattled under her weight, but held effortlessly otherwise, and Tamsin dropped to her feet on the other side, still smirking infuriatingly.

"Come on, man. We'll find faces to break soon enough," Dyson chuckled at his friend, who fumed still at the insufferable blonde that teased and taunted, and scrambled up and over the fence to join his new partner.

Hale followed last, muttering furious insults under his breath and swatting angrily at the insects that threatened to break his tremulous temper. He fell to a soft cushion of thick grass under his feet, and a gentle breeze swept across his sweat-dampened skin, soothing and placating. He breathed a heavy sigh, grateful to be away from the grasping, sharp fingers of the trees and at last within view of the battlefield on which they'd be making their stand.

A pair of shapes edged toward them slowly, gangly and loud as they joked and teased each other. They grew steadily larger, the crimson of their caps stark against the bright green of the lawn they tread on, as they approached.

"I thought you said we could get in undetected?" Hale breathed, his body tensing and his voice sharp with the return of his annoyance.

Tamsin shrugged.

"Does it matter? We can take two wimpy Redcaps. And it's not like we're the ones sneaking in. Or are you scared?" Tamsin's voice was quiet and mocking, but her faded green gaze never left the nearing shapes of the Redcaps that walked ever closer.

"Just means we're doing our job, distracting as many of them as we can," Dyson rolled and squared his shoulders, and almost laughed when Tamsin raised a hand to wave cheerfully at the approaching enemy.

Kenzi only stumbled once while they trudged through the dank, dark tunnel to the shaft Cassie had told them would lead up into O'Meara's dungeon. She listened while they recounted the past day's events silently, her focus wholly on everything they described. The further they walked and the further their story unfolded, the paler her face became.

They paused for a few minutes, having finally caught her up to the point at which they found her, to give Kenzi a little time to think and drink a little more water. Maia watched her closely, compassion and concern drawing lines across her already tired face.

"I'm sorry," she finally mumbled, barely able to say the words, but incapable of holding them back any longer. She was the source of all of their troubles, intentionally or not, and the weight of that was threatening to suffocate her.

Kenzi's sharp pale eyes settled on hers for a brief moment, then she shrugged and sipped carefully at her water, and Maia felt at least a little of the weight of her guilt lift off her shoulders.

They didn't stop for long. Kenzi was less resistant when Maia finally reached out to pull the nearly empty bottle of water from her dirty fingers, and tucked it carefully back under her arm. The silence around them was profound, close and choking, like the cloying scent of the earth that surrounded them and the impenetrable blackness that bore down on them.

Maia's flashlight bobbed in the heavy darkness before her, revealing the tangled mess of roots and rock that twisted and projected out of the soft earth, threatening to trip her if she didn't pick her way over them carefully enough. It was slow-going, but they were determined, and the only other alternative left to them was really no alternative at all.

Eventually, the small, round halo of yellow light that led the way stopped advancing, and climbed instead up a crumbling, pitted wall of hard-packed earth and stone. The trio collected under the narrow shaft that rose endlessly above them, flashlights searching the darkness above and eyes straining to see its end.

"Holy moly pants…" Kenzi muttered under her breath, her head craning back as far as it would go. It popped audibly as she squinted into the black void that looked as though it would swallow them whole, "did you guys know we were going downhill?"

Maia sighed heavily. Their descent must have been very gradual, or the hill the mansion was situated on must have been much larger than they'd thought, and the slight valley Kenzi's prison was in much lower. She pulled the bottle of water out from under her arm and stared at it in mixed distaste and indecision, she wouldn't be able to carry it while they climbed up, and it would be a terrible waste of water to leave it down here. Not to mention how much Maia abhorred littering.

Kenzi swiped the bottle from Maia's grasp, eliciting an annoyed grumble from the distracted human, and upended the bottle, chugging down the last of the water as quickly as she could before Maia could react. She gave a satisfied sigh as the last of the cool liquid drained down her parched throat and swiped the back of her wrist across her mouth.

"Plastic is biodegradable, right?" Kenzi grinned, dropping the bottle to the ground with a hollow, muffled clunk. It jumped around their feet a few paces, then rolled to the round edge of the base of the tunnel.

Maia glared at Kenzi through her dirt streaked glasses.

"No, actually. It's not," she mumbled quietly. But what other choice did they really have? None of them could spare a hand to carry the bottle up with them, and there was nowhere else for the bottle to go. Heaving a resigned sigh, Maia wedged the edge of her flashlight between her teeth and tugged at the decaying wooden planks that climbed along the walls of the shaft. Vex followed suit immediately, and, finding the planks sufficiently stable, Maia led the way, climbing carefully up. Kenzi followed in the middle, her muscles stiff and complaining against the exertion that climbing at a ninety-degree angle demanded, and Vex took up the rear again.

The dim, yellow lights of their torches bobbed on ahead of them, egging them up farther and farther, though there seemed to be no end in sight. Maia's shoulders screamed against the strain, she paused a moment to roll them, to stretch the tight and sore muscles that throbbed with every pull. Eventually, the pain dulled. The cool, still air around them turned hot and stuffy with their exertion, sweat tickled the sides of her face, her brow, her nose, and the space between her shoulders. It collected there and rolled in heavy, slow droplets down her spine, a slow, prickling agony that Maia ached to wipe away.

They climbed in near silence, the only noise that prodded the quiet was the sound of their careful, deliberate feet settling and leaning on old, decaying wood and their breath coming in short, shallow pants as they climbed. Time had become meaningless since the beginning of their journey from the cave's mouth, though Vex and Maia both knew it ought to have been only an hour or so. But the dark stole away their sense of time, and her watch hung uselessly on her wrist as they climbed, the hands and numbers hidden in the darkness even if she'd been able to spare her hand to check it.

Finally, the shivering circle of light from her torch settled on rough surface. As they neared it, deep whorls of wooden grain swooped into sight, and eventually, Maia could reach out her hand to brush her fingers against the damp, gritty surface of old, moldy wood. She braced her back against the back of the shaft they climbed, finding to her surprise that she pressed herself to hard, rough stone rather than damp, soft earth. Her knuckles grazed the coarse jagged rock the wooden steps were drilled into, just to confirm their new surroundings, before she pressed the palm of her hand against the trapdoor above her. It didn't budge, and the unforgiving, uneven stone she leaned her back against dug painfully into her skin.

Carefully, she repositioned herself, taking another step up and bowing her neck and shoulders to settle against the wooden trapdoor. It was heavy, and Maia hoped it wasn't locked or that something too heavy for her to push aside lay on top of it, or else all their hard, diligent effort would have been for nothing. She grit her teeth, and her mouth and jaw ached against the strain of holding her flashlight there.

With a long, low groan, Maia strained against the trapdoor, her shoulders and back screaming with pain. Her face twisted into a grimace, her eyes screwed shut against the agony that tore through her and against the light of Vex's flashlight, dancing from her face to the trapdoor she strained against.

She felt the warped wood above her shift with a groan that matched her own, and a sliver of pale light slid through the crack, flooding the shaft with a warm, flickering glow. Fresh air breathed in, like the soft sigh of a lover, cool against their sweating skin.

Vex tried to shout in excitement, and the mostly steady halo of light that streamed from his torch swung wildly as it tumbled away from Vex's dry, aching mouth. In a panicked attempt to recover it, he clamped his teeth even tighter, and flinched as they ground against the rough steel grip of its shaft and clicked audibly against the inside of his teeth.

"Oh, yes! You got it, Curly, don't stop!" Kenzi's voice, cracked and dry, was a shock to Maia's ears. But the sweet, refreshing air that whooshed in, the gentle light that cascaded through the crack and Kenzi's broken encouragements sent a thrill of excitement and energy rushing through Maia's veins. With a final, tremendous effort, she pushed against the trapdoor, every muscle quivering, her clenched teeth tender and aching, and her fingers stiff around the topmost step. The heavy wood creaked as the slit grew into a crack, then into a wedge, and finally, Maia burst through the opening and the door slammed open on its side.

Maia collapsed onto the cold stone floor of the T-section that separated the wine cellar from the dungeon, her chest heaving, her mouth sucking in air around the flashlight still clenched between her teeth and her feet scrambling to pull herself the rest of the way out of the tunnel. With trembling fingers, she tore the flashlight from her mouth and shoved her stiff jaw shut before reaching down into the inky blackness of the pit they crawled out of to grasp Kenzi by the armpits and yank her up.

Vex scrambled up beside them, spitting his flashlight onto the ground and panting and rolling on the blessedly cold stone floor and sucking in cool, grateful lungfuls of fresh air.

They lay there for a few short minutes, blinking against the torchlight that flickered, painfully bright to their sensitive, dilated eyes and gulping in oxygen. The cold stone beneath them was a relief to their tired, hot, aching muscles and in the much drier air of the hall, the sweat on their skin quickly evaporated.

But Maia knew that time was not on their side. Slowly, reluctantly, she rolled onto her belly and pulled herself unsteadily to her feet. Her legs trembled and her knees threatened to give out under her, but determination supported her, and she offered Kenzi her hand to help pull the other human up too.

"I hope you know where you're going," Vex groaned balefully as he pulled himself upright. He braced his hands behind his back, leaned against them, and heard it crack loudly against the heavy silence of the hallway with not a small amount of satisfaction.

Maia nodded, her brown gaze fixed on the shadows that jumped and danced over the heavy wooden door at the end of the left hall. Behind that, through a haze of disease and death, was the dungeon to which the butler, the Redcaps and Dolph had led them less than twenty-four hours ago.

Her sneakers made little sound as she crept towards it. The door was open just a crack, and the vile stench of sick and waste crept in tendrils through it. Carefully, Maia pushed it open just a little more and squeezed through, breathing through her mouth and tiptoeing as quietly as she could. Vex and Kenzi stole in behind her.

Not one of them noticed the pair of eyes that gleamed sinisterly in the shadows behind them.

Author's Note: Once again, I would like to thank everyone for their reviews, follows and favorites. It's incredibly encouraging to see readers who are interested and engaged. The next chapter is going to be a very exciting, active one, as are the rest to follow, as I recall. We're almost at the end! I am currently writing the second part of this series, which ought to be a trilogy, as far as I've mapped it out. As far as Dark!Bo, I've never been able to truly imagine her any other way. I feel that if the writers of the show would have had Bo be dark for more than a few minutes, she may have turned out this way, which is why I wrote her like this. So I'm super glad you like her, Guest of Chapter 11!