With a final tug on the leather strap, I tighten my thigh holster into place and slip my pistol into the pouch. I am officially armed with enough weapons to wage a small war, and Ian and Jez are likewise prepared. The inner city where the crystal is housed is a cesspool of crime and depravity. The splatter of raindrops echoes through the steamer car. I shrug into an oiled-leather duster that falls to my ankles, concealing my leather pants, emerald-green corset and leather chest harness. Jezebel is dressed similarly, and Ian looks like a displaced professor forced into the company of a few unfortunates. He is a sexy professor though.
“Are you ready, my cherubs?” Jez asks as she settles her breathing apparatus to her face. The breathing apparatus is a gas mask converted with bottled oxygen. The air quality will be poor at best, nonexistent at worst, and it pays to be prepared.
“I am always ready,” I say with a wink aimed at Jez as I slip my own mask into place.
“You two are incorrigible. Thanks to you guys, I am going to be walking into hell with an erection,” Ian grumbles, as he settles his own mask into place.
“Stop your whining,” Jez chastises as she slides the door open. The platform in Grand Central Station is eerily quiet. A dense fog all but conceals the dark masses of bodies lying where they fell.
We move in silence, conserving the air circulating through our masks. We have about a mile walk into the very heart of the city where the crystal is housed. There is no movement as we make our way through the deserted streets. I am shocked that more people weren’t prepared with breathing apparatuses. They were a staple before the crystal. Pretty much the only threat we have to watch out for is the few people in possession of a mask. They are going to be on the hunt for any survivors.
We reach the towering brick building that holds the crystal with relative ease and not a moment too soon. The building should have a fresh-air supply built in. At least, it had better, or we are in serious trouble. We each plugged in our last bottles about ten minutes ago, and we only have about ten minutes left. I unclip a small leather pouch from my belt and produce two slim metal picks. With a practiced, steady hand, I quickly reverse the locking mechanism and the door slides open with a creak and the clank of gears rotating.
Quickly resealing the door, I give Jez the thumbs-up to flip on the emergency air supply. The insides of the building rumble and groan before a slow hiss of airflow begins to slide through the room. We all quickly shed our masks and cap the air bottles, just in case. “Well,” I say, “let’s go find this crystal and get down to the hot, kinky fornication.”
“Good, because you in that mask has had me wet the whole way,” Jez says with a chuckle.
I simply roll my eyes at her and proceed to the staircase. Ian rushes over and sweeps me up in his arms. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I thought girls like the romantic stuff,” Ian says with a shrug.”
“Not this girl,” I say smacking his shoulder. “Put me down.”
“I can’t do that, Angel, you need to conserve your energy. If we can’t get it up enough, we are, as the slang goes, up a creek without a paddle.”
“Oh, I know I can get it up, but can you? I have heard some men don’t perform well under pressure.”
“Well, your lack of confidence in me sure isn’t going to help matters any.”
“Ian, seriously, put me down, the crystal is twenty stories up. I am a grown woman and have gotten along just fine on my own for several years.”
“Nope. Besides I like holding you, you smell nice.” Ian says inhaling a breath from the depths of my hair. Jez makes a gagging noise. “Stop discouraging her,” he says to Jez. “Has she mentioned that she will die if she doesn’t stay with me?”
“Is that why she has been looking so pale and sickly lately? I hate to tell you this handsome, but Angel does whatever she pleases. Even a fine pieces of ass like you isn’t going to get her to settle down unless it’s her choice.”
The hiss of air suddenly stops and the grinding of gears comes to a screeching halt. “Shit,” I exclaim, struggling out of Ian’s arms. We all begin sprinting up the stairs and towards the crystal. The pressure on me is enormous, I have a limited time to repower the crystal and it isn’t even anything I can control. Good thing I am a half-succubus and getting turned on, even when the lives of the only two people I care about are on the line, shouldn’t be an issue. But can I generate the amount of energy needed? Can Jez and Ian even perform with such towering amounts of pressure? I guess we will find out.
The door to the twentieth floor flashes in front of us. Not pausing, we crash through into a room flooded with an eerie, pale liquid-blue light. In the center of the room the crystal rises majestically before us, its light flickering. Tesla’s coils are still crackling and snapping with life, but not as brightly or as strongly as they should. The air in the room is heavy and hard to breathe and the effects are starting to show already on Ian. He is, after all, a mere mortal. Jez and I are both half-paranormal creatures and can tolerate far more than he can.
Not wanting to lose a second of the precious little breathable air that is left, I throw off my jacket and leap into Ian’s arms, kissing him as if our lives depended on it. The bitch of the situation is, they do.