Chapter 70

When he opened up the wooden barrier to get to level twenty-five, he was greeted by all four of the kids and Trudy holding her baby right outside.

Zac appeared happy. In fact, he was bounding from foot to foot in excitement. There was a new rip on his shoulder with clear signs of blood on it. “Did we get them?” He was doing shadow boxing.

Daniel laughed. “Yep, we got them. Over twenty. Only two more to go.” He leant down and hugged the boy. “You were very brave,” he whispered into his hair. Then he looked up. Trudy was looking hard at him. “How bad was it?”

“It was just a scratch,” Trudy said.

“I had hoped—”

“Yet he got injured,” Trudy interrupted him with an abrupt wave of her hand. “And you had Carly in our room waiting as back up, and you have come straight up to check on him.”

“I . . .” he stopped speaking, realising that she was not angry like he had been expecting. He had expected her to become a fearsome mother hen and come crashing down to protect her children.

“You are a good man, but remember you made a promise.”

“I did.”

“You did,” she agreed, and she leant forward more. “And you need to play politics better.”

“What?”

“You can’t be that naïve,” Trudy said. “We are not getting out of here unless you do. There are too many self-important a-holes up here. This is an expensive hotel, and entitled idiots are in surplus.”

“What are you saying?”

“Take charge. Do everything you can to get us out. If those fools get in your way, then deal with them. The rest of us will support you.”

“I thought you were going to be furious.”

Trudy hesitated for a moment. “We all would be dead without you,” she admitted finally. “All of us. There was no way we would have killed the ferals, let alone started clearing the floors if you hadn’t done it. There is a reason no other floor made any progress. Plus, I have spent a lot of time looking out the window. We need to get stronger. The stuff out there.” She stopped talking.

“Thank you,” he said cautiously.

“Daniel.” She was serious. “Take charge. Not your girlfriend. You.”

“She is not.”

“Even more reason for you to take control. Getting out of this building is only half the battle. You mustn’t let Beau and Jayden undermine you. Here, within the walls, there is a modicum of safety. Nothing is hunting us.” Another hesitation. “Hopefully.”

She looked up and then down, worry clear on her face. Once you had seen ferals, it was easy to imagine that something more dire might exist elsewhere. She shook herself.

“Look at me, letting my imagination run riot.” The excuse fell flat. “We might be safe here,” she continued more seriously, “but once we leave this place?” She shivered. “Out there, in the wider world . . . that equation changes. There are monsters, which will hunt us. We can’t afford loose cannons out there. One person’s stupidity could bring one of the . . .” She stopped talking and he could see horror etched across her features.

“What do you mean?”

“They want to be in control, and if they succeed, we are all doomed.” The baby started crying. “Can we go to the kitchen? She likes the breeze.”

Daniel went to follow, figuring that Trudy had more advice to give. After her husband and now Zac getting hurt, he had been expecting her to be against him, but apparently it was the opposite.

“Hey, you!”

The rude yell came from behind him. Trudy’s words echoed in Daniel’s head. He needed to take a firmer leadership position.

He turned, and Beau, flanked by two other men, stalked towards him. His companions were two of the men who had followed Beau earlier. Daniel’s eyes skipped over them. Non-combatants. He wondered what their classes were.

“Yeah, you.” The man had been drinking. Daniel could smell the beer on him from here. “You need to stop lording it over us.”

Daniel’s preferred way of dealing with drunks was to diffuse the situation, but if he could not do that, he would not back down.

“Open the stairways. I know you have cleared other floors. This floor is too restrictive and the lack of doors is infuriating.”

“No.”

“You are not in charge, mate.” Beau’s finger poked him in his chest. Daniel barely stopped himself from reacting and snapping it off. “If you don’t open them, we are going to have issues.”

“No!”

Beau’s two companions moved up to loom on either side of him.

“I was not asking,” Beau said.

“No, you were ordering.” Daniel’s instincts were screaming at him to hit first, but he held back.

“True, right. So open it up.”

“It is too dangerous.”

“Then you can come with us and make it not dangerous.”

“Daniel, are you planning on clearing more floors?” Trudy asked from behind him, trying to help.

“Pathetic, always hiding behind skirts.”

The men next to Beau giggled at that.

“You guys have been drinking.”

“No shit, Sherlock.”

“New rule.” Daniel said it loud enough so the crowd Priscilla had shown at his back could hear. “Alcohol is reserved to those who contribute to society.”

“What, and you are the judge of that?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t want to do this, mate.”

“But I am going to do it,” he told them.

“You are not in charge.”

Priscilla was there. That gave him options. Can you show me if he swings? he thought.

Strong feelings of yes swamped him.

“I want all the alcohol brought to my room,” Daniel yelled out and then spun on his heels, dismissing the drunk men as irrelevant by his motions.

His vision froze as Priscilla did her thing. It was not Beau attacking him, but the guy on the left, and it was just a push.

Speed.

Stepping sideways, Daniel rotated his body. Hands up, grabbing the idiot.

Strength.

Daniel threw him forward, then realising that Carly of all people was in the spot that he was about to toss the man. He redirected and held slightly longer to effectively body slam the man into the floor. It would hurt him more, but he would not hurt an innocent bystander, especially one of his team.

Thump.

The noise did not sound pleasant. There were broken bones involved.

Time froze again. Dark magic was forming in Beau’s hands.

Speed.

Daniel let his club flash out while asking it not to poison.

There was a crack as his club hit the hand, and the magic bolt shot up into the roof. Sharp spikes on every inch of the weapon instantly opened long grazes.

There was a groan on the floor. The third man was backing away in alarm.

“Try that again and there will be consequences.” Once more, Daniel turned his back and walked away. “Bring all the alcohol to my room. I am not letting you bludgers drink it anymore.” Then he froze and looked straight at Beau, his heart thundering. That prick had tried to hit him with magic. “Pushing is fine. But if you attack me with magic again, I will lock you on a zombie floor and leave you there. Once you have cleared it of enemies, you will have as many rooms as you want and all the alcohol you can find. Hell, if you want to, I can let you out in level twenty-three right now.”

The man shook his head quickly.

Typical, Daniel thought, not that there was a chance in hell that Beau could clear a floor. He might beat one zombie and maybe two, but after that, his magic would be depleted, and he would be helpless. As Daniel walked past Trudy, she patted him on the back, as did Alisha. Maybe they needed someone to take charge, or possibly they were just glad Beau had been put back into his place.

‎