Chapter 136

The pipe he’d used earlier was still running along the ceiling, so he leaped up and grabbed hold of it with one hand while he worked on the grate with the other. Sliding his fingers through the openings, he gave it a tug, and it came right off. Cadon tossed it over the side of the catwalk, noticing the entire walkway swaying back and forth as the metal hit the railing. It was a long way down to the first floor below them. Of course, if he fell from there it would hurt, but it wouldn’t kill him. The only things that could kill him were Vampires or Hunters and Guardians with titanium bullets. And since there seemed to be a hell of a lot of all of those things headed his direction at the moment, it was time for him to disappear.
Rather than grabbing the girl and hauling her out of the air vent, Cadon swung himself up inside of the metal compartment just as a wave of bodies in black uniforms swarmed the area where he’d just been standing. They didn’t seem to notice that he had been there or that he was gone now as they all kept running.
Once they all ran by, Cadon turned his attention to the girl. He was on one side of the duct, and she was on the other. The hole from the grate was between them, but it was only about a foot and a half wide. “What’s your name?” he asked her, seeing how terrified she looked.
“M-M-Mallory,” she stammered.
“Hi, I’m Cadon,” he said, still smiling. “We’re going to get you out of here, okay?”
She nodded. Looking at her, he thought she might be about his age, possibly a little younger. She had long dark hair, almost black, that was cut in a jagged style, possibly with something other than scissors. Her eyes were violet, which was astounding to him. He’d read about people having purple eyes before, but he didn’t think he’d ever seen it in real life. She was also really pretty, even though she was clearly terrified.
“All right--you said your shoe is stuck?” he asked her. Mallory nodded but didn’t say anything else. In the distance, another explosion signaled that his team was still there, but Cadon didn’t know how much longer they could wait to load the boat and get out.
Looking across the area where the grate had been, he didn’t think he had enough room to fit in front of her the way she was currently sitting. It would be a lot easier to figure out what was going on with her shoe if she could scoot back.
“What should I do?” she whispered.
“Can you scoot back into that vent any at all?” he asked. “Maybe another foot?”
She glanced behind her. “I can try crouching a bit, but I can’t crawl backward or forward.”
“Yeah, crouching might work,” he said, wondering how tiny a girl she was. Could she fold herself in half and give him room?
She must’ve been pretty tiny because after she did what she’d suggested, there appeared to be enough room for him to make the transition.
“All right. I’m coming over,” Cadon warned her. They would be in pretty tight quarters once he invaded her half of the air vent.
It was simple enough to get across the grate, but he had to spring forward, and when he did, the entire metal shaft swayed back and forth. Mallory screeched a little.
“It’s okay,” he told her. “I think it’s pretty stable. Besides, it’s not like it’ll kill us if we fall. I mean, it’ll hurt, but we’ll live. Besides, it'll probably only fall to the catwalk, and that’s like… eight feet.”
“It doesn’t seem stable to me,” she said. “And you might not die--but I could.”
“What do you mean?” Cadon asked. They were so close together that his face was actually over her shoulder.
“I mean… I’m a human,” she said.
Cadon stopped what he’d been doing, which was investigating how to get her shoe loose, and tried to look at her. In their current situation, he could only see the side of her face. “Well, that complicates things,” he muttered.
“What?” Mallory asked, that panicked tone in her voice flaring up again.
“Nothing, nothing; it’s fine,” Cadon assured her. “I’ll get you out of here safe, Mallory. I promise. All right?”
“Okay,” she said, but it sounded like she was either crying already or getting ready to cry.
Returning his attention to her shoe, Cadon could see what the problem was. The lace was wound around a screw that was sticking out of the air duct. He couldn’t reach her shoe, but he didn’t think he’d need to. “I’m going to just rip the shoelace by pulling your shoe forward, okay?” The shoe seemed to be tied on pretty tightly, so he didn’t think slipping her foot out of it was an option.
“Are you sure you can do that?” Mallory asked.
“Yep,” Cadon assured her. “Just lean over to your right as far as you can. You can hold onto me if you need to put your arm somewhere.”
She scooted over a little bit, twisting so that her front was almost pressed up against his side. Cadon tried not to think about which parts of each of them might be touching at the moment, under the circumstances. With her out of the way, he was able to reach back and grab hold of her ankle. He gave it a tug, and the shoelace gave, her shoe coming free.
The jerking movement made the air vent rock again. Mallory screeched once more and grabbed hold of him. Not sure what else to do, Cadon wrapped his arms around her. “It’s all right,” he told her. “I’ve got you. “Now, we just need to jump down, and we’ll be able to get out of here.”
“Yeah, by running past a whole bunch of armed Vampires,” she reminded him, unwinding her arms from where she’d been holding onto him.
Even though she was grimy from being held in the prison, she didn’t smell bad, like Cadon would’ve imagined anyone in this place would. She had a sort of a flowery smell about her that was actually a little intriguing.
“Are you… sniffing my hair?” Mallory asked, looking at him like he was crazy.
“Was I?” Cadon asked. “Oh, uh, no. I just… I got dust up my nose, that’s all.”
Mallory’s eyebrows went up, but she didn’t say anything else.
“I’ll get you out of here alive, Mallory, I promise.”
Before she could respond, there was another explosion, this one closer, louder, and more detrimental. The building shook around them, and the air duct began to swing. Mallory screamed and grabbed hold of Cadon. He was just about to assure her it was fine when there was a loud popping noise, and the duct came loose from the ceiling. His eyes met hers, and gravity was no longer their friend.
Cadon didn’t have a lot of time to react, but his quick reflexes were helpful. He grabbed Mallory and dragged her backward, jerking her out of the hole where the grate had been as the duct fell all around them.
Cadon’s feet hit the catwalk, and he raised a hand to keep the top of the duct above the hole from hitting them, pushing it off to the side. The part of the air duct that had broken free went flying over the side of the catwalk, hitting the floor below.
Mallory had her arms wrapped around him, her face buried in his neck.
“You’re fine,” he told her, holding her tight to keep her from shaking. “I told you I’d get you out of here. We’re going to be just fine.”
Mallory was just beginning to let go of him when the shriek of metal against metal hit their ears and the catwalk began to shake.
They were falling again, and this time, it wasn’t a mere eight feet. The entire catwalk was collapsing, and they were going down with it.