by B N Miles
Jared walked forward. He moved to the first door and reached out to touch it, but stopped himself. The wards were subtle but strong, and he thought he could sense some of their circumstances. If he touched them, an alarm might go off, or maybe that was only if he didn’t have the correct permissions. He couldn’t be sure, so kept his hands to himself as he peered in through the glass slit at the top.
Inside, the room was dim, just one yellow light hanging from the top. There was a bed on the right covered in a scratchy brown blanket and a toilet on the left. All of it was metal, and there wasn’t a single sharp angle in the whole room.
“What the hell?” he whispered.
A figure sat against the far wall, its knees pulled up to its chest. Jared stared as the figure slowly lifted its head. Black eyes stared back at him. Her lips were full and red, and small black horns jutted up from her skull. She opened her mouth and a long red tongue licked out, running along her lips as she leaned toward him. She wore a gray jumpsuit, tight against her body, and her hands pressed down against the concrete floor.
He felt her aura flare above all the others, intense and distinct. He felt hunger, he felt need, he felt desire… and he felt soft flesh, lips against his throat, a purring, humming, buzzing, pleasurable moan.
Jared took a step back, his heart racing.
“What is it?” Lumi asked.
“There are people in these rooms,” he said. “These are… these are prison cells for Metas.”
“Prison cells?” Penny stepped up behind him and tried to look over his shoulder. She reached out for the door but Jared stopped her.
“Don’t,” he said. “Warded.”
“Right.” She dropped her hand and peered into the glass slit. As soon as she saw the girl with the horns, she sucked in a surprised breath and stepped back. “Holy shit. Is that what I think it is?”
“Demon,” Jared said. “Yeah.”
“Demon?” Nikki asked, appearing behind him. Lumi began to walk down the hall, peering in through each slit.
“Haven’t seen one in a while,” Jared said. “But she’s definitely a demon. Horns, black eyes, beautiful. The whole package.”
“I love Demons,” Nikki said. “They get such a bad reputation, you know.”
“They feed off magic,” he said. “And they’re not exactly sane.”
“Oh darling, the crazy thing is just a rumor. You’d also be a little nuts if you were as old and as hungry as they are. And besides, at least they don’t feed off Human flesh like Imps.”
Jared let out a disgusted grunt. “Fair enough, but still. I was always taught that Demons are some of the most dangerous Metas around.”
“They certainly are. But they can be fun if you get on their good side.” She smiled and tilted her head as she looked in through the little glass window and waved at the Demon girl inside. “Once, when I was living out in Croatia, I met this handsome little Demon named—”
“Guys,” Lumi said, interrupting Nikki’s fond reminiscing. “Get over here. Get over here right now.”
Jared gave Nikki a look. “Finish that story later,” he said.
She laughed lightly, waved to the Demon girl again, and followed Jared down the hall to where Lumi stood peering in a window.
Jared half expected to find Cassie inside the room. Instead, perched with her back to the wall, half crouched on the floor, looking haggard and beaten, her face swollen and bruised, was a beautiful girl with snow-white skin. Her long, white hair was braided in intricate patterns, and her bright blue eyes seemed to glow.
Her gray jumpsuit was torn in a few places, and she hugged herself tightly as she rocked back and forth. Jared could feel magic radiating off her, despite the wards around her cell.
“Fae,” Lumi said. “Definitely Fae.”
The Fae girl tilted her head and smiled, dazzling and white. Despite her swollen and cracked lips, Jared had to look away as he felt the Fae’s glamour begin to knock at his skull.
“She’s using her glamour on you, Lumi,” Jared said.
“Oh, I know,” Lumi said. “That’s not why I called you over. Here, look closely at her door.”
Jared leaned toward it. The wards that kept all the cells shut were tightly packed and well crafted, but this door looked different. It was still locked, but it looked as though it had been hastily closed, and some of the commands were left open.
“What are you thinking?” Jared asked.
“I’m thinking they did something to her recently,” Lumi said. “And maybe we can open this door up and ask her what’s going on.”
“Not a good idea,” Jessalene said. “We don’t know this girl.”
“She’s a prisoner,” Lumi said, gesturing at the door. “She might be able to help.”
“We can keep looking,” Jessalene said. “Penny can get us deeper into this place. Maybe there are more cells. Maybe Cassie is—”
“Let’s break her out,” Jared said, turning to the door.
“Jared,” Jessalene said. “Hold on a second.”
“We don’t have time to discuss this,” he said. “We need information, and that Fae might be able to help.”
“Or she might get us all caught and killed,” Jessalene said.
But Jared pulled his power together and began to shape it. Lumi looked at him and seemed to understand his intent. He felt her draw power.
Izzy corralled the others and moved them back. “Stay here,” Jared heard Izzy tell Penny. “They’re about to do something stupid.”
Jared closed his eyes, concentrating, and reached out for the wards.
They were solid and resisted him at first. He pushed at them, trying to pick them apart like he used to do with their wards at home. But every time he unstitched one and began on the next, the original section of the magic bound itself back up again.
He worked faster, dumping more magic, more energy, until he’d ripped a hole in the wards, just a small one.
But it was enough. Lumi jammed her palms against the door and unleashed one hellish blast of pure lightning energy. The door shuddered and bent inward with an audible crack. Lumi grunted in effort, sweat on her brow, and pushed again as Jared scrambled to keep the wards from reforming. Her second blow smashed it, bent a hinge, and the door cracked open wider.
Lumi let out a gasp and staggered away. Jared dropped his own magic, and they stood in front of the smoking door, one hinge snapped, open just enough for a body to slip through.
Jared could feel his Need, but it wasn’t too bad, not yet at least. He took Lumi’s hand and she smiled at him, nodding a little.
“You good?” he asked.
“I’m okay,” Lumi said. “Didn’t use too much.”
A figure appeared at the base of the bent door. It stooped down and slipped through, then straightened up.
The Fae girl smiled at them, shocking and dazzling, even despite the smoke and the flickering lights.
Nobody spoke as the Fae girl looked at them. Blood dribbled from her nose and Jared wondered what the hell happened to her. But as she shifted her posture, her back straightening, her chin tilting up, he saw the pain in her eyes, the anger and rage and hurt simmering beneath the surface, and he had the horrible sensation that he knew exactly how her nose had been broken.
“I don’t know who you people are,” the Fae said, her voice surprisingly girlish, “but if we don’t get moving, the guards are going to come back and fuck us all up.”
45
“Guards?” Jared asked.
The Fae girl motioned at the pair of double doors at the end of the hall. “Through there,” she said. “Lots of them. Ugly assholes. They get really punchy.”
Jared exchanged a look with Nikki. “What do you think?”
Nikki shook her head and looked at the Fae. “Is there another way out?”
She nodded and pointed. “Hallway turns there, heads toward the Max rooms and the male wing.”
“Male wing?” Nikki asked.
“Where they keep t
he men.” The Fae gave her a look. “And the longer we stand here, the more punchy the guards are going to be when they show up.”
Jared walked to the double doors and pressed his palms against them. He called on his fire memgram, snapped it into place, then ran his palms down the length of the crack between them. He welded the doors together, linking them tight as the metal cooled and steam drifted up, the sharp smell of ozone hitting the air.
“That should hold them for a bit,” Jared said, turning back to the Fae. “We’re looking for someone, for a girl that might have been brought here. Red hair, bright green eyes, Shifter.”
“Pretty?” the Fae asked.
“Very pretty,” Nikki said.
“I think I saw her,” the Fae said. “I didn’t see her come in, they didn’t bring her through here. But I think she’s in one of the Max rooms.”
“What are the Max rooms?” Jared asked.
“Heavily warded containment,” Fae said. “Big magic shit. They walk us past them on the way to the experimental rooms.”
“Experimental rooms?” Penny asked, stepping forward. She reached out toward the Fae like she wanted to touch the girl’s skin but stopped herself. “What are they doing to you here?”
The Fae looked at her, took in the lab coat, the pass at her hip, and her face turned into a sneer. “You’re one of them,” she said.
“I work in the research labs on the ground floor,” Penny said. “I didn’t know… I didn’t have access down here. I had no clue this place existed.”
The Fae snorted. “You knew. You all fucking knew, and you were complicit even if you didn’t.” She turned away and looked at Jared. “We really need to get going. I say you ditch this bitch though.”
Penny took a step back, her eyes wide, like the Fae just punched her in the face.
“We can’t do that,” Jared said. “She agreed to help us, and I believe her when she says she didn’t know about this.”
“Do you have any idea what they’re doing to us down here?” she asked.
“I don’t,” Jared said. “But I can tell you right now, it’s disgusting.”
“They’re beating us,” she said. “Just to see how far they can go. They’re taking our blood and testing it. They’re drowning us, over and over again, just to see if Metas can hold their breath for longer than Humans. They’re testing our magic, forcing us to use it for them, just so they can get a sense of our limits. Do you have any clue how many of us have come and gone through here? Any clue how many have died.”
“I don’t,” Jared said, his voice soft, anger tight in his chest.
“Dozens that I know of. Maybe thousands before them, I don’t know.”
“What’s your name?” Jared asked.
“Kerrin,” the Fae said. “And I really want to get the fuck out of here.”
“All right, Kerrin,” Jared said. “What the Medlar are doing here is fucked and wrong, and I swear to you they’ll pay for it. But for now, you take us to where they’re keeping our friend, and I’ll make sure you get out.”
Kerrin tilted her head, her hair spilling down over one shoulder. She was pretty, though slight and slim. Her jumpsuit hung off her, and even though her face was battered and bruised, Jared could tell she once looked like a glowing queen.
“Free the rest of these girls,” Kerrin said. “Get these doors open, and I’ll show you to your friend.”
“We can’t do that,” Jared said. “It was hard enough getting your door open. We don’t have time to do them all.”
Kerrin crossed her arms. “Then fuck off.”
Jared stepped toward her and she flinched back. He held out a hand and stared into her eyes.
“I swear, they won’t get away with this,” he said, his voice soft but firm, struggling to keep himself calm. “I’m a Meta Marshal, or at least I was. I can do something about all this.”
Kerrin shook her head. “You can’t do a damn thing,” she said. “Free the girls and let us handle these mother fuckers.”
“How can we do it?” Lumi asked. “Aside from breaking them, one by one. How do the guards do it?”
“They have cards, like the scientist bitch,” Kerrin said, flipping her wrist toward Penny.
“So we need a card then,” Jessalene said. “That shouldn’t be hard, right?”
“Oh, I think I can handle that,” Nikki said, showing her fangs.
Jared nodded. “You have a deal,” he said. “But show us to Cassie first.”
“No,” Kerrin said. “Doors first.”
Jared went to argue but there was a bang at the double doors that cut him off. Voices shouted at the other side, muffled but angry. Another bang slammed against the doors, harder, and they flexed on their hinges.
“Better move,” Jared said. “Make the call, Kerrin.”
Kerrin glared at him then stared at the doors, and he saw fear wash over her face. Whatever they were doing to her, she was more afraid of the guards than she was of anything else. She threw her hands up.
“Fuck,” she said. “Fine, follow me.”
Jared nodded and Kerrin began to run. She turned left and headed down the hall. Jared followed with Lumi on his tail. Penny, Jessalene, and Izzy came next, with Nikki on their rear.
The guards slammed at the door again, again, but they kept running. Kerrin led them past more rooms and Jared caught sight of strange contraptions, a dunk tank, what looked like an operating room. The hall had pale green walls and linoleum flooring, like a hospital. The lights flickered in places, and most of the rooms were dark. He saw racks of computer equipment and a chair set above a drain with a light shining down on it, blood staining the concrete floor.
They kept running and turned right at the first hall they came to. Kerrin slowed as she approached a pair of double doors but didn’t stop. She slammed into them, throwing them open, and they stumbled into a large, square room. It had the same pale green walls, the same linoleum floor, but the ceiling was higher and the lights were brighter. Everything seemed a touch cleaner, like it had been worked over recently.
Two men sat at a large folding table in the middle of the room. Jared stumbled in behind Kerrin and nearly knocked her to the ground. She stood in front of him, her eyes wide, and he had to move her aside as the guards stood up.
They wore dark blue uniforms with heavy black truncheons at their hips. They almost looked like cops. Light gray helmets with clear plastic face shields sat on the table in front of them next to scattered playing cards. The guy on the left was heavy, stocky almost, with a buzzed head and cold blue eyes. The other was tanned and muscular.
The right guard stumbled back, his eyes wide, and the other reached for a gun at his hip.
Jared moved faster. He snapped his ice memgram into place and sliced a spear through the man’s chest. He gurgled and staggered back, blood sprouting from his mouth.
Lumi came through the door next and didn’t hesitate. Her power washed out from her in a heavy tsunami. She hardened the air around the second guard as he fumbled for his gun, trapping him in place, then pushed it inward. She crushed him between two panes of concrete-hard air, crushing his bones and breaking his body into pieces. She dropped the magic and let him slump to the ground.
“How many more guards?” Jared asked.
Kerrin stood there, shaking her head, her eyes wide. “I don’t know.”
“Where’s Cassie?”
Kerrin pointed to a door set in the top right corner. “In there, I think.”
Jared stalked across the space. There were more doors set at even intervals, five of them in all. As he got closer to the door Kerrin pointed out, he could feel the magic begin to waft off it in heavy waves. He stepped around the blood pooling at the center of the room and slowed as he approached the door, his heart racing, fear lancing through him.
If it wasn’t Cassie, he didn’t know what they were going to do. They were too deep now. They were going to have to fight their way out no matter what, and Jared was afraid they wouldn�
�t make it if they didn’t have Cassie to keep them going.
He stepped to the door and felt the wards pulse. Kerrin was right, they were much more sophisticated than what guarded her own door. They were serious, heavy, cosmic-level magic. He could feel a deep churning in his skull just by standing near it. But there was a glass slit set in the door, and he forced himself to get close enough to see inside.
It was a cell, larger than the cell he broke Kerrin out of. There was a toilet, a bunk bed, and spidering, intense runes scrawled in the ground.
Sitting at the center of the patchwork of runes and magic, wearing manacles and a gray jumpsuit, her shaggy red hair hanging in heavy, oily strands around her face, was Cassie Grim.
Jared let out a groan at the sight of her. She wasn’t beaten, not like Kerrin, but her eyes looked far away, like she could barely see anything. She was filthy and clearly hadn’t been bathed in days.
But she was alive, and she was just in front of him.
“Lumi,” Jared said, turning back to the group. “She’s here.”
Lumi ran over, elation on her face, but slowed as she got close. “That’s some heavy work,” she said.
“Really heavy,” he said. “It’s doing something to her. She looks… drugged. I can feel it just standing here.”
Lumi grimaced, grunted, moved Jared aside, and got on her toes to look through the window. She let out a little gasp of anger then turned away from it, cursing and shaking her head.
“Jared,” Izzy called out, peering through the double doors. “Jared, I think they’re coming.
“Shit,” he said, stalking back across the room. “Kerrin, we need another exit.”
She shook her head, eyes wide. “I don’t know,” she said. “Those doors lead to more experiment rooms. I’ve never gone any further.”
“Penny?” Jared asked.
“I’m out of my depth here,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. She stood against the wall, one arm crossed in front of her, staring at the shattered guard corpses in the center of the room.
Jared turned to Jessalene. “We’re going to have to fight our way out,” he said.