by Zoe Chant
“The pets don’t act like that unless something’s wrong,” said Dali. “Maybe Ransom sent them to alert us.”
“Shouldn’t he have sent them here, then?” Carter asked.
Merlin shook his head. “I don’t think he could. They’ve never been here. And, well, he’s Ransom. He easily could’ve known his apartment was being monitored.”
“Maybe he didn’t,” Tirzah said quietly. “Maybe he sent them somewhere safe.”
That idea gave Merlin an unpleasant feeling in the pit of his stomach. The way Ransom had looked when Merlin had last seen him, Tirzah’s theory seemed a lot more plausible than that Ransom would ever ask them for help.
“They’re wearing collars,” said Carter. “I could put trackers on them, and then all we’d need to do is get them to go back to where Ransom is.”
Roland stood up. “Let’s do it. And hurry. The way those pups are howling, they might not wait much longer before they go back to him.”
Carter made a dash for the tech room, calling over his shoulder, “I’ll get the trackers!”
“And my comms equipment!” Tirzah shouted.
“And weapons,” said Roland. “If Ransom’s in trouble, we won’t have a chance to stop back here.”
Yes, very good, said Merlin’s raptor. Rescue the puppies, rescue our teammate. Adventures in the middle of the night!
Merlin leaned over to give Dali a quick kiss. “Save a slice of pizza for me.”
“Actually…” Dali said slowly. “I’ll come along for this one.”
Merlin gave her a startled glance. Though Dali was a Navy veteran and he’d seen for herself how well she could fight, she was the office manager, not a bodyguard.
“You might need someone to puppy-sit while you fight,” she said, her eyebrows arching playfully. Then she admitted, “This is going to sound silly, but I feel bad for not knowing Ransom liked Hawaiian pizza. It makes me feel like I missed something about him—maybe something that would have made a difference. I don’t want to miss this chance.”
“It doesn’t sound silly at all. I feel the same way.”
The rest of the team returned, loaded down with equipment. Carter was last, having stopped to collect his long black coat. By the time he arrived, everyone was waiting at the door with their kittens perched on their shoulders. Blue scratched himself, sending up a cloud of bright blue fur to settle on Carter’s coat.
Carter turned despairingly to Roland. “Are we really bringing that indigo menace and a bunch of nuisancy flapping kittens on a rescue mission?”
“We could leave them, but if they want to come, they’ll show up anyway,” Roland said.
“And they’ll keep the teleporting puppies company,” Merlin added.
Carter gave a muffled groan. “They better be housetrained.”
They piled into the van and set off, with Roland behind the wheel and Carter giving directions from the passenger seat. Tirzah, her wheelchair buckled in and secured, clutched her laptop, watching the footage.
The faint howls of the puppies made prickles run along Merlin’s skin. Somewhere, Ransom was in danger, and he probably didn’t even know his team was coming to rescue him. He must feel so alone.
And Merlin had no idea if they’d get there in time.
Chapter 28
Ransom held tight to the Gabriel Hound’s neck, pressing his cheek into her soft fur. He murmured, “I trust you.”
Her strong muscles tensed beneath him, and Natalie leaped off the pirate ship. They dropped like a stone. But her wings beat fiercely, sending up a scent like sun-warmed linen. As the ground rose to meet them, they began to veer away, until they were skimming a few feet above the ground. And then up, and up, and up. Up above the tables and chairs, up above the booths, and up toward the sky.
It was glorious. He could sense Natalie’s joy at flight without needing any speech, solely by the way she arrowed upward and by the bond they shared. They were together, and in a few more minutes, they’d be safe and free.
His danger sense screamed out a warning.
“Up!” Ransom yelled.
Natalie soared upward, but his weight slowed her. He saw the silvery glint of a tiny projectile hitting her paw.
The next instant, the Gabriel Hound vanished. Natalie was human again, and they both were tumbling through the air.
“Curl!” Natalie shouted.
He had just enough time to obey her, bringing up his knees and curling himself into a ball, before they hit water.
Ransom felt the splash go up as he landed like a cannon ball, and then he was plunging down into cold dark water.
If this isn’t deep enough, we’ll break every bone in our bodies, he thought.
But he was slowing down, the water cushioning him as he fell. Ransom stretched out his legs, and his feet touched the bottom. He pushed off, and his face broke the surface.
He wiped water out of his eyes, and was immediately reassured by the sight of Natalie bobbing nearby, drenched and, surreally, laughing.
“It’s the tomato juice pool,” she said unnecessarily; he’d realized as soon as he’d seen the elaborate “tomato vine” waterslide.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, though she didn’t look like she was.
“Not really. Something hit my paw—well, my foot now—but it just feels like a splinter.”
Ransom immediately knew what it was. “You were shot with a tiny fragment of shiftsilver. It’ll stop you from shifting until you take it out.”
She twisted around in the water, bringing up her foot and pulling it close to peer at the sole. “Maybe I can get it with my fingernails.”
A male voice shouted, “Oh, no you don’t!”
Norris, the Dunkleosteus shifter, came bolting out from around the water slide and made a flying leap into the pool.
Ransom lunged to push Natalie away, imagining those massive jaws snapping her up in a single bite. But he was slowed by the water, and also by the fact that she’d moved at the same instant to protect him. They were still struggling together when Norris hit the water, still in his human form.
The next instant, the pool was almost completely filled by an enormous armored fish. The water it displaced was pushed out in all directions. The pool overflowed, and Ransom and Natalie were flung up against the side. As the Dunkleosteus tried to maneuver its massive bulk to attack them, Ransom pushed Natalie to solid ground and clambered out himself.
They scrambled backwards, staring at the immense prehistoric fish. Its jaws snapped together with a sound like a gunshot as it thrashed around in the pool, which was barely big enough to contain it.
“It’s like an elephant sitting in a wading pool,” said Natalie. “And I’ve actually seen that, so I know.”
Ransom would have never imagined he’d be capable of laughing at that moment, but he did.
The Dunkleosteus managed to free a fin and take a swipe at them. They leaped backward, and the fin slammed down into the dirt.
Natalie bent to feel her foot, then straightened up and whispered, “You can help me get the splinter out. Let’s go up the water slide. We’ll need to jump from a height to take off again.”
Ransom could see a whole lot of problems with this plan, but it wasn’t as if he had a better one. He whispered, “Follow me.”
He grabbed her hand and bolted in the opposite direction, as if he was making for the fence on the other side of Tomato Land. But once they were behind a set of booths, he reversed their direction and made a wide loop, heading for the back of the water slide. With luck, their enemies would waste their time searching for them in all the wrong places.
When they crept back up on the water slide, Ransom could see by the vast silhouette that the Dunkleosteus was still stubbornly wedged in the pool. They couldn’t go up the stairs without being seen, but would have to climb the structure of the slide itself, a web of girders, vine-shaped poles, and metal tendrils.
“Easy-peasy,” Natalie whispered. “Piece of… tomato.”
; She, of course, could climb anything. And even for him, it should have been a fun and easy climb. But when he looked up at it now, it seemed daunting. The adrenaline from their fall had worn off, leaving him exhausted and shaky and cold, except for warm patches at his chest and side where either his bandages had come off or he was bleeding through them.
Natalie stepped on to a girder, bringing herself to his eye-level, and kissed his cheek. Her lips were hot as flame. She whispered, “Take it one hold at a time. I’ll be right there with you. I won’t let you fall.”
He put his foot on a metal leaf and began to climb. Ransom didn’t look up or down or to the side, but he could feel her body heat and, often, her small hand giving him a comforting touch on the back, or guiding his hand or foot to a hold.
Once he got so dizzy that he had to stop and lean his head against the cool metal of a girder, trying to hang on even though he could barely feel his hands and feet. Natalie put her arm around him and murmured in his ear, “I’ve got you. You won’t fall. Just rest till you’re ready to go on.”
He waited till his vision cleared, then went on. One hold at a time, as she’d said. Because he wasn’t looking at anything but the part he was climbing, he was startled when he reached the top. Natalie helped him over the edge, and they sat together in a heap atop the platform.
“Thanks,” he said quietly. “Let me see your foot.”
She gave him a long, worried look, then took off her ballet slipper. He bent over her foot, searching for the dart. He finally had to find it by touch. It was tiny and deeply embedded, like a splinter. He couldn’t get his fingers around it, or even his nails.
Natalie twisted herself into a pretzel and tried herself, but she couldn’t grasp it either. She muttered, “We need tweezers.”
He patted his pockets, but he’d lost his Swiss Army knife. “They’re probably at the bottom of the pool.”
“If the dinosaur-fish is gone, I could climb down and grab them,” Natalie suggested. She peeked over the edge, then ducked back. “Nope. It’s still there.”
“It’s a Dunkleosteus,” Ransom said absently.
“Good to know.”
She was soaking wet, her already-tight clothes plastered to her body. Her hair looked like she’d gotten herself a pixie cut. In the moonlight, he couldn’t see color; she was black and white and shades of gray. If he could have, the tomato-colored water probably made her look like the victim of a chainsaw massacre.
Her warm hands slipped under his jacket, and her eyes widened in alarm. “I thought so. The bandages came off. Sorry, this is going to hurt, but I have to do it.”
She pressed hard against his side and chest, but he felt nothing but pressure. “It doesn’t hurt.”
“That’s not good. I think you’re going into shock. You need to warm up—You need to stop bleeding—You need to get somewhere safe—”
Her voice was fading out. Everything was fading out. He was sinking into something warm, a very soft bed or maybe a hot bath…
Wake up! His hellhound’s snarl made Ransom realize that he was blacking out.
I can’t pass out now, he thought. I’ll be leaving Natalie alone.
Deliberately, he bit down on his lip until he tasted blood. The sharp pain jarred him back into full awareness. He opened his eyes, unnerved to realize that he hadn’t even noticed closing them.
“Ransom!” Natalie was whispering urgently, her face dead white. “Ransom, wake—”
“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean—”
“I know.” She leaned in close, pressing her forehead against his. “Just try to stay awake.”
A whine startled him. He felt Natalie jump too. Then they both had their laps full of squirming, nuzzling, licking, excited husky puppies.
“Hey, Heidi.” Ransom stroked her, and she licked him all over. Much as he wished he could keep her safe, he couldn’t help being glad she was here with him now. “I wonder where they went.”
“Too bad they can’t tell us. Guess we’ll never know.” She nudged Wally closer to Ransom; Heidi was already cuddled up against his side. “Keep him warm. Good dog.”
Wally obediently snuggled in. But even with both of them and Natalie trying to share their warmth, Ransom still felt cold. Every time he blinked, black starbursts flashed across his field of vision. Just staying conscious was a struggle.
“Listen, Natalie, I can’t climb back down. But if you go—”
“We’ve already been through this,” she said, so fiercely that it came out in a hiss. “I’m not leaving you.”
“I know. I’m not asking you to leave me and save yourself. I’m asking you to do something dangerous to save us both.”
She looked vastly relieved. “Oh, good. What?”
He had to swallow before he could speak. That was the woman he loved: utterly fearless.
Our mate, said his hellhound with satisfaction.
“Sneak back into the History of the Tomato exhibit,” he said. “Marie Curie had a pair of tweezers. Get the dart out. But sneak back on foot if you can. Our only chance is to take them completely by surprise when we fly out.”
She moved his hands to his shoulder and chest. “Keep the pressure on. Do not pass out.”
“I won’t.” He was pretty sure he could keep that promise. Worrying about what sort of dangers she might be encountering without him being there to protect her ought to keep him wide awake.
Natalie gave him a quick kiss, then swung over the platform’s edge. He watched her swarm down a metal vine, quick and surefooted as a squirrel. At least he didn’t need to worry about her falling.
The shadow cast by a tomato leaf below her foot quivered, as if in the wind. But the leaves were solid steel…
“Natalie!” Ransom yelled. “Get back!”
She leaped upward, caught a steel tomato tendril above her head, and swung herself around it. The shadow snatched for her, but fell short. If she’d been like a squirrel going down, she was like lightning coming back up. An instant later, she was catching her breath beside Ransom on the platform, with the puppies barking fiercely.
There were no shadows on the platform itself, which was lit bright as day, but they writhed and pulsed on the structure below it. As they peered down, they saw two figures step into view. One, unsurprisingly, was Elayne. The other was Jager.
“Care to reconsider your choice?” Jager called up. “My offer is still open.”
“As is mine,” said Elayne. “You can be his lowly lab rat assistant, or you can be my Dark Knight. But if you won’t choose either, we’ll kill you both.”
“Come and get us, then!” Natalie shouted.
Two more figures stepped forward to flank Elayne. One was Costello, in her nightmarish chupacabra form. The other was the skinny woman. Norris was still crammed into the pool, jaws periodically gaping open and snapping shut.
“You haven’t met my associate Barnes yet,” Elayne said, indicating the skinny woman. “Which explains your delusional belief that you’re in a defensible position up there. Barnes!”
Barnes stepped away from the others. In the blink of an eye, she was no longer a woman, but a bird-bat-lizard creature that stood fifteen feet tall. Her immense membraneous wings touched the ground, helping her balance. Her sharp beak alone was as long as a man. She extended it upward, stabbing at the platform. It fell short, banging into a metal vine about ten feet below them.
Natalie flinched, then said, “What is it? I know you know.”
“Quetzalcoatlus,” Ransom replied. “A type of pterosaur. One of the biggest flying animals of all time.”
Loudly, she replied, “But you can still bite her head off, right?”
Raising his own voice, Ransom said, “Absolutely.”
But they both knew he didn’t have a chance. Barnes could stab his hellhound with her beak before he could get anywhere near close enough to bite her.
“Last chance,” called Jager.
“Predator or prey,” shouted Elayne. “Choose now!”
/>
Natalie yelled, “I’d rather die now with Ransom than spend a lifetime with you assholes!”
Ransom didn’t waste his strength shouting. Once he shifted, he couldn’t speak, so he wanted his words to count. He turned to Natalie and said, “I love you too.”
With a screech, Barnes rocked back onto her long, skinny legs and extended her wings. Her wingspan was astonishing. She could easily have reached up with her wings and swatted them off the platform—but Ransom could get his teeth into her wings if she tried. Instead, the quetzalcoatlus leaped into the air, beating her immense wings until she soared high above them. Then she dove down, beak outstretched like a spear.
Ransom waited, his heart pounding. If he timed his shift perfectly, he might have a chance to get his teeth around the pterosaur’s neck and—
A streak of fire split the night sky.
The phoenix struck the attacking reptile and knocked it clean out of the sky. They went down together with a tremendous crash. The water slide shook. And then the phoenix rose in flames, leaving its enemy in a crumpled heap on the ground. It flew upward, blazing in the night, opened its beak, and let out a ringing cry like a bugle.
“It’s beautiful,” Natalie whispered. “What is it?”
“It’s my boss,” said Ransom.
Even as he said the words, he could hardly believe them. The phoenix descended toward them. Ransom flinched back from the intense heat. Then the heat and golden light vanished, and Roland landed on the platform with a thud.
Roland cast a puzzled glance at Natalie. “Hello. I’m Roland Walker.”
“Natalie Nash,” she said. “Ransom told me about you.”
“She’s a friend,” Ransom said. She was much more than that, but he didn’t feel up to long explanations.
Roland frowned down at him. “You look terrible. Are you hurt?”
“He got stabbed,” Natalie said, staring hard at Ransom as if daring him to contradict her. “By harpy feathers—they’re like flying knives.”
“Just hold on,” said Roland. “We’ll get you down in a moment.”
He strode to the edge of the platform and peered down. Ransom, following his gaze, saw that the living shadows had vanished, along with all their enemies. That included the quetzalcoatlus, who had apparently been stunned rather than killed. Even Norris had disappeared from the now mostly empty tomato juice pool.