by Zoe Chant
Roland touched the headset he was wearing and said, “Tirzah? What’s our status?” He listened for a moment, then said, “I’m on the top of the water slide with Ransom and a friend of his. He’s been stabbed. Are we clear to go down by the steps?” Another pause. “Understood. We’re not clear. Over.”
He knelt beside Ransom and removed his leather jacket, then took off his own shirt and coat. He used the shirt to pat his skin dry before he applied a pair of emergency bandages from his pockets. Finally, he put his own coat on Ransom and buttoned it up.
As he worked, he said, “Tirzah’s in the van, running communications. Dali’s guarding her. The others are still clearing the area. We’ll stay here and wait for reinforcements. It won’t be long.”
“But how…” Ransom began. “Why…?”
“Your puppies showed up at your apartment. We put trackers on their collars and told them to go to you.” Roland patted Heidi, then turned her collar around to expose the tiny GPS device clipped to it. She licked his hand. “Sorry it took so long. They can only go a couple miles at a time.”
“But…” Ransom felt better in the warm overcoat, not to mention the new bandages, but he still couldn’t manage to put words to his question.
“Ransom said he left on bad terms,” said Natalie.
“Yes. That was on me.” Roland put his hand on Ransom’s shoulder. “I wish I could take it back. We’ve all been worried sick about you.”
Ransom had imagined his departure as a pebble tossed into a lake: it would cause a brief ripple, and then everything would continue as if it had never been there at all. “You were?”
“Yes,” Roland said simply. “All of us. I hope you’ll be willing to come back, once you’re recovered. No conditions.”
“I thought you wouldn’t want me back.”
They are your pack, said his hellhound. Of course they want you back.
“You’re part of the team.” Roland squeezed his shoulder. “Of course we want you back.”
Chapter 29
Natalie had imagined Ransom’s boss as a caricature of a harsh military officer: a stiff-backed white man with a gray moustache. But once she’d seen the glory of the phoenix, that had gone right out of her head and she’d imagined him as the silhouette of a man, too bright to look at directly, with fiery wings.
Roland didn’t match either of those ideas. He was a tall, muscular black man, with short-cropped, silvering hair and beard. Even if she hadn’t seen him as the phoenix, he’d have had presence. But his eyes were as kind as his aura was commanding, and when he knelt down, she saw Ransom relax immediately. Whatever had gone down between the two of them, Ransom trusted him.
Natalie too relaxed, as much as she could when she still couldn’t shift, Ransom was wounded, and they were stuck atop a water slide and surrounded by enemies. But at least he’d gotten some first aid. And even if she hadn’t seen what Roland could do as the phoenix, there was something about him that made you feel like everything would be all right with him by your side.
Something moved in the shadows.
A black lizard-creature the size of a rat, sleek and fanged and clawed, was climbing a metal vine below the platform. Before Natalie could shout out a warning, it was atop the platform and skittering toward the men. It walked on two legs, like a tiny T-rex, and it moved incredibly fast.
But Natalie moved faster. She threw herself in front of Ransom and snatched up the creature, then wound up to hurl it off the platform.
Roland and Ransom started to shout.
And then Natalie was falling in a heap with a man on top of her. She clenched her fists, ready to fight the creepy little reptile shifter to protect her mate—
—and she saw a face almost as familiar to her as her own. It had bright blue eyes and an absolutely astonished expression.
“Natalie!” Merlin exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m Ransom’s mate. You’re a lizard shifter?”
“I’m a velociraptor shifter,” said Merlin proudly.
“I thought they were bigger.”
“Oh, I can be bigger,” he assured her.
Roland’s voice boomed like a foghorn. “DON’T.”
Only then did Natalie’s heart catch up to her mind. Her best friend, her might-as-well-be-brother was there, at last, and now she had no reason to run away from him.
Now she never had to run away from anyone, ever again.
She threw her arms around him, and he hugged her tight. When they let go, they both were laughing, giddy with adrenaline and happiness.
“I was going to throw you like a fastball,” Natalie gasped.
“I know, that’s why I had to shift so fast,” said Merlin. “Sorry about that.”
“Don’t worry about it. What did you mean, you can be bigger?”
His eyes gleaming, he said, “I can change my size! It’s my power and it’s awesome. I was tiny so I could get up here without anyone seeing me, but I can get bigger. Much bigger!”
“Don’t,” said Ransom. “At least, not yet.”
Merlin peered worriedly at him. “You don’t look good. I mean, congratulations on finding your mate! And it’s Natalie! That’s wonderful. You two will be so happy together. I mean, once we get you off this water slide.”
“Carter, Pete, still no sign of anyone?” Roland said into his comm set. After a pause, he said, “Okay, let’s wrap it up. Merlin and Ransom and I are at the water slide. Meet us there, and we’ll all head back together.”
It was only a few minutes before the first of Ransom’s teammates appeared, a muscular Latino man with a gun in one hand. He beckoned to them to come down, calling, “Carter’s on his way.”
“That’s Pete,” said Ransom to Natalie.
The cave bear, she thought. In fact, there was something about the way he moved that did remind her of a bear, big and strong and capable of startling speed.
“Let’s go,” said Roland. “I’ll carry Ransom.”
“You don’t need to carry me. Just give me a hand.” He gripped Roland’s forearm and hauled himself to his feet.
Natalie went around to his other side and put his arm over her shoulders. “We’ve got you.”
Merlin took the lead going down the steps, gazing about alertly with a gun in his hand. Roland too kept a gun in his free hand. Ransom was very pale and kept his arm around her waist, but he walked steadily. The puppies followed at their heels.
“What the hell happened to you?” Pete demanded of Ransom when they reached the bottom of the water slide.
Instinctively, Natalie bristled at his tone. “He got stabbed twice protecting me.”
“Who are you?” Pete asked, sounding suspicious.
Merlin broke in. “Natalie Nash! She’s my best friend from the circus. She’s a trapeze artist and an acrobat and a target girl!”
“So you’re the one who’s responsible for me having to oil my chest,” said another man, walking up. He was a dark-haired white man in an expensive suit and a long black coat. Despite his gun and headset, he looked more like someone on the cover of GQ than a bodyguard.
Baffled, Natalie asked, “How did I make you do that? I’ve never even seen you before!”
Laughing, Merlin said, “You were gone and the circus was shorthanded, so Carter had to take your place as target girl.”
“Target guy,” Carter corrected, looking offended. “Because apparently you and me are the only people who can be strapped to a wheel and spun around without throwing up.”
“What’s that have to do with you oiling your chest?” Natalie asked.
“They said all target guys had to…” Carter’s voice trailed off as the awful truth dawned. “MERLIN!”
But Merlin had gone on ahead, alertly scanning the fairgrounds.
“Stay away from the shadows, everyone,” Natalie called. “If Elayne’s still lurking somewhere, she can grab you with them.”
As they continued on, Pete and Carter fell in beside Ransom.
&nbs
p; “And to think that everyone always gets on my case for not being around enough,” said Carter. “You literally disappeared on us!”
Scowling, Pete said, “You hurt Caro’s feelings. You took off without even saying goodbye.”
Natalie glanced at Ransom in confusion.
“Pete’s daughter. She’s thirteen,” Ransom clarified. To Pete, he said, “Are you serious? I didn’t think she’d even notice I was gone.”
“Of course she noticed!” Pete gave a snort. “You help her with her homework and talk to her like she’s an intelligent adult. If she flunks chemistry, it’s on you.”
“I’m—” Ransom began.
Carter chimed in, “I can’t believe you’d walk out when I wasn’t even there!”
“I’m—” Ransom began again.
Over his shoulder, Merlin said, “I tried to stop you, and you practically threw me into a wall!”
Natalie couldn’t take it any more. “What’s wrong with you guys? Lay off him! Did you all not hear me when I said he’d been stabbed? He needs rest and quiet and medical attention, not a bunch of guys getting on his case!”
“Natalie. It’s fine.” Ransom squeezed her hand. He didn’t look upset, to her relief. His expression was a very familiar one: surprised by happiness.
Roland cleared his throat. “What they’re trying to say is that they missed him and they’re glad he’s back.”
The familiar arch of the front gates, wound about by actual living tomato vines, loomed before them. Natalie recognized the ticket booth where they’d gotten their hands stamped with tomatoes. It felt like a lifetime ago.
A shadow blotted out the moon.
Natalie’s head jerked up. The quetzalcoatlus flew high above them, flanked by the gargoyle and the harpy.
The men on Ransom’s team moved like lightning, aiming their guns at the flying beasts. Natalie flinched, expecting a volley of gunshots. But none came. Instead, the gargoyle let out a triumphant screech as the headsets all fell from the men’s heads. They hit the ground and shattered into shiny black fragments, like the wall had when Natalie had knocked out the gargoyle. And like the pieces of the wall, the bits of the headsets dissolved into dust.
“Forget your guns,” said Pete. He tossed his to the ground, where it too shattered. “Once something’s stone, it stays stone until it breaks, and then it’s dust.”
“Get to the van,” said Roland sharply. “Pete, take Ransom. I can fight in the sky.”
Ransom slung his arm around Pete’s shoulders. Roland stepped away from them and spread his arms wide. Flames blossomed in the palms of his hands, then raced up his arms.
And went out.
Roland put his hand to his shoulder. “Something hit me. I can’t get it out.”
“There!” shouted Ransom, pointing. Jager was lurking in the shadows by a booth, with a weird-looking rifle with a sniper-scope on his shoulder. “It shoots shiftsilver darts!”
“Won’t hurt me now,” said Roland. He charged Jager, moving shockingly fast for a man of his size.
“Watch out!” Natalie called. “He can—”
Roland crashed into the booth as Jager vanished.
“—teleport!”
Roland straightened, rubbing his elbow and wincing. “Everyone! To the van!”
They all turned to run for the gates, but stopped short. The gate was entirely filled by a looming, beak-snapping, fin-twitching Dunkleosteus.
“He can’t breathe on land,” Ransom said. “Wait a minute, and he’ll have to shift back.”
With an angry screech, the harpy plummeted from the sky and landed atop the fence. It shifted, becoming a precariously balanced Elayne. She shouted down at the Dunkleosteus, “Stop being that useless fish! Take them out with your vertigo power!”
Norris became a man again. He made a quick gesture, and the world flipped upside down.
Upside down, inside out, spinning and reeling and twirling. It was like being on the world’s most intense roller coaster. All around her, everyone was collapsing, even Wally and Heidi.
Everyone, that was, except Carter. He was swaying, his arms stretched out for balance, but he stayed on his feet.
Target guy, she remembered. He and she were the only ones who could stand being strapped to a wheel and spun around. Norris’s power was clearly affecting him—it was affecting her too—but it hadn’t taken them out. They were the only ones who had a chance of stopping him.
She caught Carter’s eye, as much as she could when the world was swinging wildly around her and the ground beneath her feet felt like a treadmill set on Olympic sprint. Together, they rushed Norris at a staggering run.
Instead of trying to fight, he gestured at them again. The spinning feeling increased, making her stumble. But by then she was close, so she hurled herself at him. She crashed into him with no grace whatsover, knocking him off his feet.
A second later, Carter fell on top of them. He tried to punch Norris, missed, swore, then tried again. His fist connected with a solid thud. The vertigo eased as Norris went limp. Carter yanked his arms behind his back and cuffed him with a pair of shiftsilver cuffs.
“Good work,” he said to Natalie.
“You too,” she replied.
But while Natalie and Carter had been taking out Norris, their enemies had used that time to get into position. Now their way out was blocked by Elayne, the chupacabra that was Costello, the gargoyle, and the quetzalcoatlus. Not to mention the now-unseen Jager, who could shoot them at his leisure.
Even worse, the Defenders hadn’t instantly recovered from the vertigo attack. Merlin and Ransom were still down on the ground, while Pete had only made it to his knees. Roland was on his feet, but had his jaw clenched and looked distinctly queasy. Wally and Heidi were curled up into miserable-looking balls.
“Surrender,” called Elayne. “As you can see, your position is hopeless.”
“Ransom!” Natalie shouted, putting a note of panic into her voice. “Are you all right?!”
She ran to him and knelt at his side. Like the puppies, he was curled up in a ball and was clearly down for the count. She’d expected as much, and was relieved to see that at least the fall didn’t seem to have reopened his wounds.
“Pete, Merlin,” she said, in her softest whisper. “Don’t move.” Then, high and shrill, “Talk to me, Ransom!”
“Everything’s spinning,” he said. Impressively, he was managing to mumble loud enough for Elayne and the others with her to hear him. “I feel sick.”
He continued in that vein as Natalie flicked a glance around without moving her head. As she’d aimed for, between her and Pete, the enemies’ view of Merlin was blocked.
“Merlin, be a tiny dinosaur,” she whispered.
The man vanished, replaced by a velociraptor the size of a gecko. Using her own body to block the view of her foot, Natalie pulled off her shoe. “Get that splinter out of my foot.”
The velociraptor was visibly wobby, but he extended his tiny claws. There was a sharp pinch, and then she felt the shiftsilver splinter slide out of her foot.
She replaced her shoe and said loudly, “Lie still, Ransom. Don’t move. You’ll start bleeding again.” Then, very softly, she said, “I’m done.”
The next instant, Pete vanished and an immense, shaggy cave bear charged their enemies. His tremendous paws seemed to shake the earth.
Natalie expected him to get shot by a dart and forced into his human form before he reached their enemies. Apparently they thought so too, because rather than run or fight back, they just stood there smirking.
Pete reached the gargoyle, reared up, and swatted him with an enormous paw. The gargoyle shattered into a million pieces of shiny black stone.
The quetzalcoatlus let out a startled screech.
“Jager!” yelled Elayne. “Why didn’t you shoot him?!”
“I did!” Jager shouted back. He was now crouched beside a car in the parking lot. “His fur’s too thick!”
Pete lunged for the chupacab
ra, who leaped backward. Now out of his range, she lashed out her tongue at him, aiming for his less thickly-furred face. Pete ducked, and the tongue hit the shaggy fur of his back, writhed like a snake, then withdrew. Carter hurled a picnic chair at the beast, but she leaped aside. Then he was forced to duck that slimy, blood-sucking tongue.
Suddenly, the chupacabra let out an agonized howl. Its tongue began lashing out madly in all directions as it leaped around like it had a hotfoot. Natalie caught a glimpse of a tiny velociraptor clinging to its back, biting it, before the chupacabra threw itself to the ground and rolled. The mini velociraptor leaped free, scuttled away, and vanished from sight.
Pete charged Elayne, roaring, but was turned aside by the quetzalcoatlus. She stabbed her beak at him, but it was bashed aside by Roland, who had charged in swinging a heavy picnic table. She danced aside and screeched with fury, beating her huge wings. The wind they stirred up made even Roland stagger.
Natalie tensed, biting her lip. She wanted to help, but she was afraid to leave Ransom. He’d been able to help her with her ploy to get out the shiftsilver splinter without their enemies knowing, but there was no way he could fight. He hadn’t even been able to walk without support, and that was before he’d been hit by vertigo.
But though he was down, he didn’t look helpless. He’d rolled on to his belly and was watching the fight with an intensity that made her remember that he’d been a sniper in the Marines. All he needed to complete the picture was a rifle.
His gaze didn’t leave the battle, but he reached out a hand to touch her, murmuring, “Wait.”
Carter tossed aside his long coat, lunged forward, and grabbed the quetzalcoatlus. He clung tight to a leathery leg that was as tall as he was, making her stagger. Roland hit the great bird-creature again with the picnic table while she was distracted. She let out a frustrated screech, spread her wings, and took to the sky.
To Natalie’s horror, Carter didn’t let go, but clung tight to her as she vanished into the clouds. Natalie started to leap up to fly after them—she couldn’t let Carter fall to his death—but Ransom seized her hand with an iron grip, whispering, “Don’t. Carter can take care of himself. You’ll see.”