by Nikki Dean
Janae was silent, but they all knew.
“They died, didn’t they? And now they have Matt.” Mallory felt sick even saying the words aloud.
Janae nodded.
Everett growled and launched himself across the room, the anger in his soul materializing around him in that inky blackness. Mallory dove for him, trusting her own magic to help contain his.
They collided in front of Janae and slid, Everett on top of Mallory as they hit the floor. Nico was there in an instant, hauling his friend up before they did any more damage. Even so, Mallory could feel the heat racing up her arms where she’d touched him, and her palms burned where they’d landed on his bare arms.
“We can save him, Everett, we just have to try! We have Janae, who’s an amazing healer. Plus we have my magic, and Nico’s, and yours. We won’t lose him,” Mallory declared. “But you have to pull your head out of your ass and help, or this isn’t going to work.”
Nico let him go and he sat, panting as though trying to control himself. Mallory was astonished at the amount of despair that was seeping from him, showing her without words just how much Matt meant to him.
If the emotion had been red, they could have painted the walls with it, it was so thick in his mind.
Mal reached down and held out her hand, letting Everett decide if he was going to take it or not. The other guys watched them as Janae finished unhooking everything and Matt was finally ready, though still unconscious, on the rolling bed.
Everett reached up and grabbed her hand. A wave of electricity rolled up her arm and she reached for him with her magic before his had a chance to take hold. She slammed the mental wall back into place, like that night at the club, to keep the contact from making him even more uncomfortable.
“Don’t,” he groaned. “Don’t try to contain it like that. It’s too weird, and I need it right now.”
She nodded and dropped the wall, letting his power flow into her. There was nothing she had to hide, anyway. “I need mine, too, so let’s get moving,”
He stood and dropped the contact. Her web snapped back into focus and she went back to Matt’s bed, touching him again to check on him. He was the same, but she could feel a variety of emotions that ranged from downright confusion to enthusiastic approval coming from the other guys in the room.
“We need to bring whatever he’s linked with,” Mallory said. “I don’t know if the connection will wear off when the drugs do, but we need to figure out how it was done and see if we can reverse it.”
“How?” Janae asked. “It’s taken the medical team a week to establish it, and you think you can fix it, just like that?”
Mallory nodded. “Let’s hope so. Because I’m what they’re looking for, so I know how it’s supposed to work. I don’t know what they did, but I promise you that half the reason all of the other subjects died is because the human mind doesn’t work like an animal’s. The constant stimulation and inherent memories, the instincts, that animals all have can’t be processed around the clock. We have to be able to shut it off.”
“Oh. I don’t think they thought about that,” Janae said.
“Clearly. What’s he linked to, and where is it?” Mallory asked, standing. “Nico and I can go get it if you guys can get Matt out of here.”
“A jaguar. Three halls over, to the right. Specimen J-578.”
They all gaped at her. “A what now?” Alec asked.
She sighed. “A jaguar. Big cat, yellowish-brown coat with black rosette-shaped spots.”
“I know what it is, but why? You could’ve just gone all out and picked a lion or a tiger,” Alec scoffed. “A fucking jaguar.”
“Well, I hate to disappoint you, but the lab was fresh out of lions and tigers,” Janae hissed. “Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to get out of here before we’re all shot and killed. It’s bad enough that we’re all on the surveillance camera out front.”
Well, fuck. Mallory shrugged it off. It was too late to change, and Matt was the important part, anyway. Nico came and swung her onto his back, carrying her as he sped down the hall.
They arrived in an area lined with thick plexiglass walls, with animals in nearly every room. Some were up and walking, pacing back and forth in their clear cages, and some were resting. The rest, like Matt’s jaguar, were kept in small crates, with plastic feeding tubes and IV drips wound through the bars.
“This is it. J-578. How are we going to move it?” Mallory asked quietly. Nico shrugged.
“Carefully, I guess.”
He poked her, then jerked his chin at the small camera mounted in the corner. It was focused on the jaguar, and she saw that each animal had one, all being recorded in their cages.
“I’m going to disable that. You see if you can communicate with it, tell it we’re just trying to help.”
Mal nodded and focused on the animals on her web, pushing down the pinpoints that illuminated the people instead. Dozens of animal souls popped up in their place, some healthy, some sedated, but all afraid.
Their fear threatened to swamp her, pull her under like it had that first time she’d seen the lab through something else’s eyes. Mallory fought back, taking deep, calming breaths.
They filled her nose with the scents of bleach, antiseptic and used litter materials. It was nauseating.
Mallory reached out to the jaguar as she tried to get a sense of how aware it really was. It was completely sedated, much like Matt, but its deep subconscious, the seat of its animal instincts that had been passed down through hundreds of generations, was flaring wildly.
It doesn’t trust humans, and with good reason. It must have known these people in the lab were doing something to it, and either still smells them somehow, or might even feel the link with Matt in there. If I can feel it between them, it makes sense they can, too. Even through the drugs, maybe. A lot of a wild animal’s psyche depends on deeply ingrained instincts, and it would have no reason not to trust them.
She did her best to soothe the jaguar, sending waves of warmth and comfort through its mind. She had learned early on that animals didn’t react to her, or her magic, the same way they did to other humans. It was the only reason her magic worked, even if she couldn’t explain how it did. Nico got the cameras unhooked, and Mallory was happy to see that he’d disabled not only this jaguar’s, but all of the others in a wide vicinity.
“Are we going to try to get them all out of here?” she whispered.
He shook his head. “We can’t carry them, plus Matt. The others might need our help.”
“What about the ones that are awake?” She asked, looking over at that section of cages. Several large cats, wolves, a few monkeys and what looked like even a kangaroo were awake and watching them curiously. They had all stopped pacing to stare through the plexiglass.
“Dammit. The animals are too interested in us,” Mallory hissed. “Hurry up with this. If anyone’s monitoring those cameras, they’ll realize something’s going on for sure. All of them staring in one direction like that isn’t normal behavior at all.”
“Can you control them if I let them out?” Nico asked, giving her a speculative look. He had everything unhooked from the jaguar’s crate and was holding it, plus a bag of light blue liquid that looked like Matt’s. Mallory grabbed a bag of hydration fluids and tucked it into her back pocket.
“Yeah, there aren’t that many. They don’t want to be here, and I don’t want to abandon them to whatever’s going on down here, but Matt’s our priority. They could be helpful for a diversion, though. I don’t want them to get hurt.”
“I’m pretty sure that leaving them here guarantees that,” Nico said quietly. He glanced over at her and gave an apologetic shrug. “Whoever is running this place will know we’ve been here, and either move them or kill them to cover their tracks.”
“What, now, tonight?” Mallory was aghast. “It makes sense, but fuck. I thought we might have a little more time.”
“Let’s just say we need to make a decision and go, now.
We’re going to get caught, otherwise.”
She nodded. “Open them up. Let me take him, and you set the rest free. They’ll follow along, and hopefully get out to the woods, at least. I have no idea what else to do with them.”
The words were barely out of her mouth when the doors were all swinging open, and an alarm began to blare. It cut off mid-scream and Nico flashed in front of her.
“Here, hold him. I’ll carry you both, and give directions to anything else you can, but we have to get out of here now. We’ve given these a fighting chance, and that’s all we can do for them.”
Thankfully, the jaguar was young, and not fully grown, or she wasn’t sure how she would have held it. It was soft and warm in her arms as the hallways flashed by and she heard a terrified scream behind them.
Her web revealed several lab personnel behind them, having just gone into the holding cells with the freed animals. It hadn’t turned out well for them.
If any of you can understand me, come down the long hallway. Follow my scent, and go out the door. I’ll try to help more from there.
Nico skidded to a stop in front of the door that led to Kinsolving’s basement. Luckily the others were already gone, but without a keycard to open it, he and Mallory were stuck.
“What are we going to do?” Mallory whispered. “Can you find a card?”
The lock beeped and flashed green just before it slammed open. Four men stood on the other side, wearing some kind of dark blue uniforms with a silver logo on the breast pocket. Nico ducked into the break room as they pulled out long batons that arced with electricity at the ends. One dropped a small disc between them that lit up.
Tasers. Seriously? They must not want to kill the animals, only subdue them to torture later. Probably us, too.
“Hold on, we have to get through the door,” Nico whispered. He bolted toward it as it closed.
And stopped, tripping over thin air as his magic ran out. Mallory and the jaguar went flying, ripped from Nico’s arms as they kept going out of sheer momentum alone. Mallory wrapped her arms around it, trying to protect it as they tumbled across the floor and hit the door with a thud.
The closed door.
Luckily her ski mask was still in place, even if she had to tug it straight so that she could see through both eye holes. Her web was gone, rendering her unable to check on the jaguar, or even feel how many people were in the hallway with her.
What the fuck is going on? My magic hasn’t ever just disappeared like this, except when Everett touched me that one time. Even then, I could still sense it and his block. Nico’s speed magic failed too, so it must be something those guys did.
The guards laughed as Nico got to his hands and knees, shaking his head in confusion. Mallory called out a warning as one of them ran at him and kicked him in the belly. Nico went back down with a strangled groan as the air was forced from his lungs.
She saw red. Rage suffused her and she threw herself at them, punching first one, then another in the temple from behind. They both went down like a sack of bricks, grabbing their heads in agony.
Two were left. Not great odds, but whatever. It was time to put all of those years of martial arts training to good use.
Line them up. I have to keep one of them between me and the other one at all times, so they can’t attack together, she recalled. It had been one of the more useful tips when she had to participate in group sparring sessions. Never, ever let your opponents circle you.
It was too bad they were both huge, and clearly trained for this sort of thing. Each guard held his taser stick out to the side, just waiting for an opportunity to use it. Nico moaned again and the guard farthest away from her zapped him.
“Stay down.”
Mallory growled. It was the only word for the sound that tore its way out of her throat, stopping both guards in their tracks. The closer one glanced down at the disc that was still lit up on the floor, as though checking to see if it was on.
That must be what’s blocking our magic. So all I have to do is... She stomped on it, hard. The hard plastic top cracked, but the light stayed on. One of the guards shouted at her to stop while the other lunged at her.
Mallory dodged, dipping to the left. His wild grab missed and she hit his wrist, knocking the taser from his grip. It clattered to the ground and she kicked it away from them, back down the hallway. It slid between the second guard’s feet and stopped somewhere behind him.
The first guard threw his arms out and came at her, slamming her into the wall. The hallway was too narrow for her to do much but thrash against him, hitting and kicking him wherever she could.
He grunted once or twice, but didn’t let up as he crushed her against the sheetrock with his shoulder. Mallory felt something hard stabbing her in the leg and remembered the knife.
She pulled it out and stabbed, flinching in horror as the blade sank into his side. The guard cried out in surprise and she did it again.
Someone pounded on the opposite side of the door as it began beeping, indicating that someone was punching numbers into the keypad on the other side. Mallory pushed her guard away just in time to see the other one fall to the ground as well, Nico hunched over behind him, holding the taser stick.
Nico was gasping for breath and holding his ribs, but he was awake, and upright.
Mallory stomped on the disc again. It flashed, but stubbornly stayed on. At the end of her rope, she picked it up and hurled it down the hallway, as far away as she could.
Nico straightened, sucking in a deep breath. Mallory felt her web snap back, filling her mind with knowledge.
For example, the first two guards that she’d jumped were getting to their feet. Not that it mattered when a cougar came hurtling down the hallway, hissing and spitting as it ran, two huge gray wolves snapping at its heels.
Stop! Mal ordered, aghast that they were fighting among themselves when there were so many other things they could be attacking.
Like the security guards at her feet. Or the lab personnel chasing them with their own taser sticks and tranquilizer guns.
All three animals slid to a stop, turning to face Mallory instead. She redirected them in an instant, showing them who their real enemies were.
The fight was over in just a few seconds. The cougar pounced on one guard as Nico tasered the other. All the wolves had to do was bare their teeth at the terrified lab personnel, advancing with hackles raised and menacing growls before those people thought better of it and ran back the way they came.
Not that it did much good as a veritable stampede of animals rushed down the hallway, all of those healthy enough to be let out following Mal’s scent like she’d instructed.
The door beeped and swung open.
Mallory whirled, raising her knife as she braced herself for another round of security guards.
Chapter 30
Damon stood in the open doorway, his face still covered by his black ski mask, and Alec stood behind him. Alec pulled him out of the way as the animals ran by first, desperate to escape. Luckily, the door to the basement was open, and Nico was able to run ahead of them, opening the emergency exit door in the stairwell and letting them out into the night.
Mallory grabbed the still-unconscious jaguar and hurried to catch up.
“Close it, close it!” she hissed as the guards began to stir again. “Brace it shut with something!”
“Little hard when it opens into the other side, but sure, I’ll see what I can do,” Alec said. He settled for jamming a long piece of pipe through the handle and bracing it on either side of the doorframe. “It’ll hold for long enough. Let’s go.”
Mal nodded and ran for the stairwell, her adrenaline still pumping. Nico grabbed her and the jaguar and hustled them up the stairs, only stopping when he got them into her room.
Which was still wide open, thanks to Pohler’s dumb ass and Alec breaking down her door to rescue her.
“Mal?” Janae poked her head out of the bathroom. “Over here.”
She an
d Nico followed Janae into the unused room on the other side of the connecting bathroom. Matt had been laid out on one of the beds, his head and shoulders propped up on what looked like all of the pillows that Mal owned. His bag of blue liquid was hanging from a removable hook that had been glued to the wall.
“How’s he doing?” Mallory asked, rushing to his side. She sat gingerly on the edge of the bed and reached over to lay her hand on his chest, feeling for his heartbeat.
It was steady beneath his smooth skin.
“I don’t know, honestly,” Janae replied. “I don’t know anything about this. I think it’s stupid to bring him here, but I have no idea where else to take him since they’ll look for him at home. The hospital is out of the question, and I need to have access to him. So I guess here is as good of a place as any.”
“Just remember what we told you happens if you let it slip that he’s up here,” Damon replied. He was flipping one of his knives over and over in his hand, making the blade dance across his knuckles as it spun.
Is he threatening her? Without even waiting for me? Ugh. I mean, we were friends, but then she wanted to leave Matt down in that hellhole, knowing he didn’t sign up for it. So threaten away. I guess I still owe her for telling me about it to begin with, though. “Did you tell them about your family, Janae?” Mal asked. She glanced up to see the other girl shaking her head, her long twists swinging back and forth.
“Why should I? So your friends can threaten them, too? I’m going to take care of my own after all this mess,” Janae shot back with an angry look in her direction. Mal didn’t need her web to feel the bitterness in the words.
“Fitzam has her family. Her magic developed really young because it runs in her genes, and they’ve apparently been working on her over time, too, as well as her family. She made me swear to help them before she told me about Matt.”
Everett snorted and Mal jumped. She hadn’t even realized that he was still there, he was so still and quiet from his perch on the far desk. “So we’re risking our asses to save this girl’s family now, when she had one of ours held captive in that fucking lab? How long did you know Matt was there before you decided to let Mallory know?” he demanded. “A day? Three? The whole fucking week?”