Kayla nodded. “I just need to make a left on one of the major streets. Why?”
“Do it. I think I know where she’s at.”
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Chapter Thirty
Kayla pulled into a turnout. Just ahead, an overgrown path was blocked by a chain draped across the opening. Crows cried over the passing traffic. It looked like a road leading to nowhere. “Are you certain about this, Elathan?”
He started walking into the woods. “As certain as I can be.”
A few minutes’ walk pulled a blanket of silence over them. The rain had let up, but water still dripped from the foliage. Everything was coated in the verdant green of moss and clinging vines. Concrete appeared ahead, the remnants of the old highway.
“Peaceful in here,” she said.
Elathan looked anything but at peace. His eyes darted around, shoulders tense. “Stay alert.”
They followed the road hearing nothing but birdsong and the sound of their own feet over the loam and broken blacktop. Kayla found it hard to believe that this used to be a highway. The way wound through tall trees, wan sunlight streaming.
Though they were in the middle of nowhere, the road forked. Elathan peered hard through the screen of trees. He took the fork to the right. It was even more overgrown than the highway. After a few hundred yards, they passed through a crumbling gate in a tall wall of granite. Crooked wrought iron gates hung suspended by vines.
Beyond, the trees thinned out. Kayla recognized a circular driveway. They passed through the gate. A building of granite blocks and bricks loomed in the woods. Two wings spread from a main section that boasted two broken spires. She counted five stories of black windows, the glass long gone.
“The TB Sanatorium,” Kayla’s voice was a whisper.
Elathan’s voice was low as well. “Strange to see it like this.”
“This huge institution, out in the middle of nowhere—it’s creepy.” Kayla took in the structure. It was acres wide, towering, and dead.
Elathan moved to the right. “Let’s take a look.” She noticed his voice was low as well. The spookiness of the place was getting to him too, she realized, as he took her hand.
Former grounds now sprouted grown trees, randomly spaced. Treading through ferns and leaf litter, the two of them surveyed the building. Kayla could imagine the scary place attracting teenagers on a dare or ghost-hunters—but as remote as it was, would it attract a dragon?
Their progress around the haunted structure halted. A stream ran behind the building, undercutting the foundations. Bricks sagged dangerously, the sanatorium leaning, sagging toward the stream. Piles of broken brick and shattered glass lay like blocky snowdrifts.
Backtracking, they passed before the front of the building. Steel front doors lay at an angle down the wide front steps. Light penetrated only a few feet into a marble lobby, the floor was filthy with debris. Out past the north wing, a parking lot had given way to scattered junk trees.
This part of the facility seemed more intact. Except as they rounded the back, Elathan pointed to a gaping hole in the top floor. He didn’t have to say a word. Kayla saw that it looked very much like a cave high on a cliff.
The wind picked up, shaking rain from the trees. From the dark hole above, a moaning, growling sound issued. The hair on the back of Kayla’s neck stood up.
When Elathan tilted his head back and inhaled, she could almost see his inner grizzly superimposed on his human features. Her own senses were not nearly as acute as a bear’s, yet she caught scents. The sharp smell of leather, a floral deodorant, musky perfume and the acrid sweat of fear.
Isabela was up there.
Elathan moved to a door at the narrow north face of the wing. When he tried it, it did not move. Kayla saw that it was rusty steel, the paint flaking away. Even when he put his back into it, it remained locked tight. She scanned the back of the building, seeing no other entrances; only the decided collapse of the far wing into the shallow ravine.
“I guess we go in through the front,” he murmured.
Kayla nodded in agreement. She didn’t really want to go in. That cave like hole, and the frightening sound that came from it made her want to sprint back to the stolen car. Taking a bracing breath, she followed him back around the north wing.
“It isn’t safe to go in there,” he said.
She swallowed. “I’m going in with you.”
“This is my doing.”
“It’s my job to get you out of trouble.” She reached out and took his hand. He squeezed back. “What’s the plan?”
His eyes wandered up the crumbling bricks, the yawning windows. “Dragons are nocturnal. With any luck, we can get past her, get the girl, and get out.
“What about the dragon? How do we stop her?”
“The primary issue is getting Isabella out.”
They rounded the front façade of the sanatorium. Kayla said, “Just because the dragon is sleeping doesn’t mean she won’t sense our presence.”
The front steps lay ahead. Elathan picked up the pace. “If I need to, I’ll distract the monster. As long as you can get to the girl and get her safely out.”
“I won’t leave there without you.”
They picked their way past the fallen doors and the weeds that took root in the concrete. “You don’t need to worry about me.”
“Don’t be stupid.”
The walk was clear from the steps to the threshold. “It’s a big place, plenty of places to run, places to hide.”
“But no more places for you to hide, Señor Blood.”
Kayla let out a shocked cry. A man strode out of the lobby. He wore a fine suit, a Fedora, and had a gun pointing at Elathan.
“León,” Elathan said through his teeth.
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Chapter Thirty-one
Blood wasn’t caught flat-footed. He charged straight at the detective. Two tiny stings bit into his neck, the CO2 pistol making a barely audible cough. Without slowing, he brought his fist crashing into the jaguar-shifter’s jaw. León dropped the gun. Blood followed through with a one-two to the gut and face. The private eye dropped to the floor.
His hand went to his throat. Two tiny wounds seeped a small amount of blood, but he knew what was lodged beneath his skin: silver beads. He would not be able to shift.
Kayla cried out, and he whirled to see a ham-sized fist. Light blazed behind his eyes as it struck. Before he could shake off the blow, his arms were drawn behind him in a fierce full nelson.
“Where’s that kid, you son-of-a-bitch?”
Thorn had him in a lock he could not break without shifting, and León had taken care of that. The Kodiak-shifter’s arms flexed beneath Blood’s. He felt drawn out agony, his shoulders separating. “She’s upstairs, you asshole, let me go.”
“Upstairs where?”
“I don’t fucking know, I just got here.” Pressure increased, both of Thorn’s hands on his neck, his meaty arms pressing up and under Blood’s own. He refused to cry out.
Thorn did instead, following a great splintering crack. Blood danced from the Kodiak’s clutches. Behind him, Kayla stood, a broken branch in her hand. Eyes crossing, Thorn sat on the floor.
She tossed the limb aside and stepped over Thorn. “Come on.”
Blood rolled his shoulders a few times as he followed her inside. “Grand theft auto, evading the law, and now assault. I really think you’re in the wrong line of work.”
The two men groaned, trying to roll to their feet. Blood gave them each a hard look. “I ain’t got time to beat you two assholes into submission. The girl’s been taken upstairs. There probably isn’t much time before the thing that took her comes back. If you try to stop me, or slow me down, I’ll put you both down.”
He exchanged a look with Kayla. She nodded back, face determined. Together, they went inside.
In the shadowy interior, they darted around fallen stone and brick, heading for the nort
h wing. Signs on the walls were obliterated by time and hardly recognizable to the eye . They followed animal senses, quickly finding the door to a stairway. The two started up.
Blood had to grab hold of the railing. The stairs were canted at an angle, light slanting in from narrow windows, their climb dizzying. From below, he heard footsteps ringing. It hadn’t taken long for his would-be captors to recover.
They were out of breath by the time they reached the top floor. Blood shoved through the door at the end of the landing. Inside was a wide open space. Paint peeled and flaked off the walls, the floor tiles cracked and dusty. At the very far end, they could see light coming in from outside—the mouth of the man-made cave. Piles of destroyed brick, fallen walls and ceiling tiles made for a treacherous landscape. Outside windows stood distantly from this central aisle. Shadows pooled in the gloom.
Blood moved slowly, but with determination. Holes opened up in the floor where mounds of detritus were absent. Dust motes danced in the light from the ruined roof. A glance behind showed Kayla carefully following.
Like the stairs, the floor canted to the south, where the building threatened to fall into the stream. Blood continued on, the scent of Isabela in his nose. His eyes scanned the area. Other than the rotting pieces of the structure, he saw no litter, no graffiti. Apparently, even adventurous teenagers and the desperate homeless avoided this level.
Footfalls echoed up the stairwell. Blood hurried on. A mound of ceiling tiles near the cave opening caught his attention. Kayla’s hand fell on his shoulder. She pointed.
Isabela lay unconscious on a six-foot heap of demolished garbage. Blood could see the rise and fall of her chest. She was alive. But where was the dragon? He motioned for Kayla to go to the girl. Blood hurried past the heap, eyes adjusting to the sunlight pouring in the opening.
Splayed footprints marred the dust—reptilian feet a yard long. A sulfurous smell wafted in the air. Vast burn marks covered the interior floor, the walls. Certainly, this space was large enough to house a dragon—but hardly enough to hide one.
Blood considered it. She could be on a lower floor. The dragon was too large to get up the stairwells. There might be holes in the floor big enough elsewhere in the sanatorium, but would she be guarding her prize? From the beams and tiles littering the floor, the roof was not strong enough to hold her.
So where are you?
“Elathan, I can’t get her down,” Kayla whispered.
“Step away from the girl, counselor.”
The voice echoed like a shot in the silent building. Blood quickly retraced his steps. León and Thorn stood near the garbage heap, Kayla with her back to it. The men looked at him warily, postures tense. When their eyes darted around, Blood realized that more than his presence raised their hackles.
The detective’s eyes traced a drag mark across the floor. It looked as if the pile Isabela rested on had been made with one great sweep. Yet tons of material lay shoved against the wall. Bright green eyes met Blood’s.
“I see you’ve found what you were looking for, Señor.”
Blood nodded. “We gotta get her out of here before it comes back.”
Thorn said nothing as he threw glances over his shoulder. They could all smell it, the rotten egg smell of sulfur, acrid wood smoke, and something musky that hinted at a large animal, yet no animal they recognized. There was no doubt they stood in an apex predator’s den.
Oscar León clambered to the top of the heap. His leather-soled shoes slipped with each step, sending debris tumbling down. Large as the pile was, it was not stable. He leaned over the unconscious Isabela, fingers seeking a pulse. He nodded. “She is alive.”
Thorn and Blood moved as close to her as they could, wading through broken boards and chunks of concrete. The Kodiak was taller than Blood. León gently moved the girl toward his waiting arms. Thorn took her shoulders. Blood moved in, reaching up to take her legs as Thorn pulled her down. Together, they lay her on the floor.
“Isabela. Hey, kid, can you hear me?” Blood asked.
Thorn pointed to where her shirt rode up. “Looks pretty bruised up.”
Blood crouched down to lift her. “So we carry her out. Let’s go.”
“Uno momento, Señor Blood. It might be unwise to move her. Perhaps we should call an ambulance.”
“We don’t have time, flatfoot.”
The growling moan rolled through the sanatorium. This time, sulfurous smoke accompanied the sound. Footsteps shook the entire structure
Thorn’s eyes went wide. “What the hell is that?”
“The thing that Elathan Blood has pursued for many years,” León said. “A dragon, is it not?”
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Chapter Thirty-two
Kayla gaped at the sound. Outside, the light dimmed. Rain fell, turning into a deluge. Water dripped from the damaged roof. Pounding footfalls released dust and roof tiles, all of it falling like a rain of mud.
“Dragons ain’t real,” Thorn whispered.
Thorn, the largest man she’d ever seen, León, so confident and crafty, and Elathan, the intrepid hunter and trapper, all stood frozen in fear. Her eyes tracked the uneven light, searching for a hulking shape to match the impact of its footsteps.
“Madre de Dios,” Oscar whispered.
Thorn turned to the others. “What do we do?”
“We get the fuck out of here,” Kayla urged.
Elathan nodded. “Good plan.”
The hall and wards of the top level now stood in darkness. Howling, the storm rolled through the open windows, sluicing mud covering the floor, mist rising as the chill rain met the sun-warmed surroundings.
Scooping up the girl as if she weighed nothing, Blood crossed the slanted floor toward the stairwell. Thorn took point. Kayla stayed close behind Elathan, León behind her. Water rolled beneath their feet, following the angle of the floor. As quickly as they could, they hurried through the damaged top story that resembled an obstacle course.
Lightning struck, briefly illuminating the long wing. A few hundred yards ahead lay the stairway and the main building. Thorn sprinted the rest of the distance. He stopped on the landing, peering down the stairs. “Holy shit!”
The giant jumped back through the stairwell door. Intense white light, blazing heat, rose from below–it was a bolt of fire. Thorn raised his arms in front of his face as the walls around the stairwell blew apart. Thorn was thrown backward a dozen yards, sliding across the floor. His clothes were on fire.
Oscar darted in, slapping out the flames. Thorn let loose an agonized scream. “Holy fuck, it hurts!”
With a rumble, the stairs collapsed, sending up a smoking cloud. Kayla saw the burns all over Thorn. His beard, his hair were burned away–hands, face, chest, all of him looked like rare meat.
“Thorn, concentrate!” León got in the wounded man’s face. “You have to shift, to heal yourself.”
The gigantic lumberjack writhed in the filthy mud, his hands hooked into claws, eyes wide, unfocused. Footsteps shook the building with greater urgency.
León turned to them. “Find another way out. Get the girl away from here.”
Kayla pointed back the way they came. “There are stairs at the end of the wing, but the outside door is locked.”
“There must be stairs in the main building. Go!”
Elathan nodded, hiking up his burden, and headed toward an angled hall. Kayla followed on his heels. “She’s somewhere below us. We gotta be careful.”
With the footfalls trembling through the entire structure, it was impossible to tell which way the monster headed. Elathan kicked in a door. This part of the sanatorium was not wide open like the wing. Instead, they stood in a maze of hallways and offices.
“We have to find the central staircase,” Kayla said.
Elathan’s head swiveled. They stood at an intersection of two halls. Thunder rumbled. They were too deep in the building to see the flash of lightning. “We must be close. This way.
”
Kayla took the lead, running down the hall she thought led south. At a broad door that truncated the hall, she stopped, listening. Not even her sensitive ears picked up a sound. She pressed her palms against the door. It felt cool. On the other side, a lobby yawned in the gloom.
“Elevators,” she pointed across the expanse.
Elathan followed her. “Probably not working.”
She rolled her eyes. “Where there are elevators, there are probably stairs.”
They passed the old lifts, made of wood and brass gone green, cages warped and hanging. Around a corner, an open staircase led down. Kayla stopped short. She no longer felt the shaking footsteps.
“Do you think she’s down there?”
Elathan peered over her shoulder. “Yeah. Somewhere.”
Isabela groaned. Kayla saw her eyes flutter open. The irises swiveled, their gaze without focus.
“Daddy?” Her voice was a barely audible whisper.
Kayla saw Elathan’s face cinch, as if he were in pain.
Isabela’s eyes rolled back in her head and she fell silent again.
“Let’s go,” he said.
The lobby below looked almost identical to the one on the top floor, save one heart-sinking detail. The stairs leading down were covered in mounds of plaster and brick. The outer wall had partly collapsed, blocking the way down.
“Shit.” Elathan gently lay Isabela on the floor. He took a few tentative steps down. Below his feet, the remnants of the wall shifted, moving in an avalanche. Three treads cracked, dropping away, leaving a gaping hole behind. Grabbing the handrail, he pulled himself back up. “Gotta find another way. I really hate this place.”
Booming impacts sounded, the floor quaking with the charging feet. Smoke billowed into the lobby. The moaning, growling sounded, this time trumpeting with its nearness. Elathan’s eyes swept the room, taking in the dead elevators, the destroyed stairs.
“The bitch has trapped us!”
The Apex Shifter Complete Set: Books 1 - 3 Page 39