“Are you saying for a woman to handle alone?” Emelia snapped, all warmth leaving her voice as memories loomed, whispered voices filling her head, taunting her with her weakness. “You want me to write that up in my report, Carter?”
He quickly shook his head.
“Jesus, you’re all fucking annoying. Get out of my sight before I write you all up for that little stunt you pulled the other night. I’m sure the higher-ups would love to know about you visiting that fae bar to bet on the illegal fights in the basement.”
Carter’s face blanched. The other three looked as if they might relieve themselves in their combats.
Archer just sighed, closed the van’s rear doors, and went back to the front, disappearing into the cab.
Her four rookies hurried into the building, and silence fell as Archer pulled the van away, a blessed relief from their incessant noise. She tried to smooth the rough edges off her mood, but it was impossible as she stood in the parking garage with a shifter she was about to break into the building, the task of grabbing information waiting for her, and her fears about Wolf plaguing her.
Emelia came up beside Talon, grabbed his right arm, and huffed. “Men. Always doing something stupid and reckless.”
He glanced down at her.
For a moment, he looked as if he was going to ask whether she was talking about him now, but then something crossed his face as his eyes locked with hers. She turned her cheek to him, not wanting him to see that she was talking about another man, one who was constantly on her mind.
“Move.” Emelia nudged him forwards, and he obeyed, trudging through the plain metal door in the concrete wall of the underground parking facility.
She pulled on his arm before he could shoulder the next door open, stopping him in the small space between them. He frowned down at her as she looked around, inspecting all the corners of the ceiling and then closing the door to the car park, shutting them in.
“Hold still.” She opened the pocket on her left thigh, pulled out a syringe, and tugged the plastic cover off with her teeth. He eyed the needle. When he tensed, she paused with it close to his arm and looked up at him. “It’s an antidote… but you’ll need to act like you’re still shaking off the drug.”
He nodded and turned, offering his arm.
Flinched when she stabbed him with it.
Emelia capped the needle again and slipped it back into her pocket. “Sable owes me for this.”
The method of helping Talon that her friend had come up with didn’t sit well with her, but she could see why Sable had decided on it. It was the easiest way of getting Talon into the cell block without rousing suspicion.
Still, the fact she had drugged him and captured him had her stomach churning, and the thought she was about to take him back into a building where he had suffered so much had her thinking twice about going through with it.
If Sable was right, Talon had been abused just as Emelia had.
She couldn’t believe he wanted to go back to a place where he had been tormented. Tortured. Violated.
She looked up at him as he stared at the door, visibly preparing himself for what was to come. She could see he was shaken by what was happening, but she could see his strength too.
And it was inspiring.
He was doing what he felt he needed to do to save his friends, regardless of the danger and the obvious pain it was causing him.
He was facing his fears so he could have the future he wanted, so he could ease his conscience by helping those who were taken with him in the raid on the fae town months ago.
He was doing it for closure too.
So as much as she wanted to back down, she couldn’t. If he was willing to put himself through this, she was too.
She pulled down a sharp breath, exhaled it, and sucked down another before taking hold of his arm again. He glanced at her, a softness to his eyes that said he could feel her shaking. She did her best to hide how badly she was trembling as she opened the door and pushed him through it. He staggered and weakly growled at a passing pair of scientists.
“Fucking torturers,” he slurred in their direction, and they both gave him a wide berth.
“Try to keep it more under control,” the man said to Emelia.
She nodded and shoved Talon again, not missing how he tensed or how his nails sharpened into claws. She hated them for speaking about him that way too, treating him as if he was nothing more than an object, one they probably wanted to carve open on their inspection table.
He shot her a black look. She hit him with one in return and pushed him harder.
“Try to remember who’s helping you here, buddy,” she muttered under her breath, and then in a louder voice added, “Keep moving, or I’ll hit you again.”
He growled and stumbled forwards. When they reached the main cell block, he staggered to his right, and she looked down the white corridor in that direction.
Was that where the secret containment facility was?
Emelia pushed him in that direction, fielding a few questioning looks from several hunters as they passed her by with other prisoners. She glared at them all, daring them to speak to her. A few of them saluted, which was a novel experience. She felt the weight of the shiny pin on the collar of her roll-neck sweater. Being a commander did have a few perks.
Talon tensed.
She looked at him, catching his gaze for a second before he fixed it ahead of them. She tried to spot what he was staring at. There was a branch in the corridor, and then a grey metal door. She looked back at Talon.
That service elevator?
He gave a slight nod.
She struggled with him as she walked him towards it, pretending he was misbehaving. He was kind enough to act up a little, fighting her. When they reached the lift doors, she shoved him against the whitewashed wall next to the panel of buttons.
Nerves surged as she quickly pressed the call button. She angled her body so no one passing could see the light on the button as she checked over Talon’s restraints, keeping him pinned face-first against the wall.
A curse rolled through her head when a grey-haired woman dressed in a white coat slowed.
“You brought him in?” The woman looked him over.
His eyes instantly glowed gold.
He snarled at her through his emerging fangs.
Not an act this time.
“Keep back.” Emelia held her palm out in front of her, towards the woman, and twisted him to face her. She pressed her other forearm against his chest, pushed his back against the wall, and held him there. He could easily break free of her if he wanted, but he played along as he glared at the woman. Emelia lowered her hand and reached for her gun. “He’s coming around quicker than we expected.”
The lift to her right pinged, and the doors slid open.
Her heart almost stopped as time stretched, slowing as she glanced at the elevator and then the woman. She waited for everything to go south, sure the woman would demand to know what she was doing and how she knew about the hidden facility.
Sure that she was about to become a captive of Archangel too.
Taken into custody for treason.
The grey-haired woman withdrew a small device from her pocket, swiped across the screen several times and then typed something.
When she was done, she looked up at Emelia.
“What are you waiting for? If he’s coming around, I want him contained as soon as possible.” The scientist pocketed her device and Emelia immediately relaxed, her fear melting away. “I’ve notified the others. We’ll be ready to continue our research on him before the hour is up. Well done, Commander Emelia.”
Fur rippled over Talon’s golden skin and he launched forwards, knocking Emelia into the opposite wall. The woman backed away as he snapped his fangs at her, snarling and growling, and she narrowly avoided being caught by them.
“Damn it.” Emelia barrelled into him and he grunted as she planted the dart gun into his side and depressed the trigger.
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Talon staggered backwards, hit the wall, and sagged against it, breathing hard.
Damn him!
He had to go forcing her hand, didn’t he?
“Take him down.” The woman edged around him, scanned her pass inside the elevator, and made a fast exit down the corridor.
Emelia kept her features schooled as she checked him over, concern building inside her as he stared at her through dull amber eyes. She silently apologised to him as she pushed him into the lift. The doors closed and it started moving downwards.
Running into the scientist had been both a curse and a blessing. She hadn’t considered the area might be protected, sealed off to anyone who didn’t have the right clearance on their pass card.
Talon shook his head and almost fell to his knees. She barely managed to keep him upright, leaned him against the wall and waited for the car to stop and the doors to open before she risked moving him again.
The entire floor was gloomy, only a few lights at intervals along the corridor illuminating the dark grey-blue walls.
Talon shuffled along in front of her, swaying from time to time. The corridor opened up into an enormous room, one with close to half a dozen doors coming off it, some of which had a guard outside. Light shone from the left side and she picked that way.
The stale air reeked of the scent of blood, vomit and urine. She eased Talon forwards when he stopped, putting up a weak fight. He shook beneath her hand as she planted it against his back, hoping to comfort him.
It was brave of him to do this.
Incredibly courageous.
And maybe a little crazy.
He struggled against his bonds.
Emelia patted his back and offered him the only comfort she could. “Think about Sherry.”
The bartender was waiting for him up on the roof. According to Sable, the two of them were involved with each other, had been practically inseparable since Talon had stumbled into Underworld shortly after he had escaped, half-dead and desperate to hide from Archangel.
He settled, his breathing evening out as she guided him around a corner, into a brightly lit cell block. A black-haired demon in the cell to her left glared at her as she pushed Talon towards an empty cell. She looked up at the camera mounted above the exit and the glass panel that formed the front of the cell whooshed as it opened. Talon tensed and leaned back, threw her a stricken look as she nudged him on.
“It’ll be fine,” she whispered, hoping it would soothe him. “Sherry is waiting.”
He stepped into the cell. She unlocked his restraints and moved back into the corridor. The thick panel closed, forming a barrier between them.
Talon fell to his knees.
Looked over his shoulder at her.
She offered a silent apology and a plea for him to be patient, to hold it together for a little while.
She slipped her hand into her pocket, activating the small magical violet teardrop-shaped device that Bleu had given her. She hoped the elf and his sister Iolanthe had been telling the truth about the device. It seemed incredible to her that they could use the signal it emitted as a sort of beacon to locate Talon, allowing them to teleport to a place they had never been before. She willed them to hurry, because she wasn’t sure how long Talon could hold it together and now that she had seen this place, she wanted to get him and his friends out as quickly as possible.
There was something wrong about this whole area.
A guard glanced at her as he walked past, and she forced herself to turn away from Talon. She dropped the odd transmitter that resembled a jewel outside the cell block on her way back to the lift.
What sort of things were happening down here? She cast secret glances around the facility as she strode through it, checking out the closed doors and long hallways and the men who patrolled it, dressed in navy-blue fatigues that were different from the uniform hunters like her wore. And why did they feel the need to guard that one door at the back?
She stepped into the elevator, pressed the button, and focused on the next part of her mission.
One that would hopefully give her the answer to the question now burning in her heart.
What was Archangel’s new purpose, and why were they hiding it from their own people?
CHAPTER 31
Emelia met Sherry at the bottom of the steps that led up to the roof access door, trying to keep her mind off when she had spoken with Wolf there just weeks ago. The pretty blonde bartender looked the part in a form-fitting black T-shirt and combat trousers, her usual heels replaced by heavy boots.
“Ready?” Emelia glanced both ways along the cream corridor, watching the men and women as they sprinted past both ends of it, heading for the staircases as alarms blared.
Nerves flashed in Sherry’s blue eyes, but she nodded.
Emelia quickly led her to the adjoining corridor to her left, and they fell in behind a group of hunters, using them as cover. She glanced at her comrade, keeping an eye on her as they reached the next level and broke away from the hunters.
Another group of armed hunters rushed past them, joining with the team they had followed.
The walls shook as a male roared on a floor below them. A few of the less experienced hunters who were standing in the corridor, watching the dispatched teams rushing to the scene, paled as their wide eyes darted towards the source of the sound.
Sable and Thorne were certainly making it a convincing performance.
Emelia ducked around a corner and tugged Sherry with her, falling into a brisk walk as she followed the corridor to the other wing of the building, doing her best to look calm so she didn’t draw the gazes of the hunters who poked their heads out of the rooms lining the hallway, curious about what was happening.
If luck was with them, Emelia wouldn’t be summoned to gather her team and head to the cafeteria too.
Mark would dispatch the more experienced teams first, which was one thing she had going in her favour. She had never thought having a group of rookies under her command would be a benefit, but damn it felt like a blessing as she waited for another team to rush past her, sticking close to the wall opposite a pair of women from the science division.
Sherry looked at her and then at the wooden floor when another roar sounded. A few of the passing hunters muttered comments about the demon.
Emelia hoped they weren’t brave enough to attempt to attack Thorne. By now, the male would be fully demonic, towering close to ten feet tall and a danger to everyone but his mate.
A mate he was meant to be abducting, whisking away to his kingdom for the purpose of making little heirs.
This wasn’t just a diversion.
It was Sable’s grand departure from Archangel.
If the rank-and-file hunters didn’t already know she was mated to the demon king, they would after this performance. Sable wanted to leave with a bang and had apparently told Thorne to go all out. The floor beneath Emelia’s boots shook, and another roar reached her ears.
By the sounds of things, he was doing just that.
Emelia would be surprised if the building was still standing once he was done.
She held Sherry back at another junction, waiting for a rush of hunters to pass. The bartender stared at her boots, a troubled edge to her eyes.
It hadn’t gone down well when Emelia had confessed what she had done with Talon during a brief meeting on the roof, how she had been forced to put him in a cell to make it look good after she had run into one of the scientists in charge of whatever went on down there. Sable had reassured Emelia that she had done what she had needed to do and that Talon would understand it. Bleu and Iolanthe had been quick to go on their way to rescue him and the others, teleporting the moment Thorne disappeared to start the second part of the plan.
Despite their reassurances, Talon still played on her mind.
Shoving him into that cell had been one of the hardest things she had ever done.
She wasn’t sure she could condone what Archangel were doing, not now they we
re veering away from their noble mission to keep humans safe from the dangerous immortals that coexisted with them in the world, and not now she had seen the secret facility with her own eyes.
She was going to cut ties with them.
Even when she knew it would be painful.
She had wanted to save Archangel and put it back on track, but now she wasn’t sure that would be possible. They were already too far down that dark path she had feared they were treading.
They banked right along the corridor, and she tried to keep her mind focused on the mission and away from her future. A group of hunters lingered ahead of her in the hall, discussing tonight’s patrol and how they wanted to join in with the teams that had been dispatched to the cafeteria to deal with Thorne. She nodded to their commander, a man known to be ruthless, and was glad Mark hadn’t called on his team yet.
It was only a matter of time, though.
If Mark was following protocol, ten teams were already there.
Each minute that passed where Thorne refused to leave was a minute where Mark would dispatch another team to bolster the hunter numbers in the cafeteria in an attempt to drive him out.
By now, there were probably close to sixty hunters down there.
Not counting those who didn’t wait for the call.
A lot of hunters, especially the newer recruits and the commanders, would head there by choice, neglecting their duties because they wanted in on the action.
Sherry offered a flirty smile to a hunter who glanced her way, one of a team who had just returned from patrol by the looks of things and was watching them closely. The distraction worked, and he grinned right back at her and went on his way.
“Not far now,” Emelia said in a low voice.
Sherry tensed, nerves flaring in her eyes again. She breathed slowly, clearly struggling with them. Emelia wanted to tell her that she would be fine and no one would suspect her, but there were too many people coming and going along the corridors, responding to urgent calls for more back up in the cafeteria.
Senior hunters visited the archive all the time, checking the files for information on their latest target. If anyone was in there, they would think she and Sherry were a team doing research on a new mark or perhaps looking up the weaknesses of a demon in case their team were dispatched to the cafeteria.
Avenged by an Angel (Eternal Mates Paranormal Romance Series Book 16) Page 31