by R. L. King
It didn’t. Moving with agility that would have done an Olympic gymnast proud, the man twisted, leaped to the side, then rolled up and resumed his charge toward the others.
Stone had taken only a few steps in their direction when another figure dropped in front of him, legs and arms spread wide. This one glared at him, but didn’t attack.
They’re trying to separate us.
The figure rose to its full height, looming. The man was taller than Stone and significantly wider—not bodybuilder-muscular this time, but big and substantial like a bear. His eyes burned with feral rage. Stone couldn’t tell if he was one of the same men who’d attacked them at the visitors’ center, but this could easily have been the man who’d torn Jimmy Tanuki limb from limb.
“I don’t have time for this,” Stone snapped, taking a step back. Beyond the bearish man, he heard the shouts of his friends, followed by the crack of Foley’s pistol and the boom of Jason’s shotgun.
“Should’ve stayed away,” the man growled. “Or died like you were supposed to.”
“Sorry to disappoint you.” Stone feinted to one side, as if trying to slip past his attacker. When the man leaped in that direction, Stone lashed out with a telekinetic grip and took hold of him around the middle, lifting him high and flinging him off into the forest, away from Jason, Verity, and Foley.
“You all right over there?” he called, spotting the telltale sudden glow in the trees, indicating that Verity was using magic.
“Hurry up!” Jason yelled back, followed by the sound of something slamming into something hard.
Stone whirled back toward the ward. Now that he’d lost his focus on it, the illusion had reasserted itself—once again, the area looked like a clearing dotted with mature trees. It didn’t matter, though: now that he knew the ward and the illusion were intertwined, he didn’t need to see what he was doing. Not for what he intended. Brute-force method it is, then. He gathered more energy, reinforcing the shield around him as he did.
Off to his left, the trees rustled. His bearish opponent was already coming back. That wasn’t surprising, given how fast and resilient the elixir made anyone who took it.
Just have to focus for a couple more seconds…
He loosed the blast just as the hulking figure slammed into him from the side, knocking him off his feet and sending him tumbling. The shield held, though, and as he rolled, he spotted the wide, smoking hole he’d blown into the ward. He jumped back to his feet and caught the man in mid-air as he leaped, tossing him away again. Beyond him, the edges of the blast sizzled and peeled away, revealing a squat, single-story building surrounded by perimeter lights.
“Come on!” Stone yelled, sprinting off toward where he’d left his friends.
The shotgun went off again, followed by a yelp of pain. Jason and Verity pelted toward Stone, with Foley following more slowly in their wake.
“Did you get him?” Verity panted.
“Not permanently. You?”
“I plugged him in the gut with the shotgun,” Jason said. “He took off into the forest.”
“That will give us some time, then,” Stone said. “Come on. We’ve got to move.” He darted a glance over toward where he’d tossed his own opponent, but the guy didn’t reappear. “They might have gone for more help. They’re tough, but they’re smart enough not to hang about when they’re beaten.”
By now, the glowing edges of the ward had receded further, making a hole big enough to drive a vehicle through. “Mind the edges and stay close,” Stone directed, going through first and ducking to one side, shield at full strength again and covering himself and Jason. On the other side, Verity shielded Foley. Her barrier was more visible than Stone’s, and Foley gaped at it, wide-eyed.
A bullet spanged off Stone’s shield.
“From the roof!” Jason yelled, pointing.
Stone followed his line of sight, spotting another shadowy figure crouched on the corner of the building. He raised his hand and made a sharp jerking motion, and the figure toppled off the building with a screech and another wild shot.
“Go!” Verity yelled.
They rounded the corner to the building’s rear side. Stone paused for a quick glance: The outside of the building looked weathered, its paint peeling from long disuse, its windows covered with thick sheets of plywood. The door, halfway along it, however, was new and substantial, made of steel with a modern keypad lock.
“Can you get through that?” Verity asked. Like Jason and Foley, she scanned the area behind and to both sides of them constantly, with occasional glances upward in case anyone else tried to ambush them from the roof.
Stone studied it for only a moment. “No need.” Instead, he focused on the thick plywood sheet covering a nearby window, ripping it free and flinging it to the side with next to no effort.
“Shit, Al, you have leveled up,” Jason said. He spun back to cover the area behind them, but so far no one else was approaching.
“I’ll go in first,” Stone said. “Foley next, then Verity and Jason. Hurry.”
With his shield up, he scrambled through the opening. The space beyond was a conference room, with a large, oval table in the center surrounded by chairs. Unlike what they’d found in the visitors’ center, this place and its furnishings looked modern and well cared for. The door was closed.
The others quickly joined him. “Any idea where they might have Dr. Garra?” Verity asked, looking around.
“No. We’ll have to search. I don’t think this building is too big. Stay close. I’m going to try something. They like illusions so much, we’ll give them—”
The door flew open, so hard it slammed into the wall. A fusillade of gunshots filled the air, smacking into Stone’s and Verity’s shields with bright pinpoints. As all of them dived for cover behind the table, a small object sailed inside and landed with a thunk on the conference table.
“Grenade!” Jason yelled.
But it wasn’t a grenade—at least not the explosive kind. Instead, as soon as it rolled to a stop it began pumping out inky black smoke, filling the room.
“Fire!” Foley’s coughing voice held panic.
“No!” Stone had seen this before—it was probably the same stuff they’d used back in Oakland. The anti-shifting properties wouldn’t affect their group, but the stuff blocked magical sight, too, and that couldn’t be allowed. “Verity! Whirlwind! Blow it out the opening!”
“On it!”
A second later, the air in the conference room began to move, picking up speed as it whipped around. The smoke whirled and slowly dissipated as the winds blew it toward the window.
Stone, meanwhile, ran forward, staying crouched so he wouldn’t make a good target. As the smoke faded from the doorway, he saw Jason had done the same thing on the other side, holding his shotgun ready and pointed toward it.
“We need to go,” Jason said. “They’ll be waiting for us.”
“Wait. Let me try something. Stay here.”
He’d considered and discarded an invisibility spell—the building was small enough he could probably keep it up long enough to investigate a good portion of it, but if they were facing more of the enhanced men, they could probably locate him by scent. Instead, he summoned an illusion of the hallway beyond the door, making it appear nothing had changed as he stepped out. Even if they could catch his scent, it wouldn’t matter—unless you could see through them, good illusions worked on all the senses. The men’s brains would simply filter out any information not consistent with what the illusion presented as reality.
Stone took in the scene. He stood in a long hallway that appeared to run the entire length of the building. Fluorescent panels in the ceiling illuminated beige carpeting. To his right, one door at the end of the hall read Break. Another, on the same wall as they were, had a glass panel and said Lab 1. Across the hall, a third bore the universal symbol for a unisex restroom, and a fourth said Storage.
The hall in the other direction was longer, and split off into hallwa
ys on either side. Stone couldn’t read the signs on the doors from where he stood, but he didn’t miss the two figures concealed around the two side hallways’ corners. Both had their gazes locked on the conference room door, and both held guns.
“Two men I can see, both with guns,” Stone said. The illusion meant he didn’t have to worry about the men hearing him unless they had electronic listening devices. “Verity, come out. Keep your shield up. We’ll take them out together.”
“Ready,” she said from behind him. “I got left.”
“One…two…three.”
Both men yelped as their guns ripped free of their grips and sailed down the hallway toward Stone and Verity. One, wearing a lab coat, disappeared around his corner. The other, larger and beefier, roared and flung himself toward the fallen guns.
“Now!” Stone called, dropping the illusion.
Jason erupted out of the conference room and snatched up one of the guns as Stone and Verity both took hold of the charging man and slammed him into first the wall, then the floor.
He hit hard with a loud oof, but almost instantly he was back up and coming at them again.
A boom sounded from behind Stone and the man blew back, clutching his gut as blood welled up. He staggered, catching himself against the wall, then backpedaled and disappeared around the same corner the other man had. Spatters of blood trailed behind him.
"Come on!” Stone snapped, moving forward behind the shield. His ears rang with Jason’s shotgun blast. “Jason, Foley—watch behind us.”
They continued down the hallway, pausing to check both side halls as they passed them. One was a dead end; the other, where the two men had fled, had the heavy metal door Stone had opted not to open. It was open now. Were they gone? Probably not—just regrouping, or perhaps seeking more help.
Past the cross halls were the entrance to a small lobby on the right, a closed door at the end, and another closed, reinforced door on the left. The sign on it read Lab 2 – DANGER - Authorized Personnel Only.
“I think this is it,” Stone said, pointing at it. “Be ready. If I’m right, they’ll be making their stand in here.”
The others crowded up, all of them keeping constant watch on the other potential attack points. Stone felt too exposed here, with too many ways for more attackers to come after them from all sides. They’d have to do this fast.
“Can you open it?” Verity asked.
Stone tried to pull it open, figuring it might be possible it wasn’t locked. No such luck—the hefty handle didn’t even budge. It had another keypad lock above it like the outside door, with a digital panel flashing NO ENTRY. “Not sure. Hold off anyone approaching and I’ll try.”
This wasn’t the usual type of door he could open easily by flipping the lock with magic. Instead, it would prove a good test of his enhanced power, since he didn’t have time to finesse it.
“Doc—more coming!” Verity sounded tense, but not scared. “My shield’s up, but hurry.”
It was hard for Stone not to turn around, but he didn’t. He had no idea what was on the other side of the door—was Garra even in there, or had they spirited her away to some other location? There might be a whole cadre of enhanced or armed attackers waiting behind that door to attack them.
Gunfire sounded behind them, and a male voice roared. Jason’s shotgun boomed, followed by Foley’s pistol.
“Doc! Hurry!”
No more time to wait. Stone focused his power and opened his connection to the Calanarian energy. He took a tight mental grip on the door handle, blocked out all the sound behind him, and wrenched.
Power surged through him, setting his nerves on edge. The handle caught, then ripped free of the door and clattered to the floor.
Yes!
Stone couldn’t pause to celebrate his success, though. He flung the door open, focusing on keeping the shield solid, and surged through.
He barely got a second’s look around before more bullets slammed into his shield. “Hurry!” he shouted, moving in farther to give room for the others to come in behind him. The room was dark, the air heavy with a musky odor. “Close the door and hold it shut!”
As far as he could see with magical sight, there weren’t any other enhanced thugs in here. He took a fast glance around, and immediately spotted the twin auras of two figures crouched behind a large, solid lab table in the center of the room. Both had guns and both were firing, but Stone couldn’t miss the red flares of fear around them. These weren’t combatants.
One shrieked and dropped, probably felled by a spell from Verity. Stone grabbed hold of the other one and tossed him into the back wall; he slid down and crumpled, stunned.
“Find a light,” Jason called. “I’ll hold the door.”
A flashlight flared and Foley appeared. He looked terrified, but seemed to be holding it together reasonably well given what he’d just witnessed. He looked around near the door, then flipped a light switch. More overhead fluorescents blazed to life, revealing more of the lab.
“Bloody hell…” Stone breathed.
Lining two of the lab’s far walls were a series of five enclosures, each around seven feet square. Heavy, clear plastic walls with separated them from each other and the rest of the room, and a light, drifting smoke filled each.
“Oh, my God…” Verity whispered.
Each of the enclosures included a sluggish, clearly sedated creature: two wolves, a cougar, a small bear, and—
“Dr. Garra!”
42
She was barely on her feet, her movements jerky and uncoordinated inside the cage. Stone ran over to her. “Watch those two—and keep that door shut,” he ordered the others, and didn’t wait to see if they complied.
“Viajera! Can you hear me?” He pressed his hands against the cage and shouted, unsure if his voice would carry through the heavy plastic.
She raised her head. Her eyes were dull and listless, her muscular shoulders slumped, but something lit up in her aura when she spotted him—a combination of fear and hope.
“Stand back—I’ll get you out of there.”
Apparently his voice did make it through, because she backpedaled until she was crouched against the far wall. She kept looking past him, her yellow-gold eyes wide and searching as if expecting someone to burst in.
The locks on the enclosures weren’t as substantial as the one on the main door had been, and it took Stone only a couple of seconds to pop Garra’s. He threw the door open, then sent a whirlwind of air through the space to clear out the drifting smoke.
In one powerful leap, she was free. She crouched, eyeing the others warily, and growled a warning as Foley swung his gun around.
“Holy shit, man, why did you let that thing out?” the cop demanded. The pistol shook in his hand, but the barrel remained leveled at Garra.
“Don’t shoot!” Stone barked, using magic to sweep Foley’s aim off track. “She’s a friend.”
“That’s a friend? What the hell—?”
The smoke in the cage, apparently, had been the same stuff they had used on Garra back in Oakland. Now that she was free of it, she closed her eyes and her form morphed and surged into her familiar nude human body, crouched on all fours and breathing hard.
“What…in the fuck…?” Foley demanded.
Stone ignored him. He slipped out of his coat and threw it over her shoulders, helping her to her feet. “Viajera! Are you all right? Did they hurt you?”
She was still panting, coughing from the smoke, but already her eyes were clearer. “Alastair—oh, gods, how did you—”
“Never mind that. Did they hurt you?”
“No—not yet.” Her gaze swept the room, as if expecting someone to attack them. “I thought you were dead. They said they’d killed you!”
“Not dead. But we’ve got to get out of here.” He grabbed her arm and tried to pull her toward the door.
“Wait!”
“What?”
Stone checked the others, impatient. Verity was keeping a
n eye on the two unconscious scientists; Foley had taken their guns and was now helping Jason hold the door closed, his still-wary attention fixed on Garra.
Garra indicated the other cages. “We can’t leave them here. We have to let them out. And there’s a cub here somewhere—”
“Al…” Jason called. “I don’t think anybody’s coming. I don’t hear anything outside.”
Stone studied the other enclosures, taking a closer look. The two wolves and the bear crouched, as unsteady and out of it as Garra had been. The cougar lay on a gurney, and as Stone focused on him, he spotted a tube snaking free of his body. Blood ran through the tube and gathered in a clear receptacle on the floor. “What…are they doing?”
Garra had shoved her arms into Stone’s coat and buttoned it. “Taking blood,” she said grimly. “That’s why they want us. They’re stealing our blood to use in their alchemical mixtures. They sell them all over the world.”
“What?” Stone demanded. “Who is? Who’s the alchemist? Is he here?”
“I don’t know. I think so. I haven’t seen him. The others only refer to him as ‘the Doctor.’” She still looked tired, and clutched the edge of the lab bench. “I keep thinking I smell something familiar, but I can’t place it. But Alastair, we’ve got to get them all out of here.”
“They were—draining your blood?”
“Not mine. They had a different purpose for me.” Her tone was bitter. “But these others—shifters regenerate quickly, so they can drain us nearly to empty, then give us a few days to recover and do it all over again.” With even more bitterness, she added, “The ultimate renewable resource.”
Stone barely believed what he was hearing. “Why—why not you, then?” He paused, physically staggering as the answer hit him. “Wait—the other shifter—the one they killed—she was pregnant.”
Garra bowed her head. “The others told me about it, and I heard them talking.” She jerked her head sharply in the direction of the two scientists. “She escaped. Nearly got away, apparently, but then something went wrong and she died giving birth. They couldn’t save her. They brought her cub back here, but…”