by R. L. King
“But they needed another female.”
“Female jaguar,” she said dully. “Now that they have the chalice, they can breed more of us. So instead of trying to kill me, they grabbed me instead. They told me they’d killed you…that no one would come for me…”
Stone was only half-hearing her words. “So…that’s why they wanted the chalice. They didn’t want to sell it, or help some other group of shifters reproduce…”
“No. Shifters are hard to capture.” She indicated the sluggish group around them. “These must have taken them a while. But if they can breed us…”
Stone warred between rage and sickness. “Bloody hell…”
“Yes. If they can breed us, they can get more blood, and increase their production. Possibly even start up another lab somewhere else.” She grabbed his arm. “Come on—we’ve got to let the rest of them out. We can’t leave them here.”
“You’re gonna…let all of them out?” Foley’s eyes were huge now, as his gaze shifted between the door and the other caged shifters. “Those wild animals? They’ll kill us!”
Clearly, he barely rated Garra’s attention. She continued addressing Stone. “Alastair…please. I won’t leave them behind to die.”
“Right,” he said grimly. “Verity—see if you can find the cub. Jason, you secure those scientists. Foley, watch the door. Viajera and I will get the rest out.”
Verity and Jason moved instantly to their tasks. Foley paused a moment, swallowed, then turned away and took cover behind the lab bench near the downed scientists. “Just keep them away from me…” he muttered.
Stone ignored him, already popping the lock on the next cage, which contained the bear. Garra threw it open, and Stone used another whirlwind to clear out the smoke. “Jason,” he called. “When you get those two secured, see if you can find where to shut off the gas they’re piping into these cages.”
“On it.”
The bear growled and tried to leap out of the cage, but he stumbled and did an undignified face-plant just past the exit. Garra hurried over to him and put a hand on his back, talking to him softly.
Stone glanced at the door again; so far, nobody seemed to be trying to break in on them. That wasn’t good—judging by how fast the enhanced men had recovered before, they must be mostly back to fighting form by now. What else could they be doing? With visions of explosives or fire dominating his mind, he picked up his pace and opened the next two cages, containing the pair of wolves.
They must have gotten a smaller dose of the gas than the bear, because as soon as the doors were open, they erupted free of their confinement and ran to each other, nuzzling together. They stood shoulder to shoulder and bared their teeth at Stone and the others, but didn’t attack.
Foley, behind the lab table with the gun still aimed at the door, sidled further away from the increasingly large collection of wild animals gathering in the middle of the lab.
“Found him!” Verity called from the far end of the lab, from where she’d disappeared through another door a few moments ago. She emerged now, carrying a woozy, spotted jaguar cub the size of a small dog in her arms. It hung in her grip, its head and paws sagging.
Nearly instantly, Garra was across the room. “Give him to me!” she demanded, plucking the cub from Verity’s arms. She held him protectively, murmuring softly to him. He responded with tired little grumbles.
“He was in another one of those cages,” Verity told her. “I think he’ll be okay when he gets some air.”
“Al, we can’t stay here,” Jason said. “You know they’re gonna be back.”
“Listen to him,” Foley said. “We’re sitting ducks in here.”
“Not necessarily.” Stone opened the last cage and blew out the smoke. The cougar on the table didn’t move; his eyes were open, but he looked lethargic and disinterested in his surroundings. “Damn…Verity, help me.”
“What do you need?”
“See what you can do for him—if he can walk, it will be easier to get him out of here. I’m going to have a chat with the scientists.”
Garra slipped past with the cub, heading for the cougar, and Stone left the two of them to it. Outside, he discovered Jason had zip-tied the two scientists and propped them against the wall. One was still unconscious, but the other watched the proceedings with a combination of fear and defiance.
Stone crouched next to the latter one. “You’re going to answer my questions,” he said. “And you’re going to do it quickly.”
“Or what?” The scientist was in his thirties, with short brown hair and a pale, chubby face.
Rage rose, and Stone fought to control it. “Or I’ll kill you. It will be neither slow nor pleasant. You’ve already seen what we can do—I would not push me right now, if I were you.” He indicated Garra and the other shifters. “And even if I don’t kill you myself, I’m sure my friends there will appreciate a bit of payback.” To punctuate his words, he raised his hand and summoned a nimbus of dancing blue flame around it.
The man’s eyes got huge, the flames reflecting in his enlarged pupils. “Fine,” he grunted, trying to shrink away from Stone. “The money’s not worth dying over.”
“Smart man.” Stone snatched another glance over his shoulder. “How many enhanced people are here at the complex? Don’t lie—I’ll know, and you’ll suffer for it.” He shifted to magical sight.
“Th-three.”
The man’s expression didn’t change, but his aura erupted into red spikes. Auras weren’t necessarily lie detectors, but this guy must have been truly rubbish at poker.
Stone clenched his fist, resisting the temptation to do a Star Wars-style Force choke on the guy, and instead took telekinetic hold of his hair and yanked his head backward until it nearly touched the wall. “Bad choice. I told you not to lie. I’ll give you one more chance. How many?”
“Al?” Jason called.
Stone glanced over. His friend crouched next to the pair of wolves, who were eyeing him nervously but not making any threatening moves. The bear shifter had already switched to human form—a wide, bearded man with tanned skin and copious body hair—and wrapped a spare lab coat around his waist. Garra, who’d left the cougar’s cage, was conferring with him in low voices. “A moment, Jason.”
He turned his attention back to the terrified scientist. “You’re stalling. Tell me how many now, or I’ll crush your skull.” He wouldn’t do that, of course, but he could, and that came through in his words.
“Okay, okay!” Sweat burst on the man’s forehead. “Five. Really. There are five!” This time, his aura showed general fear, but no deception.
“Only five?”
“They don’t need many. Nobody ever comes up here.” He nodded toward Foley.
“That’s what he’s for—and the rest of the cops in that little hick town, if they were doing their jobs. Plus, with the elixir the guys here are plenty good enough to deal with normal threats.”
“All right. Five. Where’s the alchemist?”
The man looked even more scared. “I—”
“I know. He’ll kill you if you tell me. But I’ll kill you if you don’t.”
“No, you won’t,” Garra said, moving in next to them. “Because I will.” She bared her teeth, and even in her human guise the bestial snarl was unmistakable. “I will rip his pathetic, useless body limb from limb and use his flesh to feed this cub.” She crouched, getting in the scientist’s face. “So you’d better talk, because this baby is hungry and you’re about to become his dinner.”
Garra’s words affected the man as even Stone’s magical intimidation hadn’t. A spreading stain darkened the crotch of his pants, and the sharp ammonia tang of urine filled the air. “Okay! Okay! She’s in the admin building! It’s east of here, across the creek!”
“She?” Stone exchanged surprised glances with Garra. “What’s her name?”
“I don’t know! They just call her ‘the Doctor.’ I’ve never even seen her! You have to believe me!” His voice hit
ched in a sob and once again he tried to push himself back into the wall.
Stone watched his aura, seeing more fear as the man’s terrified attention careened between Garra and the cub in her arms, but he didn’t appear to be lying. “What do you think?” he asked her.
“He’s telling the truth.” She sounded certain—her sensitive nose even in human form was no doubt a better gauge than Stone’s aura-reading ability, even with the urine’s interference.
“Okay.” He focused on the man again. “Why isn’t anyone attacking us now? Why aren’t they coming after us when they have the advantage?”
This time, it wasn’t the scientist who answered, but the bear shifter. “They’re protecting their own miserable hides,” he growled. His voice was a deep bass, low and rumbling, with a faint accent Stone couldn’t identify.
“What do you mean?” Jason asked.
The man’s brow furrowed in a scowl. “They’ve never dealt with anything like you before. You’re not what they expected. They’re probably pulling back to defend their boss—unless they’ve all run for it.”
“We’ve got to go,” Stone said. He addressed the shifters—the bear and the two wolves. “Can you lot travel? Are you recovered?”
“Yeah, we can make it,” the bear-man said. He pointed at the cougar, who still lay nearly unmoving on the table with Verity working over him. “I don’t know about him, though.”
“Verity?” Stone called. “How is he?”
“He’ll live,” she said. “He’s already getting stronger.” She shook her head. “But they nearly drained him of blood—I can’t do anything about that.”
Jason pointed at the clear plastic receptacle on the floor; it was more than half full of bright red blood. “Can’t you—I dunno—put that back into him? Give him a transfusion?”
“It’s possible….if we had an hour or so, maybe. I’m not sure I could do it, though.”
“I can do it,” another male voice said.
Stone turned back to the group. One of the wolves had shifted to human form, revealing a slender middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair and a short-cropped beard. He stood, unselfconsciously naked, studying the cougar’s semiconscious body. The other wolf looked tense, crowding tight against his leg.
“You can?” Stone asked, surprised.
“I have some medical training, and I know they’ve got the facilities here to do it. He’ll recover fast once we get his blood back where it belongs, and we can get out.” He patted the other wolf’s head. “I’ll be safe, love. I promise.”
The second wolf howled softly and remained stuck to his side.
Stone looked around. “Right, then. We should get out of here. We need to get that cub and the rest of you lot out of here—you’re in no shape to fight. After you’re safe, we can—”
“No.”
Garra, still holding the squirming cub in a gentle but secure grip, stepped forward. Her eyes were hard, her jaw set in grim determination.
“No?”
“I’m going after that alchemist. That’s where the chalice is. We can’t leave it here. She may already have taken off with it.”
“You can’t go alone,” Stone said. “It’s too dangerous.” He jerked a thumb at the bound scientist. “You heard him—there are at least five of those men out there, not to mention whatever the alchemist has prepared.”
“And what about the cub?” Verity added. “You can’t take him into a fight—they’ll kill him.”
“We’ll take care of him.”
The voice came from an unexpected place. Stone spun to find Foley facing him. He still looked fearful, but the gun was no longer pointed at any of the shifters. “Foley?”
The cop indicated the others. “That wolf isn’t gonna leave without the other one—that’s obvious. If they stay behind and take care of the cougar, the bear and I—” he paused and addressed the bear shifter. “What’s your name, man? I can’t keep calling you ‘the bear’.”
“Tony.” The bearded man looked surprised.
“—Tony and I can take the little guy away from here and get him help.”
Stone narrowed his eyes. “I thought you were terrified of these ‘wild animals.’”
“I was. I am. But—” He made a sweeping gesture around the lab with the hand not holding the gun. “—this is fucking barbaric. The fact that I drank something made of blood they stole from intelligent creatures makes me want to puke.” He nodded toward Tony and the male wolf shifter. “And they’re obviously human. Some kind of human, anyway. I don’t have a fucking idea what’s going on here, but that doesn’t matter—I want to help make this right.”
He took a long, deep breath and addressed Tony. “So…can I go with you? I got a car down the road, if these guys will give me the keys back.”
Tony glanced uncertainly between Foley, Garra with the cub, and the others. “I want to go along—to help deal with this evil woman. But…yeah. I’ll go with you.”
Stone turned to Garra. “Is that acceptable, Viajera? Jason, Verity, and I will come with you to find the alchemist, but you have to let the little one go with them.”
She looked down at the restless cub, stroking his head, and then her expression hardened. “Yes. Let’s go.”
Jason tossed Foley’s car keys to him. “Be careful, man.”
“Yeah.” His voice shook, but his resolve was obvious.
Garra gently handed the cub over to Tony, who settled him into the crook of a large, hairy arm. He gripped her shoulder with the other hand. “Don’t let her get away,” he growled. “Do what needs to be done—for all of us.”
“Oh, don’t you worry,” she said, and the snarling jaguar came through in her blazing eyes and bared teeth. “She will pay for what she did to us.” She gave the cub a final pat. “Be well, little one. You’ll be back among your people soon.”
Stone turned back to the male wolf. “You’ll be all right here?”
“We’ll be fine.” He glared at the seated scientist. “You’ll tell us what we need to know, right?”
Next to him, the female wolf growled, showing long, pointed white fangs.
“Yeah…” the guy muttered. “If you don’t kill me.”
“That remains to be seen.” To Stone, he said, “We’ll be fine. Go. Find her. And…thank you. All of you.”
Garra slipped Stone’s coat off and gave it back to him. “Keep up,” she warned. The air shimmered, and then the lithe black cat sped off through the door.
43
Stone was half convinced Garra would be nowhere to be found when he, Jason, and Verity exited the building. Instead, they found her crouched in the shadows nearby, her tense posture radiating impatience. As soon as she spotted them, she took off at an easy lope into the trees to the east. There was no sound of small animals or birds, but from up ahead came the low babble of a creek. The only light came from the faint moon above and the building’s perimeter lights behind them. Ahead was darkness.
“Stay close,” Stone muttered. “She can see in the dark, but we can’t. Verity, keep magical sight up and say something if you spot any auras.”
“Already doing that. I don’t see anything but the trees.”
“What if she’s already taken off?” Jason asked as they picked their way forward with care. Closer to the water, the ground here was more overgrown and choked with fallen branches and rocks; they couldn’t move fast in the darkness without risking tripping or worse.
Stone looked around, scanning the trees’ upper branches for any sign of lurking auras. “If she does, Viajera will track her. She can’t have gotten far yet—I don’t think there are any other roads up here.”
“Even if there are and she’s got a vehicle, she can’t move very fast,” Verity added.
“Yeah, but—” Jason began, but stopped when Stone held up a hand. “What?”
“I heard something.”
All of them fell silent, looking around and craning their ears for any sound. “All I hear is the creek,” Ver
ity whispered.
Stone remained quiet, sharpening his magical sight. He had heard something—a faint rustling above them—but it might only have been a squirrel or bird.
It might not, though.
He kept his shield up and moved forward, noting Verity had hers up as well around herself and Jason. He wanted to look everywhere at once—if the scientist had been telling the truth, there were at least five of those enhanced men out here somewhere, not to mention the alchemist herself—but that wasn’t practical. They had to keep moving. Every minute they wasted gave her more time to escape with the chalice.
He couldn’t even see Garra’s aura up ahead—either she’d increased her pace or she was using the trees’ auras to hide her presence. Either way, as they pressed further into the trees Stone’s tension increased. He was no woodsman, and if the alchemists’ associates had set up a trap for them, they could be walking right into it.
Jason stopped, swinging the shotgun’s barrel around, then up.
“Do you see something?” Stone demanded, forcing his voice to a whisper.
“Thought I heard something running through the trees up above us.”
Once again they all stopped to listen, and once again only silence and the creek’s babble—louder now as they approached it—greeted them.
“Maybe she’s got them all pulled back around the building she’s hiding in,” Verity whispered. “They’re—”
“Up high!” Jason yelled. He flung himself into her and took them both down just as a dark shape dropped from above and landed in their midst.
The man was as big as the bearish one Stone had seen before—and this time he was armed. In each hand, he held a long, machete-like knife, slashing one toward Jason and the other toward Stone.
Jason barely got out of the way in time, throwing himself sideways into the trees and rolling up.
Stone’s shield easily deflected the slash. He backpedaled, noticing another figure dropping down next to Jason, likewise armed with a knife. From behind him, a loud, snarling roar announced Viajera’s return to the fight.