by Honor James
Drake was out in the dark with Volos, scouting. She hadn’t had any otherworldly sightings yet, so they were going at this one a little differently. It was also very slow going.
A small sound had her whipping her head around to find a grinning Volos at her door window. He wiggled his eyebrows and tipped his head, his signal for her to exit the vehicle. Maurice and Graven were already sliding out silently into the night.
Azure was feeling more than a little nervous. She didn’t like this one, at all. Thus far, there hadn’t been anything at all coming to her from the dead, and that scared her far more than she cared to admit. Getting out of the vehicle, she went quickly into Volos’s arms and hugged him close. She was shivering and looked up at him. “Something is wrong, Volos. The dead haven’t said anything and that’s unusual. Very unusual,” she whispered. “Where is Drake?”
“He’s near,” he told her softly, rubbing his hands up and down her back. “Come, let’s get moving. Since we didn’t have any guidance on this one, we had to get a little creative. We’ve made ourselves a blind spot of sorts so that, hopefully, we can figure out more about this place. Drake is standing guard over the one that is hacking into the buildings system.” He kept his one arm around her as they walked, his other hand on a weapon sitting in the holster at the ready to be pulled out and used.
Azure nodded and walked along at Volos’s side. “I wish I knew why they weren’t talking. It’s as if the two of you are touching me and keeping them from talking.” That was a blessing to her, one that they both knew about. “In this case, I just really wish that they would talk so we would know what we are getting into.”
He squeezed her hand and put a finger to his lips. Yes, quiet was required, especially without any guidance from the dead. He kept guiding her between buildings, in a very specific pattern, she soon realized. Volos would stop, shift to one side and then walk quickly or slowly, depending on whatever he’d found. He had to have discovered video feeds. It was the only reasoning for the odd dance he was leading her through.
Finally, they came to a stop and he pointed to a building. Looking at her, he leaned in to put his lips to her ear. “That is where we are going,” he said quietly. He lifted his hand higher to point to the roof. “That is where Drake currently is.”
Azure looked up and shook her head. “I hope there is an elevator.” The building was at least seven stories high, and it looked to be completely abandoned as well. There was no way in hell she would make it up seven flights of stairs without being completely winded. She might be in okay shape, but she was by no means in shape enough to tackle that amount of stairs.
There was no answer, which was answer enough. No elevator.
“We can’t get in on the ground floor, either,” Volos told her. “Or the second, even. All the doors have been welded shut from the inside. We’d have to blow them out to get in, which is too noisy. The other issue is that we don’t think they’re above ground, Drake hasn’t picked up any heat from the building, and I can’t hear any heartbeats. They have to be well below ground.”
“Well, hell,” Azure said softly and then looked to Volos. “So how do we get up to where Drake is, or down to where the people are being held?” There was hesitation in her voice and she finally whispered, “Or I could do something. It would hurt like hell and put me down for a day, but it would get us all where we needed to be down there, using the dead. It is, however, using the dead, so that’s another thing to concern ourselves with.”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “You do nothing to make yourself weak, not at this point in this mission. If it’s needed later, we’re fucked because you used it too soon. As for getting up there”—Volos grinned at her and shrugged—“just reach your hands up way over your head.”
Azure did as Volos instructed and grinned. “Okay, they are up as far as they will go.” Her eyes were twinkling with merriment and joy. She loved being able to tease with this man. “I do love when you have me lifting my hands in the air.” Not the time for sex talk, but gosh blessed it, she couldn’t help it around either man.
“Wait for it,” he said, his head tipping to the side.
Then he ducked and her hands were grabbed. Yanked straight up into the air, she found herself in Drake’s arms. When she took a look, she found he was partially shifted into the Draygon, not fully, but enough that he had his wings and the fierce look of the Draygon on his face. Which was strange, given the goofy grin he was shooting her.
Azure laughed. She couldn’t help herself. She looked up at Drake and curled her fingers around his wrists. “God, I love you,” she said with a happy and goofy grin. “But how are you getting Volos up here?” she asked when they landed on the roof of the building, her moving to wrap her arms around his middle.
“I’m already here,” Volos said with a laugh behind her. When she turned, he shrugged. “You get all green and cross eyed when I flash you place to place. We figured this would be easier without the need for puking.”
“Good point.” Azure hated the flashing thing more and more of late, which was why they didn’t use it often. “Now, from up here…”
She turned and looked around and was nearly brought to her knees with the wash of the dead coming forward. “Oh God.” She bent at the middle, and had one knee on the rooftop and the other bent. “They are being suppressed. I don’t know how, but now that I’m above whatever it was, they are all rushing to beg for help.”
Azure listened to the dead as they spoke and licked her lips. “They don’t know that they are suppressing the dead. The ones that are in there.” She was gasping for air and felt sick. There was no way that these beings knew that they were suppressing the dead. “They are using something that they found in wreckage a time back, when the Veil first parted. They are human and they are trying to retrofit the weapons. Something. I don’t know. They are experimenting on the ones that they are holding captive. There are fourteen still alive, three mated trios, and two others,” she whispered. “They want the mates to have children. They want to experiment on those…Oh god, they want to experiment on the babies.” That couldn’t happen, not now and not ever.
Drake crouched next to her. When she gave a shudder with a low moan, he pressed a hand to her cheek, the pain of the dead easing immediately. “Slow breaths, little mate,” he said quietly to her. “We’re right here. We will stop these humans, destroy whatever technology they have been abusing, and free both the dead and the living.”
“The sooner we do it, the better I will feel,” she whispered honestly. “Thank you.” Azure leaned into Drake’s touch and relaxed, the press of the dead no longer smashing her nearly flat. It took her several more minutes, but finally, she nodded. “Okay, let’s do this.”
“Stay close,” Drake told her softly. He slid his hand down her arm and took her hand in his, lacing their fingers together. “We go in slowly. We don’t have any real intel, so we’re not going to take chances. If you think you can get some information without being overwhelmed, Azy, say the word and I’ll let your hand go.”
“Sounds good. We will do whatever we have to in order to remain safe. When we are in there, I will reach for answers, and you will know what is too much and what isn’t.” Drake and Volos both seemed to know her better than she knew herself.
“Be careful,” Volos said from her other side. “Given what you felt when you got up here and let go of him, it’s going to be so much worse inside. For whatever reason, in whatever manner, the dead are trapped within the building. They are going to be desperate for any release. They will see you as that, so do whatever you need to do and protect yourself.”
“I will.” The last thing that Azure wanted to do was be a burden to her mates. “Are we going to have others joining us, or is this a mission where just the three of us are going in?” That worried her, a great deal. “Because, I have to tell you, I don’t like that thought at all. Not because I think that you two are lacking, but because I know that I am, and I would be very little h
elp, should you need help.”
“They will be joining us, just not up here. When we get down to the third floor, we’ll drop a line to them so they can get up. I don’t mind giving my mate a lift, but I’m not picking them up. They are heavy,” Drake said. “Besides, they both said they didn’t really want to come up here. Something about being creeped out and limiting their time inside.”
“Pansies,” Volos muttered.
Azure snickered and shook her head. “Hey, those are my guards you are talking about. Men that I’ve known all my life.” She tried to be stern, but she couldn’t. “Shouldn’t they be able to get up here themselves? I mean, they are of your race, Drake.” Draygon. They were Draygon, just as Drake was.
“Oh, they can get up here, they just don’t wish to. Something about bad vibes, I believe that was the term they used, coming off the building. They can feel the same vileness that I do. The beast is sensitive to such things. They are also much older than I am. Shut up Volos.” He held out a finger toward Volos, who had his mouth open, but promptly shut it with a smirk.
“The older the beast, the more superstitious they are. Those two, while not as old as my father, are old enough to have certain beliefs. So we will go down to the third floor, find a way to get them in and then protect their pansy asses from the big, bad heebie-jeebies. All that while we rescue those still alive in here and figure out how to release those that have passed on so they, too, can be free.”
“Ah, okay,” Azure said with a smile. “Well, we will do whatever it is that we have to do in order to ensure that their delicate sensibilities aren’t hurt,” she teased him. “And we will do whatever it is that we have to do in order to ensure that my fuses aren’t blown, so to speak, at least.”
Drake gave her a hard, sharp look full of warning. “The moment you feel overwhelmed, you latch onto one of us, Azy. You get hurt and you don’t want to even contemplate the shit storm that would erupt around here.”
“Don’t worry, the last thing that I want to do is to get anyone hurt, even by me being stubborn.” That’s why she was going to hold onto one of them every moment she could unless they needed help. Only then would she release them so she could glean any information she had to for them.
“Good.” He nodded. Lifting his free hand, he stroked her hair as he stepped in closer to her. “I don’t mean to come across as bossy, Azy. Your safety is our number one concern during these ops, more than any other time, especially when we are going in blind.” After he pressed a kiss to her hair, he waved Volos forward to the door that led into the building.
“I know,” she whispered and moved so that she was between Volos and Drake, her hand never letting go of Drake’s. She needed the connection to him, had to have it or she would likely fall apart.
His fingers squeezed hers as they went through the door, into absolute, and complete darkness. That was what it seemed to be for her, for a moment, and then an odd glow surrounded her. It was golden, and not anything a lantern or flashlight could give off. Turning her head, she saw that Drake’s eyes were that of the Draygon, glowing brightly to give her enough to see shapes around them.
“Amazing,” she whispered and squeezed his hand. “As long as you both keep me from falling or hitting a wall, you can stop. I don’t want them to find us because you are giving me light.” And his eyes would be just that. They would be beacons in the darkness.
“They won’t,” he said quietly. “We will smell them long before they get near, or hear them, even. For now, let’s move quickly, but carefully, too. No need to advertise we are here before we are in position and ready.”
“Okay.” She trusted them. If he said that they would be safe and okay, she would believe in him. “How are we going to get my guards in here?” she asked as they moved through the complex corridors that seemed to turn in on themselves in some sort of twisted maze.
“Don’t worry about it,” Volos said. He stopped in a hall and looked around before pushing through a door. Drake kept her in the hallway as Volos went to the window, then came right back. “Wrong side of the building,” he muttered with a grin. He pushed through a door on the other side of the hall and went to the window. With a nod, he popped the window open.
Her Vhampire shot her a grin, and a wink. He pushed the window wide and gave a wave to, she was guessing, her guards below.
“Here,” Drake called out quietly. When Volos turned, Drake tossed him a rope. Where he’d gotten that from, she couldn’t even begin to guess. Her mates always seemed to be very prepared for anything.
Azure moved so that her back was to the wall, well out of the way of her men and her guards. She watched as her guards were pulled into the hall as well. When the rope was once more put away, she reached out and tucked her hand into Drake’s, and the immediate relief she felt was intense and surreal. “Better,” she whispered softly.
With a gentle tug on her fingers, he brought her into his arms. He didn’t say anything, just held her close, rubbing her back. Volos moved to them, his heat at her back as he pressed a kiss to her cheek before his cheek rested on the same spot.
She shivered in reaction, the comfort and the ease that these men gave her calming her instantly. “Thank you,” she whispered softly. “For giving me what I need when I needed it.” They had both ensured that she was protected from the emotions and dead that bombarded her, and she couldn’t ever express to them how much that comforted her.
“Always,” Volos answered her. He pressed another kiss to her cheek before drawing back. “We should get moving, though. We’ve been stationary too long as it is. We need to get the prisoners freed,” he said quietly.
“Yes, that would be very good. The sooner we are done, the better.” She couldn’t wait to be away from this place and he knew it. They all knew it. “We will do this quickly, or I will toss my cookies.” She was feeling more than a little sick to her stomach.
“Hold onto me for a while,” Volos said. “We’ll let the big guy go first, with Maurice and Graven. Since they are relatively indestructible, it just makes the most sense. That and they have the eye-glowing trick of theirs, which I’m very jealous of, I should mention.”
“Same here.” Azy was more than happy to hold onto Volos, truth be told. “Besides, this gives us some good time to simply hold onto each other, right? This is good. Don’t you think?” She certainly thought so. The feeling of having him close and knowing he was near. It was perfect.
“Damn straight,” he said. Grinning, he tugged her closer as Drake and Graven headed out. Maurice waved them forward, putting Azy and Volos between the Draygons. Back into the stairwell they went, moving down slowly, their only light coming from the glowing eyes around them.
Biting her lower lip, Azy moved along with him, her whole being shaking as the dead began to press in closer to her. “Oh Gods,” she whispered. “It’s getting worse. Wherever we are going, we are getting closer to the beings that need freedom.”
Volos slipped his arm around her waist, his fingers under her shirt on her belly. “Stay with me, Azy. Keep breathing,” he said in her ear.
Drake shot her a look. At least, she thought it was her mate. It was really hard to tell in the darkness that surrounded them.
The feeling of Volos touching her, skin-to-skin, allowed her to calm even more. “Thank you,” she whispered to him and let out a breath of a sound.
“We are almost there,” she said finally. “We are so very, very close.” She could feel the dead and knew that there were going to be a number of them that they would have to bring out in body bags instead of walking them out, and that was just far too sad.
“Door.” A whisper in front of her. “Shit, there’s no handle on this side. No hinges, nothing to get it open.” It sounded like Maurice.
“We need to get in,” Drake said. “Back up. We’ll do this with brute force since we have no other options and we’re running on borrowed time anyway. Azy.” She felt him get closer to her. “I hate to ask, love. But I need to know if there i
s anyone on the other side of that door, if they are going to come at us immediately, or if we’ll have time to get oriented. If I had any other way, sweetheart, you know I’d never ask this of you. Not here, not like this.”
Azy nodded and pulled back from both men. She had to take several steps from them, and then she let the floodgates open and let the dead tell her their secrets.
“One man,” she whispered as she stood there, shaking. “There are three in chains. I don’t know what race, because it’s not coming to me, not with so many of the dead talking at once.” She was panting now. “There is a mate in there as well. A woman. She’s the mate to the three in chains.” She felt sick. “God, she’s pregnant,” she breathed. “They had all bonded and they took them. She’s a safe distance from the door and the guard that’s in there deserves to die. Painfully.” She then blindly reached out for one of the men, her knees weak and vision swimming. “There is another door, three doors down, that has live Races in it as well. All others are dead,” she whispered with the tears flowing freely. “Forty-two are dead in here.”
“I’ve got you.” Drake caught her as she collapsed, holding her up as Volos stepped in. She was sandwiched between the men, their skin touching hers wherever they could find it. Their lips, their hands, faces, anything exposed was on anything of her that was exposed. “Breathe, Azy. You’re safe. We will get those alive freed, and bring death to those who dared to harm our brethren. Did they tell you how many that are non-Race are behind the doors?”
“We are between shifts. There are only four humans total, one behind that door, because he likes to torture her in her pregnancy.” She swallowed, hard. “The other three are in a clean room two doors down doing tests on the fetal tissue that they have pulled from her. They are monsters. How could they do this to us? All we wanted was to live free and help them protect their world, and they do this to us? It’s unconscionable.”