by Tate James
“River, he might need your help,” I murmured to the salivating hellhound as he licked over his rows on rows of fangs.
“We got this,” one of our young companions said. I wasn’t sure which, as they were both halfway shifted into six-foot grizzly bears at the time of speech.
Stroking my hand carefully down the needle-sharp fur of River’s back, I watched curiously as the two bear-kids waded into the fight to assist Finn. They used a mixture of magic and brute strength, and within moments, it was all over.
“Bears, huh? That’s what an Ursoc is?” I asked, watching as the kids shrank back to their human forms then used scraps of torn camo fabric to wipe blood from their faces.
“No,” the girl replied. “I’m Ursoc, he’s Ursol. Far as I know, we’re the last of our kind, and, no, not technically bears. We’re a druid-bear combo. Very old magic and not really known about these days.”
The boy—Ursol—snorted. “Except by that guy who made us into characters from World of Warcraft.”
“As if you didn’t love that,” Ursoc snickered, punching her brother in the arm. “Come on, it’s this way.” She smiled brightly to me, an expression only slightly marred by the blood staining her lips.
Starting to feel pretty glad these two accepted my offer to live. They’ll be useful additions when we come up against Bridget.
Finn, River, and I followed them through the slippery mess that was the military’s latest attempt to stop us and paused outside a cell door.
“You’ll want this one,” Ursol advised me in his husky voice, and I nodded to Finn to get the door open. No sense wasting magic when I had a super-strong demon at my beck and call.
The inhabitant of that cell took less convincing, thanks to the kids—who I now realized were twins—reassuring him. Same with the next seven cells they had us stop to open. None of my new recruits chose to hang around any longer than necessary—especially when I warned them I’d be razing the compound when I was done. But a small part of me was grateful we didn’t need to kill any more of the doctor’s captives. It wasn’t their fault they were in there, and my ire was reserved solely for those who weren’t chained up.
I wasn’t altogether sure how long it took us, but eventually the bear-twins reached a solid-looking door at the end of a hallway. Beside the latch there was a high-tech keypad and retinal scanner that made my black heart seize. If Lucy were still here, she’d have it open in seconds... but she wasn’t, and as much as I missed her, I didn’t need her for this task. I had more than enough brute magical strength behind me that no man-made technology could stand in my way.
“This is the panic room?” Finn asked Ursol, and the kid nodded.
“It’s got fingerprint scanners on each key as well as the retinal scanner, and that door is a foot and a half of thick steel,” he elaborated. “I’m pretty good with tech, and he got me to help on some of the coding and shit. I can probably get you in there, but it’ll take an hour or so.”
I gave him a grim smile that was meant to be reassuring but probably just looked psychotic. “Don’t worry about it; I have this one handled. You two should take off now, though. You won’t want to see what happens next.”
The twins hesitated, but something in my black-eyed stare must have convinced them. Seconds later they took off at a run, bare feet slapping against the linoleum floor.
“We have this handled?” Finn murmured, repeating my words. “Not sure about you, scary canary, but even a Prince of Hell can’t break through a door that thick.”
Raising a brow at him, I latched onto what he’d just said. “Prince of Hell, huh? You telling me there is a crown hanging in your bedroom somewhere?”
Finn gave me a half smile back. “No, that would be my big brother. That fucker gets born two whole minutes before me and becomes a Prince, along with getting all the magic associated with the rank. I am not much more than a high-ranking nobleman, I’m afraid.”
I shrugged. “No matter, I have this one handled myself. You might want to step back a bit, though.”
Not waiting to see if he followed my advice or not, I got to work. Shifting just one deadly sharp dragon claw, I sliced a deep gash across the tips of three fingers and used the blood to paint a series of runes onto the blank white wall beside the panic room door. Thanks to my healing, I needed to reopen the cuts five more times before I was finished and could step back to admire my own handy work.
“Why not on the door?” Finn asked from behind me.
“Because doors tend to be more heavily reinforced than the walls on either side,” I replied, pushing him back a couple more steps before delivering the single word in the mage dialect that would activate my spell.
Hardened from all the violence and destruction we’d rained down on our enemies in the past few weeks, neither River nor I flinched as the rune-marked wall exploded like it had been packed full of C-4.
Dimly, I heard yet another siren start up. They’d been going off since the moment we breached the compound and I’d been tuning them out pretty effectively so far.
“See?” I pointed out to Finn as I stepped forward and into the opening my explosive spell had created. “Foot and a half thick steel door, and only steel-reinforced plasterboard walls. Probably some twat in a bureaucratic office was looking to save some dollars; it happens more often than you’d think.”
Finn murmured something under his breath that I didn’t catch, but followed River and I into the room, where we paused and assessed the contents.
“Don’t come any closer!” a pale-faced, bespectacled man screamed as he cowered in the far corner, clutching a 9mm between sweaty-looking hands and pointing the muzzle at us. “I’ll shoot if you come closer!”
For what felt like the first time in a long time, a genuine grin split my lips as I stepped closer. “Take your best shot, Doctor Florsheim. I dare you.”
4
VALI
My phone beeped, and I pulled it from my jacket pocket to check the message. Unsurprisingly, it was Wesley again.
That kid seemed like the only one determined to keep Kit’s merry little band of misfits together in her absence, and I couldn’t help but admire him for it. The little nerd had spent three years in a magical realm working on his powers and staying celibate, for fuck’s sake. I didn’t blame him for wanting to keep everyone together.
Checking all is OK? His message read, and I fought the urge to snap back something about him acting like a mother hen.
Yep. I didn’t bother elaborating, I was already late for a meeting I had called.
Seconds after I’d tucked my phone away, it beeped again, and I ground my teeth together in frustration. He meant well, I knew he did, but fuck, it was getting annoying. I’d never really been a team player in the first place, so I was more than happy to just do my own thing until we found regina mea.
Before I could check the latest message, I reached the open door to the conference room and spotted a dozen smartly dressed individuals waiting inside for me. Wes would have to wait.
“Gentlemen,” I greeted them as I strolled into the room like I owned it. “And lady,” I quickly added, spotting one woman at the table. “Thank you for coming on such short notice.”
“Like we had a choice.” A distinguished, older gentleman sniffed with indignation as I took my seat at the head of the table. “You made it very clear this was a non-optional meeting.”
I grinned at him in a way that quite clearly conveyed my message of “Shut the hell up before I tear your wrinkled old head off.”
“Well, nonetheless, thank you all for coming,” I said politely to the rest of the room. “From what I understand, you are what Director Pierre referred to as his Board of Directors, despite the fact that Omega Group was only ever owned by him in its entirety, is that correct?”
“You are correct,” a military-uniformed man responded with a curt nod. “To the public we were the board, but on paper we acted as more of an advisory panel for the running of Omega Group.”
Giving her a tight nod, I leaned back in my chair and folded my hands in front of me. “I understand. I don’t wish to change any of that, nor am I looking to remove any of you from your current well-paid positions. Unless you piss me off, that is.”
Nervous laughter tittered around the room, but I didn’t crack a smile. I was serious about that part.
“I called this meeting to officially reinstate business as usual for Omega Group. I know we put a pause on things after the director’s unexpected death, but I think it’s time the doors reopened. Can you all handle that?” The question was directed to the whole room, but it was the white-haired gentleman with the snarky attitude that I speared with a death glare.
When I got the reassurances I required that, yes, they could handle resuming business as usual, I released the man’s gaze.
“Good,” I murmured. “Now, on to a more important topic of discussion. Magic. Or more specifically, the open knowledge of things that go bump in the night.” I paused, and not a single person spoke. “Prior to his death, Director Pierre told his daughter that all recruits were fully aware of their possible magical DNA and that they entered Omega training with total willingness to accept a future as something more than human, should the opportunity arise. Is this correct as you know it?”
“Absolutely,” one man rushed to answer me with a little indignation in his tone. “We are not in the business of kidnapping and forced experimentation here.”
“Actually, Carmichael, that’s not technically true,” the woman corrected him, reinforcing my opinion that she possibly wasn’t as bad as the rest.
“Explain,” I prompted her, and she clasped her hands on the table in front of her, meeting my gaze.
“Pierre kept a select few recruits in the dark about the true purpose of Omega Group. We all assumed it was because he had given up on his belief that magic would be restored to the world and that he was working toward integration as a normal, human operation.” She paused, pursing her lips. “Since his daughter came to the training center and began... well, you know, changing people, since then, we’ve suspected he kept those recruits in the dark for a different reason.”
“And what might that reason be?” I asked in a calm voice, quite the opposite of the fury that was building within me. People who couldn’t just cut straight to the point made me want to incinerate them.
She gave an elegant shrug. “We have no idea. But we can get you a list of their names, if you’d like. For the most part, yes. Each and every recruit was fully informed and accepted all risks involved.”
“I’d appreciate that list,” I agreed. “I’d also like to meet with the few agents who were changed by Kit while she was here. You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t just take your word for these things.”
“Of course,” someone else agreed. I knew who they all were on paper but just couldn’t be bothered with matching names to faces. “But they were moved to the Alaska training center until they had a handle on their new... ah... abilities. We can get them onto a plane tonight, if tomorrow suits you?”
“No,” I snapped, “I can get there faster. Just email me the location’s coordinates. For now, I expect to see everything back up and running here. Understood?”
A variety of nods and murmurs of agreement travelled around the long table, and I pushed back my chair to stand.
“I expect to see that list of names in my inbox, too,” I advised the woman who’d offered to find them for me, and she nodded. Not that I was expecting any huge surprises in those names; it was pretty obvious my little brother and all his friends would be on it. What I wanted to know, though, was who else was. And why.
Leaving the room full of suits, I sucked in a deep breath of air. The meeting had actually gone better than I’d expected, which was a nice change. Of course, there really hadn’t been any need for them all to come in to the Omega boardroom in person. It was a power play, something I was far too adept in, thanks to taking over my father’s crime empire at such a young age.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and checked the message that Wes had sent.
I have news re: River when you’re free to call in. Not urgent.
The text message was signed off with a turkey emoji which made me crack a smile. He had been trying out all different bird emojis, seeing as there was no crow one. I was surprised he hadn’t just gone ahead and created one himself, to be honest.
What to do first, though? Call the guys or fly to Alaska? I tapped my phone against my hand as I pondered my options. Wes said his news about River was not urgent, which probably meant they were no closer to getting a location on Kit. Whereas I felt a pressing need to investigate these changed Omega agents.
Following a lead in Alaska, back tomorrow. Cool? Before hitting send, I scrolled through and added a little dragon emoji.
Yep, all good. Be safe. This message came back with a rooster, and I snorted a laugh.
Just as I was tucking my phone back into my pocket, a soft hand on my arm made me pause.
“Can I help you?” I asked the woman from the boardroom in my very best attempt at polite.
“I just wanted to say thank you,” she responded with sincerity. “This company is more than it seems for a lot of its employees. We like to think we do make a difference in the world, with or without magic.”
Having never been particularly good at accepting praise, I just gave the woman a tight nod and held the door open for her. “Any pressing missions that you’re looking forward to assigning agents to?” I didn’t really care, but social etiquette demanded a certain level of small talk—or so my tutors had always drilled into me.
“Yes, actually,” she replied with a bit more brightness to her voice as we made our way down the front steps of Omega’s admin building. “A friend of mine just contacted me to check out a military base in Nevada. We don’t typically get involved in government crap, but this case sounds interesting enough to send a couple of agents in to check out. Something about their entire security system going offline, but apparently they have no one in the area that can get there to take a look.”
“Well, best of luck,” I murmured, feeling my phone buzz with the email that I hoped would be the location of this training center in Alaska. “I must be off.”
Without sticking around for more chitchat, I strode out onto the grassy lawn while checking my email. Sure enough, location and coordinates. Perfect. There was no doubt in my mind that I’d get there faster in dragon form than any human-made machine, so I stripped down quickly and shifted. It mattered little that the woman I’d been speaking with still stood at the edge of the grass with her mouth agape or that the other stuffed suits could probably see me from the window.
Let them see. Let them fully appreciate just who was cutting their paychecks now.
Rationally, I knew there was no reason for me to hate this group of suits so much, given they’d been nothing but polite and accepting of the change in leadership. But something about them rubbed me the wrong way. They reminded me of my father’s men, and anything to do with that man made me sick to my stomach.
Scooping up my little bundle of clothes in one claw, I beat my wings a couple of times for dramatic effect before taking off into the sky.
Let them discuss that over scotch and cigars later... old fuckers.
5
KIT
“I said I’ll shoot!” The cowering man in a lab coat shrieked as I advanced on him, but it only made me grin wider.
“Not so confident now, are you?” I taunted him, stepping slowly closer. At my back, I could sense Finn and River standing guard on either side of the new door I had just created. How I’d ended up with two denizens of the Underworld as my backup, I had no idea. But for what was about t
o happen... it felt damn right.
“Y-you’re making a big mistake, you mutant bitch,” Doctor Florsheim whimpered unconvincingly. “You don’t know who you’re messing with.”
“No, that’s where you’re wrong, Doctor. You don’t know who you’re messing with. You made one hell of a big mistake back in Toronto, my friend. Taking my blood and then leaving me to be tortured by that disgusting excuse for a meat suit, Richard Liath.” The doctor’s eyes widened even further with fear, even though I would have said it wasn’t possible given how wide they already were. “Want to know what happened to your buddy after you took off? I bet you knew something bad was going to happen, didn’t you? That’s why you never came back for the blood bags.”
He swallowed nervously, and his hands shook on the huge, black machine gun he clutched. Any moment now, he was going to fire simply because he couldn’t stop his hands from trembling.
The room erupted with the sound of gunfire, right on cue, and I froze them before they could hit us. Not that they would have killed anyone in the room except the good doctor himself, but given we were in this mess thanks to my blood, I preferred not to spill any unnecessarily.
“It’s because of idiots like you,” I snapped as I reached forward and wrenched the machine gun from his quivering hands, “that this country needs stricter gun control laws.”
I tossed the weapon aside and planted my hands on my hips to sneer down at the sniveling worm who’d caused so much death, thanks to that tiny vial of my blood he’d stolen. It was almost hard to believe that this was the person who could have led the human army against supernatural beings.
Not that they would need an army when I was through with Bridget. I had no intention of oppressing humanity and letting magical beings shit all over the only lives most of us had ever known. All of the blood I had shed, and would shed, was to prevent a much larger-scale devastation.