by Amelia Jade
“Yes, yes we are. Not that it should matter to you. You’re all dead men anyway.”
“Not the first time I’ve heard that,” Jarvis remarked.
“Boss,” Ethan said as he came up behind him. “There’s nothing in here. We need to get word to the others that we need to find a way to stop the charges individually.”
Jarvis nodded. For that to happen, one of his team needed to break through the opposing line and make it up out of the dam to tell the RAF to start pulling charges from their holes.
He didn’t want to contemplate any submerged charges. All they could do was all they could do.
“Priority is Ethan getting out,” he ordered.
Without being told, the remaining shifters organized themselves into an arrowhead. They would be the speartip that punched a line through the Fenris squad—and how had they missed an entire squad?—that allowed Ethan to escape.
“Time’s ticking,” the enemy leader taunted.
“That’s gonna be the big difference between it and your heart in a few moments,” Jarvis snarled, lowering his shoulders.
As one, the Green Bearets charged, their leader at the front.
One of the enemy shifters moved to interpose himself between Jarvis and their leader, but he simply braced himself and knocked the other man down, his momentum acting like a wrecking ball, sending him flying.
With a roar he dove at the leader, taking him down in a rolling pile. Blows flew back and forth, both men grunting when they landed. Jarvis came up on top, but a powerful kick of the legs sent him flying.
Jarvis hit the concrete wall and rebounded off of it, momentarily stunned. He saw his men engaging the enemy. They were only outnumbered by one, and he knew the training his men had was superior to anything else in the world. They could win this.
But winning wasn’t their primary focus right now. They needed to get Ethan free so that he could get to the surface and enlist the aid of the RAF in removing as many bombs as possible before they blew.
Disregarding his current foe, Jarvis launched himself at the shifter Ethan was battling.
“Go!” he yelled, bearing his target to the ground, momentarily freeing Ethan.
The junior-most Green Bearet took off, heading for the door.
Jarvis drove a knee into the crotch of his target and rolled to his feet, charging after Ethan.
From the left he saw the enemy leader make a move to block the door. Putting on an extra burst of speed, Jarvis closed the distance.
Ethan was almost at the door when the leader made like he was going to dive. Jarvis didn’t hesitate. He threw himself through the air on a collision course. The impact spun him around and he slammed to the floor hard enough to make him see stars, his head rebounding off the ground.
But even as Jarvis groaned groggily, his eyes focused long enough to see Ethan disappear into the stairwell.
They had done it.
A hand slammed into the side of Jarvis’s head, rocking him back.
“Get up here,” the leader snarled, a hand like steel wrapping around Jarvis’s throat and hauling him to his feet.
Dazed, he swayed unsteadily on his feet as he tried to concentrate.
His vision swam into focus just in time to see a fist coming at his nose as the leader attempted to end the fight.
Jarvis let his legs go limp. The sudden deadweight threw his attacker off balance. Jarvis hit the floor hard, the other shifter staggering and tripping over his body as he was abruptly yanked forward.
Reaching up with his left hand, he grabbed the man’s clothing and hauled on it. Jarvis was on his feet in a flash as his foe fell over him, spilling onto the hard floor in an utterly ungraceful manner.
Jarvis had time to deliver a steel-toed kick to the head before he was tackled by another Fenris shifter.
Enough of this.
They’d been outnumbered from the start, and with Ethan gone, they were now at a larger disadvantage, with only five of his Green Bearets against seven of the enemy.
No, six, noting the fallen body Luther was striding over as he went to Kiefer’s aid.
Time to even this up some more.
The shifter who had hit Jarvis was both smaller, and clearly not as well-trained. He’d simply been coming to his superior’s rescue.
Unfortunately for him, that would prove to be a fatal mistake.
Jarvis took the blow in the side, twisting into it, even as his arms snaked down around the younger shifter’s neck.
The two of them slowed as the momentum bled out, absorbed by Jarvis’s larger frame. As they came to a halt, Jarvis flexed his legs and flung himself up and over the other man. They were now back-to-back, with Jarvis’s arms still around his neck.
With a roar he dropped to one knee while simultaneously pulling on the neck. Bones snapped as they gave way under the force and the body crumpled to the floor behind him, the shifter’s neck bent backward in a fatal manner. His eyes locked with those of the leader of the Fenris shifters as he rose, the dead shifter falling limply behind him.
All around them, the Fenris Wards—their equivalent to the Guardians of Cadia—were falling.
Something in their leader snapped. His eyes went wide and he began to foam at the mouth as he charged.
Internally Jarvis sighed. He didn’t wish to kill anyone if he could avoid it. But he’d seen the feral look before. It was always evident on those who had lost hope, who could see no other way but to go out in a blaze of glory, trying to take down as many of their enemies as they could.
The only problem was, Jarvis had no intention of anyone going down. His entire team was still standing, thanks to the superior training he’d helped give them. Jarvis hadn’t invented the Green Bearets’ training program.
But he had mastered it.
As the crazed bear shifter came at him, Jarvis waited until the last second, and then danced out of the way, spinning to the left even as he lashed out with a fist, rocking the man’s head to the side.
Even as the shifter tumbled and rolled, Jarvis knew what was going to happen.
Before he saw the first telltale signs, he reached inside himself, opening the door to the cave where his animal resided.
Already aware of the ongoing fight, his bear pulsed through him in a wave of strength and power, unhesitating in coming to his aid. His body crackled with power as limbs split and enlarged, bones reforming and growing strong, his torso bulking up until he landed on both legs.
A bone-shaking roar filled the cavern as he tried to get the sole remaining shifter to back down. Claws gouged lines in the tiled floor.
Across from him a huge black bear returned his challenge. There would be no surrender. No peaceful end to this fight. There was only one way out for either of them.
Kill the other.
This time it was Jarvis’s turn to charge. He sprang forward, using his claws for purchase on the floor, giving him speed and traction he might not normally have had.
The black bear braced itself on its hind legs, preparing to take the impact of the two-ton grizzly bearing down on it.
But at the last second Jarvis flipped himself end over end, letting his feet go out from under him at the same time. Like a luge athlete heading down the track, he slid by his foe on the side.
His hind paws ripped the tough, thick skin of the black bear open like it was paper, but he only let them scrape along.
It was his front paws that he dug in deep. This had the added effect of stopping Jarvis slide, and bringing his hind legs around to the back of the black bear. The enemy shifter roared in pain as he turned to stomp on Jarvis.
He was too slow though. Jarvis pushed himself off his foe, sliding over the tiles and out of range. He rolled onto his back and back over to his feet.
The side of his foe was a mangled ruin. Skin hung loosely and blood matted the fur everywhere. It wasn’t a fatal wound, but it would slow him down immensely.
Jarvis charged once more. At the last second he moved to repeat the ma
neuver on the opposite side.
His opponent was ready, however, and turned and dropped to the side, presenting his claws. If Jarvis had duplicated his maneuver the black bear would have opened his flank like a can.
So this time he simply continued his charge and hit the other shifter head-on. The two went down in a heap, though Jarvis had the better position. Claws ripped and shredded thick skin, and both of them roared in pain.
Jarvis took a paw across his throat that almost ripped him open, but he managed to pull back enough to stop it from being fatal.
Angry at himself for leaving such an opening, he went on the attack, using his slightly larger size to his advantage. The black bear retreated, trying to block the blows, but it was too slow. Paw after paw began landing, reducing the front of his foe to a bloody mess. The floor became slick underneath them, but still Jarvis pressed the attack.
The blocking attempts became weaker and weaker, until his foe missed one entirely.
Jarvis’s paw flashed out and tore the throat from his enemy in a spray of blood and gore.
Just like that, it was over. The leader crashed to the ground, strangled sounds coming from his mouth as he tried to breathe through a part of his body that was no longer there.
Jarvis switched back to his human form, holding a hand to his own throat to help push the skin together and slow the bleeding until it could seal itself.
“It didn’t have to be this way,” he said softly as the light faded from the enemy leader’s eyes. “We don’t have to be at war.”
There was no response.
Jarvis closed his eyes, saying a quick word for his fallen foe.
“Okay,” he said, eyes snapping open as he faced his assembled team. “Once we reach the surface, Gabriel, you and Kiefer go inspect the other tower on the western side of the dam. Find the workers and get them to safety.”
The two shifters sprinted off, not bothering to wait.
“Luther, Aksel, you’re with me. We have some bombs to deal with.”
Chapter Thirteen
Carrie
“Nghhhng.” The sound came from her mouth as she slowly came back to consciousness. “What the fuck happened?” she asked nobody in particular.
The image of Angelo falling atop her, his eyes wide as her huge chef’s knife plunged into his chest came rushing back all at once.
“Oh fuck!” she said, trying to sit up.
Her head slammed off something and she fell back. “Ow!” Blinking, she tried to clear her vision. Pain rebounded in her head and she went still, her entire body tensing up as it tried to protect her from further injury.
There was something covering her eyes, she noted through the haze of agony. But there was something wrong with her head. It felt…fuzzy. Not right.
Something is seriously, seriously wrong here.
That was when she became aware of the fact that wherever she was, she was moving. There was a telltale rumble of a car as it sped along.
She was in the trunk of a car.
How the thought made it through her addled brain, she wasn’t sure, but Carrie knew it to be true. She felt around with her feet, until she found something solid. Bunching her knees up she kicked out, smashing them into whatever it was.
The entire car rocked slightly under the blow. She tried again, ignoring the blinding pain in her temples that hammered her right behind her eyes every time she moved.
There was a change in the vibrations of the car, and she felt it begin to slow.
Pulling off onto the shoulder.
She had no idea which way the trunk opening was, but a cursory feel with her feet made it fairly clear where the seats were. Spinning, she oriented herself to try and kick out when whoever it was opened the trunk.
That brought up another question to her addled brain, the thought trying to form through the daze.
Who the hell kidnapped me? It couldn’t have been Angelo. He wasn’t surviving a wound like that.
He mustn’t have been alone. Whoever he was working with must have come with him, and found Angelo’s body on top of her.
The car pulled to a stop, and she listened carefully as footsteps crunched on gravel, approaching the back of the vehicle. They stopped, and she heard a key fiddle with the lock.
Carrie’s legs tensed.
Light flooded around her blindfold as the trunk popped open and she kicked out blindly.
“Oomph!” someone grunted as her boots made contact.
And rebounded off of them.
“You miserable little bitch,” a voice snarled, reaching into the car and grabbing her by her hair.
Carrie screamed in pain, but her brain was in shock.
The voice had belonged to Angelo!
He hauled her from the trunk and bodily hauled her into the backseat. Carrie struggled mightily, though her mind could barely function with his hand in her hair.
Whatever had happened to her, she was in a bad way. Her squirming amounted to nothing. He was impossibly strong, and in seconds had used the seatbelts to immobilize her, so that she couldn’t do any further damage.
“Where are you taking me?!” she shouted, wincing as her shouts echoed in the car and slammed off her ears, almost drowning his reply in mind-numbing pain.
“To finish the damn job. Then you’re going to come on a nice, long trip with me.” He chuckled evilly. “We’re going to become extremely well-acquainted.”
Carrie shivered at the promise of pain in his voice.
But her focus was still on something else.
How had he survived the wound? She’d felt her knife bury itself all the way up to the handle in his chest. That should have killed him! Certainly he shouldn’t be driving right now; he’d have lost far too much blood.
Something was wrong here. Something was very wrong.
“What the fuck is your problem?” she spat. “Let me go!”
He ignored her.
“Let me go!” she shouted louder, ignoring the pain.
Angelo said nothing, just starting the car up once more and pulling back out onto the road.
“Let me go! Let me go! Let. Me. GO!” Her voice rose and rose, but still there was no response.
“LET ME GO! LET ME GO! LET ME GO!”
She repeated it over and over again at the top of the voice.
“Shut the fuck up!” Angelo snapped and she heard him turn in his seat.
A fist like steel punched her in the gut and Carrie panicked as the air was driven from her body.
“Oh fuck!” Angelo said, and she felt the car swerve violently even as she struggled to breathe.
The vehicle swerved again, and hit something but kept on going.
“You stupid bitch!” Angelo yelled, and suddenly the car flipped violently.
Chapter Fourteen
Luther
The three of them reached the surface and immediately dashed to the middle of the dam, where they could see the RAF circled around Ethan, who was busy speaking to them.
“Let’s go see what we can do,” Jarvis said, and they hurried over to the circle.
The Pegasi stepped back to create room just before they arrived.
“What’s the plan?” Jarvis asked.
“I’m not sure,” Ethan said glumly. “I just got back from taking a flyby on the nearest bomb. They’re fairly simple, timed or remote detonation devices. So this guy clearly has a relay somewhere, but we don’t have time to find it; it could be hidden anywhere. But they aren’t anti-tamper. The bomber must have relied on the fact that they were put into the side of the dam to protect them.”
“And he probably put them on both sides, in water and on the dam face,” Jarvis mused.
“Exactly. The one positive is that the guy must have carried them with him as he did this. So they have a strap on them we can use to carry the bags the bombs are in.”
Something clicked in Jarvis’s brain. “Have any of you learned advanced climbing or diving techniques?” he asked.
“I can do both
,” Luther said.
“I have diving,” Ethan replied, and Aksel indicated the same.
“Okay, you two are in charge of the water side then,” he said to Aksel and Ethan. “Start swimming and get as many of them to the surface as possible.” He turned to the fliers. “The three weakest fliers are in charge of snatching the bombs once they surface. Take them over there,” he said, pointing to the woods to the east.
Ethan, Aksel, and three Pegasi moved to the far side of the dam. The bear shifters plunged over the edge and into the depths below
“You three,” he said to the others, “have the more difficult task. We’re going to climb down the dam, and then hurl the bombs to you. You’re in charge of catching them in the air and getting them to the pile.”
The three RAF Pegasi looked uneasy, but none of them backed away or shook their heads.
“Ready for this?” he asked, turning to Luther.
“Oh sure. Just another thrill ride,” the big shifter captain said.
The pair of them jogged to the exposed side of the dam.
“On the bright side, this guy did it all in columns, so it’s just straight up and down.”
Luther looked at him and just rolled his eyes. “You have a strange way of looking at things, my friend.”
The two bumped fists and moved to their separate columns. There was no need for more words. Everyone involved knew the bombs could go off at any moment, ripping them apart. That didn’t matter though. There were far more lives at stake than their own if the dam blew.
Reaching the start of his first column of charges, Jarvis once again reached inside himself. He showed his bear in images what he had in mind.
It automatically resisted. What he was asking of it was painful and tiring for the both of them, not to mention unstable and liable to alter at any time. Holding himself in flux like he was going to try and do was a gargantuan mental task.
But it was the only way.
His bear reluctantly agreed, and power flowed into him, concentrating in four spots. One by one, his hands and feet began to swell in size, sprouting fur as well. Claws jutted from what used to be his fingertips.
Once the change was complete, Jarvis clamped down on his bear, holding its power halfway between him and its mental cage. The beast roared and directed a tirade of anger at him, but it didn’t resist.