by Golden Angel
"Our animals are a little different but we're still the same people," Daniel said, and Jesse coughed to cover her reaction. A little different? Ha! Daniel's giant squirrel was more than a little different. Even her own squirrel was different - the way it felt in her head anyway. More aggressive. More violent. And with a definite taste for red meat.
"I don't want to change who I am. I don't want to change my squirrel. We are what we were meant to be," Aunt Penny said, her voice one of conviction.
"So we were meant to die?" Daniel burst out, his fists clenching. "You think we'd be better off dead?"
Aunt Penny pursed her lips, obviously not wanting to answer. Her expression was conflicted, which saddened Jesse. There would be no changing her aunt's mind; it was too closed. She'd known that walking in here, but she'd still hoped that seeing Daniel and Jesse doing so well would help her.
"I'm not sad you're alive, but... you're already different, even if you don't see it," Aunt Penny said. She gave Daniel a hard look. "I can see it. It's in your eyes. Something unholy has been created inside of you, something unnatural, and one day you'll have to pay the price." Turning her head away, she closed her eyes, her jaw tightening, and Jesse recognized immediately that the Torch was burning her aunt worse than ever. She'd degraded over the past few days as Daniel and Jesse had recovered.
"I'm happy to be alive, and you should be happy for us too," Daniel said, before turning and storming out, his face red with anger.
Jesse didn't know if their aunt even heard him; her face was tight with pain as she held it against the pillow. Quietly, Jesse stood. She wanted to hug her aunt, because she was pretty sure this was the last real conversation they were ever going to be able to have, but it was impossible. The amount of physical pain it would cause Aunt Penny would be nearly unbearable. She was already roasting inside her own skin, and she could see how Jesse and Daniel had recovered, and didn't care.
Not that Jesse could gainsay all of her aunt's arguments. Daniel's temper was apparently shorter than it had ever been and she didn't know if it was because he was a teenager or if it was because his squirrel was now more aggressive. If she could even call their animals squirrels still. Maybe they needed to come up with another name... squiger? Tirrel?
"Jesse?" Brady's soft voice broke through her mental ramblings and she realized she was just sitting there, staring sadly at her aunt.
Giving herself a little shake, she stood and leaned over to kiss her Aunt's wispy hair. It was the closest to touching her aunt that Jesse could get. Tears sparked in her eyes.
"I'll come back," she whispered. "You can always change your mind." Was that a tiny shake of her aunt's head, or was that just her imagination? Either way, Jesse didn't hold out much real hope that her aunt would change her mind, but she would still visit. It was the least she could do.
Feeling beyond tired, she straightened and walked towards the door. Brady was standing sideways, allowing her to move past him into the hall as he hovered protectively over her. It was a really nice feeling to have him there.
Daniel was slouched in one of the chairs in the hall, staring despondently at his hands. He looked up when Brady shut the door behind them, leaving their aunt in the room.
"I'm not sorry," he said roughly. "I'd do it again."
"I'm not sorry either," she replied, walking over to sit beside him and take his hand. She gave it a squeeze. "Penny's just... she's a different generation. We can't make her decision for her any more than she could make ours for us."
Heck, maybe Penny wanted to die. After all, she'd lost all her brothers and sisters, her parents, her aunts and uncles, and now that Jesse and Daniel were obviously taken care of, maybe she just wanted to let it all go. Not in the fun, Disney way, but more in the "I'm too tired to live anymore" way. Depressing, but possible.
Standing beside them, Brady shifted on his feet, and Jesse could tell he was about to say something, but she never found out what because shrill alarms started blaring. She shrieked, covering her sensitive ears with her hands, while in her head her squirrel also shrieked and reared, spinning as it tried to find the source of distress. Beside her, Daniel was wincing as he covered his ears too - only Brady remained mostly unaffected as he yanked his cell phone out of his pocket.
Staring at it for a moment, Brady shoved it back into his pocket, a low growl rumbling in his throat, and Jesse looked up at him. The sirens were still wailing repetitively, but now that she wasn't so surprised, her ears were starting to get used to the horrific blast of sound.
"What's wrong?" she yelled up at him.
"Lakewood's under attack," he shouted back, and a shiver of fear went through her. Attack? Her squirrel roared in her head - a really loud, non-squirrelish roar. Jesse was having some trouble getting behind its aggressive stance. "The training teams are moving to head off the intruders. We're staying here in case any of them make it through. I need to head to the lower levels to block off the entrance to Dr. Montgomery."
Because if this was The Company, they wouldn't be interested in the sick shifters on the upper floors of the hospital. They'd be interested in the man who'd succeeded in his research right before being captured by Eli's men. A breath caught in Jesse's throat as her fear spiked. The look of excitement on Daniel's face didn't help.
Gathering up her courage, she nodded. "Okay," she said, taking a deep breath, ignoring the way her body quivered. "Let's do this."
Brady looked alarmed. "I didn't mean... you should stay up here, with Daniel."
Up on the upper levels, he meant, where no one would come. That was a whole bucket of nopes. She didn't miss the mutinous expression on her brother's face, and no matter how scared she was, she wasn't going to just sit around waiting and hoping everything went well. Jesse had seen enough movies to know that splitting up right now and hoping everyone was okay was probably a really bad idea. The best chance they had of staying alive and uncaptured was probably being with Brady wherever he was, because Jesse didn't think they had much chance if it turned out soldiers did come through the upper halls. She could think of a million ways everything could go horribly wrong no matter which way they went, but what she really wanted was to stay with Brady.
"Up here where we won't be protected?" she pointed out. "What if whoever this is manages to get Dr. Montgomery and he tells them about Daniel and me? Do you think he won't? Do you think they'll just walk away and leave us alone? What if they walk through and there are shifters with them and they smell us? We don't smell quite right anymore, we don't smell like just squirrel. You could get downstairs, have missed Dr. Montgomery completely, and come back up to find us gone too."
The snarl on Brady's face made her quiver, but she didn't back down. She didn't want to be separated from him. What if he left for downstairs and never came back? What if he was injured and needed someone to tend to him? Plus, he'd be better off with someone watching his back even if neither Jesse nor her brother had any training. And she wasn't leaving her brother behind. She'd lost too many people she loved already. Not that she loved Brady, not yet at least, but she could totally get there and she did care about him, and she didn't want to take her eyes off either of them. If she could somehow bring Aunt Penny with them, she'd do that too.
"Fine. Come with me. But you stay behind me the entire time. Close behind me. And if we get caught up in fighting and I tell you to run and leave me, you run. Got me?”
Relieved he was going to let them come, even though he obviously wasn’t happy about taking her into the danger zone, Jesse nodded.
Chapter 4
Brady didn't know whether or not he was happy to have Jesse and her brother with him. He'd thought they'd be a distraction, but he couldn't deny he also liked knowing she and Daniel were right behind him, safe and sound. It might have been just as distracting to leave them behind and be constantly worrying about whether or not they were safe. His feelings for Jesse would have made it impossible for him not to think about her in this kind of dangerous situation.
They'd thought they were safe from The Company, but Brady couldn't think of anyone else who would attack Lakewood. When The Company had sent mercenaries against his brother-in-law Steele's pack and town, only a few had survived. They'd been released after being questioned with the message for other mercenaries - don't work for The Company unless you want to die. It should have made it nearly impossible for The Company to hire anyone new without a prohibitively exorbitant price tag. Most mercenaries didn't want to go up against Eli, who ran the only shifter security force in the U.S., anyway, and after what they'd experienced at Steele's hands, they should have been completely uninterested.
So where had The Company gotten these men?
His acute hearing meant he could hear the muffled sounds of gunfire and animals roaring outside of the hospital building. Everything inside the hospital building was a lot quieter. The only sounds were machines from the rooms where the sick were, and those sounds were very quiet. Fortunately there weren't tons of patients for him to worry over. He was more concerned with the lack of staff, and hoped they'd just found places to buckle down until everything was over.
"Where is everyone?" Daniel whispered behind him, his voice seeming loud in the silent hallway.
Turning slightly, Brady put his finger up to his lips to indicate silence. He hadn't liked Jesse's suggestion that there might be shifters in the invading force, but since they didn't really know what was happening, he wasn't willing to leave anything to chance. What he was sure of was that this wasn't a drill.
A noise in a room further down the hall made his beast bristle in warning. Holding up his hand to indicate Jesse and Daniel should stay where they were, at the cross section of several hallways, and keep an eye on the other directions, Brady padded forward. He didn't need to go far to take a big sniff and identify the occupants of the room as "their" people. The beast relaxed.
He tapped on the door to warn them before quietly opening it.
The nurses and doctors were packed in, sitting on the floor, eyes wide with worry.
"Brady! What's going on?" asked Dr. Tran in a hushed voice. Her tiny frame was cuddled up to her mate's, a gorgeous, slim blonde beauty named Larissa who was completely human although she had a shifter father. Dr. Tran had positioned herself slightly in front of Larissa, obviously ready to protect her more vulnerable partner if the need arose. Everyone else looked at him with expectant, hopeful expression and he felt the burden of responsibility settling onto his shoulders.
Responsibility that, as the oldest of his siblings, he'd often felt but had never been able to fully live up to. He hadn't been able to protect them from being captured, hadn't been able to protect them from Dr. Montgomery's experiments, and he hadn't even been a part of taking Dr. Montgomery down. Tension gripped him, but he didn't let it show, giving the room a reassuring smile.
"There's been an attack. So far they're focusing on the training compound, but I'm headed downstairs just in case they're coming for Dr. Montgomery. Stay here. Keep quiet. Hopefully they won't bother coming upstairs." He gave them a quick nod and started to close the door, not wanting to watch the hope dropping off their faces as they realized he was leaving.
Turning around, he waved to Jesse and Daniel, who quickly scurried down the hall after him. When they reached the next intersection, he stopped and looked down at them. "There are a lot of doctors and staff in that room back there, if you want to stay with them."
Slim fingers clutched the back of his shirt as Jesse shook her head fiercely. He could feel her trembling, but she was stubborn.
"Nope, I'm staying with you, thanks." She frowned and looked at her brother, obviously torn between wanting him where she could see him and thinking he would be safer with the others.
"Don't you dare," Daniel whispered fiercely. "I'm coming with you guys. If you think you're leaving me behind, you'll just find me catching up to you later."
Which meant he'd be sneaking around by himself. Yeah, definitely a big no in Brady's book. "You're both going into that room and staying there or staying right beside me where I can see you, got it? No separating."
Looking relieved, Jesse nodded and they continued on down the hallway.
They reached the ground floor without an incident, using the stairways although Brady kept his eyes on the elevators. So far, no one was using them, which he considered a good sign. Hopefully that meant no one was coming for Dr. Montgomery. Maybe this had nothing to do with the doctor or The Company at all.
That hope was dashed as four figures, dressed in all black, appeared in front of the glass doors of the main entrance. Brady growled, shoving Jesse and Daniel behind the front desk, which should provide them with some cover.
"Stay down," he ordered, moving around to the front of the desk. Since the receptionist was currently absent, he'd have to greet these visitors himself. Cracking his knuckles, Brady felt his beast rising, ready to change him in an instant. He pushed it back, just enough to retain his human form, but energy was already fizzing through him and he knew he wouldn't be able to control the beast for long. It was already clawing at his mind, angry and defensive - Protect! Protect!
Having Jesse right here in the danger zone might not have been the best idea for his beast's anxiety, but it was too late now.
The doors opened, swooshing automatically, as the men in black stepped forward. They were a lot less cool looking but a lot more armored up than Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.
"Welcome to Lakewood Hospital," Brady said smoothly, like he was just greeting the armed soldiers normally. His beast roiled. Humans. Guns. Silver. We can take them. "How can I help you today?"
The man standing in the right center of their little wannabe-intimidation line pointed his gun directly at Brady, stepping forward slightly. Always nice to have a volunteer to be the first to die. "Just tell us where Montgomery is and no one gets hurt."
Brady's grin spread, completely devoid of humor. Yup, The Company. Dumbasses were here to break out the doctor. How had The Company even managed to find these walking corpses?
"Tell you what," Brady said with feigned casualness, rolling his head around his shoulders, "if you leave now, you all get to live."
The idiots actually laughed.
"I don't think so," said the original man, his finger tightening on the gun trigger. "Even you assholes can't outrun silver."
Fortunately for Brady, he didn't need to.
******
The screams right before the gun went off had Jesse's squirrel shrieking in alarm. The smell of blood filled her nose and, to her horror, her teeth lengthened even though the rest of her remained unchanged. She gripped Daniel's arm tightly, feeling his muscles tense, like he was thinking about flinging himself over the desk and into the fight.
No, no, no, and absolutely not.
Jesse was really wishing they'd stayed upstairs. She hadn't thought this would happen. She hadn't thought it would be like this. This was nothing like the movies. This was high pitched screams of real pain, the smell of blood and other things, the sound of bones crunching, flesh rending, and lungs gurgling as they filled with blood. It made her want to gag, and her stomach churned with nausea. The only upside was that she could tell Brady was safe by the way the men were shouting and his angry, unnerving growls.
Flesh turned to fur under her hand and Jesse let out a shout of surprise and anger as her brother shifted. "Daniel, NO!"
Wrapping her arms around his giant body, she held on tight as he squirmed, trying to get away from her. As he moved, he half-dragged her out from underneath the desk, pulling her upwards so that her head cleared the counter top and she could see everything that was happening.
It was like something out of a horror movie. Blood was literally sprayed on the walls, bodies we
re on the floor, and oh, ew, ew, ew, there was a freaking hand and wrist on the counter in front of her! Daniel snarled, which was a really freaky sound for a squirrel to make, and twisted, shoving her back.
"Daniel, don't you dare!" she shrieked.
Her cry caught the attention of the giant fuzzy thing in the middle of the room and it turned to look at her and Daniel, ears at attention and pressing against the ceiling. Holy fuck that was one big bunny. One big, blood-streaked, vicious looking bunny. With really freaking large teeth.
Jesse's squirrel might be caught somewhere between predator and prey right now, but when Brady's giant, fanged bunny turned its gaze on her, she froze like the prey she'd been born. Fear pulsed as she hugged Daniel tighter. The white fur around Brady's mouth was stained completely red and blood was actually dripping from his teeth. He looked deranged.
And for some reason, her stupid brother wanted to join him.
The white, bloody fur blurred as Brady shifted back to human, leaving him completely naked. If he didn't have blood and other, ickier, things decorating his muscled body, Jesse would enjoy the view a heck of a lot more. As it was, it was kind of disturbing to see him in human form with blood all over him and around his mouth.
Ick, ick, ick... even worse, her formerly peaceable squirrel seemed to find satisfaction in his gore-covered visage. Considering that Jesse had never really been into blood, guts, and gore - even in movies - she was more disturbed by her squirrel's reaction than anything else. Her fear bubbled up again - was her Aunt Penny right? Had she irrevocably changed who she was when she'd made the decision to change her DNA because she wanted to live? Was she going to become the kind of person who craved violence now?
Because the blood and guts and gore were grossing her out, but some part of her was relishing it too. Her squirrel was totally on board with the utter destruction of the men, whereas Jesse was just relieved Brady didn't seem to be hurt.
"Are you okay?" she asked anyway, her voice hoarse, her arms still wrapped around Daniel. Her giant squirrel brother also seemed totally fine with the carnage around them, in fact she was pretty sure he was disappointed he hadn't been able to join in. Leaning forward he sniffed at the detached hand in front of them. Blech. Jesse ignored him, focusing on Brady and trying not to cringe as a trickle of blood made a gross little path down the front of his gorgeous chest, to his little happy bunny trail, to... well. Hmm. Yeah, she was going to pretend she wasn't looking at that.