Defender Cave Bear (Protection, Inc: Defenders Book 1)

by Zoe Chant

  “It’s getting closer!” Caro called.

  Gritting her teeth, Tirzah pushed even harder on the gas. Her foot ached fiercely but the car did speed up. But she couldn’t go any faster along these hairpin curves without risking a crash.

  The pteranodon put on a burst of speed, and its shadow passed over the car.

  The pets went berserk. Tirzah had no idea if they were trying to escape because they were panicked, or trying to escape so they could fight the pteranodon. But either way, the result was the same. Two flying kittens and one kitten-sized flying horse began madly flapping around the car, meowing and neighing, smacking against the windows and windshield with hooves and paws and spines, banging into Tirzah’s head and swooping in front of her face, and shedding choking clouds of fur and downy feathers.

  “Grab them!” Tirzah yelled.

  In the rear view mirror, she saw Pete trying to corner Spike against the rear window and only succeeding in getting cactus spines in his hands.

  Caro grabbed Moonbow and clutched him tight. He struggled, kicking her in the stomach with an opalescent hoof. “Ow!”

  Batcat leaped on to the dashboard, directly in front of the steering wheel, puffed herself up, spread her wings, and hissed.

  “Caro!” Tirzah shouted. “Get Batcat!”

  Caro clutched Moonbow to her chest with one arm and grabbed Batcat by the scruff of the neck with her other hand. Batcat yowled and scratched as Caro yanked her off the dashboard, fighting so furiously that Caro lost hold of Moonbow. The tiny stallion flew up and kicked the windshield, cracking it.

  Caro let go of Batcat and grabbed Moonbow, clutching him in both hands.

  “Caro, hold your horse!” Pete yelled. “I’ll get Batcat!”

  Tirzah heard a click as he released his seatbelt. “Pete, no—”

  He made a grab for Batcat. The kitten evaded him, diving downward into the wheel well, where she crawled under the gas pedal. Tirzah was forced to let up on the pressure or squash her. The car slowed drastically.

  “No!” Caro cried. “Speed up!”

  “She’s under the gas pedal!” Tirzah shouted.

  Caro shoved Moonbow into her father’s reaching hands, bent over, and plucked a thrashing, spitting, hissing Batcat out from under Tirzah’s foot.

  The pteranodon swooped lower, its talons spread wide as if it was going to try to snatch up the car. Tirzah stomped on the gas as hard as she could, whipping around a curve far faster than was safe.

  And was faced by the same cliff she’d skidded over a year ago.

  Her heart seemed to stop. Her hands went cold and numb. She couldn’t tell if she was still holding the steering wheel until she looked down and saw her fingers clenched around it, knuckles bloodless and white.

  I can’t move my hands, she thought. We’re going to go over the cliff all over again.

  She could feel the stomach-dropping sensation of falling, the terror of the anticipated impact—

  And then a pair of warm, strong hands were on her shoulders, and a deep voice murmured in her ear, “You can do this, Tirzah. Just breathe…”

  …and then she was past the cliff, turning another corner, and heading into the long, straight downward slope toward the base of the mountain.

  Her breath went out in the biggest sigh of relief in her life. But she couldn’t relax just yet. They just had this last stretch to get through, and then they could go off-road, as Pete had suggested.

  She was almost standing up in the car, pushing the gas pedal into the floor. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that the pets were nowhere in sight, but Caro had her arms clutched around her own body, imprisoning a writhing, thrashing, yowling, squealing, whinnying mass underneath her shirt.

  And that was when the pteranodon landed on the roof of the car.

  CHAPTER 30

  T he pteranodon rode the car like a skateboard, shoving it off-road. It skidded toward a tree.

  “Brake!” Pete yelled.

  “Buckle your seatbelt!” Tirzah shouted as the car slowed, brakes screaming.

  Pete fumbled for his seatbelt. The smell of burning rubber was strong and acrid. He clicked it into place a second before the car slammed into the tree.

  There was a tremendous jolt, and everyone was jerked forward. But Tirzah had managed to slow the car drastically by the time they’d struck. The pets had gotten loose and were madly flapping around the interior, but no one seemed hurt.

  “Are we safer staying in—” Tirzah began.

  A gigantic claw punched through the roof of the car. Everyone ducked, and Caro screamed. With a nails-against-metal screech, the pteranodon began dragging his claw through the roof, slicing it like a can opener.

  “Tirzah, I’ll carry you,” Pete said. “Caro, as soon as I say go, run for the woods. I’ll be right behind you.”

  “It’ll grab us as soon as we get out!” Caro said, her face pale.

  Pete leaned forward, patting both her and Tirzah on the shoulder, and gave them the slightest smile. He unsnapped Tirzah’s seatbelt with one hand, and with the other, using his body to block the pteranodon’s view, he pulled something from the glove compartment.

  It was a steel window-punch, which he kept so he could easily break the car windows in case his car crashed into water. His hand flashed up, past the pteranodon’s claw, to stab the window-punch into its chicken-like foot.

  The pteranodon let out an ear-splitting screech and sprang into the air.

  “Go!” Pete shouted.

  Caro leaped out of the car and bolted for the woods.

  Tirzah opened her door and scrambled out just as Pete jumped out of the back seat. He swept her into his arms and tore after Caro. He took just one backward glance to see the pteranodon in mid-air, bending its beak to try to yank the window-punch out of its foot like someone trying to remove a splinter with tweezers.

  And then oaks and cedars rose up above them, and moss was soft underfoot. They had made it to the relative safety of the woods.

  Pete had meant to keep going, but the adrenaline rush that had enabled him to pick up Tirzah and run abruptly wore off. His head spun, his vision blurred, and his knees felt weak.

  “Caro!” The name came out in a gasp.

  Pete sat down hard on the mossy ground, about one second before he would have passed out. He felt Tirzah pull away from him, but he could see nothing. Dizzy and sick, he put his head between his knees.

  “Caro, help Tirzah,” he said. “She… she can hop if you support her. Go farther into the woods.”

  He didn’t hear the sound of footsteps, but his pulse was pounding hard enough to cover them. Pete tried to make himself breathe deeply, gathering his strength for one last shift.

  We can’t, rumbled his cave bear. Our strength is spent. If you try to force the shift, you’ll only faint.

  Pete gritted his teeth. If his cave bear was advising against the shift, he had to be right. He fumbled around the forest floor, eyes still closed, searching for a rock, a branch, anything…

  A soft hand touched his shoulder. He didn’t have to look up to know whose it was. He’d recognize Tirzah’s hand anywhere.

  “Don’t be an idiot,” she said. “We’re not leaving you.”

  Pete forced his eyes open. Tirzah sat beside him, the pets were circling protectively overhead, and Caro was running around, gathering rocks and branches and dumping them at their feet.

  Like father, like daughter, he thought.

  He supposed he could keep on insisting that they leave him and save themselves, but he gave up on the idea as soon as it occurred to him. They were his family. They loved him as much as he loved them, and they weren’t going to abandon him any more than he’d abandon them.

  “I love you,” he said.

  A tremendous noise of snapping branches drowned out their replies as the pteranodon forced its way through the woods. Pete snatched up a rock. Maybe he could throw it straight down the monster’s beak and choke it.

  Bang!

  A
hideous screech rose up, along with the distinctive sound of a ricochet.

  The gunshot had come from behind them. Pete twisted around, and saw the very last person he would have expected: Carter Howe, in polished shoes and a three-piece suit, with some weird-looking modified rifle strapped to his back. He was holding a pistol.

  The pteranodon stuck its hideous head out from between the trees. Carter calmly fired again, but the beast whipped its head around. The bullet again struck its beak and bounced off.

  “Damn,” Carter said. “Okay, fine. We do this the hard way.”

  He unsnapped his harness, and tossed it and the rifle down to the ground. For a moment Pete had no idea what he was doing. Then he remembered that not all shifters could take their clothes or weapons with them when they changed. Even in the midst of the battle, he couldn’t help a spark of curiosity at the realization that he was finally going to find out what Carter’s shift form was.

  “Pick on someone your own size!” Carter shouted, then ran off into the woods just to the side of the pteranodon.

  The dinosaur gave an uncertain hiss. Its head weaved, as if it wasn’t sure whether to pursue Carter or go after the prey in front of it. Then its reptilian eyes narrowed, and it withdrew its snaky neck.

  Bang!

  Another ricochet as it blocked the bullet with its beak. And then it vanished into the woods.

  There were more gunshots, more ricochets, Carter’s shouted taunts, and the sound of breaking branches. Pete realized that Carter was leading the pteranodon away from them. He was grateful, though uncertain what good it would do if he still couldn’t stand up.

  Well. He’d just have to, wouldn’t he?

  Pete reached out and pulled the rifle to him. He gave it a quick glance, saw that it was actually a harpoon gun with a silvery tip, and wondered why Carter hadn’t tried it on the pteranodon. Maybe, since it only seemed to have one harpoon, he hadn’t wanted to risk a miss.

  Pete slung it over his back and braced his palms on the ground. “Caro, help Tirzah.”

  “Caro?” an incredulous voice said.

  Pete’s head jerked up. Merlin ran out of the woods, his soft-soled shoes almost soundless over the moss. He was carrying a pair of crutches. As Pete stared, Merlin gave Tirzah a hand up, then passed her the crutches. She held them a little awkwardly, obviously not really comfortable with them. But just as obviously, she did know how to use them.

  “We all thought you were still at the office,” Merlin said to Caro.

  “Umm…” Caro squirmed. “Nope!”

  He glanced at her little pony. “That’s new.”

  “His name’s Moonbow,” Caro said proudly.

  “Pleased to meet you.” Merlin crouched beside Pete and helped him to his feet, then supported him. “Come on. Carter’s distracting it. Let’s get to our car before it remembers the rest of us.”

  “How—” Caro began.

  “Later,” Pete said.

  But they hadn’t taken more than a few steps when Carter’s yells and gunshots abruptly ceased. They were followed by a spine-chilling sound, part howl, part scream. The pteranodon screeched in a note that sounded like shock. And then the sounds of a tremendous battle rose up: not just snapping branches, but falling trees and the heavy thud of flesh against flesh. And over it all, that terrifying wail that sounded less like any animal Pete had ever heard of and more like some beast out of nightmare.

  Tirzah froze. “What is that?”

  “No idea,” Merlin said. “I mean, I don’t know specifically. But it’s Carter’s shift form, so… it’s friendly!”

  Pete knew what Merlin meant, but that nerve-shattering howl sure didn’t sound friendly.

  “Is the rest of the team here?” Pete asked.

  Merlin shot an exasperated glance at Caro. “No, Ransom and Roland stayed at the office to guard Caro’s empty bedroom. Roland somehow managed to find Carter, and sent him because he’s shown resistance to mind-control before. He sent me because if I got mind-controlled, at least I wouldn’t set anything on fire.”

  “What’s your—” Caro began.

  Merlin turned to her. Smoothly, he said, “So I guess Batcat went to you after me, huh? What’s your shift form, Caro? Some kind of bird?”

  “I don’t have a shift form.” Indicating her tiny pony, Caro said, “I rode him. Moonbow can change his size under the moonlight.”

  It was the first time Pete had ever seen Merlin look genuinely surprised. “I’ll be darned.”

  Merlin was leading them on a wide curve, presumably to a vehicle parked by the road. Though Caro and the pets followed easily, Tirzah was panting and sweating, struggling to keep up. He could see why she didn’t normally use crutches: they required her to lift her entire body weight, as if she was doing a push-up with every step, then put it down on her weak left foot.

  “Hang in there,” Pete said to her, or tried to: his words died away as he too gasped for breath. Despite his support from Merlin, he too was winded. Every breath felt like it was stabbing a red-hot dagger through his chest.

  “You too,” Tirzah said.

  By the time they broke out of the woods and back on to the road, it was all Pete could do just to stay conscious. The company van, a big SUV, was parked by the side of the road. Pete knew it had extra weapons and emergency supplies, including a military-grade first aid kit. Much as he disliked being a patient, the thought of lying down on the seat under a blanket was sounding awfully good right now.

  “Uh-oh,” Merlin said in his ear.

  That was not a word that Pete wanted to hear. “What?”

  Merlin abruptly set him down on the ground, none too gently, and started backing away from them. His normally pleasant expression was twisted, angry. “Get—get—”

  His words became a hiss. The next instant, he was a velociraptor the size of a man, black hide gleaming, needle-fanged mouth gaping. He hissed again, his taloned hands flexing.

  “He’s mind-controlled!” Pete gasped.

  The velociraptor sprang.

  Pete scrambled as much as lunged into its path, grabbing it around its legs in a clumsy tackle. He expected to get his head bitten off at any second, but the velociraptor thrashed around awkwardly, its jaws snapping shut on air. Pete realized that Caro and Tirzah had also grabbed it, Tirzah lying on the ground and clutching each of its taloned hands in her strong grip, and Caro on its back with both her forearms across its neck. The velociraptor struggled and hissed, writhing and snapping, but was unable to get to any of them.

  “Pete!” Tirzah called. “Get in his head!”

  He had no idea if that would actually work, but it was a good idea and worth a try. Pete slipped into Merlin’s mind.

  He found a very familiar white-hot rage, blazing until everything else vanished within its brightness and roar. Pete had to look hard to find a bewildered Merlin stumbling around in the middle of it, vainly searching for a way out. Merlin was like a river, all quick currents and sparkling surface and unseen depths. Pete loaned Merlin his strength, allowing him to douse the fire within himself.

  And then Pete was sprawled on the ground, gasping, his hand cupping a velociraptor the size of a hamster. Its little claws pricked his hand like Spike’s fur.

  The next moment, the velociraptor was gone and Pete had his hand curled around Merlin’s ankle. All of them were lying on the ground in a heap, with two kittens and a pony circling and squealing overhead. Carter, bruised and bloody and wearing nothing but a pair of tattered dress pants, stood over them, unarmed, fists clenched.

  And facing all of them was Gorlois, back in human form, complete with embroidered coat. He too was battered and bleeding, but his familiar contemptuous expression was unchanged.

  “Pathetic. Writhing on the ground like a bunch of worms.” Gorlois pointed a disdainful finger at each of them in turn, first to Tirzah, Caro, and Pete. “A cripple, a child, a beast.” Then to Carter, Merlin, and the pets. “A monster, a liar, and three escaped experimental subjects. I shall ret
rieve the magical animals—we can still make use of them—and dispatch the rest.”

  And then Gorlois vanished, and the pteranodon once again loomed over them.

  “HEY!” Caro yelled unexpectedly. “Don’t you call my dad a beast! Or Tirzah a cripple! And I’m not a child, I’m THIRTEEN!”

  While Caro was shouting, Carter’s bare foot slid backward and nudged his weird harpoon rifle against Pete’s hand.

  Here goes nothing, Pete thought.

  He whipped up the harpoon gun and fired. The silver tip of the harpoon struck the pteranodon in its soft belly. The dinosaur let out a screech. Silver light flared around the harpoon, growing brighter and brighter until Pete was forced to close his eyes.

  There was a soft whump, like a pool of gasoline igniting. When Pete opened his eyes, there was nothing left of the wizard but black dust gently drifting down.

  CHAPTER 31

  T irzah was so exhausted that she couldn’t even climb into the SUV by herself. Merlin had to lift her. Then Carter went off to fetch her wheelchair from Pete’s wrecked car while Merlin gave Pete first aid in the back seat.

  “Caro…?” Pete mumbled, fighting to keep his eyes open.

  “I’m here, Dad,” Caro said. “I’m fine.”

  “Tirzah…?”

  Tirzah squeezed his hand. “I’m fine too. Go to sleep, Pete. You saved us all. You can rest now.”

  Pete gave a sigh, and his eyes closed. He didn’t stir while Merlin applied new bandages to his wounds, but Tirzah could see his steady breathing.

  “Can you take him to a hospital?” she asked.

  Merlin shook his head. “It wouldn’t be safe. But Roland’s already called in for medical help, just in case. They should be arriving at the office right about the time we do. Just keep an eye on him. I’ll call Roland now and give him an update. And tell him he can stop guarding Caro’s room.”

  Tirzah and Caro sat by Pete, Tirzah stroking his hair and Caro directing the pets to cuddle with him.