Danny sighed and shook his head. “What happened to you?” He looked at the steering wheel but didn’t see it. His thoughts felt too jumbled for any direct thought. “What happened after the coma? You seem so different.” He looked back to his grandfather, looked right at his face, and stared deeply into his eyes. They even look different from what they did before. He could see it. He could feel it. He knew that he was right.
Joseph blinked and turned away. “Coming close to death like that changes everyone.” He bowed his head. He had to say something and could only hope that it would be enough.
Right then, he knew that his grandfather wasn’t going to answer him. Whatever was happening, whatever did happen, it did change him. He understood that now, but there was more to it than that. He’s still my grandfather. He’s right. I have to trust him. Like it or not, he started the engine and put the car in gear. He said nothing else as he pulled away from the pumps and headed back out to the highway.
They still had hours to go before they made it to New York City.
13
Arriving at Knight’s Laboratory, the former Ravenswood Labs, felt rather odd for Jimmy. He hadn’t seen the place since the last night that he worked there. He remembered it clearly. He turned into the wolf that night for the very first time. He escaped that night from Richard Ross and his henchmen. His life seemingly changed forever after that night. To say that it felt weird would have been an understatement if there ever was one. In all truth, it made him feel rather disjointed. It made him feel a little ill. It made him feel deranged in a normal sort of way.
They stayed to the tree line that ran along the edge of the parking lot and there they watched the bright green colored glass front door. Inside, through the glass, a light blue colored uniform crossed the floor. The uniform then sat down behind the long counter in the lobby.
Seeing the person, what looked like a young man, Jimmy thought aloud. “It feels like I was just here. I was a prisoner and one of them holding me at the same time. I can’t believe this. I can’t believe how I feel about any of this.”
Sasha stood directly on his right side. “How do you mean?” She heard the fear in his voice, but she also heard a longing sound there too. He sounded like he missed the place.
Jimmy bowed his head. “I can remember being held her against my will. I can remember working here at the same time. It feels odd. It’s almost like I was here at two separate times but I wasn’t. I was here together, with myself. I talked with myself. I had myself as my only friend.” He lifted his head again and looked back to the glass. The bright light coming from the building helped him to see everything inside it clearly. In a way, it felt like looking into the sun. It looked hot because of the memories. It felt icy because of what they tried to do to him too. He felt confused beyond words to describe it right.
Brandon nodded. “I can see that.” He stood next to Robert, and he stood to Jimmy’s left. As for what he heard, he understood nothing. Quite frankly, he didn’t really care all that much. All he wanted to do was to start the fight. He felt ready to spring into action and get on with that they came there to do.
Everyone looked at him at the same time.
Sasha puffed with a heavy sigh. “What?”
Brandon felt her eyes burning through his skin. He turned to her and shrugged. “What?” He didn’t know what else to say.
Robert felt the need to move on. “You wanted to do this, but I still think that this is a bad idea Jimmy.” He looked back to the front of the building. He looked at the parking lot. Every part of it looked well lit. At the top of some of the light poles he could see cameras shining down towards the pavement. Seeing them, he knew that this was going to be tough. They would be watching them. They would see them coming. They wouldn’t have a chance.
Jimmy looked back as well. “We have to do this. He will know. He will tell us everything.” He could still see Ross sitting across the table from him, drinking from his cup. He could still see him standing in front of him in the room, the little cell where they kept him locked up like an animal for almost a year. He could remember how he seemed to know more then, back before he knew anything himself. He has to know what is going on. He has to know something. Knowing this, feeling it, he knew that he was right.
Robert shrugged, letting out a huge exhale as he did it. “Then how are we going to do this? They’re going to see us coming. They’ll react when we do.”
Jimmy nodded, understanding what he meant. “They won’t if you can do something for us first.” He turned to Robert. “Can you made the cameras see the stars?” He smiled.
Robert thought about this and then understanding it he smiled. “I sure as hell can.”
Jimmy looked back to the building.
Brandon listened and shrugged himself. “Then what?”
Jimmy looked to his friend, having to bend around Robert some to see him. “Then you two are going through the front doors.” He looked back to the building. “Ross is going to be on the second floor, just down the hallway from the top of the stairs. Our goal is to get to him before he can get away. You two have to keep his security teams occupied long enough for Robert and I to get to the back of the building. You have to so we can get into the labs. We have to find him. We have to make him talk.”
Brandon nodded, looking back. “Sounds rather easy.”
Sasha now shrugged. “How do you know where he is?” She felt like she needed to ask so she did.
“I used to work here, remember.”
She nodded. “Right.” She looked back to the front of the building. A bold idea just popped into her head. She looked at the front door. The entrance looked large enough at least to her. Her plan just might work. “I have an idea of how to get through the doors. I have an idea how to cause a big enough scene to make sure that you both get inside.” She looked back to Jimmy and the others and gave all of them a smile. “It just might work.”
They waited to hear what she had to say.
14
It was another quiet night, just too quiet for Charles to like all that much. Since taking the nightshift he knew that it would be. He hated working nights. He hated the quiet, the dark, and the peace of night. Most of all, he hated that he said yes to taking the job. He should have stayed at the plant. He should have told EverSafe Security no. He should have done many things but he didn’t. The truth was he did it for the money. They paid him more, so in the end, they didn’t give him the choice. He just had to stick to it, and he did.
He walked behind the counter in the lobby and sat back in the chair. He looked at the three Closed Circuit Television screens on the desk. After a few minutes he even closed his eyes. He felt tired. He felt bored. He couldn’t wait for the night to end. After several minutes, maybe it was actually seconds, he opened his eyes and what he saw on the screens woke him up instantly.
“What the hell?” He sat up. He rushed both elbows to the desk and looked closer at the screens. He didn’t see the sidewalk. He didn’t see the parking lot. He didn’t see the front doors. Every screen was black. Every one of them looked dark. Seeing all of that, or better yet all of nothing, his chest clinched hard. “Now what the fuck is going on?” He looked down at the keyboard; saw nothing that would help him, so he looked back up to the screens. Seeing dials in neat and orderly rows along the bottom of each of them, he moved for them with both hands. He turned each dial. The screens stayed black. “Now what do I do?” He began to panic some. He was never good at trying to fix a problem. He just wasn’t the type.
Thomas Crain, Tommy for short to his friends, one of the armed security details for the labs, noticed Charlie out from the corner of his eyes, as he left the security office just under the stairs. By the look of him, even seeing him from behind, he looked nervous. He also looked surprised. He had to find out what was wrong.
“Anything happening?” He approached him from behind and stopped to his left, just behind the counter.
Charles looked up and turned left. “Something
happened to the cameras. I don’t know what.” He looked back to the screens. “They just went out.”
Tommy looked too. He shook his head. Seeing all three of them black, he didn’t know what it meant. “Did you do anything with them?” he had to ask. Charles was new there, only being there for a little over a week, so there was always the possibility that he touched something that he shouldn’t have touched. It could happen with anyone, he knew this, being that he was rather new there himself.
Charles shook his head violently. “I didn’t touch anything. It’s almost like they just disappeared.” He looked back up.
Tommy took the back of the chair and leaned in closer to the desk. Just as he came down, something caught his attention, just ahead of him.
A bright, very eye squinting light, flashed through the glass and came right at his face. Having to cover his eyes some with his left arm, he didn’t see what it was until it crashed through the glass.
The sound of breaking glass came next.
The sounds of metal crushing metal followed it.
The sounds of a car’s engine humming came last.
The car smashed hard through the glass, crashed through the glass doors, and came straight to the counter.
Charles saw it coming first. He was the only one that reacted.
He grabbed Tommy’s arm behind him from the chair and pushed him ahead of him as he ran from the counter.
They both fell to the floor just in front of the stairs, as behind them, the car crashed through the counter and smacked into the wall.
15
With the car revved up and with the brick on the gas pedal, Brandon put it in drive. With the front tire burning, both he and Sasha aimed it at the sidewalk. They held it and waited. When the time felt right, he nodded towards her and shouted, “Now!”
They let it go.
He and Sasha watched it fly up the sidewalk and smash straight through the front doors.
Glass flew ahead of it. The entire front wall of the building shattered into a burst of chards. The sound was intense. It echoed throughout the trees.
They followed the car as Brandon reached the lobby first. He was faster than she would ever be.
She stayed in her human form as she ran up the sidewalk and stepped onto the glass. She ran into the lobby.
He flew with a blur to the two men lying on the floor just by the stairs. He saw them quickly. He smelled them before he saw them.
The one wearing a dark blue uniform gathered his self first and sat up. A ringing sound echoed around inside his head. It made it spin. It felt even worse as he sat up.
Brandon grabbed him by his shirt and lifted him off his feet. He let his eyes flare red. He let his fangs show strongly from his upper lip. He smiled to the man feeling excited that his fight had just begun.
Tommy saw his red eyes glow. He saw his teeth. He grimaced with everything he saw. “Who or what are you?” he could only whisper. The ringing continued and it made it difficult for him to say anything at all.
Brandon didn’t answer him. He just marveled at what his red eyes could see. He could see the man’s blood flow through his veins. He could see his heart beat with a bright red glow behind his ribs. It looked like seeing an x-ray film. His blood actually looked like it burned with a red tint of light shining behind it.
Sasha stopped at the back of the car, and just to the right of it, down a long hallway stretching out from the lobby, she could see four other men running towards them fast. She could see the weapons they were carrying, and with this, she changed.
The eyes at the back of her mind came forwards with force. Instantly her pale white skin flared to a deep and dark black. Fur flushed through her blackened skin.
Charles sat up, and with all complete wonder, he watched her turn. He watched the deep black fur flow over her body. He watched both of her feet lengthen out into large and doglike paws. He watched her hands turn into two large and long claws. He watched a doglike snout protrude out from her face. He watched as she grew taller, stretching out to a magnificent size. He gasped from watching her change. He nearly lost his mind wondering what she even was.
The four men saw her change. They gasped seeing the now large black wolf now standing in the lobby. Fear of it all made them stop. Terror made them raise their handguns up to the monster and horror made them take aim.
Watching them raise their weapons, Sasha let out a huge and steady roar that seemed to echo the remaining glass above them with a thunderous bang. It even seemed to shake the very floor beneath all of their feet.
The four men pulled their respective triggers together.
Four, eight, twelve shots rang out.
Each bullet flew at her within a second of a second.
Expecting them, she moved to her right and with both of her strong hands, she clawed the wall near the back of the stairs. She then climbed the wall and moved onto the ceiling.
The bullets missed her completely. They flew towards the open front wall. They hit nothing until they smacked several trees across the parking lot towards the entrance road to the building.
Charles heard the shots. He watched the dog woman climb the wall. In total disbelief and having no idea what to do or what to think, he noticed two legs on his left. Following them up, he noticed a man holding Tommy by the collar of his shirt. Seeing the man’s face he nearly choked on his own tongue. He couldn’t believe who it was. “Brandon?” It looked just like him, but he wasn’t sure if it was or wasn’t. He didn’t know what to think.
Brandon heard the shots. He heard his name called. He turned to both sounds. “Charlie?” He looked down at the floor. He also couldn’t believe whom he saw. He of course recognized him instantly.
Charles didn’t know what to say next. With all of this chaos happening around him, who would? The only thing that came up he went with. “Brandon, how have you been?” His voice came out softly He didn’t even recognize his own voice. Shock, yes shock, he felt it in spades.
Brandon tossed the man that he was holding towards his right.
Tommy flew down another hallway running down the front of the building until he landed halfway down it with a loud and painful sounding thud.
Brandon didn’t watch him fly. He just focused on Charlie. He of course knew who he was, having worked with him before at the plant for EverSafe Security his former job. The job that he had before becoming what he now was. The job he never truly missed. “I’ve been well.” He bent down over his once friend. “A lot has changed. I met a girl.” He smiled showing his fangs.
Charles looked from the teeth back to his friends burning red eyes. “That’s good. I would love to meet her some time.” His mouth moved on its own, rambling, almost not seeing or hearing anything around him. If he could have pulled himself together he would have been shocked hearing what he was saying. He didn’t though. He was too far gone for that.
Brandon laughed some. “She’s right there.” He nodded his head towards his right.
Charles looked in that direction and saw the wolf climbing along the ceiling. He heard the gunshots. He heard the growls. He saw the fur. “She’s nice.” He blinked and turned back to his friend.
Brandon laughed. He heard several more shots and knew that it was time to go. “Got to go Charlie. It was nice seeing you again.” He turned. He saw the four men firing at his girl.
Charles watched him leave. He looked back to the fender of the car. He continued seeing nothing at all. In fact, he even passed out cold just after he saw it.
Brandon rushed fast. He blasted through the four men with everything he had.
The two in the middle of the group left their feet experiencing the full strength of his blur.
He flung those two into the others, and all four of them flew backwards down the hallway behind them.
He then watched them slide along the floor until they smacked into another wall just at an intersection several yards away.
Sasha watched her man. She watched him take out the four men.
She felt pride watching his strength. With the hallway clear, she jumped back down to the floor.
He came back to her and joined her by her side.
She looked at him and made a soft whining sound that sounded like a purr.
He looked up to her and smiled. “Like I said—just plain easy.”
He could almost see her grin.
Hearing new sounds of feet running towards them and smelling them coming to the lobby, together they moved. They headed down the hallway and headed straight to the sounds. They had to keep to the plan. They had to keep the armed security teams occupied while Jimmy and Robert went after Richard Ross.
16
Jimmy and Robert ran around to the back of the building to the left. They kept the building’s wall on their respective rights, and when they reached the back of it, they stopped. Jimmy looked around the corner first.
“This is a bad idea.” Robert whispered on the nighttime breeze. He looked back to the way they came and just then heard the sounds of a crash roar to them from the front of the building. Hearing it, he nodded. Sasha and Brandon must have started the fight.
“You agreed to do this.” Jimmy saw no one at the back of the building, and smelled the air. The coast looked and smelled clear, but now he felt worried. Not for what he didn’t see, but for what he just heard. Robert was beginning to get on his nerves. He didn’t know why he was against doing this. We have to find out what he’s doing, and we can’t do that just by guessing. We have to learn about everything and this is a way to do just that.
Robert nodded, but he didn’t agree. “We need the others Jimmy. We need the families and this is taking a gamble that we shouldn’t be taking.” He now heard a roar clearly coming from the front of the building. Sasha must have turned. The sounds of gunfire came next.
A Werewolf's Saga Books 4, 5, & 6 (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 2) Page 29