She did anyway. The metal sliced into her skin and she hissed in pain. He poked into the wound with his finger and popped out a small metal cylinder. “Holy shit.”
“Yeah. You got that right.” He went into the adjoining bathroom and flushed it down the toilet. “I’d love to have that thing analyzed, but we need to destroy it.”
Blood trickled down her leg in a warm oozing line she tried to ignore as she jerked her pants up.
“I can’t fucking believe this . . . I didn’t question anything, went along with whatever they wanted. Now they’re trying to kill us and taking video. Oh my mother fuck. Those pervs watched us have sex.”
“Honey, that’s the least of our worries right now. They’ll be here in seconds.” He ran to the door where he knelt on one knee with the gun drawn. “Why aren’t there any windows in this room?”
“I think Dyson likes it dark.” She followed him and stayed tight to his back. “It might be to our advantage. They might not even know this apartment is here.”
“I know how these teams work, and our odds aren’t good. This squad had to have info on me from my service, and they don’t give a shit about the law. They shot Spetrino. Fuck, it’s a perfect storm. They’ll have studied all the blueprints of the building and the ones around it as well. The guy I shot may even be bugged.”
Despair tried to overwhelm her, but she stuffed it down. Freaking out now wouldn’t help. “Listen to me. We have a way out, okay? And I have a feeling these guys don’t have the latest information regarding this building. You killed the first guy and that buys us some time. Ten to one, Muriel called the cops already. She’s got a knack for stuff like that. Dyson has friends on the force, and they’ll be here soon creating a shit ton of problems for these guys. As for us, we go out the real front door.”
She stepped around him and he caught her in his free arm. “I go first.”
Cold, nasty sewer water splashed Chloe’s calf muscles and slime coated her feet. Dyson hated people, fully human people especially, so his apartment had a hidden staircase that entered directly into the tunnels running beneath the city. He’d owned the building they lived in since the early twentieth century and with some well-placed “donations” to public officials, this end of the sewer system remained off all the current blueprints.
They moved as fast as possible, their words huffed out in low tones just above a whisper.
Greiff questioned her as they traveled. “Do you know where we’re going? Did Daisy Mae know about this?”
“Daisy didn’t know. I never told her because I thought she was a Norm. And no, I don’t know exactly where it goes.” Away from the apartment was good enough. Something bumped into her leg and she grimaced. “Dyson didn’t tell just anyone about the escape route. And he made me swear I’d never tell Daisy. We lived together for a long time. I thought she was my friend. And Muriel didn’t like Daisy, so no way in hell she’d have let her use the closet bolt-hole anyway.”
“Well, that’s good. At least we’ve got one advantage.”
Anger made a tight knot in her chest. “That bitch! I can’t believe she was spying on me this whole time, and that she had an ability. She could have done her own fucking nails.”
They passed the third ladder leading to the surface and she glanced at it with longing. Getting out of this muck couldn’t happen soon enough.
“How’d you meet her?”
“Ah, I think I was…um…Holy shit Jake. I don’t remember. It’s like one day she was just there, and I trusted her. She put some kind of whammy on me. She had to have.” Her right leg slipped out from under her and he steadied her. “Thanks. Do you know most of the time I paid her half of the rent? That sleazy witch. She spied on me and she ripped me off. That whore.” She kicked the water and almost fell on her ass from the force of her leg swinging, but he caught her again.
“Yeah, it’s amazing the lows women will stoop to.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dim pools of illumination provided by the light bulbs Dyson had strung up every six or eight feet showed the moss-covered walls and brackish water they waded through.
Greiff’s shoulders tensed. “Remember what I said about having an ex-wife?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, she got lonely and bored while I was still a beat cop working night shift.” He turned his head to peer at her over his shoulder, pain etched into his features. “A lot.”
“Oh.” She caught his free hand and slid her palm into it, lacing their fingers together. Indignant anger roared in her. What kind of woman treated a man like Greiff that way? His ex should be force fed something disgusting like live octopi with all their squiggly tentacles flailing around. What an idiot that woman was. “Well, I’m not a cheater.”
“Good to know.” He paused, gathered her to his side for a quick hug, and then resumed the punishing pace he’d set. “I never thought you were. There’s a connection between us, and it doesn’t make any sense, but neither does being able to smell people the way I can. I don’t understand it. But I feel it.”
“Me too.” She caught up to him and managed to kiss his cheek, the need to reassure him of how sexy and attractive she found him even more important than getting the hell out of the sewer. “I swear, I was never kissed until I met you. If we weren’t in this tunnel, I’d tie you up for some serious cowboy action.”
“How about reverse cowboy?” Tingles erupted at the words. “It’s one of my favorites.”
“Jake, you ask me like that, and I’m liable to give you just about anything you want.” Her nipples ached for his touch.
“Let’s get out of here so I can get to asking then.” He paused to kiss her hand and then surged ahead again.
Damn, the sooner they got out of here, the better. Sweat trickled down his back and into the waist of his pants in tantalizing rivulets. She needed to haul him into a shower and find all the different ways water flowed over him. “Hell yeah.”
For several minutes, they surged through the water in silence.
“So how did this guy—Dyson—know you weren’t a Norm?” Greiff’s words bounced off the arched brick ceiling around them in a distorted echo.
“Not too long after we moved in, I was doing laundry. And I decided to throw in the clothes I had on because they were nasty and I wanted to get a full load for my money.” Greiff shook his head and a low giggle burst free. “Hey, it’s not like I plan this stuff, okay? Middle of the night, I thought I’d be safe to wait down there and if I heard anyone coming, I’d just fade out until they left.”
“So you tried to go invisible and he could still see you?”
“Nah. You’re the only person who’s ever been able to do that. But he’s different too, right? So when he came in to do laundry, thought he was alone, and then I came out of the room later…a room he’d thought he’d been alone in, well, he put stuff together and asked me to demonstrate.”
“And you just agreed? I thought you were supposed to hide what you are from people.”
Here he went, interrogating her again. It was an irritating habit, but she understood his need to learn everything he could. Plus, he hadn’t ditched her alone in the dark. In fact, he’d protected her. “My friend Lucky recommended the building to me. I’ve known Lucky most of my life. He was at the camp too. But anyway, when I saw Dyson I knew he wasn’t a Norm. If you meet him you’ll understand why. But anyway, I signed lease papers with a management company and it all seemed on the up and up. I didn’t know Dyson owned the building for a like a year after I met him. He’s even more suspicious than you are.”
He snorted and shook his head.
“Well, he is. But anyway, he must have decided I passed muster and he told me about the entrance to the sewers.”
The steady drip of water and slosh of their footsteps as they travelled filled the silence for a few minutes. Greiff paused, looked over his shoulder at her, and frowned. He put his finger to his lips and listened for a minute before starting forward again.
“What’s the matter?”
“I thought I heard something. Don’t worry about it.” He squeezed her hand. “How many people like you and Dyson do you think are out there?”
She tried to yank her hand back, but he wouldn’t let go. “Don’t you mean people like us?”
No matter how much attraction burned between them, he had to get with the program and admit he wasn’t a Norm either. She halted her progress and water circled her ankles.
“Yeah. Sorry. You’re right, sweetheart.” He cupped her cheek. “People like us.”
“I don’t know. Hundreds? Who knows how many camps there were. Or are. And with the government entwined in this stuff too, there’s no telling how far this stuff reaches. Shit, they killed your partner.”
He nodded and frowned. “Let’s go. We’ll take the sewers as far as possible. And then we’re getting the hell out of this city. God, it stinks down here.”
They resumed their walk through the intermittent weak pools of light in silence until she remembered something important.
“But Greiff, Dyson is old. Really old. He isn’t part of the Professor’s stuff. He’s something else.” She bit her nails. “He’s never actually told me how old he is, but sometimes he says things, weird expressions, or refers to people who’ve been dead for hundreds of years. Like, he told me once that Ben Franklin was brilliant, but also a ‘pompous ass with the social skills of a common unlicked cub.’ I have no idea what that means, but it’s weird.”
“I think that means that Franklin was rather rude when he was a kid. I’ve read his autobiography, and—”
“You read Ben Franklin’s autobiography?”
“Yeah. Interesting stuff. But anyway, I think we’re proof that there’s more out there than plain humans, right?” The pressure of his fingers reassured her.
Mental pictures of Greiff bent over a book about Ben Franklin flitted through her head and she suppressed a laugh. Her Jake was definitely more than a pretty face.
She paused and he hauled on her arm to get her started forward again. Uh oh. There she went again, thinking of him as hers.
Too hell with it. She wanted him and was going to keep him. If he wanted her back. She cleared her throat.
“Yeah. And how many of them are like I was? Being tested or threatened with ending up in an institution? I was scared for years I’d be trapped and forced into a facility where they did all kinds of experiments on me and kept me locked up. I did what they wanted because I was scared.” Chills raced over her back.
“Sweetheart, they got you young and fooled your family, right? Told your parents you were going in for testing for gifted children or something, right?”
Muck wound around her legs. “Yeah. Exactly. Told me that my parents would reject me if they ever found out. God, they brainwashed me. Those sons of bitches.”
He paused near a juncture in the sewer. Tunnels opened to the right and the left. “I think you were part of an experiment, honey. They somehow got you set up with Daisy Mae as your roommate, they had you voluntarily going in for tests…Rebane said they’d come to get us because of the video they intercepted. I’m starting to think us meeting was a set up as well.”
Cold realization flowed in a steady stream. “Oh God. Greiff. What do we do?”
“Take the left tunnel. It smells worse than the right one. Probably gets used less.” He surged forward and the move jolted her shoulder.
Fear, anxiety, and sadness overtook her. At some point, Greiff was going to get really pissed off at her for dragging him into this.
“You’re on the right track.” A tall slender man slid from the shadows and into their path. His black eyes reflected the small amount of light around them.
Greiff shoved her back and aimed his firearm.
Irritation welled up in her and she put both hands on her hips. She wanted to trip him into the water, but he had a gun drawn. “How many times are you going to push me today?”
He ignored her. “Identify yourself. Now.”
The interloper held both hands up, palms out. “Name’s Dyson. And you’re down here because of my bolt-hole.”
She peeked around her lover’s back and wiggled her fingers. In the time she’d known Dyson, she’d never seen him so at ease and relaxed. Everything about his posture and demeanor suggested a being in their natural habitat. “Hey, Dyson. Sorry I called you paranoid that one time. I should have listened better.”
Dyson waited until Greiff lowered his weapon. “I forgive you. How many are there?”
“Probably a small squad. Less than a dozen would be my guess.” The tension in the air lowered.
“I always knew letting you and your roommate into my building would bring trouble,” Dyson chuckled, his white teeth flashing in the dark. Each one had a small point to it, even his incisors. “But, I like you. And it let me gather some intel on some…projects I’m interested in.”
“I can’t believe you were using me too. Everyone around me has some kind hidden agenda.” A hot tear escaped and zig zagged over her cheek. Maybe it was stupid to be so upset; Dyson was her landlord, not a close friend. They’d had pizza in the laundry room now and then, and he’d shown her the secret escape route from his apartment, but they didn’t borrow sugar or hang out watching movies. But feelings didn’t always make sense, and it hurt to know Dyson hadn’t been her friend just because he wanted to.
“I’m sorry, Chloe. Truly. But there is more at stake here than you realize.” Even in the darkness, she made out the contrite expression on his coffee and cream toned face. Dyson gestured to Greiff. “You trust him, or he wouldn’t be down here, correct?”
She nodded. A feeling not unlike grief moved through her. This was it; she was really leaving her old life behind.
“Wait here. I have some cleaning to do.” The dark skinned man strolled past them, his movements becoming more fluid and looser as he went. “You’re going to hear some disturbing things, but it can’t be helped. My bolt-hole has been discovered, and that’s not an acceptable situation.”
She and Greiff exchanged a look and he moved her a few feet deeper into the tunnel.
“Won’t be but a few minutes. Just a shake of the gator’s tail,” he called back to them as he disappeared from view.
Splashes and thuds echoed around them. Men’s screams rang out and the crackle of gun fire peppered the air. Inhuman roars accompanied wet, fleshy spatters. She crowded in close to Greiff.
“Uh, Jake, I don’t actually know what Dyson is. And I’m only standing here because I’m too scared to move.”
He hugged her with one arm and pressed the knife into her hand. “If he wanted to eat us, he would have already. Right?”
“I guess so.”
Minutes ticked by and the noises lessened until a final, terrible shriek caused every hair on her body to stand on end. Then there was silence until the splash of footsteps drew nearer and Dyson’s open, friendly face materialized from the gloom. He tossed a dismembered leg into the wall. “Well, that was fun. Haven’t gotten to fight a group of trained humans in years. Major Rebane’s men are better trained each time I engage them. Quite invigorating.”
An intense shiver racked her body and Greiff hugged her again and rubbed her arm.
Dyson, the sewer monster, waved his arm at them in the universal gesture for “come on.” “Follow me. I can get you out of the city.” The water splashed as Dyson turned and moved away. “And then I’ve an acquaintance who can get you out of the country.”
“Why should we trust you? How do you know about Rebane?” Greiff didn’t raise his weapon, but didn’t move either.
“You probably shouldn’t. But I just killed six men in less than five minutes. I’ve offered you no violence, instead I’m offering you my help. If you want to survive this, you have no choice but to trust me. The Major is a topic for another time and place.”
The low light flickered and dimmed.
“Hurry and decide your fate, Jacob Greiff. I have a backup system
in place to keep the lights on down here, but it won’t be long before the lights go out and you’re left in the dark with no means of finding your way out. Let me lead you into the light and perhaps answer some questions for you.”
The light bulbs flared super bright and then faded until they barely illuminated the space.
“Jake?” Common sense told her to follow Dyson and get the heck outta the underground, but she wouldn’t leave without Greiff.
“Yeah, babe. I know.”
Greiff led the way with one hand on her elbow, and she lurched beside him, the twists and turns of the day’s events sending her brain into an unending spiral, tired muscles screaming for relief.
“We’ll need money. Transport. Passports, although avoiding the border crossings altogether would be better.”
“The country?” She didn’t realize she’d spoken aloud until Greiff answered her.
“Honey, people from the government are trying to kill us.” He sped up and forced her to increase her speed as well.
Right. There was that. Chasing, running, being shot at.
Dyson going gator. Or something. She shuddered.
Time to move out.
Time to move on.
Chapter Eleven
The lights died for good halfway through their flight through the sewers. Collapsed and caved in pipes littered the way in a treacherous obstacle course. Slime and muck coated the ground in pools of stagnant water. In other places the depth reached to their knees.
Dyson held Chloe’s hand while he brought up the rear when it went full dark. By the time they exited into the basement of a warehouse, Greiff had lost all sense of direction. Even if they’d had flashlights to illuminate the way, finding their way through the warren of the city’s sewers would have been impossible.
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