Jaelle stood there, chest heaving and blood dripping down her face in rivulets. Could it really be the Hunters coming to get her? But how could they get through the gates?
She didn’t know, and she supposed she shouldn’t care until she was safe. At the moment, her first concern needed to be getting out of the facility.
“Doctor!” she called, trying to sit up. “Doctor, he’s gone, get in here!”
It took a few moments, but there was a shuffling sound in the next room and then the woman slowly peeked around the corner.
“What happened?” she asked. If Jaelle was feeling more like herself, she would have congratulated the woman on her survival instinct.
“There’s some sort of attack outside. Come on, we got to get out of here while we can.”
“But you can hardly even move!” she objected.
“Well, I’m just going to have to try real hard then.”
“Are you serious?”
“Do I look not serious?” Jaelle shot back.
The woman’s fear seemed to fade and she nodded resolutely. “Fine, then. But we’ll never get out with you in this condition. Wait here.”
Jaelle tried to rise, but only barely managed to sit up with her back against the shattered glass of the cabinet. “Sure. But only because you asked so nicely.”
The woman crossed over to one of the intact cabinets and rooted around for something. Or several somethings apparently. A few minutes later, she returned to Jaelle’s side with several vials and a syringe.
“What’s all this?” the Aberrant asked, somewhere between curious and concerned.
“What I call a get up and go.”
“Could you be mildly more specific if you’re going to be injecting things into my body?”
She smiled and loaded up the first liquid into the syringe. “Oh, you know, some epinephrine, some adrenergic bronchodilators, a little bit of actual adrenaline. Prepare for a bit of a head rush.” She plunged the needed into Jaelle’s arm and pressed down on the plunger. “You also might feel a bit short of breath, but the olodaterol is supposed to help with that. Just try not to panic.”
And so Jaelle entrusted a stranger to inject the vials into her. The effect was almost immediate. She began to sweat, she could feel her heartbeat pick up, and her senses started to return to normal.
It was like she had been holding her head under water for so long that she had forgotten what it was like to see, hear, and smell. How did humans live this way?
“You ready?” the doctor asked, offering a hand.
Jaelle nodded and took the extended limb, letting the woman pull her up to her feet. The doctor slung an arm around her waist, and together the two of them limbed out of the reinforced double doors of the infirmary.
Jaelle could hear the cacophony of battle as soon as they were out the door. Screams, roars and even gunfire rattled off like it was an actual war.
There wasn’t anyone around, but Jaelle was willing to bet that wouldn’t last for long. Especially since they needed to get out, and out was probably where the battle was taking place.
“We could always just hide until all this blows over. Even if your friends lose, the survivors should be too weak to put up much of a fight.”
“Normally, I would be all about that, but we have to get out before Creed finds me. He’s determined, and if he loses the army that he build up here, then he’s going to be very peeved at me.”
“What are you talking about?” the woman countered. “This place has always been the sacrificial lamb. All this is just happening a little ahead of schedule, from what I’ve overheard.”
“Wait, what are you talking about?” Jaelle snapped.
“Well, I can’t be sure because all I’ve done is eavesdrop as I patch people up, but Creed isn’t alone. All of this was supposed to be a distraction because whoever his allies are have been working on the other prison. He was going to take the strongest of prisoners from here and travel with them up there to amass his forces to take on the Clan Leaders in one fell swoop. The ones he left behind were to make some ridiculous ransom demands and while everyone was paying attention to this place and sending out their forces, he’d enact his revenge.”
Jaelle’s stomach heaved. Of course, there was something else. If there was one thing Creed loved, it was his ridiculously convoluted plots and plans. It made her wonder if he had planned for her to show up at this facility or catch up with her somewhere along the way.
“I have to tell Bradley,” she gasped, picking up her pace to shuffle forward.
“Whoa, easy there. First, we need to get out of here, and then you can tell Brad-whoever whatever the hell you want.”
“Right.” The drugs were still pumping through her at locomotion speed and she felt her blood rush through her veins. Although she managed to straighten, Jaelle definitely appreciated the other woman’s arm around her waist.
They stumbled along through halls and door, past open cells that may have once held hardened criminals but now stood completely empty. It was mildly ominous, but Jaelle tried not to think about it as they stumbled along.
They reached the final hall where the exiting area was. Normally there were two sets of electronically locked door that a guard would have to buzz an inmate or employee through, but both of the barriers were completely open, and one of them even looked to be hanging off of its hinges.
“Come on,” the doctor urged. Jaelle noted that she should learn the woman’s name sometime. “We’re almost there.”
“This feels a little too easy, doesn’t it?” Jaelle murmured, looking around with increasingly clearing vision.
Almost as soon as the words were out of her mouth, a trio of men in guard outfits burst through a side door, half dressed in some sort of riot gear. They skidded to a stop almost as soon as they saw the two women and Jaelle felt her stomach do another acrobatic move that probably wasn’t good for her long-term health.
“Who the hell are you?” one of them asked, moving forward.
“I’m the doctor of this facility. This is one of my nurses. You understand us wanting to get out of danger’s way, wouldn’t you?”
“You should get back to the infirmary.”
“Are you kidding me? That’s possibly the least safe place we could be right about now. It’s full of drugs and all sorts of things that will make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, so where do you think opportunistic and recently freed scumbags are gonna go?”
“Oh.” Two of the men looked like that made sense, and one of them even started to rush past the women to go from where they came, but the tallest of the trio regarded them skeptically.
“Wait. Aren’t you that girl? The one that the Aberrant is obsessed with?”
Uh-oh.
Jaelle didn’t wait for him to put two and two together and rushed forward, her legs shaking. She slid at the last minute, her foot connecting with the man’s knee.
He cursed and stumbled backwards, which caught the attention of the other two men. Jaelle turned to them as they rounded on her--forgetting about the drug free for all in the med room.
Well, one of them forgot. The other looked from Jaelle to the hallway the women had come down before dashing off.
“Thank God for junkies,” Jaelle mused before shifting.
Except, she didn’t quite shift all the way. She had an animal in mind, but as she began to slide into their body, she lost her concentration and ended up forgetting what she was doing in the first place.
Her jaw extended, and fangs growing in quickly. Her nails became long and pointed, but right around when her spine would start changing, everything stopped.
She didn’t have time to complain, however, because the prisoner who had stayed was nearly on top of her.
He was falling into half-shift, as well, although his was far less random and grotesque than what Jaelle could see of her own mishmash of parts. His claws raked the air, aiming to rip out at least one vital organ or another. Jaelle dodged to the side, and brough
t up her arm to jab at his privates.
But she didn’t seem to have an arm anymore. At least not in the literal sense. Instead a thick, treelike elephant leg hung from her shoulder and slammed into the crotch of her attacker. She didn’t recall thinking about an elephant, but she wasn’t exactly complaining.
In fact, she was almost grateful. She straightened, giggling slightly as sweat poured down her brow.
“Watch out!” the doctor cried, pointing to something behind Jaelle.
For being so hopped up on adrenaline and whatever other drugs were in her system, the Aberrant turned too slowly. Strong arms wrapped around her throat and she was yanked back into a strong chest.
She could feel his bicep squeeze against her throat. It seemed the prisoner who had taken a direct kick to his knee had recovered and wanted a little revenge. Well, that certainly wouldn’t do at all.
She laughed again, but it was much more manic a sound than it should have been. He wants to crush my neck, huh? Well, what would happen if her neck got a lot less… humany? Is that a word? It seems like it probably isn’t, but she didn’t quite care.
Instead, she pictured a snake in her head. How it’s long, sinewy muscles stretched and tensed, how it’s smooth, thick skin protected it. It took a few beats, but her head slowly started to extend higher.
The Shifter holding her didn’t realize it at first, no doubt concentrating on squeezing her trachea as hard as he could, but when her head grew level with his, he let out a shout and tried to stumble backwards.
But it was too late. She twisted and her neck thrust forward, teeth burying themselves into the flesh around his vital arteries. Blood filled her mutated mouth, coppery and entirely too hot, and when she finally pulled back, the prisoner crumpled to the ground. Very, very dead.
Her body slowly began to return to normal, but it was a far less smooth transition than it should have been. She guessed that was all the drugs. “I…I feel like I should probably be a bit guilty for that. But I’m not.”
“He would have killed you, or worse,” the doctor said, taking a step toward her. “Mercy is only for those who would give you it in kind. Anything else is just self-serving benevolence.”
“Self-serving benevolence? That’s catchy.”
“I try my best.” Jaelle’s eyes flicked to the man she had elephant kicked in the crotch. He was alive and conscious, but seemed very preoccupied with holding his privates and puking his guts up from the pain. “Hey, you,” she said, pointing with a hand that was shaking so hard it might as well be vibrating, “I’m giving you mercy. Try to remember it the next time you’ve got the upper hand.”
The man didn’t even look up, but Jaelle didn’t know if he could. It wasn’t the first time she was happy that her sex organs were on the inside and she doubted that it would be the last.
The doctor reached her again and wrapped an arm around her waist once more. Although Jaelle could probably do without it, she appreciated the support.
She was a strange maelstrom of conflicting sensations. Par of her felt so chock full of energy that she could slay every prisoner singlehanded, or… elephant-handed, apparently. But the other part of her liked to remind the Aberrant that her limbs were all trembling, perspiration was pouring down her body, and her head was pounding with her own blood pressure. It seemed that the doc’s way to flush her system faster and get her fighting fit for their escape could also possibly kill her.
But what a way to go, right?
She howled as if that thought was the most hilarious thing she had ever heard.
“You wanna share the joke?” the doctor asked, pulling Jaelle past the double set of door and toward the main entrance that lead to the yard.
“Uh, I’m pretty sure it’s only funny to me. And that might or might not be because whatever you shot me up with is frying my brain.”
“I mean, that’s possible. But cardiac arrest is far more likely.”
“Oh, fantastic. That sounds like a kicker of a good time.”
“If that happens, there won’t be any kicking going on at all.” Jaelle felt like the doctor was trying to be funny, but she didn’t know the strange woman well enough to tell. “Come on, we’re almost there.”
The intense sounds of battle only grew in volume as they grew closer to the exit, step by step by step. Jaelle wasn’t anxious to figure out how they would get through that particular shindig, but that was an issue for future her to handle.
But future Jaelle became present Jaelle far too quickly. in her opinion, and she soon found herself leaning against the final door, listening intently to the cacophony outside.
“That sounds terrifying,” the doctor said, her gaze flicking to Jaelle. It was only then that the Aberrant noticed that the woman had barely healed bruises around one of her blue orbs and a cut over the other eyebrow. It seemed the prisoners were none to gentle with their healer. No wonder she was so anxious to get away. It would only be a matter of time before something went too far and Creed or one of his minions accidentally killed their only medic. “You sure that hiding somewhere plan isn’t still a possibility?”
“I mean, it’s always a possibility. But it’s one where we stand the risk of the inmates winning and we’re in the same situation all over again, or they’re defeated, but Creed finds us first. If that happens, he’ll kill you and either murder or take me. I’m not quite sure how far I’ve pushed him on his murderous rage scale today.”
“Right. So, escape it is. I’m sure you figured this out already, but when it comes to fight or flight, I’m much liable to perform the latter.”
“What? No. I had absolutely no idea.”
The doctor snorted. “What can I say? I’m just a simple fox Shifter. I can’t out-strength most brutes. So, I either have to outsmart or outrun.”
“You’re… you’re a fox Shifter?” Jaelle breathed, her head rushing yet again.
“Yeah. Um, why are you staring at me like I grew a third head?”
Hundreds of thoughts and images filtered through Jaelle’s mind. Her mother taking her far away from the city she was born in, selling everything she owned to afford their escape. The way she would swear to protect Jaelle as long as she lived. The often harsh but invaluable lessons the woman taught her.
The Aberrant couldn’t say if it were the drugs, or her weakened state from being imprisoned in the cold room. But suddenly she knew without a doubt that she needed to protect this woman.
“When this door opens, I want you to shift and run to the left. There’s a small crack in the fence that you should be able to scurry through.”
“What? What about you?”
“I’m going to be a distraction. Don’t worry, I’m very good at that. I think this is like the… third time I’ve had to do this?”
“You can hardly stand on your own and you expect me to just leave a patient behind?”
“First of all,” Jaelle said, holding up a waving finger. “I am an Aberrant and I can take care of myself. Secondly, I realized that I very much need you to live.”
“Why? You don’t even know me.”
“I dunno,” Jaelle drawled, wiping the pouring sweat from her brow. “Personal reasons. The drugs.” She didn’t want to say that this was finally her chance to save her mother. To rescue the fox she had once abandoned when she was a child and had no other choice. “Either way, you run, okay?”
“All right. Well, whatever you say. I suppose I should trust someone who managed to survive that man’s interest for so long.”
“Good call.”
“On the count of three, then?”
Jaelle nodded. “Sure. Sounds like a plan.”
Although her words were assured, Jaelle the slightest bit of doubt slipped through the edge of her drug-hyped mind.
“One.”
She brushed that away, however and focused on only her need to right her past wrongs.
“Two.”
It was time to close a chapter that she had never had the chance to before. And
maybe change the ending while she was at it.
“Three!”
Chapter Twelve: Battle Royal
Hearing the fight was one thing, but seeing it was another entirely.
It was like someone had freed a zoo. There were bears, lions, wolves, cayotes, pretty much everything one could think of when fangs. Those who had smaller forms were fighting in half-shifts or with weapons, brandishing guns, clubs and she even saw someone wielding the severed arm of a bear.
A bear!
Jaelle’s breath hitched and she worried that she was seeing Bradley’s grizzly end -no pun intended—but she pushed that out of the way as she heard tiny, scampering paws running to the left. Right, the doctor. She had to save the fox Shifter.
Who knew, maybe in doing so, she would help what she assumed were Hunters coming to free her, even though the rescuers’ numbers were far greater than what Bradley had had in his party last she knew.
It was hard to push back her thundering heart and the blood rushing past her ears, but she called up a singular image into her head. One that would distract as much as it would terrify. It was more difficult than she thought, like her mind was slick with oil and trying to wriggle out of her grasp while going a million which ways. She didn’t have time to be patient, or slow her breathing, so she bore down with all she had until her form began to ripple.
It hurt as her body rapidly expanded upwards, like she was a teenager testing her limits all over again. She was growing far too quickly, even by her own standards, and she knew she was going to feel the consequences later in excruciating detail.
Joints popped, bones creaked, flesh tore, but in the space of a breath, she was towering over the masses as none other than the Wendigo she had faced off with so long ago.
She gave herself the briefest of reprieves to take in a gasp of air. The last of the wolfsbane haze fully dissipated, leaving her with only the accelerating drugs in her system. Collecting her breath, she gathered up enough for a roar.
The sound ripped from her throat and rattled the very earth beneath them. Almost comically, the entire battle ground to a stop and everyone stared up at her.
She let the moment hang in the air before taking a single step forward. That spurred them to life and all hell broke out.
The Aberrants Box Set (Books 1-5) Page 44