by Mell Eight
Mercury returned his own spoon to his bowl as he stared incredulously at Dane. "You don't look scary to me," he said softly, aware that he was apparently hitting a very sore spot by continuing their conversation. "I like you," he finally admitted. "If you weren't too good for me, I would prove it."
"Too good for me? It's the other way around! I'm the son of a god so everyone runs away from me screaming in fear. I'm the one who's not good enough for someone as perfect as you! Mercury, I know all the negative stereotypes about dragons, but you embody none of them. You are proof that dragons are far better than the stigma they've been stuck with."
Mercury shook his head in denial. Surely Dane's words couldn't mean what his heart hoped they did. Yet Dane was leaning forward and Mercury felt his own body responding without reference to his brain. Their kiss wasn't earth shattering. Mercury didn't see fireworks or feel faint. The press of soft lips against his was just that, and yet it was so much more. Dane was kissing him! Dane, who shouldn't be having amorous thoughts about a lowly dragon, had chosen to kiss Mercury.
It was an affirmation of reciprocal feelings and that made the kiss so much sweeter. There would be fireworks and shaking earth later, Mercury knew, but for now it was enough to know that Dane liked him back. He pressed harder into the kiss, wanting to indicate his interest and excitement without words. Dane whimpered and tilted his head so they could get a better angle.
The door slammed open and Nickel hurried into the room. Mercury and Dane jumped apart, Dane reaching for his stew almost reflexively, but his cheeks were still pink and his breathing slightly heavy. Mercury's own breath wasn't exactly even either, but he tried to hide it from his kit.
"What do you need, Nickel?" Mercury asked.
"Miss Daisy was feeding Alloy and he burped. I thought you should know that the kitchen is on fire and the oven is melting."
Mercury jumped to his feet, but he was a touch slower than Dane. "I'll handle it," Dane said. He placed his hand on Mercury's shoulder as he passed and squeezed a little more tightly than was strictly necessary before letting go and hurrying out of the room to save the rest of his house from dragon destruction. They would finish their conversation later, Dane's touch told Mercury. Nickel cast Mercury a suspicious glance—his kit didn't miss much, did he?—before following after Dane.
*~*~*
The warehouse at four in the morning didn't look any different from any other warehouse at any other time that Mercury had ever seen. Still, Dane and Nickel were certain that the air dragons were being kept inside. Mercury hadn't had the energy to go through Jacobson's notes, but he trusted Nickel and Dane. He believed them even more when he saw the first high-tech security camera a block away. These were dock warehouses, places rented to sailors going crabbing in the bay. There was no reason for more than a cursory security system.
Water splashed behind them from the Chesapeake Bay, hitting the concrete cement wall of the long pier. The air smelled fishy, damp, and generally unpleasant. There were places to dock boats along the wall, but all the spots were empty. It was still dark out and there wasn't any security lighting. The moon was long set and dawn was at least an hour away.
Mercury let Dane zap the cameras. He was staying on his feet well enough, but his knees were still shaky. Mercury wanted to conserve his strength for later. Nickel had his game face on and was clearly ready for anything; Mercury could do no less, even though he still wasn't feeling his best. Dane's spell on the cameras was supposed to show a constant loop of the last twenty minutes instead of their bodies as they walked up to the warehouse. On the long wall closest to the water were three oversized garage doors, no doubt ordinarily used to store boats. It was a safe bet that they were firmly locked, as was the lone door on the short end of the warehouse. Dane squinted at the door, and not only did the lock pop, but the door slid open.
No one yelled in surprise inside. Mercury also didn't hear running footsteps as someone watching came to investigate. Dane waited to make sure no one was coming before stepping into the building first. Mercury felt a subtle swell of magic as Dane dealt with whatever cameras and other security measures were inside. Nickel hurried forward next, able to move faster than Mercury. He vanished inside only steps ahead of Mercury who was quick to follow.
The warehouse was completely empty. The floor was solid concrete, the walls corrugated metal except where the garage doors broke up the monotony. Mercury could see a half-dozen cameras along the roof, but there was no other sign that the warehouse was in use. The air smelled stale as if no one had been inside for a long time.
"This is the right place," Nickel insisted as he walked further into the room. His voice echoed in the empty space. Dane's magic ruffled Mercury's hair almost playfully as it swept through the room. It bounced back just as easily as Nickel's voice. A little too easily, considering how strong Dane was. Mercury called on his own magic, but instead of letting it sweep the room, he let it creep along the walls and across the floor.
The walls were plain metal, but the floor wasn't uniform. His magic rolled over cement everywhere except for the far left corner where it felt like wood. Mercury hurried over and bent down to feel with his hands what his magic was telling him.
"There's a trap door," he explained to Dane and Nickel who had followed him across the warehouse. The door was colored the same gray as the concrete and Mercury didn't feel any hinges or a handle. Either there was an electronic hinge underneath that they didn't have the switch for, or someone with magic knew how to remove the door.
"Let me," Dane said as he kneeled next to Mercury on the floor. His hands brushed over Mercury's against the door for a brief moment, sending a shiver down Mercury's spine that was completely inappropriate for the time and place, before they flattened against the surface. He pulled upwards, but kept his hands pressed flat with a touch of magic. The door came free with a screech of metal grating against metal. Dane tossed it aside so they could all look down. A stepladder was set up below them, leading down into a dark hole of indeterminate length. It wasn't wet despite its depth and the proximity to the bay, but a little bit of searching told Mercury that the construction crew had had a witch on staff when the concrete was poured. The spell was an old one; it might predate the enemy taking control of the warehouse, but there was no way for Mercury to be certain. "I guess we have to go down," Dane sighed. He was staring into the dark hole with a look of disgust. "Nickel, we need you to stay here and guard our retreat."
Nickel grimaced, but he didn't argue. He wasn't being shuttled off on a chump job. Mercury knew that and Nickel was also smart enough to know how important guarding their exit was, especially when they didn't know who else might be coming to deal with any air dragons hidden below. A rear guard was necessary. Nickel didn't have to like being left behind—Mercury could tell he didn't like it at all—but he would do it and do it well. Nickel backed away from the trapdoor, putting his back against the wall so he could see the main door, the garage doors, and the trapdoor without being ambushed form behind.
Dane stepped onto the ladder and began to descend. His magic flared and light appeared below his feet.
"Stay safe," Mercury admonished as he waited for Dane to clear the ladder.
Nickel grimaced and flexed his fingers, water magic swirling around him. "Let them try me," he growled. Mercury grinned at him and then stepped onto the ladder to follow Dane down into the depths of the warehouse.
The ladder was seventeen feet high, about one story, and Mercury was on the ground beside Dane quickly. Dane held a small ball of light in one hand, which revealed that they were in the terminating end of a long white hallway. The space was unadorned and otherwise unremarkable. They followed the hallway slowly, watching for any potential traps. It led underneath an adjacent warehouse, which made Mercury wonder just how large the facility might be, and eventually opened up into a pleasant sitting area. The walls were still a uniform white, but the couches were a tasteful shade of blue. They were situated around a low coffee table.
There weren't any magazines or coffee mugs lying around. In fact, if it weren't for the couches, Mercury would have thought the building to be long since abandoned. They had made more than enough noise opening the trapdoor, and stepping onto the hard metal of a marginally stable ladder wasn't exactly quiet. Someone should have come to investigate the noise.
"They've abandoned the facility," Dane murmured, echoing Mercury's own thoughts. "They've already got what they wanted."
"What about the dragons?" Mercury replied, fear tightening his voice. The enemy had wanted the dragons to create their magic serum. Now that their goal was complete, they didn't need the dragons they had been experimenting on.
Dane grimaced, no doubt his own thoughts echoing the morbid direction Mercury's had been taking. "There's only one way to find out."
The sitting room had two more doors along two separate walls across from where they were standing. Dane chose one at random and pulled it open. It led into a steel and glass lab that looked modern to Mercury's admittedly ignorant eyes, just like the labs in the last three facilities had looked. There were machines everywhere, although none of them were beeping or lit up like they'd been in the previous active labs. Dane tossed his ball of light towards the ceiling to light up the room. It was empty of people and dragons and there weren't any other doorways. Dane moved the light around to ensure they could see every corner. In the center of the room was an incubator with one white egg nestled into the lining. Mercury gasped and hurried forward, but skidded to a stop the second he came close enough to see what had been done to the poor egg.
Some idiot had drilled a hole through the shell. They were probably either planning to inject or remove something for one of their horrible experiments. What they didn't know was breaking the shell so heavily destroyed the magic that allowed the kits to grow properly. A small needle's pinhole wasn't large enough, but the one Mercury saw in this egg was the size of a silver dollar. The poor kit had died almost instantaneously, at least, and hadn't had to suffer any longer. Mercury turned away with a growl of disgust and stalked from the lab.
The other door in the sitting room was shut as well. Mercury flung it open angrily, but had to wait for Dane to catch up with the light before he could see what was behind the door. The light revealed another hallway, although this one was much shorter than the one where the ladder had been. There were five heavy metal doors on the right and blank wall on the left. Four of the doors had been left open, but the fifth at the very end was closed tightly.
They looked like cell doors, something Mercury confirmed when he glanced inside the nearest one and saw a small cot on one side of the five-by-five space and an even smaller toilet on the other side. He couldn't help glancing into each open door as he passed, just so he didn't miss anything, but they were all empty. Only the closed door at the end was different.
A heavy bar held the door closed. Dane helped Mercury lift it and toss it aside, but he let Mercury pull the door open on his own. Light shined into the small room, illuminating the same small cot and toilet. It also revealed a small figure wrapped in a threadbare blanket on the bed.
The figure slowly sat up and let the blanket pool around her waist. She had the white hair and gray eyes of an air dragon and the tight look caused by fear and torture that Mercury remembered from Nickel and Copper's faces when he'd first rescued them. The older the kit, the more scars they had accumulated in the facilities. The girl looked like she was also seven or eight years old, the same age as Mercury's older kits.
"They said you might come," she rasped. Her voice was beyond hoarse, as if she had been screaming for hours and days with no one to hear her.
"They did?" Mercury asked, hoping for a clue as to who had kept her here while also trying to act friendly so she would relax enough to trust him to bring her to safety.
She nodded in response. "They said they were leaving me here and either you would come and get me or I would die. They didn't care which, but they thought it would be interesting to find out whether you would find me in time."
"I'm glad we found you in time," Mercury replied, but he shared a sharp look with Dane as he spoke. The enemy had to be watching the warehouse if they wanted to know whether Quicksilver could save the helpless kit. She had been locked up and left to a horrible death of starvation all so the enemy could get a read on Mercury and Dane. Which meant they knew Mercury and Dane were inside the facility. They had to get back to Nickel, now, before something terrible happened. "It's time to get you to safety."
He held out his hand for her to take. Mercury wanted to lunge forward and grab her, then make a run for Nickel, but if he scared her now she would never learn to trust him.
"What's your name?" he asked when she hesitated.
Finally she pushed the blanket back and swung her legs over the edge of the cot. "I'm Zinc," she replied, "and I don't think I'm strong enough to stand right now." She put her feet on the floor, and then grimaced. "I've been alone for a very long time."
There was no telling when they had abandoned the facility. It had been twenty-four hours since Dane had killed Jacobson and almost four days since Dane had snatched them all from the woods. Zinc was just a kit and she had been deprived of food and water for far too long. Of course she didn't have the strength to stand.
"Do I have your permission to carry you?" Mercury asked, hoping that none of his impatience leaked into his voice.
"Yes," she whispered haltingly. "Please get me out of here."
Mercury stepped forward and gathered her into his arms. She was far too light for a kit of her age, but his weakened legs still protested. Despite that, Mercury grit his teeth and carried her out the cell door, down the hallway, and out into the sitting room.
"There's magic in the air," Dane warned with a hiss when Mercury would have continued blindly hurrying to the hallway that led to the ladder. Instead he froze in place and let his magic search out what his eyes couldn't see.
There was magic in the air, he quickly confirmed, and it smelled destructive. Like a bomb, his brain supplied unhelpfully.
"I think we need to run," Mercury gasped, following his words with actions. His legs found new strength as he dashed through the sitting room and into the long hallway, Dane hot on his heels. The magic continued to swell around them, but it soon became mixed with more familiar water magic. Nickel had fought or maybe was still fighting above them. Mercury's legs moved even faster as fear for his kit buoyed his adrenaline. He reached the ladder in record time, but he couldn't climb with Zinc in his arms.
"I'll go first," Dane said. He climbed up the ladder and vanished through the trapdoor above.
The ground started shaking underneath Mercury's feet while he waited for Dane to reappear. It took a few seconds, during which time Mercury's heart started beating double time. What had happened to Nickel that Dane was taking so long? But then Dane reappeared. He was lying on his stomach with his head and arms through the trapdoor.
"Pass her up," he called. Mercury lifted Zinc upwards. She reached for Dane until their hands clasped and Dane pulled her up and out of sight. The floor was shaking even more now as if an earthquake was rumbling by. Water dripped down from the trapdoor as Mercury started climbing the ladder. It was wobbly, rocking side to side with the movement of the earth. He had to shift his weight to compensate so the ladder didn't tip, which made it even harder to climb. He tried to hurry, but he also didn't want to slip.
Dane's head reappeared above Mercury when he was only halfway up the ladder. He held his hand out for Mercury to take once he got high enough to reach. Dane's light was flickering as the earth-shaking magic continued to grow. The light abruptly went out just as the most violent shudder yet rippled through the floor. The ladder tipped and Mercury gasped, unable to see where to put his feet to keep himself upright. He lunged upwards blindly, grasping for Dane's hand or anything that would get him out.
For a few seconds, he was certain he was dead. He was going to fall hard on the cement floor below, the ladder wo
uld fall on top of him, and then the ground would collapse and bury him in an unmarked grave—unless the water from the bay rushed in and drowned him first. There was nothing but air beneath his fingers until, suddenly, skin met skin with a hard clap. Fingers clasped around his wrist, and Mercury couldn't help desperately digging his nails into the hand holding him up.
"I've got you," Dane gasped. "Just hold on."
There was light above him. It illuminated Dane's face, wild even with his glamour in place as crazed fear twisted his features into something almost alien. It also showed the open square of the trapdoor. Dane pulled Mercury upwards until Mercury could reach out with his free hand to grasp the edge of the door and finish pulling himself safely away from the long drop below him. He collapsed into Dane's arms when he was back on the solid concrete of the warehouse floor. His arms wrapped around Dane's waist involuntarily as he held on tightly and panted for breath with his eyes squeezed closed.
It took him a few long seconds to realize that he wasn't the one shaking. Yes, he was still shivering in remembered fear, but the warehouse itself was swirling with the destructive magic that had taken down the ladder and almost killed him.
"We have to go!" Nickel yelled—not for the first time, Mercury realized. He pulled away from Dane and pushed himself to his feet, firmly ignoring the way his knees and hands were trembling. Dane also jumped up. He bent down to grab Zinc, who had been sitting at Nickel's feet while Dane rescued Mercury. The door was too far away, given how strong the magic around them had grown. Dane waved one arm and the nearest garage door was flung back. Mercury heard it splash into the water of the bay and he hurried after it. He stepped outside and kept running. Metal screeched and Mercury heard the low rumble of the ground collapsing, which only made him move faster. How far until they reached the outside of the spell's zone of destruction?
Dane came up behind him, wrapped his arm around Mercury and grabbed Nickel, and magic pulled them away.