by Amelia Jade
She tightened her grip on his waist as the sky lit up again, this time right over the top of them. Looking up, Garrin saw the dark shadows of massive forms battling in the sky, like gods from ages past, illuminated by the flickering bolts of pure electrical energy, or the searing torches of fire.
The whole battle happened in silence, which was perhaps the eeriest part of it all.
The gryphon shifter they were astride made a soft warning noise that easily penetrated the wind. Garrin looked away from the fight going on above him and followed the shifter’s gaze.
“Fenris,” he breathed as they broke free of the trees and streaked over farmland.
Ahead of them the rose the buildings of Fenris proper.
Like Cadia, there were very few buildings over three stories tall. Most of them were one or two story affairs that blended seamlessly together to create a landscape of black shapes, the outlines of which were only barely visible in the moonlight. Here and there yellow lights outlined windows, and flickering streetlamps gave vague detail to the layout of the city itself.
It was too dark to make out the specific details of many of the buildings, but every member of the team had memorized an aerial map of Fenris, committing to memory the location of their target building. Garrin didn’t have to point Andrew in the right direction; the gryphon shifter was already orienting himself, and the others followed suit.
Something about the city bugged him, even as they winged over it, preparing to attack their target. His eyes flew over the seascape of buildings below, trying to nudge whatever was bothering him to the forefront of his mind.
“What’s wrong?” Mia shouted from behind him as he looked left and right, trying to figure it out.
“I don’t know. But something is wrong.”
Very, very wrong.
A shriek from Andrew’s beaked mouth snapped him back to the present just as he banked sharply around a formless gray shape below. They were there, their target building just ahead. It was time to get his game face on.
He reached inside himself and felt for his bear, bringing it right to the surface. He wasn’t sure if he’d need the animal, but if he did, Garrin wanted it right at hand.
“Hold tight,” he called back to Mia and leaned forward as they dove for the Warden Prison, the gray of its roof rushing up to meet them.
***
Mia
She held on tight, air whipping at her ponytail, leaving her hair a mess she was sure.
Garrin’s muscles flexed and moved as he tensed. She could feel the power building in his frame as he readied himself for battle. His unmarked black T-shirt—a stark change from the white one with rank insignia he always wore—felt incredibly thin in the chill of the deep night. Mia herself wore several layers, including a clingy heat-retention shirt that fit snugly over her upper torso. She often wore it while whitewater rafting, in case she fell into the often chilly waters.
For most of the flight she’d discovered it wasn’t an issue. With her body pressed tightly up against Garrin, she’d simply sucked his excess heat up and stayed warm that way. Now that they were about to disembark, however, she was glad she’d bundled up.
“Here we go, get ready,” Garrin said, his powerful voice slicing through the wind with a minimum of effort.
They were also slowing, she noted, which began to reduce the near-constant whistle she’d become accustomed to. In fact, they were going slowly enough that her ears rang as they tried to adjust to the relative quiet now that they weren’t speeding across the night sky.
Andrew’s claws touched down on the gravel-covered roof, spewing little stones everywhere as he dragged huge furrows across it.
Garrin simply rolled off the broad gryphon’s back and landed on his feet in a crouch. Mia wasn’t quite so confident in herself, and Andrew came to a halt, allowing her to slide down his wingtip until she jumped the last few feet to the ground. Andrew was already shifting back into his human form by then.
Around them other bears were dropping from the sky, their mounts simply gliding slowly over the rooftop. The Green Bearets were silent in their movements as they all headed toward the door that led inside the Prison. All of them were clad in pure black, forgoing their usual white shirts that marked them as Cadian.
“Why the different shirts?” she asked Andrew as she followed him in Garrin’s wake.
The gryphon shifter glanced down at her, and seemed about ready to hush her into silence. Then he shrugged and relented. “Unmarked. Nothing to tie any of us back to Cadia. Remember, this is an unsanctioned raid.”
She nodded, grimacing once again at the reminder of what these men and women were going through for her and her brother. They risked torture and imprisonment, followed eventually by death, simply to attempt to rescue her brother.
It seemed silly in a way, because they were at war. So even a sanctioned raid would have the threat of death or worse attached to it. But it was the fact that the war was likely to be over in a few short hours that made it worse. Because if they were captured, they would never be paroled, and never return to Cadia. That was the price they were paying for coming along. Cadia would deny any knowledge of their existence, and would not mount a rescue mission for them.
On a sanctioned raid they risked death at the hands of their enemies. But if they were found not to be from Cadia, or supported by Cadia, then Fenris could choose to employ all sorts of painful torture methods, if they deemed their prisoners had information to extract.
And Mia knew many of the men who had come along were important enough to have such valuable information. She shuddered, and hurried along, determined not to be the reason anyone would get caught behind.
“Did anyone notice anything strange about the town?” Garrin asked as they rendezvoused at the door into the Warden Prison. “Something feels off. Very off.
“The lights,” Ava said.
Garrin frowned, and then Mia saw comprehension dawn upon his features, limited as they were in the dark, barely illuminated by the weak light above the entryway.
“There were so few. Even for this hour.”
Ava nodded, and the others began to peer out over the city. The Prison was a four-story building, and as such afforded them a great view of the rest of the city.
“Where is everyone?” one of the Green Bearets asked. “Why is the city so empty?”
“I don’t know,” Garrin said, and Mia shivered at the discomfort in his voice. “But I don’t like it. Let’s get in and get the fuck out of here.”
The others nodded.
She looked around as the last of the gryphons and Pegasi slid to a halt on the roof and reassumed their human forms.
“What about the dragons?” she asked as a pair of hulking shifters prepared to storm the door.
“They’ll join us,” Garrin said. Then he pointed at an unknown Green Bearet and one of the Pegasi. “You two are on lookout duty. Things are about to get real noisy in here. Hold for as long as you can, but don’t do anything stupid. Got it?”
The pair glanced at each other, nodded, and then stepped out of the formation.
“Okay, Luther,” Garrin said, not using ranks, in case anyone was listening. They had to officially be “off the books.” “Knock it down.”
Mia braced herself as the two bears nearest the door took a half step back, and then launched themselves at it. They hit with a tremendous bang, and the door crumpled around a horizontal section.
“Reinforced,” Luther muttered, rubbing his ribs. “Extra steel bar or something.”
“Is it going to be a problem?” Andrew asked, stepping forward.
Mia tried not to giggle as the Green Bearets glared at the gryphon shifter and hit the door again. This time the steel bar in the center gave way and the shifters poured inside in quiet deadliness.
“Let’s go. Prison is on sub-floor one,” Garrin barked as shifters stormed down the stairs. “Stay quiet for as long as you can, but when the alarm goes off, light them up.”
A chor
us of growls and other noises filled the stairwell.
Mia stepped toward the door just as something heavy hit the roof behind her. She spun, clamping a hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming in surprise. The little light there was sparkled off the snow-white scales of a dragon, the huge beast already disappearing into a snowstorm.
A moment later the little flurries dispersed into the night, and a wave of cool air washed over her as Asher stepped forward. Behind him came the red dragon.
Asher, she noted, was limping. Mia opened her mouth to ask if he was okay, but a powerful hand grabbed her shoulder.
“Stick with the plan, Mia,” Andrew growled and they headed inside. “Stop gawking at everything going on around you. You need to keep your head in the game. If that was a bad guy, the two watchers would have alerted us.”
Embarrassment heated her cheeks as Mia belatedly recalled the two shifters Garrin had detailed as lookout duty.
Shit.
Not even a full minute into the actual assault and she was already fucking up. Desperate to make up for it, she dashed ahead of Andrew and down the stairs, following the bear shifters.
Below there was a surprised shout, followed by several meaty slaps. Someone cried out in pain, and then suddenly electronic alarms began to sound. Flashing lights blinked on, lighting up every landing as she descended.
“That’s it, light ‘em up!” Garrin’s command voice ordered, booming up through the stairwell.
The Green Bearets abandoned any pretense of stealth and practically flew down the stairs. The gryphons and Pegasi were right on their tails.
Mia gasped as a landing ahead filled with the form of a strange shifter, momentarily blocking the way of the Pegasus right in front of her. The young woman—it wasn’t Ava, Mia noted—gave a high-pitched yell and launched herself at the bigger man.
The attacker deflected the first blow, but the rest came in such a flurry that in seconds his broken corpse flew back down the hallway he’d emerged from. Mia stared in shock, her legs carrying her forward until she could see down the hallway. Another half a dozen huge men lumbered down it toward them.
“Andrew, help her!” Mia shouted at the gryphon whom Garrin had appointed as her bodyguard. She’d wished Garrin could be it, but as overall commander he had to be slightly more mobile and couldn’t track both her and the others at the same time.
“I’ve got this,” the young woman snapped. She turned to face the oncoming shifters and let out a high-pitched warbling cry and walked forward, a lithe thing of beauty up against half a dozen brutal bear shifters.
Mia gasped as the attackers stopped when they saw her, coming to an immediate halt.
“Well come on then,” the woman taunted. “I don’t have all day.”
When none of them came at her she sighed. “Men.”
And then she went on the attack. The blows came too swiftly for Mia to follow, but first one, and then another of the much bigger, stronger-looking foes went down, bodies slumped to the floor or being bodily tossed through walls as the RAF shifter walked a path of destruction down the hallway.
“She’ll be fine,” Andrew said from behind her and gave Mia another shove, this one gentler. “Let’s go get your brother.”
Above them came the clattering of boots, and the dragons began to file down the stairs after them. Gathering her wits about her, Mia headed back down the stairs. From above her she heard the same young woman yell out again.
“Stay the fuck back, dragon-boy. I’ve got this.”
A proud snarl tore from Mia’s throat and she urged herself to move faster. The stairwell at the ground floor wasn’t closed off from the rest of the building. The stairs opened up into a broad lobby, and she saw a large battle underway, with shifters from both sides engaged as the forces of Fenris tried to contain the raiders.
“The dragons will fix that,” Andrew said, and they turned away from the raging fight and continued down the next level of stairs, deeper into the Prison.
Mia saw one of the Green Bearets go down, but just as she began to descend, Asher and his two companions appeared. Panicked yelps erupted from the Fenris side, though they were silenced by a deep noise from farther back in the lobby.
“Go!” Asher shouted. “We’ll handle their dragon.”
“Bring it on!” a powerful voice called.
“Are you sure about that?” Zeke replied as he exited out into the lobby.
Mia grinned as Dominick moved up next to them. “I mean, we did come for a fight,” he added.
The powerful voice she’d heard didn’t say anything in response.
Andrew chuckled from next to her. “I think he realized he’s a bit out of his depth now.”
She nodded and they continued down the stairs to the next level. She hopped over the door, which had been used as a weapon and was now embedded halfway into a Fenris shifter’s body, and tried not to vomit at the blood spattering the walls.
Bodies littered the corridor, and up ahead she saw Garrin finishing off another enemy shifter, hurling his broken body into a room.
“Over here, Mia!” a voice shouted, and she turned down a side corridor to see Major Jarvis beckoning her.
She pelted down the white-tiled hallway, ignoring the bright red blood streaks on it and the splattering of red on the walls. Right then the only thing that mattered was her brother.
“Trevor!” she exclaimed as she rounded the corner to a prison room.
Metal bars blocked her from him.
“Get him out of there!” she said, slapping Jarvis on the shoulder as she ran to the bars. “Trev. Trev I’m here! I’m here!”
The tall, lanky figure inside shook his head and looked up, straw-blond hair falling across his face. Mia gasped as the matted, dirty locks parted slightly, revealing the sunken eyes and bruised face of her brother.
His entire body was rail thin, clearly having been starved while he was there. Mia had never seen him look so weak before, and his clothing, though it was in tatters, hung from him as if meant for someone three times his size.
“Oh Trev,” she gasped.
Andrew stepped up next to her.
“Stand back,” he ordered, and took a grasp of the bars.
Mia watched in shock as the gryphon shifter flexed, and simply tore the entire rack of bars from the wall.
“This was never built to contain a shifter,” Andrew said with a snort of disdain as he walked up to Trevor and started removing his restraints. “They slapped this together for your brother, I imagine.”
“Not just her brother,” Jarvis said softly, and pointed to the other cells.
Mia followed his gaze to the left and right, only for the first time realizing that the room held more than just her brother. She counted four other humans.
“Get them free,” she snapped, pointing at the nearest cell even as she ran to Trevor and swept him up in her arms.
“Mia?” he asked in disbelief. “How is this possible?”
“I’ll explain on the way out,” she said. “But we have to go now. Okay?”
Trevor looked beyond her to the figure of Jarvis standing in the doorway and his eyes widened with fear. He pushed off of Mia and scuttled back into his cell, shaking his head.
Mia looked back and forth.
“What?” she asked, moving up to Trevor and squatting down next to him as he tried to curl up in the corner.
“We don’t have time for this,” Jarvis growled, but he stepped outside as Mia waved a hand at him.
“Trevor, listen to me. These are all friendlies.”
“No. No shifters,” he said forcefully.
Mia rolled her eyes and pointed up at Andrew. “That’s a shifter too, you dummy.”
Trevor turned his eyes on the gryphon shifter and as Mia’s words hit home he tried to push himself even farther away. “No shifters. Can’t,” he muttered, shaking his head, keeping his eyes closed.
Garrin appeared in the doorway. “Mia, we need to go. Now.”
�
�Trevor,” she said, ignoring her mate. “We’re here to break you out. These are shifters from Cadia, not Fenris. The good guys. They risked their lives for you. You need to trust them.”
But Trevor kept shaking his head, refusing to move.
“I’m gonna have to take him,” Andrew said sternly. “I’m sorry.”
“No!” she snapped. If Trevor was forcefully taken by yet another group of shifters, he might never recover. She might lose her brother forever.
Hauling back her hand, Mia shook her brother’s collar with her other one.
“Sorry about this Trev,” she said, and slapped her brother as hard as she could.
Trevor jerked, and anger blazed in his eyes.
“TREVOR DANIEL JAMESON,” she shouted. “Get your shit together and listen to me.”
Jade fires lit in his eyes as Trevor came back to his senses, anger burning out his fear for the time being.
“These men are here to help, and you will trust them. Do you understand me?” she whispered fiercely, sticking her nose up into his face, letting her own gray eyes ignite with fiery anger, fueled by her concern for her twin.
Trevor nodded. “Got it, Sis,” he said, looking past her.
“Are the others free?” she asked Andrew.
“We came for your brother,” the gryphon shifter said simply.
Mia snarled, hauling her brother to his feet. It was much easier than it should have been, given all the weight he’d obviously lost while in captivity.
“We are not leaving them here. These are other people’s brothers, sisters, husbands or wives. We are getting them out of this hellhole. Do. You. Understand. Me?” she snapped, moving forward until she was in Andrew’s face.
She wasn’t the gryphon shifter’s size, but it was clear by his reaction that he had underestimated the fury in her body, and the fact that when Mia drew herself up, she stood barely an inch under six feet herself. It was unlikely a woman of that size had ever stood up to him before, and it showed.
Andrew hesitated, and glanced toward Garrin.
Mia didn’t even have to see her mate nod to know.
“Okay,” Andrew said and she stepped back, letting the gryphon shifter move to the next cage.