Looking out the window, Meg saw what looked like dark shadows in the distance and realized it was land. They were very close. Inwardly, she prayed for everyone; none of them wanted to die tonight. At her feet, Maze snorted loudly before standing and stretching his front paws forward and lifting his behind into the air. He looked at Meg with his smart yellow eyes.
“Well, big man?” She cooed softly to him, scratching his ears just the way he liked it.
“This time, you’d better darn well stay put when I leave you with mom.” She stared him in the eyes as she spoke. He let out a soft whine.
“Don’t give me that,” Meg scolded.
His thick paw reached up and rested on his best friend’s knee.
“I know you saved my butt back in California and I’ve said ‘thank you’ hundreds of times—in the form of steaks!” Meg grinned at her best friend. “But this time is different.”
Maze clamored up into the seat beside her and looked directly into her eyes, as if he really wanted to discuss this.
“Do you realize you’ve been shot by tranquilizers twice? And you’ve had wooden shrapnel exploded into your flank.” Meg’s hands gently ran down his shoulder where the injury had long since healed. If she searched through his thick coat, she could still find the scars, though.
Maze pranced in his seat then decided he wasn’t close enough to her. He climbed into Meg’s lap and licked her face.
She pressed her lips closed tight, not wanting to get tongued by her coyote and giggled at him before pushing his nose away and wiping her face with the back of her black sleeve.
“I love you too, you wily coyote. I don’t want anything to happen to you. You’re not a meta, you know.” She smiled at his eyes as they seemed to narrow reproachfully. “But you’re the smartest, strongest, bravest coyote in the whole world.” His tongue lolled out of his mouth, draped over his sharp teeth as he seemed to smile widely.
Meg couldn’t help but sigh happily as she hugged him close, burying her face in his coat and breathing deeply. Her coyote smelled like a mix of wild wind and fresh grass with a hint of canine musk. She kept him pretty clean, despite his efforts to roll in the dirt and plod through muddy streams. Sometimes it seemed as if he intentionally sought the most disgusting things to smear all over himself just to get a rise out of Meg. Or maybe it was because he loved his baths. She would bring him into the shower with her and use the handheld shower nozzle on him. That’s how she bathed him before they left. So, as she breathed, it wasn’t surprising to smell the strawberry doggie shampoo she doused him in earlier.
But there was another scent she caught. Frowning, Meg nuzzled her nose against his neck and sniffed. Cologne? He smelled like…she pulled away from her coyote and gave him an accusatory look. “Have you been spending time with Creed?”
Maze looked at Meg innocently, slurping his long tongue back into his mouth for a moment then let it flop back out—making him look as if he was grinning.
“You stinker! Whose side are you on anyway?”
“Oh, he’s on your side, that’s for sure.” Creed slipped into the aisle and into the seat beside Meg.
She couldn’t think of a single clever thing to say to Creed, so instead she turned to Maze. “Hop down, buddy. You weigh a ton.”
Maze grinned and licked Meg’s cheek once more before complying. Now she had coyote hair all over her black ninja costume. Okay, it wasn’t a ninja costume. But that gives you an idea of what kind of clothes she was wearing. They were all dressed in black. But once they pulled their ski masks over their faces during the attack, you’d be able to tell which was Meg. Just look for the skinny one with silver coyote hair all over. She absently swiped at the hair, wishing her brain didn’t freeze every time Creed came around. She felt like an idiot—a hairy idiot.
“I admit I was playing with him this morning when he was running around trying to dry off after his bath. He sure loves to play fetch.” Creed was smiling down at the coyote, “Don’t you buddy?”
Maze grinned and scooted closer to Creed’s feet so he could put his paw on his lap. Meg’s eyes bugged out of her head. Creed noticed. “What’s wrong?”
She looked back and forth between Creed and Maze and shook her head. “Nothing, I guess. It’s just…I’ve never seen him do that with anyone but me.”
“Do what?”
“Put his paw into your lap. That’s his way of showing submission, devotion. At least, that’s the interpretation I gave it since he only did that with me before.”
Creed grinned at Maze and rubbed his ears just the way the coyote liked it. “What can I say. We took a liking to each other. Didn’t I like him before?” he asked casually.
“Well, you didn’t dislike him. I just don’t think you interacted very much. Except for the times you shot him with a tranquilizer.”
“Times—plural?”
“Twice.”
“Yikes, sorry about that big man. No hard feelings, right?” He spoke directly to Maze, leaning over so they could talk face to face. Man to man…or something like that.
“Well, to make up for it, he ran my ass ragged this morning,” Creed winked obviously to Maze.
Meg just shook her head at the two boys beside her, bonding like the oldest of friends.
“Maze, I have to talk to Meg for a minute. You just hang back, okay?”
Maze whined a little, but obeyed by lying down at their feet.
Meg’s jaw couldn’t have dropped further. How did he do that? Maze only obeyed her that completely—and really, only when he wanted to.
“Listen, I wanted to ask you a question.” Creed turned to her, his expression turning serious.
“Okay.”
“There’s this girl at the Facility. I want to offer her the chance to leave with us.”
“A girl?” Meg felt her heart tightened painfully. What the heck?
“Yes, she helped me when I was recuperating. She even slipped me some pain meds to help with my migraines. I think she would be willing to leave with us. What do you think?”
Her mind spewed all sorts of thoughts, but she bit her lip and tried to calm down before speaking.
“Who is she to you?” There, that was a reasonable question without screaming, punching or even using one four-letter word. Yeah me.
“She was one of my doctors.”
“One of the doctors that performed those horrible tests on you? Taking samples from you like a common lab rat? One of those doctors?” Okay, my cool was slipping as evidenced by the squeak at the end of my last sentence.
“She’s different.” Creed frowned looking into his hands. Apparently, I wasn’t reacting the way he anticipated.
Well, I have news for you buddy! I’m no Mother Teresa! I’m not passive like Gandhi. I rage when I’m mad, and if you’re going to be around me, you’d better damn well get used to it.
Meg took a deep breath, before she spoke. “Is she worth risking the objective?”
“No, the objective comes above anything,” he answered decisively. “If there’s time. If we’re able to even find her. I just wanted to know what you thought about offering her an out.”
“Do you love her?” Oh, shoot. I can’t believe that just came out of my mouth. For half a second, Meg thought maybe, just maybe, she hadn’t just said that out loud. Then she saw the look of horror on Creed’s handsome face.
“Do I love her? What the hell kind of question is that?” he blurted in an irritated whisper, glancing around the plane to see if they had an audience. At this point, Meg didn’t care if the whole world was watching.
“If you expect me or my family to risk anything for her, I’d say it’s a pretty valid question.” She turned angrily in my seat to face Creed full on. Her heart was racing. Stupid adrenaline.
Creed looked completely perplexed. He shook his head for a moment before a smile crept across his lips. “She’s a little kid, Meg. True, she’s a medical genius, but she’s only like twelve or thirteen-years-old!”
Meg lo
oked around frantically for a hole to crawl into. Heat flew up her neck, stopping to pink up her cheeks before bursting out red ears. She wanted to disappear. Why can’t I have a cool super power like that? Why can’t I turn invisible? No instead I get to be all—Meg-like. Argh!
Creed was still smiling at the girl with the dark eyes. Meg resisted the urge to punch him in the mouth.
“In that case,” she tried to sound level-headed, “I think it would be great to help another metahuman escape.”
He chuckled and shook his head. “Great. Glad we got that cleared up.” He stood to leave, but stopped. He turned around and leaned over the empty seat between them. His breath was warm on her still-red ear. “You are so damn cute when you’re jealous.”
He moved with the grace of a tiger, even when dodging a magazine hurtling straight for his head. Meg heard him chuckling all the way back to his seat.
Maze looked up innocently at Meg and blinked. “Oh, you just zip it,” she grumbled. He yawned and laid his head back down on her boot.
Men!
Chapter 42 It’s Time
From the moment the wheels of the plane touched the tarmac on German soil, the atmosphere was crisp with anxious energy.
It was time to go.
Margo reached out her hands to the rest of them standing around the motel room that had been turned into a makeshift headquarters for the rag-tag team. They followed her lead and joined hands. Slider and Gavil exchanged uneasy looks, but allowed their hands to be held, joining in the circle.
“It’s time, dear Lord,” my mom began, head bowed in reverence. “It’s our time to fight for you. You taught us there will be times to turn the other cheek, and there will be times for battle. Tonight these children will walk into battle against a true evil. Please be with them, guard them and strengthen them. Help them wipe this world clean of the demon that lives to cause pain. And please, dear Lord, send them all back to me safely. If you are with us, no one can be against us. In your great name we pray. Amen.”
The room filled with “amens” from the rest of the room. Even Gavil mouth the word. and smiled inwardly at the thought they may have saved another meta. Slider, on the other hand, just nodded respectfully and released the hands of those beside him.
Creed had taken on the leadership role in our group. Gavil, though determined to achieve the objective, still kept his distance from Meg and her family. It just seemed natural for Creed to step up and take over.
To the room, Creed spoke. “Equipment check. Evan, you good?”
Evan shuffled through the duffle bag draped across his chest, mail-carrier style. “All good,” he answered.
“Everyone check your side arms.”
A series of clicks and shuffling snaps confirmed the soldiers’ weapons.
“Watches. Everyone set your clocks to my mark,” Creed held his own wrist watch up and glanced around the room at the others to be sure they were ready. It’s 7:45 on my mark…mark.” He called to the room. All seven metas adjusted their watches to the exact same time.
“Comm check, channel one.” He offered an up-nod to the room as he flipped a small switch on his earpiece and walked away from the group. Everyone scattered as far as the two-room suite would allow and turned on their communication devices to perform a roll call.
“Meg?” Creed’s warm voice vibrated in her ear.
He started with me, Meg grinned stupidly to herself before mentally smacking the giddiness out of her voice. Get a grip, idiot!
“Meg, here, check.”
“Gavil?”
“Gavil here, check.”
“Alik?”
“Alik here, check.”
“Slider?”
“Yep, check.”
“Evan?”
“I hear you loud and clear.”
“Farrow?”
silence
“Farrow?”
“I can’t hear a damn thing,” Farrow called even as she came stalking out of the bathroom, frowning at the malfunctioning earpiece.
Evan walked over to her, taking the device in his talented hands. “Hum…” he mused.
“Ev, can you get it to work? We have no time.” Creed had an eerie calm about him. Meg had seen him like this before, but it was always unnerving to watch someone she cared about switch off their humanity and function in soldier-mode.
“Oh, sure. I can fix it en route.” Evan grabbed a small box of tools to take with him.
“Excellent.” To the room Creed said, “Load up.”
All the metahumans walked with purpose toward the door. They had already said their goodbyes to Margo, but just as Meg was about to step across the threshold, Maze let out an ear piercing howl. She turned to see him bolting toward her, full speed.
“Maze!” She knelt to catch him in open arms. “Calm down, big boy. It’s gonna be okay. I’ll be back real soon, and then we’ll have a great game of fetch.” Maze licked her face like she’d been smothered in peanut butter.
“We have to go, Meg.” The strength the girl sensed emanating from Creed’s aura actually made her shiver. He was standing right behind her. She gave Maze one more big hug then ordered him to “sit” and “stay.” Her coyote whined painfully, but obeyed, inching a little closer even as he stayed on his haunches, desperate to follow.
Talk about déjà vu.
“I love you,” Meg said to her mother and Maze as she pulled the door closed. Wiping the tears from her face, she ran to join the others in the van.
Creed hurried to the driver’s door.
They drove in silence the seven blocks to the building that housed Zuverlässiger Transport, parked a block away and walked on silent feet toward the loading lot. It was a medium-sized distribution building. A couple dozen white vans sporting the company’s red stripe were parked neatly in the lot. Two vans were being loaded by burly, bearded men who were laughing and talking casually with one another.
Too bad they’re speaking German, I thought. Meg couldn’t understand a word they were saying. The metas all ducked behind the nearest van except Farrow.
She sauntered up to the men. She was the only one not dressed for battle. Farrow was wearing a form fitting black dress and high heels. She’d slathered on deep-red lipstick, too. The workers gawked as she made her sultry way toward them and in perfect German explained that her car broke down a block away and would any of them be able to please come look at it for her. She batted her lashes innocently. All four men ogled openly at her.
Meg glanced at Alik and saw daggers in his eyes.
Farrow led them back toward the van and rounded the corner. As she did, Alik, Creed, Gavil and Slider each grabbed one of the guys and held a cloth to their noses and mouths until they hung unconscious in their arms. Evan and Meg opened the back doors of the van and helped put the four bodies in the back, leaving the cloths draped across their faces.
“You sure that won’t kill them?” Meg whispered to her littlest brother as they ran to the van the men had been loading.
Evan grinned adorably. “I created it just for tonight. It has all the anesthetizing effects of chloroform without the risk of toxicity. I could tell you the chemical compounds I used, if you like.”
“That’s okay, Ev.” Meg climbed into the back of the van they were using as their way into the compound and plopped down next to a box of what looked like dry noodles. “I’ll just call it your ‘Sleepy Solvent’.”
Evan shrugged, his eyes glistening with excitement.
This time, Alik drove with Evan sitting shotgun. They didn’t want to risk their video cameras catching sight of Creed, Gavil or Slider, in case they were recognized by the guards.
Farrow was busy pulling on black jeans and yanking the dress over her head, unashamed of the tight black athletic bra she exposed as she dug through her bag for her long-sleeved black shirt.
Meg noticed the boys watching her out of the corners of their eyes. All except Creed, who kept his head down and focused on the .45 caliber in his lap. He reached into h
is bag and grabbed what looked like a metal tube. As she watched, he screwed it onto the barrel of his gun. A silencer.
“Hey Farrow, here’s your comm piece,” Evan said passing her the small device he’d just fished out of one of his pockets. “Try it now.”
Farrow put it right to her ear and turned her head away from everyone to muffle her voice. “Farrow, here. Can you hear me now?”
“I can hear you,” Alik’s voice echoed. Farrow smiled and gave Evan a thumbs-up.
Alik kept talking, “You were a natural back there, getting those meat heads to pay attention to you.”
Meg saw Farrow frown. “That was the plan.”
Alik was quiet. Everyone waited for his response with awkward curiosity. Meg couldn’t stand it anymore. “Okay Alik. Next time, you get to wear the dress, heels and lipstick.”
The van burst into laughter.
“All right, everyone. Turn on your comm and keep it open on channel two. Maintain silence unless necessary. We’re getting close. Look sharp.” Creed was peering between Alik and Evan to look out the front windshield. “Pull over here.”
Alik slowed the van and pulled off to the side of the road. There was a cluster of trees and brush providing good coverage. Slider and Gavil were already jumping out of the van, Creed held back a moment. His soldier’s calm slipped when he turned to look at the dark-eyed beauty of his dreams. Meg’s empath skill created a strong link between them. She could feel his anxiety, mixed with affection.
“I’ll see you soon,” she said and smiled reassuringly. He stared into her eyes as though desperately trying to memorize her before nodding once and gracefully leaping out of the van. The doors closed firmly, and they were gone.
Meg took a deep breath.
Through her earpiece, she could hear Creed’s slow deep breathing. He was running. Slider and Gavil were there, too, racing on either side of him and though she could hear them, her empath senses focused entirely on Creed, making him easy to distinguish. She tried to send him calming emotions and could feel him reaching out even as the van rounded the bend. The Facility’s massive front gates loomed.
Winter's Wrath: Sacrifice (Winter's Saga #3) Page 26