Heartfelt

by Lynn Crandall

Without waiting for Asia’s nod, he climbed lower and jumped to the ground, landing with a soft thud. Then she watched him creep up silently behind the guard.

  She held her breath as Conrad clapped his hand over the driver’s mouth and wrapped his arm around his neck. He held the position for a brief few minutes until she saw the driver’s body go slack.

  Conrad motioned for her, and she dropped to the ground beside the tree trunk. She sprinted to his side and helped him carry the driver into the trees where he’d be out of sight.

  Swiftly, Asia pulled the duct tape and two zip ties from her backpack. She covered his mouth with the tape and secured his hands and feet while Conrad donned the guy’s uniform and the lanyard with a security card from around his neck.

  “I suppose you saw this coming?”

  “I did. My plan fell into place when I saw the truck, which I suspected would be coming along.” He gestured to his uniform and card. “We needed this.”

  “You could have told me.” She frowned at him, but secretly grateful for his special ability.

  “Sorry. Let’s get going. Follow me.”

  He led her to a main door, where he slid the security card through a reader that unlocked the door. They stepped into a small foyer and walked to the guard behind a desk.

  The guard stood and eyed them. “Do I know you?

  Before the guard could even twitch, Conrad jumped the desk and knocked him out. “Hand me the ties and duct tape.” The guard secured, Conrad grabbed the guard’s radio while Asia checked the monitors in the console under the desk.

  “What is this?” She pointed to what appeared to be a hospital room, filled with people in beds. “Just like Michelle’s glimpse.” It wasn’t fear that made her hands tremble; it was anger and concern. “What if my mom is in there?”

  “If she is, we’ll get her out.” He peered close to the monitor. “Do you see her?” He stood back and let Asia get closer, all the while scanning the room and hallways.

  “No. I don’t know. It’s too hard to see.”

  “Let’s find this room.” He leaped over the desk and Asia followed. “This way.” He trotted down the hall, peeking through windows in the doors at each room they passed. “Equipment, medical supplies. An office.”

  Frustration burned in her gut. “I don’t like this. Where are all the workers?”

  Without answering and without stopping to search for the right room, Conrad turned up the volume on the radio. Conversations between workers sounded like typical work exchanges. “At least if an alert goes up we’ll hear it.”

  Ahead of him, Asia lifted her nose. Her heart thudded. “I think the people are near.”

  Conrad agreed. “I smell them, too. There’s also a whiff of chemicals. And I hear voices.”

  They reached another room and looked in.

  Asia looked through the window in the door. She didn’t see any workers in the room, but she saw people lying in beds. A large machine stood in the center of the room, and tubes running from it were hooked to IV bags on stands beside each person.

  “They’re all men,” Asia whispered. “Twenty of them.”

  Conrad sprinted inside the room. He nodded to acknowledge he’d heard her but he was busy looking through drawers, putting vials and bottles in his backpack, and reading charts on tablets.

  “This is not a drug study,” he told Asia. “It’s implantation of a device that delivers drugs directly into their bloodstream and some kind of drug therapy. Your mom’s not here. Let’s move on.”

  They found more rooms with men hooked up to a machine, some with workers in lab coats milling around the room, checking on patients.

  Asia and Conrad turned into a stairwell, all the while listening to the radio for danger, and raced up to the next floor. Asia raised her nose for scents again. She froze in place. She tested again, teasing apart a variety of scents. “My mom is here.”

  She sprinted toward her mother’s scent, Conrad just behind her, scanning the halls and rooms for workers. When she reached the room she deduced was where her mother would be, she peeked through the window. She dropped her head and held up two fingers to Conrad. He nodded and gestured inside. Adrenaline burst through her body, ready to eliminate the obstacles to her mother.

  Slowly, Conrad opened the door. The two people either were too busy to notice or had no peripheral vision, she guessed, because they didn’t even turn around. Swift and stealthy, Conrad and Asia were behind each one, their arms wrapped around each one’s neck before they had time to defend themselves. Squeezing tightly, but not tight enough to kill the man she held, Asia pressed on his neck until he passed out. She laid him on the floor, knowing she had brought only four zip ties. She pulled the duct tape from her backpack and secured him, while Conrad’s captive passed out, too.

  Asia’s stomach hurt. She focused on securing the man, while wanting badly to find her mother in one of the beds.

  Conrad tapped her shoulder. “I’ve got this. Go find her.”

  She raced around from bed to bed, until at last she found her mom, asleep, like all the others, lying in a bed. Asia touched her tentatively. Her face looked serene, clean. Her hair was clean and combed, too. “Mom,” she whispered in her mother’s ear. Her mother remained still.

  Frantic, Asia checked her pulse. It was weak but steady. Asia grabbed a tablet and searched for her mother’s records. She’d been here for three months, just as Candy has said. Asia perused the list of orders; drug therapy and tube feedings indicated her mother had been in a sustained drugged state all along.

  Conrad stood across from Asia on the other side of the bed. “I don’t know if it’s safe to remove the IV.”

  “I know. She’s been on drugs for three months. I don’t know what to do.”

  Conrad studied the woman. “Her breathing is shallow. Her pulse is weak. It’s a hard call, Asia. We could text Booker to get here and give a medical opinion, but we probably don’t have much time. What do you want to do?”

  “I say we remove the IV and take her out of here. We don’t know enough to make an informed decision, and it’s killing me. I don’t want to do the wrong thing.”

  He walked around to Asia and put his hands on her shoulders. “I understand. But I trust your gut. Say the word and we’ll go without her or we’ll go with her.”

  “You don’t have an opinion?”

  “We should prepare.” He quickly scanned the room. “There, the drug cabinet.” He ran to the small, locked cabinet and bashed his fist through the door and yanked it open.

  “What are you doing?” Asia asked. “You’re making too much noise.”

  “I’m looking for a sedative we can give your mom that will help her transition out of the drugged state.” He held up one bottle after another. “Here, this will work. Find a syringe and we’ll shut down the IV and inject the Valium.”

  Asia pulled open drawer after drawer until she found the box of syringes. She handed one to Conrad, who pulled in the Valium. “I’m guessing on the amount. I’m not a doctor, but I feel good about this.”

  “We’re going to take her off one drug and inject another? I’m not sure about this.” Her nerves fired, sending warnings to her brain that confused her.

  Conrad stopped. “Look, I’m confident we can unhook her and get her out of here to safety. But if we don’t give her a sedative, she may wake up confused, scared. It would be hard on her. We’d have a harder time sneaking her out. We’ll have to move quickly. It won’t be easy, but we can do it.”

  Asia released a deep breath and nodded. “You’re right.” She carefully pulled the needle out of the portal in her mother’s arm while Conrad stood ready to inject the sedative. That done, he removed sensors that fed her mother’s vitals into the little box, then turned it off.

  “I hope that prevents any bells and whistles going off,” he whispered.

  Asia pulled off the blanket that covered her mother, and Conrad instantly scooped her up.

  “Grab the radio. It’s there on the coun
ter. Let’s go the way we came, if we can.”

  Her mother in his arms looked diminutive. He carried her without effort, it seemed, as Asia started backtracking to the entrance.

  Four steps down the hall and the radio came alive. Voices called for backup in building one. Asia’s nerves scrambled. Conrad motioned to stop and listen to the radio. Another voice called for a specific man. “Demetri, what’s the status there?” Silence on the radio suggested that Demetri was the guard Conrad had knocked out. “Demetri, are you there?”

  “Let’s look for another way out,” Asia said, and turned on her heels, heading toward the back of the building until they found a flight of stairs. Even carrying her mother, Conrad kept up with Asia’s sprint down the stairs. She listened at the door and gathered scents. “I don’t hear anything, but I smell fresh air you. You?”

  Conrad nodded, and Asia slowly pushed the door open and stepped into another hall. She followed the outside air to a room with an open window. The room was filled with equipment, including computers and phones not yet put together. Partially constructed cubicles waited to be completed. She looked up at Conrad. “This could explain the lack of workers. This place is just getting up and running, which makes sense from Sage’s announcement.”

  She dropped her eyes to her mother. Her mother’s face looked so blank. “I hope it’s not too late.”

  “It’s not. Let’s try getting out the window.”

  Asia knew she wasn’t as strong as super-strong Conrad, but she wasn’t weak, either. She climbed through the first floor window first. Her feet touched the ground and she took a quick look around—nothing but trees and more trees. She laid the radio next to her, then reached for her mother.

  The radio let out a burst. “Demetri you better be dead or close to it. Get your ass to the holding area, STAT. Look out for a woman—dark hair, long ponytail.”

  She exchanged a glance with Conrad as he placed her mother in her arms. “That could be Lara. Where’s Casey?”

  She stepped aside to let him jump down, then handed her mother back to him. Conrad shook his head. “If Lara is alone, let’s hope they had split up and Casey hasn’t been detected.”

  Again, Asia took the lead through the trees, tending to low branches and picking a way through the underbrush. She instinctively knew the general direction back to the Rover. That was the first priority. But the radio noise bothered her. First the guards had a call to action, which the guard in the building of course didn’t answer to, then a specific call for him. It could mean Lara and maybe the other cats were in trouble.

  But she just kept trudging through the forest with Conrad. Everything in her wanted to sprint to the vehicle and take her mother to safety. But a hope that they would meet up with all the colony cats when they got there tribbled in her gut.

  A burst of gunfire split the air.

  Asia jumped. “My God, that sounded like it came from trees to the north. I don’t like that.”

  “I don’t like the sounds of men coming closer, either. The radio has been silent for a bit, so I’d say they either found Demetri or deduced Demetri was unavailable for some reason. Either way, they’re on to us.”

  Asia glanced around. “How much farther to the Rover, do you know?”

  “I don’t know. How are you doing?” He glanced down at her, concern knitting his brow.

  “A few scratches, that’s all.” With the voices nearing minute by minute, urgency pushed Asia’s adrenaline. She looked up into Conrad’s eyes and felt for him. Fatigue darkened his beautiful eyes. His pants were torn just at his knee and the rip revealed a bloodied patch of skin. Sweat glistened on his forehead, and dirt smudged his face. “How about you?”

  He chuckled quietly. “A few scrapes and some sore muscles. Nothing I can’t handle.”

  The voices, talking amongst themselves as they trudged through the forest, sounded about a third of a mile away and coming closer. “We better move.”

  “Can you take your mother for a spell?”

  “Of course. If you’re tired you’ll slow us down.” She opened her arms and Conrad laid her mother there gently. “Now listen, please. You take your mom and get to the Rover. The others will probably be there waiting. I’m going to draw attention away from you. I’ll join you as soon as I can.”

  Her heart jumped into her throat. “What? No. We stick together.” She couldn’t catch her breath. He was going to sacrifice himself for her and her mother? No.

  “Separating gives us the best chance we have for helping your mother. If I need help I’ll text you. Now, you need to get going.”

  Everything seemed close up in that instant. Life and death, love and friendship. She quickly bent to the ground and laid her mother on a soft patch of grass.

  “What are you doing?” Conrad’s face contorted into confusion.

  She turned to him and placed her hands on his sweaty, soiled face, holding it cupped in her hands. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him. Hard, fast, intense emotions filling her. “You come back to me.”

  She dropped her arms and turned halfway to her mother. Conrad grabbed her and pulled her close. Their eyes held for a whisper. He pressed a solid, passionate kiss to her lips.

  He brushed a lock of her hair back from her face. Then he headed away from her, sprinting just off to the left of the voices, thrashing loudly through the trees and pounding a thick branch against the brush.

  Asia’s breaths came in short, shallow pulls as she watched him disappear in seconds. But she had to get her mom to safety and she would not waste Conrad’s sacrifice by standing there moaning inside over what could happen to him. Though parts of her wanted to savor the moment of their kisses and entertain ideas of what it could mean, she couldn’t. Not now.

  She lifted her mother and strode off briskly through the trees, her intentions of making it safely to the others pushing her forward.

  Chapter Eleven

  The stench of death in the air assailed Conrad like an evil wind. His heart thudded hard in his ears. He’d led the men who chased him away from Asia’s direction, away from their way out through the fence, away from the main entrance.

  From his vantage point up in the midsection of a tall tree he watched as the men walked past below him. They spoke quietly, but Conrad could hear their conversation perfectly.

  “We let the woman get past us, but the man is secured.” The man’s voice sounded chopped, gravely. “It’s too bad the dude from Spain hasn’t shown up yet. He could help us right now.”

  Another voice spoke up. “Dude? Marcus is not a dude, he’s a were-lynx.” Fear in the man’s voice clued Conrad into his feelings about the man. He wondered who this Marcus was and what part he played in the preserve.

  “Exactly why it would be helpful for him to be here now. He could smell out this bitch.”

  A snarl reverberated in Conrad’s throat. His teeth clenched at the reference to Lara. All he had to do was jump down, shimmer, and make them eat their insult to her.

  But that would only alleviate his rage and at the same time put the entire colony at risk.

  The man’s voices faded to the back of his mind. Back here in this section of the preserve, the air reeked of dead bodies. His stomach clenched. Why? Were animals being slaughtered and tossed aside to rot?

  His grip tightened on the tree branch where he perched. The evil in the air filled his lungs, too, and all he could think about was Asia. He prayed she’d already made it to the Rover safely and was with the others. The anger and the concern for her and Lara and Casey nearly overwhelmed the stunning but delicious kisses he’d shared with Asia. He breathed in and out slowly, once. He couldn’t let that happen. That moment could signal the beginning of something precious between them. It deserved special attention.

  He would do so, later.

  Now, he surveyed his surroundings. The trees provided good cover for him, but also for the men. Their scents were weakening and their voices drew indistinct. There was so much to learn about the preserve, but
he’d have to count on the others for more information.

  He leaped with ease to the ground. One more check around and he took off running in the direction of the getaway spot in the fence.

  About two hundred yards into his sprint and he picked up a scent and could hear quiet steps coming in his direction. It was Lara. Sure that she’d pick him up, too, he paused.

  He crouched down and waited for her to come close. When he first caught sight of her face, his body tensed. Bruises on her face colored it purple and deep blue.

  “Conrad! I’m glad you’re okay. Where’s Asia?” she asked quietly.

  “I’m glad we’ve met up. I heard men talking about you.” He eyed her bruises. “I want to know what happened but we should get out of here.”

  “I’m okay. Where’s Asia?”

  “We found Asia’s mother and Asia took her back to the vehicle while I distracted the guards.” He didn’t bother to inquire about Casey. He’d already learned from the men that Casey had been captured.

  “Oh, you found her mother? That’s a relief. Let’s get back to the others. Do you know the way from here?” He nodded and she gestured for him to lead.

  Swiftly and quietly they trod through the trees, threading their way to the fence. Conrad hoped they would reach the fence near the hole, but if not, he had the wire cutters. Finally, the softened voices of his fellow cats drifted to his ears.

  “We’re almost there.” For a human, it would be a good long walk yet of about eighty yards. Conrad smirked to himself. But for a were-lynx it would take a matter of seconds, even in human form.

  “There it is, the place in the fence we can get through. After that it’s not far to the vehicles.”

  The sun hung low in the sky, but dusk hadn’t yet settled in. About a quarter of a mile up, they saw the grove of trees where the cars were parked. Tired, Conrad still picked up his pace and Lara matched it.

  At the vehicles, they joined the others already there waiting. He quickly hauled out water bottles and passed them around. Something raw and hard hammered inside his gut. “Where are Asia and her mother? She was supposed to meet us here.”