by T. G. Ayer
“This…” murmured Horner, nodding slowly as he continued to stare. “This is impressive.”
Horner had been silent for so long as he’d scanned the room that his voice startled me, and his words had me momentarily flailing. Until I figured out he’d been completing his sentence from when he’d first entered the room.
See? Even the High Councilman’s mind is blown. It’s okay to get a little bit hysterical.
I bit the inside of my lip while I considered the possible ramifications of my explosive destruction. Then I inhaled and said, “I apologize, sir. I’m not entirely sure what happened but I’ll accept full responsibility.”
Horner frowned as he turned his head to look at me, and for a moment, I wondered if he was going to say he expected me to pay for the damages. Surely, the Elite Agency had insurance. Or even magical handymen?
But a kind smile grew on his face, his eyes filling with understanding. “Don’t worry, my dear. I hardly think this is your fault. And even if it were, I’d put it in the in-the-line-of-duty damages. The only question I have is: Are you harmed in any way?”
I paused, taking a few moments to digest his reassurances. Then I nodded quickly. “I’m fine, as far as I can tell. Though, I suppose I’ll know in the course of the next day or so if any internal bits have been fried.”
One of the agents currently scraping pieces off what remained of the magnificent headboard, let out a choked laugh, and as I glanced over at him, I caught two more agents twisting their lips, struggling to hold back their laughter.
I smiled and shook my head.
Horner cleared his throat, the peremptory sound sending the agents hastily back to work. Then he beckoned me toward the door as he walked off. “Come, we must have you examined,” he said firmly, striding past the line of vividly painted landscapes that punctuated the pale walls.
“No time, sir,” I called out, grabbing my satchel and throwing the strap over my shoulder as I scurried after him. “I have to go. They’ve taken Kai.”
He stopped short and swiveled on his heel to face me, his expression clear: why are you only telling me this now.
I replied to the unasked question before Horner could voice it. “She’s fine. I have a bead on her. I’ve been monitoring her feedback since before I woke up, sir. She’s alive and well, and still unconscious.”
“You know where she is?” At my firm nod, he turned to walk off, the sound of his footsteps swallowed by the thick pile carpeting.
He glanced briefly over his shoulder to check if I were following and I quickened my steps to catch up. “Yes, sir. And I’d better go. She’ll be wondering what happened to me.”
I opened my mouth to say it was my fault, then clamped my jaws shut quickly. No need to voice my responsibility out loud. I could wallow in my self-pity well enough without having fingers pointed in my direction.
Horner gave a slow nod then jerked his chin at an open door across the hall. “You can use that room for now.” Before I could reply, he was off, already halfway down the stairs. Then he paused and turned to look up at me, hand on the bannister. “Oh, and Agent Morgan? What happened isn’t your fault. The important thing is you need to keep going. Don’t second guess yourself right now. That particular pastime is always hazardous to one’s health.”
I blinked, then glanced back in the direction of the destroyed bedroom.
Horner chuckled. “I’m not talking about the room, Morgan. Now, perhaps it’s best you get on with it? I only wish I could assist, but unfortunately my hands are tied. However, what I can offer is to increase manpower, should you require it.”
I nodded. “Thank you, sir. I’ll definitely let you know if that happens. Right now, I think we need to remain unseen. Let me get the lay of the land and then I’ll call it in.”
Horner’s smile was a thin line across his lips, and then he resumed his descent and was gone, as though he’d disappeared into thin air.
I sighed and remained where I was, staring at the empty space where the director of the Elite Agency had been mere moments ago.
I’d suspected that both Horner and Carter were more than mere officials in charge of an intelligence agency. And their claim that they worked for the Supreme High Council had never sat quite right to me. The pair gave off the kind of energy I’d always equated with Immortals, more Ancient than God, though. Or perhaps even Angel.
I shrugged, not sure if I should even be thinking such thoughts within their domain. If I were right, then it’s likely they could hear my thoughts. Who knew what the talents of the Immortals really were anyway; they tended to keep their cards close to their chests about most things.
I made my way to the second room, mentally crossing my fingers that I wouldn’t destroy this one as well. That would definitely not be a good look. Not to mention, I’d have to bear the weight of that reputation for…well…likely forever.
I entered the room and kicked the door shut with my heel, not breaking my stride as I walked over to the bed and dropped my bag onto the mattress. That this room was identical to my previous lodgings was terribly unnerving and I worked quickly to prepare, checking my weapons and ammo, securing my satchel around my shoulder.
And then, for the second time in what had to be only a few hours, I sank against a pillow, closed my eyes and entered the astral plane.
Let’s hope this time, things will go according to plan.
Chapter 11
Apparently, despite being such a gigantic failure at saving my friends, I was actually excellent at arriving right on time.
I closed in on Kai, following her feedback until I slipped inside the room in which she now sat. I barely registered the room around me as I focused first on Kai—to ensure she was okay—and then on the other captive in the cells.
Along the wall in one of the last cells nearest to the door, a woman lay unmoving on the cot, her face half hidden by the glossy red of her hair, her arms curled around her. Her aura rippled with fear, and with hopelessness. Whoever she was, she’d decided already that she wasn’t about to get out of here.
I drifted over to Kai and watched as she leaned over her notepad, pen in hand, brow creased as though she was considering how to form her question in the most succinct manner.
I prayed she’d keep her letters a tad bit smaller this time.
While she thought, I scanned my surroundings, ice beginning to slither through my veins. The white-walled, white-tiled, clinical room was large, a third of the space occupied by a row of six narrow glassed-in cells along the left-hand wall.
Kai’s cell, identical to the rest, contained a narrow cot against a low wall that provided some semblance of privacy for a small lidless toilet which was fixed to the back wall.
A reinforced glass door sat centrally to the front wall of the cell, identical to the rest of the enclosures along the row. For all the pristine glass, it didn’t detract from the fact these were cages.
Cages for people.
Cages that gave a clear view out onto the rest of the room where glass-fronted steel cabinets lined the walls, where shelves were filled with gleaming medical equipment, machines and rows of bottled liquids that I assumed were drugs. A few carried the familiar red-skull emblem to proclaim them as dangerous or volatile.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out that this place was some sort of laboratory, and judging by the species of the occupants of the available cells, I’d hazard a guess that they were performing research on supernaturals.
This was bad.
I didn’t even need to see the two autopsy tables in the corner to know it was bad. The gleaming steel of the gurney, the grooves to channel away blood from their subjects, it all mocked me from across the room.
More so, because I’d failed to prevent them from getting their hands on Kai in the first place.
I scanned the rest of the room, looking for a physical way out. Not that I wouldn’t be able to jump her from this place, I just needed to ensure we had a Plan B in place.
And a go
od thing too, as the lab didn’t look like it would be easy to escape. A set of steel doors sat dead center of the wall to the right of Kai’s cell, hydraulic arms at the top corners and the absence of handles confirmed my suspicion. Nobody on the inside of the lab would be able to get out unless they had the correct access for the biometric scanner at the left of the only exit.
I clenched my jaw. I wasn’t above removing an eye or a finger or two in order to get Kai out of here. I just hoped that nobody who worked here attempted to get in my way.
They’d see a side of me that I myself hadn’t yet witnessed.
Now Kai lowered her pen, her movement drawing me to her side as she formed a single symbol.
?
I hovered closer and shifted into a partial projection in order to speak in her ear. “I’m here. What do you need?” I whispered so softly that for a moment, I wondered if I’d have to repeat myself because she may not have heard.
Then I gave a mental eye-roll. Idiot. She’s got feline hearing.
Oddly enough, Kai’s next message, scribbled randomly over the page, made absolutely no sense. Instead, she whispered back, just as softly as I had, using the sounds of her scribbles to cover her voice.
Brilliant.
“Check for Mom,” she whispered. “They have her. The woman who was in the cell next to me, who looks like her, is a ShapeChanger.”
I was getting a little tired of being totally blindsided, but it seemed as though that was the only thing on offer these days. “Shit,” I muttered. “I’ll look. Won’t be long.”
I faded away, leaving Kai as I drifted beyond the lab and into the astral plane. Gathering the energies around me, I began to test each tether that was present within the facility.
Life-threads of family members resonate along a similar wave, not something that too many astral travelers can sense. Thankfully, I’d been able to differentiate between the most minute of variations within a thread’s energy, long being able to identify between different family members.
And now, sifting through the threads shimmering within the astral plane above the lab, it didn’t take me long to identify one particular feedback link that sang with a similar vibration as Kai’s did.
Celeste.
Chapter 12
I swirled around and headed toward the source of that energy. Kai’s mom was being held two floors below Kai, in a room not much different from Kai’s, though only half as small.
The lights were dim in the room, shadows cloaking the corners, although the glow from various monitors and screens around the lab were sufficient for me to make out Celeste who lay on a cot, staring up at the ceiling. Her cheek was swollen, and she seemed to have met the same fists as Saleem had.
With Celeste, too, I sensed a sedative that dulled her senses, perhaps impacting her ability to see, because she blinked hard and squinted at the person who stood a few feet away from her.
A good thing too because I found myself staring at Celeste.
A second Celeste.
The duplicate of Kai’s mom was staring down at the original, her voice low and modulated to a level that seemed to contain a strong level of hypnotic effect.
“Tell me about the gazebo, Celeste,” the woman urged, her tone friendly and confidential. “What was so special about the gazebo?”
I blinked and shook my head, glad I’d found Celeste but confused as to the line of interrogation that her interrogator was following.
With the knowledge that Kai’s mom was safe, I skimmed back along the astral lanes and returned to Kai’s side, transitioning again, to whisper, “She’s being kept in a cell two floors below. The room is dark, but she’s conscious and coherent. She’s been roughed up, and I sense that there are drugs in her system. The one pretending to be her is in the room talking to her about your gazebo.”
Kai flinched, but she didn’t seem to have noticed her slip as she tensed and replied softly, “Shit. I need to give Mom a message: Tell her if the woman asks, she needs to say that Greer and I were close, that Greer made a great Panther and that we wrote Sisters Forever on the gazebo wall.”
Kai had barely spoken the last word before I was careening back to Celeste, stopping beside her. I moved between Celeste and the wall, sliding close to her ear, praying that she didn’t react, didn’t go crazy when a strange voice began to whisper in her ear.
“Tell her Kai and Greer were very close. And say that Greer made a great Panther, and that the two girls wrote a message on the gazebo wall that says ‘Sisters Forever.’ They have Kai in another room two floors above you.”
I was supremely impressed at how well Celeste reacted to the words of a disembodied messenger. Most people would have freaked out. Clearly, this woman was not most people.
I waited as she calmly repeated what I’d said, interspersing her words with a few illogical references.
Smart, too.
Seems she wasn’t as sedated as she appeared to be.
The Fake-Celeste nodded at the response. She waited there for a few seconds as if intending to keep up with her question, when a voice called out to her from beyond the open door of the glass cell.
“Get on with it. We don’t have time to waste,” said a man who stood at a counter near the opposite wall. His lab coat and latex gloves marked him as one of the doctors or researchers in the facility. He glared at the ShapeChanger and snapped, “The kid believes you, okay? I don’t get why you’re so damned suspicious.”
The ShapeChanger stalked out of the cell and strode over to the doctor, stopping only a few feet from him. “You pay me to be careful. I’m being careful.”
The doctor smirked. “Just don’t forget your place. We can quite easily use you for our investigations. The magic of the mind no doubt functions on a similar level no matter what species of creature you are.”
The air hung heavy between the pair as the ShapeChanger seemed to hesitate, the aura drifting around Fake-Celeste’s face broadcasting fury and frustration. And then Fake-Celeste spun on her heel and marched out of the lab, throwing the man a glance that would have frozen him had she possessed even a fraction of water-magic.
I focused on Celeste then, who hadn’t yet moved. “I’ll be back for you. Are you going to be okay?” I whispered.
Celeste gave a quick jerk of her head that I accepted as a yes, then blinked and looked around. She still squinted but not as intensely as before, and a quick check of her aura revealed that the drug had begun to fade.
But she tensed then and stared straight ahead of her, didn’t acknowledge me again, even with a flutter of a lash. I frowned and shifted to leave, and as I turned I almost let out a cry of shock.
I was nose-to-nose with the doctor, and even though they were ethereal to corporal, the shock wasn’t diminished in any way. He was staring at the air around me, and then shifted his icy gaze to Celeste who was still staring at nothing.
His bright blue eyes narrowed, suspicion glinting in them as he stared straight at me.
Time to get gone, Mel.
I obeyed my inner voice without question, returning to Kai, almost out of breath.
“Phew. That was too close. She was interrogating your Mom on those very details. She seems satisfied now, and they’re leaving her alone. The ShapeChanger is coming back up here.”
“Seems like we weren’t the only ones to come up with that smart idea,” Kai whispered, still writing the tiny letters on the page on her lap.
I let out a dry snort, annoyed at any implication that these assholes were smart.
“I’m getting your Mom to safety,” I said firmly, knowing retrieving Celeste first was the safest move. Get her clear of the facility and safe, then return for Kai.
Neither Kai nor I would want to have anything happen to Celeste in the course of Kai’s own escape. And when she didn’t argue, and merely asked, “No wards?”
“Nope. This is a scientific facility,” I said, aware that I hadn’t encountered a single magical force as yet, other than the mage pretending to be
Kai’s mom. “I think they’re focused more on the shifters and supernaturals who possess what they see as telepathic magic. And for the record these Shadowmen are weird.”
“What do you mean?” Kai shifted slightly as fear appeared within her aura, weighing her spirit down.
“Not sure. Just something odd about them.” Then I sighed, needing to get moving. “Right. If I’m not back in ten, get yourself out.”
I didn’t wait to hear Kai’s response. Something told me she’d just try to stop me, and probably insist on coming with me to save her mother.
So I left without another word.
Chapter 13
I left Kai’s cell and skimmed through the astral plane until I reached her mother’s cell.
I’d barely transitioned in order to speak, hoping her closed eyes only meant more pretense.
But I never got the chance to speak to her.
A bolt of electricity slammed into me, flinging me across the cell so hard, so fast that I hit the glass with such force that it shattered, raising jagged shards all around me.
I ignored the little blades that attempted to stab at me, and jumped out of the cell.
Only I never went anywhere.
I blinked, startled to feel the muscles in my hand that told me I was solid, horrified by the weightlessness that confirmed I was suspended in the air above Celeste, held in place by a sphere of electric energy. Little bolts of lightning flashed around me, singeing my hair and skin as they passed me by.
I let out a scream, frustration, fury, fear, overflowing from me. But not a sound left my throat. The sphere contained more than just my physical form; it rendered me immovable and voiceless.
And below me stood the shadowman, electricity streaming from his fingers, adding to the power surging around me.
His grin was pure malice as he watched me, dark Celtic runes a stark contrast against porcelain skin spotlighted by the glow of the electric sphere. My shadowman attacker was stocky, muscle-bound, with high cheekbones emphasized by deep shadows. A thick beard, matched his eyebrows in color and density, and I found it odd that I gave a flaming crap what the asshole looked like.