Smash & Grab: RELIC #1

by Maz Maddox

  A bite of metal pressed into my throat just enough to draw blood, a warm trickle trailing down my neck. I gasped through my teeth in alarm, feeling once again like the weakest link in the chain. How was it that I kept consistently being the hostage?

  “I know you’re one of them,” Hyena hissed towards Baha. “I can see the blood thirst in your eyes. I know you want to tear me apart like he did. I’ll kill this little shit, cut him into little pieces, if that’s what it takes.”

  Baha’s muscle twitched as he looked between me, Dalton and Hyena.

  I was making him choose between safety, his brother and myself.

  My eyes found themselves floating towards Dalton, as if seeing him would help me find the solution to an impossible problem. I hated seeing him so hurt. I hated all of the blood covering his face. I had expected to see him looking as torn and furious as Baha was, but instead a smirk was stretched across his lips. He titled his head towards the bastard holding the knife to my head and his mouth shaped out a word.

  Balls.

  I reacted without thinking, pulling my arm forward before slamming my elbow backwards into the groin of the man holding me. It was blindingly stupid and insane, but I had done it anyway. A pained whine came from behind me from the impact, and I ducked away from the distracted man with the knife. Dalton sprang off the ground and body slammed the stunned Hyena, knocking him to the ground.

  With his hands bound and already injured, it didn’t take Hyena much effort to shove Dalton to the ground and rip something out of his belt. The popping sound of gunfire caused me to duck in alarm, but my body was already in motion. I dove to Dalton, placing myself in front of him to shield him from whatever was coming next.

  Baha shouted and charged forward, taking down three men with his rifle before the others ducked away to find cover. The deafening pop of electricity sparked through the air, and I turned over my shoulder to see Hyena stabbing a tazer gun into Baha’s neck. Seeing his large frame seize and crumble to the ground was like watching a living nightmare, the angry noise of the tazer’s staccato pulses mixing with his pained groans.

  Baha folded to the ground, holding his neck in pain as Hyena began to laugh.

  It wasn’t as charming as the giggling cackles of bloodthirsty, hungry dogs. It was somehow so much worse. Like listening to a chipmunk with the hiccups.

  “Oh my God,” Dalton snorted a laugh. “That is a really unfortunate laugh.”

  My fear and anxiety were no longer a cold pit in my stomach, but an angry colony of fire ants crawling up my intestines. Baha was our escape. He was the muscle that was going to get us out alive. Watching him fall was like realizing I was in a car flying off the side of a cliff.

  We had failed.

  We were going to die.

  Dalton was going to die.

  Baha grunted as Hyena kicked him in the ribs, causing him to buckle more.

  “You stupid fuck,” Hyena chipmunk giggled around his words. “I cannot wait to start peeling you apart piece by piece.”

  This ballsy fucker had the audacity to kneel down and examine Baha like he was a trapped animal. When he spoke again, it was in a loud whisper that sounded slightly unhinged. “I know you’re going to cave and show me your other side, like your fuck boy other there. Let me guess. You’re a fucking werewolf or something? Or maybe a giant saber toothed pussy.”

  “Uuuh ooooh,” Dalton sang.

  Uh-oh was right.

  I understood why Dalton hadn’t wanted me to watch him shift. Baha’s body started twisting and warping, like his body was fighting a losing battle with an unholy entity. His clothing tore away as he expanded, far beyond the natural size for a human. His skin pulled and began to shimmer as it squeezed into a leathery, pebbled hide. His face grew outwards, teeth stretching and elongating into vicious fangs over a lipless maw.

  His back arched and sprouted long pillars of bone covered in muscle and flesh, while a flat tail like a thick, strong tadpole emerged from the back. His hands hooked inward as giant claws grew from his fingers, taking vicious sickle shapes. The building was just tall enough on the inside that he could lift his head, but the sail on his back pressed into the dilapidated ceiling and caused pieces of it to fall. His tail took out a hallway door.

  The hide was colored like the mottled top layer of swamp water, with hues of deep emerald green with strips of black, peridot and even small flecks of white. It spoke volumes of his aquatic nature, but I didn’t have time to admire his pretty skin.

  Baha hissed in his throat like an angry crocodile, the sound much deeper and more horrifying on a beast that stood fourteen feet in the air. All the blood in my body froze at the sound of his growl, like I could feel the terror of my tiny, prehistoric ancestors reaching back over countless millennia of evolution. I had never heard that sound, but I knew it to my very core.

  I wasn’t the only one rooted in fear. Hyena was paused on the ground in mid-crawl, his eyes so wide they looked like they might fall out of his head. He was pale as a ghost, his cheeks shaking as he tried to pry himself loose from the paralyzing grip of fear.

  A soft whisper was dribbling from Hyena’s lips, and I didn’t have to understand Spanish to know he was praying for something to save him. Baha lowered his massive jaws down, his nostrils flaring as he took in the scent of the room.

  “Psst, douchebag,” Dalton whisper-shouted towards the frozen cartel hitman on the floor. Hyena’s head moved a fraction of an inch Dalton’s way, his eyes never leaving the massive threat looming above him.

  “C-call him off,” Hyena wheezed. “I-I’ll give you whatever you want. You’ll n-never see us again.”

  “Oh, yeah, sorry. I can’t do that. I just wanted to tell you that you suck and your nickname is stupid before you died,” Dalton whispered at him again then looked up at the growling, prehistoric demon watching them. “Ok, you can kill him now.”

  A series of sounds happened that triggered Baha into motion. First was a gunshot. Then it was screaming, both from myself and the other humans in the room, followed by Dalton laughing like a madman. Baha took one step forward and snapped his jaws around Hyena, lifting him up into an air by his torso. The man shrieked and flopped around like a fish, and Baha grabbed him with his long claws to hold him still.

  Gunshots rang out as the sounds of bones crunching filled the room, Hyena’s screams muted inside Baha’s throat. The bullets were biting the hide on his side but not going deep enough to stop him.

  Dalton’s voice rang out in the madness, snapping my attention to him.

  “He’s not going to hurt us, Simon.” He winced and moved one leg out in front of him, still sitting on the floor. “Be a doll and get the knife out of my boot. These zipties are fucking killing me.”

  My hands were shaking as I got the knife out and moved behind his back, snapping the thin plastic bands from his wrists. Dalton hissed and rubbed his wrists, which looked sore and bruised. Something took over in me, my need to get Dalton to safety sidelining my fear. I grabbed his arm and hooked it around my neck, pulling him to his feet. He groaned in pain and held his ribs, leaning onto me.

  “My hero,” he wheezed. “I can’t believe you came to save me.”

  “I’m not doing the hard work.” I shouldered his weight, glancing at Baha, who was in the process of chasing more men with his jaws. I ducked into the hallway and moved as fast as I could towards the fire exit, pushing through it with my free shoulder to get Dalton outside. He did his best to keep moving, but his limp was slowing us down as I brought us back around to the front.

  The building groaned as more of it started to fall, collapsing in on itself as parts of a green sail moved beyond the exposed beams. I dragged Dalton further from the structure as it fell, a fourteen foot tall, fifty foot long monster crashed through the front like a horrifying Koolaid Man. Baha huffed like the wood and brick structure was just an annoyance, his shoulders and back shaking the debris loose as he strolled towards us.

  I was suddenly very aware of wh
at Dalton had said to me about his animal perception, about only being able to understand things in limited ways as an animal.

  Would Baha remember who I was? Would he equate Dalton’s injuries to me? Would he smell his blood and attack?

  I backed us up against the truck that had driven me here, my shoulders and back aching from holding Dalton up. Baha walked towards us, sail moving slightly with the sway of his massive body. My breathing was sawing out of me in panic as he approached, so tall I had to angle my head back to see all of him. Dalton reached up and gave my heaving chest a pat.

  “Easy, he’s with me,” he said jokingly, sounding exhausted, and I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me or Baha. “Hey, you mind shrinking down, habibi? You’re freaking out my guy here.”

  Baha’s narrow snout lowered down to smell me, pressing against my chest and neck. I let out a squeak of alarm as Dalton slapped it, the mighty jaws not seeming bothered by the onslaught.

  “Boundaries!” Dalton yelled in his tired voice. “Jesus, Baha.”

  The mighty dinosaur in front of us huffed and shook again before his body started twisting and warping like before. You would think seeing the transformation in reverse would be less terrifying, but it wasn’t. Seeing a massive animal the size of a house shrink down and twist back into a human was unsettling and nauseating to witness.

  Baha stood once he was fully human again, naked and punctured with little bites of bullets that had nicked him. He moved to Dalton’s other side and mirrored how I was supporting him, putting his arm around his shoulder to help him walk. Together, even though our heights were very mismatched, we maneuvered Dalton to Baha’s hidden car. I climbed into the back with him and let him lean against me.

  “I can’t believe you came to save me,” Dalton whispered again with a smile, his head against my shoulder. “I want to swoon but my head is killing me.”

  “I’ll get you to a rest stop and we’ll get you patched up,” Baha said over his shoulder from the front seat. “After that, it’s non-stop to Dallas. So settle in.”

  “No,” Dalton whined. “There’s a petting zoo in Arkansas I wanted to go to. It was part of the plan.”

  Baha didn’t dignify it with an answer, so Dalton tried to pout out his bottom lip, forgetting it was injured. Instead, he hissed and sighed heavily.

  “You and I can make another trip,” I coaxed. “Maybe we can make it date number two.”

  “Yeah.” He smirked, sounding like he was about to drift to sleep. “We can break in and steal a baby goat. It’ll be best date number two.”

  I laughed and kissed his hair. “Deal.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Dalton

  When Baha said the trip was non-stop, he meant it.

  We spent about twelve hours in the car, only stopping for food, gas, and the occasional bathroom breaks. Baha was like the worst strict parent on a road trip. The breaks were short, to the point, and I wasn’t allowed to pick my own snacks. He demanded I eat “real” food, told me to only drink water and wouldn’t even entertain the thought of stopping at a roadside snake habitat and souvenir shop.

  Snakes and souvenirs! And he drove right past it!

  Luckily I had Simon with me, who was the best backseat hot nurse one could ask for. He snuck me candy and let me sleep on him for most of the trip. If I had to pick a shoulder to drool on, it would be his. The trip was long and boring, and by the time we got to Dallas my body was aching for a real bed. Not to mention my face, ribs, wrists and right ankle were screaming, and I demanded the good shit when it came to pain relievers.

  Our “base”, if you can call it that, was a massive house on a large stretch of land just north of Dallas proper. We didn’t have neighbors or real roads that lead into the place, which kept it nice and isolated. Montana and Yu had set up some fantastically brutal security measures that kept the property secure, not to mention that the people inside could kick some serious ass if crossed.

  I didn’t know much about “bases”, but I think ours was fairly impressive. It had three stories, rooms for each of us, offices where Royal and Montana worked out of, weapons locker, firing range in the back and a massive garage where we kept the fossils we’d reclaimed.

  Plus lots of land to run and play like the prehistoric heathens we were.

  Once I was back in my own bed, I slept like a dead man. I remember waking a handful of times to get my bandages changed or for a top off of painkillers. Each time, I saw Simon beside my bed, never too far away.

  After absorbing as much sleep as I could handle, I winced my eyes open and rolled my tongue around seeking moisture. It felt like I had been chewing cotton, and my throat ached for water. A small whirring noise captured my attention and pulled my dry eyes over towards my desk. I thought I had dreamed that damn noise, remembered it was a mechanical bug I was chasing.

  At my desk was Simon, working diligently on the fossil, while John Wick played on my TV at a low volume. I watched him for a while, smiling at how he frowned when he picked at a stubborn piece of rock with a sharp tool. With a long sigh, he set it down, rolled his shoulders and glanced my direction. It was a move he was clearly in the habit of doing, because he did a double take when he noticed my eyes open.

  “Dalton!” That smile was a healing balm, like warm syrup pouring over my heart. I tried to speak but my throat was too dry, so it came out a raspy, nothingness. Simon, the silver angel, brought over a cup with a straw and held it to my lips.

  “How long was I out?” I swallowed the blissfully cool water and sighed.

  “About a day. How do you feel?”

  “Peachy.” I winced as I pushed myself up into a sitting position. Simon adjusted my pillows for me. “If the peach got drop kicked into a wall.”

  “Do you need more medicine? Some ice?”

  I chuckled. “You’re so good to me. Nah, Simon. I’m ok.” I motioned to the fossil. “How’s it coming?”

  “Slow and steady. Keeps me focused on something.” He smiled weakly, and I could see the exhaustion in his eyes. While I had slept, he hadn’t. Poor guy had likely been sanding away at a rock to keep himself busy. “I wanted to talk to you about…”

  A knock came on the door, which wasn’t pulled all the way shut. Montana came in dressed in his black workout shirt made from that weird, plastic material that eats sweat or whatever. His sweatpants were baggy, but didn’t do much to hide his solid form. We were all naturally pretty tall and big, made thicker by workouts, hand to hand combat training and so on, but Montana was second only to Baha. Baha was stupid big, because he was a stupid big dinosaur.

  Montana looked like the classic, pretty farm boy from the fossil country. Dirty blond hair, dark blue eyes, he looked like a romance novel cowboy when he wore his jeans. He had a calm, masculine voice that wasn’t gritty or rough. It didn’t need to be. His large, predatory nature made his presence naturally demand authority.

  I snapped my fingers and pointed at him. “Captain America.”

  Montana stared for a moment, then just shook his head.

  “That’s who you look like. From the movies,” I said, nudging Simon’s arm with my hand. “We watched the second one that had the dude with the arm. Doesn’t he look like him?”

  Simon looked embarrassed but nodded. “Sure, I guess.”

  “Glad you’re awake, Dalton,” Montana said after a pause. “I’ll bring you some food once you wake up a bit more. How’s the pain?”

  I tilted my hand side-to-side. “I could go for a smoke and a Dr. Pepper.”

  “Noted. Simon, would you mind giving us a moment?” Montana asked.

  “Oh, sure.” Simon glanced at me, squeezing my fingers as he stood. Montana held the door for him, shutting it behind him as he stepped out.

  “Are you about to give me the sex talk?” I rolled my eyes. “I know where babies come from. We’ve been safe.”

  Montana pulled the desk chair over that Simon had been using and sat beside the bed.

  “You know we need to ta
lk about what happens next.”

  “If I get pregnant?” I settled into the pillow behind my back, wishing I could dive out of the window instead of being trapped in this conversation.

  “With Simon.” Montana studied me with his normal cool, knowing eyes. “He was very adamant that he stay with you until you woke up. After what he’s been through and his assistance in helping Baha get you back, I gave him that courtesy.”

  “Big bad sharp tooth getting pushed around by a paleontologist. Why do I always sleep through the good stuff?” I sighed. “You know, speaking of, he is a paleontologist, and according to a certain scientific magazine he’s an expert at recovering and restoring them. One of the best.”

  “Dalton,” Montana tried to swoop in with his “no you can’t keep the puppy” speech, but I didn’t let him get far.

  “We constantly need that kind of help. Hear me out.” I pushed myself up and away from the pillow, so he knew I was serious. “Having an expert on staff can help us get these pieces to museums, universities and labs without worrying about some grad student snapping something in half. He knows his shit, HC. You know I’m right.”

  And then, the most shocking thing happened.

  He agreed with me.

  “You’re right,” he said with a nod. “He would be an amazing asset to have here.”

  “Really?” I blinked and pinched my arm. “Did I die? You’re agreeing with me?”

  “I agree with you when you have good ideas. I’m just surprised this one didn’t involve explosions, glitter or arson.” He shrugged, apparently just as surprised as I was.

  “Ok! Great!” I smiled so hard my cheeks hurt, but his serious expression dampened my fleeting feeling of soaring joy. “What? Why do you still look like that?”

  “Like you mentioned before, Simon is very good at his job, which he has back in New York,” he said, almost like his words were made of glass. “His life is back there. Family. Friends. Having him come here would be asking him to leave that behind, Dalton. That’s a hell of a thing to ask someone.”