by B N Miles
Meta Marshal Service 4
BN Miles
Contents
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
About BN Miles
Copyright © 2021 by BN Miles
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1
The air was humid and heavy—perfect for killing some Medlar scum.
Jared sighted down his scope. He lay prone at the top of a low rise on the edge of a forest overlooking a square concrete building. It was supposed to be a prison, or at least that was what the Medlar told the non-magical community—but Jared knew that hundreds of captive Metahumans were housed inside. Cassie sidled up against him, her red hair pulled back in a tight bun. Jared felt her aura caress him. He smiled slightly as she leaned her head against his shoulder, her ear inches away from the rifle. It wasn’t the smartest position to be in, but it showed just how much she trusted him.
“What do you see?”
“Some movement down below.” He adjusted the rifle and handed it over to her. She looked through the scope and scanned the building. “See the path? Soldiers drive golf carts around it.”
“Funny how they think they can pass this off as a prison.”
Jared smiled. “They’re the Medlar, they have enough money to turn shit into gold.”
Cassie handed him the rifle. “We should go in through that side entrance. Cut holes in the fencing down toward the right and stay in the shadows.”
“I don’t think we have to worry about shadows.” Jared glanced back over his shoulder. Behind them, back deeper in the woods, were several figures, each of them wearing black combat fatigues and flak jackets. He caught Allie’s gaze and saw her eyes flash in the moonlight, a small smile gracing her full lips. Her horns curved downward toward her face and she tilted her head at him, almost questioning. Jared motioned her forward.
She joined them up front and crouched down. “You got a plan or are you two just sitting up here and flirting with each other?”
“Flirting,” Jared said. “But we’re working on the plan.”
“If that was flirting then I’d better find a new man,” Cassie said.
Allie grinned, her teeth straight and bright white. She seemed luminous in the moonlight, which made sense—demons thrived at night and took some of their energy from the moon. Their magic was a night magic, built from shadow and uncertainty.
“We need a cloak to get down there,” Jared said, pointing. “Can you get us some more darkness?”
“Darkness is my specialty.” She leaned down and kissed Jared on the lips. He felt a chill as he tasted mint and tea leaves, which always confused him—Allie seemed so dark and evil, but underneath the demoness exterior she was sweet and soft and loving.
“We’ll approach along the fence line and make a dash for that first door down there.” Jared pointed at the door Cassie recommended. “I want Bea and her team to flank the side entrance and plant explosives on the far side of the building.”
“Distraction?” Cassie asked.
“That’s the idea. Bea can keep the soldiers pinned down while we get in, find Wade, and get the hell out.”
“Sounds good to me.” Allie drifted back to the tree line to pass on the orders.
Jared took a deep breath and sighed down the scope again. He spotted another pair of soldiers on foot and he wondered how many were inside—and how many even knew what they were guarding. The Medlar employed a small private army of men with little to no qualms about hurting, killing, and torturing Metas.
He heard movement in the forest as Bea and her team moved out. He caught sight of her as they shifted positions in the forest and began the long trek to the opposite side of the building. She was small, barely a hair over four-feet, but covered in scars and muscle. The dwarf grinned at him and nodded, flexed a little, then leaned her rifle against her shoulder and barked some whispered orders at her girls. Her fighters were all former Medlar experimental subjects, and over the last year, she’d turned them from meek, traumatized survivors to a small killing force that could stand up against any army in the world. They were cold-blooded, organized, determined, and disciplined, and they brought all the magic they had to bear on their enemies.
They scared the shit out of Jared. He was glad they were on his side.
He turned back to the building ahead of them and took a deep breath. Another shadow detached itself from the group behind him and crouched down on his left.
Jessalene put a hand on his shoulder. “Bea says she needs twenty minutes to get into position.”
“Roger that.”
“How you holding up?”
“Impatient.”
“Yeah, I hear you.”
He looked up into the dryad’s eyes and put a hand on her knee. She smiled at him, squeezed his shoulder, and tilted her head. It was hard to believe that she’d started as his enemy so long ago—now he couldn’t imagine living without her. Jessalene was the rock on which their little family was built, the steady hand of the group, the calming presence. Cassie might’ve been their heart, Lumi their muscle, Nikki their brains, but Jessalene was the foundation.
“Any chance I can talk you out of coming in there with us?” he asked.
She shook her head, face serious. “You know I can’t do that.”
“Lumi can handle herself.”
“What about me?” Cassie asked, indignant.
“You too,” Jared said, smiling.
“Just stop.” Jessalene let out an annoyed breath. “I’m coming in whether you want me to or not.”
“Fine.” Jared squeezed his eyes shut and chose not to argue. They’d already fought about this enough. If he had his way, none of his girls would come in with him—Cassie, Jessalene, Lumi, Nikki, Penny, Izzy, and Allie, his little family of girls. At least Penny and Izzy chose to stay behind, and Nikki was busy on another mission.
They waited in tense silence as Bea and her group got into position. Jared kept an eye on the building and counted soldiers as they passed. He guessed there were five outside and probably ten times that amount deep within the guts of that hell, but the soldiers weren’t his target.
He was there for one reason and one reason alone: get back Wade and make sure the Medlar couldn’t cast whatever magic they had planned.
He’d been studying the Medlar’s movements, using all of his contacts in the Meta Marshal Service along with his former contacts in the Magi families. Anything he could find out about the Med
lar, from shell companies to stock holdings, was placed into a file, collated, analyzed, and stored. It was a huge undertaking, and he never would’ve been able to do it without the help of the refugee Meta girls that lived in the house next door.
Together, they tracked the Medlar and plotted the spots most likely to house Wade. This was their first attempt, but Jared felt good about it—the intel they’d gathered seemed solid, or at least promising enough.
Cassie put a hand on his shoulder and leaned her lips down close to his ear. “It’s time,” she whispered.
He felt a chill and turned his head. He kissed her then rocked back onto his knees and stood, rifle cradled in his arms like a baby. He turned back to the group of women that stood just inside the forest’s edge, wreathed in an unnatural darkness that rolled off Allie’s body like mist.
“Last chance to turn back,” he said.
Lumi rolled her eyes. “Quit trying to be a hero. Let’s go kill some Medlar fuckers.”
Jared grinned at her and nodded. “Alright then. Allie, you’re up.”
“My pleasure.” She stepped forward and spread her hands. The darkness rolling off her intensified until they were shrouded in a cloak of pure black. Jared was almost blind, but Allie let in enough light to see by.
They took a path that snaked down through the forest and toward the fence line. Jared and Cassie took point with Jessalene in the center while Lumi and Allie brought up the rear. Jared cut toward the fence and dropped to one knee when he reached it. The dark enveloped them, but he still stood motionless as a golf cart zoomed past along the black gravel path that wound around the building. The guards seemed to look in their direction, but saw nothing, and the night remained quiet.
Jared took out a pair of bolt cutters and got to work opening up the fence. He pulled the torn chain link back, let the girls through, and then followed and repeated the process on the inner fence. Once they were through, they ran in a tight group, keeping low, Allie’s darkness thick around them.
They reached the side of the building and leaned up against it. Jared checked his watch and tapped it. He turned to Cassie and nodded at her.
She nodded back and reached into her pocket. She had a radio in there, a simple two-way radio tuned to a specific channel. She toggled the call button a few times, just enough to make the static on Bea’s end change in a specific pattern.
Two minutes later, an explosion rocked the night.
“Let’s move,” Jared said, turning to the door. He heard shouts, a few screams. Another explosion went off and an alarm began to blare. Jared grabbed the door, but it was locked.
That didn’t matter. He closed his eyes and reached for his memgrams. He found what he was looking for, a single rose standing alone in a field of pure black getting slowly crushed by an invisible force. He snapped it into place and the door in front of him bent inwards on itself until the steel was compacted into a softball-sized orb that glowed red hot. It dropped to the ground and rolled away as Jared moved into the building.
The girls followed, staying close. He held his rifle up on his shoulder, eyes scanning the hall before them.
2
They stepped into a quiet entry hall. Metal detectors were set up across the width of the room with small conveyor belts moving through x-ray machines. The detectors beeped as Jared and the girls moved through.
Nobody came out to stop them. The sound of explosions and gunfire popped through the building and Jared felt the floor rumble. The entry ended in a bank of doors, halls, and elevators that must’ve split out across the entire building. Jared turned toward Lumi and nodded at her.
“What’s the intel say?”
“Templeton’s supposed to be on the bottom floor.”
“Is that where they’re holding Wade?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Couldn’t get that much.”
“Alright. We’ll take your cousin first then figure it out from there,” Jared moved toward the bank of elevators but thought better of it and took the stairs. The gray concrete steps descended into a humid basement. The sound of his family’s footsteps echoed behind him.
He passed three landings before reaching the bottom. A water puddle lurked next to the large green blast door. He expected to have to pull up another memgram but the handle turned and the door swung open on greased hinges.
The hall ahead looked eerily familiar. He felt his spine run cold as he remembered that building in the Arizona desert, the long halls of prison cells, Metas locked inside and waiting for their captors to torture them.
“Annie,” he barked. She stepped up next to him like a wraith. “You and Jessalene get as many of these open as you can. Me, Lumi, and Cass will find Templeton.”
“Roger that.” Annie drifted toward the first door, pressed her hands against the steel, and grunted as her power burst forth. The door bent and warped as a black miasma rolled from her body, her shadow magic twisting and rending the metal. Jared knew a little about how it worked: she could manipulate light itself and use it as a weapon when needed.
The door crumpled and clattered to the floor. Inside was a small woman, frail and thin, her long blonde hair hanging in dirty strands around her thin face.
“Come with me if you want to live,” Annie said.
Jared rolled his eyes and moved forward into the building. Cass and Lum followed, sticking close as they passed cell door after cell door. With each new glimpse of another imprisoned Metahuman, Jared felt his anger grow deeper and deeper until it threatened to boil over and burn the whole building to the ground. He didn’t understand what the hell the Medlar wanted with all these Metas—except for their sick experiments, but even those remained a mystery to him. He didn’t know what the Medlar were trying to learn from their experiments or what the point of any of this was. From his perspective, the Medlar were torturing random Metahumans for no other reason than they could.
He reached a door at the end of the hall and pushed it open. The floor shook and more explosions rocked the building as he stepped into a quiet hallway with a long, plush carpet and warm overhead lighting. It was disconcerting to go from the harsh, antiseptic gleam of the prison into something much more inviting.
“This is creepy,” Cassie said.
“Really creepy.” Lumi moved toward the first door. There was no window in the front, so she pulled it open and peered inside. “Bathroom.”
“It’s like this is the residential area.”
“But it’s weird to have it right next to a prison.” Cassie shook her head. “I don’t understand any of this.”
“I was just thinking the same thing.” Jared kept moving and checked the next door. The room inside was dark and empty except for a dining room table and a large chandelier overhead.
He moved on, checking room after room. They were bedrooms, bathrooms, and a kitchen. He saw signs of life everywhere: clothes on the floor, half-eaten food on the counter next to the sink, but he didn’t see any people. They reached the end of the hall and the fighting above sounded distant, replaced by the pulse of music.
Jared glanced back at Lumi and nodded at her. He could hear the rhythmic thud through the door at the end of the hall. He took a breath and turned the knob, pushing it open as slowly as he could.
More music spilled out at him, deafeningly loud. He grimaced and took in the scene before him as his eyes adjusted to the low light.
A large TV took up the far wall directly. In front of that was a couch, leather and overstuffed. A figure sat on it watching a music video, his head nodding along to the sound. Enormous speakers on either side of the TV blared electronic music, and the thump was so deep and so loud that Jared couldn’t hear the fighting upstairs anymore.
He moved forward and toward the left. Lumi went right, and Cassie stayed behind the man. He glanced up and caught Lumi’s eye. She gave him a slight nod, which meant they had the right person.
He came around until the front of the couch was in view but stopped as he felt a cold chill run th
rough his spine.
Kneeling off to the side of the coffee table, her hands on her knees and her head bowed, was a girl with pale white skin tinted slightly green—probably a Dryad, if Jared had to guess. She was naked except for a pair of black panties, and Jared could see her chest rising and falling with each breath. Templeton sat a few feet away from her, a tray with half-eaten food perched on the coffee table.
Jared felt revolted. The sick fuck not only kept these women as prisoners and ran experiments on them, but he used them as his own personal slaves. It was one thing to make them serve him—and another to make them do it half-naked. As if using them wasn’t bad enough, he needed to take away any shred of their dignity. Rage filled him as he raised his rifle, aiming it at Templeton’s head.
“Hey, you piece of shit,” he yelled over the music.
Templeton’s eyes snapped open. The girl pulled back, shock in her eyes, and immediately covered herself with her arms. She stumbled back, fell on her ass, and scooted away.
Jared had to take a calming breath as he trained his rifle on Templeton’s head. The asshole was a member of the most powerful Magi family in the world and anything was at his fingertips—money, power, women, he could have it all if he wanted, but none of that was enough for him. The bastard had to take more and more, take from these poor chained-up women, treat them like dirt, take their dignity, take their bodies, and it made Jared sick, it made him want to vomit thick bile on the plush carpet. But most of all, it made him want to hurt something.
