“Ready for this?” I shouted at them all, grim faced.
“No.” Nick ground out. But it was his tall form that took the lead. I had to run to catch his steady lope. For once, he hadn’t questioned the stupidity of our decisions. We were all aware of what the stakes were if we didn’t hurry. There was no time for misgivings or discussion.
We hit the road hard, not pausing and all of us gasping by the time we made it into Purdy.
None of us were more surprised than I when we interrupted Jayne Sawyer on her way up.
Rage was immediate and I surged to the front, scales slithering along my arms and up over my shoulders. The bitter anger inside of me bloomed and I wanted to rip her apart. I reined it in long enough for her to utter her last words.
I knew my eyes must have been alive with color when she stopped dead, hers on all of us before widening in terror on my own. She held up her arms and hands defensively. It wouldn’t save her. I moved forward.
“Wait, please, just let me explain. Then if you still want to kill me, you can, right?” When we kept coming she added. “If you kill me first, you’ll never get the information you need to stop them...”
That made us pause. What harm was there in hearing her out before we smashed her.
“I can see by the look on your faces that you know about my family and my involvement. There are no excuses for what I’ve done. I did it to save my brother Blaine, I’m all he has. Still, I shouldn’t have let that impede what was right and that would have been to turn them in a long time ago. I know that, but listen, you gotta know. They won’t stop and they will have called in reinforcements by now. You will not be facing three or four guys. You’ll be facing upwards of thirty or more, depending on who they get. You need to think this through...”
“They have Todd.” Thomas interrupted, his hands forming claws as he shoved me to the side and advanced on her, his eyes changing and fur erupting along his jawline and neck and spreading. I looked at him in alarm. It appeared more than one of us approached that first change at breakneck speed.
“Oh, my God. They’ll kill him!” she screamed, unaware of the deadly intent in Thomas’ eyes.
He didn’t stop coming. Thomas was as bent on revenge as I was, and she was the object.
Her mouth suddenly firmed and her chin notched up. Before our eyes, the frightened young victim squared her shoulders and stiffened her spine. We watched her eyes fan an odd orange and anger suffuse her face. “Stop it! We don’t have time for this shit. They’ll kill him and you need my help. Do any of you know where they have him? Because I just might! You need me, so stop treating me like the enemy. You can do your worst later when he’s still alive and we have him back, okay?”
We halted, less at the venom in her words, than the ruddy glow to her cheeks. She seemed to light from within. Her skin shone with a bright orange glow. When we stopped advancing, the strange skin condition faded back to her normal alabaster complexion.
“Look, we need to hurry. I can explain on the way.” She turned at once and ran into Purdy. We joined, picking up speed.
The thought occurred to me she could even now be leading us into a trap. But what she’d said was right. We had to take a chance that she might know where they were holding him, because we didn’t.
She talked as she ran, “When we first came to town we did what we always do, we set up camp. We start by scoping out likely places for us to take up residence and remain hidden. Houses sometimes work if they are abandoned. Old warehouses are better because they have multiple levels.” Her face tightened in memory. “Easier to block out the screams after hours that way.”
Thomas growled, and I knew his wolf was close to the surface and raging.
“In Purdy we found three possibilities. One was the warehouse you burned. The others were an old abandoned marina building and a house. We must check them both out. My guess is the marina building, its farther away from the main drag and more isolated. It’s this way.” She led us down a side street, picking up speed until she was matching ours. A pace no human should have been able to maintain.
I stared at the young human running by our side in speculation. I met Nick’s eyes over the top of her head. His reflected a similar curiosity.
The Marina in question was on the east side of town, at the end of an enormous part of the wharf that had seen better days. Jayne paused when we neared and came to a choppy halt with the rest of us and frowned. It was no longer deserted. Someone—some enterprising businessman in the town of Purdy, had resurrected the old building. Orange caution signs and tape and a small trailer sat on site along with recent signs of renovation.
Grim faced, Jayne did an about face and started running the other way. “He must be at the house. Hurry, they won’t waste much time on him and Jonah is way too eager to do his job.” She screamed. She didn’t have to tell any of us twice. We kept pace and ran deeper into town until we were on the North-east corner of Purdy and down a street that boasted several homes that had fallen on disrepair. Two of them were abandoned, but it was the larger house at the end of the street that drew our eye.
Jayne held a hand up before we could rush the front door. We needed a better plan. Rushing in to join him wouldn’t do any of us any good.
We moved to the crumbling front porch of the smaller home, near several other houses that all looked to be inhabited by lower-income families, the rusted bikes and crumbling fences lending evidence of a lack of funds in light of the more pressing need for survival. We pulled back out of sight up the crumbling steps. Foot prints crisscrossed the dusty driveway in front of us along with the overgrown grass, trampled flat. We’d found the right place.
My lips tightened. It looked like the cavalry had arrived, like Jayne had said. No way was that from just three or four people. They’d chosen the location well at the end of a dead-end street and butting up to the surrounding woods and mountain. Easy to hide or escape.
We stood in indecision. “What now, sherlock?” I hissed at Jayne; well aware she couldn’t have any more of a plan than the rest of us. We all froze in indecision.
“I don’t...” was as far as she got when we blinked at the strange sight that came limping around the side of the building. Todd came at a full-on dash, dragging his leg behind him. It didn’t slow him down much. Hot on his heels, brandishing a scalpel, was the scientist, Jonah Whiting, screaming at the top of his lungs, cotton candy white hair flying as he gave chase. Thomas stepped away from the building. “Todd, over here!” The rest of us monitored the house as Todd veered in our direction. Insanity must have muddled Jonah’s instinct for survival because he never paused to wonder if he should rethink the chase. He just kept coming.
As Todd reached us, Thomas snatched his shoulder and hauled him around the corner out of sight. The scientist followed straight into Nick’s solid right, backed up with a heavy dose of Magic, the blue light exploding against his crumpled nose where Nick hit him. He dropped like a rock.
Niel and Thomas grabbed him and drug him around the corner. We needed a place out of sight and quick. I turned and called my dragon, the magic whispering in an instant along my arm as I reached out with a Magically enhanced shove, springing the boarded door open with a louder crash than I was comfortable with. The boards crisscrossing in front of the door jambs we left alone, climbing past them mostly undisturbed, dragging our captive with us and shoving the door closed much quieter as we heard the front door of the other house slam open, loud angry voices spilling into the dilapidated and overgrown yard. We huddled on the floor, silent and waiting. Praying they wouldn’t realize where their quarry had escaped to.
Fern crept to a side window. Warped off its casing, it revealed a tiny unfettered opening to the outside elements no bigger than a nickel. She looked through and held up fingers, 5, 8, 10, 20. She stopped somewhere around twenty-five. Her eyes were black cobalt in the gloom as they sparked back in our direction. And then she smiled.
Her fingers danced and a whisper of breath teased her
lips. In a matter of seconds she opened her small fist to reveal a small dark moth, no bigger than a dime. She stared at the tiny winking antennae and whispered. The little bug took flight and flew true through the small opening.
She looked at us all in satisfaction. “And now we wait.”
Niel, who’d been curiously silent most of the way down the mountain, breathed, “That was spectacular.” He whispered in admiration.
She glared at him, chin jerking up. “Of course it was.”
It seemed like forever before there was a definite disturbance in the yard and Fern, still spying on them from her hidey hole, indicated they’d left. She was frowning in confusion when she held her hand up for the small winged moth as it fluttered back in and landed center of her palm. Her head cocked slightly sideways as she listened to what only she could hear.
Her frown deepened into fear. She looked up as the tiny insect seemed to waver and then disappear in a poof of smokey mist.
“They are launching an attack on the Valley. But they split up.” Fern’s eyes moved to Todd. “They have plans for you Todd. The Sawyers are coming to finish you later. First, though, they are planning to attack and kill Janice. Eliminate any witnesses. Any reason they would know where she’s being held because I thought that was a secret?” She looked at him accusingly, one fine dark brow arched.
Thomas growled. “What are you saying, my brothe...”
Todd interrupted, “Shut up, Thomas. This bastard—” he gave the unconscious man a savage kick, “—he’s lethal with that knife. I didn’t tell them exactly, but they got the street out of me. It won’t take them long to locate the only doctor with a residence on that block. They’ll find her and they’ll kill everyone in that house.”
“Then that’s where we go first.” I stated. Hating that it meant we would be late to join the fight in the valley. “We must stop the Sawyers first and then we head up to the valley. If we hurry, we won’t be that far behind them.”
“But everyone in that valley. They don’t know they are coming; they’ll have no warning.” Sirris protested.
I whirled on her. “Don’t you think I know that? What choice do we have?”
“Can’t you call?” Jayne wondered.
I hissed, frustrated. “Sure thing if there was any service. Its next to impossible to get a call through and did anyone bring a phone?” Nobody volunteered.
Nick interrupted our argument. “It doesn’t matter then. Right now we’re wasting time, let’s go,” he ground out. He was already at work tying Jonah’s hands and feet with a cord he’d clipped from an old lamp. It wouldn’t hold him forever, but maybe long enough.
Without another word, we broke back through the door, taking several loose boards with us, not bothering to shut it as we ran for the downtown district and Doc Flynn’s.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
LIVES WERE AT STAKE and we were out of time.
Todd struggled to keep up with us, but we could tell he was flagging. When we offered help though, he waved us off with a growl, running on sheer determination. The wounds in his shoulder and legs were deep. They continued to ooze as we ran, but we didn’t stop to take care of them.
“That’s what I was going to tell you,” he panted. “Overheard them talking. Sound carries and when they all ran upstairs to meet with the rest of that other group, they weren’t quiet in discussing their plans. Fern’s got it right. The Sawyers—” he sent an apologetic look in Jayne’s direction, “—plan to make sure there are no witnesses left. They are after you too, Jayne. I’m sorry.”
She firmed her lips, catching his arm and helping him along when he stumbled. “Don’t be. As I was recently informed, they ‘adopted’ me so to speak. I can’t say as I’m distraught over the fact we have no real biological ties.”
It took us the better part of fifteen minutes to cross town and angle down the Doctor’s short road. The brownstone Doctor Flynn and his wife Ella lived in sat away from the road and on a slight rise. We didn’t slow down, instead we plowed ahead, noting as we did the scuffed dirt in the drive and the trampled flowers. Someone had been by recently, and we knew who.
I by passed the front door, swinging ajar. No sense in announcing our presence if we didn’t have to. Surprise might be our only advantage against the weapons they had, and we did not. Instead, we ran around the back.
To my immense relief, the back door turned freely in my hand, unlocked, and together we eased it open, slipping unseen into the kitchen foyer in the back of the house. Three steps up and we were standing next to the appliances and listening to the sound of raised voices from the front of the house. We drew our weapons and advanced, not too worried about being quiet over the growing din.
A groan of pain made the hair on my arms flatten and I clenched my fist tight around the first small star I’d snagged from the bag at my waist, feeling it dig into the soft pad of my palm. The sound of pain had been masculine. The Doctor, I presumed. “What have you done to him, my poor Johnathan, what kind of people are you?” Ella whined pathetically. The tone of her voice sounded off.
“We’re the good kind, protecting the citizens of Purdy against the monsters. You have one in this house and I’m going to ask you exactly once where she is before we become the kind you fear.”
And just like that, the tone of Ella Flynn’s voice changed and deepened. “Well, see, that’s where you are mistaken. The only monsters here are you, with your self-righteous hypocrisy. You wouldn’t know right from wrong if it bit you in the ass.” She hissed.
Sudden movement, a shocked scream of fury and a gunshot were our cue. We came in together, fanning out and ducking low as we took in the scene. The doctor lay on the floor unmoving, a long gash creasing his forehead. Terrence and Wyatt were just then drawing their guns and bearing down on Ella.
The lady herself was changing before our eyes, azure gaze narrowing against a perfect backdrop for the dark blue scales that spread like rapid fire over her body as she transformed in record time. She’d already laid out Jazz, her jewel clawed hand raking four perfect slashes across his face and torso. It was his gun that had gone off prematurely and shattered the glass of her cabinet, taking out several plates of delicate bone china stacked neatly inside.
We wasted no more time. I drew my fingers back; the star gripped in thumb and forefinger and took aim. It flew from my fingers and hit high on Wyatt’s shoulder and hit high and hard. I called my fire in the same instant and watched with satisfaction as my shuriken burst into flames. The shock made his finger on the trigger falter and the gun exploded; the bullet winging wide and hitting the wooden banister above my head before the weapon fell from his nerveless fingers. He was fumbling to pick it up when Nick hit him with a blast of blue fire that lifted him effortlessly and flung him backwards into the coffee table; the lamp flying sideways and shattering.
I grinned at Nick before whirling to find that Sirris, Thomas, and Niel had advanced on Terrence.
But his eyes were for his daughter, narrowed in grim understanding.
A brief flash of confusion crossed his features before his jaw tightened and he drew the second gun we didn’t know he had. But Jayne’s words had bought Sirris the time she needed to call her magic along her own staff. Even as Terrence brought it around, she let loose a blast of fire that danced in an arc over the back of his hands, singing every hair and a goodly amount of skin. He screamed and dropped the smoldering gun, backing away. But there was nowhere to go. He turned to run back the way he’d come in, but Ella’s dragon waited for him. The only thing he ran into was the polite swipe of her spiked tail when she knocked him cold.
Her eyes swung to mine and I watched them lose focus. I had a fleeting glimpse of her beautiful blue coat, the scales a stunning iridescent blue that shimmered and flowed like liquid silk over her small elegant dragon. And then she was transforming back, even as she moved to her fallen husband. He was stirring by now, trying to sit up. He looked up, watching her change, not with the horror, but fond amazement.
He held a hand to his head and moaned, looking at his wife. “That never grows old. I wish you did that more often, its beautiful.”
The Doctor’s wife gathered her husband up, sniffling. “Are you okay? If anything had happened to you...”
He ignored her, glancing at Jazz, still unconscious on the floor. Fern and Jayne were busy tying everyone up.
In the distance, they could already hear the approaching sirens. “We gotta go!” Thomas shouted, grabbing hold of Sirris and beginning to drag her towards the door.
I looked at the doctor and his wife and hesitated.
“Go, get out of here. We’ve got this. Janice will be safe now. I’m guessing you have somewhere besides here that you need to be.” Ella Flynn admonished.
Together we ran for the back door.
Jayne hesitated and looked back at the Doctor and his wife. “Tell them. Tell the cops I’ll be turning myself in later. That I have a story to tell them. It will help put my family where they belong. Behind bars.
Ella gave Jayne a quick jerk of her head in acquiescence and then we were gone, running through the backyard next door as the squad cars pulled up out front.
We hit the road leading up to camp at a dead run. As we entered the forest I looked over in time to see Niel divesting himself of his shirt and weapons and stuffing them in his bag, slung around his neck.
He gave me an apologetic look. “My dragon’s faster Sadie. Sorry, but I can’t wait.” He glanced at Todd, keeping pace beside us, his complexion waxy and pale, his jeans and shoulder drenched in drying blood. “How do you feel about a ride, Todd Tuttle?” Todd blinked in confusion before he attempted a weak grin.
“Promise not to drop me?”
“Well then, you better hold on.” And even as we skated sideways to give him room, he was changing as he ran, dropping the last vestiges of humanity as tanned skin gave way to bronze scales and leathery wings spread wide. He paused long enough to let Todd scrabble aboard and hold on tight, and then he was scattering us off the road like fleas as he surged ahead, wings catching the air and lifting them both aloft. As he cleared the upper canopy of trees and picked up speed, we heard Todd Shout. “Oh, hell yeah.”
Valley of the Dragons (Rule 9 Academy, #3) Page 20
