by Zoe Arden
I followed the noise and was disappointed when it ended at the back of the hall in a blank wall. That didn't stop the noise though. It was steadier and much louder now than it had been before. Not footsteps, not voices, more like someone was picking something up and setting it down again. Like boxes being moved.
Whatever was happening was happening right on the other side of this wall. I studied the wall, which looked made of cement or something similar, and was suddenly certain that it was not what it appeared. The noises were too loud. If this wall was as thick as it looked, I shouldn't have been able to hear anything. I pressed my ear to it and heard voices, faint but clear.
"Set it down."
"That goes here."
"Get the forklift."
"Careful, they said they want them alive."
I frowned and stood back, re-examining the wall with fresh eyes. There had to be a door that I was missing hidden somewhere inside it. I remembered that there was a loading dock in the back of the warehouse. Maybe that's what I was hearing now. But how did I get to it?
The wall felt smooth when I touched it—too smooth. The rest of the basement had a grainy, unfinished feel to it, but this wall was the opposite of that.
"It's fake," I murmured, sliding my hand slowly over it. My index finger caught on something. I touched it and my heart raced. A button. I felt it want to give under the pressure of my finger. Now that I could feel it, I could see it, too. It blended remarkably well with the wall, so well it was almost imperceptible. There was the faintest of outlines and nothing more.
On the other side, a voice said, "Food's here," and suddenly there was a muffled commotion as workers stopped what they were doing and went to eat. I heard one man say that their bonus better be worth the trouble they were going to.
"It will be," said his friend. “The boss always makes the bonuses worth it."
When there was silence on the other side, I held my breath and pushed the button, excepting it to reveal a door. It wasn't just a door, though. The entire wall opened, rising into the ceiling and disappearing.
The loading dock revealed itself, and there on the dock sat at least fifty cages. Each cage contained a mutant. The mutants were not in their tanks, but out in the open, though most of them appeared to be passed out.
Pulled up to the dock were three large eighteen-wheeler trucks. I had the feeling there were more where those came from if they were needed.
"Oh, my roses," I said. "They're not killing them; they're moving them."
A few of the creatures stirred, their eyes opening sleepily. I watched them watch me, and I could tell they didn't trust me any more than they trusted Burch or his men. Why should they? For all they knew, I was here to finish the job Burch had started.
I heard a groan from one of the cages and turned toward it.
"Damon!" I shouted, running to him. His eyes stayed shut though. He was out cold. "Damon," I said again, hoping if he heard my voice, he might open his eyes or at least he'd let out another groan. I hated seeing him like this, but at least if he was groaning, I knew he was alive.
Damon didn't stir again. I studied his face through the cage. He had a gash on his forehead that had bled pretty good, though it appeared to have stopped. Dried blood was caked in his hair. I wondered why they hadn't just killed him, then realized with horror that they probably had bigger plans for him.
If they weren't destroying these creatures, merely moving them, then that meant they would continue to steal people and turn them into mutants. Damon was human. He would probably make an excellent specimen.
I tried the lock on his cage, using every spell I could think of to make it open, but nothing worked. I had to get him out of here before anyone came back. I had to get them all out of here. But how was I supposed to do this alone? What was taking Colt so long anyway?
A door opened off to the side of the dock, and a man stepped out. He paused when he saw me.
"Gordie," I said, running up to him. "You have to help me."
He looked pale. "Clarissa?" he asked, confused. "W-What's going on here? You shouldn't be here. I don't even want to be here. These monsters—"
"They're not monsters," I said. "They're humans."
"These are humans?" he asked, incredulous.
"They used to be. If we can get them out of here, maybe they can be again."
He furrowed his brow. "I don't understand. Burch and Jaggers told me these were monsters they've been collecting. Said they're dangerous."
"There isn't time to explain it. And my name's not Clarissa, it's Ava. Ava Fortune."
His eyes widened again. "Damon's girlfriend?"
"Y-You know who I am?"
He nodded. "Damon talked about you a lot."
My heart thumped hard. I'd had no idea that Damon was still pining away for me. I thought he'd put that all behind him. When this was over, I was going to have to straighten him out. But that could wait until later.
"Will you help me?" I asked. "We have to get these people out of here before Burch and Jaggers get back."
Gordie rolled his sleeves back. "I never liked those two anyway. Just tell me what you need me to do."
* * *
CHAPTER
THIRTY-SEVEN
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"I'm not sure where to start," I told Gordie. "There's so many of them."
"You didn't just come here without a plan, did you?" he asked.
"No, but I wasn't expecting..." I sighed. "You know, I'm not sure what I was expecting. In my head, this all went a lot smoother than it's currently going."
Gordie looked crushed, like I'd just told him Santa Claus wasn't real.
"Originally, I wasn't even planning to come down here tonight. I was going to come tomorrow. That gave me a whole other day to think things through."
"You're just making excuses now," Gordie said. "I get it, you're scared, but you need to keep your head clear. Focus."
I nodded, wanting to be brave not just for him but for Damon, for Colt, and for all these poor creatures who were counting on me.
"Let's load them up," Gordie said suddenly.
I stared at him. "Load them up? Onto the trucks?"
"Yeah, of course. What else are we gonna do?"
"But that's just what they want, isn't it? Burch and Jaggers and their men."
Gordie drew in a deep breath. "If we get them loaded up before the workers get back, then we can drive them out of here ourselves."
It was actually pretty brilliant. We could use their own plan against them. Take their trucks and just drive them away.
"Do we have time to load all these cages though?" I asked, looking around. "There's at least fifty of them."
"You're a witch, right? Use some magic." His eyes lit up as he said it, and I could tell he hadn't seen a lot of magic performed before. Even now, in this situation, the kid in him couldn't help but get excited at the idea of seeing real live magic.
"If I could use magic to load them up, why wouldn't the workers have done the same thing?" I asked.
"Because they're human. You know Burch and Jaggers only employ humans here, except for the higher-ups. They don't trust paranormals."
"Then why didn't Burch and Jaggers just load the trucks up themselves? They're both warlocks; they can use magic."
"But they're also lazy. They don't want to do work that they can force others to do for them. Even if it means that human methods get used instead of paranormal ones."
I looked around again at the forklifts and pallets that the cages had been getting stacked on. Each pallet had enough room for three or four cages depending on their size.
"Okay," I said. "You're right. I can do this." I don't know why I was having such a hard time keeping my head clear. It was just seeing all these people locked up like animals, knowing they were counting on me to help them... it was overwhelming.
I muttered the first levitation spel
l I could think of, and Damon's cage rose a foot in the air. I smiled briefly before it plummeted back to the ground again with a loud clank.
"Ssh!" Gordie said. "You don't want Burch to hear."
"Sorry," I said and tried again using a different spell. This time, the cage only rattled on the ground.
"You're not very good at this, are you?" Gordie asked.
"I'm a baker and an extract expert, not a professional spellcaster." I lifted my shoulders, frustrated, and let out a sigh.
"Well, we need to think of something fast; otherwise, we're never going to get out of here."
"I know that," I snapped then felt bad for yelling. This wasn't Gordie's fault. "Sorry," I muttered.
"It's okay. We're both on edge right now."
I checked my phone again and saw that I'd gotten back faint cell reception. "Let me try calling my fiancé. He's on his way here now; maybe he's close."
"Colt's on his way here?" Gordie asked.
I paused and looked at him. "How'd you know his name?"
"Damon mentioned it when we worked together. I think he was a little jealous of him."
I frowned, hating to think that all this time Damon had been going around feeling jealous of Colt. Damon knew that things between the two of us could never have worked out. It was impossible. Feeling jealous was just silly and wouldn't change anything.
I pushed the thought away and dialed Colt's number. His phone rang but he didn't pick up.
"Darn it," I muttered. "Where is he?" I let it keep ringing. The ringing got louder and louder, almost as if Colt was here beside me. I looked around. "Where is that coming from?" I asked Gordie.
He looked around and shrugged.
Suddenly, Colt stepped into view. He came around the corner of the dock, walking past the trucks, his face grim. When he was up on the dock with us, I threw my arms around him and kissed him. He didn't pull back; he kissed me back. For the first time since all this stuff had started with Damon, it felt like Colt and I were a real couple again.
"Who's this?" he asked when I finally let him go.
"This is Gordie Peterman," I said. "He's a security guard here at the warehouse. He wants to help. He was friends with Damon."
Colt looked at him suspiciously then nodded. "Okay. Let's get these guys loaded up and get out of here."
"Wait a second," I said as he took out his COMHA-issued wand. I was glad to see that he'd brought it. "Weren't you getting us transportation? I thought that's what you've been doing this whole time."
"I was," he said, "but it seems as if Burch had the same idea I did." He looked around and indicated the trucks.
"You mean your plan was to load the mutants up on a bunch of eighteen-wheelers and drive them out of here?"
"Pretty much. But when I got down to the truck rental place, the guy in charge told me a bunch of trucks had already been rented by Standards. I figured it would just be easier to use the ones already here rather than rent my own, and now that I see how many mutants there are, I realize one truck would never have been enough. There are three trucks here now and three of us. We'll each have to take one when they're loaded up." He looked at Gordie. "You okay with that?"
Gordie nodded. "Absolutely. As far as I'm concerned, this is my resignation."
Colt nodded approvingly.
"I can't drive a truck," I said, looking at Colt like he was crazy.
"You won't have to," Colt said. "We can cast it to drive itself. You'll just need to keep an eye on it as it goes, make sure it doesn't veer off the road or miss a turn. Things like that."
I felt my face pale but nodded.
"You'll be fine," Gordie said reassuringly.
Then Colt held up his wand and swung it in a big circle over his head, casting a spell I'd never heard before.
Gordie stepped back, a little afraid, I think. His eyes widened, and he looked a little awestruck. "Where can I get one of those?"
“You can’t,” Colt told him.
"Just joking," Gordie said, though I wasn't entirely sure he was.
The cages began to lift into the air and lower themselves onto the trucks. Colt looked at me. "I could've done it without the wand, but these COMHA wands just make things so much easier. The spells they cast are ten times more potent than the ones I'd cast without it." He looked almost embarrassed to admit it.
"I think it's cool," I told him.
"Me, too," said Gordie.
Damon's cage was the last to be loaded.
"Can't we open it and let him out?" I asked Colt.
He shook his head. "It might not be safe, for him or for us. You don't know what they've done to him. What if he's already been injected with something? We could open his cage, wake him up, and find out he's been infected with werewolf blood. Then where would we be?" He hesitated then said, "I don't think Damon would want us to do anything that might result in your being injured."
I pressed my lips tightly together. "You're right. It's better that we wait. When we get to where we're going, we can figure it out then."
I looked up at him.
"Where are we going?"
"COMHA."
I wanted to ask how he planned to get across the water without a ferry, but he was already making his way to the cab of the first truck.
"They left the keys in the ignition," he called out and let out a happy little laugh. "It's almost too easy. It's like they planned this."
Suddenly, the expression on his face changed. "Ava," he shouted, "look out!"
I turned just in time to see Gordie pull his Taser out and stick me with it.
* * *
CHAPTER
THIRTY-EIGHT
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My body dropped to the ground. Every nerve in every limb seemed suddenly alive, and not in a good way. My muscles contracted and for one brief moment, it felt like they were all spasming at once. Then things calmed down, and my body relaxed again.
"That was the lowest setting this thing has," Gordie said. "If you try anything, I'll use the highest."
My head was thumping. I slowly raised one hand to it and checked to make sure that it hadn't cracked open on me. Colt's voice sounded far away.
"Ava!" he screamed, and I heard him running toward us. Suddenly, Gordie grabbed my arm and yanked me up so that I was standing. Now my arm throbbed, too. It felt like he was trying to rip it off like I was a wishbone he was pulling apart. He pressed the Taser to my head, and I could have sworn that I felt the steady pulse of electricity behind it ready to leap out and tag me at any second.
I opened my eyes and saw that Colt had stopped running. He stood still, his eyes wide.
"Don't hurt her," Colt begged. "A Taser directly to the head at the highest setting can result in permanent brain damage."
Gordie chuckled behind me. "I know."
That chuckle, more than anything, made my blood churn.
"I don't understand," I said. "I thought you were on our side."
Burch and Jaggers came walking out of the basement and onto the loading dock just then. They were beaming.
"You were right," Burch said. "By golly, I can't believe it, but you were right. You led them right to us."
Gordie's grip on my arm tightened as Colt took a step forward. "I wouldn't move if I were you."
Colt said, "I'm not moving. I'm not doing anything."
Jaggers shook his head sadly. "I still don't like the idea of using witches and warlocks. Humans are one thing, but this is hurting our own kind." He glared at Burch.
"It's necessary," Burch said. "Besides, don't you want to see what happens when we cross a witch, a werewolf, and a mermaid? That could really be something exciting, don't you think? Instead of using those witch extracts we obtained from hospitals, we can use a real witch. Maybe next we can capture a real werewolf, and not just use the blood samples they had on file at Mistmoor Hospital."
Jaggers' frown faded. It
was replaced with a chilling gleam of excitement. "I am kind of curious to see how she turns out." He pouted his lips and made a soft clucking sound at me. "You should never have come back here. That was your mistake."
My head still hurt but it had cleared enough for me to understand what was happening now. "You wanted me to come back. You needed me here so that you could get rid of me like you've been trying to do with Damon."
"You know too much," Jaggers said.
"You all know too much," Burch added, looking at Colt.
Colt said, "So, you lured us here, so you could turn us into one of your mutants?"
Burch nodded.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked. Jaggers and Burch looked at each other.
"For money, of course," Jaggers said. "Once we perfect our technique, we can offer a wide range of creatures to whatever country or group wants them. Vlaski Ambrose's old followers have already put in several requests for mer-wolves."
"Vlaski Ambrose?" I said, shocked. "The vampire? But he's dead. I didn't think he had any followers left."
"That's just what they wanted you to think," Jaggers said. "They're planning on picking up where Vlaski left off. As far as I know, they plan to make every witch and wizard their slave. Except us, of course; we made sure to work that out in the contract."
A low growl came from Colt, and I dared a look at him. His face had twisted up into an angry snarl. He and Vlaski Ambrose had a long history together.
Gordie laughed. "I can't wait to see what this one looks like as a mer-wolf. He's already so angry. He'll be a terrific hunter once the change is complete."
I couldn't take it anymore. "What's the matter with you," I asked Gordie. "You're human. Why would you even want to be a part of this? Just for money?"
Gordie's grip on me loosened ever so slightly as his shoulders shook. He was laughing. I turned my head so that I could see him, and his face had gone red. He couldn't stop the laughter rising out of him.
