Swearing, Gillian banked left and raced up to it. It jerked back from her approach, its misshapen hoofed hands pawing at the air with fear. Its eyes were ringed white with terror as it nearly overbalanced owing to the weight of the horns on its head. Steeling herself, Gillian pulled up short, lowered her gun and tried speaking to it.
“It’s all right; just be calm.”
She forced herself to open her empathy to the creature and its terror nearly overwhelmed her. Only her iron will to help the pathetic creature kept her focused as she allowed her empathy to work, while inwardly cringing at the thought of a bullet finding her back. She projected goodwill toward the beast, murmuring to it softly despite the bellows and roars behind her and the shots still ricocheting in the buildings. It was working but much too slowly.
“Piccola, look at it. Look directly at it, and let me try to help you.” Aleksei’s black velvet voice rumbled through her head.
She didn’t argue about his mental intrusion. There was no way she could subdue the damn thing unless she shot it and she wasn’t a hundred percent sure that it wasn’t a victim here too. There was also no way she would let it burn to death.
Looking directly into its eyes, Gillian concentrated, letting Aleksei see what she saw, feel what she felt. At once she felt his support, his arms around her . . . No, he was embracing the Moose, the feeling only spilling over onto her. She could hear him speaking softly in Romanian and Italian to the creature, using her as a bridge. It didn’t matter what he was saying, only that he was saying it, and the creature was apparently responding. It seemed to relax, looking at Gillian so piteously that it broke her heart.
Aleksei again: “It does not understand you, or me for that matter. It is a captive also, bellissima. Speak softly to it, get it away from the flames and the noise. It will go with you.”
“You’re really quite handy to have around, you know?” she sent appreciatively back to him. He chuckled in her head: deep, warm and comforting before he withdrew.
Slowly, Gillian reached for the chained leash wondering how the fuck she could break that without scaring the thing to death. Pavel trotted up at that point, blood on his muzzle and chest and no sign of Red. He looked up at her, panting, a doggy grin on his face then shouldered her out of the way, taking the chain in his mouth and snapping it cleanly.
The Moose nearly bolted at the Werewolf’s appearance but Gillian soothed it, reaching up to unweave the leather strap from the chain so she might remove the halter around its hideously ugly face. She shooed Pavel back and pointed him toward the barracks to help the others. Grabbing the Weremoose by its forelimb, she pulled it out of the compound and into the forest. White eyed and sides heaving, it was still terrified, but it trusted her and was trying to calm itself. Patting its neck distractedly, she watched to see where her Team was.
Her heart nearly stopped again when a small voice next to her leg spoke. “Her Majesty says the children are safe, Gillian Big.” A Brownie she didn’t recognize stood by her shin.
“Jesus, don’t sneak up on me like that.” Gillian had her gun leveled at the Brownie, who cocked its head and looked at her disdainfully.
“Do you have a message for my Queen?”
“Yes, tell Her Majesty thank you, and that after we return, the Brownie Nation will be known for their loyalty and bravery.” That seemed to satisfy him and he disappeared again.
Waiting in the woods for everyone else sucked, so Gillian gradually began to move back toward the compound. Stealthily, quietly, so as not to give away her position. The Moose bounced in front of her, abruptly blocking her path and honking worriedly. It—or rather “she,” as Gill noticed after seeing it up close—didn’t want Gillian going back there.
“It’s okay. I have to see if my friends are all right,” Gillian soothed, gently pushing it aside.
The Moose wasn’t happy but it moved and let her pass, following her like a huge, horned puppy on two legs. It was rather disconcerting.
Edging up to the compound, Gillian saw that the Brownies had recovered the Humans who had run away. Most of the Shifters were wounded and being tied up by Kimber and Jenna, who was thoughtfully loading a .357 Magnum with silver bullets. “Now, you all can either shift back and let us secure you or I can shoot you right now, then we’ll take the shifted body back. Your choice.” Jenna always did have a way with words.
Trocar was kneeling next to the Minotaur, apparently bandaging him up. The Bear was gone but Boris was there, dead, with a very large hole through his middle, which she could see as she approached them. Once again the massive head swung toward her and she greeted him.
“Thanks for saving my ass back there, Daed.” She knelt next to the enormous creature, the Moose hovering worriedly off to the side.
Daed and Trocar looked at it. “New friend?” Trocar asked. Daed snorted derisively.
“She was a prisoner too, a victim like the others. We’re taking her back, but I need Pavel. She apparently doesn’t speak any Human language but Russian.”
“How are the children?” The baritone voice rumbled out of the Minotaur’s huge chest.
“Fine, I think. The Brownies, Trocar and Kimber got them out. Does anyone know where Luis is?”
“Right here, Gillian.”
They all spun, Daed as much as he was able, still in the huge Minotaur form and on the ground. Luis stood there, hands at his sides, eyes glittering dangerously.
“What’s wrong, Luis?”
“Kill me, Gillian. Do it now while I still have control.” His voice was agonized and his eyes flickered with pain.
“Trocar . . .” Gillian asked, backing up from Luis and motioning the Moose behind her. “What’s wrong with him?”
The Dark Elf closed his eyes for a moment, seeking something. When he opened them, he relayed his information. “His will is not his own. He wants you to kill him so he will not endanger all of you.”
“Hell with that,” Gillian snapped. “You’re a Marine, Luis. One of our own. We leave no one behind.”
Luis looked at her gratefully for a moment, sanity back in his eyes, “I am grateful for that, Captain. But I am a ‘plant.’ A danger to you all. Kill me. Do not force me to kill my friends.” His lovely face contorted in pain.
“They’re trying to control him even now. Trocar, put him out, do something.” Gillian was frantic; she didn’t know how to fight this, and she wasn’t about to just kill Luis if there was any other option.
Moving up to Luis, Trocar whispered a few words, made some symbols in the air that made Gillian’s stomach lurch and Luis’s eyes widen. Elf and Vampire stared at each other, wills clashing, each trying to override the other one. Whatever was left of Luis inside his body rallied and, with an apologetic look to Gillian, slashed his own throat with his nails. Ignoring Trocar’s warning shout, she caught him as he fell, blood spraying everywhere.
Lowering the Vampire’s body, Gillian was furious. “No! No, he is not going to have you.”
They all knew who “he” was. “Not in this lifetime, mister!”
She desperately tried to staunch the bleeding, Trocar handing her a cloth he’d produced from somewhere on his dark clothing. Fortunately, Luis was attuned to her, as his friend and commander, and he listened, ignoring the huge bull’s head that bent concernedly over him.
“Shut down your heart, Luis, sleep and we’ll get you to Dionysus,” Gillian ordered. Luis was of the Greek Lord’s bloodline and he might be able to save him.
In her arms, the Vampire sighed, shutting his system down and “dying” as she held him. Quickly, they bandaged the terrible wound in his neck. A noise made them look up but it was the others joining them. Daed filled them in, his voice echoing and hollow sounding coming from the huge chest. He was exhausted from the fight with the Bear and didn’t have the strength to shift back yet.
The Moose wandered up, curious. Gillian nearly pushed it away impatiently then thought better of it. “We need to figure out how to get all these kids, the Vampire, t
his Moose and any wounded back to the village.” Her voice sounded tired even to her.
“Ignacious!” she called out and was rewarded by a scurrying in the bracken.
He appeared with a small contingency of Brownies. “Yes, Gillian Big?”
“The kids are all safe, right?”
“Yes. They are most amused to find beings smaller than themselves.”
“Great. Look, we need some help. While we get the kids back to the village and the police station, we must get this Vampire back before the sun comes out fully and he melts. Can you help?”
Ignacious shook his tiny head. “The children we can help with and keep safe. They are uninjured but hungry and very frightened. The Vampire is too big for us.”
“Fine, then organize your group and get those prisoners in line to march back. Any of them breathes wrong and you kill them, understand?”
“Yes, Gillian Big.” He scampered off, yelling orders to his people.
Soon the four remaining prisoners were lashed together and amid hundreds of Brownies who had very disagreeable expressions on their little faces. That done, Gillian turned back to the problem of transporting Luis.
“I will carry him,” Daed rumbled, his voice still sounding very otherworldly coming from the giant bovine chest.
“You’re exhausted and wounded; don’t even think about it,” Gillian objected.
“I can carry one of our own,” he insisted.
With the Brownies providing twine of spider silk and Trocar’s healing skill, Luis was soon prepped and tied to the broad back of the Minotaur. Daed had a massive gash in his side but insisted he’d heal faster with the Elf’s help and if he remained in shifted form.
“Fine. Everyone alive?” Gillian spoke up when it looked like everyone was ready. “Jenna, torch it. We’re not burying these assholes.” She pointed to the dead in the yard. Her dear firebug friend cheerfully went about setting the entire place ablaze. Gill meant the destruction to be a definite warning.
Kimber had obtained the hard drives from the computers in the compound’s office and had a folder with manifests, receipts and schedules in it. With the kids and themselves as witnesses, hopefully they had everything needed to topple the entire structure of the ped ring. All of the perpetrators there were either dead or prisoners, but the Team and children were all still alive. Not good as far as investigations went, but as a rescue, it was stellar.
As they trudged back to the village, exhausted but happy, they came upon several dead bodies that were trussed up with Brownie twine and who had been summarily killed. It seemed the original buyers for the kids had tried to make an appearance after all and their fierce little allies had done their job very well. No one had a camera and no one wanted to pack the bodies back with them, so by mutual consent, they left them there. They’d notify the authorities when they got back and let the locals handle the paperwork.
CHAPTER 4
THE trek back was slower. They moved at a less frenetic pace with the children along and the Moose dragging behind. She was still very sad and honked to herself as they went along. Gillian walked with her for a time, then asked Pavel to speak to her and find out who she was and where she was from.
True to their word, the Brownies accompanied them, singing to the traumatized kids, feeding them bits of Fey delicacies. Kimber was alarmed at first but Gillian assured her that the legends of being locked into the world of the Fairy for eating or drinking from a Fairy’s hand were just that, legends. After that, Kimber relaxed and even joined in the singing and snacking.
After discovering they had only a hundred seventy children with them, Gillian was furious. The original number had been a little over two hundred, but Daed reminded her that the villages in the area were still sorting out who was dead and who wasn’t so it was a sad fact that some of the children might already be dead but still missing. Sighing, she agreed with him but extracted a promise that they’d leave some of their own there to watch over these people until it was determined that the trafficking had stopped and the perpetrators were either dead or incarcerated.
Getting Luis secured away was first on their list. Gillian called Aleksei from her cell phone, not wanting to tire either of them with long mental communication. Explaining what had happened, she asked him to contact Dionysus for help. Aleksei responded that the Greek Lord was ready and able to help Luis and to ship him to Greece as cargo, just as a precaution.
Next was deciding how the Team was going to be divided up. They’d fulfilled their obligation to Major Aristophenes to the best of their abilities. Most of the kids had been recovered and were safe. With a little effort from the local authorities, the missing thirty or so would be accounted for, hopefully alive and hungry, though everyone secretly doubted it. Gill’s Team believed that since the still-missing children hadn’t been inquired after by anyone, they’d probably been killed along with their families and there was nothing but bodies to recover.
Strong suspicions remained about the local police. Rumors about corrupt cops were nothing new. Most law enforcement officers are just what they profess to be: honest, tireless, caring dispensers of justice. A few, however, were always on the alert for ways to make a quick buck, beyond the boundaries of their paycheck. If there were no crooked cops, there would be no need for Internal Affairs divisions in police departments.
With Gillian’s empathy, Trocar’s truth spells and Daed’s and Pavel’s abilities to scent fear, they did a final service for the village and relief workers. Delaying their return by a mere two days so they could blaze through the various agencies working on the rescue effort, the Team managed to ferret out five more individuals who had been involved in the child trafficking operation. DNA evidence confirmed their findings. Two Shifters and three Humans, four males and one female, stood at bazooka and flamethrower point before a hastily convened tribunal, who heard the charges and evidence brought against them.
Daedelus was a little nervous. He hated the bastards as much as Gillian did but he was much more cognizant of the fact that they still had a camera crew with them. Gillian plainly didn’t give a shit when she suggested that, given the area was under martial law, they simply execute the perpetrators right there. Daed blanched and hastily covered for his Captain, saying that it had not been decided what would be done with the perpetrators other than holding them until the local authorities decided their fate.
Pavel winked at Gillian then translated both her suggestion and Daed’s to the locals crowding the tent where they were holding the tribunal. There was at once a great hue and cry to do exactly as Gillian suggested and exterminate the vermin who had preyed on their children. The regular Russian Army and Daed were hard pressed to contain the bloodthirsty local populace from carrying the guilty outside and summarily dismembering them. Daed glared at Gillian, who saluted, smiled and sauntered out into the compound, followed by the rest of her Team.
Trocar strode up to walk beside her, caught her arm and pulled her close, whispering conspiratorially into her hair for the benefit of anyone watching too directly. He made the gesture one of a lover, but Gillian caught on. Trocar was only obvious for someone else’s benefit. Cooperating, she beamed a smile up at him and slid her arm around his slender waist.
“No matter what the ultimate judgment of the Tribunal,” Trocar said quietly in his beautiful, musical voice, “I promise you that none of those responsible will leave the area alive.”
In answer, she hugged him tightly as they walked, then by mutual agreement, they released each other and kept walking toward their tent. Gillian wasn’t about to tell him no. The Dark Elf was a edict unto himself, harsh, lawful and wholly without remorse. If there were a snafu in the proceedings, he would see to it that the guilty were truly punished.
Pedophiles. World’s lowest life-form as far as she was concerned. Trocar could do as he wished. No one on their Team would rat him out nor raise a hand to stop him. Bastards deserved whatever he dealt. The kids were safe but people were going to pay.
&n
bsp; Kimber surprised everyone by volunteering to stay to oversee the operation in the villages. Astonishingly, so did Daedelus. First thing Daed did upon arriving back was commandeer a shortwave radio and order a backup platoon of handpicked Marines to police the area and keep everyone honest. Gillian busied herself by speaking to Helmut Gerhardt and ordering a number of therapists qualified in sexual abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder to attend to the children. Some of the kids were orphans of Shifters, one even had a Vampire father. Having Paramortal specialists there would help. After several days for everything to be coordinated, it took only a few hours after their return for the reporters they’d left behind to organize interviews and photo ops.
The film-crew promoter tangled with Gillian over televising the rescued children. Daed wound up interceding when Gillian almost broke the man’s nose . . . accidentally on purpose, when she knocked a boom mic into his face. Releases giving permission to photograph the area, a few willing officials and several reunited families were agreed upon. Only then did Gillian back off. The broadcast journalists got their story, and no one was going to sue anyone else.
Major Daedelus Aristophenes, M.D., Ph.D., United States Marine Corps, and his crack squad headed up by Captain Gillian Key, Ph.D., Lieutenant Kimber Whitecloud, Lieutenant Jenna Blake, Captain Luis Clemente, Lieutenant Trocar Blackthorne, the Brownies and their civilian translator-guide, Pavel Miroslav, were all the darlings of the media. Everyone received commendations, even Ignacious and the Brownie Queen, Sanovia.
There was significant air time about the heroism of the Lycanthropes, the Fey, the Elf and the Vampire helping the cause of endangered Human children. After the ceremonies and the cameras were turned off, the Brownies hurried off to help the new therapists with the children. It took some getting used to but the little people really were magic, helping to remove some of the worst of the children’s memories and bring laughter back into their young lives again.
Key to Conspiracy Page 4
