SHADOWLIGHT STOOD OVER the unconscious medical technician hoping the male would wake up.
Surely one that was awake would prove much more interesting. He gave the human a nudge with his muzzle.
Nothing.
Greenborrow had ordered him to stay and watch the human so the leshii, Darkness, and River could track Major Resnick’s convoy and provide distractions to slow it so Lillian could keep pace.
Shadowlight would have loved to have taken part, but he was also pleased the leshii trusted him enough to have him watch this unconscious human.
The duty was one he’d gladly fulfill any other day. Unfortunately, it was keeping him from other commitments today.
It had been some hours since he’d given his blood to the female warrior he’d found in the forest. By now, his gargoyle blood would have finished ridding her of the Riven taint, or it would have killed her. She was a fighter. He thought she’d survive his blood, but in her present weakened condition, the elements might be enough to kill her.
Worry gnawed at his belly. He glanced down at the unconscious male at his feet.
By the look of it, this human would sleep for some hours yet. Shadowlight knew he was not overly far from where he’d stashed his rescued human. If he sprinted, he could be there and back in a relatively short time. The male human at his feet would be safe enough for now. He scented no predator nearby. All the activity on the road had driven everything else off long since.
Yes, he was sure it was for the best to check on his pet human. The one at his feet didn’t need him.
Chapter 7
THE VEHICLE GREGORY rode in came to an abrupt halt. The other passengers exited, and he followed their example, allowing himself a swift glance around at the other vehicles, military personnel, tall fences, and numerous buildings. All the above looked to have doubled or tripled in numbers since he’d last laid eyes on this place.
A sense of alert wariness hung in the air. The deceptive calm was like a banked fire just waiting for more fuel to burst into life once again.
Gregory silently admired their readiness. They couldn’t have had much in the way of peaceful rest in the day since the Siren and the Riven had clashed here in this land.
The humans had lost a number of their own in the battle—a battle the humans wouldn’t have understood because to them magic, be it good or evil, was nothing more than myth and legend.
But now they knew something dangerous was in the woods with them.
He could only imagine their confusion. Many of their patrols had come back, the signs of battle clear upon their bodies and uniforms, but with no memory of what had transpired, because he and the other fae had taken that from them.
Not for the first time, he wondered if he might have made a mistake with that decision.
However, there was no time to dwell on it now—the others were dispersing to their assigned tasks. So too must he.
Gregory sought the bundle of memories he’d borrowed from the human whose likeness he now wore. He sifted through them until he found what he needed. The way to the labs.
He reached his destination—some kind of portable building complex—without incident. Inside he found three other humans already crammed into the tight work areas. He made his way over to the only open workstation. Relying on his borrowed memories, he quickly popped open the two cases he’d brought with him.
The blood belonging to the magic wielders was easy enough to spot—it possessed a slight glow. One he could see, but not something a human could discern with the naked eye. Once he located the ones he wanted, a small touch of magic mirrored the markings from each vial onto the corresponding Coven-collected samples.
With Lillian’s immediate family done, he moved on to other Coven members, finding them in the sea of blood samples by the trace of magic present in them. This part took longer since some of these ones were at the other technicians’ stations.
A touch of concealment magic and skills a pickpocket would envy solved that particular hurdle.
But the speed with which he was accomplishing his task did nothing to sooth Lillian’s growing anxiety. He could smell the tang of her fear even inside the building.
“Do not worry,” he sent using their mental link. “I am almost finished here. Just. One. More. Ah, there. See, no epic disaster.”
“Well good for you! Now hurry up and get out here. I just smelled a hint of Riven.”
Gregory paused, the last vial he’d switched halfway back to its case. “I’m on my way.”
He placed the vial back with its brethren, the human at the workstation none the wiser. With that done, he made his way out into the cooling evening air.
Lillian waited for him next to the building, concealed within the highest concentration of shadows she could find. He joined her after a quick scan of his surroundings. As he dragged in a deep breath, he caught the faint whiff she had noted.
“Most definitely Riven. Though very faint. As we speculated, they captured or found Riven remains.” Gregory’s protective instincts flared to life.
He needed to hunt out the source of that scent and destroy every last trace so its evil couldn’t find a new host. Yet he needed to keep Lillian safe, too.
“They may have Whitethorn and Goswin. We need to rescue them if they do,” Lillian said, adding another complication to an already complex situation.
But she was correct.
“I’ll remain in this form for now and see how far I can get. I imagine where ever the scent leads will be as brightly lit as the place I just left. Shadows will not be plentiful, so don’t risk exposing yourself. We can send your father back here later to rescue Whitethorn and the sprite, should we find them.”
Without the collar limiting him, Gregory knew he could be in and out with no humans the wiser. He didn’t want to say as much to Lillian. He’d hurt her enough with his accusations about her failure in judgment concerning the Siren and the collars created by the Battle Goddess. That wound didn’t need picking at.
“Very well.” Lillian’s whisper drifted to him from the shadows to his immediate left. “Let’s do some recon.”
Her excitement at the thought of finding news of Whitethorn and Goswin washed over him in a fresh wave. As he started in the direction of what had been the town’s community center and arena complex, but was now the military’s main headquarters, he realized he felt better with a task to perform. Freeing himself from the collar might be beyond him at the moment, but friends, those were within his ability to save, or at least locate.
“You’ve got a plan?” she asked as they approached a closed gate with guards standing off to either side.
“Yes, banter around the names of the two top scientists I plucked from the human’s memories.”
“Handy that.”
He didn’t bother with a reply and stopped smartly before the gate. After saluting an officer who was exiting, he turned his attention back to the gate guards. One seemed familiar from his borrowed memories.
“Are Doctors Fleming or Rogers still inside? Major Resnick found something interesting, and he wants them to have a look.”
“Something more interesting than what is inside?” the guard questioned, a hint of surprise in his expression.
“No idea,” Gregory bluffed, “Major Resnick didn’t tell me, just ordered me to find Fleming and Rogers ASAP.”
“I saw Rogers return fifteen minutes ago, and Fleming hasn’t taken a break in hours. Whether you can pull them away from their labs long enough to come with you is another question altogether.” The guard shook his head. “It’s like the fucking Twilight Zone around here.”
“Tell me about it.” Gregory gave the guard a somber nod of agreement as they ushered him through the gate, Lillian an invisible ghost at his heels.
He made his way deeper into enemy territory. It was busier here, with many personnel going about their business with the discipline all soldiers adopted if they wished to survive long on a battlefield.
Gregory studi
ed the immediate area outside the building’s main entrance.
“Do you see those five vehicles parked in the front? They are being loaded, not unloaded.”
Lillian stopped dead, and Gregory had to sidestep at the last moment so he wouldn’t run into her.
“Oh shit. You seeing what I’m seeing?” Her tail flicked in agitation. “They are packing up supplies, or more likely shipping samples elsewhere for more in-depth study. By the size and number of vehicles, they must be planning to move something they deem important. Look at that firepower.”
“Indeed, they are well armed,” he acknowledged. “And we may not have much time. If they have a Riven or have captured Whitethorn and Goswin, then we can only assume they will not waste time in moving them to a more secure location.”
Chapter 8
LILLIAN’S STOMACH TIED itself in knots. If Whitethorn and Goswin were still alive, they needed rescuing. She wanted to help accomplish that. Yet, handicapped by the collars as they were, she feared for Gregory’s safety, too.
He looked vulnerable with no natural weapons or protective spells at the ready, just the fragile covering of his uniform. Was this how Gregory viewed her when she was merely a dryad?
“You worry too much,” he sent with another mental command to relax. “The Divine Ones have always protected us.”
“Yeah, when they aren’t demanding we die for the cause, or while having their baby.”
“Lillian!”
“Sorry,” she mumbled, but she wasn’t feeling very repentant.
She still thought it was grossly unfair they demanded their Avatars not know physical love and yet allowed them to crave it. Damn double standards. Or something along those lines. But that discussion was a fight for another day.
When they reached the community center’s main entrance, Gregory uttered a similar statement about Resnick a second time. They were again granted entry into the facility.
Lillian squeezed herself between the four guards and on into the building, being careful to stay close to Gregory. “Not to concern you, but I’m fast running out of shadows to hide in.”
“Easy, love,” Gregory said with humor clear in his mind. “I’ve been cloaking you for the last five minutes. I saw your growing wariness. You’ve done very well up until now, but if I could have left you outside, I would have.”
Gregory bypassed the elevators and opted for the stairs.
“Of course they’d keep the damn Riven below ground, far from any useful windows we could use as an escape.”
“A prison should not make escape easy.”
They arrived in the basement. Lillian’s first look inspired the words clean, bright, and downright sterile. She no longer smelled the Riven taint as strongly as before either.
It took her a moment to pinpoint what was different. Ah, there was no more rumble of the A/C units on the roof. The night was cold enough they’d shut down. Without the ventilation system circulating the Riven scent, it grew fainter in their part of the building.
“The Riven, or its body, isn’t here. It must be somewhere else. The only way to find it might be to search room by room.”
“Or,” Gregory added. “They already moved it onto one of those transports we noted when we first came in.”
“We can’t let them transport it elsewhere. We have to destroy it now before its evil contaminates someone else.”
Gregory rumbled agreement.
She scouted farther down the hallway. The long corridor had several side branches, but short, exploratory trips only revealed temporary offices. This late at night, some were empty, but more than a few were occupied by military brass.
“Gregory, my nose tells me no magic wielders are down here. Let’s go back up. Maybe I will scent something as we cover more ground.”
“We should go,” he agreed. “Remind me to send another of our allies to spy on the humans. This place looks to be a good location to overhear what they don’t want to be overheard.”
Lillian had to agree. You didn’t bury your top brass below ground unless you wanted to maintain a few hard-to-keep secrets.
Gregory huffed. “Shadowlight would love to explore down here.”
“No way is my baby brother coming anywhere near the humans.”
“I don’t disagree. However, keeping that one out of trouble will be most difficult. He’s an explorer by nature.”
“I’m just glad Greenborrow has taken him under his wing.”
Chuckling openly, he countered, “Greenborrow will be beside him every step of the way, if not leading, as they seek out trouble together.”
Lillian glared.
Gregory wisely refrained from further discussion on the subject as she doggedly followed him back up the stairs to scout the next floor up.
LILLIAN ESTIMATED THEY were one floor from the surface. She could almost taste freedom and its damp night air—not this already recycled ten times an hour stuff. They had scouted each of the lower floors, trusting their noses to tell them if there was anything of interest. So far, their search had turned up a lot of nothing.
Together, they headed back to the stairwell, both agreeing that putting two gargoyles in an elevator—a small enclosed space with no easy out—was a terrible idea.
Gregory was just reaching for the door’s push bar when the elevator hummed and creaked into motion. In the time it took to glance over her shoulder at the noise, the lights went out.
Crouching, Lillian flared her wings out around Gregory as she pulled him to her side. He didn’t fight her, holding perfectly still.
The emergency lights cast the hallway in a dull yellowish glow until they, too, blinked out.
Any hope it was a random innocent power outage flashed out with them.
Every instinct screamed ‘trap’ and clamored for her to bolt for the stairwell.
“Gregory, we’ve been discovered.” She didn’t know how or when. Maybe security had seen him as he’d made his way through the corridors and reported his activity as suspicious.
The elevator reached their floor within seconds.
With a smooth precision, which did nothing for Lillian’s peace of mind, a team of scarily quiet humans emerged from the elevator, guns first.
From one of the offices, a mere ten feet from the elevator, a man carrying a flashlight emerged into the hallway.
He took one look at them, pointed his flashlight to the ground and backed against the wall.
Lillian counted six soldiers in the hallway now. Two peeled off and made for the man with the flashlight. They checked his office and then herded him back inside.
So, it wasn’t some random security thing they’d tripped. The soldiers were specifically looking for Gregory.
Damn. So much for making their way to the surface and walking out peacefully.
Five more soldiers were heading in her direction. If she and Gregory bolted for the stairwell, the soldiers would see the door open. Their best chance to remain undetected might be to sneak past the soldiers and hide in one of the offices until the furor died down.
That might take until long past dawn. Or never.
The soldiers moved closer to their position. She eyed the space between them. No way could she squeeze past without betraying her location.
Now she heard something else distressing—the sound of heavy boots on the stair treads. Lots more boots.
“Fight or flight?” she whispered into his mind. “It’s your call, but I hear more on the stairs, too. We may not have a choice.”
“We fight our way free.” He jerked his chin toward the stairwell. “Go.”
She bolted into motion, Gregory so close behind, he brushed against her tail and right wing as they ran. Flashes of light, radio chatter, and shouted commands chased them into the stairwell.
Gregory darted ahead, taking the steps three at a time. He was still mostly in human form, but dark talons tipped each finger now instead of blunt human nails. Behind, she heard the soldiers pursuing while ahead Gregory had run into the
other team on the stairs.
There was a sudden flurry of sounds—the smack of flesh on flesh, grunts of pain, startled shouts, and cursing.
Gregory slammed two soldiers together with enough force to stun them and then he leaped clear to engage four more coming down the stairwell from above. At that moment, Lillian realized Gregory was sharing. A large gargoyle grin spread across her face. She knew just where to put the two soldiers Gregory had left at her feet.
She grabbed the nearest by his jacket as he struggled up. She helped him to his feet, and then on over her shoulder where his weight and momentum carried him down the flight of stairs and into the path of the other soldiers coming up from the level below.
“Sorry,” she whispered to the second soldier at her feet and tossed him down to join his friends.
Above, Gregory had cleared a path. She leaped over or around the unconscious or barely conscious bodies left in his wake.
Ahead, the stairwell door was propped wide, a rectangle of blinding light prevented her from seeing much beyond that point.
Tears streamed down her face, but she forged on because Gregory had disappeared into that light.
She had enough sense to remain at the stairwell’s threshold where the shadows could still hide her. In seconds, her eyesight blinked back into focus. What she saw didn’t inspire much hope of escaping without gathering a few bullet holes.
Gregory stood just outside the stairwell, mere feet into the community center’s lobby. He was encircled by a good two dozen soldiers.
Rage and fear stirred in Lillian’s heart at the number of guns pointed at Gregory’s body.
Chapter 9
LILLIAN SCANNED FACES and spotted a familiar one—Major Resnick.
He held a tranquilizer gun pointed at Gregory. Somehow, that wasn’t reassuring.
“Normally,” Resnick said in a cold voice, “if someone came this far without clearance, they’d be shot on sight. However, I have a few questions for you and dead men are much harder to question.”
The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9) Page 57
