***
Cael, Eric and Addison materialized behind a building close to a boat launch. A couple of boats lined the small strip of slots alongside the dock. One boat was huge, a two-story yacht, that the company must use to get here. At least Cael hoped so, as he eyed the other boat, a small dinghy with a single outboard motor—not exactly high seas material. Then again, perhaps they flew here in a helicopter.
Cael glanced behind him when he sensed the presence of his mother and sister, along with Aiden. Caitlin looked a little green. Her pale complexion stuck out like a sore thumb in comparison to her completely black outfit. He almost laughed when he realized both she and his mother looked like amateur cat burglars. Aiden, on the other hand, seemed more suited for the breaking and entering profession in his dark blue jeans. He also had on a black leather jacket and Cael frowned realizing they looked similar except Aiden’s hair still hung down loose but neatly tucked behind his ears.
“Fun stuff, huh, sis?”
Caitlin swallowed hard and her mother held on to her as she swerved a little. “I’ll be okay.”
“I think this is the building where they have her,” Eric said.
“You think? I thought you said you’d been here before,” Cael said. An edgy discomfort crawled up his spine. It was quite possible they were walking into a trap. If this company was as tech savvy as his father claimed, they’d be able to detect any sort of intrusion and most likely be expecting one. He figured the extra power Aiden supplied would help, but he didn’t like bringing the women along on this adventure at all. He couldn’t have brought all four of them here without his mother’s help. Caitlin, on the other hand, would have been better off sitting at home like a good little sister should. But damn it, he understood her need to be here more than he liked to admit. There wasn’t another place on earth he’d rather be right now than here, rescuing his other sister, and he didn’t even know her. He could only imagine how Caitlin felt, considering they were twins. He knew the twin bond was strong. His mother and Bart had it, maybe even to a greater degree considering her ability.
“It’s been years since I’ve been to this section. They didn’t show me the exact room where they kept her,” Eric said, reaching into his chocolate brown leather coat pocket, pulling out a map.
“How’d you get a map of this place?” Cael asked.
“I managed to confiscate it on my last visit here when they let me see and talk to Carly on video. They wouldn’t divulge her exact location and that’s when I realized the only way I’d ever see my daughter again, was if we rescued her. I don’t have the clearance anymore, but I know for a fact that they haven’t changed the location. This is their headquarters and laboratory. They need a remote island for the type of experimenting they do.”
Cael frowned at his father and shuddered at the thought of what kinds of experiments this company conducted, considering the extreme measures they’d taken in order to get the crystal.
“I want you to stay here with Aiden,” Eric ordered, looking at both Caitlin and Siana. “Aiden, only break silence if you see anything that would harm one of us, agreed?” Cael had to admit his father had some pretty decent high tech electronics and was able to outfit each one of them with a wire and ear bud so they would be able to communicate.
“Got it,” Aiden said, placing his hand on Caitlin’s shoulder but removing it almost immediately as Cael gave him his best deadly stare.
“Wait a minute. Aiden, don’t you need to be with us to use your foresight?”
“I think I can get enough contact through this handy little device.” He tapped his finger to his ear. “I should be able to pull enough energy from your voices. If I start to lose sight, I’ll let you know.”
“Okay, good. Here, take this.” Eric placed a small pistol in Aiden’s hand.
“Thanks, but I don’t think I’ll need this.”
“I want to be sure my wife and daughter are protected out here, so hang on to it.”
Aiden nodded and held the gun at his side.
“Cael, take us just inside that steel door. That should put us in the basement. I believe that’s where Carly will be,” Eric said.
“You’re okay with this?” Cael whispered into Addison’s ear.
“Yeah.”
“You’re not scared?”
“No. We’ve been up against worse things.”
“Ah, right. Eidolon.”
She nodded and he latched on to her arm at the same time he took hold of his father’s and they dematerialized, appearing within seconds in a long dark hallway.
“This way,” Eric said, gesturing forward. There really wasn’t any other way to go. They came to another door at the end. Eric reached for the knob and Cael stopped him.
“Wait. Let me take a peek first.” He disappeared and reappeared a few seconds later. “Okay.”
Eric tried the knob. “It’s locked.”
“Hold on,” Cael said, grabbing them both and their molecules scattered and reattached once again on the other side of the door. They now stood in a vast room made of steel. As far as they could see, the room was empty except for the steel cage at the other end. The air smelled like something died, like a shit bucket full of dead rats. The stench had them all covering their noses and Addie almost gagged. The horrible odor was close to what she thought a decomposed body smelled like after it sat undiscovered in ninety-degree heat for about a week. Then something moved inside the cage.
“Is that Carly?” Cael asked but as soon as the words left his lips, he knew whatever the growling thing in the cage was, moving around, shaking and pounding against the bars couldn’t be any relation to him. They all had to cover their ears, as the roar booming from it was enough to puncture all their eardrums. “What the fuck is that?”
“Something much worse than Eidolon,” Addison said.
Chapter 28
“An experiment gone bad?” Cael suggested and glanced toward Eric. Both held guns ready and pointed at the cage. Addie had her hands. They weren’t pointed at anything in particular but she had them ready and felt the sizzle building within her core, just in case.
“Or well, I’m sorry to say,” Eric added.
“Depends on whose side you’re on, I guess,” Addie choked out.
There were three doors in the room, the one they just appeared in front of, one to their left and one to their right. “Carly’s not in here,” Eric said.
“Good thing. I think she’d suffocate from the stench of that thing,” Cael said. “So, which door should we try?”
He no sooner spoke, than the door to his left opened. Before they had a chance to vanish without being seen, three men walked into the room. One man wore a knee-length white lab coat and the other two wore white jump suits with skin-tight white caps over their heads, looking very much like refugees from Intel. All three men carried semi-automatic rifles aimed right at them. One of the refugee guys wore a huge, brown weed-like substance over his right hand, spanning his forearm. It looked similar to the stuff people used to put in pots for hanging plants. What was that stuff called? Addie wracked her brain for the word that wouldn’t come to her.
The man wearing the lab coat stepped out in front and spoke. “Welcome home, Eric. I see you managed to bring the lovely Addison MacKenna with you after all. Quite frankly, I didn’t think you had it in you to betray your son this way.”
“You son of a bitch,” Cael gaped at Eric. “You brought us into a trap!”
“Sorry, son.” Eric stepped away from them, joining the other three men and held his gun pointed at Cael and Addie. “You needn’t have worried about me, Joseph. I’ve always been on your side. My son, as much as I hate to admit it, can be rather stubborn at times.”
“Takes after his old man, I’d say,” Joseph said, smirking. “Move.” Joseph gestured at Cael and Addie with his gun to walk toward the cage where the deformed smelly beast stood inside shaking the bars and growling. As they got closer, Addie realized the creature had blue eyes with a red ring a
round the outer rim of the iris. The thing was huge, at least eight feet tall or more. Its skin, under its brown, rough elephant-looking texture, gave off a greenish-bluish iridescent glow that suggested it might be emitting some sort of radiation. Addie didn’t want to go anywhere near the hideous creature. It wasn’t so much that it scared her, it was the thought of what it was going to smell like when she torched it that bothered her the most.
As they approached the cage, another door opened and in walked a middle-aged woman, shoving a younger woman toward them, her hands tied behind her back, silver duct tape over her mouth. “You needn’t have tied her up,” Eric said, hurrying toward the younger woman who looked like a very unkempt Caitlin with straggly black hair and a few smudges of dirt on her face. “You knew I would bring them.”
“One can never take chances in this business. You said that yourself, my friend. But as promised, your daughter has been well taken care of.”
Eric hugged Carly and gently removed the tape from her mouth. Stroking his finger down her cheek, he said, “I’m sorry, baby. I’m so sorry you had to stay here.”
“Dad, what is going on?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll explain it all soon,” Eric assured her as he untied her hands. Taking her arm, he tugged her with him, still pointing the gun at Cael and Addie.
Within seconds, Siana appeared next to Carly.
“Mom?” Carly cried, falling into her arms. “I didn’t see you when I walked in.” How could Carly not have noticed Siana’s sudden appearance? Addie thought. It must have been the strain from being held captive and she imagined that must have been terrifying for Cael’s sister.
“It’s okay, sweetie, I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
“Siana! I told you to stay put,” Eric said. “I’ve got this.”
“You’ve got this? It looks like you want to kill our son.”
“What?” Carly looked at Cael, then back at her mother and father. But no explanation came from anyone.
“What a nice family reunion. It almost brings tears to my eyes. Not!” Joseph cackled like an old witch in one of Grimm’s fairytales then hawked up a loogie, spitting it out on top of Cael’s shoe.
Cael looked down at the mess, but showed no sign of disgust. His composure was remarkable and Addie didn’t think she’d have been able to act as unaffected. Cael’s lack of emotion seemed to stymie Joseph for a moment as he stared into Cael’s eyes then made a tsking sound. “Let’s get this over with,” Joseph barked. “A sibling for a sibling and his girlfriend.” He snickered. “That was the bargain. Although, we don’t really need your son, but I knew we’d never get the MacKenna woman without him. I promised I wouldn’t hurt him.”
There was no way they could ever hold Cael captive. Addie wondered just how much they knew about him or about her, for that matter. How much had Eric divulged to these creeps? Did they know she could blow each one of them up as simply as throwing a baseball? Or did they only know about her bond with the crystal? God, she hadn’t tried her firepower since the episode in the kitchen and she hoped there wouldn’t be a repeat of that incident.
As they got closer to the cage, the monster thing grunted and reached its arm out through the bars.
Joseph stood a few feet back from the bars just out of the creature’s reach and spoke in a smooth reassuring voice. “Be nice. They’re here to help. If you were able to wear panties, I’d suggest not getting them all in a bunch over our visitors, but with all that elephant skin sagging around your private parts, you really don’t need underwear, or clothes of any kind anymore, do you?” He laughed, which seemed to irritate the creature even more, causing it to jump and shake the steel bars. Drool dripped from lips bloodied by pointed and jagged teeth.
“Now, now Elizabeth. Mind your manners. You’re going to frighten our guests.”
Elizabeth? This horrible creature was a female, was once a woman according to Joseph. Elizabeth made a soft, high-pitched squeal-like whimper and hung her head as if in despair. She understood what he said. My God, what had they done to this woman to make her this way? Addie began to feel sorry for her. Then Joseph took the crystal out of his pocket and Addie tried not to gasp and lunge for it. Instead she stayed calm and pretended it didn’t mean anything to her. Joseph dangled it in front of Elizabeth, just out of her reach. Elizabeth grabbed for it but of course, Joseph only taunted the poor creature, making her angry. She began shaking the bars and making loud screeching noises that turned quickly into growls. “Now be a nice monster. You’ll get your turn to come out and play soon.”
“Stop it!” Addie said. She hadn’t meant to speak out loud, but she couldn’t stand to see the poor woman tortured like that. “You’re the monster!” Addie pointed at Joseph. “Why are you tormenting her?”
Joseph cocked his head and walked closer to Addie. Cael took a step in front of her and Joseph stopped in his tracks. “Don’t worry, Cael. I won’t hurt her. You see, I need her, she’s the only one that can get this to work.” He held the crystal up before tucking it back into his pocket. “I’ve heard great things about this crystal, and I need Miss MacKenna here to make it work with Elizabeth. You see, Elizabeth has the strength and the intelligence to perform, well, extraordinary things, but she needs to appear as a normal human in order to infiltrate any government entity. No one will hire her looking like that,” he scoffed at the creature in the cage. “Sorry, darling, but you know they would run screaming like frightened old ladies if they saw something like you coming at them. So, this is why you are here, Miss MacKenna. We need you to make the crystal do its magic and help poor Elizabeth be all that she can be and restore her back to her human form when she’s not, let’s say, in working mode.” Joseph turned slightly and pointed the gun toward Cael. “You, the neglected son, on the other hand, are dispensable.” He chuckled softly before firing the gun. In a split second, Addie’s mind took control, jarring the gun just enough for the bullet to miss hitting Cael in the chest, instead penetrating his right shoulder. Siana and Carly screamed as Cael fell backwards, landing on the hard, cold cement floor. Addie sank to the ground on her knees by his side and Siana joined her.
As Addie placed her hands over the wound, she looked back at Cael’s father. Eric turned his pistol toward Joseph and shot him point-blank in the head, a clean shot right above his ear. Joseph fell to the floor as blood pooled around his head. “You said you wouldn’t hurt my son, you son of a bitch. Now you’ll never hurt anyone again.”
The other two Intel refugees and the woman who’d brought Carly in quickly scattered, the woman and one of the men escaping through the door leading outside to the dock. The guy with the grassy stuff on his arm headed toward another door but turned to fire his rifle. Addie held out her hand and a ball of fire formed in her palm. As smoothly as though she were throwing the winning strike in the World Series, the fire whirled across the room, catching the guy’s weird covered arm on fire. As Addie watched the icky greenish-brown weed ignite, it came to her. “Peat moss. That’s what that stuff’s called,” she uttered and turned to help Cael, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw the guy, burning arm and all, raise his automatic rifle in her direction. Before he had a chance to pull the trigger, she already had another fireball formed in her hand and let it rip across the room, hitting him dead smack in the chest. He slumped to the ground burning and screaming so loudly she wanted to cover her ears. Not wanting to take any chances, she swiped her hand through the air, sending the rifle across the room.
“Nice. Remind me not to get on your bad side, Addison. Ever,” Eric said.
“You’re not such a bad shot yourself,” she said before turning her attention to Cael, lying on the floor, blood pooling out from under him.
“The plan almost worked,” Eric said.
“You were pretty convincing.” Addie knelt down next to Cael and tugged his shirt open and off his shoulder. The bullet hit the exact spot where she’d blasted a hole in him before and she cringed, knowing it was going to take a long time befor
e it stopped hurting even after she healed him. He’d been such a baby about it back then, and she almost smiled remembering how he’d pouted. They even managed to have awesome sex afterward even though he’d been in pain.
“You can heal him, right?” Eric asked.
“Yes,” she nodded, placing her hands against his skin, softly chanting the healing words as the bullet slowly began making its way back out. The slug fell to the floor with a clink before resting on the cement beside Cael. Then she heard the awful roar coming from Elizabeth, a little closer than she thought it should be. Someone let Elizabeth out of her cage.
Chapter 29
Cael coughed and opened his eyes to see Addison’s fretful brown ones as she chanted in Latin. Her hands were on him, right where that God-awful pain stabbed in his shoulder. He’d been shot, he realized, and she was healing him. The pain subsided and she stopped chanting, sighing with what he thought had to be relief. His mother was on the other side of him and helped him to sit. Taking a quick scan of the room, he saw Joseph on the floor, a bullet hole through his head. He knew he’d heard another gun shot. Thank Christ.
“Your father shot him,” Siana supplied, but as she said the words, Cael gaped when he saw Elizabeth pick Eric up, holding him by his throat, growling and snarling inches from his face. It looked like she was about to bite off his head but instead, she tossed him across the room. Eric’s back slammed against the wall and his limp body fell to the floor. Cael squeezed his eyes tight, realizing his stupid pride had kept him from getting to know his dad again and now his chances were gone. Siana and Carly gasped and ran to Eric.
Elizabeth crouched down beside Joseph. Placing an enormous mangled hand under his head, she tilted his face toward hers. With her other deformed and giant fingers she took his left hand, cocked her head, staring at the wedding band as a tear ran down her cheek. “My God, Cael? Are you thinking what I'm thinking?” Addison asked.
A Secret Fate Page 24
