“Hell isn’t this much fun.” Smoke rapped on the door again. “I want a peanut butter sandwich.” He knocked again. “Kazam. Shazam.” He spread his arms wide. “I am Batman!”
Sidney still struggled for her breath.
Smoke tilted his ear toward her. “Are you wheezing?”
“No,” she wheezed. “Okay, yes?”
“You have asthma?”
“Yes, but I haven’t-wheeze-had an attack in years.” She practiced some deep breathing she’d been taught long ago. “I’ll be all right, just give me a minute.” Damn. Not now of all times. It had been so long, she’d almost forgotten the mild suffocation she suffered. It was demoralizing.
“Might be these moldy caves,” he said.
“Or all of the life-threatening excitement.” She gulped down some air and exhaled through her nose. Sometimes the attack would last for minutes, other times days, even weeks. Well, at least we’re not going anywhere.
In an instant, the steel door slid upward.
Ssshluuuk!
“You ready, or do you want to wait?” he said.
Sid righted herself and headed for the door. In stride, the pair crossed the threshold at the same time.
Ssshluuuk!
“I guess we’re staying,” Smoke said.
The stone and mud-walled tunnels were gone, replaced by something far more modern. The dry floor had black-and-white checkered tiles. The walls were painted a medium gray, and fluorescent lighting dangled ten feet overhead. Sid ran her fingers over the wall and pecked her knuckle on it. It was limestone block. She wanted to hug it. “Not nearly as bad as I expected.”
“Nope,” Smoke said, moving forward. “Gray’s still a depressing color though.”
“I find its neutral base very soothing.” Her breathing came a little easier.
“Well, spend a few weeks in prison, and then tell me what you think.”
The corridor burrowed another hundred feet and came to a stop at a pair of double doors. They were yellow heavy safety doors, similar to the ones at her high school. She grabbed the handle and depressed the thumb lever. She eyed Smoke, he nodded, and she shoved it in.
“Welcome,” boomed a voice within. “Please, come in.”
Inside was an oval room with exits and doors similar to the one she’d just come through. The first thing Sid noticed was the floor. It was an archaic network of multicolor tiles with bloodstains splattered all over them. The musty smell of death lingered, and more corpses, some in dark aged armor, huddled dead along the walls.
There were large windows too. All the walls were cinderblock, and up above glowed gas lights in glass bulbs. There was a terrace, high above them, forming a platform around the room. Mason stood with his great hands on the rail in full minotaur form.
He snorted and shook his horns. “I am surprised you made it, humph!” It was strange how the words came from his bestial lips. “But I’m glad as well. Please, go ahead, take a look around.”
“Where’s Allison and Megan?” Sid demanded.
“As I said, take a look around.”
In the center was a stone staircase that led up to a dais. An automatic pistol sat on the pedestal in the middle, locked in a case of glass. That’s my gun.
Mason snorted above and paced over the catwalks. He was a monstrous figure, thick in muscles and hide hair. AV and Night Bird were rodents by comparison. His hooved feet made clopping sounds that echoed in the chamber. He held a great machete in his powerful paw.
Sid’s breathing started to thin again. Calm down, girl.
“Sid,” Smoke said, nodding her over. He was peering through one of the glass windows she’d noticed earlier.
“What is it?” she said, walking over. Smoke stepped aside. She gazed through the glass. “Megan!”
CHAPTER 35
Sidney pounded on the glass, but it made no sound. The sheet felt thicker than metal. Megan was inside, in a daycare-like facility decorated in fun colors and with tables, TVs, and shelves loaded with toys. She was playing with other children her age. Laughing and smiling along in a pair of pajamas adorned in pink and purple colors.
“Megan!” Sid hit the glass again. “Megan!”
“She can’t hear or see you, Agent Shaw. It’s a one-way mirror, similar to your interrogation rooms but made with impervious glass,” Mason said from somewhere above. “But you can see that she is well cared for.”
Sidney stormed to the nearest door. It was sealed tighter than a drum. She kicked it and moved on to the next one. It was the same result. She backed into the middle of the room and found Mason’s bison-like eyes. “Where’s your trough?” she said.
He cocked his horned head. “Pardon?”
“Your trough! I need to know so I can take a dump in it, you cud-chewing bastard!” She marched toward one of the fallen warriors and picked up a spear. She hurled it straight at Mason.
The minotaur plucked it out of the air and huffed a laugh. “I like your spirit, woman.” He snapped the spear in half and tossed it aside. “But you’ll need something far more deadly than that.”
Smoke slid alongside her with a concerned look in his eyes. She was still wheezing. “Save your breath,” he whispered in her ear.
“Please,” Mason said, extending his hand. “Continue looking around. Make the most of it. After all, you’ll need all the advantages you can get.”
Sidney sauntered over to the next glass window. A group of men in a mishmash of uniforms lumbered aimlessly around an empty room. Deaders! Each had a bludgeoning weapon in its hand. Some carried two at a time. Bloody feet sticking to the tiles, she shuffled over to the next window. It was a supply room with an assortment of things: fire extinguishers, backpacks, rations, microscopes, other scientific equipment, and five-gallon jugs of water. “See anything useful?” she said to Smoke.
“No.”
Her jaw dropped as she peered through the last window. Allison lay back in a salon-type room with cucumbers on her eyes. Two Forever Children in light-colored robes were in the room. One, a girl with frosty blonde hair, was giving Allison a manicure while the other one, a straw-headed boy, massaged her feet. Allison’s creaseless expression was pure bliss. She would be comfortable in this devil’s pit.
“These people really have a screwed-up way of doing things,” Smoke said.
“Who are you calling people?” Sid marched out into the room, looked up at Mason, and said, “So, what’s your game?”
“You kill me,” Mason said, drumming his fingers on the rail, “or beat me into submission, humph, and you can all go free. Pretty simple.”
She stepped onto the dais and eyed the gun encased in glass. There was a heavy padlock on it. “And this is the only thing we can kill you with?”
Mason lifted his monstrous shoulders up and down and said, “In theory.” He stroked the coarse fibers of animal hair under his chin. “The key is in one of those rooms that you’ve seen. All you have to do is get the key and the gun before I get you. But be careful. In my labyrinth, not all is as it appears to be.” He shifted over toward a great lever that jutted out from the wall behind him and laid his hand on it. “Ready?”
Smoke hustled over to the vanquished bodies lying along the walls. He plucked out a sabre and a bayonet. “Gear up,” he said, tossing her the bayonet.
The bull-faced man brought the lever down a notch. There were sounds of metal moving against metal. Clunk! Clunk! Clunk! The chamber Sid stood in started to spin. She backed toward Smoke. “How come you gave me this and not that?” she said, eyeing Smoke’s sword.
“Ever use a sword before?”
“No.”
“A bayonet’s much easier to learn.”
Above, Mason ran his fingertips along his rack of black horns. “I’m going to enjoy this.” He reached for the lever again and pulled it down. “Go.”
All of the doors slid open, but because the room was spinning, all of them were blocked.
Mason laughed, “Humph! Humph! Humph!” In a single
bound, he leapt over the rail and landed down inside the chamber, making a thunderous sound. Towering at eight feet tall, he spread out his muscular arms that were as thick as tree trunks. “If you only understood how much I enjoy this.” He scraped his hooved foot over the tiles and lowered his head. “Goodbye now!” He charged.
Smoke took Sid by the arm and jerked her into one of the portals just as it opened. Eyes fixed on the minotaur, she watched it slide to a halt and rear up just as the portal closed. It was laughing. “Humph—Humph—Humph—Humph—” The sound was cut off.
“Are you finished standing around?” Smoke said, tugging her deeper into the limestone-block tunnel. It was wide and tall, an ideal fit for something as big as a minotaur. “Come on.”
Sid hurried along on legs of jelly. The raw power of Mason rattled her. Suspended her thoughts and action in time. She shook her head. “I’m fine now, sorry.”
They crisscrossed. Zigzagged. Doubled back. The minotaur man hadn’t lied. It indeed was a labyrinth. A maddening one. As they ran along a curved wall, a door appeared on their right. Sid could only assume it was one of the rooms they’d already seen, but she was too disoriented to know which one.
Smoke pressed his ear to the door. “I can’t hear a thing.” He grabbed the door handle. “Are you ready?”
Brandishing her bayonet and wheezing, she said, “Yes.”
He shoved the door inward. It was the colorful daycare room, but it was completely empty. A dark feeling sunk into Sid. Lies! Nothing but lies!
“Let’s go,” Smoke said.
Clop! Clop! Clop!
“I can smell you,” Mason’s grizzly voice said. “That means I can find you as easily as my fingers in front of my face. Humph.”
“I’ve got a finger for you!” she yelled back.
Mason stepped into full view only twenty feet away from where they stood. “Do you now?” He lowered his horns and charged.
Sid was fast. Smoke was fast too, but the minotaur was faster. Sprinting, it closed the gap with great, powerful strides. They ducked into the next turn and weaved through the labyrinth. Mason thundered behind them. Sid’s lungs burned. Her energy was fading. Smoke was pulling her along. She’d run marathons. Won ribbons in track. But all of her accolades and efforts were negated. “Go,” she wheezed. She tried to peel Smoke’s hand away. “Just go.”
He came to a stop and said, “I don’t think either one of us is going anywhere.” He stared at the wall that closed off the corridor in front of them. “Dead end.”
Clop! Clop! Clop! Clop! Clop!
CHAPTER 36
“I like to call it ‘Dead Man’s End,’” Mason said, blocking their only avenue of escape. He took a great snort. “I can still smell the blood. Can you see it?”
Crushed bones and tattered clothes were on the floor. Bloodstains graced the walls.
Slowly, the minotaur closed in, toying with the tips of his horns. “When I stick it to the good guys, I stick it to them good.”
Smoke rushed in with his sabre high in the air and delivered a devastating chop.
Mason caught the blade in his hand and ripped it free from Smoke’s grip. The monster clobbered Smoke in the chest with his fist, sending him staggering backward into the wall. Mason took the sword, bent its blade, and tossed it aside with a rattle of steel. “So young. So futile. So stupid.” He cracked his knuckles and scraped his hoof over the floor.
Sid sagged, fighting for breath.
Slumped over, Smoke clutched at his chest.
She’d never seen the big man down like that before. Mason’s punch was like a sledgehammer. She reached over and grabbed the cuff of Smoke’s pants then glared up at Mason the Minotaur. “Do your worst,” she said, shielding herself and Smoke with the bayonet.
“Humph. I plan to.” He came forward, hooves thumping on the ground. A smirk formed on his bestial face. “Goodbye, Agent Shaw.” He raised his hoof.
A spark ignited inside Sid’s belly and spread. Her breathing eased. Time seemed to stop. Everything moved in slow motion. What is happening? A spring of limitless energy coursed through her body. Aches and pains disappeared. She felt like lightning in a bottle. And it was time to come out. She sprang like a gazelle. Jammed the bayonet in the monster’s eye.
“Aaaaargh!” he said, clutching his face. He unleashed a wild swing.
Sid ducked under it. Smoke rushed into the minotaur, toppling it over and bounding along his side. Eyes as big as moons and smiling just as wide, Smoke said, “I feel awesome.”
“The key!” Sid said. She sprinted off, feeling like the fleetest of deer. Her memory was crystal clear. Her focus razor sharp. She knew every twist and every turn of the labyrinth. Old memories and overlooked evidence from long-forgotten cases popped up inside her thoughts. Oh my. I think I missed something back when. Poor bastard. She weaved through the maze until she found another door. Breathing just fine, she said to Smoke, “Ready?”
“Oh, yeah!”
She swung the door open. It was the supply room. The pair of them rushed inside and rummaged through the goods. They opened boxes and crates. Tore through the shelves. Scoured through tables with beakers, microscopes, boxes of slides, and tuning forks. It looked more like a classroom than anything else. “Find anything?”
“No.”
“Mah-rooooo!” The sound echoed down the halls.
Sidney stopped. “Sounds like beastie boy is angry.”
“Yep, I don’t think he liked the contact you gave him.”
She laughed. She felt fearless. Invincible. Whatever this is, I love it! “Nothing in here. We need to move on.”
“I think you’re right.” Smoke snapped his fingers. “I know where it is.”
“You do?”
Smoke’s lips curled as he said it. “The deader room.”
A memory flashed inside Sid’s mind. One of the deaders had on a necklace with a key on it. “Clever. Oh well, let’s do it.”
Clop! Clop! Clop!
Smoke slammed the door shut.
“What are you doing?”
“I have an idea.” He gathered himself in front of the mirrored window.
Taking her place beside him, she said, “I think I know what you’re thinking.”
Horns first, Mason crashed in the door with one hand holding his eye. “See what you did? See what you did?”
“I thought you said it would heal,” Sid said.
Smoke held his gut, pointed, and laughed like Bugs Bunny. “What a maroon!”
Mason perked up. “What!” He removed his hand. His eye was fine. “It did heal, you fools!” He charged, plowing straight through the tables.
At the last possible moment, Sid jumped left, and Smoke jumped right.
Mason’s rack of horns shattered the thick glass into hundreds of crystals. His huge body became wedged between the walls and the spinning room.
Smoke huffed a laugh. “I can’t believe that worked.”
Mason’s feet stomped at the floor. He roared on the other side.
Sidney and Smoke were on the move again. She followed the maze through the last paths she’d not yet taken. It took five minutes, and they were at their destination. The deader room.
“Do you think this is it?” Smoke said, taking the door handle in his hand. “Or somewhere else.”
“Hey, it can’t be any worse than that minotaur.” She bounced on her toes. “Let’s go for it.”
“All right then, ladies first?”
“Said like a true gentleman.”
Smoke shoved the door in. The dry stench of rotting flesh slapped them in the face. Sidney darted into the fray of decaying men. She ducked, dived, and disarmed. Every move the deaders made was in slow motion. She was on high speed. She stole a sword from one and impaled another. “And you thought I couldn’t use a sword.”
Smoke waded through the throng, letting loose skull-crushing blows with his club. “That one,” he said. Whack! Whop! Whack!
Sid spied the one that he talked about,
ducked under a chop, and skewered it through the chest. She jumped over the swinging blow of another and landed in front of the one with the key on its neck. With a lightning-quick swing, she severed its head. She grabbed the key from the body as the head tumbled to the floor, telling it, “Thank you.” Back at Smoke, she yelled, “Let’s go!”
Smoke pummeled through the broken bones and flesh for them, clearing a path to the door. Seven minutes and sixteen seconds later, they were standing back just outside the main chamber. The portal was only a quarter open. She and Smoke had to squeeze through.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
Still wedged inside the room and chamber, Mason continued to bring his oversized paws together. He stopped and said, “I have to admit. This has been one of the more entertaining challenges in my lifetime.”
Sid ran up to the dais where the gun was displayed and took hold of the lock. She tried to jam the key in it, but it didn’t fit. “Damn!” All of her strength and energy fled as quickly as it had come, and down on the floor she went.
Mason laughed. “Humph—Humph—Humph. Such a priceless expression. I wish I had my camera.” Using his powerful back and hands, he pushed the entire chamber, freeing up his body, and stepped into the room. “Humph! Now it’s time for you to play dead, forever.”
CHAPTER 37
Sidney huddled underneath the gun pedestal. With all of the strength that she had left, she shoved the glass case off the stand. It bounced off the stone and landed at her feet, intact.
“It seems you found the wrong key,” Mason said, marching straight for her.
Smoke climbed onto his back.
The minotaur slung him off like a ragdoll. “Too bad for you. But I am curious what got into the both of you. I think a dissection will be in order. Maybe you’ll be alive, just paralyzed while it’s happening. Humph.”
The super vitamin had worn off, leaving her completely exhausted, but Sid’s spirits didn’t dim. “I’ll be just fine, but you’ll always be an evil bastard.”
The Supernatural Bounty Hunter Files Collector's Set: Books 1-10: Urban Fantasy Shifter Series Page 41
