by Billi Jean
“That’s a letter opener, baby! Think on a—”
“It will do. Let’s go. The longer we stand here, the more freaked I’m getting!”
He stalled on whatever he was going to say and turned to Viktor. “Go, but no matter what, you get Joey safe.”
Viktor nodded, and she blew out a frightened, but exasperated breath. “No separating.”
“Right, let’s go. Fast and quick, silent until we reach that light, then we’ll see what there is to see. Keep the cloak in place.”
Chapter Fifteen
Jaxon tried to keep his panic, and the pounding pressure that this was wrong, from Joey. Walking along next to him, she was so brave. He wanted to kill every single Death Stalker in the world for making her walk this corridor with him. For frightening her. She was scared too, hiding it behind her courage, but she trembled and he could see the way the pipe and letter opener shook in her hands until she tightened her grip.
Viktor, knew it too. The wolf had changed everything Jaxon had ever held against the pack. He’d saved Joey’s life. He’d killed the bastard who had shot her. Jaxon knew it in his bones.
“Slow, stop here,” he whispered to Joey.
Viktor paused, hackles up and his wolf form tense with strength. Jaxon stopped Joey with a hand on her stomach and held her back as he eased his head around the sill of the door.
Fuck! The room was full—not of Death Stalkers, but of the caged, chained wolf creatures. Some of them were marked like tigers, some had grey coats, some even looked more like lynx than tigers or wolves, but all held the intelligent eyes of a mind trapped in an animal form.
He estimated twenty of the creatures.
There were others in the room as well. One man stood by a cage, writing something on a clipboard, while inside an animal lay on its side, panting, paws twitching as if it were dreaming. The place looked like an enormous hospital wing, missing the equipment used to save lives. Instead, it held cages and silver tables the size and shape you’d see in a lab or morgue. He counted six cages on one side, six on another and two immortals or mortals tied to two tables in the middle of a raised platform. They were either out of it, or dead, or simply quiet. Another two men stood by them, while a woman worked at a computer console with five screens.
Gerald was nowhere in sight.
That meant there were four Death Stalkers, and potentially twelve—animals—to either aid them or fight against them. He spotted a silver collar on a wolf, much like the one on Viktor, and the beast looked normal, again, more like a Lykae than a wolf-tiger-lynx.
He breathed in deeply and scented mages. The air nearly vibrated with their power. Ducking back behind the doorway, he immediately squatted and motioned Viktor closer. Joey was already at his side, her slim shoulder touching his arm.
“Here’s the layout.” He drew the room quickly in the dust, showing the centre area with the two men on the tables and the cages with the animals. “Here, here and here are the enemy, and possibly the caged animals. We won’t release any of those until we know for sure. I scent demon.” He paused, and Viktor nodded. “Maybe a vamp, young though,” he added. Viktor nodded again. “And a few mages, but I also saw what I think is a Lykae. I say we free him.” He marked the spot where the wolf paced, and Viktor nodded. “So a Lykae, that’s good, and he’s collared, too.”
Viktor lifted a lip in a silent snarl, eyed the floor map then him.
“Joey, you are going to wait until we rush in. Then you’re going to cloak yourself, go around to that wolf’s cage, explain what we’re doing to him, and if and only if he nods he understands, you free him. Tell him to kill the men at the platform. I’ll take out the woman at the consoles. She runs the show, I’m betting. Vik, you take out the man doing rounds, and then we both tackle the remaining men—or mages. Hopefully not the demon though. Shit, I hope not the demon.”
Joey blinked at him, then nodded cautiously.
“Any questions?”
“No, I free the wolf, under cloak, and then help free the others?”
Jax paused and glanced at Viktor. He still didn’t know what those creatures would do, whether they could be trusted or not. “I’m not sure, ask them, okay? And ditch that letter opener for the gun by my bed—the one in the side table. It’s loaded,” he warned, but stopped when Joey held it in her hand. “Do you know how to shoot?”
“Yes, Granddad taught me,” she said, checking the clip and taking the safety off. She set her pipe down, staring at the spot for a second and it disappeared. “I sent that home.”
His heart squeezed tight in his chest. Fear radiated from her, but she held it in and tried her best to be on guard. He caressed her arm and took her hand. Viktor rubbed against her side. She smiled at both of them, trying too damn hard to be brave. “Don’t get hurt. Either of you. And no wolf-tiger shifting, okay?”
“Fuck,” he breathed suddenly feeling as if she’d opened a completely new level of danger under his feet. No way was Joey getting transformed into something like that. “Don’t say that,” he wheezed.
“Sorry.” She kissed him and tugged his hand until he stood. “Quick and fast. Is there a side door out of here?”
He blinked and cussed. “Let me look again.” He eased around the corner again, half expecting the room to be in a panic, but the same appeared to be happening. A daily routine. The fuckers. He spotted a window, high up, but huge and through that, the night sky.
“Here’s the layout. There’s a door by the far wall, but we have no idea where it leads. There is a window five feet up from the floor, and a table nearby in case we need to climb out. I can’t sense anything in the room, or outside of it. Either it’s spelled or something else is blocking me.”
Viktor nodded, snarling low now. Joey shifted from foot to foot.
“Blend in like I taught you, and on the count of three, we go in, silent if we can, got it? Kill the first one silently, wolf.”
Viktor lifted his lip to reveal his enormous canines in a silently in agreement. Joey nodded and disappeared into the shadows, tucking her gun into the waist of her jeans. He sensed her there, though, and sent her a burst of pride through the bond.
“Good. Be brave, we will survive this, we will.”
“I know we will. Let’s go and get out of here.”
“One, two…”
Joey huddled against Jaxon’s back, unsure what was wrong with her. She wasn’t a fighter. Heck, she’d never even haggled over prices in Mexico. Now she watched Jaxon’s fingers as he counted down and tried to keep her terror under wraps.
“…Three!” Jaxon silently stepped around the corner.
She followed, trying to watch him, Viktor and the room all at one time. Across from her, she spotted the wolf—almost identical to Viktor except a lighter tan instead of grey.
Jaxon moved like a killer—silent, and with such deadly concentration, she had to force herself to focus on her task, rather than his movements.
To her left, Viktor was already pacing his target with the intent to kill. The way he crouched and crept along, his hackles ruffled at the back of his neck, gave her the goose bumps. At any moment, she feared hearing a shout, but managed to keep herself to the shadows along the wall, and sneaked steadily closer to the wolf’s cage. The Lykae behind the bars seemed to see her. He stared over at them so intensely she worried he’d do something to give them all away.
“Joey, hurry and get that wolf free.”
“Oh, God, Jaxon be careful—”
“Darlin’, stop worrying. This is what I do, baby. Free that wolf.”
“I am, I am, but don’t you dare—”
“Joey!”
The shout in her head startled her so badly she nearly dropped her knife.
“Shit!”
She turned back to the Lykae to find his gaze on her with such intensity she had to swallow a few time before she could speak. How had he seen her?
Stepping forward, she let the shadows go at the same time. The wolf’s head lowered marginal
ly and he lifted a lip, revealing his fangs in warning.
“Whoa, I’m here to help. That wolf is Viktor, and that man is Jaxon,” she said, pointing a finger at Jaxon for emphasis. “He’s mine so no freaking out, got it? If you want to help us get the hell out of this place, nod for a yes,” she demanded.
The shout she’d feared erupted behind her at the same time as the wolf made an exaggerated nod. She spun halfway around to see the place explode with fighting. Viktor had a man by his throat while Jaxon fought the woman—who seemed to be one tough cookie—with his sword and fists. Behind her, the wolf barked, and she spun back around too fast and hit the bars with her head.
“Oh fuck!”
The wolf yipped impatiently at her, no doubt for her to get the two tons of metal out of the way. She hauled hard on the handle and all at once, it swung open, nearly knocking her backwards.
The wolf surged forward, snarling at the fighters, but paused long enough to give her a rough rub, maybe in thank you, she thought.
Didn’t matter. Jaxon. Where was he?
The wolf tore off and jumped onto one of the men with a gun aimed at Jaxon’s back.
Jaxon fought the woman, battling her backward step by step. All around her, the beasts started to growl and howl, almost in encouragement. The noise was overwhelming. She raced over to the nearest cage in a crouched down, but fast dash. As soon as she reached the nearest cage, she tugged at the bars, instantly drawing the attention of the beast trapped inside. This looked more like a small wildcat than a wolf or tiger.
“Are you able to understand me? Nod for yes.”
The animal nodded its head, and next door to it, Joey watched as another larger, tiger-wolf beast did the same.
“Okay, well, here’s the deal, if you want to help…” They both watched her to the exclusion of all else. She glanced down the row and saw the others doing the same. “Well, then, I’ll let you all loose,” she said, and lifted the latch.
The small wildcat snarled, and dived right into a brown-robed man weaving his hands in an odd way. Something like a whoosh of air roared through the room, sending the small cat flying backward and Joey into the cage bars. She hit her head again, but this time she warm blood trickled down her temple. The wildcat landed in a crouch, raced back in and tackled the man to the ground before she could even think of what to do to help.
Jax still battled the woman, only now, she realised with a slice of fear, he didn’t fight a woman—he fought a demon. The woman’s lab coat was still visible, but she stood taller now, with massive horns coming out of her forehead and a truly wicked set of sharp fangs. Viktor had joined in, nipping at the demon’s legs, but nothing they seemed to do, stopped her.
“Damn it, free those others and get them through that window.”
“I’m trying!”
She thought she heard him swear in her head, but shook it off and raced to the other cages, barely asking if they would help before opening the doors, because they were all growling horribly and dancing from foot to foot in anticipation of the fight.
A shout—not Jaxon’s—cut through the fighting. Joey jerked the last cage door and swung around in time to see a large metal door open across the lab. Things moved so fast then she could barely follow. The demon woman hit Jaxon with her fist and he flew across the room, hitting the wall and raining dust down from the rock ceiling. He shook his head, snarled and dived back at her. Three beasts raced forward and attacked the demon, toppled her, while from the open doorway, men burst into the room with shiny metal syringes in their hands.
The Lykae she’d freed lunged at them and nearly got a syringe in its throat, but managed to drag one man down. Changelings swarmed the other men. From her left, the demon-woman got up, misted out like red smoke and appeared two feet from Joey A few of the changelings lunged at her, knocking her against a railing and ripped into her with sharp claws and fangs. She held herself up though, and didn’t drop her syringe, not even when one of the beasts went for her throat.
“Shit!” Joey shifted, barely holding in a sissy scream, and dropped her knife. She landed by the first cage, as far from the demon-woman and her creepy syringe as possible, and drew her gun.
“Get the woman!” demon-woman screamed.
The shout sent a chill clear through to Joey’s toes. She clutched her gun harder trying to keep it steady and mind spoke to Jaxon. “Jaxon! We need to go. Now!”
Jaxon turned, spotted her, took in the situation quickly and mind thought, “Get over here.”
Joey didn’t wait for more of an invitation. She shifted nearer to Jaxon and grabbed his shirt to pull him closer. “Jaxon, that demon is—”
“The demon isn’t our biggest concern, Joey. We need to get out that door. Where is Viktor?” Jaxon demanded, scanning the mayhem. No one was left standing, not any of the enemy at least, she noted. The demon screamed shrilly from under a pile of furry beasts, but no one else stood in their way. They’d made it. Or nearly, she reminded herself.
Suddenly Jaxon hissed and shoved her behind him.
“Fuck!” he growled, manoeuvring to stand in front of her more fully.
A shuffle behind Joey scared her into spinning around and firing the gun without clearing, making out the two men charging her from the now open doorway.
One went down, and the other one—the creep from the warehouse, Gerald—smiled gruesomely at her.
Chapter Sixteen
Joey fired her gun again, hitting Gerald with three more bullets to the chest. He barely paused. The manic expression on his face freaked her out. He looked scarier than Hannibal Lecter.
“Joey, enough. We’re out of here!” Jaxon yelled.
A surge of anger rushed through their bond, then Jaxon surprised her by grabbing hold of the low railing circling the elevated central area of the room and, lunging across it, he hit Gerald square in the chest with his feet. A second later, he pulled her close around the waist, used the railing again and swung them both down off the platform and into a full-out sprint for the door.
“Viktor! Get your ass over here!” Jax shouted, veering around a fighting group of animals and men. A few feet from the door, the demon appeared at their side. Without missing a step, Jaxon swung his fist and nailed the demon right in the face. She fell backwards into a wolf-lion changeling and Joey prayed the changeling kept her occupied.
“Go, go,” Jaxon shouted, jumping to the side and shoving her behind him. The next second, he hit Gerald with a two-handed swing of his sword that caught the man full in the chest. Gerald fell back three feet with a slice along his chest from shoulder to hip. There were red round stains on his white shirt where she’d hit him with a few of her wild bullets, but neither her hits nor Jaxon’s slice seemed to slow him.
He stood away from the wall he’d fallen back into and laughed evilly. “Is that all you have, Jaxon? Such a blow wouldn’t harm a child. You and I both know I’m much more than that.”
Jaxon took a menacing step forward, his back went ramrod straight and he raised his sword, more than ready to attack, she knew.
“Jaxon, don’t you dare get close to him. Don’t get hurt!”
“I won’t, but he can’t live. Not now.”
Viktor raced up and nudged her. The other Lykae was with him along with ten changelings. They looked between her and Jaxon, then back to her expectantly. From behind her, she could hear the movement of people and had to resist the urge to turn. The demon woman misted in by Gerald and the two of them seemed to grow in size. They looked threatening in that way people did when they didn’t seem worried, which only made her fear skyrocket.
“Jaxon…?”
“Easy, baby, easy.”
A wicked-looking curved blade appeared in Gerald’s hand and he advanced towards Jaxon with a look of pure hatred on his face. Before she could plead with Jaxon to get them out of here again, he caught Gerald’s sword with his own, sending sparks flying. They exchanged several vicious blows that made her heart feel like it might jump out of her th
roat, but nothing hit Jaxon. None hit Mr Indestructible either.
She heard Viktor growl low in his throat, but he didn’t move in to attack, and she guessed he didn’t because he might distract Jaxon. She didn’t dare move for fear of interfering with Jax. She tried to get her hand to stop shaking enough to keep the gun steady, and watched, hoping Jax would kill the guy.
Viktor hit her leg and she tore her eyes off Jax long enough to see the changelings were still just watching her expectantly but now with more unease in the way they shifted and scanned the room. “Something’s up?” she asked and Viktor yipped. “More men?” she guessed and he and the other animals shifted closer. “Shit! Jaxon! We need to go!” “Jax!”
“Right. Fucking on it, I’m on it. Get them out of here, I’m right there.”
“You’d better be!”
“I am, baby, no way is this scumbag stopping me.”
“All right. We need to go. We’re using the door, right?” she asked Viktor.
He gave her another bark and the other wolf growled in what she hoped was agreement.
Jaxon attacked Gerald hard, savagely delivering blow after blow. Each fierce hit knocked the man back away from the door they were aiming for. When he had Gerald ten feet from the opening, Jaxon kicked out, catching Gerald in the stomach, and scissor-kicked to knock his feet out from under him. Jaxon jumped back to his feet and shouted at them, “Go!”
Gerald laughed, a sick sound any Hollywood actor would love to master. “Yes, let them go, Jaxon. Let her go alone. I will find her later, I am sure. When he tires of you, and leaves you behind, I will be there for you, darling.”
Jaxon blanched.
“Oh, get over it before you make me vomit. Jaxon, come on! Kill him already and stop playing around!” She turned to Viktor and pulled the door open. “Go, lead them as far as you can, we’ll follow your trail.”
“They won’t get far, my dear. They will crave what only I can give them now,” Gerald called in a singsong voice. “As will you, eh?”
“Shut up,” Jaxon yelled and attacked again with blow after blow of his sword. “You’ll never touch her. She’d rather die than let you near her.”
