Through The Veil

by Christi Snow

The two brothers constantly touched base with each other mentally. Lori remained concerned about what this trip would mean for the two sets of siblings: Marcus and Malcolm, and Brooklyn and Bethany. The siblings hadn’t truly been separated in the entire eighteen years since the Veil fell, and they’d developed their mental pathways between them. It would be difficult to adjust to not having that special bond once they crossed into the ES. At least, they all assumed the connection would be severed. Maybe they’d be in for a pleasant surprise about this one. They needed a pleasant surprise, actually several of them would be nice from this point on out.

  It was still full-on dark when they got to the bridge, but they were only thirty minutes away from twilight, so they had to get a move on. They had no idea if any of the bridges were monitored, so they wanted to get across by cover of dark if at all possible. They said their goodbyes hurriedly and then set out on foot across the bridge.

  Before they arrived at the edge of the Veil, Lori could feel the energy pulsing off it like a small electrical buzz located just under the surface of her skin. Before when she’d done this, she hadn’t been able to analyze any of it. She’d only had time to act and pray.

  The team followed her lead on this aspect of the mission, so they halted when they reached the Veil and allowed her to analyze it. One end of it felt weaker than the rest, but that section gave her a bad feeling. Since the bridge was wide, she moved as far away from that section as possible and nodded to the others to let them know they’d cross here.

  Lori led with her knife and the rest followed in a line behind, all holding hands to strengthen their bond as she began to maneuver the energy pathways. Using her ability proved so much easier now, both with the strength of the other three shoring her up and the added focus provided by the knife. Manipulating the barrier felt like slicing through butter. They slid through easily, and as Griff cleared it, Lori released the energy pattern.

  The lack of fog on the other side provided a shock after all this time living within it. It also left them extremely exposed. Lori immediately glanced to where the Veil felt weak from the other side and stiffened. A guard shack sat there. Lucky for them, the guard slumped over, asleep in his chair, none the wiser that they’d just passed through.

  “Head quietly to the tree-line. Guard asleep in the guard shack at three o’clock,” she warned the others.

  The man never stirred, as they escaped farther down the bridge and immediately dispersed into the trees. They all carried full packs filled with supplies. Aaron had the foresight to add moving quickly and quietly with the packs over rough terrain to their exercises, so they had no problem with being heard.

  Griff was in charge of their navigation. He’d discovered the exact location of the labs from their dream walk and had studied the maps to get them there as quickly as possible using a map and compass. They ran in a single file line behind him now. The terrain appeared rough and dark, and Lori was thankful they’d been practicing maneuvers in the dark so her eyes were somewhat adjusted. She still stumbled way too often, but Marcus, who ran behind her, always caught her with a strong grip when she began to fall.

  They hardly made a sound as they ran. Only their harsh breaths echoed over the quiet. Not even the birds sang although they should be awake. The animals were aware something different intruded in the middle of their forest.

  They had run for half an hour through the depths of the trees when Griff held a hand up to stop them.

  Lori heaved a breath, thankful for a break from their blistering pace. Up until a few weeks ago, her entire world had consisted of a cage and walking between lab rooms. She wasn’t exactly up for this kind of cardio workout. She gulped down some water as Brooklyn examined her with concern. “Are you okay?” she asked.

  Lori nodded but still didn’t have the breath to talk. They knew all along that she’d be the weak link at this stage.

  “I can give you a shot,” Brooklyn continued. “Don’t let pride keep you from using it.”

  “No, truly, I’m okay.” Lori stood a little straighter trying to convince them that she’d be fine. They had adrenaline shots which were going to be vital later for the Others. Not knowing how much they would need, there was no way Lori would use them at this point unless absolutely necessary.

  While Griff consulted the map and compass, Lori glanced at the pink glow beginning to illuminate the sky from the east. Daylight was coming. “Don’t forget your hats,” she instructed. “It actually may be a good idea to get them out now while we’re stopped.”

  This trip had required Lori to design some new garments for the Warriors. Luckily, the village had a bolt of camouflage fabric in their storage left over from before. Bethany had given her carte blanche of the resources the village had on hand, which included sewing machines. She had recruited a couple of seamstresses and created military-like uniforms for them to wear. Since soldiers were always around the labs from various military groups, they should blend in.

  None of the three Warriors had seen true sunshine for the last eighteen years so she remained concerned about the effects the sun might have on them. As a result they each had new billed hats to protect from the glare.

  She also had to create a way to hide their wings. Through an extensive network of interlocking fabric bands, they’d been able to tie them back. All the bands were created with a breakaway system so the Warriors could easily free their wings if they needed to during battle.

  Griff began to fold up his map, looking confident in their direction. He donned his hat and then struck a pose. “How do I look, Short Stuff?”

  The last day or so, Griff had started calling her Short Stuff. The nickname should tick her off, but it didn’t. Warmth spread over her every time he said it, so she just grinned at him. “You know you’re gorgeous, Griff, but my man looks even better in it. Sorry.”

  Marcus just nodded at Griff with a superior tilt to his chin before he leaned down to kiss her on the cheek. “Thanks, baby. You look pretty good as a soldier, too. Hot. Definitely hot.” He leered at her which sent her nerves into overdrive.

  “Oh, man,” Brooklyn groaned. “Tell us which way to go, Griff, quick before we get to see them commune with nature in a way that will mentally scar the two of us for life.”

  “Come on, give a guy a break,” Marcus admonished as he continued to leer at Lori. “I’ve been watching her ass swing for half an hour now and haven’t touched. I think that shows great restraint on my part.”

  Lori smirked at him. “I did wonder how you always knew right when I was about to fall.”

  “You and me, baby.” He waved a hand between the two of them. “We’re in sync. Simpatico.”

  “Okay, okay.” Griff shook his head at their byplay. “We need to get going.” He glanced back down at his compass and squinted toward the fingers of dawn just stretching across the sky and pointed in that direction. “We’re gonna be going into the sun all day. By my calculations, we have to get over those two peaks there and then the lab should be just another half a mile into the valley after that.”

  Lori could see the first peak that he talked about, but darkness still enveloped the second.

  Regardless, it was going to be a long day.

  “I know it’s been a long time since I visited here,” Griff said. “But do the mountains seem bigger now?”

  Lori nodded. “Yeah, after the Veil fell, the mountains began rising. They seemed to stop a year later, but something shifted when it all happened and this whole mountain chain became larger, both wider and taller.”

  Griff looked at Marcus in consternation. “That probably happened at the same time the west dropped off and became ocean.”

  Marcus nodded grimly. “I’d guess you’re right.” He squinted at the rough terrain in front of them. “It’s going to be a long day and we don’t have time for a new world geography lesson, at least not today. Let’s go rescue the Others.”

  * * *

  As they cleared the final ridge above the lab, Griff held his hand up
to halt their progression. Marcus frowned, tilting his head at the heavy rat-a-tat-tatting echoing over the forest. For about the last twenty minutes, the acrid smell of smoke had also begun to permeate the air. Now the smoke had thickened.

  “Can you see what it is?” he asked Griff, who walked at the front of their group. Marcus brought up the tail as they navigated the narrow space between the boulders at the top of the mountain.

  “I’m not sure,” Griff answered, “but I think it’s gunfire. I think the lab is under attack. Lori, are you getting anything mentally from your friends?”

  “No, and I don’t know what it means. I should have been able to reach them since we crossed, but I haven’t felt a thing from them. It’s possible that Shar and Savannah have had to shut down the connection for some reason, especially if something is happening at the lab.”

  Marcus rubbed at his chest. The pain in her mental voice battered at him. None of them were saying what they thought it meant—not yet. But the thought they were too late pressed at all of them. He could feel it over all their mental links. They pushed on, regardless. No one wanted to abandon this mission without knowing for sure.

  They cleared the boulders and could see the building below. A battle was taking place. Smoke rose from one side of the complex where the building had been almost completely obliterated. A group of about twenty soldiers, clad in pure black, all heavily armed and armored, appeared out of the tree line. They approached the building, gunfire echoing over the valley as they ran. But as bodies fell inside and through the broken windows, it appeared that attacking soldiers had the upper hand.

  They couldn’t tell anything else about them because their faces were painted. Were these good guys or bad guys?

  “What do we—” Lori’s question cut off as a cacophonous crash sounded out over the scene. A huge military truck barreled out one side of the facility.

  Over the roar of the engine, they could hear the guy in charge of the attacking men yell instructions to his team. “Stop that truck! Remember, no one makes it out of this fucking place alive.”

  Fire opened on the cab of the truck. The driver swerved to avoid the hail of gunfire, but he turned too late. Even from their vantage point, they could see the spray of blood coating the inside of the cab. The truck hit a tree and two other men bolted out the passenger door. Soldiers swarmed, threw the men to the ground, and immediately executed them.

  “I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Griff said.

  Marcus agreed as they watched the drama play out below them. “Lori, do you have any idea who they may be?”

  She shook her head, horror etched in the lines of her face. “He said they’d kill everyone. We have to get the Others out of there, now.”

  The man issuing orders below motioned to several of his men. “Go search the truck.” He entered the building at a run, the rest of his troops following behind.

  “Griff, fly over to the other side and see if you can figure out what’s happening there,” Marcus instructed. “Brooklyn, fly above and search the edges of the forest to make sure there aren’t any other surprises in the woods. Lori and I will see what we can find out about what happened to the Others. Be careful. Do what you can to keep your wings from being seen. Both of you stay in constant contact.” He hated to send them flying, knowing that could expose their wings, but they needed every advantage they could get. Otherwise they’d have no chance against twenty plus men armed with assault rifles.

  Griff and Brooklyn took off into the air.

  The men in black continued to scramble, but the resistance from the facility appeared to have died down with the killings at the truck. The men on the outside of the building continued to hold their weapons at the ready. Several of them jumped into the back of the truck. One immediately opened the flap and yelled out, “Someone get Jonah back out here. Savannah is in here as well as two males. But they all need medical attention, stat.”

  Lori’s muscles tensed, but Marcus placed a restraining hand on her shoulder. They couldn’t go running down there without a plan or else they would just end up dead, too. But that choice was taken away when the distinct sound of a gun hammer cocking sounded directly behind them. Oh, fuck.

  “Don’t move another muscle,” a voice growled. “Keep your hands where I can see them and turn around slowly.”

  “Marcus?” Lori asked.

  “It’s okay.” He nudged her shoulder to turn her with him. “Just do what he says.”

  When they turned, they found two grim-looking men dressed all in black, their faces darkened with paint. One was as tall as him with a shock of flaming red hair sticking out below his hat while the other was more squat and compact. Both were heavily muscled and armed. They were obviously part of the group attacking the compound below. But the question remained, were they the good guys or more bad guys?

  Red nodded to his friend. The second guy, the shorter of the two, came over and began searching for weapons. He started with Lori, and Marcus growled when he touched her. The guy’s eyes widened nervously and he immediately backed off.

  Red sighed. “Go ahead,” he sneered at his partner. “I’m the one with the gun. Remember? I promise I won’t let him do anything to you.” To Marcus he said, “Calm down. No one wants to get hurt here now, do they? Nervous men make mistakes and you’re making my partner nervous.”

  “It’s fine, Marcus,” Lori soothed him. “He’s being professional.”

  Marcus wrestled with his self-control. He couldn’t stand for someone else to touch her.

  The guy finished with Lori but he didn’t find the ley line knife from Griff that she had in her boot. He then turned to Marcus, yanking the backpack off and pulling at his wings. Aw, fuck. He’d been so concerned about Lori, it hadn’t even occurred to him that they would find his wings when they searched him.

  Lori’s eyes widened as she realized the same thing.

  “What’s happening?” Griff and Brooklyn both demanded at the same time.

  “Part of the attacking group got a jump on us, and they’re about to find there’s more to me than meets the eye.”

  “I’m on my way,” Brooklyn said.

  “No, we have this under control,” Marcus told Brooklyn. “Three Others are in the truck out front. Griff, Shar is still missing. Find her and, Brooklyn, provide back up for him. We’ll all meet at the truck.”

  While Marcus had been handling Griff and Brooklyn, Lori instructed him, “Be ready.”

  She swayed like she was going to fall toward the man reaching toward Marcus’s back. When she touched him, the fabric of his uniform extended to entwine his hands, wrapping around his legs, and covering his head.

  Even with her warning, it took Marcus a split second to get over his shock and he had a pretty good idea what she’d planned. Luckily he recovered faster than the man with the gun and dove for it before the guy had a chance to use it. Within a minute, they had both men disarmed and temporarily restrained with the limbs of a tree, rather than just the clothing which had returned to normal when Lori released it.

  “Now what?” Lori asked.

  “Well, I guess we decide if these guys are worth keeping alive or not.” Of course the threat wasn’t valid. They didn’t plan to kill anyone unless they had to, but the two men didn’t need to know that.

  Both men’s eyes were wide with obvious fear as they watched them, but they seemed especially leery of Lori. Interesting. Maybe they could use this to their advantage.

  Marcus stood in front of Red and crossed his arms in menace. “What exactly are you doing down there?” He nodded to the laboratory. “What’s the purpose of your mission?”

  Both men ignored him, although they were terrified of Lori if their expressions were anything to judge by. What the hell?

  “What’s going on, Lori?”

  “I’m not sure, but I have an idea. Hang on, let me check.” She came to stand in front of Red. “My friend asked you a question.”

  She reached forward to grab his face.
He reared his head back and blanched deathly white, stammering, “Plea…please, don’t touch me. I’ll do whatever you ask.”

  She withdrew her hand, her lips pressed together tight. “Looks like the ES has been more successful teaching their level of bigotry while I was held captive.”

  “I’m going to die now, aren’t I? I touched you.” The man who had searched Lori asked in a trembling voice.

  “Oh, good grief. Are you shitting me?” Marcus tossed up his hands in disbelief and more than a little anger. “What the fuck are they telling you people over here?”

  Lori laid a calming hand on his arm. “It’s okay. It’s what they’re taught and they don’t have anyone left to show them that what they’re being told is wrong. Right now, we have to use this to our advantage.”

  “No harm will come to you if you just answer his questions,” Lori told them. “What are you doing here? Who do you work for? What’s your objective?”

  “We don’t know anything. We were just hired to help with perimeter security for the operation below. No questions allowed, those were our instructions. We were paid a ton, but we have to keep our mouths shut and just do our job. No one said anything about dealing with Others. This isn’t what I signed up for.”

  “Who hired you?” Marcus asked.

  “The guy in charge, Jonah is his name.”

  Marcus remembered hearing that name down at the truck. “He’s down there now, right? Do you know what the rest of the plan is for today?”

  “We’re here to recover some cargo and then the place is wired to blow. It should be happening pretty soon.”

  Crap. “Brooklyn, Griff, the building’s set to blow, but I have no idea how soon. If you can, get to the truck and secure the Others. We have to get out of here.”

  “I think I know where Shar is,” Griff reported. “Give me five minutes.”

  “Hurry, Griff.” Marcus ignored the sinking feeling in his stomach. “Brooklyn, report in.”

  Silence met their mental connection and Marcus looked worriedly at Lori, but she was busy. While he’d been discussing things with the Warriors, she’d been making their two prisoners strip. She threw a pair of pants at him. “Put these on while I tie these guys up a bit more securely.”