by Christi Snow
He nodded. Imagining the men’s reactions to his wings, he decided it would be best to keep those under cover if he possibly could. He scrambled to put the uniform on over his clothes, while Lori did the same. She’d secured the men with rope from their packs and tied gags around their mouths.
“You ready?” he asked her.
“Almost. Just one more thing.” She approached the man who’d been worried because he touched her. “You’ve been brainwashed by an arrogant, moronic, and power-hungry government. I promise you, you didn’t catch anything from me and never will from any Others, either. Our gifts are just that…a gift and something the government is afraid of because they don’t understand it. What happened eighteen years ago had nothing to do with the Others. Our gifts will not cause your death. But you’re safe. I touched you and nothing happened. In fact, I spared your life. Remember that the next time you’re faced with someone who is different from you.”
Pride surged through him. She was so strong. To maintain her empathy in the face of such horrible bigotry humbled him. He was so lucky to have her in his life and all he wanted to do was get her away from this kind of malicious hatred. Marcus touched her shoulder to get her attention. “Come on, baby, we have to go.”
As they left, neither man met their gazes. He had no idea whether her words had any effect, but maybe over time something about what she said would sink in. Right now they had to concentrate on getting the Others out of this hate-filled world.
They crept down the side of the mountain as carefully and quietly as they could and didn’t run into any other problems on their short trek. Once at the bottom of the hill, Lori pulled Marcus to a halt behind the tree.
Two men stood guard at the back of the truck and another man came barreling out of the building. From his attitude, that had to be Jonah, the leader and the one who would want to know Savannah’s location.
It was hard to tell from the shadows of the trees, but he appeared tall and fit. He had dirty blond hair and beard, and a dominate bearing to him. Like the rest of his men, he wore all black…black cargo pants, boots, T-shirt and long sleeve jacket. He halted at the truck and scanned the forest, looking right where they stood.
Marcus’s breath stuttered in his chest.
For a moment, Jonah scowled in their direction, tilted his head as if trying to puzzle something out, but then he shook it as if to shake off the notion and hopped up into the back of the truck.
“We have to get into that truck,” Lori intoned, desperation seeping into her mental voice.
“I know. We will, but right now it’s too risky. There are too many armed men standing around it. Also, Brooklyn isn’t answering my call. Griff, how do you stand? Do you know where Brooklyn is?”
“Brooklyn provided a distraction for me. She’s probably just busy leading them away. I found a redhead that I’m pretty sure is Shar, but she’s in bad shape. I’m trying to figure out how to get her out without hurting her more.”
“Do you need help?”
“No, there are too many soldiers floating around here. It’s too risky. Just have that truck ready to go when I get there.”
“Okay, can do,” Marcus responded.
“Marcus.” Lori’s mental voice sounded intense. “A diversion is what we need here. I can draw their attention away so you can sneak into the cab to hotwire the truck.”
A man came barreling around the edge of the building, carrying someone. “Jonah!” he hollered.
Brooklyn hung limply in his arms, a trail of blood flowing from her. She appeared dead.
Lori began to rush out of their hiding area, but Marcus pulled her to his chest, clamping his arms around her torso. He understood her desperation to get to Brooklyn, but if they rushed out there they’d be in just as bad of shape as Brooklyn. “Hang on. Don’t just barrel out there or we’ll all end up like that. We’ll get her in a moment.”
Jonah stuck his head out the back of the truck and his eyes widened in shock when he saw Brooklyn, exposed wings and all. “Holy shit, she has wings.” His focus quickly shifted from her wings to her wound. “What happened?” He glared threateningly at the man holding her as he jumped from the truck and rushed to her side to staunch the flow of blood. “The Others weren’t supposed to be hurt.”
“She wasn’t in the facility with them,” the man explained. “She came out of the forest and her wings were hidden underneath her clothing, so I didn’t know. We thought she was part of the lab staff when she began flashing some bad-assed swords.”
“Okay.” His expression appeared grim. He took her pulse and checked her wound. “Goddammit! Get her inside the truck. We’ll take her with us. Hopefully, it’s not too late although, fuck, it looks like she’s bleeding out.”
As the man climbed back inside the truck with Brooklyn, Jonah turned to the men standing guard. “Everyone inside the building. Go find Shar. This place is going to blow,” he looked at his watch, “in four and a half minutes. We’re out of time. Find her now!”
The men standing guard rushed into the building.
“This is it,” Lori said. “Two against two. Let’s go.”
Marcus gave a sharp nod and followed her, praying that she stayed safe as they crouched low and moved across the gravel drive. The guns he’d pilfered off the original guards were in his hands, ready for trouble. No one noticed them. As they moved, he instructed, “Griff, you have four minutes before that building blows. Get your ass in gear.”
“I have to go out the back way. Follow the highway and I’ll fly and meet you further down the road with Shar.” Griff’s voice strained with the effort of escaping. Marcus didn’t have a good feeling about this, but they were out of options.
Marcus and Lori stood at each side of the back of the truck. He held his breath for a count of three while he peeked inside. The two men inside the truck hadn’t noticed them yet as they were focused on Brooklyn’s injuries. The three Others were also in the truck…in fucking cages like animals. They appeared to be unconscious, at least that’s what Marcus hoped for since none of them had moved.
Lori touched the base of the truck and conjured manacles to snake up from the steel floor. They snapped around the men’s wrists and ankles, the excess chains pooling to the floor. Both men jerked in shock. “What the…” The man next to Jonah tried to raise his weapon, but he was too tightly bound.
Marcus pointed his guns at them. “Drop your weapon. Now, and I won’t kill your leader.”
Jonah growled down at the manacles on his wrists. “I don’t know who the fuck you are, but if you don’t release me right now, she’s going to die within the next thirty seconds.”
Brooklyn’s features were waxy and blood pooled under where she lay. Damn. He jumped into the truck and stepped forward to feel her pulse. It fluttered weakly against the pads of his fingers.
“Marcus?”
“Do you know what you’re doing?” he asked Jonah.
“I know enough, but that won’t matter if I don’t have my hands back. Now!” Jonah’s hard grey eyes bored into him. He appeared like a guy who kept his head in high-stress situations and right now, he seemed intent on saving Brooklyn’s life. He actually may be her only chance right now.
“Release him,” he instructed Lori aloud. To Jonah, he said, “Make one wrong move and I won’t think twice about blowing your brains all over the side of the truck.”
“Fair enough.” As soon as his hands were released, they began to fly across Brooklyn’s mangled torso again. He didn’t bat another eye at the two of them, completely focused on saving Brooklyn.
“Lori, I need to keep an eye on him. Can you watch for anyone coming toward us and check the Others?”
She nodded and moved toward Savannah, maintaining touch with the truck to keep the other man completely bound. She reached toward the cage holding Savannah.
Jonah growled, “Don’t you fucking touch her.” He hadn’t even looked up, but he was definitely keeping tabs on their movements.
“It�
�s okay,” she reassured him. “She’s not dangerous. I just want to get her out. She doesn’t deserve to be caged like an animal. None of them do.”
Jonah stilled for a moment to look up at her in shock. “Who the hell are you people?”
An alarm went off on a band Jonah wore on his wrist.
“Fuck, we’re out of time.” He still had his hands inside Brooklyn, but he turned toward Marcus. “Let my man go free to get my men out of the building. It’s about to blow. Right now I have her artery in my hand. If I let go, she’s dead. I’ll go with you and keep her alive. We need to work together on this so that no one else dies.”
“Jonah, you can’t—” the man with Jonah argued, shaking his head emphatically.
“I can. I just did. Get everyone out of here, Alan,” Jonah told the man, very self-assured about the fact they would let him go. “We don’t have time, and I’m not leaving Savannah again.”
They didn’t have time to debate it. “Let him go, Lori,” Marcus instructed. To Alan, he said, “No one follows us, or we won’t think twice about killing your leader.”
Alan hesitated, looking to Jonah, but Jonah nodded his head. “Go!” After his man departed, Jonah grimaced at Lori and Marcus. “I hope one of you knows how to drive, because we have got to get out of here now or else we’re all going to die when the building blows.”
“Marcus, go. Get the truck moving. I can handle things back here,” Lori instructed.
He gave her a hard, quick kiss and then jumped out the back of the truck. Goddess, he hoped he could hotwire this thing.
* * *
When the engine grabbed, Lori breathed for what felt like the first time in the last thirty minutes. They took off in a flurry of gravel and dirt, speeding along the hard-packed road.
“Griff, are you clear of the building?” she asked.
“Almost,” he sounded like he was in pain. “I can see the door now.”
A loud explosion echoed across the mountains and the ground shuddered.
“Griff!”
There was no answer. Nothing from him. No emotion. Nothing. It felt so much like the way Brooklyn felt to her right now.
“Marcus, I think Griff is hurt. We have to go back.”
“We can’t. We’re about to have our own issues. A whole group of military vehicles just entered the property and are in pursuit to keep us from escaping. I think they’re ES soldiers. Keep everyone down back there. It looks like we’re about to take some gunfire.”
Jonah and Brooklyn were already on the floor and he continued to monitor Brooklyn with his hand inside her chest.
“Someone’s about to start shooting. So, be ready,” she told him.
“You can communicate with the driver telepathically,” he observed.
She didn’t confirm or deny that. The less information he had the better. The only reason he was still with them was because he appeared to be keeping Brooklyn alive, for the moment.
The pounding of gunfire echoed outside the truck, but it still sounded too far away to do any damage.
“Where are we going?” he asked. When she didn’t answer he continued, “You do realize those are ES soldiers chasing us, right? You won’t be able to evade them for long.”
“Is she going to live?” Lori hated seeing Brooklyn so still and pale. The blood continued to seep out of her wound, but it had slowed significantly. Lori didn’t want to ask if that meant she was getting better, or if she was just too far gone to bleed much more.
“I don’t know. She needs surgery, but I don’t see how that’s going to happen. With those,” he gestured to her wings spread across the truck floor, “we can’t exactly take her into the neighborhood hospital, not that there are those out here either.”
“Are you a doctor?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I’m just a poor schmuck that’s seen way too many people shot so I know a bit of trauma medicine.”
“I guess that’s a good skill to have when you’re the one doing the shooting.”
His gaze sharpened as he looked at her. “The way I see it,” he shrugged toward the gun in her arms, “I’m not the one being threatening here. I’m the one keeping her alive.” His eyes hardened and his lips thinned as he looked worriedly toward Savannah’s cage.
She didn’t know what his intentions had been at the labs, but he appeared to truly care about Savannah and the Others. That prompted her to give him the benefit of the doubt. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
His features softened at her apology.
“You know Savannah, don’t you?” she asked.
Marcus took a sharp turn and all of them slid across the bottom of the truck. Pings sounded as a rain of bullets pelted the side of the truck. The cage holding William, the panther shifter, slid into Jonah’s side causing him to grimace in pain.
“If they don’t kill us, your boyfriend might.”
The bone-rattling swerving continued for another ten minutes until finally, the gunfire ceased.
“Did we lose them?” Jonah asked.
“Yes,” she answered.
Marcus had kept her informed of everything going on as they traveled. Neither one of them could get in touch with Griff. They were only about fifteen minutes away from the Veil. The trek that had taken them hours on foot across the rough terrain had been relatively short in the truck traveling at this breakneck speed.
She’d been watching Jonah as he worked on Brooklyn. It appeared he may be an Other. As he focused on Brooklyn’s wounds, an electrical surge sizzled off him that Lori had never sensed from any other human before, but it was similar to the energy around the Veil and the ley line crystals. Also, every time he touched her, Brooklyn’s color seemed to improve slightly. “How’s she doing?”
Jonah pressed his lips together with a grimace. “She’s holding on, but I’m not sure how much longer I can keep her that way. Do you have any idea how much longer before we can stop? We need to go someplace with surgery capabilities where they can be discreet about what she is. I can give your driver directions if you don’t have access to someplace like that.”
“We’re almost there,” she answered.
His eyes widened with shock, but she needed to know more before she told him anything else about where they were headed. “What’s your tie to Savannah?” she asked him. “Are you an Other?”
He studied her cautiously. “I’m not sure I can trust you.”
“Believe me, the feeling is very mutual, but from what I’ve seen here,” she waved a hand at Brooklyn, “you’re an Other, too. You already know I have abilities, so I’m thinking that maybe we’re on the same side.”
“What side would that be?”
“The one where this,” she waved her hands over the cages, her voice shaking with emotion, “is unconscionable, no matter who you are.”
While they’d been traveling, she’d opened the sides of Tim and Savannah’s cages, although they were both still unconscious. She tried not to worry about that since Jonah seemed to think they were okay. Not knowing William’s frame of mind, she’d left his cage closed. Without Savannah conscious, she didn’t know if she could calm him if he turned against them in animal form before he realized what happened.
Jonah breathed deep and seemed to make a decision. “I grew up with Savannah and Shar…and it was my fault they were taken captive.”
Her grip immediately tightened on the gun. “What did you do?” she growled.
“I left on a mission, but it was a trap. They were taken after I left. That happened three years ago and I’ve been searching for them ever since.”
“So, who were those men with you?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I’m not sharing any more information with you until you share some with me. Where are we going? Her mutation,” he gestured toward Brooklyn, “gift, whatever it is…is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. She’s not an animal shifter, but she has wings. Where did you all come from, and what were you doing at the labs?”
The tru
ck slowed. “We’re out of time,” Lori said. “This is where you have to take a leap of faith. Savannah is coming with us and if I’m reading you correctly, that’s something you aren’t going to let her do alone. Come with us and you’ll understand it all soon. I promise she’ll be safer than she ever was in the ES. You will be, too.”
“Safer than the ES? You say that like we’re going to leave it.” He glanced worriedly at Savannah.
Marcus opened the back of the truck and she held a hand to hold him back for a moment.
She looked into Jonah’s slate grey eyes that were so devoid of emotion except when he gazed at Savannah. Then they filled with absolute love.
“It’s decision time. Are you going to take a leap and trust us or stay here?”
“I go where Savannah goes, so I’m going with you.” Determination filled his expression and he gritted his teeth like he expected an argument.
She nodded. “Okay, I promise you’re not going to regret it.”
“Can we trust him?” Marcus asked.
“I think so, because I’m almost positive he’s the only thing that’s kept Brooklyn alive. But I’ve been wrong before, so be ready for anything. Unfortunately, we have to trust him while we take care of the guard and I get the Veil open so you can drive through.” Her nerves jangled. Please don’t let her be wrong about this guy. “Let’s do this before someone catches up to us.”
Leaving the truck, the two darted through the woods toward the guard shack they knew was just around the bend on the bridge. The same guard that had been asleep this morning was there, but someone must have alerted him to the attack at the labs because he stood outside the shack, eyeing the Veil and glancing around nervously, holding his gun at the ready in front of him.
“I have an idea,” Lori told Marcus. “I’m going to distract him by playing the damsel in distress. When he comes toward me, drop in behind him and use his clothing against him like I did earlier.”
