The gunfire stopped. One of the figures stepped forward. “Come with us.”
“I… No. I…I know who you are.”
“I know that.” A deep voice. Thrumming. Guttural. “I’ve been told not to hurt you unless necessary. You’re making it necessary. Now come with us. Otherwise, this is going to be a very unpleasant experience for all of us.”
“I can’t.” I could stall. I was sure I could. I could stall long enough to let Leon get here. I knew I could. I should be able to. Maybe.
What would it feel like to get shot? Actually shot, not grazed?
Deep Voice marched closer. “Listen, kid. It’s been a long, bad day for me, and I’m really looking forward to blowing off some steam. I can either get off work and drink beer or I can beat the shit out of you until you stop saying no.” He bent down and glared at me. He had a square jaw, a thick brow, and looked like he hadn’t really washed his face in a few days. “Guess which option I’m leaning toward?”
“I don’t want any trouble.”
“Then you’ll come. Otherwise, there’s going to be plenty of trouble. Are you understanding me?”
“Please.” He leaned closer. I tried to back away, but I banged my head into the wall. Nowhere to go. Deep Voice raised his hand and snapped it forward like a hatchet. The other two stepped into the apartment, their guns trained straight in the middle of my vision.
My tongue was dry. I had to try three times before I could get words out. “You c-can’t kill me. You wouldn’t get anything.” Bluff. Great plan.
“We know about your little unicorn boy toy. How fast would he come get us if he knew we’d shot you in the skull?”
“You’re not supposed to hurt—”
“You resisted. A lot. We didn’t have a choice.” He leaned to the side and picked up the knife. “I don’t have a unicorn problem. That’s what a lot of people think. They just put food on the table.” He pressed the knife into my cheek and traced the bone ridge around my eye. I shivered, fighting the acid rising up my throat. He pulled the knife away and smiled. “I have a problem with fags, though. So this—”
He stopped and cupped his hand up to his ear. I strained through the pain to try and hear whatever stopped him. Humming air conditioners. Mrs. Adelstein’s lab thumping around in the apartment above me. My heart in my ears. What grabbed Deep Voice’s attention so readily?
I didn’t hear it until I closed my eyes. Hard steps banging up the stairs, getting closer, louder. Running. Multiple pairs of feet. I’d stalled enough.
Terry showed up first. “Tony, are you—”
“Down!” Leon cut him off and pushed him away from the door. He and a couple of others rushed in. The two I didn’t recognize grappled with Deep Voice’s little friends and got the guns away from them. Leon grabbed Deep Voice by the collar and slammed him into the floor. “Get the fuck away from him.”
Deep Voice just grinned. “Unicorns. Just what we came here for.”
“You’re leaving empty-handed.” Leon slammed a bare heel down into Deep Voice’s balls and ground them against the floor. Even I cringed, and this guy’d been ready to cut me to pieces. But like hell I was going to suggest mercy. Just knowing Leon was there, seeing him take down those Lionshead bastards, broke up the stone in my stomach. Leon clawed his fingers into Deep Voice’s crotch, eliciting a new grunt of pain. He knelt and scooted next to me. His free hand went straight to my cheek and stroked the fresh cut under my eye. “Did he do this to you?”
“It’s not bad. It’ll heal.”
Leon nodded and jerked his hand around, twisting a yelp out of Deep Voice. Leon spat on him. “You’re lucky that’s all I’m doing to you.”
Deep Voice chuckled. He fucking laughed. “Checkmate.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a little black square. An LED in one corner blinked orange. Deep Voice let it drop and laughed even louder. “They’ll be here any second.”
“Fuck.” Leon released Deep Voice and grabbed me around the arm. “We need to go.”
“Too late.” Deep Voice just kept laughing, filling the apartment with it.
Leon rushed out the door, dragging me along. Terry followed behind. I tried to grab for him, but my hands were too sweaty. He kept slipping away, and Leon just pulled farther and farther ahead. Down the stairs. I kept banging my shins and knees against the steps, trying to get my feet under me. Leon didn’t slow for a second.
“I’m slipping.” I tripped and yanked free of his grip. His fingernails raked across my arm, drawing five streams of blood. I tumbled down, stopping at the foot of the stairs on the first floor.
A horde of black figures stood outside the doors. Most of them had guns, but I saw swords in there too. Huge, silvery swords, curved and razor sharp. I’d seen those blades before.
Unicorn horns. Half a dozen that I could see and probably more out in the crowd.
Terry came down the stairs and hauled me up to my feet. “Are you okay? What the hell’s going on here?”
“We have to go.” I went to Leon’s side, taking Terry along with me. He stared out the doors too. None of the Lionshead goons did a thing. Just stood there, guns and swords in hand and ready for…just ready. I preferred not to think about what they were ready for. It probably involved gutting Leon open like a fish.
Leon took a step forward, his muscles already bulging out against his skin. Two of the Lionshead members stepped forward and slammed the butts of their rifles against the glass. It cracked, and the sound echoed through the lobby. I hoped someone else would hear it and call the cops. It wouldn’t happen. The cops couldn’t have done anything. They probably wouldn’t get there in time, anyway.
Another hit and the doors shattered, raining bright, clear shrapnel across the floor. I backed up, watching Leon. How long did it take for him to shift? I couldn’t remember. I’d been distracted last time I saw it, getting shot at by these assholes again. I just hoped we had a unicorn soon.
The two black-clad people in front chipped the opening bigger. Leon’s clothing ripped, but it was too late. All the Lionshead goons ran inside. Blades came up, and guns snapped forward. Leon grew out and sprouted fur. His eyes widened.
Swordsmen circled around him, but he didn’t move. I don’t even think he could. All he did was stand, his body morphing, turning huge and silver. The other two unicorns came down the stairs, swinging the stolen guns like clubs. Bullets flew, cutting through their clothes, splattering the walls with red. They toppled, and the rifles clattered to the floor.
I had to go. We had to go. Something. Anything. I wasn’t a great shot, but I doubted it would make much difference in the tight space. I ran over, scooped up one of the guns, and squeezed back the trigger. The vibrations shook all the way up into my shoulder. Or was I just shaking? Bullets hit a few of the Lionshead members and drew their attention. They stumbled back, but most of the bullets hit and fell right to the ground. With the black removed, I could see why. Metallic sheets beneath the fabric. It sat in thick layers on their bodies. Layers of unicorn hide. I shouldn’t have been so stupid. Why wouldn’t they come prepared to take one of their own bullets?
One of the gunmen marched up and slammed the butt of his rifle into my forehead. I went down flat. The wound on my chest throbbed, and I prayed it wouldn’t pop back open.
The way I landed, I couldn’t see Leon. But I could see Terry. He got a hit to the head too, crumpled backward onto the stairs. I tried to lift my head to see what was happening. Nothing. Black filtered in on the edges of my vision. I gave one last push and managed to move my head up an inch. I saw Silver pushing his way out and saw him look back at me for a second.
Then he ran, and the black filled in completely.
* * * *
Something acrid slapped me across the face. Smoke. They must have lit the building on fire. I sat up, forced my way through the clawing pain throbbing through my skull. At first, I saw nothing, couldn’t even try to move.
“Terry?” I cringed. The sound of my own voice, weak a
nd hoarse as it was, started new waves surging through my head. But I had to try again. Louder. “Terry!”
Fuck. I clutched my temples and tried to push the radiating agony away. Didn’t work. We’d burn up. I blinked a few times to clear my vision. This wasn’t the right color. The lobby at the complex was beige and tan. Wherever I was, all I could see were shades of gray. The floor chilled my legs through my pants.
When did I get pants? Someone dressed me? Maybe I was back with the unicorns. Maybe Leon had managed to rescue me after all. Hopefully Terry too. Suzette wouldn’t be happy to have another human in the loop, but I didn’t care. She could get over it.
I struggled everything into focus, worsening the headache. Concrete floor, bare, rough walls, steel doors, and thin slits of windows near the high ceiling. Probably eleven or twelve feet up. Fluorescent tubes threw stark, sparse light around the space. Not the unicorns.
I turned, discovering new pains in my back, and saw Terry off to the right. I didn’t think I could handle crawling. My memories returned slowly. I knew Leon had dragged me down the stairs, and I’d banged up my legs. Who knew what else had happened after that?
After he’d left me. That memory came back clear and fast. Silver and his big dark eyes giving me a final glance before running off to save himself. I didn’t blame him. I thought I should have, but I didn’t. At least one of us got free. I just hoped he wouldn’t try to rescue me. It’d been close enough in the apartments. If he came here—wherever here was—I doubted they’d let him get away again.
I scooted over to Terry—I could handle the little pangs of discomfort from that—and nudged his shoulder. “Terry, come on. Wake up.” I gave him another, harder shake. “Terry, you need to come around.”
His eyes fluttered open. He rolled over and groaned. “What the fuck is going on?” His voice creaked from his throat. He fixed a stare on me. “Tony, what’s going on?”
“I don’t know, but you need to pull yourself together.” As though I was completely fucking fine. Waking up half-naked on a concrete floor with no damn clue how I got there, breathing in smoke that I couldn’t even locate. Probably a picture straight from Mom’s nightmares.
Except I did have a clue. I had a pretty good guess how we got wherever we were. It had to be Lionshead. Who else? I looked around. I didn’t dare get up yet. I knew for a fact I’d just end up falling on my ass and probably bruise my tailbone. Just to top everything off with that extra shot of perfection.
There was a door. Or some kind of opening. A sliver of light sliced across the floor behind me. A gap right above the floor, and only a few yards away. I pushed myself to my knees, then up to standing. The world wobbled, threatening to topple me, but I just planted my feet and held firm until everything settled again.
“Can you get up?” I asked.
“Kind of.”
I took his word for it. I didn’t trust myself to turn my head and remain standing. I shuffled a step forward, my legs still shaking trying to support me. But I moved. I got close enough to properly make out the doorknob and then the cracked and chipped edges of the frame.
A hand latched onto my shoulder from behind. I came to a stop. “Are you good?” No answer. I groaned as I spun, almost losing balance again. “Terry?”
A grim, square face looked back at me, bright blue eyes set into a glare. Terry stood behind the man, his collar bunched into the fist of a tall, skinny woman wrapped in the black Lionshead uniform.
The man tightened his grip on my shoulder, clawing deeper into the flesh. “You’re wanted.” His breath stank of cigarettes, the hot reek of it blasting across my face and coating my throat and nose. “We don’t want to have to knock you out again, so we should just take everything nice and calm.”
I opened my mouth. Yeah, I would have gotten the shit beaten out of me in two seconds flat, but I knew I needed to rail against him. Until I saw the eye. It hung from a cord around his neck, almost two inches across. It couldn’t be a real eye, caught the light like a crystal. But it had blood vessels. It had nerves. It was big and dark. It looked so real, too real.
It looked like Silver’s eye. Leon’s eye. Big and dark and equine. I couldn’t look away, and I couldn’t resist. I just had to go along with Smokey. My body totally refused to respond and moved on autopilot. I sort of heard footsteps behind me. Terry, I hoped. I didn’t need him getting separated. Not that it would keep either of us any safer, being together, but I would know if something happened to him.
Not sure I really wanted to, depending on how bad it was.
Out of the space, down a short hallway, and into a wall of stench. The same acrid smell that pulled me back to consciousness filled the air. I finally figured out what it was: hair. Burning hair. Powdery black ash floated on the air, tickled my nose. This room was brighter. It took a few seconds before my eyes adjusted to it.
God, I wished they hadn’t.
In the pristine white fluorescents, unicorn hide gleamed like banners of gold and silver and copper. They were stripped of fur, just like the armor I’d seen under the Lionshead black. But not tanned. Not yet, anyway. That had to be what they were doing. I’d seen leather tanning too much back home not to recognize it. Stretched on frames and tucked away.
We continued along. Strands and ropes of metallic hair hung from rods. Some of them, people wound into glimmering ropes. Others were woven into multicolored fabric. Farther on, the bones and horns and hooves. Dark silver. I shuddered looking at them. Other people worked at huge machines filled with sour-smelling liquids. They yanked levers, pulling up huge frames full of bullets. Another lever sent water cascading over them. The vat of fluid beneath hissed and bubbled when the water hit it.
When we hit the meat, there was no holding back. I leaned down, pulling out of the man’s grip, and puked on the floor. Blood and raw meat masked any other stink I might have smelled before. Slabs of muscle hung from meat hooks, dripping on the floor. Organs filled long, high tables where they were rinsed and sifted and sorted.
My captor pulled me back up to standing. “Prime money in here, you know. Got to skin them and take off all the fleshy bits anyway.”
We kept moving. So many tables, all full, dripping blood and fluids onto the floor. It trickled into drains in the middle of the floor right where we walked. Warm liquid coated the soles of my feet and made it even harder to stay standing. We passed by another table. Smokey slowed a little and pointed to one on the left.
“You wouldn’t believe what impotent old farts will pay for dried unicorn nuts.”
Was he enjoying this? The sick fuck.
Farther still. He led me through a plastic curtain. The light in here wasn’t bad. It was an office, I supposed, but not like any office I’d ever seen. A stainless steel table sat in the middle with three wooden chairs on either long side. Two of the chairs on the opposite side from me were filled. The middle by a woman, probably in her forties or fifties if time had been kind to her. She wore one of the eye necklaces too. For some reason, she looked really damned familiar.
Carl sat on her left. Seeing him drew me tighter and fixed my focus. I yanked out of Smokey’s grip, but he grabbed me again, dug into my shoulder, and forced me down into the chair straight across from the woman. Terry plopped next to me. Then the two guards turned and walked away.
The woman folded her hands on the table. She had a bangle on her wrist to match the necklace. “Is there anything we can do to make you more comfortable, boys?” Familiar voice too.
I struggled with the words and rolled them around in my brain. What was this about? Why would she care?
The woman shook her head. “You don’t have to be nervous. No one here has any intention of hurting you.”
“And yet somehow I don’t trust you.” I directed every word to Carl. Just being close to him boiled acid through my stomach and my throat. I felt the rage, rising heat from my toes all the way up and out the top of my head. “I imagine that has something to do with the kidnapping. Sound valid?”
“I understand that you’re upset, Mr. Gates. This can be a somewhat jarring experience. But I don’t appreciate your attitude.”
“How do you know my name?”
A smile pulled up the corners of her lips, bunched her cheeks, and deepened the wrinkles around her mouth and eyes. “You gave a police report about your incident with the unicorn.”
Realization slapped into me. “You were there.” I’d spoken to her. She’d asked if the necklace was mine. “You’re a cop? And you’re involved in this?”
“I’m impressed you remembered. I certainly didn’t expect you to.”
“How can you do this? It’s murder.”
“These unicorns are dangerous. You saw so yourself.” She leaned in closer, shaking her head. “By working within the department, I’ve managed to do more good than you could possibly imagine.”
“By killing.”
She shrugged. “A few eggs had to be broken.”
“This is nuts.” I glanced to my right. I’d almost forgotten about Terry. What did he fucking think? What could he be fucking thinking?
“Are you okay, Terry?”
“You’re talking about unicorns. And I saw them.” He scooted away from me. “Your boyfriend just turned into…”
“Yes.” The woman shifted her body around, turned coffee-brown eyes toward him. “Tony’s new beau is a unicorn. A very dangerous unicorn too. He killed someone. That was the corpse Mr. Gates found that night.”
I shot to my feet, sending the chair clattering to the floor. “You did something to him. Leon was just trying to keep him from going crazy because of whatever happened.”
“It didn’t matter in the least. The fact that he was capable of murdering someone remains. Someone he knew, was close with—”
“And you’re not?” I slapped my hand down, shaking the whole table. Carl jolted back. I jabbed my finger into the woman’s face, hovering just above the crystalline eye. “You expect me to believe that you wouldn’t go straight off and kill someone, if you could make a profit?”
Silverfall Page 12
