by Amelia Jade
Two men were waiting for them, guns already drawn. The door flying at them had caused them to duck aside, however, and the Sentinels hit them like a brick wall. Justin saw Josh bore his man to the ground. He focused on his man, grabbing his gun arm, snapping it in half and delivering a hard block that broke the man’s leg, forcing him to the ground in the process.
Justin continued the spin used to force the man down and headed deeper into the warehouse, everything registering in him as he went. Behind him, he knew that Connor would deal with him. Those Agents had been tranquilizer-armed humans. Not Extremis Agents of any sort. That meant the real threat was ahead of them.
Slowing, he took in what he saw. The warehouse was three stories tall at its peak, and stacked in the center of it were huge shipping containers. He wondered how they had gotten there, until his eyes located a big, squat, ugly-looking forklift in the back corner.
A balcony ran around the perimeter of the warehouse, from which huge spotlights lit the ground below it.
The whole place was empty.
He came to a halt as that fact registered.
“There’s no one else here,” he said aloud, his voice echoing slightly through the cavernous building.
“That we can see,” Jared said, stepping up next to him with the others.
Behind them, the initial guards gurgled and died, a sound that he tried to tune out, but with limited success.
The four of them fanned out slightly so that they weren’t clumped up, and began to circle to their left. Any number of things could be waiting on the far side of the stacked containers. They needed to find out, and to spring the inevitable trap.
“Come on,” he said as they walked, urging the Agency to move.
Thirty seconds later, the doors to one of the shipping containers flew open and men streamed out to block the exit.
Four. Six. Ten. Twelve.
Twelve, a full Extremis team. They’ve been planning this for a while now if they’re willing to commit that many Agents to a fight. This has to be close to their entire available force in King City.
A smile tugged at his lips as he realized that they were going to strike a major blow today.
It died instantly as he realized that the odds were very good he might lose someone he cared about today as well. Twelve Agents was nothing to sneeze at.
Several human Agents were now visible on the far side of the containers, but Justin wasn’t worried about them. They would likely stay out of the fight, and only move in if it were absolutely safe.
Blood began to sing in his veins as his heart sped up in anticipation of the coming fight. His bear, dormant lately except for when he was near Shay, awoke with an angry growl that burbled up through his throat.
On either side of him his team let their shared sentiments be known, the challenges ringing louder and louder through the warehouse. The Agents watched on in silence, but Justin noted that every single one of them was, in fact, watching. Their attention was focused on the four Sentinels, their noise drowning out the approach of the five other figures in the hallway behind them.
Jared didn’t wait any longer; he just barked one last challenge at the Agents and then he charged.
The others were right behind him as they ran across the concrete floor.
The Agents still said nothing, but they did split into pairs, leaving some distance between each duo. Four pairs stepped forward, while two stepped back.
So that’s how it’s going to be. They’ve finally gotten smart and started training in pairs have they? Two of them to one of us is a closer to fair fight than I’d prefer. But then again, there are more than four of us.
He leaped at the pair that moved to meet him, making them think they were fighting a demonic human who would close on them as fast as possible to deal his damage, a whirlwind, reckless fighter. But a split second before his toes pushed off the ground, he called to his bear, and then he yanked on it.
It was difficult to explain to anyone who didn’t have the ability to shift. But he kept his bear in his mind, and when he wanted to shapeshift, he opened a door to a tunnel and let it flow through into him. But because it was his mind, he could also open that door and reach in and pull the bear toward him if he wanted.
The result of that was painful, but extremely effective. Normally the time to shift takes a second, maybe even two if one is feeling lazy.
By yanking on his bear, it happened so fast that it took about the same amount of time to blink as it did for Justin’s gray bear to manifest. The pain of such a sudden transformation forced feedback into his brain, causing him to howl with agony, but the effect of having close to two tons of bear land on his foes was worth the price he had to pay.
Justin landed, rolled off them as smoothly as his bear would allow, and scrambled back to his feet, his massive paws scraping against the ground. He darted in at one shifter as he rose and smacked him as hard as he could with a paw, sending him sliding across the floor until he slammed into one of the metal containers, his leg bent back awkwardly.
One down.
Searing pain erupted in his side and he whirled to confront the second Agent before he could land another blow against his ribs. His jaws closed on the man’s shoulder and he jerked him off his feet, shaking him like a rag doll, ignoring the fist hammering at his skull.
He let the man fly in the direction of one of the reserve pairs, who were now turning to confront the second Underground team as they emerged from the entrance and joined the fray. The numbers were against the Agency, and in short order their Extremis Agents were down, or had surrendered.
Justin turned, shifting back to human form as he pelted after the two human guards as they tried to escape down a hallway at the back. His feet pounded across the pavement, alerting them to his presence. One tried for his gun, but Justin just picked him up and carried him forward until he reached the tunnel entrance. There, he let go, and the guard slammed into the wall, missing the tunnel, while Justin went into the opening.
He caught up with the last guard even as he reflected on how easily everything had been going so far. Those Agents had to have been minimally trained to go down that easily. Something was nagging at the back of his mind. What was he missing?
“Enough,” he growled, catching up with the last guard and hoisting him off the ground, pinning him to the wall instead of killing him outright, though he wasn’t sure why.
“Please, please don’t hurt me!” the Agent said.
That was new. They never spoke, except to taunt the Underground.
With a snarl he reached forward and ripped the guard’s mask off.
An older man, with clean-cut hair, a crooked nose, and a mole on his left cheek stared back at him.
“Holy shit,” Justin whispered in stunned shock.
“What?” the man squeaked in terror, and when he spoke, Justin saw the gap between his front teeth.
“You’re her father?” he asked incredulously. “What the fuck are you doing working for the Agency?”
The man looked at him wide-eyed. “Who? What the hell are you talking about?” he asked, his voice returning to a normal level.
Sounds exploded from outside the tunnel again, shouts and cries, growls and thuds, the smacks of flesh hitting flesh with explosive force.
He was needed.
“Find a new job. I’ll get you work so that you don’t need to do this for a living,” he said, gesturing behind him. “Keep Shay safe, and leave the Agency. Do you hear me?” he roared.
The man nodded, and Justin threw him down the tunnel toward the exit before turning and charging back outside. The only thing keeping him on his feet just then was his training.
His team was fighting again, and he needed to be there to help them. That was so ingrained in him he couldn’t ignore it even if he wanted to.
I almost killed her father.
Then another thought.
Her father works for the fucking Agency!
This was not good. Not good at all. Sha
y had told him before he dropped her off that she was going back out to search for him. Now he was terrified that she might have found him. Or at least, where he worked.
No wonder the Agency HQ was in the background of that picture. He was showing her where he worked!
If Shay went there…she would be in a world of trouble. The Agency would take her in, and he might never see her again as they tried to keep her quiet. The last thing they wanted was her going to the news and exposing their operations to everyone because she was trying to find her father. It was unlikely, but all sorts of terrible things were running through his head just then.
A brutal scene was laid out before him as he stormed back into the main area. Arianna and Andre were down, surrounded by pools of blood. Ajax was crouched over his mate, trying to staunch the flow as he stared daggers at the three men at the center of everything.
Milos was hanging back, his arm hanging limply at his side, though otherwise he looked fine.
Madison and the rest of his team were currently fighting for their life as the three attackers bore down upon them in a weaving, bobbing dance of death. The fluidity of their strikes and coordinated movement told Justin that these were no normal Agents.
These had to be ones who had been injected with the Enhanced version of the Extremis serum. They were a rare breed, and to see three of them committed to one fight meant that J and his bald sidekick were serious about stopping the Sentinels.
Not today, he snarled silently, his feet propelling him forward.
As he watched, Madison went flying aside with a cry, a wound blossoming up her side as blood flowed rapidly, soaking her shirt in a second. She hit the ground and rolled several times, leaving bloodspots as she went.
Connor, briefly distracted by his mate’s injury, took a heavy blow to the ribs, but he managed to back away and escape further injury.
The three Enhanced turned to Jared and Josh.
Justin poured on more speed. His team was outnumbered, and outclassed. They needed him.
He pulled the same trick, shifting mid-air as he landed amongst the Enhanced, spinning rapidly as he flicked out left and right with his paws, landing blows and splitting flesh down to the bone.
It wasn’t going to be enough, he knew that. But it served as a distraction, and he knew the other Sentinels wouldn’t hesitate to act on it.
He was right. The pair of them picked the nearest Enhanced as the three turned to deal with Justin. Even as he took a hammer blow to the side and then the head, he saw them take one of the Enhanced down, their bears appearing to rip him apart in a spew of blood and gore. Another blow leveled Justin as the remaining Enhanced Agents found their balance again.
One of them spun away as Connor re-entered the fight, trying to buy Justin time. Unfortunately, it didn’t completely work.
Above him, the remaining Enhanced raised his fist and prepared to crush Justin’s skill with a final blow.
He tried to move away, but the pain was too great. He had done his job, buying his team time to regroup and go on the attack. Justin was at peace with that. A smile blossomed on his face as he watched the blow slowly begin to descend.
Death had come for him, and he embraced it.
***
Then suddenly Madison was there, blood dripping from her clothing as she drove her fist into the back of the Agent’s skull.
Surprise bloomed in the man’s eyes, and even as he fell forward over Justin he spun to face her, lashing out with curled fingers. His nails gouged her skin, leaving four long marks along her cheek, but it only seemed to enrage her further.
She followed the man down, using her superior strength, speed, and agility to land on top of the Agent.
Justin smiled even as the pain slowly began to recede from his body. The Agent might have enhanced strength. But Madison had enhanced everything. With only one target in front of her, he watched as she systematically destroyed him. She broke both his hands, then his arms. Cupped hands landed on his ears, blowing out his eardrums before she pulled back and slammed an open-bladed hand into his neck, crushing it beyond anything the Agent’s healing could repair before he choked to death.
He rolled to his feet gingerly. Three, possibly four ribs were broken. He was bleeding profusely from his side and something in his head was out of place as well. In short, everything hurt.
A body fell to the floor beside him as the others finished off the last Agent. Blood splashed up onto his pants, a morbid reminder of the duty he had—somehow—managed to avoid that day. His eyes were drawn to the human guard that lay crumpled next to the tunnel on the far side of the warehouse.
The man had yet to move. Justin realized by his awkward positioning that the man wasn’t getting up again.
Abruptly his stomach began to lurch, and he thought he was going to be sick.
“Everything okay?” Jared asked as others rushed to tend to their fallen brethren.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said, shaking off his Alpha and motioning to Arianna and Andre. “How are they?”
Jared grimaced. “Hurt bad, but they’ll make it. We got caught by surprise. That’s how they did so much damage. Turns out the shipping container wasn’t empty, and as we were finishing off the last of the original team, these three came out. Arianna and Andre were closest, so they took the brunt of the first hits.”
Justin nodded, even now seeing Arianna sit up. Her side was a torn ruin, but as his leader had said, it didn’t look mortal. Ajax was hovering around her, trying to do everything for her even as she swatted at him, trying to tell him she would be okay in time.
The sight of the pair of them, still clearly in love despite everything going on around them, reminded him of Shay and what he had discovered about her father.
Pulling out his phone, he continued to watch as Andre and Arianna began to heal, looking better with every passing second. Although shifters healed fast, in a fight thirty seconds is a lifetime.
“Room 606,” he said into the phone as the front desk of her hotel answered. There was a brief pause.
“I’m sorry sir, but there are no guests in that room. The last one checked out an hour ago.”
He froze. Shay had not mentioned anything about leaving. A sickening thought came to him.
“Did Mr. Lyon or Mrs. Lyon check out?” he asked cautiously.
Another brief pause.
“It would appear Mr. Lyon was the one who checked out of the room sir. Now, sir, I really shouldn’t be giving you that sort of information. Is there anything else I can do?” The voice was that of a young man who had clearly realized after the fact that he shouldn’t have divulged that sort of thing.
“No, that’s everything. Thank you very much,” he said and hung up.
“We have a problem,” he said, turning to face Jared.
Chapter Thirteen
Shay
Hours passed with nothing happening.
She sat upright as the door unlocked with abrupt suddenness, startling her from her trance. There had been no noise to signify that someone was approaching.
The door slid open and a man in a gray suit walked in, his strides smooth and even, barely making a noise. He was so light on his feet he practically floated. Her eyes were not drawn to his feet for long though as she looked up at his face.
The man was completely bald, any remaining hair taken right down to the skin. What appeared to be a permanent leer was emblazoned upon his face. Worst of all though was the ugly red scar that started at his right eyebrow and ran up over his head, disappearing behind it.
Bright blue eyes focused on her, watching the reactions playing over her face as she tried to contain her revulsion.
“Who are you?” she spat out, trying to get around him and out the door.
The security guard from earlier appeared with a little folding tray containing a pitcher of water and two glasses. His presence forced Shay to back farther into the room. The guard put the table down to the side, and then reached outside to grab two folding chairs.
He swiftly opened them and then arranged everything so that the two chairs faced the door with the table between them.
Then he left, closing the door behind him.
Shay noted that he didn’t lock it.
“Sit,” the man in the suit said simply, his voice compelling her to obey while at the same time presenting her with an undertone that threatened her if she didn’t do as he said.
It was a powerful combination that she couldn’t resist.
“Where is my father?” she asked, unwilling to completely submit to the sheer force of his will.
“Manners,” the man said, giving her a wink with his scarred eye.
Shay shuddered, ignoring his offer of having a drink first.
“We shall drink first,” he said. “Choose your glass.”
Her angry glare seemed to just wash over him as he continued to stare at her, waiting for her answer. When it became apparent he wasn’t going to cave anytime soon, Shay picked a glass at random and waited while he filled it.
“Cheers,” he said, raising his glass to her and taking a long sip of the ice water.
Shay held out for a moment longer, but the cool liquid was calling to her after being trapped in the room for so long. She knew the glass might be drugged, but at that point, they had her at their mercy anyway. What would the point in drugging her be? If they wanted her dead, she’d be dead already.
“Better,” the unknown man said. His voice was clipped but cultured at the same time. As if he’d gone to a school that forced him to speak a certain way, but he’d rebelled against that later in life, only to find out he couldn’t rid himself of it completely. It was an odd combination that grated against her ears each time he spoke.
“Where is my father?” she asked again, ignoring her own safety.
“I was hoping that you might be able to tell us that, Ms. Lyon,” he said, crossing his right leg onto his left as he spoke, trying to affect an air of nonchalance and failing miserably.
“I haven’t heard from him in months. Why the hell would I have come and sneaked in to your base if I knew where he was?” she asked, staring at the man like he was an idiot.
