by Kaye Draper
Cloud picked a hallway at random and strode down it, tomahawks at her side, her eyes darting from right to left. Cells. Inside were creatures that had human features or some human blood. They were all weaker varieties. She set a witch and a hunter to opening the magically warded cells and continued on.
Down another level. The cells here were spaced out, few and far between. And they held monsters that required more warding and more physical containment. She hesitated, but finally left another witch and hunter pair to let out the creatures here as well. "Be careful, though," she said. "They're stronger than the ones up top. Some of these feed on human energies. And they've clearly been mistreated. They might lash out at you."
She continued on. Tess. Where was Tess?
She passed another set of stairs leading further down. She couldn't sense anything powerful down there. She passed it by. A hallway branched off in another direction and she sent a few more hunters and witches that way as she continued on. She was down to a team of two hunters and two witches now.
She came upon a cell that looked different than the others. It was more like a lab space. A gurney with a sheet-draped body was pushed up against one wall. The other wall held a desk, bookshelves, and cabinets stuffed with medical and scientific instruments. The hunters had pinned a witch in a lab coat up against the wall. Cloud entered the room long enough to flip the edge of the sheet up. A long, masculine foot poked out and she let the sheet drop. Not Tess. And it smelled like dirt.
She moved on, hearing the sounds of battle around her as the witches and hunters secured the building. Somewhere a rattle of gunfire bust out. But it didn't come again. Guns were really no use against witches of the Whitehall caliber.
She smelled them before she reached the hallway that led to the two secluded cells at the end. The witch didn't look so good, pale and wild-eyed. His energy was off, and he was mumbling. And Tess.
Tess.
Cloud's eyes slid over her monster. The wendigo prowled the perimeter of her cage as if afraid to touch the bars. Her hair was long and wild, matted and tangled. Her horns had grown out. She was wearing a ragged, dirty pair of ripped up scrubs. Her cell smelled of blood. Hers and the blood of several humans.
Cloud paced closer to the cell. "Tess," she breathed.
Glowing eyes met hers, burning blue-white like the hottest flame. Tess crouched and started growling, and Cloud's heart broke.
She turned to the group with her. "Get the witch out first. He might be able to help."
Then she turned back to Tess, squatting down to crouch at eye-level with the monster. "Hey, Tess," she whispered. "Sweetheart... I'm here." She felt the burn of tears in her eyes. Gods, what had they done to her.
The monster rocked up on its bare toes and the tips of its fingers, scenting her.
"I'll get you out," Cloud said, standing. But could she? Could she risk letting Tess out like this?
The rest of the team had gotten the Whitehall witch out of his cage. A hunter was holding him up, and the witch's arm draped over the smaller man's shoulders.
"They broke her," Cal whispered.
Cloud refused to look at him, her eyes not leaving the burning blue orbs before hers. "She's still in there," she said calmly.
"You can't let her out," he said, voice cracking. Then his voice shifted in cadence and tone. "She's lost. She will protect us all, but we can't be here when it happens. Run," he started to struggle to get away from hunter, throwing himself toward the stairs. "Let me out of here. I need light. Trees. Sun!" He started sobbing desperately. "Let me out." Then his voice dropped, and he gripped his head. "Get it out!" He slumped, unconscious.
Cloud watched all of this with a sort of numb detachment. "Carry him out. I'll get Tess."
When one of the witches made to stay behind, Cloud waved her away. "Go. He's right... I... she might be gone."
Once they were alone, with nothing but the distant sounds of fighting drifting down to them from above, Cloud reached for Tess. The wendigo made to reach for her too, but jerked her hand away at the last minute. It took a moment for Cloud to realize that the bars must have been warded before Cloud’s crew destroyed the magic. How many times had Tess tried to escape to have learned, even in her monster form, not to touch the bars. What had they done to her? Cloud reached out and clutched one of the bars. "It won't hurt you now."
The monster reached for her hand where it clutched the bars of the cage. Cloud's energy found Tess's like a couple of magnets coming together. "Let's get you out."
The monster tilted its head at her, studying her curiously, as if gauging the threat or the meal she saw before her. She bared her teeth. Then she gripped the door of the cage and snarled.
Cloud took a deep breath, but didn't draw her weapon. Tess ripped the door off her cell like it was made of popsicle sticks. She tossed it against the far wall and howled.
She was on Cloud in an instant, bearing her to the ground with terrifying speed. Cloud’s breath left her in a pained grunt when her back and head hit the hard concrete. But she had her arms full of snarling, snapping wendigo. She grappled, maneuvering so when Tess bit her, she got her arm, well away from any vital arteries.
Her wendigo started that low growl, purring as she drank hungrily. She took a bite of the meat of Cloud’s arm and Cloud swore, but let her have it. "Tess," she said firmly. "You have to come back to me now, Tess."
The monster was in charge, biting deep, claws digging into Cloud's shoulder. She didn't draw her weapon. Not because she was afraid to hurt Tess. She would do anything to save her. Even if it meant hurting her. But she didn't. Because she was afraid of what they had done to her here in this hellhole. Cloud was afraid that if she raised a weapon to the wounded beast before her, she really would lose the human inside forever.
"Tess," she pleaded. “Come on Tess. You can do this. It's Cloud. It’s me. We need to leave."
She lost another chunk of skin and muscle to the hungry demon that pinned her to the ground. She bucked impatiently. "Get a fucking grip on yourself Wendigo!" She shouted.
The monster paused, gazed into her eyes, and growled.
Cloud smirked. "Because of course that's what it takes with you." She managed to get a leg up and thump Tess awkwardly in the low back. "Get the fuck off me, Tess. Get a hold of yourself."
The growl was back, but the light was fading from her eyes. Cloud managed to get an arm free. Hating herself, she lifted it and slapped Tess across the face so hard it split her lip. "Get it together. People need you. Stop being so weak!"
The monster narrowed its eyes at her and she felt Tess's body tense as if preparing to lunge. Then her eyes went wide, and she sprang backwards, with a scream of pure terror.
Cloud sat up slowly. That scream echoing in the space between them. She had never heard Tess sound so desperately, painfully, scared.
Tess crouched low, near the witch's cell. "Cloud. Oh no. Cloud. No. No, no, no."
Cloud pushed herself up off the floor and dusted off her ass. Then she held out a hand. "I'm fine. Come on, Tess. We need to get out of here."
Tess stood, but flinched away from Cloud's hand. "It's about fucking time you got here," she muttered, but her voice shook.
Cloud drew breath to ask if she was okay, but then she realized what a stupid question that was.
"Come on," she said again. "Let's get out of here. Then we can catch up and you can bitch at me all you want."
She led the way down the hall and toward the stairs, but a strangled sound from Tess stopped her in her tracks.
"Tommy!" Tess shouted, then she darted into the lab area that Cloud had passed earlier.
She ripped the sheet off the gurney, exposing a very naked, very dismembered ghoul. Tess started crying, sobbing. "He's not rotted. He's okay. He's all here."
Tommy’s arms and legs, and some of his internal organs had been removed. Tess gathered them up from around the lab and clumsily shoved the bits all together. Cloud watched, but didn't move to help her. "We should tak
e him back with us like this," she said, mind whirling. "You don't have the energy to raise him right now. You're barely hanging on to your sanity as it is."
She was surprised when Tess whirled on her. "No! Now. He's mine. You don't get to decide that. Fuck you."
Then she flung herself on her ghoul, holding him as she poured her energy into him.
Cloud watched with horror as Tess drained herself to bring Tommy back. "You idiot!" She hissed. She reached to grab Tess and pull her away but then thought better of it. She had no idea what would happen if she interrupted the process mid-way like that.
It took longer than it ever had before, and Tess swayed on her feet. But the ghoul's fingers twitched. His arms jerked, then curled around Tess, squeezing so hard the girl wheezed.
"Jesus Fucking Christ on crackers," Tommy said as he sat up. Then he leapt off the gurney, shoving Tess away so hard she staggered and fell against the wall. "Rose!" He bellowed. "Rose! Tess, where is Rose!"
Cloud took a deep breath. A wendigo on the brink of control and an inhumanly strong ghoul who was about to lose it. Just what she needed. She rolled her eyes. "This couldn't wait?" She asked Tess, not liking the way the wendigo’s eyes were starting to glowing. "Shit"
Tess pushed herself upright, then swayed. Tommy was at her side in a flash. "Tess? What the hell? Where are we? Where is Rose?" His milky white eyes flashed toward Cloud. "Cloud?"
She shook her head. "Tommy, so much has happened. But we can't talk about it all now." She nodded toward Tess. "Tess needs you to be calm and strong right now”
He was taking in rapid breaths like he was in shock.
"We are in a facility owned by the organization that was hunting Tess. They took you away and kept you for... a long time. Tess too. I brought… friends. We are getting you out now, okay?"
His eyes went to Tess again, seeming to register her rough appearance for the first time. His expression softened with affection, then hardened in anger. Cloud wondered at the relationship between them. How Tess drew people in without their even knowing it.
Tess shoved him away. "You're naked, moron. Stop clinging to me. Find some pants."
Cloud shook her head fighting a smile at the relief she felt when she heard the real Tess poking out through that fragile shell.
We found my idiot ghoul a pair of scrub pants in one of the cabinets, then I snaked by Cloud and led the way onward. I flinched when Cloud reached for me as I walked by. A shudder shook my body and I avoided the touch.
I still remembered coming back to myself from the wendigo madness to find myself about to consume Cloud. The one person in the world I might not be able to live without. I had screamed then. Terror clawing at me. My human mind shouting what have you done?
And Cloud. Cloud. My Cloud—lay under me like all the others they had forced me to devour.
Get a grip, Tess, I told myself. Man the fuck up. It was just a little torture. You're good.
I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders. And ran right into the group that had been escorting Cal. The witch was arguing with them, and I was really surprised he hadn't just zapped their asses with magic by now. "...have to get down there and find him..." he was saying, his voice wavering, going up and down, feminine and masculine.
I clenched my teeth against a wave of weakness and hunger. My fingers twitched, and my claws shot out, then retracted. I had been too depleted to bring Tommy back, but I did it anyway. And now I was paying the price. Things kept wanting to go gray around the edges, and I swallowed hard against the rising surge of ravenous need. Cloud was behind me, smelling like incense and leather and her dark, rich, hunter power. The group in front of me smelled of witch and hunter, and Cal's own seductive magic.
I stopped and leaned against the concrete wall, welcoming the coldness of the stone. It grounded me. The shock of it against my skin like a slap in the face. I would take what I could get.
"What the hell is going on, you dipshit? Move it!" I gestured onward, toward the stairs that went up and presumably out.
Cal shook his head. "He's holed himself up down there, I know it. The hunters sensed him," he gestured to the short, stocky hunter that held his arm.
The hunter shook his head. "We felt something, down below." He shrugged. "But it was only for a brief moment and now it's gone again."
I narrowed my eyes and pushed myself away from the wall. "Who, Cal? Who do you think is down there?"
He started shaking and crying again and the soft voice came out. "He thinks the one who is responsible for all of this is down there. He wants us to go through that door and use witch magic to kill him!"
I took a deep breath. I really did not have the patience or the energy for multiple personalities in my witch-turned-lover-turned-betrayer-turned-fellow-captive. I paced closer to Cal, managing not to stumble and sway, somehow.
Then I slapped him so hard he stumbled back into the witch behind him.
He regained his feet and glared at me with murderous blue yes. "What the hell was that for, wendigo?" His voice was his own again.
"Who is down there?" I pointed to the door.
Cal waggled his jaw. The big baby. "The man who is behind all of this. He... I don't even think the higher-ups in the government know exactly what he's been doing." He sighed. "His name--"
I walked past him to the steel door that must lead to the steps down. Funny how the access to the lower level was cut off from the other stairwell, separate. Not letting Cal finish his sentence, I yanked at the door handle. I couldn’t give a fuck less what the asshole’s name was. His name was dead once I got through this door. The metal groaned but didn't budge.
"Tommy!"
My ghoul was at my side in an instant. I glanced at him. "One, two," then back at the door. "Three." The two of us planted our feet on the door in a front kick at the same time, as if we shared the same brain. Which... let's face it, between the two of us we might have one full, functional brain. If we were lucky.
I swear the wendigo inside me was actually whispering to me. As if Cal wasn’t the only one who now had multiple personality disorder.
The door slammed open. It was so bent in the middle that it couldn't swing back shut. We trotted down the stairs, and I thought I heard Cloud mutter something about subtlety. It made me want to squeeze her in my arms to make sure this was real. That she was finally here.
The thought of touching her made me nauseous. I continued down the stairs, hissing when I ran smack-dab into some sort of magical barrier and fell on my ass, knocking into Tommy and taking him down with me in a tangle of cold, dirt-scented limbs and idiot.
When I pushed to my feet, growling, Cal had reached us. He put out his hand and felt along the invisible barrier, closing his eyes to taste the magic. I tried not to notice how badly his hand shook.
"What did they do to you guys," Tommy whispered, ever the moronic half-wit.
"Not now, jackass," I said, smacking him upside the head.
"Ow." He rubbed his ragged mop of blond hair. "So violent, Tess."
Cal opened his eyes and glanced back at the witch and hunters behind him. "I need to...."
"Get out!" His voice shifted, the panicked girl once more in control. "Let me out of this, this...." Cal gestured at himself. "Please," then the tears started.
We all stood there staring at him—her?—as she shuddered, then jerked his nasty clothes straight, cracked his neck and continued in his normal voice. "I need to borrow your magic to break this ward. It wasn't made using entirely... legitimate... means."
"You mean--" the other witch started. But Cloud cut off whatever question he was formulating by pushing past and putting a hand on Cal's shoulder, shocking the hell out of me. I was pretty sure she hated the witch just for breathing.
The other hunter looked at Cloud, then shook his head and came to stand by her, touching Cal's back. The remaining witch hesitated for a moment longer, then gave in with a put-upon sigh. "This can't be a good idea when you are possessed."
I gro
wled at the witch as we all stood there in a narrow, hospital-like stairwell and tried to break the magic. Old me would have found the humor in the situation. This me would never laugh again. "He's not possessed. Help him break this ward before I break your neck."
The witch put his hand on Cal's other shoulder.
Cal sighed, and I felt magic rise up around us, then flare, causing the invisible wall of power before us to become visible for just a moment before it rippled and faded. He had pulled energy from us all. It was terrifying.
And it made my head throb and my beast want to rip our own eyes out. How stupid could I get. If I gave away any more of myself I would disappear forever.
"It's gone," Cal said. Then he dropped to the floor and started seizing.
I gestured from Tommy to his fallen brother. "Get that, will you?"
Then I stepped over Cal's twitching feet and into the mad scientists' basement dungeon lair.
It was anti-climactic, really. The skinny, white-haired man sat in a rolling chair in what looked like any other basement-converted-to-office. There were more cells behind him, down a long, dark hallway. I could feel the creatures there, but only distantly. They must be incredibly strong to be so well warded.
The guy before us was smiling in a manic sort of way. "So strong," he said as if he were so proud of himself. "Too bad he didn't turn out better," he frowned at Cal, who was lying unconscious in Tommy's arms like a fainting maiden. I was pissed that Tommy hadn't just taken him upstairs, but I understood. He didn't want to leave me.
"It's fine," I said to Tommy, with a head-jerk toward the stairs. Take him up and find him a healer or something. I'll be right up. This won't take more than a minute." I turned back to the mad scientist, fangs bared. "Tops."
I heard Tommy on the steps, the hunter and witch following him. It was just me and Cloud alone with the human.
"Were you in charge of this operation?" Cloud said, coming to stand beside me, all cool and calm, as if nothing bothered her. Even killing crazy old men.
The guy threw his head back and laughed. "I am still in charge, my dear little hunter." He cackled. "They thought observing was enough. That simply learning about the monsters—maybe making allies of them—would be useful. But I have a bigger vision. I always have."
