by Patti Larsen
Then it hits him. He feels around them, kicking himself for not noticing before. They feel like the other hunters.
Dr. Lund has given them dust.
***
Chapter Fourteen
Her hug is so strong it takes his breath away. Dr. Lund lets him go and gives her characteristic hand clap of glee.
“Marvelous!” She twirls in a circle. “Was he tasty?”
Reid grins. “Yummy.”
She clutches her fists to her chest, eyes huge. “Was it hard not to kill your sister?”
He groans. “So hard. I wanted to. I was still hungry. But I told he, what you wanted me to say. That you wanted to watch her die. She did a lot of screaming after I left.”
He hears chuckling behind him, turns his head to see the three soldiers who were his escorts grinning and nodding.
Dr. Lund grips Reid’s face between her hands and kisses him. She tastes like cinnamon and honey. “Well done, my son.”
He acts on impulse, leaning in himself to press his lips to her forehead. “Thanks, Mom.”
She flushes, amber eyes wide and shining with a rim of moisture. She makes a soft, happy sound before letting him go.
“Go get cleaned up,” she says. “You smell delicious but we wouldn’t want the others to get jealous.”
Reid bows to her with a wink. “Yes, Mom.”
Dr. Lund’s shoulders scrunch up as she wrinkles her nose at him. One wave at the guards and he’s on his way.
Once outside her office, Reid wipes his lips on the back of his hand and runs. He has no idea how much time he has before all hell breaks loose. It’s been over an hour since he left Syracuse’s house. And even though Reid is pretty sure even the fat man couldn’t get his friend in the military to move that fast, he’s not taking any chances.
He has to warn his friends. More importantly, he has to check on Leila.
Reid is only just setting foot on the concrete floor of the cafeteria when he hears the first explosion. Shock and terror drive him forward to the bunkroom. He finds the pack up and alert as another blast shakes the ground, closer this time. Reid can hear it now, the whine of aircraft, the rumble of assault vehicles. The cries of dying men. And gunfire, coming toward them.
Syracuse didn’t waste any time at all.
“You did it.” Drew’s triumph comes out in a whisper.
“Where’s Leila?” Reid is looking for her, feels Minnie’s wet nose press to his hand, still marred by three claws.
Drew’s face falls. “They never brought her back.”
Reid’s heart clenches even as soldiers dash into the room, weapons raised.
These aren’t mercenaries.
“Let’s go!” They are dressed in black, Special Forces maybe.
Reid gestures to his friends while the rest of the pack look confused.
“Move it.” Reid herds them out, ignoring the cries from behind him, the sudden rage he hears in the voices of the rest of the pack.
He doesn’t have time to think about them. They run into the cafeteria, now full of soldiers and mercenaries shooting each other. Two hunters go down in a hiss of dust. Reid sees Drew lunge forward, but is distracted by a hail of bullets peppering the floor around him. Reid lifts the crumpled remains of a chair, rips free the heavy steel leg. He throws it overhand, smoothly, so much force behind it the tapered edge slices neatly through the sniper’s neck.
“We have to move!” The small squad of black-dressed soldiers leads Reid and his friends at a run out the swinging door into the yard. Drew is beside him again, arms clutched to his stomach. Reid wonders if his friend is injured, feels a pang of fear until Drew looks up at him and winks.
One of the men cries out and falls, a bullet in his chest. Part of Reid wants to save him while the hunter inside him begs to feed. He’s only had cold meat and old blood. He longs for the fresh in that fallen man.
Reid is in just enough control he is able to move on.
He hears a voice, someone screaming his name, turns back for an instant and sees her, standing on the catwalk.
Her black pigtails swing in time with her fury as she points at him. “REID!”
He flips her the finger before the door swings shut behind him.
Gunfire patters around him, the sound painful to his hyper hearing. He dives into a crowd of mercenaries trying to force them back, claws slicing through fabric and flesh. The soldiers clean up the rest even as another force of mercenaries, this time with members of the pack in their midst, attack through the swinging door. Reid spins and fights them as well, his speed too much for even the rest of the young hunters.
She made a mistake trusting him. The dust she gave him, it’s better all right. More than that. He remembers how everything became slow motion when he took the dust before, but the sensation never lasted. Now it’s like he can call it up whenever he needs it.
A rifle swings toward him. He dodges the bullet and slices open the mercenary’s throat at the same instant he punches another in the chest so hard he flies backward, his sternum caved in. Reid drives his claws deep into the attacking pack member, jerking his hand upward as he drives his heel into the groin of his companion. Both go down, only one dissolving into dust, but the other unable to do more than twitch.
“Move it!” Reid spins, the last of the attackers dispatched, and races after his fleeing friends. A helicopter soars in, rope dangling from it as it hovers above the yard.
Reid’s friends have the benefit of strength and agility and within moments they are inside. The soldiers fall back, waving at him to hurry. He doesn’t want to leave just yet. Can’t. Leila.
But he can sense the battle shifting toward him, even through the closed door. Smell the stink of smoke and death. And hear Dr. Lund’s screams getting closer.
To his regret, survival is stronger than caring. He turns and sprints for the rope.
Reid pauses only long enough to hoist Minnie up onto his shoulder where she pants but doesn’t struggle. He climbs the rope rapidly, taking care with his claws not to sever it as he goes, making it to the bed of the chopper, Minnie safe inside, himself right behind her.
“All clear!” A soldier inside calls into his mike. “Go!”
The chopper banks to the left, begins to lift. Reid is getting tired of these rides as his stomach shifts to the side from the pressure. He looks down as Dr. Lund emerges. She freezes amid the battle, staring up at him, so much hate on her face he is sure it should kill her any second now.
He blows her a kiss as the helicopter speeds away.
***
Chapter Fifteen
Night is almost over when the chopper settles down in an industrial neighborhood. Reid can see the distant glow of a city, the softer lights of the area they are in few and far between. An old warehouse hunkers across the parking lot.
“Everybody out!” The soldiers herd Reid and his friends out onto the pavement where more are waiting for them. Drew grabs Reid’s arm, shows him a bundle the boy has hidden inside his T-shirt. So Drew managed to do it. The fabric-wrapped package smells of dust. Of course. That’s why Drew was clutching his stomach back at the prison. To protect his cargo. Reid nods to him. “All secure?”
Drew grins. “He’ll get his dust,” he says. “Exactly as you instructed.”
Reid leads the way toward the darkened warehouse, his friends staying close, Minnie practically pressed to his legs as she looks around. A small group of soldiers continue to herd them forward, weapons ready.
At least they aren’t being shot on sight. That’s an improvement over last time.
The small side door swings open and Reid enters. The place stinks of old fuel and age. He easily spots Syracuse up ahead in the wide open bay area even though Reid’s last dose of dust wore off in the helicopter on the way here. Still, he feels almost like he did on dust only now he is in full control.
He’ll take the improvements.
A soldier stands next to the fat man and Reid is shocked he recognizes him. Command
er Rhymer scowls at Reid, lean face as cold as ever.
So Syracuse had a man inside all along. Reid can’t bring himself to be too surprised. But it does raise questions.
“You obviously knew where we were,” Reid says without greeting the fat man in the expensive suit, cigar clamped between his teeth. “Why the game, Syracuse?”
The man grins at him around the glowing end of his smoke. “Why do you care? You’re out, aren’t you? I kept up my end of the bargain.” He extends his thick-fingered hand.
Reid gestures to Drew who pulls out the bag of dust. Drew takes a step forward, handing it over to Syracuse, before retreating back to the pack.
“A deal is a deal.” Reid glances sideways at his friend then back at Syracuse. “Now, we’ll be going.”
The soldiers don’t budge. Neither does the aim of their guns.
Reid is hardly surprised by this, either. “Our bargain is done,” Reid says. “We agreed.”
Syracuse nods and draws a big puff from his cigar, the smoke spiraling upward to the single bulb flickering overhead. He stands under the glow as though it’s meant for him alone, a fat man in a spotlight. It’s only then Reid realizes Lucy is hiding behind him.
He knows the smell of her anywhere.
“Now, now,” Syracuse says. “Let’s not be hasty. There is more business open to us, Reid. You and I, we make a good team, yes?” Reid doesn’t say anything. Just scowls. Syracuse takes a step forward, out of the light and into Reid’s reach. The man is either supremely sure of himself or wants Reid to think he is.
“Listen,” he says softly, “I know how you’ve been treated. How I’ve treated you. Hell, I’d want to cut and run too. But this thing, it’s not over yet.” Smoke wafts upward, tickling Reid’s nose.
“Go on,” he says while his friends shuffle uncomfortably around him.
Syracuse grins. “There’s no love lost here, boy. Not between us. But there’s less for her.” Reid knows who the man means. Dr. Lund. “And you know she’ll never stop looking for you.”
“You didn’t kill her?” Reid already knows the answer. Of course that got screwed up. She is way too slippery to be caught so easily.
“Sadly, no.” Syracuse takes another drag, lets it drift out between his thick lips. “Not for lack of trying.” His growled unhappiness is the first utter truth he’s spoken since Reid got there. “But we’re still looking, trust me.”
“Then why do you need us?”
“You want the chance to kill her yourself, don’t you?” The fat man’s fingers flick the ash from his cigar. “To exact your revenge?”
Reid shrugs. There’s been enough killing. Well, almost enough. His eyes flicker to Lucy and back again.
“I can offer you the chance to kill her. And rescue your girlfriend.” Syracuse leans back. “If those things are important to you, that is.”
Leila. “How do you know about her?” Rhymer. Has to be. Damn it.
It’s Syracuse’s turn to shrug, the action shifting his enormous weight and dropping it so his belly jiggles. “It’s not like I didn’t know what was happening. Reid, I needed to know I could trust you.” He winks. “I was going to have my man here contact you shortly. But you got to me first. Clever. Don’t know how you did it. But very, very clever.” He digs into his suit pocket and holds up a hand-held device. Reid hears Marcus gasp softly. They both recognize it.
GPS.
“I know the manifest of you all, you see,” Syracuse says. “I’ve seen the roster. And she’s not here.” He wiggles the screen at Reid.
“Reid,” Drew whispers. “We have to get out of here.”
He nods but he’s not listening, not really.
“Drew’s right,” Marcus says from his other side. “He betrayed us once. He’ll do it again. We’ll find her, Reid. But not this way.”
“What about the others.” Reid ignores his friends. “The rest of the pack.”
Syracuse makes a face. “Most of them were killed protecting Dr. Lund when she escaped. I think she managed to take one or two with her.”
“Leila,” Reid says.
Syracuse just smiles and smokes.
“What did you need our dust for, then?” Drew’s voice is deeper than normal, full of emotion. “Your soldiers could have harvested plenty for you.”
“Unfortunately, the entire place was destroyed by a bit of a missile.” Syracuse giggles like a girl. “Made a nice mess, from what I understand. I lost some good men.” He sobers at that, nods to the soldiers around him. “But it was worth it.”
His men. Not the regular army then. What happened to Syracuse’s friend, the general? As usual, nothing is as it seems.
“So how are we supposed to find Dr. Lund?” Marcus speaks up next. “She’s bound to have gone to ground. If I were her, I’d have a secondary location already chosen the moment I moved into the first one.”
Reid nods. Marcus is right, his father’s military background serving them for once.
“That’s obvious, isn’t it? You hunt.” Syracuse steps back. “You work for me, make it as clear as you can you’re out there, killing. And she’ll come to you. Come now,” he says as Reid is about to protest the logic and the necessity of killing. “You know how insane she is. She will be watching and waiting. And the moment she catches even a hint of activity, she’ll be all over this place.”
Reid hesitates. He doesn’t want to listen but the plan sounds like a good one. Better than fighting their way out of the heavily armed warehouse.
“Then what?” He knows there is much more to the fat man’s plans beyond killing Dr. Lund.
“You take care of her and the rest of that pack of hers,” Syracuse says. “And then you go free.”
Like that’s ever going to happen. Still, they need a safe place to regroup and get their bearings. This seems like as good a spot as any. And as much as he hates to keep working with Syracuse, it means Lucy is close by. And he’s fine with that.
He won’t have to go far to catch her when the time comes.
“We want the GPS chips in us removed.” He already knows the answer to that request but gives it a try anyway.
“After this is over,” Syracuse says smoothly. “I want to be sure I can keep an eye on all of you. Just in case you need me.”
It’s disgusting and horrible and maybe the worst thing he can do, but Reid sucks up his hatred and fury and agrees.
***
Chapter Sixteen
When Syracuse leaves them alone, Reid’s friends express their disappointment and unhappiness.
“This is the most stupid ass thing you’ve ever done.” Milo slumps on a cot, arms crossed over his chest as he glares at Reid. “And you dragged all of us into it.”
Reid lets them take turns, knowing he deserves it, sinking to his own makeshift bed. He almost laughs at the feel of harsh wool under his hands. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
“I say we fight our way out of here and the hell with the deal.” Sarah peeks over at the soldiers standing guard. “We can totally take them.”
“Not without losing a few of us,” Drew says. “If we’re going to break out of here we need something more concrete than that.” Drew sighs. “As much as I hate to agree with Reid, there doesn’t seem too much in the way of options. And he did get us out of the prison.”
“I’m seeing images of frying pans and fires,” Cole says but he is smiling a little. “You’re right, Drew.” The boy’s blue eyes lift to Reid’s. “You got us out, all right. Thanks.”
Nishka snorts a giggle. “You know what? Cole’s pinned it. Reid got us out.” She giggles again, the sound small and muffled behind her hands. “Guess we should have been more specific on the end result, though, huh?”
Kieran’s grin is lopsided as the tension leaves his shoulders. “Next time, I’d like a beach, please. And my own room.”
“Private shower,” Sarah says.
“Clothes that don’t say, ‘Hi, I’m in prison.’” Cole winks at Reid.
“Beer.” Marcus shrugs when they stare at him. “What?”
Nishka goes off in giggles again. Even Milo smiles at that.
“Fine,” Reid says. “Orders noted. I’ll see what I can do.” There is some bitterness behind his words but he does his best to keep it light.
He looks down at Minnie as she drops her head in his lap, liquid eyes gazing up at him with adoration.
“What, you too?” He scratches the soft spot between her eyes and she groans in happiness.
“Nope, think you have hers covered,” Drew says. And sighs. “Now what?”
Reid laughs, genuine this time. “I don’t know,” he says. “I was hoping someone else would have something for once.”
“How can you all take this so calmly?” Emme is vibrating with anger. “Joke about it? We’re trapped here.”
“No different than before,” Drew says. “New boss, same old story.”
“At least with Kirstin we had access to dust.” Her silver eye is cold when it focuses on Reid. “You were supposed to get us out and free. Not caught up in someone else’s agenda.”
“He’s doing the best he can.” Milo’s aggressiveness slams into her despite the fact he’s smaller and younger. “Haven’t seen you do much that’s useful so far except tag along.”
“My mistake,” she hisses back. “I’ll be sure to change that the second I get the chance.”
“That’s enough, both of you.” Reid feels like a dad chastising his kids but they both listen. “This isn’t what I intended. But I’m not about to quit now. Are you?” He stares Emme down while Nathan scowls beside her, hovering, protective as always.
“No,” she says, bitterness clear in her voice. “But I’m starting to have that regretful feeling, Reid. Like we made the wrong pick.”
“Feel free to go back to the good doctor,” Kieran says so coldly it surprises Reid and the rest of their friends from the looks he gets. “I’m sticking with Reid.”
