Tooth and Claw (The Harry Russo Diaries Book 2)

by Lisa Emme

  “Agreed.” Isaac moved to the stairs. He was about to start down when suddenly he backtracked, flattening himself against the wall and motioning to us to do the same. A second later, a man dressed in a security uniform jogged up the stairs. As he stepped through the doorway into the hall, Isaac grabbed him, slapping his hand across the man’s mouth. Instantly, the man froze, his eyes glazing over.

  “Holy crap!” Tess said and I shushed her. “I’ll never get used to that freeze thing you do.” She waved her hand in front of the guard’s face. He remained motionless, not even blinking.

  “How long will he stay like that?” I looked at Isaac.

  “Only for a few minutes. Enough time to get him tied up and hidden somewhere so he doesn’t cause trouble.”

  “Quick! Let’s get him back in there.” I motioned to the room we had just vacated. Isaac carried the man like he was a mannequin back into the room. Tess and I hustled along behind him and then closed the door.

  “Now what?” Tess stood staring at the guard turned statue.

  “Check his pockets, see if he has anything useful like keys.” I started to pat him down, emptying his jacket pockets. The first thing I found was a package of zip ties which we proceeded to use to restrain his hands and feet after lowering him to the floor. There was also a ring of keys, a two-way radio, some gum and a lighter. Tess snagged the gum and put a piece in her mouth.

  “What?” she said when I glared at her. “It’s not like he’s going to miss it.” She continued to empty his pants pockets then unclipped the holster at his waist. She pulled out the gun, examining it. “Nice.” She nodded her head, a look of appreciation on her face. “A Glock 42, 38-caliber.” She popped the magazine clip out and expelled the round from the chamber then gave the gun a thorough inspection. “Recently cleaned, well maintained.” She nodded her head again. “Well, I’d have to say if all the guards are like this, we aren’t facing amateurs.” She reloaded the gun, snapping the clip back into place and then tucked it into her waistband at the small of her back.

  “You sure that’s a good idea?” I looked at her skeptically.

  “Yes. I’m fully qualified to handle it. You never know, it might come in handy. As you said, we’re dealing with norms. They always have guns.”

  I couldn’t argue with her on that point. I grabbed the two-way radio and checked the volume making sure it wasn’t going to blast our ears off or worse, give our location away if we were hiding, and handed it to Isaac who clipped it onto his belt. I grabbed the guy’s lighter off the table as well and shoved it in my pocket just in case. I looked down at the man on the floor with sympathy. “We’re going to need to gag him. He’ll sound the alarm once he wakes up.”

  “Use his socks,” Tess replied.

  “Eww, that’s just cruel and unusual punishment.”

  “You got a better idea?”

  Unfortunately I didn’t, so we stripped the poor guy’s socks off his feet and used them to gag him. We propped him in the corner of the room in a sitting position and then left.

  We followed the stairs down to the main floor and the picked the direction that led away from the front entrance to the building. The corridor ended not much further along, opening out into the cavernous interior of the building.

  “It appears that only the outer perimeter of the building has been subdivided into smaller spaces.” Isaac pointed to a similar doorway on the opposite side of the open space.

  “Maybe, but this is definitely where the fights are held.” Tess pointed to the centre of the building. A large chain link cage was set up surrounded by temporary seating in the form of portable bleachers. The cage was empty, thankfully. “And there’s Bellemare.”

  Bellemare stood at the head of a group of eight or nine men in front of the cage. He had removed his suit jacket and rolled up his shirt sleeves and appeared to be making a speech of some sort, judging from the way his mouth was moving and everyone else seemed to stare at him in rapt attention.

  “I can’t hear what he’s saying.” I frowned and looked at Tess and Isaac. “Can either of you?”

  “No, let’s move closer.” Tess darted ahead about thirty feet and ducked behind a stack of crates.

  “Tess!” I hissed at her.

  “Come on Harry.” She waved at me.

  With a sigh, I scampered over to join her, followed by Isaac. “I still can’t hear anything. Can you?” Tess shook her head. I looked further across the room and spotted another potential hiding spot that would probably get us close enough. “I’m going to try to get closer. Wait here for a second.” I took off before Tess or Isaac could gainsay me.

  From my new vantage point, I could see Bellemare and his cronies much better although the low lighting left everything in shadows. I could hear them too, not that it mattered. Bellemare seemed to be speaking in a different language. My Latin is basic grade school, but I was pretty sure that’s what he was using. It seemed to be almost a sort of prayer or incantation. Partway through, he stopped as another man approached, carrying a gold tray. I cursed the poor lighting, wishing I had Issac’s binoculars, in order to see better.

  I needn’t have worried because a minute later, Bellemare grabbed whatever was on the tray and held it aloft. I looked over at Tess in concern. Isaac had a hand firmly wrapped around her arm and she was cussing quietly but vehemently, trying to get loose. I couldn’t say as I blamed her. Bellemare was holding up a freshly severed haunch from a wolf, the blood dripping down his arm.

  “What the hell?” I mouthed at Isaac.

  “I’m afraid I’m at a loss as well,” Isaac’s voice whispered through my head. Oh yeah, I forgot we could still do that.

  “I don’t like the looks of this. Take Tess and circle around to the rooms on the other side and see if you can find Christina.”

  “I don’t think it is a good idea for us to split up.”

  “I’ll be right behind you. I just want to see what they’re up to first. You need to find Christina.”

  Isaac cocked his head with a puzzled frown and then nodded. “All right, Tess and I will go. You wait there. Our reinforcements have arrived.”

  “What?” I looked around but didn’t see anyone. When I turned back to look at Isaac, he and Tess were already circling around to the doorway on the far side of the building. I turned my attention back to Bellemare and his fellow fanatics, immediately wishing I hadn’t.

  Bellemare had acquired a large knife and was carving strips of flesh from the wolf haunch. He was handing the flesh out to his followers like some sort of sick communion. The men were taking the offering, looks of euphoria on their faces. It was revolting. The only consolation I could think of was that it had to actually be wolf they were eating and not werewolf. When a werewolf dies in wolf form, their body reverts to their two legged form. Even if a limb is lost and the werewolf doesn’t die, the detached body part quickly reverts to its human shape.

  I pulled out my cellphone and flipped the camera to video. If nothing else, I could get every one of these sickos’ faces recorded so that Nash could track them down later. As I recorded the sickening rite, I heard a quiet rustling. Bellemare and his buddies didn’t seem to notice. Slowly, a tactical team began to take places around the perimeter of the large space. The cavalry had arrived.

  I pocketed my phone and was about to sneak away to follow Isaac and Tess when a body came up behind me, pinning me to the crates I was hiding behind.

  “Harry! What the hell?” Nash spun me around to look at me.

  “Nash! You made it,” I said, ignoring his scowl. “How did you get here so fast?”

  “What are you doing here Harry?” The look Nash gave me would have curdled milk.

  “I told you, we had a lead. Didn’t you get my message?”

  “What message?”

  “If you didn’t get my voicemail, how did you find this place?”

>   Nash’s eyes narrowed and then he huffed out an exasperated breath. “I don’t know, Harry. Maybe it’s a little something I do in my spare time when I’m not out saving your ass. It’s called fucking police work.”

  I was about to reply when the sound of automatic gunfire echoed through the building. Nash grabbed me and pushed me to the floor covering me with his body.

  “Fuck! Stay down Harry.” He listened to a voice squawking through the two way radio he had attached to his jacket at his shoulder. “Shit, he has his own army,” he muttered to himself. He looked over to the men that had come in and quietly taken up positions around us, signalling them to move forward. He glanced down at me as he pulled an automatic weapon strapped to his back around and settled it into his hands. That’s when I realized what he was wearing. He was dressed in full riot gear, the letters SRU stencilled on the front of his jacket. “Stay here,” he growled at me. “I mean it Harry. Stay here until I come back for you or so help me I’ll paddle your ass.”

  “I am not a child.” I glared at him.

  “No, you most definitely are not.” He grabbed my arms, pulling me up against his chest and then kissed me firmly before pushing me back down to the floor. Before I could even realize what had happened, I found myself securely fastened with a handcuff on my arm. “Now stay,” Nash said with a grin as he secured the other cuff to a handle on the largest crate. Without another word he was gone, skirting around the crates towards the centre of the building.

  “Nash!” I hissed at him. “Nash, you get back here and uncuff me.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Gunfire continued to echo as shouts began to fill the air. I tugged helplessly on the cuffs, but they were secure. The handle of the crate must have been bolted on rather than screwed on because it wasn’t budging. The crate itself was over four feet by four feet and weighed a ton. It wasn’t going anywhere. With a loud sigh, I gave up on the cuffs temporarily and peeked out over the stack of crates to see what was happening. The SRU team converged on Bellemare and his men and so far hadn’t fired any shots. The firefight with security must have been taking place elsewhere in the building and I hoped Isaac and Tess were okay.

  As I watched, a man wearing a security guard uniform burst through a door on the opposite side of the room. He was carrying an automatic weapon and he began to fire, targeting Nash and his men. Bellemare and his followers scattered, running for cover or running to escape. Either way, it was chaos as more of Bellemare’s security team began to spill into the room.

  I kept my eyes on Bellemare who had ducked down and was skirting his way around the cage. He was going to get away! I hopelessly pulled at the handcuffs again. Damn that Nash.

  I huffed out a breath, trying to calm down. Yanking on the cuffs in anger wasn’t doing anything except giving me a sore wrist. I was a witch for Pete’s sake. I could unlock a lock, even if it was a handcuff lock. Feeling better, I concentrated on the cuff on my wrist and used a minor opening spell. A split second later, I found myself lying on the floor panting in pain as the aftershock of an electrical charge sizzled up my arm and across my shoulders. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that a member of the Supernatural Response Unit would have handcuffs charmed to resist magical tampering. Damn that Nash again.

  “Well, what do we have here?” The voice was deep and rough.

  Surprised, I jumped to my feet. Two men, dressed in Bellemare security uniforms had managed to come up behind me unnoticed in the commotion. Neither of them were carrying weapons, at least not in their hands.

  “Looks like someone left us a present.” The second man was long and thin and he looked at me like he was thirsty and I was a tall glass of water.

  “Just stop right there, boys,” I said with as much bravado as I could muster. “You might as well just turn yourselves in to me now and you won’t get hurt.”

  “You hear that Tom? We won’t get hurt.” The first man that had spoken looked at me menacingly and then pulled a knife from the holster on his belt. “I think you have that the wrong way ‘round, missy. Cooperate with Tom and me here, and you won’t get hurt…much.” He licked his lips.

  “Seriously?” I shook my head in disbelief. “You’re being raided by the police and you’re going to take time to rape me? What kind of idiots are you?”

  The two men stood, their mouths agape. I don’t think my reaction was what they had been expecting. The first one shook his head as if coming out of a trance and then scowled at me.

  “You talk too much, bitch. I don’t need long to make you bleed.” He started to advance towards me, passing the knife back and forth from hand to hand.

  I let out a long, exasperated sigh. “Okay,” I said, shaking my head. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” In one smooth motion I pulled my katana from my back bringing it down on the handcuff chain. It sliced through the links like they were butter and I was free, the cuff and remaining chain dangling from my wrist. I pivoted stepping out towards the advancing man and delivered a hook kick to his head. He dropped like a sack of potatoes to the floor.

  His buddy stood for a second, blinking at me and then started to try and pull his gun from his holster. I was on him in two steps, bringing him to the floor, my hands on either side of his head cracking it on the hard surface. He was out like a light, just like his dumbass buddy.

  I rifled through their pockets coming up with enough zip ties to secure them both. Just for fun, I secured guy number one’s left wrist to guy number two’s left ankle, dragging the smaller man face down on top of his unconscious buddy. By the time I was done, they were starfished together each with his head between the other man’s legs. For good measure, I hiked their pants down around their ankles. Karma is a bitch and today my name was Karma.

  I looked across the room. Nash and his team seemed to have things under control. But where was Bellemare? Movement to my right drew my attention. It was Daniel. He looked at me and bared his teeth, turning to disappear through a doorway. With no better ideas, I dashed across the space to follow.

  “Harry!” Nash’s voice echoed behind me. “Damn it, Harry.”

  I glanced back over my shoulder to see Nash standing beside the two guards I had secured. Our eyes met and I gave him a little apologetic shrug before disappearing through the doorway.

  Daniel was waiting in the hallway. He yipped and then turned, trotting down the corridor. I followed, my katana held at the ready. Someone had turned the power off to the lights in the corridor so it was darker than the room I left behind. I hurried to catch up to Daniel, not wanting to lose him in the dark. Footsteps suddenly rushed up from behind me and I turned ready to defend myself. I pulled up short when I saw Nash’s scowling face.

  “Harry, what the fuck do you…”

  “Nash.” I breathed out a sigh of relief. “It’s you.”

  Nash grabbed me by the arm, yanking me up close. “No more games Harry. You’re going to get yourself killed.”

  “I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself. You’re the one putting me in danger, leaving me handcuffed to a crate.” As soon as the words left my mouth and I saw the look of regret on Nash’s face, I wished I could take them back. “Look, I’m fine. I’m not helpless you know.”

  Nash huffed out a heavy sigh. “What are you doing here, Harry?”

  I grabbed his hand so we’d have skin to skin contact. “Look.” I pointed to Daniel who paced impatiently ahead of us in the corridor.

  “Pop?” Nash’s voice was a mix of wonder and pain. He looked at me and I nodded encouragingly.

  “Your dad led us here. I think he is trying to help Christina.”

  Nash stepped towards Daniel, his hand squeezing mine tightly, pulling me after him. “Pop, what are you doing here still?” The wolf pawed at the air and then bared his teeth. He barked once and Nash flinched at the sound.

  “He wants us to follow hi
m. Bellemare got away, didn’t he? Maybe he can lead us to him.” I tugged on Nash’s hand. “Come on. We’re wasting time.” When Nash didn’t move, I reached up and touched his face. “Cian. We have to go.”

  Nash reached up and covered my hand with his. His hand felt so warm compared to mine. He blinked as if rousing himself. “Alright. But you stay behind me and do as I say.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yes sir.” We didn’t have time to argue.

  I turned and looked at Daniel. The wolf yipped and then bolted down the hall. Nash and I followed cautiously. The only light in the corridor came from the occasional security light mounted high on the wall. “Did someone cut the power to the building?” I whispered.

  “It wasn’t us.” He slowed, putting a finger to his lips for silence. We were approaching a set of sliding glass doors, like you’d see in a hospital. They appeared to be automatic, but with the power out, they remained closed even as we stepped in range of their sensors. Daniel had stopped in front of the doors and yipped.

  There was a sound of crashing from the other side of the door, but they were frosted and we couldn’t see through them. Nash stepped up to the doors and grasped the edge of each one, pulling them apart slightly. I moved in to help, grabbing the edge of one door. With a little effort, we were able to push them far enough apart to slip through. When I turned back to look, Daniel was gone.

  “Which way?” The corridor stretched out in either direction, perpendicular to the one we had just left. Nash reached for my hand.

  “He’s gone,” I said quietly. Nash grasped my hand anyway, giving it a squeeze.

  Another crash sounded down the hall to the left, followed by some unintelligible shouts. “This way.” Nash let go of my hand and took a look at my katana clenched in the other. “Don’t stick me with that thing.” He winked at me and then trotted down the hall towards the sound.

  We passed several rooms along the way, approaching each cautiously. They appeared to be exam rooms, like what I had seen in my dreams, equipped with medical tech and a raised bed that would allow them to strap their subject down securely. I shuddered at the thought of what must have gone on in those rooms.