Heroines and Hellions: a Limited Edition Urban Fantasy Collection

by Margo Bond Collins

  "We'll get out." He lowered his chin, his eyes flicked shut. "You came here to help. So help me. Please."

  "I'll take us back to Owen's base and work out a way to ask him if I can reveal the location to you. In return I want to check out the hospital complex and find out what's been going on."

  Glynn nodded. "They've stuck us in one of the old guest rooms, right next to the hospital building. I wouldn't mind having a good look myself. Ed told me he'd found out about a program of testing. He hadn't thought twice about it until he met Owen, and Aidan chose to live with them."

  "All we have to do now is overpower whichever guards come in to try and forcibly inject me again? Sounds easy peasy."

  "At least one of them should be one of mine." Glynn tried to stand, but the chain that tied him to the sink was too short. He crawled back to the middle of the room, turned and stretched his hips as close as he could to me. "Left pocket, my Swiss army knife."

  I couldn't reach him. I focused my strength and yanked on the bed frame. It moved a couple of inches, enough to reach his pocket with my fingertips. I eased out the knife and passed it into his outstretched hand.

  A cold panic settled in my chest. "Where's my satchel?"

  "Under the bed. It was there when they dragged me in here. They would have rifled through it, don’t know if they put everything back."

  On my belly, I crawled back to the bed. My satchel scrunched in the corner, even at full stretch, I couldn't reach it.

  "Do you need it?"

  "I'm not leaving this base without my athame and my healing wand."

  Glynn checked his watch. "They'll be here soon. They will check on us at the changeover. Turnaround, try and get it with your feet."

  Still on my belly, I wriggled my legs under the bed, grumbling as I scraped my bum on the rough frame. With my toes, I grabbed the satchel, and connected with something solid inside the bag. I let out the breath I'd been holding and wriggled the satchel back out, inch by inch, wincing at every clunk. I didn't want to damage the wand.

  With my chained arm twisting uncomfortably, I squirmed my legs back out from under the bed and eased the satchel to where I could reach it with eager hands. "They've taken the gun you gave me, and the cash I had. But nothing else."

  Glynn grunted in response.

  They hadn't understood the importance of the other objects in my bag. My healing wand was still wrapped in its silk scarf, tears welled in my eyes as it rolled into my hands, undamaged.

  "Your amulet. Do you still have it?"

  "It’s right against my skin. Just like you wanted it to be." He pointed at his black eye. "But it hasn't done a much of a job of protecting me yet."

  "It's only a black eye, a few scratches, and an ugly burn. You're here. We’re together. Magic works in mysterious ways sometimes."

  "Sometimes?" Glynn laughed.

  "What's the plan?"

  "I'm guessing there will be two. If one of them isn’t one of my men, we're going to have to take one each." Glynn rotated the knife in his hand. "I'll grab whichever one is closest to me. You do your magic stuff and deal with the other one until I can free myself from this." He yanked on the chain in obvious frustration.

  The last time I'd been exhausted, it all happened so fast. The guards easily overpowered me. I hadn't even tried to push them away.

  "Concentrate on whichever man is closest to you, don't let them get another needle into your arm." He reached for my hand and squeezed my fingers again. "You can do it, babe. As soon as we grab the keys, we'll get out of here. We have surprise on our side."

  He spoke with an easy authority, with a confidence he surely could not be feeling. We were both chained, too far apart to work closely together, and he intended to try brute force, whereas my plan was what? The strengthening spell was long gone. I couldn’t let them inject me again. One thing I could do. I squeezed his fingertips back and grabbed my healing wand.

  "No, you don't." He scrunched back against the wall, pointed at me as if I was a rookie recruit. "You need all the strength you've got to grapple your target."

  His curled his arm to his chest. I couldn't reach it, so I grabbed his outstretched ankle and prayed the healing would go straight to the burn. I pushed my energy through the wand and into Glynn's body, healing the nerves to help reduce the pain, and his skin so the wound wouldn't get infected.

  "I said stop." Glynn grunted as my magic intertwined with ley energy to repair cells and mend skin.

  His eyes squeezed shut, his face creased into a grimace. Several moments passed like that. When his breathing slowed and evened out, I released him, rewrapped the wand and stored it back in my satchel.

  "What were you muttering?"

  "A quick prayer that the healing would be fast and pain free."

  He shook his head. "Fast, yes. I told you not to waste your energy on me."

  "It wasn't wasted."

  "Do you believe in her. Really believe."

  "Haebeth embodies what we think spirituality looks like."

  "So that's a no?"

  I thought carefully about my words. "When the earth’s energy pours into me, I'm connected to every living thing. When I dig deep and draw in the energy of life and death around me, I know the power within every blade of grass. The essence of every corpse, whether a rotting insect, or an inhabitant of the nearest cemetery. This ley line is something else. It bubbles to me without constraint. It offers itself to me without requesting anything in return. I believe in a greater spiritual power, far greater than me. I've derived strength from her in my deepest despair."

  He grabbed my hand. "Don't let anyone make you do what you know is wrong. No matter who or what is threatened."

  "You've seen me deal with people who threaten me and mine."

  "I've seen you deal with various dead people. This time the enemy is very much alive."

  "Alive. Dead. Living dead. I care for all equally. I deal with all equally."

  Some distance away, a heavy door scraped open. Heavy boots strode along the corridor, thumping closer like a beating war drum. Glynn motioned for me to slump back on the bed. He scooted back to the sink and lolled against the wall. We had to let them get inside where the small room would work in our favor.

  I could push pain into another person's head. I'd done it before. More times than Glynn knew about. I glanced across at him. He'd already unsheathed the knife. The blade long, thin and wickedly sharp. A plan coalesced in my brain.

  23

  The footsteps stopped. A key fumbled in the lock. We had no more than a few seconds to perfect this escape.

  Glynn rested his head on his arm, faking sleep while he kneeled in readiness, like a coil ready to spring. I sat back on the bed, my satchel scrunched behind my back. My pulse pounded in my ears, adrenalin spiked and added to the power eddying in my gut. My athame was a tool for ritual, not a weapon. My healing wand could be used to cause harm, but not in a hurry. If my plan to push pain into the two guards at once failed, I had no back up.

  The door opened in slow motion, and two men sauntered into the room. They laughed together as if sharing a funny joke, the sound grating and loud. One of them carried a needle already full of clear liquid.

  The door closed behind them and Glynn gave me a small shake of the head. It looked like neither of these men was among the 'one of mine' that Glynn hoped would arrive. He grabbed one of the men's legs with his free hand and yanked the man to him. The second man threw the needle into the sink, jumped behind Glynn and wound his arm around Glynn's throat.

  This wasn't how it was supposed to go.

  The three men brawled on the floor in a mess of thrusting arms and legs.

  Pushing pain into two bodies at the same time, my breath caught in my chest. I’d never done it before. No time to practice or ponder what to do. Glynn couldn't fight off two burly men with one arm chained to a metal sink, not for long.

  No point in looking for earth power to supplement my own, the concrete and steel floor was so thick I co
uldn't feel the earth beneath us. I sought out the ley line and found it. The raw power rippled and bubbled toward me as if eager to do my bidding.

  My shoulder still throbbed, my body ached with fatigue, exhaustion purred just below the surface. I bundled the pain and fatigue into two tennis ball size blobs and hurled it at the two soldiers.

  One skidded across the floor and bounced off the wall onto his knees. The other jerked away from Glynn, smashed his head on the sink and stumbled back onto his bum. He stared at me. His eyes widened and he scrambled to his feet with a primitive growl. Glynn smashed his heel into the man's knee. He crumpled to the ground with a howl of pain.

  Damn. We were making enough noise to alert the whole base. I focused on my fatigue, asked the ley line to magnify it, swirled it into a lance and lobbed it at the man's chest. The other man turned for the door, probably to raise the alarm. I repeated the process and hurled another lance of fatigue at his back.

  Both men wobbled a few steps until they crumpled, unconscious on the floor.

  "What the hell. Are they dead?" Glynn gazed at me.

  "It’s not like I’m experienced at this, but they should just be totally exhausted."

  He nodded as if pleased with the result of my handiwork.

  "Come on. Give us a break." Glynn grabbed the foot of the man who'd tried to run and dragged him to where he could rifle through his pockets.

  "Yes." Glynn grinned and threw a bunch of keys to me. "Try the smallest key."

  It opened my handcuffs first try. I scooted across to Glynn. The keys all looked similar. On my third try, I found the correct one and Glynn yanked his arm free of the restraint.

  "We did it."

  "We certainly did." He snatched me into his arms and roved his hungry mouth across my face with kisses that stung my cheeks, forehead and mouth. His exultant laughter tickled my ear as he lifted my feet from the ground. Tears welled at the back of my eyes and I pressed my face into Glynn’s wrinkled uniform to hide them.

  "We make quite a team." He stood and pulled me upright, wrapped his hands around my head, and gently nibbled my lips. "The last place I want you to be is here."

  "I know." I looped my arms around his shoulders, balanced on my toes and held his body close to me. "But you need me to get to Owen."

  "You trust me to work something out with him, don't you?"

  "I trust you won't kill indiscriminately." I held him at arm’s length, held his gaze in my own. "I trust you don't believe in torture."

  "What if the end justifies the means." His gaze dropped to the floor.

  "No end ever justifies any means."

  "What schmuck told you that." He lowered his hands to my waist, kissed me again.

  I pulled my head free. "You."

  "I guess I’m the schmuck, then." He stroked his fingertip across my cheek. "After Owen, we’ve still got Asher to deal with."

  "You’re always telling me, one thing at a time. We’ve still got to get out of this place."

  "Yeah. As much as I want to hold you close." He pulled me to his chest. "Too dangerous hanging around here."

  He released me and locked the unconscious guards in the manacles that had held us. He gripped my hand in his, stepped into the corridor and locked the door behind us. "Let's find you a uniform, you'll stand out less."

  "That will take too long."

  "Nope." He paced the corridor like a silent panther, his steps quiet, his head turning from side to side, constantly listening. "A few seconds well spent."

  He nudged me into a small room full of lockers. Glynn rummaged in a cupboard. "You are tiny. Bound to be something here."

  "I'm not that tiny. Most of the soldiers I've seen are pretty big, anything in my size might be already gone."

  "Exactly. No one as small as you enlists, but someone would've ordered small sizes, so there's bound to be a stack of items in your size. Here you go."

  He handed me, neatly folded and brand-new, trousers, T-shirt, and jacket. Buttoned and belted, I looked like a gray and white sack. Army socks and boots dragged unnaturally heavy on my legs, but once the trousers were tucked in and the boots laced up, I looked every bit the rookie recruit. Glynn grabbed another gun, made sure it had a full magazine and holstered it on his thigh. He didn't offer me a weapon this time.

  He grabbed a cloth cap and shoved it in my pocket. "You'll need it when the sun comes out."

  Back in the corridor, it was quiet. We tiptoed to the exit door. Glynn pulled out the keys, but he didn't need them, the door slid open.

  "Stay close and low." He held his finger to his lips.

  Glynn hugged the walls, striding so quickly I ran to keep up. The hospital building, low and squat as if trying to hide in the corner, took up at least one quarter of the military compound. Its roof, completely covered with gleaming squares, glowed pink in the morning sun.

  The wide gap between the buildings showed right through to the other side of the empty compound.

  "Where is everyone?"

  "It's breakfast time. Best meal of the day. With a bit of luck, those two guards were the only ones on duty in this part of the compound."

  I crossed my fingers. We needed every bit of luck we could grab.

  A huge Red Cross decorated the swinging doors at the main entrance to the hospital building. Glynn brought us to a small, unmarked and locked door at the back of the building, where one of his keys fit. Glynn sidled through and paced quietly down the narrow corridor to a group of offices at the other side of the building.

  He rattled the door handle of the office labeled Dr. Prescott. It was locked, and none of the keys fit. Glynn stepped back and kicked at the lock until the wood splintered and the door pushed open.

  Glynn opened the doctor’s filing drawers and indicated for me to do the same. "Ed told me we found the special undead accidentally."

  "The living dead."

  Glynn nodded once. "They tested various drugs on twitchers, but found them unreliable, so Asher ordered the known twitcher hangouts destroyed. Ed led a squad sent to clean up a group. They chased them into the underground railway and got lost in the tunnels. They didn't find the addicts, but they did find some living dead who showed them the way out. When they reported this back to Asher, he sent more patrols to find them."

  "Nice way to say thanks."

  Glynn shrugged. "All they found were more twitchers, alive and undead. The last few raids ended up in MIAs. That’s when they called me back."

  I joined Glynn at the cabinets. "I think the twitcher undead who escaped military capture joined Owen’s group." Glynn didn’t need to know about the decaying man who tried to kill me at Echo Den. We worked better together when he wasn’t wasting time worrying about me. "What are we looking for?"

  "Anything that tells us what Prescott and Asher are doing."

  "What authority do you have to rifle through my files?" A tall slim man in a white lab coat flung himself through the doorway.

  Glynn leveled his gun at the man's head. "I'm running out of patience. Save me some time, and you a bunch of agro, and tell me what you are doing."

  "It's all in the reports I write for the Colonel." Dr. Prescott pushed thick black glasses against his nose. "He was most insistent, the reports are for his eyes only."

  Glynn clicked a stubby cylinder around the end of his weapon. "Try again."

  The doctor stared at Glynn's name badge. "Major Buckley, I'm sure we can discuss this reasonably."

  "Where is the lab where you do your work?" I stepped in front of the doctor.

  "I will not speak to an uncivil private who is out of her place." He snapped at me.

  Glynn yanked me away from the man. "I don't have time for reading reports. Give me a short summary."

  "It's early days." The doctor's Adam's apple bobbed in his reddening neck. "The only undead we've captured so far have been in a poor state and have not survived testing. But I'm hopeful. The Colonel is a brave man for trying to discover what's keeping the dead alive. We've lost so much
medical knowledge." He lifted his hand as if in supplication to Glynn. "You know yourself, we are barely able to keep our men alive on the battlefield, let alone get them back here for effective treatment. The Colonel wants to find ways to keep our soldiers safe."

  "What can you learn from the undead, except how to be undead." I snapped back at the doctor. A light bulb went off in my head. "You're trying to work out how to raise dead soldiers aren't you? Raise them as sentient living dead to keep your army replenished?"

  A muscle in Dr. Prescott's face twitched. "You must be the young necromancer Asher mentioned to me earlier today. These experiments must be of great interest to you. Right up your alley, so to speak."

  "Is that it?" Glynn spat out the words.

  I thrust him aside. "The point is" —I stabbed my finger into the doctor's chest— "you can't raise the dead without their permission. You most certainly cannot raise the dead and then use them for your own ends."

  He smirked at me. "Do you really think you can stop us? Once the right people find out, funding will flow, and we will achieve our goals."

  "I will stop it." A hard knot fused in my belly. If Glynn didn't shoot this smirking sadist, I'd thrust a lance of pure anger into his cold heart.

  "I take it the right people have not yet been fully informed." Glynn sounded businesslike.

  The doctor paled, mumbled a few words and shook his head.

  "So, I only have to kill you and the colonel to keep this foul notion quiet."

  His pale skin turned gray under Glynn's steady stare.

  Glynn found some duct tape in a drawer. He taped the doctor's arms behind his back, pushed him into the seat behind the desk, and taped him to the chair.

  "I want to check the lab." I said another silent prayer that Bill made it to safety, but I couldn't leave without checking.

  Glynn taped the doctor's mouth. "God only knows what to do with him."

  We strode along the corridor, turned left at a T-junction, and paced to large double doors at its end. Glynn pushed his way through three sets of doors, each one a tighter fit than the last.