The techs and interns talked around me like I wasn’t even there. “This will be an interesting case.” Marton this time.
One of the techs within my line of sight gave me a look of pure hate from behind his mask. “You call this freak interesting? More like demonic.”
“It even has fangs,” another tech said.
My body started to shake with fury. Every one of them would be “dead meat,” as Olivia would say.
Lights seemed brighter thanks to the sensitivity to my eyes brought on by the noise. The gazes of the techs behind the masks were distorted, almost eerie. Like they were some kind of aliens from a distant planet doing tests on beings from earth, rather than the reverse.
The gurney’s wheels rumbled over the floor, down huge hallways, all brightly lit by fluorescent bulbs that made me want to keep my eyes shut. I kept them open, though, hoping to see something that might aid me in escaping and allow me to help Angel and everyone else who might be here. Like the pregnant female and the Werewolf pups. Assuming they were still alive.
While they moved the gurney, the techs and interns continued to talk about me. I only half listened in case they said something that might be important. The only thing they were doing right now was talking about all of the “subjects” and making me want to take an underground Troll’s club to them, one by one.
I focused most of my attention on trying to grasp my elemental magic. To examine what I had available to me.
Air—it still wasn’t fresh, but recycled. The natural elemental magic inherent in air was gone, completely gone in this place.
Earth—I was surrounded by stone and couldn’t feel earth at all.
Fire—the electricity here was different…generated somehow underground. I didn’t feel the power that electricity normally has that I could twist into fire. No, here they used AC power, which doesn’t contain magic. And not a bit of static with magic in the air.
But water…there was a waterfall somewhere underground—fresh water from the mountains. And it was close. A powerful element filled with magic that I could make use of.
The time and place would have to be right. Water isn’t an element easily contained in a place like this and I could end up flooding it and drowning us all. I’d have to learn more about what kind of facility I was in. A facility that appeared to be built far underground within stone.
Unfortunately, the water used in the facility had been run through a filtration system and a water softener. It was useless to me.
I’d figure out what to do with the waterfall when I didn’t feel like I’d been trampled by a herd of Gargoyles.
Hallway lights continued to flash overhead and hurt my sensitive eyes. We passed several rooms that I couldn’t see well because of my entourage of techs and interns. I couldn’t smell again. I wondered if there was long-term damage from too much spray.
“Haven’t been out of this goddamned place for six weeks,” Marton spoke and my attention perked up. “I’m going fucking stir-crazy.”
“Watch it, Marton.” Harkins’s voice had a sharp, nasty edge to it. “You’re lucky Dr. Johnson hired you.”
Harkins was at the foot of the gurney with Marton. A tech or intern pushing the gurney from behind whispered, “Harrison, you’re new, so I’ll let you know rule number two. Watch out for that bitch, Harkins. She’s Johnson’s pet.”
“What’s rule one?” another tech said behind me, presumably Harrison.
“Never fuck with Johnson.” The first tech lowered his voice. “You heard what he did to Lawson.”
Harrison cleared his throat. “Yeah.”
“That could be you next.”
Harrison made a nervous sound while clearing his throat again.
Terrence said in a sarcastic tone, “When are Dr. Johnson and his juniors coming back from Manhattan?”
When I heard Terrence’s question, I had to keep from widening my eyes. Johnson had left the facility? I wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. I needed to take him out, but when was better? Here, or after I tracked him down in my city?
“Probably day after tomorrow,” a female intern said.
A male tech with a smartass voice said, “Did you hear about Jenkins? The dipshit is laid up with a bunch of broken ribs. Freak here did a number on him and the doc.”
Harkins looked over her shoulder at the tech. “Shut up.”
The tech saluted Harkins. “Yes, ma’am.”
Light burned my eyes and I blinked several times as the gurney was maneuvered into an enormous room. That at least was easy to tell even with the techs crowded around my fun little means of transportation.
“Into examination room four,” Harkins said as the gurney rattled across the floor.
The pounding of my heart ratcheted up several notches. Goddess, how was I going to get myself out of this mess? Without my elements did I have the strength to break all of these nylon straps holding me to the gurney? I was starting to feel better physically, but I didn’t have my full strength back.
“Hold.” Harkins said and the gurney came to a full stop. “Interns will take it from here.”
The intern or tech who’d been talking to Harrison moments ago kept his voice low when he said, “My fucking pleasure.”
Eight techs walked away from the gurney, including the two who’d been behind me, leaving only four interns. Nice. I liked those odds a lot better.
I could see now without all the bodies around me. Banks of computers, monitors and workstations along two walls. I frowned as I saw monitors showing the forest along with huge screens with satellite images on them along with a panel that I believed was from heat-seeking radar. On a green background, forms that were yellow, orange, and red clustered in some areas.
Then I noticed one group of solid red forms. Was that how Johnson was finding the Werewolves? I imagined they had different energy signatures, like we’d discovered Demons did.
My breath burned my throat when I sucked it in as I turned my head. Cages lined the third wall. The top cages were empty.
Inside a bottom cage was a Were I assumed was Kveta. Angel was in one of the smallest cages next to the pregnant Were. Panic gripped me when I saw there were no Werewolf pups. Not one of the three were there.
Angel was lying on her side, her wrists cuffed to one of the metal bars of the cage. Her knees were bent because the cage was too small for her to stretch out her legs.
Something snapped inside me when I saw that her jeans were even more soaked with blood than before. She had to be weak from loss of blood. Her face was pale behind her bruises, but her blue eyes did not reflect a fraction of hopelessness. No, they were filled with rage and intelligent calculation as she stared at the interns pushing the gurney.
Angel’s gaze met mine and she gave a slight nod as if acknowledging some secret way that we were going to get out of this situation. Now might be a really good time to possess the gift of telepathy.
I frowned to myself as Harkins typed a code into a numeric keypad before placing her face up to a protruding white eye scanner. A glass door whooshed open.
The interns shoved the gurney through an opening in a glass wall that was just high enough to allow the gurney through. A sucking sound, then air pumped in with fresh oxygen washed over my skin and dried my eyes.
The gurney rolled into a brightly lit room that smelled of antiseptic and strange odors. The gurney came to a complete stop a couple of feet from where it had been pushed in.
For the first time since I’d been strapped onto the gurney, I was alone. The nylon restraints felt beyond tight against my skin as I tried to shift my body. The interns and techs had done a good job, restraining me with about ten straps—not a bit of wiggle room.
Still, I strained against the straps. My muscles tightened and I gritted my teeth as I tried to move. They must have used some kind of advanced-design nylon straps, because I couldn’t budge them or even stretch them. Not even a fraction. It didn’t help that my elements weren’t with me.
&
nbsp; With my teeth clenched in frustration, I turned my head and took in the room. A large sterile area filled with medical instruments, possibly close to every kind imaginable. A bank of computers and other sophisticated equipment made it look like a high-tech laboratory. It put my friend James’s lab to shame.
Noise came from the general area I’d just been pushed from. The four interns were in an airlock area stocked with red sterilized suits that looked like they were made of the same material as the green suits everyone wore around this place. The interns were changing into the red suits and tossing the green ones they’d been wearing into a big container in one corner.
A scream of complete and utter frustration rose in my throat, trying to force its way out.
A glass door slid open and the four red-suited techs walked into the room. All of them paused as they studied me. My heart beat faster and faster. With a sucking sound, the door slid shut behind them.
“This one ought to be fun.” Harkins sounded amused. “Look at it. Purple skin. Blue hair. Fangs.”
Amethyst, popped into my mind. Not purple, amethyst.
For Anu’s sake, there was a lot more that I should be concerned about right now than the color of my skin.
Rage, frustration, helplessness roared through me as they neared me. I bared my fangs and felt the dangerous white flash in my eyes.
Three of the interns came to an abrupt stop. Nervous-looking.
“Come on.” Harkins continued toward me, and I could see a look of confidence on her face behind her mask. If only I could rip away that mask, I would tear her head off.
The interns went to various parts of the examination room, each looking like they had done this before. No doubt they had with the Werewolves, and maybe Angel, too.
One of the interns pushed a wheeled metal table beside the gurney and panic started to run through my veins. On that table were test tube bottles along with the rubber strap and needle used to collect blood.
Next to the test tubes were several instruments, including a razor-sharp slim knife. A wrist blood-pressure cuff, an ear thermometer, a stethoscope, bandages, cotton balls, even a tongue depressor—as if they’d get that thing into my mouth.
What made my skin crawl the most were the numerous syringes filled with clear fluid. What was in those syringes?
I turned my head to look out the glass walls and saw the cages with the female Were and Angel.
My Drow collar seemed to grow hot against my skin.
Transference. The word jumped into my mind again with the ageless, intelligent voice. As if it was my own voice talking to me from my distant future.
Yes, transference. I had to do it.
My focus grew so intense it felt like my entire body was a beating heart. Thud, thud, thud. I hadn’t been able to do the transference in the stone room, but now…Again, I told myself my father was wrong.
I concentrated. Imagined my body leaving the gurney and this room. I pictured standing on the outside of the glass walls looking in at the shocked interns. And I saw myself opening the cages and setting Angel and Kveta free.
The magnitude of my focus doubled. Tripled. My body began to shake, visibly. I saw the interns frown with the exception of Harkins.
“What’s wrong with it?” came a faint voice.
“Faking.” Harkins. “It wants to throw us off so that we’ll stop.”
“Are you sure?” said another intern.
“Shut up.” Harkins approached with one of the needles filled with clear fluid. She reached for my upper arm with her gloved hand, using her other hand to angle the needle toward my bicep.
I was barely conscious of the intern. Instead my wavering eyesight grew dimmer while I focused on attempting the transference. It was like looking at a picture, then unfocusing my eyes to find the three-dimensional object inside the two-dimensional drawing.
Everything dimmed. I saw nothing but pinwheels of faint light in front of my eyes. My stomach cramped. A roar like thunder stormed inside and outside of my body.
I was going to rip apart.
I spun into a dizzying black void with bright, whirling stars.
FOURTEEN
The transference was such a shock that I landed on my hands and knees. My clenched jaws reverberated from the impact.
I was out of my restraints and out of the examination room. I’d done it. I’d really done it.
Dizziness made my head spin and for a moment I couldn’t move from my hands and knees. I’d never enjoyed going through a transference with my father, and I now knew I liked it even less on my own.
The effects of performing a transference for the first time by myself had my stomach churning. A sudden rush of bile rose in my throat. I vomited on the stone floor and groaned. The thought flickered through my mind that at least I didn’t throw up much because Johnson had never provided me with a meal. Considering he thought I wasn’t anything more than an “it,” he probably would have given me dog chow, anyway.
I rubbed the back of my hand across my lips and wiped my hand on my pants before spitting out some of the acidic taste still in my mouth. Through my impaired sense of smell I thought I caught the smell of dust. Through my hazy vision it looked much dirtier than I’d expected outside the examination room.
My sight remained as dim as when I’d first started the transference. My blue hair fell over my face as I shook my head while trying to clear my vision. Had to get up. Had to get up!
It seemed like much longer, but only a few moments had passed from the time I landed on my knees to this second. I had to hurry before the interns came at me with that spray. As quickly as time had passed, I hoped I had time to lock the interns in the examination room.
Careful not to step in my own vomit, I lunged to my feet to help Angel and the female Were. When I was standing, I froze.
I wasn’t outside the examination room. I wasn’t even in a place I’d been to before. My gut told me I was in the same building, but I had no idea where.
“Where am I?” In a slow turn I examined the room. It wasn’t the transference that kept my vision dim. It was the room. The only light came from the partially open door, and through the doorway I saw a hallway with a single light bulb outside hanging from the ceiling.
Equipment surrounded me that had to be decades old, probably late 1950s, early 1960s. Looked to be around the time of the launch of the first men to the moon. I could picture men in headsets, wearing starched white short-sleeved shirts, pencil-thin black neckties, and thick black-framed eyeglasses. All sitting in front of the monitors and instrument panels crammed on top of desks lined along two walls.
Dust felt thick and powdery beneath my bare feet as I walked closer to a row of the antiquated monitors and panels that included dials, knobs, buttons, black telephones.
Letters had been stenciled in large dark-red letters on a few dusty black notebooks left on the surfaces in front of the electronics. The pages that peeked out of some of the notebooks were yellowed and fragile, and I avoided touching them. Didn’t seem right to disturb them for some reason.
Over the stenciled letters on top of one bound notebook, I brushed away dust that clung to my fingers. “NORAD,” I said. “This place was run by NORAD.”
I was familiar with the acronym for the North American Aerospace Defense Command and had a good idea of the public’s lack of knowledge of what the agency had done all those years ago. Norms’ relatively small amount of knowledge, that was. I liked American history and I knew the agency had been considered vital during the Cold War decades before I came to the earth Otherworld.
“Bless it.” I looked up at the stone ceiling. “We could be a mile belowground for all I know.”
I settled back on my bare heels and settled my hand on the back of one of the chairs in front of the monitors and panels. Through the thick layer of dust, the chair’s material felt as if it would crumble beneath my fingers. I rubbed my palm on my pants.
My mind churned over the possibilities of how the crazy modern-day
scientists and their teams had ended up here, doing what they were doing.
Only two viable possibilities that I could see. That was unless this NORAD facility was still active—which sure didn’t look like that was the case. “As if NORAD would hire a fanatical religious scientist,” I said as I stared around the room, “who believes it’s his God-given duty to wipe out all paranorm beings with a manufactured biological weapon.” I gave a hollow laugh.
Why this place was in operation now had to be that Johnson had stumbled over a decommissioned and abandoned secret NORAD underground facility in the Catskills.
That, or Johnson had somehow known about this particular location and now used it for his experiments.
I ran my fingers along a dusty desktop. “Maybe he was employed by NORAD way back when.” Johnson looked like he was close to seventy, so it was possible that he had worked for the agency here when he was in his early twenties.
From some of what I’d read—all unofficial—there were abandoned facilities across the United States that the government tried to keep from public knowledge. Looked like this one had been kept a well-guarded secret until Johnson and his scientific team invaded it. A lot of paranorms knew far more about earth-government-guarded secrets than norms did, but we kept the knowledge to ourselves.
My strength was slowly returning and I almost felt back to normal. I let out a rush of breath. “As normal as I can without my elements,” I mumbled. I still didn’t sense any magic except for the waterfall, and wherever I was in this facility was not close to the fall.
My muscles loosened as I flexed them and rolled my shoulders. I smiled. No more weakness from the aftereffects of the transference or from the noise emitter. I could take on several of Johnson’s techs—in a fair fight. Using the spray they had been downing us with wasn’t exactly what I’d call fair.
I placed my hands on the soft leather covering my hips, wishing I had my daggers, buckler, and the Kahr K40 Johnson had taken from me. Could I possibly find them before I got to Angel and Kveta?
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