by Maya Banks
thick as the damn walls were, though, it wouldn’t surprise her if the explosion hadn’t even been heard inside the other rooms.
Big advantage to her if that was the case.
She sprinted back to room two and hit the start button as she skidded by en route to room three. She slapped the explosive on the panel and entered the time again.
Again, the explosion sounded, and she backtracked to the room. This time, no one hit the hallway so she slowed and raised her rifle. Back to the wall, she eased around the doorway then bolted in, ready to shoot the first person who moved.
Her heart fell to her feet when she saw Eli, caged in a clear, plexiglass square that looked to be airtight. A long tube ran from the ceiling and was attached to the top. Was it to pump in oxygen? Was this how they prevented him from escaping if he shifted?
Rage made her tremble, but she forced herself to calm down and move quickly to the box. He opened his eyes when she approached, but his vision was unfocused. He looked to be heavily drugged. Fuck.
She couldn’t blow it without risking injury to Eli. She could shoot it but it could send pieces of the plexiglass into his body.
“Goddamn it, D, I need you,” she said in desperation. “I found Eli. They’ve got him in some kind of a damn box. It looks like it’s linked to their computer system. Can you figure out how to open it?”
“Give me a minute, Ty. I’ve locked on to your location. Let me see what I can do.”
A few seconds later, the security pad on the face of the box lit up and then the top popped up with a whoosh as the airlock was broken. She ran over and looked down over the edge.
Eli stared up at her, anger glinting in his dark eyes. She didn’t have time to hash it out.
“Get your ass up,” she hissed.
She reached down to tug at his arms. He was heavy and lethargic. He struggled to get to his knees, hanging on to the edge with white-knuckled hands.
She tossed one of his arms over her shoulders, careful to keep her gun up with her free hand.
“Step over, I’ve got you,” she said.
She staggered under his weight but refused to let go. She held him up by sheer force of will.
“Why are you here?” he rasped, his voice hoarse and pain-filled.
“I don’t have time to get into it with you, Eli,” she said as she hauled him toward the door. “I’m more concerned with saving your ass, so shut the fuck up and help me out here.”
Damiano chuckled in her ear. “Rock on, girl.”
Damn. She’d forgotten D could hear everything she said.
They ducked into the hallway, and she looked both ways.
“I need you, D. Help me get him out of here.”
She listened intently and navigated while dragging Eli along. What the hell had they done to him? Fear clogged her throat.
As they veered into another hallway, Tyana looked up to see an armed guard pointing his rifle right at her and Eli. Reacting quickly, she shoved Eli to the floor and shot at the same time the guard did.
Pain slammed into her leg, and her knees buckled. The guard went down with a thump. Her aim had been truer than his.
Jesus, it hurt. She looked down to see blood pouring from a hole in her upper leg. Another few inches and it would have hit her femoral artery, and she’d be on the floor bleeding out.
“Ty, talk to me, goddamn it. I heard gunfire. What the fuck is going on?”
“I took a hit,” she said faintly.
D swore viciously in her ear. “Get the hell out, do you hear me, Ty?”
“D, I’m okay. Took a round in the leg. I can make it. I’m coming with Eli.”
She staggered over to the guard and used her knife to cut his shirt off. She quickly fashioned a long bandage and wrapped it tightly around her leg several times to apply pressure and slow the bleeding.
The adrenaline buzz was fast wearing off, and her entire leg felt like someone had tossed her in petrol and lit a match.
She made it back to Eli who was trying to pull himself off the floor.
“That…was…stupid,” he growled. “Leave me, Tyana. You can’t make it out with me.”
“Listen to him, Ty,” Damiano urged. “I’ll send Jonah and Mad Dog to get Eli.”
“Fuck that,” she snarled. “I’m almost there. If Eli will shut the fuck up and get moving.”
She looped his arm back over her shoulders, and ignoring the searing agony each time she moved her leg, she started forward again. Eli was gaining strength. He seemed to be helping her along more.
“Can you shift?” she asked. Damn sure would make it easier to get him out if he could.
“No. Too drugged. They used a paralytic. Only reason I can move at all right now is I was due for another injection and the last one is wearing off. You showed up before they did.”
“Lucky you.”
They burst out of the exit, and she did a quick survey to make sure they weren’t walking into more trouble. She hobbled to the wall where she’d climbed over. No way was she going to get Eli over that wall. Fuck.
She eased him behind a hedge of greenery and laid him on the ground. “Talk to me, Eli. Where are the others? Do you know?”
“Ty, forget the others,” D barked in her ear. “You get your ass out of there and let Jonah and Mad Dog find them.”
“Shut it, D, or I swear I’ll turn your ass off.” She grabbed Eli by the shirt and shook him. “Think, Eli. Tell me where the others are.”
“They couldn’t have been far,” he said. “I heard them once when my door was opened.”
“You stay here,” she said as she shoved him back down on the ground. “D, I’ve stashed Eli where I went over the wall. Make damn sure someone comes for him. I’m going back in after the others.”
Damiano’s curses fell on deaf ears as she walked back to the entrance, half dragging her leg. She gritted her teeth against the jarring pain that snaked up her body with each step.
Suck it up. It wasn’t the first time she’d taken a bullet, and it probably wouldn’t be the last.
“I’m working on memory here, D. Tell me if I’m going wrong.”
“You’re fine.” D’s voice was firm, and she needed that strength. Grasped onto it with both hands.
She made it back to the door where her explosive was set and ready to go. Then, she thought better of having such a short timeframe and added another three seconds to give her more time to move out.
She forced herself up, put the stock of her gun down on the floor to act as a crutch and hauled her ass as fast as she could in the opposite direction.
“Jonah and Mad Dog are taking fire, but they’ll be there to back you up as soon as they can,” D said in her ear.
She gritted her teeth and rounded the bend just as the explosion rocked the hallway.
Gun up, she hurried back, her rifle sight trained on the doorway. When no one was forthcoming, she ducked in.
“Shit.”
“What is it?” Damiano demanded.
“Cats,” she replied. “I wasn’t counting on them being in fucking jaguar and panther form.”
D was uncharacteristically silent.
The two cats were caged separately. Iron bars and a simple padlock were her only obstacles, so this was something she wouldn’t need D for. Well, that and the keys were lying on the table three feet from the cages.
Taking a deep breath to ward off her pain and fear, she collected the keys and edged over to the first cage. The panther. This was Braden if she remembered correctly.
“Nice kitty,” she murmured as she fumbled with the lock. God help her, this might the dumbest thing she’d ever done.
She threw open the cage with one arm and tightened her grip on her rifle as she backed cautiously away to unlock the other cage.
The panther jumped from the cage and crouched warily in front of her. Her hands shook as she managed to get the lock off the second cage while her eyes never left the panther.
The jaguar hissed and bared his
teeth as she started to crack open the cage. Oh hell, it was now or never. She threw the lid open and backed away, tripping when her leg gave out. She let out a cry of pain as she hit the floor.
The cats circled her, intermittent growls spilling from their throats. The jaguar came closer, and Tyana closed her eyes, prepared for death.
He sniffed cautiously at her shoulder then lowered his head and nuzzled the wound on her leg. The panther stalked in on her other side and bumped her side with his head.
She stared dumbly as they continued to nudge at her. Good God, they wanted her to get up and go. She pushed herself up.
“I don’t know if you understand a word I’m saying, but we’ve got to get the hell out of here,” she said as she struggled toward the door. “Eli is out already. All that’s left is Gabe.”
The cats flanked her as she made it out into the hallway. Her leg was growing more numb with each passing minute. She hoped to hell Jonah and Mad Dog had made it over by now but she wouldn’t ask Damiano, because he’d worry that she was fading. And she was.
Footsteps, several of them, echoed in the hallway. She flattened herself against the wall with her gun at the ready. This was going to suck.
Three men rounded the corner at a fast clip. She shot the first before they even realized she was there. She managed to squeeze off another round before the third shot back.
She slammed against the wall as the bullet tore into her shoulder. The cats launched themselves at the men. “D,” she gasped. “I’m hit again.”
The sounds of the cats’ screams mingled with those of the men. Her breaths came hard and sporadic. It hurt. Fuck, it hurt. She glanced down, trying to assess the damage but all she could see was blood, red, pouring onto the floor.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Through hazy vision, Tyana saw two sets of cats’ eyes close to her face. She felt a warm tongue on her cheek and soft fur rub against her nose.
“Go,” she whispered. “You have to get out. They’ll kill you.”
She pushed at the jaguar with her uninjured arm and was stunned at the weakness of the gesture, how much of her strength it sapped to make such a small movement.
“Ty, Ty, speak to me.” D’s frantic voice shot through her ear, and she winced.
She tried to push herself away from the wall, tried to get herself up off the floor.
“Go,” she told the cats as she fell back, her strength spent.
To her relief, they loped off.
“D, the cats are out. If the Falcon secondary is moving in, make damn sure no one shoots them.”
“I don’t give a damn about the fucking cats,” Damiano bit out. “Can you move? Can you get the hell out?”
Shit. She couldn’t even lie to him because he’d see she was still stationary.
“No,” she said quietly. “I’m down.”
More sounds echoed through the hallway. Loud footsteps. More than one person. A lot of them.
“D, is the Falcon secondary moving in?” she asked, unable to keep the fear from her voice.
Before he could respond, she looked up and saw four men round the corner. Not Falcon. Her heart sank. Her rifle dangled uselessly from her hand. She couldn’t even lift it.
Eli shoved himself off the ground, trying to shake off the effects of the paralytic. His mind was clearing now. Fear replaced the fog.
Two men, guns up, sprinted toward him. He recognized them as members of Falcon. The ones who’d shown up in Germany. Neither was Damiano which only left Jonah and Mad Dog. The man in front clearly had to be Jonah.
As he rose to meet the potential threat, two cats burst from the exit he and Tyana had come through.
Falcon halted, their guns up and trained on the cats. But they didn’t immediately shoot.
The cats collapsed on the ground and began their excruciating shift. Eli stumbled over to their naked bodies.
“Tyana. Where is Tyana?” he demanded.
Ian stared at him in confusion. “I don’t know,” he said in a weak voice.
The two men from Falcon knelt over Ian and Braden. They dug fatigues out of their packs and thrust them at the naked men.
“Get them on,” Jonah barked. “Then tell me where the fuck Tyana is.”
“She went back in after you,” Eli explained to the men as they dressed. “You came out. She didn’t.”
Jonah cupped a hand to his ear then cursed. Mad Dog paled.
“She’s taken another round. She’s down,” Jonah reported.
He dug into his pocket then thrust a small ear piece at Eli. “Put this on. You won’t have voice, but you’ll be able to hear. We’re going in after Ty.”
Eli pushed the receiver into his ear and immediately heard the voice of another man urgently asking for Tyana to report her condition.
“We’re going too,” Ian said. “If she went down saving us, we’re not leaving her.”
Jonah didn’t argue. He and Mad Dog tossed the two men extra guns.
“Jonah, she’s on the move.” The voice crackled in Eli’s ear. Damiano. “Not under her own power. They’re Esteban’s men. They’re moving her.”
There was another moment of silence. “Lower level. They said lower level and goddamn it, Jonah, I’ve lost her location. She’s not showing up anymore. You need to move.”
“All right, we’re going in,” Jonah said to the four men. “Fan out. Damiano has lost her location. He mentioned a lower level so we have to find our way down. We don’t have time to waste.”
“Jonah, Falcon secondary has secured the south wing,” Damiano reported.
“Have them close in on our location from the opposite direction,” Jonah said. “I want no stone unturned.”
As he turned to go into the building, Eli reached out and grabbed his arm.
“I can shift. The drug has worn off enough. I can go into places you guys can’t. I need voice, though.”
Without hesitation, Jonah reached over and tore Mad Dog’s receiver from the front of his vest and slapped it on Eli’s chest. “Go,” he ordered.
Eli summoned every bit of his mental energy and evaporated into a fine mist. He streaked into the building and disappeared into the ventilation system. Behind him, he heard the steady footsteps of the others as they ran inside.
Damiano was about to go mad. He itched from the inside out. It took every ounce of his strength not to give in to the urge to shift. To become a predator and go after the ones who held Ty.
Only the fact that he knew he was her only voice, her only comfort, prevented his complete loss of control.
The men who’d taken her were angry. They argued among themselves, cursing the fact that Esteban had disappeared when the compound was attacked. Damiano flinched when he heard Ty cry out in pain.
God, what were they doing to her? He needed to see. He needed her location. He felt so goddamn helpless.
“Bitch won’t live long enough for us to use her as a bargaining tool,” one of them complained.
She cried out again, and one of them laughed cruelly.
Damiano summoned every bit of control. He had to help her. Just like he had in Prague. He wouldn’t let her suffer like this.
Tears streamed down his cheeks as he drew in a shaky breath. “Ty, listen to me.” He purposely made his voice soft and low, soothing. “I want you to go to our place. You remember it, don’t you? Remember back at the orphanage, we’d go to our special place where no one could touch us. No one could hurt us. It was just you and me in the most wonderful place we could imagine. Go there now, Ty. Do it for me.”
“I love you, D,” she whispered in a choked voice. Was she choking on her own blood? Had she taken a hit to the chest? “Tell Jonah I’m sorry.”
Jonah and Mad Dog paused for just a second as Damiano’s haunted voice filled their ears. And then Tyana’s apology. Grief, thick and relentless grabbed hold of Jonah. For the first time in two decades, he faced losing someone important to him. He’d sworn after Adharji that he’d never let anyone close aga
in. Would never allow himself to bleed over anyone. But Falcon was his family and Tyana, Mad Dog and Damiano had, despite his best efforts, become all-important. He wouldn’t lose them. Not now. Not ever.
“We won’t lose her,” Jonah vowed. “Do you hear me, D? We won’t lose her. You tell her that. Tell her we’re coming for her and goddamn it, she’s not allowed to die.”
Eli streaked downward, to the lower level of the building. He’d found the single elevator shaft in the center of the facility. There was blood in the shuttle. Tyana’s blood.
Through more vents he floated until finally he heard voices. He moved silent as a whisper down into the room. Tyana lay on the floor, her leg bent at an odd angle, one arm bloodied, the other carelessly thrown aside. Her eyes were open but glassy and fixed on some distant object.
Four men stood to the side arguing. Eli did a quick survey of the room. A lone assault rifle, one the men had laid against the wall, was a few feet away. He would have to be fast. Shift and shoot.
Ignoring the rage that consumed him, and the worry over Tyana’s so-still form, he wrapped around the rifle, a single thin plume of smoke.
With a jolt, he commanded himself back to form, holding the image of the transmitter in his mind. Screw the clothes. If they came, they came, but he needed that transmitter.
His hands gripped the gun just as the shocked stares of the men found him. He laid down a round of fire into their midst. Three fell while the fourth rolled away. He came up firing.
Heat singed Eli’s arm, but he ignored it and pumped three rounds into the fourth man’s chest. He sagged like a deflated balloon.
“Damiano, can you hear me?”
“Yeah, I read you. What the fuck is going on in there?”
“I’m with Tyana. I’ve taken a hit. It’s not bad. I need cover getting out of here.”
“Is Tyana alive?” Damiano demanded.
Eli knelt, afraid to touch his fingers to her neck. He felt the faintest flutter, slow and unsteady. “She’s alive. For now. But fading fast. Get a chopper in here as fast as you can. She needs to get to the hospital yesterday.”
He quickly relayed the information on his location to Damiano, and then he gathered Tyana in his arms. He hoisted her up, and she sagged limply, her head dangling over his injured arm.
He adjusted his hold on her so that her head sagged against his chest instead, and he rested his chin on top to keep her in place.
God, there was so much blood.
“Don’t die,” he whispered. “Don’t die, Tyana. Not for me.”
