*****
Shadowlight hoisted the unconscious soldier higher on his shoulder as he continued to run through the forest. Running on two legs, he decided, was far less fun than four. The human flopping against his shoulder didn’t help either.
At least the destination he had in mind wasn’t far, which was good, since he still had two more humans to transport.
Each memory-erasing spell was delicate, time-consuming work. Darkness, being much more experienced with such spells, performed each procedure, which left Shadowlight with the work of moving the humans.
There were still two of those flying, noisy machines in operation. One had turned back the way they’d come. Darkness said it was probably going for reinforcements since the Coven had taken out their other modes of communication.
Whatever that meant.
Which left the last one circling over the area, searching for the other humans he and his father had rescued from the flying machines before they’d crashed.
They’d managed to save all the humans though most had bumps, bruises and one had sustained a broken arm. Shadowlight was feeling a little battered himself. Going inside the machines as they’d spiraled out of control hadn’t been as much fun as he’d thought. His one wing still ached fiercely, and the ribs on the same side had suffered some abuse. In the chaos, he didn’t remember it happening. It wasn’t until he was on the ground again, running to do his father’s bidding, that his injuries made themselves known.
On this trip, his third such one, he’d gone a little farther out of his way because he wanted to check on his pet human. His shielding dome should both hide and protect her, but with that helicopter thing circling, he didn’t want to take a chance she might be located.
Wiping all these humans’ memories wouldn’t do one speck of good if the searchers found Mackenzie.
He slowed as he made his final approach. The area seemed undisturbed. He remained cloaked as he came up to the dome. Inside, Anna was sitting by the fire, waiting for her tea to steep by the scent of it.
She scanned the shadows and then honed in on his location, telling him his gargoyle blood was still working its changes upon her body.
“Shadowlight?” she called softly and then glanced in his direction. “If that’s not you, I’m so screwed.”
He dropped his shadow magic and his human burden at the same time.
Her expression shifted from annoyance to shock, and then her eyes narrowed.
“What? You planning on starting a zoo?” she jerked her chin in the newcomer’s direction.
Shadowlight’s ears flicked forward in question, not knowing what she was referring to again. What was a zoo? He would search the language memories his sister had shared with him later. At the moment, he didn’t have time.
“Never mind,” she continued and then added, “That one’s U.S. Army. You went and did something stupid, didn’t you?”
He stepped over the unconscious human and continued toward Corporal Mackenzie. When he was still several feet from her position, he wrinkled his muzzle.
“Yeah, I stink,” she barked with a good deal of grumpiness in her voice. “See how good you smell covered in three-day-old battle.” Her arms folded across her chest, her expression turning belligerent. “You’re going to get me clean clothes and something to wash with, but first,” she pointed at the lump of soldier behind him, “explain.”
He shrugged, seeing no point in not telling her. “We rescued two of our fellows. A sidhe and a sprite were being transported elsewhere by these humans.”
“I suppose this has something to do with those helos from earlier?”
He puzzled over her words but then picked the meaning from her thoughts. “Yes.”
“And then that lone one hightailing it back?”
“Yes, my father said it was going back for reinforcements.”
“I don’t doubt it.”
Shadowlight felt his ears swinging forward again wondering where she was going with this.
She shook her head at him. “You just attacked a powerful nation. Do you know what that means?”
He had an idea, but since she had that look that said ‘I’m going to tell you anyway’ he decided to hold his silence.
“It means you and your family just declared war.”
Shadowlight’s ears dropped of their own accord, and his tail gave a half-hearted flick. Lillian and Gran had warned against that, told him of the dangers. “Gran isn’t going to like this.”
“I can only assume she’s a smart lady.”
“Gregory entrusted his other half, my sister, into her care. Gran is almost as fearsome as a gargoyle for all she descends from mostly human bloodlines.” His wings clamped tight to his back with worry. Gran tended to withhold treats when she was annoyed with someone. “We didn’t kill anyone,” he said, hope kindling in his heart, or maybe that was his stomach. He’d worked up an appetite.
“You brought down how many helicopters? Did you kill anyone?”
“Three of the machines,” Shadowlight said with renewed pride. Less than a week old and he’d already been victorious in battle twice.
“Oh, just a few million dollars’ worth of damage. They’ll just hunt you down, no thermonuclear device required.”
She said it with such a straight face, he wasn’t sure if it was said in jest or not.
But he didn’t have time to figure out human thought processes at the moment.
After stretching to loosen stiff muscles, he turned back to where he’d dropped his earlier burden. “I will come back later with more food and clothing once I’ve returned this one to his fellows.”
“Where exactly are you taking him?”
“Back to the human military camp.”
“Shit, kid. You like living dangerously.”
Turning back to her, he gave her a huge toothy grin. “I’m a gargoyle.”
She shook her head again, a smile twisting her lips and flashing the point of one fang. “Adrenaline junkie. You’re going to get your ass shot off.” She sobered. “Be careful, kid.”
He smiled. “You do like me.”
“Nah, just don’t like the idea of starving to death here under the dome once you get yourself killed or captured.”
Her words would have hurt except there was a slight twinkle in her eye.
“I’ll be careful not to get captured or shot. I don’t like the idea of being haunted by your disquieted spirit.”
With the sound of her snort following after, he ventured back into the forest with his sleeping burden bumping against his back.
Chapter Nineteen
Tapping an index finger against his thigh, Major Resnick frowned as the last member of his team was waved through the checkpoint. None of them were allowed to move on until the entire team was finished.
He was certain his blood pressure was crawling slowly higher toward stroke level range.
When they approached the last checkpoint, there was another team waiting to meet them.
“Major Resnick, I’m Corporal Jordan,” a fresh-faced soldier said and motioned them forward. “We’re here to escort you to command.”
Resnick swallowed back his frustration and acknowledged the other officer. “Did my intel reach them yet?”
“Yes, they are sending other helos after the convoy. If you will come with me.” He started away, and Resnick followed on his heels.
With Jordan’s team clearing a path, they made good time and were soon at the community center.
They didn’t make for the elevators, instead heading to the stairs which led down to the arena floor which was now converted into a field lab.
The room lacked the normal bustle. They’d cleared out most of the non-essential personnel. Colonel Tremblay, his senior officers, and the lead scientists heading the project were all clustered around a central terminal.
Doctor Rodgers was gesturing at the screen enthusiastically.
“This isn’t us,” she was saying.
Resnick’s and Jor
dan’s teams arrived, saluted the general and the other senior officers and then took up positions.
Doctor Rogers and Fleming weren’t into niceties. “Where did you find this? Were there other signs? Prints, hair or skin samples caught in the underbrush, maybe? The terrain they were running through has dense undergrowth—there should have been some physical evidence.”
Outwardly, only a slight shift in his position gave away his displeasure. The science types always rubbed him the wrong way. The less he had to interact with them, the better.
What had he expected? He’d brought this newest intel in from the field—of course, they were going to have questions.
This was going to be a long debriefing. He turned his gaze toward the screen with all its impossibilities.
A winged beast for god’s sake. Two actually. He cleared his throat. “We didn’t take the time to study the area. When we saw the two creatures on the recording and took note of the wings, I ordered my team to return at once, fearing something like this might, theoretically, pose a threat to our prisoner transport.” Though admittedly he didn’t know how something like these creatures could keep up with, let alone attack one of their helos already in flight. Yet he’d seen too many strange things in recent days. Besides, in his gut he knew these two were trouble.
“A pity,” Doctor Fleming said, “but understandable why you came back at once.”
Colonel Tremblay took over the conversation at that point. “We haven’t been able to raise the helicopters, I’ve sent out other units to search, but with the interruptions to communications we don’t know anything yet. So tell me your thoughts on those.” He pointed to the screen. “Any chance it’s a fake?”
One of his advisors gave a little shrug. “We have our experts working on it. Nothing yet.”
“But it would explain one of the intruders we had last night, and how he escaped. We were right on his tail when he suddenly vanished. The grass showed a clear trail for a thousand meters and then it just ended in the middle of the field like he had up and vanished. Or flew away.”
Doctor Fleming, who had been silent until then, reached out and touched the screen. “I’m not sure if they could fly, the body mass to wing span ratio… I’d love to get a closer look at their locomotion.” He tapped a button, and the recording advanced a few frames at a greatly reduced speed. “Quadrupeds, but look at the length of the strides.”
Resnick noted that too, and did a quick estimate of stride and determined the beast could probably outrun a horse or most anything else. One thing for sure, it was a hundred percent predator. No herbivore had claws and teeth like that.
Once again the Colonel shut down the scientists before they could descend into a debate. “But what is it? Some kind of genetically engineered and weaponized new species?”
“I don’t know. Maybe,” Doctor Rodgers said as she zoomed in on one of the creatures—the darker colored one. “But it’s not one of ours if it is. It’s not one of us.”
Resnick frowned. A one-year-old could have taken a look and known it wasn’t human. What was she getting at?
She tapped the screen with more force as she gestured at them all. “The other ones we’ve captured, we know they are not human, but they are genetically our next closest relative—closer than chimpanzees. They are part of our evolutionary tree, on the same branch even,” she turned and pointed out the wing joints of the newly found creature. “This isn’t us. This isn’t part of our evolutionary tree. Six limbs. They both have six limbs. This isn’t of our earth.”
“Non-earth evolution?” The general asked, but it wasn’t a question, not exactly. He’d already come to the same conclusion as the doctors. “We need to verify this recording and scavenge the area for evidence.
“I need blood and tissue samples,” Rogers said as she looked from one person to the next. “We need to capture one of them.”
Oh, he knew where this was going. With a touch of trepidation, he glanced back at the frozen still, studying the creature’s natural weapons. Damn it all to hell. The creature looked like it could take down a velociraptor without breaking a sweat. This assignment was proving too interesting for his liking.
Major Resnick had known the recording was going to be bad for his peace of mind. “We’re going to need bigger guns.”
Chapter Twenty
Lillian trudged up the stairs to her bedroom with all the zeal of a dog going to visit the vet. She hurt everywhere. She hurt in places she didn’t even know existed, but they were letting her know of their existence now.
Gregory looked equally worn. He doggedly took the steps one at a time, without his usual spring powering him up the stairs like he didn’t know what gravity was.
They’d flown Whitethorn and Goswin to safety, and at the time she’d been so full of adrenaline an armored vehicle could have broadsided her and she would not have noticed. Now, a half hour after their flight, she was noticing just what prolonged flight did to the body. The thought of a hot bath was the only thing keeping her going.
It certainly wasn’t the scent of food Gregory had taken from the kitchen as they made their way through. Actually, the smell of food was tying her stomach in knots.
She wondered if she was coming down with something—though that was unlikely. She’d never been sick a day in her life. Probably protected from common germs by her kick-ass gargoyle immune system. She’d never thought to ask Gregory if gargoyles could catch diseases.
It was on the tip of her tongue to ask when she stopped dead in her tracks.
No. Not possible.
Her stomach plummeted, and her heart lurched like she’d been kicked in the chest.
It couldn’t be. No.
Oh god, with her spectacular luck, it was entirely possible.
Wasn’t that why she’d gotten all the damned pregnancy tests?
It was too soon. It had been, what, three days?
Yes, entirely too soon to be having morning sickness. She was probably just feeling sick from extreme exhaustion.
Placing one foot ahead of the other, she continued to follow Gregory up the stairs. A long hot bath would help soothe her aching muscles, and then she’d pee on a stick to help sooth her racing mind. Or, at the very least, she could establish some kind of a baseline to compare weekly samples against.
If it had been possible, she would have preferred to confide in someone who might know more, someone like her mother perhaps. Unfortunately, she couldn’t do that without it getting back to Gregory. Besides, somewhere deep inside she was still uncomfortable with the idea of talking to her mother.
Oh hell, what a messed up week it had been.
Lillian arrived in her bedroom and made for the bathroom and then slapped her hand up to forestall Gregory from entering. “Nothing in the bathroom is going to eat me. I don’t need accompaniment while I pee.” She patted him on the chest to soften the blow. She had slapped with a touch more force than intended. “I’m going to draw a hot bath, and then you can have the shower.” She smiled. “Or you can share the bath.”
She stood on her tiptoes and stretched as far as she could to place a kiss on his cheek. “I’ll let you decide.”
She closed the door on his face. When it became apparent he was going to give her a few minutes, she flew over to the vanity where she’d hidden the test kits. She grabbed the first box her questing hand found and read the instructions.
*****
She ran the bath while she waited for the results, refusing to look at it, even avoiding looking in that direction. What she couldn’t do was stop herself from glancing at her watch and pacing.
Gregory was going to get suspicious if he heard her pacing. She forced herself to stop. Then she hurried over to the vanity, grabbed the pregnancy test and shoved it behind some of the candles she had spaced around the big bathtub. She turned the jets on and added a touch of her favorite bubble bath.
No point in making him suspicious. At her soft call, he joined her before the tub. One wing folded down around
her a moment before his arm pulled her against his side.
“I did not like taking you into danger.”
“We pulled it off. No one was injured,” she said and then wrinkled her nose. “Is that helicopter fuel? Don’t go near the candles! Get your butt in the shower before we have a gargoyle bomb fire.”
She shooed Gregory toward the shower, and he went willingly enough. While he was adjusting the shower, she stripped and stepped into the tub.
Ah, wonderful heat.
When she was certain Gregory was busy with his own shower, she glanced at her watch she’d left near the candles. It was time.
After another glance in Gregory’s direction, she dragged the test stick out of hiding. Taking a deep breath, she looked down at it.
Purple. The entire test area was one big purple blob. She looked closer. No little lines like the instructions showed. Just one big purple patch.
Purple. What the fuck did purple mean?
Chapter Twenty-One
Anna gave the fire another poke, not because she was cold but because she was bored out of her mind. So bored in fact, she’d gone straight to frustrated, which was probably why she couldn’t sleep.
Being annoyed out of one’s mind didn’t allow for a person to reach the level of calmness which might morph into sleep. Physical exhaustion, her other go-to cure for insomnia was out of the question as well. Being trapped inside a clear energy dome, or magic fairy ring, or whatever the fuck else you wanted to call it, didn’t allow for a lot in way of physical diversions either. Unless one counted pacing as exercise, which it wasn’t.
She’d give almost anything to go run a tour right about now.
A rustle in the forest southeast of her position snapped her out of her pout and she tensed. Her ears strained to hear, but even that newly sharpened sense couldn’t pick out anything over the breeze whirling among the trees. Unfortunately, her eyes were still blinded from staring into the fire.
Of all the dumbass things to do, she knew better than to half blind herself by looking directly at the fire.
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