by Dora Blume
“Fine, if there’s too many, we’ll get help. But I don’t like abandoning her to them. We need to get her out of there as soon as possible. She’s reckless with her life, and she’ll get herself killed to stop from being possessed.”
“Well, let’s just hope this works out for us, then.”
Mike exited the highway and turned down a side street. “We’re getting close. I can feel her.”
“Okay, what do you have in here for weapons? I didn’t grab anything before I left the house.”
“Look through the duffle in the backseat. I don’t have much, but it’s better than nothing. They must be in one of these factories.” He drove by a brick warehouse. He slowed and took a left at the next street. She’s in the brick warehouse back there. He took another left at the end of the street followed by another to bring them back to the factory. He slowed a few buildings down and parked on the side of the street. “She’s in the one right up there.” He pointed to the brick building with a few windows that were covered.
Jessie glance around. There were four other cars on the street, but there was a small parking lot on the other side of the building. “Is there a good way to get into the building without being noticed? The windows on this side are covered, but we can probably get around that. We need to get eyes on how many are in there. Should we scope out around the building to find the best way in?” She tucked a gun in the back of her waist band and continued to lean forward in the seat observing the building.
“Yeah, we can go around the back of the building to try to get a view of the inside. We’ll start on this side and move to the back-parking lot. If we can get inside without being noticed, we do it. Once inside, we find Sloane. Hopefully, you can freeze any demons we spot.” Jessie observed Mike as he spoke. Jessie could see the worry lines around his eyes. She could tell he hadn’t gotten much sleep over the last few weeks. He had dark circles under her eyes, and they were bloodshot. She figured she probably didn’t look much better. They both could use a good night's sleep.
“Sounds like a plan. What if they have the building warded against my power as they did in Minneapolis?” She took a deep breath.
“If they don’t freeze, we fight. If we get in over our heads, we fight our way out and run. Our priority is to get Sloane without being noticed. If we don’t have our powers, we leave and get back-up. I’ll know right away because I won’t feel the pull toward Sloane I’m feeling now. If you give me a minute, I’ll gauge how many are in there before we go in. I should be able to get a pretty accurate number for us.” He closed his eyes and lowered his head concentrating his power on the building. “Shit, there’s around fifteen of them in the building, and two in the parking lot. Sloane is in the back room, which we may be able to enter closer to the back to get her. I can’t tell if it’s warded from out here. There’s another Shikari in the back next to Sloane. They haven’t been possessed, yet. We may be able to get them both out.” His eyes met Jessie’s, and she nodded.
“Okay, let’s go around back and see if we can get to them, trouble free.” She raised a brow.
“Love, you know that’s not going to happen. We’ve never been that lucky,” he accentuated the last word.
“Maybe you haven’t.” She cracked a playful smile and wiggled her brows. She was still worried, but she also loved the rush a battle brought her. She was scared for Sloane, but at the same time, she was relieved she hadn’t been possessed. If the other Shikari hadn’t, maybe they were waiting for someone. They still had time to get to her.
“Ready?” Mike studied Jessie.
“As I’ll ever be,” she responded.
“Alright then, let’s do this thing.” His smile was playful. She knew he was trying to lighten the mood for what they were about to do.
“Mike, I love you.” She smiled as she eased out of the car.
“Ah love, now you tell me. We could have been together years ago. I guess I have something to live for.” He bit his bottom lip and quirked up the side of his mouth trying to hold in his laugh.
She stepped beside him and elbowed him in the side. “You are so, not funny. Come on we need to focus and get the real love of your life out of here before she does something monumentally stupid like take on all the demons in there at once. You know she’d try to lose.” She shook her head as they made their way to the back of the building.
“I know no such thing. I mean, she could win. She’s certainly got the fire within her to put up one hell of a fight. I know that fire all too well.” He winked. Jessie moved her finger to her lips to quiet him, so they could try to see into one of the windows. She stopped next to a window that didn’t look like it had been covered entirely. She peeked through the tear in the plastic and could see three guys sitting around a card table. There were cards in front of them. Jessie suppressed her urge to laugh. Demons were in there playing cards. She could see through the doorway into the hall. She saw one dark-haired man walk to the back of the building. She took a deep breath. There wasn’t much to see here.
She turned to look at Mike. “There’s not much to see, here. Three guys are in there playing cards, and one dark-haired guy just walked toward the back.” She shrugged.
“Okay, let’s head further back. See if anyone is guarding, Sloane.” He walked in front of her, ducking under the next window and stopping on the other side. Jessie stopped to see what she could. Being a head shorter than Mike, she had to stand on tiptoe to see through the small hole in the bottom of the window. She observed two men standing near a cork board with pictures and lines drawn between the pictures. There were maps of different buildings; one looked like the school they’d been scouting. She glanced to Mike, who was looking through on the other side of her.
“After we get Sloane, we need to torch this place. Get rid of their plans,” he said in a low voice.
“Absolutely. We should try to dispossess a few, too.”
“If there’s time.” He cocked a smile.
Jess shook her head at him and focused back on the building and what was happening inside. “We should keep going. See if we can see where they’ve got Sloane.”
“We’re getting closer. I can feel her.” He carefully made his way to the back of the building. He closed his eyes a moment, and Jessie glanced around making sure no one noticed them standing at the back of an old warehouse.
“She’s on the other side of this wall.” He took a few steps. There are no windows here, so we need to find another way in.” He glanced over. “Shall we?” he indicated the door about ten-twenty feet away from where they stood.
“You open, I’ll freeze.” She responded and followed behind as he made his way to the door. He looked her in the eyes and nodded once. He reached his hand out to take the door handle. He met her eyes again. He mouthed, “one, two, three,” and pulled the door open. Her hands were up ready to freeze anyone on the other side, but the hallway was empty. She took a tentative step through the door, and Mike followed behind. He took his gun out of his waistband and held his finger ready on the trigger as he pointed it in the direction they walked. Looking behind her every few steps, she continued down the hall. He stopped in front of the solid green door on the left. He jerked his head to the side. They had been lucky so far, but neither of them wanted to attract any attention by talking.
He reached for the handle and pushed. The door didn’t budge. “Shit,” he whispered.
Jessie slipped two pins from the back of her hair and inserted them into the keyhole. She twisted just enough to hear a slight click and turned the handle. She opened it slowly, and Mike held the gun in front of him with his back to the door. He was watching her back as she stepped into the room. Sloane was slumped in a chair in the middle of the room. Droplets of blood ran down her wrists behind the chair. Her wrists were twisted at her back and held together with zip ties that were biting into her skin. Jessie could tell that she had tried to pull her hands free but to no avail. Her ankles were secured to the legs with more zip ties. Her face was ashen an
d pale. Mike dropped down in front of her and cupped her cheek in his hand.
“Sloane, love. Sloane, can you hear me?” he pleaded in a soft voice. She didn’t move.
“I’m going to need to carry her out.” Mike reached in his pocket and took out his pocket knife. He cut loose her legs then her wrists. He kissed her palm when he was finished and lifted her into his arms. “Are you ready?”
“What about the other guy? I thought you said there was someone else.” Jessie studied Mike.
“There is but can we get her out of here first. As soon as we have her tucked away in the car, we can come back. Come on Jess; we don’t have time for this. What if he’s passed out, too? I can’t carry them both, and you need your hands free to freeze if we have any hope of surviving a run-in with any demons. Be reasonable, please.” His eyes pleaded with her, and she knew he was making sense. It felt wrong to leave someone behind when they were so close. Mike did make some awfully good points, but every part of her knew it was wrong to leave a fellow man behind. She huffed out a breath, “Fine, but we’re coming back for him.”
“Yes, now let’s go. We’ve been extremely lucky thus far. Let’s not take any more chances.”
“Fine, but I don’t like it.” She moved to open the door. Her hand reached for the handle, and it flew open, nearly clocking her in the face. She jumped back startled but regained her composure quickly. She raised her hands to freeze him. He didn’t stop. “Shit,” she kicked forward, connecting with his balls. He slumped forward grabbing his crotch.
“Fucking bitch, you’re going to pay for that.” He raised, hands in fists. She kicked forward again, hitting him a second time. He coughed forward, and she kicked him in the head. He held his hands to his crotch, guarding it against another attack. She kicked him again in the face, and his eyes rolled back and closed.
She took a deep breath. “You just had to say it, didn’t you?”
“What?” Mike asked.
“Now, we have to go. You just jinxed our assess. Come on.” She ran through the hall. She had her gun in her hand, now that she knew the place was warded. She didn’t care if they were possessed, people. She’d kill the next one she saw. She heard running steps behind her. She got to the door and flung it open. Mike ran through it. She turned and saw two tall, burley men following. She pointed the gun and fired. The bullet struck one on the right side of his chest. He slowed on impact but didn’t stop.
“Fuck,” she slammed the door closed and ran toward the car. Mike was a few steps in front of her. She heard shots coming from the building behind her. “Come on; we need to get to the car.” She called, moving to run next to Mike. A bullet lodged in the grass next to her last footfall. “Holy shit, they don’t even care that they are shooting outside, in the middle of the day.”
“Hate to state the obvious love, but they’re demons,” Mike spoke, out of breath as he ran.
Jessie ran around to the driver's side and opened the backseat for Mike. Mike flung Sloane and himself into the seat and slammed the door behind him. Jessie jumped in the driver's seat and yelled, “Keys.”
Mike tossed the keys from his pocket to her lap. She started the car and put it in the drive. She peeled out of the space and headed toward the highway. She glanced into the rearview mirror. “Shit, we’ve got company.” She stepped harder on the gas as two black sedans pulled behind her.
She looked behind her, and Mike was shifting Sloane over next to him in the seat. “I’m going to shoot at them. Hopefully, I can slow them down or get them off our assess.” He rolled down the window and shifted to look out the back.
“Hold on.” Jessie took a turn, and Mike dropped the gun to the floor when he hit the side of the door.
“You think you could give me a little more warning. I dropped the damn gun.”
“No, I’m going to lose these fuckers.” She took another corner.
“Can I get in at least one shot, Jess?” Mike pleaded.
“Fine, fucking do it already.”
“I would love to, quit taking the damn corners so hard.”
“Do you even know how a car chase works? I have to take the corners hard. Would you rather I slow down, so they can shoot us?”
“No, but I’d sure like the chance to shoot them,” Mike said.
“Fine, whatever, shoot them then. I’ll go straight for a minute, maybe two.”
“Your sarcasm doesn’t help.”
“It helps me.” She uttered under her breath. She glanced in the rearview mirror, and Mike was lining up in the window to take a shot. She shook her head; it was taking him forever. “Will you take a shot already?”
“Jess, I’d like to hit them. No use wasting a bullet.” He fired and hit the front right tire. The sedan began swerving recklessly, finally slamming into the other car. The other car slowed, then slammed them back. Jessie let out a laugh.
Sparks flew from the right side of the car, and they slowed. “Do you think you can do that again?”
“I plan on it.” Mike held the gun steady to fire a second shot. Jessie hit a bump, and Mike cursed behind her. “Jess, please. Do you think you could try to help me, here?”
“No, I like to watch you struggle.” She stressed high-pitched giggle.
“Seriously Jess, what the hell? I’m trying to save us here.”
“Okay, fine. I’ll try to be good.” She smirked and took another turn.
“Jessie!” Mike shouted from the backseat.
“What? I’m still trying to lose them.”
“You are going to pay for that, so help me,” he muttered. He fired again. The bullet went wide to the right. “Fuck!” Mike said. He steadied again and fired. This time the bullet went through the windshield. The car jerked to the side and slammed into a car parked on the side of the road. Jessie breathed a sigh of relief.
“Well, we lost them. You ready to go back and get the other guy now?”
“No, are you fucking kidding Jessie? They know we took, Sloane. They’ll be waiting for us. We can’t go back there.”
“We have to get the other guy, Mike.”
“Ah, no we don’t. We have to get help. Then, maybe when we have fifteen other people with us, we go back and get him.”
“How many were in there? You said fifteen. How many do you think followed us in those cars? We have to be down to at least ten maybe less. I think we can go back and get him.”
“Jessie be reasonable. You can’t freeze them in the building. We barely fought off the one guy when we were in there, and we almost got shot. We absolutely can’t go back. It’s a suicide mission. I thought you were smarter than that.” Mike blew out an exasperated breath.
“I know that if it were any of us in there, you’d go in. Come on, Mike. We just went in blind to get Sloane, and we made it out. We can’t just leave him there.” Jess pleaded.
“No, Jessie. We need to get Sloane some medical attention. Then we need to call Erik and find out what they learned. We can’t go back, right now. We will save him, but we can’t do it without help. Go to Magnus’ house. He’ll get us help. We can go save the guy but only if we have some more people, okay.” Mike’s voice was soft, and she knew he was probably right. Jessie didn’t like the idea of leaving the other guy there. She wanted to turn around and get him. For now, she would head to Magnus’ to get help. Then she would go back and get the other guy. She wanted to call Erik. He would come to help her if she asked. He’d go back with her right now if she were with him. She blew out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
“Fine, I’ll go to Magnus’ house, but I’m going back as soon as I can. I don’t care, Mike. We need to save that guy. He’s Shikari, and we don’t leave one of our behind, ever.” She took a sharp turn and exited onto the highway. She wanted to get to Magnus’ as fast as possible. She also wanted to get her hands on a phone.
She pulled into the driveway and parked. Mike opened the door and lifted Sloane out. Jessie knocked on the door, and Jolene answered. “Oh my, what happened?”
she asked.
“Sloane was kidnapped. We got her out, but she’s lost some blood from the cuts on her wrists. I think she got hit in the head pretty bad, too. There’s blood in her hair. Can we get a medic here, immediately?” Mike asked.
“No need, I’m a nurse. I can get her all patched up in a jiffy. Bring her on into the house. I’ll get my supplies.” Mike walked into the living room and laid her gently on the sofa. Jolene hurried in with a black leather medical bag in her hand.
“Do you mind if I use your phone? Ours are both dead, and I’d like to let Erik know what’s going on.” Jessie asked as she watched Jolene open the bag for supplies.
“Of course, dear, go on into the kitchen. My phone is sitting on the counter. We have chargers in there as well if you’d like to plug yours in.” She continued to kneel in front of Sloane. “Mike would you mind going and fetching Penelope for me. Ask her to bring some wet cloths. We need to clean up all this blood on her before I patch her up.”
“Sure, no problem.” Mike headed for the kitchen.
Jessie turned and walked back out to the car to get their phones. She wanted to call, Erik, but she’d rather call from her phone. He was probably worried about her, and she wasn’t sure if he’d answer an unfamiliar number. She retrieved the phones and plugged hers into the charger in the kitchen. She tapped her foot as she waited for it to turn on. She was dying to talk to Erik. The adrenaline from the chase had left her system, and she needed reassurance.
When the screen was finally on the startup page, she hit the phone icon. She scrolled to find Erik and hit the send button. She breathed a sigh of relief when she heard his voice on the other end.
“Jessie? Hello, Jess are you okay?” Erik’s voice was frantic.
“Yes, babe. I’m okay. We got Sloane out,” she said.
“Oh, thank god you’re okay. It was a trap. They knew you were coming. They were trying to get you, Jess. I was so worried they would.” Erik’s voice was full of concern, and her heart swelled. She wanted to feel him in her arms.
