"Would you like me to hold them?"
I didn"t even have to think about it, just handed them over. "Let"s go, before they get the power back on."
We shadowed and ran around the house to the gym. Every footstep sent lances of fire stabbing deeper into my brain, and I wasn"t entirely sure if the moisture running down my cheeks was sweat or tears.
There were guards everywhere, even here, outside the gym. Starr obviously didn"t think the power outage was chance, and was guarding a.s.sets and exits-even the exits most knew nothing about. We stopped in the midst of the trees, out of the direct line of sight of the guards. We might be shadowed, but there was no point risking that these guards weren"t more of Starr"s enhanced humans, complete with vampire DNA that endowed them with a vampire"s infrared. Quinn touched my shoulder to catch my attention, then pointed to the two guards on the left, his arm glowing like fire under the infrared. I nodded, and carefully made my way toward my targets, keeping downwind and as silent as possible.
I was nearly on them when a twig snapped under my heel. Both men spun, their guns rising fast. I froze, my breath catching in my throat. They didn"t fire, simply scanned the darkness, their gaze slipping straight past. They couldn"t see me and didn"t have infrared.
Advantage me.
I stepped close-so close that any wolf or shifter would have smelled my scent-and lashed out with a bare heel, hitting the first man hard in the crotch. He went down with a wheeze of pain. The second man swung around, his expression a mix of surprise and wariness. I dropped low, sweeping again with my leg, knocking the second man off his feet. I grabbed the gun off the first man, flipped it around, and whacked the b.u.t.t across the second guard"s face. His head snapped back, and he was out to it before his head hit the ground. The first man quickly followed his partner into oblivion with just a little help of gun b.u.t.t. I took the clips out of the guns and threw them both deep into the trees, but the guns I left after patting both men down to ensure they didn"t have any more clips on them.
After rubbing my temples in a vague attempt to ease the ache, I made my way back to the fire exits. Quinn soon joined me. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d wasn"t even breathing heavily. But then, I"d had a few more fights than him over the last few hours, and had lost my breakfast as well. Was it any wonder I felt weak and shaky?
Though I had a sneaking suspicion the cause for the shakes was more the lurking certainty that something was wrong. That the s.h.i.t was about to hit, and everything we"d achieved so far was about to go down the toilet.
I took a deep breath to calm down my nerves. I had a job to do, and I"d better start concentrating on that rather than worrying over future problems and uncertainties.
It seemed to take forever to find the hidden exit for sublevels, though I suppose in reality it was only a minute or two. It had been concealed in the remains of a tree that looked to have burned in the bushfires that had raged across these mountains years ago, though the blackened bark was in fact well-concealed concrete rather than once-living wood. Finding the actual entrance was tricky. The tree looked whole, and it was only on close inspection that the outline of a doorway could be seen. The catch was little more than a dent on one edge. On opening that, we discovered another door, this one made of steel and accompanied by the same sort of key-coders that guard the various secure areas in and around the house.
"I"m told the backup generators power these security doors, enabling them all to function normally." And if they didn"t, we"d truly be up that well-known creek.
"That makes sense."He gave me the notebook, and I punched in the code from the book while he carefully pressed the stolen thumb against the print scanner.
The red light above the keypad flicked to green. Quinn grasped the door handle and pulled it open. The air that rushed out was old and stale smelling, suggesting this tunnel hadn"t been used in a long, long time. As did the thick dust that sat on the metal stairs leading down into a red-hued darkness.
Though how dust got into a sealed area, I had no idea.
"Emergency lighting is on inside," he commented.
I bent to study the tunnel. The unease was growing, and though I wasn"t entirely sure why, part of me wished it would just go away. I didn"t need another reason to be afraid right now.
"Do you think they have movement sensors in there?"
"Probably, though I doubt they would be one of the emergency systems running right now. Were the cameras running in security?"
"No."
"I would think the cameras and sensors are supported by the same source, so we are probably safe for the moment."
Given Starr didn"t think like normal people, that statement wasn"t as logical as it sounded. "We"ve got to get moving-we"ve probably only got eight minutes or so before the power is up and running again."
"I"ll go first."
I nodded. He climbed down, his steps making little noise but stirring the dust into a sluggish cloud. When he reached the concrete floor, he motioned me to follow then disappeared into the red-shrouded darkness.
"Sensors in the walls, and cameras in the ceiling." He pointed them out as I joined him.
"So if we aren"t out by the time the power is on, they will be all over us like a rash."
"Yes. Let"s move."
We ran down the tunnel, our footsteps an echo that rode the air easily. If there were guards ahead, they"d hear us coming.
"I cannot hear the beat of another heart beyond yours," Quinn said.
"There are things in this world that don"t have heartbeats."
"Like the chameleons. Like the Fravardin."
"Yeah. But there"s no Fravardin here, other than the one helping Dia." Which was strange, really. If Misha had the Fravardin at his beck and call, why wouldn"t Starr have gotten his warped little hands on them? Misha had been Starr"s creature to order around-up to a point, anyway.
Another metal door loomed into view. We slowed. This one looked bigger, stronger.
"Containment door," Quinn said, running his hand over the metal. "We have them in my labs. They have a high exposure rating and durability."I got the notebook out and checked the code. "So why have one guarding a fire exit?"
He shrugged. "Why not? If the contamination is truly bad, do you really want those inside getting out?"
"Isn"t the whole point of a fire exit being able to escape when something bad happens?"
He pressed the thumb against the door. "By law we have to have them. It doesn"t mean they should always be used."
"Glad I don"t work in your labs."
He glanced at me, dark eyes suddenly amused. "I"m glad, too. I have a no fraternizing with my employees rule."
"We"re not exactly fraternizing now." Not in a physical, one-on-one sense, anyway. Well, except for our brief session in my kitchen, and later in the barn-but that hardly counted.
"No." He grasped the lever and hauled the huge door open. Air rushed out, brushing my skin with its musty, ancient scent. "But I intend to remedy that."
I arched an eyebrow at the certainty-even arrogance-in his voice and reached for the psi-link between us. Given we had no idea how close the labs were or how far our voices might carry, it was better not to talk aloud. Especially when we had another option. And just how do you intend to remedy the situation when you"re never around and never in Melbourne?
He didn"t answer-no surprise there-just edged around the corner. Another corridor and door ahead.
No guards? Which was a dumb question, really, when he was already walking forward.
Not yet. They might be on the other side of the door, though.
You know, something about the lack of security in this place just doesn"t sit right. Surely the first places Starr would send troops to would be his research areas and labs...
I broke off suddenly.
What if he had sent his troops to his labs and research areas? What if he was protecting them?
Maybe the guards Quinn had spotted in the forest were heading in there for that very reason-to guard the exit or entrance to the one place Starr had to protect above everything else.
A large leap? Maybe. Except that Iktar had said that when he and his people were transferred, they didn"t seem to be out of it for very long. I"d taken that he meant only a few hours, but maybe he really did mean minutes.
Maybe the reason it had seemed that way was because the labs that made the creatures just like him was here, right under our very feet.
Of course, that would also mean there was an entrance somewhere in these hills large enough to take trucks, and surely the Directorate, with all its scanning equipment and satellites, would have spotted it by now.
Maybe not. Quinn had stopped at the next door.
Why not? An entrance big enough to take trucks needs roads heavy enough to take them. Not an easy thing to conceal in a forest.
It is if it is disguised as something else. Are there any quarries or logging camps nearby, perhaps?I have no idea.
But Jack will.
Yeah.
I keyed the code into the door then stepped back to give him access to the thumb coder. The labs being underground would certainly explain why Jack and the Directorate have been unable to discover any suspect buildings with their satellites.
But how could Starr do that much excavating without anyone taking note?
The only thing new about these tunnels are the doors. The concrete surrounding us is old. Decades old.
The cartel has been playing around in the DNA pool for forty years.
This place is older than that. Much older.
The light above the sensors clicked from red to green. Quinn grasped the door handle and hauled it open.
And that"s about the time the s.h.i.t hit the fan.
Air stirred, coming at us with the velocity of a train. For a heartbeat I thought it was merely trapped air rushing out, but then I caught the smell-fetid, unripe flesh.
I reached out telepathically, trying to catch some sense of what was coming at us, but it was a total dead zone. Not dead as in mind-blind, but dead as in nothing there, just empty s.p.a.ce. The creature wasn"t there in body form, either. Its body heat barely existed, which meant that under infrared the creature was little more than a muted flame of dark, dark red that faded to black toward the extremities.
But dead, dying, or whatever, it was coming at us hard. And it was pretty much a given that it wasn"t rushing to give us a great big hug.
Instinct had me throwing myself into Quinn, knocking us both out of the way. Why, I have no idea-he had infrared and would have seen the creatures the same as me. He grunted as his shoulder hit the wall, then his arms went around me as he steadied us both. A dark shape leapt through the doorway, its guttural howl seeming to echo down the tunnel as it skidded to a halt several feet away.
Or maybe it wasn"t an echo we heard, because suddenly there was another one skidding to a stop beside the first one, this one slightly smaller.
f.u.c.k, Quinn said. Chameleons.
Chameleons were a rare breed of nonhumans who could take on any background, and literally become part of that background. Charmingly, they were also flesh eaters. We"d come across a pack of them once before, and in the end, had only survived because Rhoan, Jack, and Kade had raced to the rescue.
There"d be no such rescue this time.
I pushed away from Quinn, ducked the night dark paw the second creature flung my way, and backpedalled through the door.
The room beyond at least felt bigger than the tunnel and would provide more fighting room. Which I needed, even if Quinn didn"t.
The ones we met at the breeding center didn"t smell this bad. I ducked another blow, then dived in close for a quick one- two punch to the creature"s gut. It felt like I was. .h.i.tting iron. I danced out of the way of the creature"s swipe and watched it warily. This one didn"t seem as fast as the first but that didn"t mean it was slow. Just that I had more of a chance against it. No, these ones rot. Quinn was moving so fast he appeared little more than a blurring rush of flame. It means they are very old.
As old as these tunnels?
Older.
I ducked another blow but missed the follow-up. It hit with the force of a hammer, flinging me off my feet and deep into the darkness of the room.
I grunted as my back hit the floor beyond, and couldn"t stop myself sliding along the slick tiles. Not until I hit something hard and metallic, anyway. Pain slithered up my spine, but the rush of air suggested I had more than a bruise to worry about. I scrambled upright and quickly felt behind me. A table. A metal table. No chance of breaking off a leg and using it as a stake, unfortunately. Not that I knew if a stake killed these things, but it would have been worth the try. That table also meant we"d reached the lab areas-but obviously a disused section, because I couldn"t imagine anyone willingly working in the presence of cannibals.
The creature lunged at me again. I spun and lashed out with a heel, my kick landing high and hard. It staggered back several steps, but managed to swipe one big paw across my shin. Needle sharp nails tore into flesh and blood welled, the sweet scent overriding the foulness of the creatures. Even as I cursed, the darkness stirred.
There were more of them hiding here.
Great. Just f.u.c.king great.
I caught my balance and backed away again. Away from the creature, away from the stirring shadows. Luckily, the room was rectangular, leaving plenty of retreat room before I got into trouble.
Quinn, there"s something else in this room.
I know. He was still near the entrance, but the creature he fought seemed to be slipping into death, the deep red of its life force barely visible, almost entirely swamped by night.
They don"t feel as big, but just as nasty.
They are young.
Young?
As in, a nest of young.
Oh s.h.i.t. No wonder mama and papa were so p.i.s.sed. They were determined to protect their kits, not the labs. We need to get out of here before those youngsters decide to help out.
It would be a better idea than fighting them all right now.
I continued to retreat, watching the creature as I groped behind me in an effort to find each table before I ran into it. Though I couldn"t see an exit through the blackness, logic said there had to be one. I had an odd feeling that if we got out of the lab, the creatures might leave us alone.
Which, considering these creatures were flesh eaters, didn"t exactly make a whole lot of sense. I mean, surely it wasn"t an everyday occurrence that dinner walked so willingly into their lair?
My fingers touched the cold surface of another table. As I edged around it, the creature leapt. Once again I spun and kicked, spraying blood through the air in the process. Claws skittered against the tiles, drawing closer. The young were drawn by the scent of blood more than the need to help their parents.
My blow caught the creature in the gut, the force of it reverberating up my leg. It sent the creature crashing into another table and had to have left a huge dent in the surface. It shook its head and rose to its feet, then launched itself through the air again. I quickly sidestepped. The creature tried to twist around, but its claws found no purchase against the tiled surface and it slid right on by. Giving me the chance I needed to look quickly around.
The young were muted flecks of red huddled in the far left corner of the room. Beyond them was what appeared to be a large fissure in the concrete walls. The exit stood to my right and thankfully, didn"t appear print- or key-coded. As the creature picked itself up and twisted around, I ran like h.e.l.l for the door and hauled it open.
Quinn, I found the exit. Get your b.u.t.t over here.
He didn"t answer, but I"d barely taken a breath when his hand hit my shoulder, sending me flying as he slammed the door shut behind us. There was a thump on the other side, as if a body had hit it. Hard. But the handle didn"t slid downward. Maybe creatures who held no real substance couldn"t open doors-though they sure as h.e.l.l could cause real enough damage to flesh.
Claws might be good against flesh, concrete, and rock but they are of little use against steel. His hand wrapped warmly against my upper arm. Your leg bleeds profusely.
It"s not deep, and we can"t afford any more delays. The words were absent as I climbed to my feet and looked around. We were in a corridor lined with doors. Given there were no aromas other than age riding the air, it was pretty safe to guess they were empty. At the end of a corridor was another containment door, but this wasn"t like the others we"d pa.s.sed so far. It was more the type seen in movies about ships and subs. It had a wheel lock in the center that had to be turned to open or close. As far as I knew, doors like those had been phased out decades ago, which lent weight to Quinn"s earlier statement that this area was far older than the cartel"s usage of it.