Mikal (Second Wave Book 3) (11 page)

Chris looked to Lara, hoping for some help, and she grinned as she blew out a golden ring of energy around her, calming the siblings.

The forced calm had the side benefit of making them all realize just how dangerous it was to even consider going in. Their presence had already been discovered. Every moment they spent there was another chance the humans would have to capture or kill them.

After long moments of silence, Reign finally spoke.

“Thing is, they’re expecting us to turn and run. They’re not expecting us to keep coming . . . we’d have an advantage,” he said, looking around to see several of his siblings nodding their heads in agreement.

“I agree. But they need to go . . . where’s Chance?” Angel said, looking around for Chance.

“Hell! Where’s Ranger,” Cole asked.

“Damn it! Gear up!” Chris said.

Mikal started to take off after Chance when Chris grabbed his arm tightly.

“You’re not going off alone!” Chris said harshly.

He and Mikal glared at one another for a moment, until Angel stepped up and put her hand on Mikal’s arm.

“Gods forbid if something happens to her . . . her sisters need you,” Angel said gently before heading off after her mate and siblings who started making their way towards the lab.

Mikal shook off Chris’s hand and followed his sister as he spoke to Chance privately.

“You better damn well get back here!” he told her.

Chance swiftly replied.

“I’m not being hauled out of here by anyone. Those are my people, and I’m going to get them out,” she said, determined not to be kept out of the way.

“We don’t just up and walk off! No one would have taken you out of here against your will! Now get back here,” Mikal said, not liking her defiance of his request.

“Ranger and I will leave a few alive,” Chance said before she severed the energy connection.

Mikal cursed aloud and looked over at Chris.

“We better hurry,” he said before he started to jog towards the lab with Chris on his heels. 

“Siggy, Dante, get me access into that damn lab,” Chris called through the comm as he hurdled small bushes to catch up to Chance and the bloodthirsty cat.

“We’re working on it,” Dante replied.

“We may need someone alive,” Siggy warned.

Chris cursed in his mind. They were making a lot of damn assumptions, and the more they made, the less confident he was that they were doing the right thing. For all they knew, there were hundreds of armed security guards waiting for them in that lab.

This is too disorganized
, he thought to himself, trying to figure out what he had overlooked.

Although Chance had severed communication with Mikal, he was still able to follow her unique energy signature right to where she stood over two security personnel, Ranger hissing by her side.

They were just outside the opening to an underground garage. The interior was completely dark and the entry to the lab was nowhere to be seen. Mikal watched as Chris silently directed his siblings and the Tezarians to fan out and secure the area.

They paid little attention to the two men silenced by Chance with a finger over her mouth until everyone reported the garage was secure.

When Chris got the word, he turned to Chance and Ranger’s prisoners.

“Who were you expecting and why?” Chris asked as he kneeled down in front of the two frightened men.

They both looked to Chance with frightened eyes before the older of the two looked at Chris.

“Who are you?” he asked, his voice trembling.

Chris chuckled quietly.

“Guess you weren’t expecting us then. How many are inside?” he asked.

“Don’t say shit!” the younger man said as he spit at Chris.

Within seconds, Chance had pulled a blade and drew a thin line of blood across the mouthy man’s neck. She leaned closer to him.

“We only need one of you alive,” she threatened before she sat back and wiped the blade on his pant leg.

The older man cleared his throat and trembled slightly.

“There are five medical staff and eight more Halliston private security,” he said, looking fearfully at Chris.

“Who were you expecting?” Chris asked.

The older man looked at Chance with terror in his eyes before he turned back to Chris.

“Her,” he said.

“No one else?” Chris asked.

“No. Who are you?” the man asked again.

“How do we get in?” Chris asked, ignoring the question.

The man shook his head.

“They know everyone was killed in the field. We heard it through the radios. They’ve initiated a lock down. Our codes won’t work to get inside. They would have called for backup by now,” he said, hoping the thought of backup would scare the strangers off.

“Siggy get us inside,” Chris said as he stood then looked back down at the Halliston mercenary.

“What was the energy field you used to take her down?” he asked.

The man shook his head.

“I don’t know. They told us to look for where it sparks; we’d find her near it. What are you people?” the older mercenary asked.

He knew he was going to die. But before he went, he wanted to know what it was that was going to kill him.

“Siggy . . .” Chris said into his comm, ignoring the mercenary again.

“We’re working on it!” Dante retorted.

“This is taking too long,” Lara said, looking at the skies, expecting to see choppers appear at any second.

“Deacon, get in the air, we may need support,” Chris ordered through the comm, also feeling nervous about how long it was taking.

Mikal could feel the frustration building in Chance, and he moved to her side and put his arm around her shoulder, gently squeezing her.

Chance forced herself to smile up at Mikal, appreciating his calm energy even though she wanted to pound on the inner door with her fists until it opened. They stood like that for several minutes until they heard Siggy whoop through the comm.

“Get to the door people! Dante and I got it!”

Chris silently signaled his team, and he led them inside the dark garage to where the inner door to the lab was on the right.

They formed lines on both sides of the door as they heard the strangled screams of the two security personnel they’d left outside. Moments later, a too-happy Ranger and his crew jogged inside, dispersing themselves equally among the teams on each side of the door.

Chris looked at Ranger, his eyes chastising the cat for the kills while the cat grinned and shrugged a shoulder. Chris was getting ready to say something when he heard a loud mechanical click and rush of air, denoting the pneumatic release on the door.

Mikal looked down at Chance beside him.

“Stay with us this time!” he warned as Chris got ready to open the door.

Chance nodded her head. She knew she’d screwed up by rushing ahead earlier, and she wasn’t going to make the same mistake again. She’d felt Mikal’s fear and didn’t want to make him worry like that again—especially not when that concern could make him reckless. She knew more than anyone how recklessness could get you killed in the labs.

Gun pulled the door open slowly, his siblings ready to rush through when Ranger and his cats went flying through the small opening. Screams and shots rang out while Chris and the others rushed inside to try and cover the crazy cats and their insane leader.

Chapter Eleven

Mikal sprinted ahead of his brothers as he took off down a long concrete hallway that they assumed led to the interior lab. Screams, growls, and gunfire echoed down the hallway, and Mikal stepped over the bodies of several security guards before he turned the corner and stopped.

He barely noticed the others come up behind him as he stared at the scene in front of them. Ranger stood atop the prone figure of a man in a lab coat, his dangerous and sharp teeth locked around the man’s neck as he growled.

Several other cats had a security guard pressed up against a glass wall, his hands above his head as his eyes pleaded with the Dranovians and Tezarians to help him. There were three other people in various states of similar distress around the room. Two more were obviously dead.

Mikal and the others relaxed their weapons and immediately spread out to secure the rest of the lab. Chance walked up to the wall of glass and looked into the examination room on the other side.

“There’s the door to the cells,” she said as she pointed to a door inside the examination room.

Mikal looked inside the empty room to the door on the other side and turned to the closest person held captive by one of the cats. He kneeled down to look into the terrified eyes of the man with Ranger’s teeth locked around his throat. 

“How many are being held in there?” he asked.

When the man just stared in terror, Mikal became irritated.

“You can either tell me what I want to know or the cat can end this now,” Mikal warned.

Chris chuckled.

“Obviously, none of these idiots want to live and come work for us the way Dr. Mussberger did,” he said, hoping an incentive would loosen some tongues.

One of the guards, disarmed and cornered by the cats, cleared his throat nervously.

“I just started here this week man. I didn’t sign up for this shit! Just tell me what you want to know, and I’ll help you,” he said.

Chris stared hard at the guard before he nodded his head and the cats backed away from him.

“Can you open the doors in there?” Chris asked, pointing to the door in the examination room.

“Yeah, man. They don’t let me in there though. I’m usually outside. They say they have two . . . creatures in there that are dangerous,” the guard said.

“We know; just open the door,” Mikal said angrily.

The guard nodded and held up his hand to point to the computer on the desk near Chance.

“I need to enter a code in that computer. Then when we get inside the examination room, I need to enter another one to get into the cells,” the guard said nervously.

Chris nodded as Mikal and the others pointed their weapons at him, leaving no doubt he’d be dead long before he hit the ground if he did something stupid.

They made a path to the computer, and the guard quickly walked over and entered a code. Seconds later, there was a click and a hiss as the glass door popped open. Chris and Mikal were the first in the room, followed by Chance, while the others left another path for the guard to enter.

Chris and Mikal moved to the door and looked in through the glass.

“Get it open now!” Mikal roared in rage.

“What is it?” Chance asked as she tried to move Mikal away from the window in the door.

“Get her away! Lara, Grant, Luca, get over here now!” Chris ordered.

Mikal grabbed hold of Chance’s arms and pushed her back into the examination room as she fought against him.

“Stop!” Mikal said, shaking her a little to get her attention.

When her eyes locked on his own and she stopped struggling, he leaned his forehead to hers and sent her calming energy.

“One of them is badly injured . . . she needs help right now, not your rage. Or my own,” Mikal whispered brokenly, trying to get the image of the captive out of his mind.

“Mikal! Chance! We really need you to come and calm down the other female!” Chris called out.

Mikal pulled back from Chance and looked deep into her sad eyes.

“Let’s try and get our people through this and out of here,” he said before taking her hand and leading her to the door.

Mikal knew his brother had intentionally had the first female, the one on the gurney, surrounded by his siblings so he and Chance couldn’t see her. He didn’t need to look again; it was imprinted in his mind and would live in his nightmares.

Mikal shook himself and moved to the open cell door and looked in at the small child huddled in a corner underneath a raised, metal bed. He stopped the curse that almost escaped when she whimpered and shook at his presence.

Chance gasped and dropped to her knees on the floor.

“Hi. My name is Chance,” she said softly, trying to get the little girl to look at her.

When the child only tried to draw herself more tightly into a ball, Chance sighed.

“I didn’t have a real name until yesterday. Before that, I was called Alpha Two and I lived in a place just like this one with four other girls just like you. And me,” she said sadly, opening her energy to the little girl.

Mikal held his breath as the little girl shifted ever so slightly, and one small white eye peeked out from a long curtain of white hair. He heard the little one draw in a shuddering breath before she reached up a small hand and pushed her hair out of her face.

“Did they bring you here to kill you too?” she whispered.

“No!” Chance said loudly, causing the little girl to flinch.

Chance winced at her own stupidity and looked at Mikal with unshed tears in her eyes.

Mikal turned to the small girl and smiled gently, sending the child calming and safe energy.

“No, honey. We came here to free you. Like we did Chance’s sisters. You can even pick a name, just like they did. Come out, honey; let us show you what it is like to be out of here. For good,” he said, holding out a large hand to the frightened child.

The little girl shook her head vehemently and pulled her knees tighter to her chest.

“No, they killed her. Right outside the door. I heard her screaming and screaming. She begged them to stop, and they laughed at her!” she said putting her hands over her ears and beginning to cry hysterically.

Mikal stood and strode over to the bed. Reaching under it, he gently pulled the child from underneath and held her tightly in his arms.

“You’re safe now, little one. I will let nothing hurt you again,” Mikal promised the child shaking uncontrollably in his arms.

Without looking at Chance, he left the cell and made sure that the child didn’t see his frantic siblings trying to save the other female.

Keeping himself focused solely on the child, Mikal walked past his somber siblings and out of the lab, into the darkness of the night. The further he walked, the more the child calmed down until he was standing in an area completely surrounded by trees and shrubs, and she picked her head off his shoulder and sucked in a startled breath.

“It’s so pretty,” she said as she tilted her head back and looked at the sky.

“Take a deep breath and taste the wonder of the air,” Chance said as she walked up beside Mikal and smiled at the little girl.

The child took an exaggerated breath and smiled broadly at Chance.

“It tastes so good!” she said in wonder.

Chance chuckled softly.

“Yes, it does. Wait until you meet the others. We’re all like you . . . we’re sisters,” Chance said with a catch in her voice.

“Do you have a name you’d like to be called?” Mikal asked.

The little girl looked up and stared at the sky again as she shook her head slowly.

“Donor pigs aren’t allowed to have names,” she said sadly.

Mikal was so startled by what the tiny child said that he felt like he’d been slapped. He looked questioningly at Chance whose face was a mask of horror.

“It’s true?” she asked on a choked whisper.

“Is what true?” Mikal asked.

Mikal didn’t get an answer as his siblings began running out of the lab and they turned to join them as the transport moved above them and began to hover.

“Hold her,” Mikal said and handed the small girl to Chance before walking towards his brother Chris.

“Get up and out of here! We got less than five!” Chris called out.

Mikal looked around suspiciously as his siblings, and the Tezarians made a point of avoiding his gaze before porting into the transport.

What the hell now?
he wondered.

“Chris,” Mikal asked, drawing closer to his brother.

Chris shook his head, knowing they had no time to talk. Not here. Not now. He’d made a rash decision, one he was sure he’d regret later, but right then, he didn’t care. He put his hand on Mikal’s shoulder and hit his port stone, taking them both into the hovering transport.

“Hey!” Mikal began before he saw that Lara had brought Chance and the small child aboard.

Mikal looked around as the ship quickly filled with the others and the curiously subdued Sibiox cats.

It was who was missing that caught his attention. That and the sad and sickened looks on the faces of his siblings and the Tezarians told him something was seriously wrong.

Mikal looked at Chris and spoke to him through the Shengari’.

“What the hell is going on? Where is the other female?” Mikal asked as he stared at his brother until Chris looked away.

“Everyone’s here!” Shane called out.

“Go! Go! Go!” Chris called out to Deacon, seconds before the transport took off.

Mikal grabbed Chris’s arm to get his attention when the ship was rocked by a percussion wave. He stumbled, using his hold on his brother’s arm to propel them both against the wall where they could grab the straps hanging down from the ceiling.

Once they both had a strap and regained their footing, Mikal pressed his brother up against the wall with his larger body.

“Tell me what the hell you just did!” Mikal growled at Chris through the Shengari’.

Chris pushed Mikal away from him enough to put some space between them and looked past Mikal to the opposite wall.

“I . . .” Chris said then shook his head.

Mikal looked at the others and noticed that they were all intentionally avoiding his gaze.

Mikal grabbed Chris by the shoulders and threw him into the wall of the ship.

“You better tell me something now, brother, or we’re going to have a problem,” Mikal said with a low growl.

Chris still wouldn’t meet Mikal’s gaze.

“I did what we had to do,” Chris whispered hoarsely.

Mikal was getting ready to shake the information out of his brother when Declan, Liam, and Lara pulled him away from Chris as Lara used her energy to force Mikal into a seat and keep him there.

Lara sat next to him and held his immobile hand as Mikal glared at Chris.

“Don’t blame him. The blame rests elsewhere. He made a tough call, one that he will have to face your father over. One that you will understand when we get back,” Lara said softly, a single tear slipping down her cheek.

Mikal looked over at Lara, the sick feeling in his stomach growing as he saw Dree and Angel trying their best to keep the small girl and Chance distracted. The energy in the craft was one of immense horror and sorrow.

“What the hell happened?” he asked Lara privately through the Shengari’.

Lara sighed heavily and patted Mikal’s hand before looking at him.

“You know what you saw. It was worse than that. They’d . . .” Lara paused to take a deep breath.

“We couldn’t have saved her,” Lara finally said.

Lara wished she could scrub the images from her mind, but she knew they would haunt her and the others forever.

“You blew the place with her inside? What if they recover something?” Mikal whispered angrily, hoping Chance wouldn’t hear.

Chris sat on the other side of Mikal and rubbed a hand down his face.

“We took the hard drives . . . everything Dante and Siggy will need to find the other labs. The detonation . . . she wanted to do it herself. We gave her a dec charge,” Chris said softly.

Mikal sucked in a sharp breath. Something as powerful as a dec charge would bring down their father on them. He looked around at his siblings and the Tezarians and noted the sorrow and emotional pain bleeding from them, and he knew. He’d been trying to tell himself that it hadn’t been as bad as he thought, that his eyes had played tricks on him.

“What of the child?” he asked as he saw Luca and Grant scanning the small girl in Chance’s arms.

“We have Amun, Sergei, and Lauren waiting for her. It’s bad, Mikal, but Luca thinks we got to her in time,” Chris said sadly as he looked up at the scared and shaken child.

“Are you sure . . .” Mikal began before Chris cut him off.

“Yes! Damn . . . yes. I can’t get into it right now. None of us can . . . Amun can tell you more. Let’s just try and keep the little one alive and safe,” Chris said hoarsely before he stood and walked down the aisle and into the cockpit.