Fated in Stone, page 27
She gestured to one of her thigh pockets and her ever presence multi-purpose knife. “Got a few picks in the knife that I can use for most ordinary locks. Codes and card swipes and biosensors are a lot harder, though. I won’t be able to do those on the fly. Which kind of locks did the doors have?”
He was still giving her a look, but said, “I didn’t look that closely. I was just going to kick it in.”
She chuckled despite herself. “Brut. That’s not a very subtle entrance.”
“The motion sensors are going to take this out of our hands, anyway. We’ll have to save your lock picking skills for another time.”
“Making that much noise to get inside isn’t going to make this easy.” She glanced back at the building, at the roof. Her gaze narrowed. “You can really leap all the way up there?”
“I can. It’s a bit of a stretch, but possible. Some monsters are pretty large and we have to be able to cut off their heads, so…the ability to jump high comes with the job.”
She wondered if she could jump higher than she was used to now. “What would happen if you set off motion detectors up there?”
“Make a hell of a noise inside, I imagine. Send all the monsters and humans with guns up to the roof—except for the ones that would hurry to remove the professor from the building or put him into a more secure section.”
She nodded. “Would they still hear the motion detectors around the ground level?” She met his gaze, her lips pursed. “Or would they be too distracted to notice a second break in?”
He lifted his head, and his brows snapped down. And for a few beats she was certain he’d argue against her plan. She wasn’t particularly happy about the plan herself since it involved splitting up and she’d just made a point of ensuring they’d do this together. But technically, this was “doing this together” because they would be working together to the same end. Not him just running in blind and leaving her behind.
To her surprise, he didn’t argue against her plan. “They might have enough people to still notice the second break in,” he said. “But given the number they had at the house, given what we’ve found during previous attempts to retrieve one of their scientists, I doubt they have many more, if any more, than they did previously. For all the building is huge, they keep personnel numbers down. Either they just don’t have that many humans working with them that they trust, or they’re doing it on purpose to minimize leaks and mistakes.”
“Makes sense.” She hoped. If there were only the same number of humans with weapons as had been at the house—five at a minimum, but probably not more than seven had been there based on the number of cars—they could divide and conquer that number to get the professor out.
The hitch was the monsters. How many? What kind? Would there be more of that goo with half formed monsters ready to attack. She shivered at the thought.
At Ben’s sharp look, she said, “Just remembering the black goo with monster parts. They’ll have that here, boxes with that stuff in it, won’t they?”
“Maybe. Hard to say. But possible.” He sighed. “Probable.”
She tried not to let doubt creep in. She wasn’t sure how she’d face Sherry Arron if she failed and the professor died. So Elle just wouldn’t fail. Black goo be damned.
“Anything I should know before we split up and make this happen?” she asked. The fact that she hadn’t had to actually say the plan out loud, that he’d figured out her idea without her needing to outline it, left her feeling…soft. Settled. Like they were a team already. And that shored up her wobbly confidence.
“The grinluk will be in there. I’ll try to keep it occupied. If it comes after you, run. Avoid it. There might be more than one grinluk, too. As well as other monsters.”
She forced herself not to shiver again. The memory of that first monster, of the horrible sound of its voice speaking actual words, haunted her. Running away from something like that was not going to be difficult.
“The humans will have guns, too,” Ben warned.
“I’m not worried about the humans.” And she wasn’t. She could shoot them. Shooting the grinluk, even repeatedly in the face, wouldn’t kill it. She just hoped her new speed meant she could outrun it. She glanced upward. There were no clouds in in the dark sky, just stars winking down at them, oblivious to the troubles of mere mortals. No clouds meant no rain. Probably. But she patted the quiver strap again. “And I have some of these in case an Elemental shows up.”
Ben closed his eyes briefly. “If there’s an Elemental, we’re fucked, so run away. No matter what. Run away. Better yet, don’t let the Elemental see you or know about you.”
She nodded. She was already running high on adrenaline, but the thought of facing something like an Elemental pushed that rush of fear and focus a little higher.
“Remember,” Ben said, facing her fully, “if you have to use the arrows, hitting an Elemental in the head will dissipate it for a very long time. Longer than either of our lifetimes. But hitting it anywhere else will at least dissipate it long enough for us to escape.”
“Got it. Aim for the head. Be happy with anywhere else at all.”
He handed her one of the fire daggers he’d brought as well, despite her protest that she couldn’t use it. “Just in case,” he said. “Just…in case.”
She glanced down at the weapon. At first blush it looked like a pretty ordinary dagger. It was beautifully made of course. Ben’s craftsmanship was impressive. About seven inches long, two-sided blade honed to extremely sharp edges. The hilt was simple, wrapped in soft black leather, with a small t-shaped hand guard, and a silver pommel etched with a stylized flame. As Ben handed her the dagger, faint bluish light danced along the blade briefly, illuminating a series of archaic symbols along its length, then faded away so the symbols were no longer visible, even when she turned the blade to catch what light the half moon and stars provided. The arrows hadn’t done that. But then, she hadn’t had time to study the arrowheads.
“Careful with it. Don’t cut yourself.”
She glanced up. “What happens if I use this on a human?”
“They’ll burn.”
“Ah!” She held the thing out from her, carefully keeping the blade angled away from her body.
“Not immolate,” he reassured. “They’ll get a burn around the stab wound. But the magic is designed for Water Elementals, not humans. No dissipating for humans.”
“Okay.” She happily took the small scabbard he handed her for the blade and tucked the sharp edges of the knife away. Then she slid the whole thing into the thigh pocket of her cargo pants next to the smallest of her guns, leaving the pocket’s flap tucked behind the dagger so she could grab the weapon easier. “We’d better get moving.” She gave Ben a long look. “Be careful.”
Without a word, he pulled her close and kissed her, hard and quick, but with a lot of feeling she didn’t have time to analyze.
When he released her, he brushed his knuckles along her cheek. “Give me two minutes to get to the roof and cause a distraction. Then go in. And if anything goes wrong, run back to the car. I’ll find you. Just get out of here.”
She nodded, even though, honestly, if something went wrong, she wasn’t sure she’d live long enough to run away. “Don’t get killed,” she said. “We still have unresolved issues I’d like to resolve.”
A tick at the side of his mouth that looked suspiciously like a smile. He kissed her hard again, leaving her breathless.
Then flashed away in that movement that was too fast for her to see.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Elle crept around the house to the side of the building where Ben had said the door was. Looking from the trees, she couldn’t see it herself. But once she started across the small expanse of open, grassy ground toward the structure, she spotted it. The faint rectangular outline against the rest of the three-story box’s unbroken stonework.
She crouched low as she jogged to the door. Despite the darkness and only a half moon for light, she was able to see decently. Which meant the other humans could probably see too. She had no idea if the grinluk could see in the dark but since that would be just her luck, she assumed she was visible, even in the shadows beside the building. Those shadows were deeper on this side. No security lights popped on when she neared the door. The motion detectors weren’t apparently set to scare intruders off, just alert those inside to someone creeping around outside.
She scanned her surroundings as she knelt down next to the door, then turned to study the lock. There wasn’t a fancy locking panel or biometrics to get thru. Not even a code panel. There was a flat metal panel to one side of the door, which after some study looked to be a place holder for something. She could be wrong, the panel could have a purpose, but she’d swear this building’s security wasn’t finished yet. There probably was meant to be some sort of coded lock installed at some point. It just hadn’t been yet. That made her life a bit easier.
The flat, mostly featureless door did have a key-lock—a pickable one—but no doorknob, peephole or handle. She glanced at the panel again. Maybe a camera rather than a placeholder for a more complicated lock?
Too late to worry about that now. She’d set off motion detectors getting next to the building anyway. If the entire place hadn’t raced up to the roof to confront Ben’s more obvious attack, there’d be someone…or something waiting on the other side of this door.
She pulled out her multi-purpose knife and slid out the set of picks that slotted into the top of the knife’s casing. The picks were her custom addition to the tool, after she’d swapped out weak metal tweezers, because, as her father had taught her a little too well, you never knew what you might need.
Noise from overhead finally disturbed the quiet night. Shouting. The sound of gunfire. Fuck. Okay. Ben’s distraction was in full swing.
Elle fisted her hand when it started to shake, relaxed it and let out a long breath at the same time. Concentrate. This took focus and a steady hand and her panicking over Ben being in danger wasn’t going to get her part of the job done.
The irony of worrying about a man who regularly fought monsters confronting some humans with guns was not lost on her. But he had just been shot a couple of days ago. And if he got shot again, he’d have to let his wolf leap from his body. And that would leave his stone human form vulnerable.
And none of this thinking was helping!
She focused on the lock and slowing her breathing. When she was sure her hands were steady, she inserted the picks and made quick work of the lock. It wasn’t a complicated one. She’d practice on a lot worse. Given some of the other security, the simple lock seemed weird. But again, maybe the place wasn’t finished?
Or maybe having monsters roaming around inside was enough of a deterrent, no one thought they needed anything more sophisticated.
Once the lock was open, the door swung outward enough for her to slide her fingers into a small gap and push it the rest of the way open. No door handle needed. She stood to one side as she eased the door wide, waiting for the rush of an attack or gunfire. She stayed low to the ground as she peeked around the edge of the door frame, quickly, testing.
When no shots ricocheted over her head, she risked a longer look. It was dark inside. Almost too dark. But there was just enough illumination from dim blue emergency lights lining the floor near the walls that she could see the corridor was clear. No monsters waiting and ready to jump on her. No visible tentacles.
She shivered and for some reason looked up at the corridor ceiling, then sagged against the wall when she didn’t spot anything there. That would have been creepy as fuck.
Once she was certain nothing would jump at her the minute she got inside, she slipped through the doorway and into the darker shadows against the corridor wall. The door behind her swung shut, but not fully. Without the lock engaged, it hung open about an inch. She left it that way. Someone patrolling would notice, but she didn’t want to lock her escape route behind her and then not be able to get out of the building fast. She’d just have to hope no one else came along and locked the door.
From the distant shouting and continued gunfire overhead, she had to assume Ben was keeping everyone else occupied. There weren’t any sounds inside that she could hear, though she was straining the edge of her abilities to catch even the tiniest of noise. She crept forward along the windowless, doorless expanse of white walls and white linoleum floors. The sterility of that left her edgy and uncomfortable. The place felt sort of like a hospital.
But it didn’t smell like one. In fact, it didn’t smell like anything at all. Which was really surprising. With monsters and humans here, she’d have assumed she’d smell…something. Not even cleaning solution or bleach, though. Nothing at all.
Weird.
When she reached the end of the corridor, it branched off in two directions into the building. She scanned both, moving one direction a few yards, looking for a door, then the other, hunting for a clue for which way to go. Letting her tracking sense pick up the appropriate path.
A skittering noise from farther down one corridor made her gut clench. Ben had warned her there’d be monsters in here. Her brain pulled up the image of those little monsters jumping out of the burning goo, only to get caught in the fire. What happened when there was no fire to stop all those tiny monsters from escaping?
The thought made her muscles tight and sent a wave of nausea through her. Her every primitive instinct screamed to run away, get as far from this building as possible. There were fucking monsters in here. Real ones. The kind in horror movies and novels that skittered around and jumped out of nowhere and ate the humans stupid enough to just be standing there in the middle of a dark corridor.
Which she was doing. Just standing there. Frozen after hearing that skittering sound.
She tightened her jaw, grinding her teeth together to hold in the squealing scream clawing to get out. Screaming would only draw attention. Last thing she wanted was attention from the monsters. She slid her multi-purpose knife back into her thigh pocket and took a two-handed grip on her shotgun.
With a deep breath, she followed the skittering sound. Cussing up a storm in her head as she went.
This was just the kind of dumb ass thing that got people killed in movies. Walking toward the strange noise instead of running away. She couldn’t believe she was walking toward a probable monster. Unfortunately, her tracking instincts insisted that was the direction she had to go.
The corridor bent into another and then another, a kind of maze that she realized mimicked the stacks of wooden crates in the house in the woods. Those crates had been filled with black goo and monsters and that filled her imagination with the unlikely possibility that the walls were filled with black goo and monsters.
She readjusted her grip on her shotgun, keeping the muzzle pointed toward the ground in front of her, her finger alongside the trigger, near to but not on it. She was so jumpy she was likely to shoot her foot off if she wasn’t careful.
Another skittering sound ahead and a high-pitched chittering. She jumped and locked her teeth together to hold in another scream trying to escape. Walking towards the monsters? She couldn’t believe she was doing this.
A flash of movement ahead of her, too fast for her to see more than a shadow. A steady stream of fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck ran through her head as she raised her shotgun just a little and continued to creep forward. She kept her back to the corridor wall now, sliding along it, scanning the corridor behind her as well as in front, hoping she’d see the attack before it happened.
More skittering, like a thousand sharp needles moving over the linoleum floor. She shivered.
And then she heard a grunt. A very human sounding grunt. A muted curse. And… Was that a hiss?
She moved faster, as fast as she dared, toward another bend in the maze, her ears hurting she was straining so hard to hear what was happening ahead of her.
Rounding the corner with her gun half raised, her heart pounding in her throat, she skidded to a halt and blinked at the scene before her.
“Professor Arron?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The older man stood in the middle of the corridor, over…something, a sword in one hand, panting, sweat coating his dark skin. Blood dripped from the sword, but the thing, whatever it had been, lay in a heap, and there was a smaller heap rolled up against the wall.
Elle didn’t look too closely at the dead monster, or the creature’s head. There were some images she just didn’t need in her memory. The sewage and decay stench of the dead monster, the first thing she’d smelled since entering the box building, was enough to make her gag without having to see the creature in detail. She got the impression of lots of spindly legs and a hard shell of a body, though. Which was more than she wanted to know. She did note that the creature wasn’t spilling black goo and that gave her room to breathe around her fear and disgust.
But she kept most of her attention on the man she was here to save.
Gabe Arron startled and blinked, looking up at her. His glasses reflected faint light from an open door at his back, so she couldn’t see his eyes, but his mouth opened in a silent gasp. The room through the open door showed a series of tables and lab equipment like there’d been in the house.
Elle took a single step toward the man, her free hand raised in a calming gesture. “I’m Elle Barker. Your wife, Sherry, sent me to find you. We have to get you out of here. I have a friend. He’s keeping the others occupied. Let’s go.” She reached toward him, flicking her fingers, motioning him to follow.
“My wife? My wife sent you?”
“Hurry, Professor. I’ll explain when we’re safe.”
He stumbled around the body of the dead monster, his breathing rapid. “My wife sent you? She…she sent you?”
“Yes.” Elle, shoulders to the corridor wall again, crept back the direction she’d come. She’d memorized the turns, but given the lack of features, doors, or even smells beyond the stench of the dead monster behind them, she had to hope she could get them out without getting lost.
