Chapter 17

"If there are kids in there, what are we going to do with them?" Carlos asked quietly. "If there are as many as in your facility?"

Which would be just over a hundred. "You're assuming I can get any of them out."

Carlos smiled. "I think you'll find a way to get them all out." He frowned. "Not far back there was a school, and a bus parked to the side. We could use that."

A bus. He really thought I was going to get a hundred kids out of the facility. "Sure, we could use that," I said, but seriously did not mean it. I knew we'd be lucky to get Emerald out. If that was who I was sensing.

"Pete. You take the lead," I said as we got moving. "Killian, you go on point with him."

The boys nodded and started off through the forest, a straight line for the facility that we were about to break into. A facility that likely held my niece.

I looked at Easter, and maybe she was holding it together, but the tension on her was there. The flicker around her left eye. The way she held her mouth slightly crooked.

I didn't ask her if she was willing. She'd either go in or she wouldn't. I turned to Carlos. He was sweating profusely and barely standing as he leaned heavily against the white van.

"Keep holding it, Carlos. But stay here. Cover the van. They're looking at you now, not me."

He crossed himself and let himself back into the van. "I can hold this longer if I lie down."

I looked at Ruby and she tipped her head, her scarred up ears flipping over. She gave a low woof and started out after Pete and Killian.

Easter and I were next, nearly shoulder to shoulder.

"What about me?" Eligor called after us.

"Protect Carlos. And if you find some balls, get Cowboy to throw an EMP pulse in about fifteen minutes," I threw over my shoulder. The kid could have been some help, and in theory Eligor could have too. But I didn't need another person to save where we were going, and I knew it in my gut that was exactly what I'd end up having to do.

As the four of us—five if you counted Ruby—slid through the forest, there was a sensation of being watched that crawled over my skin. "Eyes on us," I said. "Pick up the pace."

Dinah shivered in her holster. "I wish Eleanor was here."

I put a hand on her as I jogged under the wild canopy. I wished the same thing.

Diego was quiet on Easter's back, and I realized that the guns were both quieter than usual. I didn't have much time to think about it, not when I was focusing on what was coming.

"There's no way we can break in a back door," Pete said. "I think we're coming in on the flank."

I frowned up at him. "How are you—?"

"Vivian's feeding me information about the layout. There's a small ventilation shaft that we could use, it runs out into the forest. Might be tough for the dog, and it's a long crawl, but we can use it." Pete looked over his shoulder at me and I could see the worry in him.

"We'd be stuck if they found us," Easter said. "Trapped."

"Sitting ducks," he confirmed. "It's long. Quarter mile of crawling. Drops into a maintenance room in the first basement."

First basement. Which meant it went deep, just like the one I'd broken us out of. My jaw ticked. There was no going back now. I was committed. "Then we'd better haul ass."

I already knew that we'd be sending Ruby in first. She'd go ahead of us and clear the room if we needed. And if this facility was like the other, there would be dogs and cats around. So seeing her wouldn't be an immediate concern. Unlike the rest of us popping in. We would be noticed by the first camera that clicked on our shining faces.

"Why are you smiling?" Pete asked. "You can't seriously be happy about this?"

I winked at him, feeling the rush of the moment crash over me, adrenaline spiking. "I'll never tell."

"Fucking nuts," he whispered.

He led us through the trees, the branches and undergrowth sparse and growing sparser by the step. Pete held up a fist and we all crouched, taking cover where we could. I tucked in behind a tree as a pair of guards strolled past us.

"You going out for drinks tonight, Steve?"

"Fuck. Yeah, I think so. I hate missing out."

"That's what happens when you get married, you miss out."

"Not me! I got two girls on the side, Kiara will never know. Hell, my ex didn't know for years!"

They laughed as they went back and forth, oblivious as humans so often were to the world around them.

Pete wiggled his fingers and we crept forward. The trees thinned more and there was a shining shaft that the smell of cooking grease slid out of. Ruby whined and circled back to me. I put my hand on her. She licked her chops.

Pete had better not drop us into the middle of the kitchen exhaust.

Easter pushed past him to the shaft and slid her hands over it. The screws popped out one at a time and then she pulled she grate off silently. I stepped up next, Ruby's collar tight in my hand. "Let's go." I pointed at the shaft, and she shot in, scrambling along at a speed that none of us were going to be able to match. I went next, and left the rest up to them, but I already knew that Pete would follow first, then Killian would pin the Magelore between us, leaving Easter to pull up the rear and put the screws back in.

I knew it in the sense that their thoughts were brushing up against mine. I wasn't sure I liked it, but in the moment it was useful.

The shaft was barely two feet deep and well rounded, so it was a true army crawl. I didn't bother and try to be quiet. Not with Ruby clattering along ahead of us, her nails clacking on the metal. I just tried to hurry the fuck up.

I counted the seconds, then the minutes as we scrambled along. Not caught. But not out yet either.

A voice ahead of us floated. "Hey, how did you get in there, dog?"

Fuck.

I slowed my pace, moving quieter now.

"Come on, let's get you out of here." There was the sound of someone working a hand tool, the whine of a motor. "Almost there, couple more screws. I wonder if you wandered in from outside. Bet you smelled the cooking. It might smell good, but it's utter shit."

The guy sounded nice. I almost felt bad.

"Ruby," I whispered her name. "Attack."

There was a clatter of the shaft being opened, and then her nails were scrambling on the metal as she launched herself out.

A scream up ahead of me had me pushing harder now. There was the snarl of Ruby, a yip and then silence. I reached the end of the shaft and kicked myself out of the tunnel, dropping to the ground next to Ruby.

The maintenance guy was bleeding out, his eyes wide and his throat ripped out. I pulled Dinah and put her right to his head and squeezed the trigger.

The sound was muffled, her silencer working nicely.

I grabbed his foot and dragged him behind a stack of boxes. As the others dropped out of the vent, I grabbed a mop and cleaned up the blood stains. The last thing we needed was to get the place roused before we were ready.

"His clothes will fit me." Killian bent next to the dead guy and flipped him over. "And he has a key card."

I nodded. "Just the key card. We don't have time for anything else."

Killian grabbed the guy's hat and stuffed it low on his head. "Just in case."

"Let's go." I motioned for him and Pete to lead once more. "We take out cameras as we see them. If Cowboy and Eligor come through, we'll get an EMP pulse in less than ten minutes."

Diego laughed from Easter's back. "Why not just use that electrical kick you get from your fuck buddy there, and fry them?"

The fact that a gun had the most sensible solution to what we were doing was almost embarrassing if you didn't think about the fact that he'd been a killer in his previous life.

"He has a point," Dinah said. "But I could run the lightning easier than that big brute."

"I'm no brute, you tiny bitch!" Diego snapped.

That the guns were arguing again meant that they were back to normal. Or as normal as talking guns are going to get.

Killian grinned and I didn't think anything of it until he grabbed me, yanked me to him and kissed me hard. The kiss was brutal, crushing and everything I could have wanted in that moment, and it was followed by a rush of electricity that ripped through my body and pooled at that spot in my lower spine.

He let me go, the grin on his face saying it all. That and the hard-on now pressed against my thigh. "You got it?"

I nodded, not sure I could have spoken. Intimacy between us had always been hard, sharp, and full of his electricity. This was setting off all my bells and whistles. I drew a breath, calmed my heart, and stepped out of the maintenance room. Killian's power hummed as I called it up through my body, down my arm and into Dinah as I squeezed her trigger.

The electricity was far more accurate this way as it slammed into the camera and sent a shockwave through the entire system. The lights flickered, but we were already moving, Pete ahead of us in a flash. "This way!"

He found a stairwell that went down, and we launched into it, running full speed. Ruby passed us all, leaping almost from one landing to the next. The lights steadied up, which meant we might not have a lot of time before the cameras were up and running again. Backup generators were kicking in, which meant backup cameras would be too.

"They might already know we're here," Easter said, her voice strained.

"Keep moving," I said. "We'll scramble if we have to."

I glanced at Killian and almost asked Ipos for some help. Almost. He turned to me, eyes blue and winked, as if he knew. Fucker.

At the bottom of seven flights, we found our first guards. Four of them. Once for each of us, though Dinah wasn't happy about sharing. Their bodies went down in under a second. Well, Pete took a little longer, but they were down, and we had more key cards.

This is where I made the hard decision. "Pete. You're with me. Easter, go with Killian and figure out if Emerald is here."

I motioned for her and handed her Dinah; she gave me Diego. "She'll know if it's her."

There were no goodbyes. "Meet back here. If the others aren't here when the EMP pulse hits, go."

Go.

Killian's eyes met mine in a silent farewell.

It was all we had.

Pete motioned with his head as we stepped through the door the guards had been ahead of and stepped into something far worse than I could have imagined.

"Fuck," Pete whispered.

The walls, floor and ceiling were bright white, and the inmates were all dressed in ankle-length scrubs so you could see tiny bare feet. The kids all turned to look at us, worry etching in their faces.

"Their handlers will know," I said, rage roaring up through me, the fire that was in me burning hot when I thought about Vivian. Saying that they were better off dead. That I should just burn an entire facility full of abnormal children.

I reached for the kid closest to me, a little boy with sandy brown hair and pale green eyes. He blinked up at me as I cupped his face and let my fire run through him, finding the connection to his handler. "Son of a bitch," I growled as I burned that connection so hard and fast, I felt the handler reel backward, felt something in the handler break. I pushed the kid to Pete.

"What am I supposed to do with the kid? What about Vivian?"

I didn't look at him, just took the next kid by the head and did the same thing, burning it out of him, leaving the boy gasping and me breaking out in a sweat. It really was exactly what I'd done for Easter not all that long ago. Except that they weren't held as tightly as her mind was, so the fix was easier. Faster. I kept grabbing the kids, literally touching their faces as I spoke through gritted teeth. "If you can find her, bring her here."

As I burned through the kid, I reached for that connection to Easter and Killian and called them back to us. They busted through the door a second later.

I looked at Easter and Killian. "We can't leave them."

Easter's face was grim. "Then we have to move fast. There are easily a hundred kids here. Carlos was right about that."

A hundred and how many adults? Not many.

I took a breath and dove in, calling up that fire that burned even through the river that I'd created inside my mind.

There was no try, there was no maybe.

I wasn't leaving a single kid behind.