Chapter 6

Peter didn't argue with me after I shared that little gem about Cowboy. He just adjusted the kid on his shoulder and fell in behind me.

"This way," Eligor said softly, tugging my hand.

He didn't lead so much as direct me and let me lead. Which was fine. I could feel him in my head still, present but not trying to direct me like that other one had done. The alarm turned off as suddenly as it had started, leaving my ears ringing in the silence.

All of a minute and a half had passed. I knew we had another thirty seconds tops based on what I'd seen when the guards were to put down trouble. Under two minutes or they were in shit so deep, they were breathing it in.

"That's not good," Peter muttered.

I didn't disagree but said nothing. "Dinah, you ready?"

"Always," she growled, shivering in my hand. Eligor shivered too, but I doubted it was for the same reason. Bloodthirsty as Dinah was, she would be relishing this moment. Eligor was just scared.

I did a quick peek around the corner, seeing what I'd already known would be there. The elevator plus two guards, one of them George.

George spoke into the walkie-talkie attached to his shoulder. The other guard looked bored. As if the alarm meant nothing. This was weird.

I glanced at Eligor. "How far down are we?"

"Thirteen floors," he said.

I shared a look with Peter. The alarms had ended because they were waiting on the top floor for us with their Tasers and sedatives, no doubt. George wouldn't put up much of a fight; they'd let us through.

"There's another way out," Eligor said, picking up on my thoughts.

"Can we trust him?" Peter growled, adjusting Cowboy over his shoulder. The kid didn't so much as moan.

Tightening my hold on Eligor's fingers, I felt for him inside my head—and then followed that feeling back into his mind. He gasped. "That's not possible. You shouldn't be able to be in my head!"

"Heard that before," I said.

It only took him a moment to shut me out, but it was all the time I needed. Eligor was terrified of something here, and he wanted out. He wanted to flee, although he'd only just admitted it to himself.

"Yes, we trust him."

"We still need the elevator," the little man said.

I let his hand go, stepped around the corner, and lifted Dinah, all in the same smooth motion.

A squeeze of the trigger and George's friend went down in a crumpled mess. George's eyes shot to me.

"Fiona?"

I shook my head. "Phoenix."

His brows dipped. "This is ridiculous."

"We need him in order to get out," Eligor said.

If George had seemed perplexed before, it was nothing compared to the look on his face when he saw Eligor. "Ernest?"

Eligor cringed and Dinah snickered. "That's a shit name."

"Indeed. Regardless, we need his fingerprints and mine to activate the doors," Eligor said. "So he has to come with us."

I glanced at George, and the joint of his wrist. "We're already carrying one deadweight."

George shook his head. "You aren't that person."

I laughed, the first laugh in almost a year, and it was rusty. "You don't know who I am, George. Not a fucking clue."

I grabbed his hand, yanked him close, and put Dinah's muzzle against his wrist. He didn't fight or even pull back, which gave me pause. I looked into his eyes and saw something there I didn't like.

Fervor. He believed in something else saving him, like a zealot.

I let him go. "Eligor. They know. They've known since you stepped off that elevator."

"Oh no," he whispered. "Then they are watching me too." He touched his head. "They cannot see now, but it is too late. They knew I meant to come to you, to speak with you."

George visibly relaxed. "They know, you're right about that."

My mind raced with this new info as a plan formed in fast-forward, an old plan that could be used again. "Peter, you remember that night at Olive's Orgy when I was still working for my father?"

Peter laughed, flashing all those teeth of his. "Yeah, I was there . . . shit, was that you?"

I gave a sharp nod. "Same move. Go get us some friends for a distraction."

He put Cowboy down, turned and ran back the way we'd come, his Taser in hand. He didn't need it, not with his abilities, but I took note that he hadn't used them.

I grabbed George's hand again, jammed Dinah's muzzle against his wrist, and squeezed the trigger.

The skin and bone exploded, and his hand came free of his arm. He screamed and fell backward, grasping at the stump of his arm, blood pouring from the wound. He'd be dead in no time.

Eligor gasped, gagged, and I held up George's still very warm fingers. "Thanks, George."

"You feel no remorse," Eligor whispered. "How can that be? You were always so thoughtful and—"

I turned my head toward him. "Eligor, let me be very clear with you." I paused as a bunch of the inmates were prodded forward by Peter. I directed them into the elevator as I spoke. "There is not much in this world that I care about, but my family tops the list. Right now, that is all that matters to me."

"I just don't understand how . . . how I didn't see this in you?" He stared at me like I'd sprouted a second head, which in a way I suppose I had. I was a person he'd never seen before. A monster that had risen from the depths of the currents that had hidden all that darkness.

I pushed the last of the inmates, patients, whatever they were, into the elevator. "Cameras in the elevator?"

"No, none."

I didn't believe that for a second. I shoved George into the elevator with them. His arm gushed blood, his mouth was open but there was no sound as he breathed what would likely be his last breaths. The inmates didn't so much as blink. These were some of the blanks.

I couldn't save them. Not yet. But they could help us.

"Eligor, can you untie some of their control? Let them be monsters again?"

Eligor was shaking hard. "Yes."

"Do it."

Using George's hand and Eligor's finger, I sent the elevator on its way. It would keep whoever was up top busy, but not for long. The inmates were shaking their heads as the doors closed.

"What's happening?" The slurred voice slid out of Cowboy and we all looked at him.

"Breakout," Dinah said.

I dropped George's hand to the floor, grabbed Eligor's, and took off down the hall toward where the therapy animals were kept. Peter scooped up Cowboy and followed easily. I didn't look back once. We had to move fast if we were getting out of here.

I had no doubt that if we were caught, we'd all be killed.

Thirteen floors was a long damn way to navigate when you were already made.

"What does that mean, already made?" Eligor puffed as we slid to a stop in front of the door to the therapy animals' room. A red light blinked over the door.

"Means they know, and are probably waiting for us at all exits," Cowboy said, wincing as Peter helped him stand. He took one look at the grinning Magelore and cringed, which only made Peter grin wider.

"Enemy of my enemy, people. Keep your shit together." I pushed the door open. We weren't allowed to go in any doors that weren't green lit.

This one was not green lit, but it also wasn't locked. A test of obedience for us and our handlers to see if they could keep us out.

Dogs in good-sized cages lined the lower part of the room, and cats in mid-sized cages lined the wall at eye level.

"What are you looking for?" Pete asked.

"Cowboy, you still got your connection to the animals?" I turned to the young abnormal.

"Yes."

I did a quick turn and pointed. "You got enough juice to bend them all to you?"

He nodded. "Temporarily."

"This isn't going to save us," Eligor whispered.

"You don't know her," Peter said. "Just shut up and let her work."

Other people might have been pleased with that comment. Praise was supposed to make you feel good, wasn't it?

I started opening cages. "Peter, help me out here."

We hurried, flinging the cages open. The animals milled around us, and I glanced at Cowboy. He was sweating. Injured, he didn't have as much juice as he'd thought.

"Leave them all here to guard the room, have them attack anything that comes in." I opened the far back cage and the dog stepped out, eyeing me up. A definite stink-eye, even with Cowboy working on her. I reached out and slid my hand over the top of her head, feeling the rough skin there. She wasn't huge. A sleek gray female with scars all over her face and neck, half an ear missing, and one eye gone, maybe sixty pounds at her top weight. "This one comes with us."

"You've thought about that dog before," Eligor said. "You think she's special? Why?"

"Not the time." I snapped my fingers, and after staring at me for a long moment with that same stink-eye, the bitch fell in at my side as if she'd been trained her whole life. I didn't have time to answer Eligor's suppositions right then. But he wasn't wrong. I'd noticed this dog. And I'd known all along she was meant to be with me.

I led the way to the back of the room. "The animals aren't brought in on the same elevator as people. They have their own way in and out."

"How do you know that?" Cowboy asked, limping along now on his own two legs, hand on the wall wherever he could. I kept a hand locked on Eligor as if he were a child, and I his mother.

"Because she's been watching, haven't you?" Peter breathed it out. "Jesus, how did you watch all this time and not lose your fucking mind?"

"Find the door." I deliberately didn't answer him because I wasn't sure myself and we were running out of time. I'd done enough hits to know when things were starting to get sticky, when the clock was ticking away, the noose tightening. However you wanted to look at it, we were in deep.

Because I had no doubt that at least three of us would be eliminated if we were caught. They might give Cowboy a second chance.

"There's no door," Peter said. "The room has no door."

"There's a door," I said calm as a summer day. "We just have to find it."

Dinah laughed. "You should ask the dogs where they came in."

I whipped around and looked at Cowboy. "Can you?"

He swallowed hard. "Maybe."

"Do it." We didn't have time for maybe. Bear didn't scare easy, and I had no doubt that if he was afraid and alone then it was bad. Very, very bad.

Cowboy closed his eyes. The female next to me let out a low growl and turned to face the door we'd come in.

Peter did the same, his nostrils flaring. "They're here."