Chapter 20

The elevator appeared caught on the second floor, the same spot Ambrose and Orion had been taken to meet with the doctor and other folks.

An impatient Orion didn't want to wait. "Take the stairs?"

Ambrose didn't hesitate. "Yeah. They're to the left."

As they jogged to the door, the cats slipped past them and bounded up the steps.

Let them scout ahead. Ambrose followed as Orion huffed, "I can't believe you faked being a zombie."

"If I hadn't, I might have ended up one." He still couldn't believe the man in that locked room let him go, admonishing him to not break character at all until he felt certain he could make his move.

"You could have told me," Orion sulked.

"I had to make it believable."

"Oh, I believed it all right, asshole." Orion slapped him on the back. "Glad I don't have to smash in your head, bro."

"Me too." Because it had been close.

The doctor left the room after instructing Thaddeus to do his thing. The guy in the chair stared at Ambrose for a moment.

"You have a silver soul," Thaddeus said.

"If you say so." Ambrose couldn't do much strapped to the gurney.

The man rose and stood over him, his eyes shadowed. "Silver usually means god-touched. Do you serve a god?"

"The Goddess Hekate. I am her scion."

"You know what Dr. Monroe wants me to do," the man said.

"You're the one who's been taking people's souls."

"I have," Thaddeus admitted softly. "But not because I want to."

"I can help you escape," Ambrose offered.

"Can you? Because I've given up hope. They keep me locked in here, night and day. I'm tested daily, my blood drawn. Everything about me measured. I swear they'd spy on me every second if they could, but something about me makes their cameras fail." The man offered a faint smile. "It's the reason why we can speak right now."

"Release me and I'll get us out of here."

"One man alone can't do it. But if you were to escape and bring help…"

"I can do that, but I'll need my soul."

"Obviously," Thaddeus' wry reply. "But we'll need to convince Monroe that I've taken it. You need to act like one of the soulless. No expression. Just listless movement. Oh, and you'll need to scream."

"Why scream?" Ambrose asked.

"Because taking a soul hurts." The man's lips turned down. "It's torture of the cruelest order."

And so Ambrose shrieked. Screamed like that time as a boy when the saloon owner thought he wasn't washing dishes fast enough and whipped him for it.

Monroe entered after a bit, took one look, and murmured, "Excellent. I wondered if it would work with a deity-blessed subject."

"You're taking a risk pissing off a god," her captive replied.

"I can handle a god. Rest up. You'll be doing his companion shortly."

"I said no more," Thaddeus grumbled. "I'm tired."

"One more and then I'll allow you to watch a movie."

Monroe had Ambrose escorted with only a pair of soldiers back to his cage. He'd debated breaking free at that point; however, he couldn't leave Orion behind. So he returned to that wretched chamber and managed to hold on to the ruse, even as he felt horrible for putting Orion through such anguish. But it worked. When the time came to act, the soldiers never saw his fist coming.

But they'd not won yet.

The stairs didn't take long to climb at a jog. The cats waited for them at the door to the second-floor landing. They heard the screams the moment they exited the stairwell.

A man yelled, "No! No! I swear I—" Abrupt silence followed.

They entered to find the oddest sight. A figure dressed in a flowing cloak pointed a skeletal hand at the people gathered. Each time he aimed a finger, a person went wide-eyed and died. Instantly.

"Holy fuck, is that a grim reaper?" Orion whispered. Not something either of them had ever seen before.

Ambrose chose to ignore the specter of death to seek out Adeline. He caught a glimpse of her as she went through a door.

"This way," he yelled to Orion. They fled across the room only to find the door locked.

"We need a keycard," Orion stated before adding, "Give me a second." He strode over to the General sidling for the exit and snatched the card clipped to his jacket.

"Hey," he yelled. "Give it back."

"I don't think so."

The General lunged for Orion, only to pause before connecting. His mouth opened. His eyes widened. And over he keeled.

For a second, Ambrose worried as Orion's gaze met that of the Grim Reaper.

To his surprise, the cloaked figure inclined his hooded head and said, "Go find her."

Orion strode back to Ambrose and shook the card. "Got one."

They slapped it on the security screen and, when the door beeped, slipped through it to find a smaller set of stairs that went up and down.

Their noses led them to descend, the patter of Adeline's feet a faraway echo.

They descended further than the prison basement, the last landing blocked by a door that required keycard access. Adeline stood in front of the door with her hands planted on her hips.

She whirled to exclaim, "She's getting away."

No need to ask who. Dr. Monroe had been the only one missing from the chaos above.

"I've got this." Ambrose slapped the card on the reader, and the moment the door beeped, Adeline entered.

They found themselves in a lab, a massive one with machines Ambrose couldn't identify but had seen the last time he'd passed through.

"The doctor is most likely hiding out with the man in the solitary cell," he whispered to Orion.

"Why is he here instead of the cages?" Orion replied.

"He's the one who's been taking souls."

Adeline already stood in front of the only locked door and stamped her foot impatiently.

Ambrose neared and murmured, "Why don't you stand aside and let us handle this, sweetheart?"

"No thanks. This concerns me more than you," she stated.

Fair enough. Ambrose unlocked the door, and Adeline walked in and halted. Ambrose shadowed her and moved to the left, while Orion flanked her right. Inside the room, the man he'd seen before remained seated in his chair. Short dark hair, shoulders broad, arms muscled. Thaddeus might be a prisoner but he kept fit.

Dr. Monroe stood by his side with a smirk, holding a remote similar to the one they'd found on the soldier's tool belt.

"I see you misled me, Thaddeus. You were supposed to take his soul," Monroe chided. "That will teach me for thinking you'd learned your lesson when it comes to obeying."

Thaddeus ducked his head.

"Leave him alone," Adeline huffed. "It's over."

"Oh no it's not. You see, the Grim Reaper can't hurt me. I'm protected," Monroe declared, pulling an amulet out from her shirt. "This prevents him and Thaddeus from yanking my soul. Soon, my scientists will know how to replicate it, and all of humanity will be shielded, making it easy for us to pick off the cryptids."

"You sick bitch," Orion breathed, taking a step forward.

Monroe snapped. "I don't listen to dogs. Thaddeus, take their souls."

"No." The man spoke softly but firmly.

"Are you really going to defy me?" She pressed the button, and Thaddeus fell out of the chair, writhing. Well, that explained the remote's use.

Adeline stepped forward. "It's over, Dr. Monroe. You can't escape."

"Who's going to stop me? You?" The woman laughed and pressed the button on her remote again. This time it wasn't just Thaddeus who hit the ground writhing. Orion and Ambrose joined him. As Ambrose jiggled in agony, Monroe boasted, "The first thing I do with a new specimen is give them the controlling chip."

"I don't need them to knock you out." Adeline raised her fists, however, Monroe remained one step ahead and pulled out a small revolver.

"Pity I have to shoot you. But at least I'll have your DNA to play with."

He could see Adeline struggle with the realization she'd die. Fear should have been the reaction, but instead, he saw anger.

"The only one dying is you." As Adeline said it, a strange thing happened. A chain reaction, that began with Thaddeus crawling for his chair but knocking it over, which hit a side table that held a pitcher of water. The fluid hit the floor and ran, pooling under Monroe's feet, which was when a light suspended from the ceiling suddenly came crashing down, spitting out sparks of electricity before hitting the puddle.

It didn't take long for the electrocution to send Monroe to the floor, gazing sightlessly, the gun falling from her limp fingers.

By a fluke, they'd won the fight. It would seem the amulet didn't have a clause to prevent accidents.

Before they could celebrate, the room filled with a shadow.

Uh-oh. The Grim Reaper had arrived.