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“Put these on, they’ll protect you from some of the fire’s heat, Saya can do the rest.” Geralt handed them to her.
Kai put them on, “Fire Fighting was one profession I never wanted to do as a kid.” She muttered.
“Take your other gloves off.” Geralt said as she went to put the gloves on, “Too many layers will mean you won’t be able to feel anything through them.”
“Who do they belong to?”
“They’re mine,” Saya, the Female Salamander said, “They’re clean inside, I ssswear.”
Kai shook her head, “That’s not the problem; If I wear them without my gloves, I’ll end up looking out of your eyes and we can’t risk me doing something stupid with your body.”
The woman looked shocked, “You’re that Psssychic Hunter I’ve heard about? I didn’t think you were real.”
Kai grinned, “Up until recently I didn’t really believe that Salamanders or Dragon Kings existed either; you learn something new every day.” She put her arms through the straps of the air tank and slipped the attached face mask onto her head, leaving it up.
“Dragon Kingsss? Stop pulling my tail.” Saya laughed, “That’sss a fairy tale.”
“I promise I won’t tell Ao Qin you said that.” Kai did the cuffs of the gloves up tight and put the helmet on.
“Can we get on with this please?” Geralt snapped.
“Right. How do you want me?”
Saya giggled but recovered quickly when Geralt frowned at her, “We’ll go up the ladder in human form. I can extend my fire shhield to you at the top while we get acrosss and then I’ll change form ssso I can carry you if I need to.”
“Okay.” Kai followed Geralt as they climbed up the ladder, Saya just behind her. She felt the heat on her face increasing with every step, her eyes watering and throat stinging.
“Put the face mask on.” Geralt said, pausing in his climb.
Kai did as she was told. Saya did something to the bottle and the stinging soothed almost immediately, “That’s better.”
They finished climbing and Geralt leapt nimbly across into the office, through the window that had been smashed to gain access. He leaned over, offering both hands toward Kai.
I hope that this works. She thought, putting her hands into his.
“Don’t worry, Geralt isss the sstrongest of uss.” Saya said behind her.
Once he had a firm grasp on her, Geralt yanked her in through the window. She immediately felt the heat surround her as if she had stepped into a huge oven turned up full.
Saya jumped inside. Neither Salamander had broken into a sweat, despite their nakedness. They changed form, Kai watching with such fascination that she forgot to feel hot.
The Salamanders bones broke and shifted in a similar way to a werewolf’s but theirs lengthened and flattened as they went from human to lizard. The final step was the skin change; with a werewolf, it seemed like the hair on their head and body rippled outward to cover their skin. The salamanders skin became scaly like a dragons and the colour bloomed from the centre of each scale, merging to create a red, yellow and black flame pattern.
“Oh, my word, you’re so beautiful!” she said, leaning closer to Saya to examine the pattern on her hide.
“Thank you. We speak telepathically in this form, Ma’am.” Saya’s voice slid gently into kai’s mind, “Climb onto my back and let’s look for this missing Triang Member.”
Kai climbed onto Saya’s back and looked for somewhere to hold on.
“You won’t fall, just grip gently with your legs.” Saya told her, “I’m extending my heat shield now.”
The heat, which had begun to penetrate Kai’s fascination, suddenly cut off as if they’d opened a fridge door.
“That’s better, thank you.” Kai said.
“So, where’s the Wood Horse?” Geralt’s voice said abruptly.
Kai closed her eyes and checked the link. It was very weak, so she took a moment to strengthen it, “Horse? Mr Derwin-Hepler? Are you there? Peter?”
At the mention of his name his presence stirred in her mind, “Riordan? Jade Cat? Where are you?”
“Looking for you at the moment. Can you tell me anything of your surroundings?”
“It’s black and cold. I can’t feel anything under my hands or feet.” He sounded like he was about to start panicking.
Kai opened her eyes and looked around the office. The smoke obscured everything, and flames were licking through the openings from the lifts. I need to track him down somehow.
“There is no one but us in this room.” Saya volunteered.
Kai closed her eyes and slipped into Derwin-Hepler’s mind fully. She immediately felt what he was feeling, cold and black and nothing around him. She opened his eyes and moved his head around.
There really was nothing around him, but his mind was strongly linked to hers and without thinking about it, she nudged Saya’s ribs with her right foot gently.
“You want me to move, Ma’am?” the Salamander said, sounding distant.
Kai slipped out of his mind for a second, “Please. I’ll tell you which direction to go by my feet, but I won’t be able to talk to you.”
“Fair enough.”
Kai slid back into Derwin-Hepler’s mind again. He had begun to panic, and she had to soothe him before she could take control of him again, “Calm down. I need to be able to move you around a bit. Relax and let me work.”
The blackness was still there, as was the cold under his hands and feet. Kai explored the textures a little more and discovered that it had that non-slip feel that some staircases and walkways had, lots of diamond shaped raised pieces.
A walkway or staircase. But the stairs and lifts are on fire. Where is he? Kai raised his head and took a deep breath. The air was cold and clear in his lungs, with no taint of smoke or heat. There was pain though, in his face and his body, a distant burning sensation.
The mind link drew her closer to him and Kai found herself guiding Saya a lot like a horse. They slipped through and up the burning staircases, heading toward the top floor.
As the Salamanders came to the top of the stairs and the entrance onto the roof, Kai was dragged into Derwin-Hepler’s mind by another presence.
“So, you think you can rescue him, do you?” the voice echoed slightly as if it were being projected down a tube.
“I’m not that far away, now. Identify yourself and we’ll do this the civilised way.” She replied.
The distant burning sensation in Derwin-Hepler’s face became stark searing pain, a sharp slicing sensation across the eyes. The man screamed and Kai barely controlled herself in time to stop from shrieking in unison.
“Oh no, I don’t think so. I have a job to do, and you are not going to stop me.” The voice sounded happy...
Kai dragged her mind back out enough that the pain became distant again and urged the salamander on and out onto the roof.
“What happened?” Saya asked at the same time as Geralt said, “What’s going on?”
Kai swallowed and took a deep breath of tank air in an effort to calm herself down, "Whoever is holding him is still here. They just sliced his eyes with a knife, right across from one side to the other.” She shuddered and gasped, her hands automatically going to her own eyes to check they were uninjured.
Geralt changed form slightly, becoming a humanoid lizard, “I can see something up on the top of that gantry.” He pointed up at a metal structure surrounding an antenna.
“That would fit the bill for what I could feel through him and it’s high enough that the air would be smoke free.” Kai mused.
“Riordan!” Derwin-Hepler’s voice echoed down around them, “This bastard says that if you don’t let him kill me, he’ll blow up the whole building!” A giggle drifted through the smoke-filled air as he finished speaking.
Kai connected with Derwin-Hepler again, “I can’t let him do either of those, Horse.”
The pain he was feeling was overwhelming, but his mind seemed clear, “You may have to let him kill me; we can’t risk the destruction of the building, there are too many people around here.”
“Get out of his mind, Jade Cat.” The giggle turned into a voice, “I have my orders.”
Kai winced, but the Salamanders seemed unfazed by the revelation.
“Consider this an order from the Triang, Riordan. Leave me.” Derwin-Hepler’s voice in her mind was strong and calm, “Protection of the people of the Dark Cities is our primary job. I will die by my own hand if I have to.”
Kai slipped off of Saya’s back and the female Salamander changed to the same form as Geralt.
“What do we do now?” Saya asked.
“I could climb up there and rescue him if you two distract the kidnapper.” Geralt said.
“I mean it, Cat. Leave him to my knife and no one else gets hurt.” The voice from above them chuckled its way through the sentence.
“I need to tell the CFO what’s happening. Keep an eye on them.” Kai said and closed her eyes, stretching her mind out until she located Amin, Melanie and the CFO on the ground below them. Then she gently tapped at the CFO’s mind.
“What the...? Who did that?” The CFO’s response was blurry, and Kai knew he was talking out loud as well as in his head.
“It’s Kai-Lynn Riordan, the SD CI. We’ve found the Wood Horse, but we have a major problem.” She told him.
“What’s the problem?” he said blurrily, “Retrieve him.”
Kai considered her options and decided that she had none that he’d like, “You need to get everything and everyone back from the building. The perpetrator of this particular monstrosity has rigged the building to blow. If I try to rescue the Wood Horse, everyone in the area will get hurt or killed. He has ordered me to leave him.”
“The Building will be blown up? Shit, can’t have that happening... but we can’t lose the Wood Horse either.” The CFO’s voice was giving Kai a headache.
“I’ll try to rescue him, but I need to know that there’s a safe area around the building, just in case. Just shout ALL CLEAR with your mind when you’ve made it as far back as you can.” Kai told him.
“Okay.” The CFO said.
“Well?” Geralt said as she opened her eyes.
“Once he gives me word, we’ll try to rescue Wood Horse.” Kai said.
––––––––
THE BLOOD HAD DRIED on his face, but the pain from his ruined eyes was still fresh, every muscle movement causing a spiral of agony. Peter could hear the building below them burning and the voices of Riordan and her companions on the roof, but the air around him was cold and clear.
“Those fools down there still think they can rescue you.” The shadow beside him giggled.
“She’s not going to give up. That’s one of the reasons we chose her.” He murmured.
A sharp point tapped his cheek lightly, “I have a job to do Capall Adhmaid, and her persistence will help me do it.” The point slipped downward toward his throat, leaving a burning sensation behind it.
He shrieked, “Why?”
“You are not my only target,” The shadow whispered in his ear, “the Glascat is also on my list.”
Peter finally recognised part of the accent the voice carried, “Why are you doing this... your wife...”
“My Mistress is more important.” The voice caressed the first two words.
“The Fae Queen is crazy.” Peter said.
The knife slipped into the soft flesh under his jawbone and twisted, once, twice, boring a hole into the underside of peter’s tongue, “Speak no more insults about my one and only true love, Capall Adhmaid.”
“RIORDAN, GET OUT OF HERE; I’LL BE DEAD BEFORE YOU MANAGE TO GET UP HERE AND HE’S AFTER YOU NEXT.” Peter screamed out with his mind, hoping that Kai-Lynn heard him and did as he said.
The knife blade was slammed upward, and he felt the point slide through his tongue, crunch into the bone in the roof of his mouth, “You’ve ruined my surprise, Peter Derwin-Hepler and for that I’m going to destroy everything about this city you love.”
Peter would have glared at his assailant had he the eyes but between the pain of the blade in his mouth and the jerking of his optic muscles, he felt a wave of nausea sweep over his body. His stomach jerked and the bile shot up his throat and into his mouth, burning through the holes the blade had created. It was followed by what little food was left from his breakfast.
“Urgh... Peter control yourself, please.” The knife jerked out and the vomit poured out of the hole after it, mixing with the blood that spattered across his legs.
Another voice roared out “ALL CLEAR!” in Peter’s mind as he fought to stay conscious. It wasn’t a voice that he recognised though.
“What in the seven hells are they up to now?” peter’s tormentor stood and in a dramatic swirl of dark coat moved to the edge of the platform that he’d dragged the mind bound man up to.
“Jade Cat, for the last time, get yourself out of here.” Peter made a massive effort to project to the woman, “My successor will activate as soon as I die, and you will be needed by the Black Dragon to deal...”
A fist caught him unawares across the side of the head and Peter slammed down onto the platform, “Enough. You’re far too talkative for a man on the edge of death and I’m getting bored of the whole shebang.”
Blood ran anew from Peter’s scalp, and he felt the tip of the blade press lightly into the ruin that had been his left eye. With a massive surge of adrenaline, Peter Derwin-Hepler pushed himself up hard to meet the blade. As the hilt of the knife touched his eye socket, he fell back onto the gantry and let his grip on this world go.
––––––––
KAI, SEVERAL FEET BELOW the platform felt the whole structure shudder
“Jade Cat, for the last time, get yourself out of here.” Peter’s voice was very weak, and she could hear death approaching him, “My successor will activate as soon as I die, and you will be needed by the Black Dragon to deal...”
The structure shuddered again, there was a screech of pure frustration from above her and the connection with Peter Derwin-Hepler disappeared.
He’s dead. I’m too late.
“Jade Cat, mark my words,” the voice that called down from above carried frustration, irritation and determination, “You and the Black Dragon will be next!”