| |
OZ BLASTED HIS POWERS at the door behind them, but it did nothing to open and let Emily through. Grace was at the control panel, but when she looked at him, her expression wasn’t hopeful.
“We’d need a couple hours and heavy duty equipment to get through that door,” she said. “Or a key that the guards and researchers carry. It’s not going to open up otherwise.”
Crowze put a hand on Oz’s shoulder as if to offer comfort, but Oz shrugged him off. He didn’t need comfort, he needed Emily.
“Try again,” he commanded.
Grace opened her mouth to argue.
“Try. Again.” He flared out his wings and shot his power at the door again.
They wasted several minutes trying to get the door open, and Oz would have stood there all night trying if Crowze hadn’t sent a tendril of power at him. It wasn’t enough to hurt, but the shock made him stutter.
“We have a duty,” said Crowze. “Are you prepared to sacrifice these humans to save your own? Would she want you to?”
“She seemed capable,” Grace offered. “There’s more than one way out of the labs. She can find it.”
Oz knew when he was being placated. But they were right. Delaying was only going to get everyone else hurt or killed. The sooner they moved, the sooner he could figure out a way to get Emily back. “Let’s go,” he said. He placed his hand against the door and made a promise to his Match that he was going to come back for her. She wasn’t an acceptable sacrifice.
The first two guards that crossed their path got the brunt of Oz’s rage. He flashed his spark out at them and fried them in place. It was brutal and quick, but when Grace checked them over she pointed to a melted mess of plastic and metal. “Those were keys we could have tried to use to open the doors. Cool it, Ozar.”
So not only was he angry at the building for trapping his Match, now he was angry at himself. And the humans were looking at him like he might attack them.
Punt.
“Keep moving,” he said. But he reined in his powers. He didn’t want to fry the keys again.
The chaos that had concealed their entrance to the facility helped with their escape. And though the humans they were transporting weren’t in the best condition, they could all walk and follow instructions.
Fewer people were out loading trucks when they escaped. Oz didn’t know if anyone suspected what was going on, but he didn’t have time to wonder, not when he was focused on getting these humans out so he could get his human back.
Solan, Ax, and Lena were already at the shuttle with their own humans when Oz and his crew arrived. Lena was the first to realize who they were missing.
“Where’s—”
Oz helped load up the humans and then turned around to find Solan. “I’m going back for Emily.”
“We can’t wait,” Solan said. “It’s too risky.” It was true. The Apsyns were bound to be on high alert and patrols would be circling the area soon.
Oz shrugged. “I’m going back for Emily.” There was nothing that would make him leave. He’d rather die than sacrifice her.
Solan’s jaw tightened, but he gave a nod. “Get to Rendezvous 3 by dawn. I’ll have a way back for you.”
Dawn wasn’t as far away as Oz would have liked, but they both knew if he didn’t recover Emily now the odds of getting her back got worse by the minute.
“I’ll go with,” Grace came up next to him. “I know the facility. I can help.” He hadn’t expected the offer, but he’d gladly take it.
Lena seemed ready to offer too, but Solan pushed her back into the ship before she could. He powered it up and lifted off, leaving Oz and Grace alone.
“Let’s go find my Match.”
***
GUARDS SEEMED TO POP up out of nowhere around the researcher. She couldn’t remember his name. It wasn’t like they’d introduced themselves to their subjects. But she needed to think of him as something.
Ratface.
Yeah, he was a ratface who held people captive and treated them like lab rats. She wished she had some sort of weapon so she could shoot him. Her fists ached to connect with his stupid rat face. He deserved to be punched. He deserved much more than that.
One of the guards pulled out a blaster, and as he was raising it to shoot at her, Emily’s instincts kicked in and her wings flared out, protecting her from the blast.
She didn’t realize her mistake until Ratface let out a sound of absolute glee. “A Matched and bonded human? Just what we need. Incapacitate her, but don’t kill her. I need her.”
Emily tried to get away. She lashed out with her spark and she even hit one of the guards, but it wasn’t enough to take him down. The second she found Oz again they were going to practice for real, and she wasn’t going to let sex distract her this time.
Her wings blunted the shots of the blasters, but it still felt like getting punched every time one of them hit her, and then one got lucky, somehow getting through her wings and striking her leg.
She went down and it wasn’t graceful.
Emily had fallen hundreds, maybe thousands, of times in her life. A person didn’t become a top level gymnast by being afraid of crashing to the mat. But this wasn’t the same, not at all. And before she could get back up, one of the guards jammed his knee into her side to keep her down, and then he clamped something around her wrist.
It wasn’t a pair of handcuffs. It only circled one wrist. But whatever it was, it made her wings sputter out and she couldn’t feel the spark inside of her.
The guard hefted her up and Ratface got close, grinning the whole time. “Dampener cuff,” he explained. “Keeps prisoners and test subjects from getting too rowdy. Never thought I’d need one for a human.”
Then why were the guards carrying them? Emily had thought that the humans were prisoners and the Zulir were volunteers. Had she been wrong? She wouldn’t give Ratface the satisfaction of asking.
She couldn’t hit him. She couldn’t use her spark to blast him with lasers. The guards were holding her too tightly for her to do anything and she knew she was going to have fingerprint bruises on her biceps for weeks.
She spat on the researcher’s stupid rat face.
It was satisfying for a minute, but the hands on her tightened and she braced for consequences. There had to be consequences.
Ratface wiped away her spit with his sleeve, and then he smiled and her blood ran cold. It was devoid of any joy. No, it was a smile full of cruelty and eagerness to see just what vile things he could do to her.
Yes, he needed her alive for now. But once he extracted whatever he wanted from her, he was going to make her end painful.
“Alert your supervisor that we have intruders,” he told one of the guards holding onto her. “I’m guessing that she and her mysterious Zulir Match came back for her friends. The Match will be looking for her.” He turned to the other guard. “Let’s get to the hangar. I’m not waiting to transport this little prize.”
Emily struggled again. If they got her to the desert facility no one would be able to get to her, and she didn’t know how she’d be able to fight her way out. She had to get the cuff off. She wasn’t sure how long her powers would work with her and Oz separated or what their range was, but once she lost those, she was screwed. Even more screwed.
She just wanted to go home.
And the picture of home in her mind no longer featured the skyscrapers dotting the Chicago skyline or her pathetic little apartment. No, now home was made of Oz’s smile and the lightning in his eyes, of the way his arms tightened around her after they made love. She wanted that back. She wanted a lifetime of it.
She wasn’t about to let some stupid Ratface take it away from her.
“Sir,” the first guard said as the second and Ratface dragged her down the hall. He had to jog to catch up. “Security reports two dead guards, and our sensors picked up a shuttle takeoff not long ago.”
“A takeoff?” Ratface didn’t bother to hide his grin. “Looks like your Match left you behind.” He looked at the guard. “Go report to your supervisor. We’re fine here.” The guard left her with just Ratface and the other guard.
Emily didn’t want to believe it. Oz wouldn’t.
But her captors didn’t seem to realize that he had a crew with him.
Would Solan leave Oz behind? They were friends, they were crew. It didn’t seem possible.
No matter what, Emily had to get away, and she couldn’t depend on help coming for her. She wasn’t a fighter, but now she had no other choice.
