Greg… Zia’s Apartment

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Greg slowed the SUV down to a crawl as he turned into the parking lot of Zia’s apartment building.

She hadn’t said much as they turned off the main thoroughfare and got closer. The hum of her essence was subdued. Greg hadn’t wanted to call out her dwindling positive energy. Connected to Zia through their new mating, his reaction was amped up in sensitivity to every fluctuation she endured.

“Zia, I’m right here. Ajax is guarding the rear and Hildy is doing her thing on the rooftops.” He paused to look up at the darkening sky. “Soon as it’s safe to do so, she’ll take flight to provide air cover.”

Instinct to protect his mate had Greg’s hand up to his ear to ensure his communication device was snug and secure. His beast settled a little as the smooth surface of the device met his touch. A necessity for this outing, it was like the ones each of them wore.

Since Ajax hadn’t fully joined with his Dragon, Greg had no way to neural link with him. As for Hildy, only her mate, Ajax, could use that mated capability. Greg was glad for that bit of wisdom on the Goddess’s part. Where mates where concerned, no other man should be able to get into his or any other mated female’s head.

He hoped that the mated link between him and Zia would bond soon. It would have been nice to have it now, but this workaround would do.

The thought of any other man that close to her drove his hand to seek out Zia’s in comfort. She accepted the offering and encased it with both of hers.

He parked the SUV next to her truck, purposefully putting the driver’s side next to the other automobile. If anything went wrong, he wanted Zia to have an open and direct path to the Dragofin Clan vehicle.

Her body had started to tremble. Greg would give both his eyes instead of placing Zia in a dangerous position. His beast stirred and pressed close to the surface.

“I’m going to do whatever it takes to keep you safe. We’ll get in and out as fast as possible. If anything and I mean anything goes sideways, I want you to make it back to this vehicle.”

“Not without you. We have a job to do.”

“I love your determination, but I won’t be able to do my job if I can’t have your promise that you’ll make it to safety if anything goes wrong.”

She refused to affirm that she’d comply.

“A minor detail I forgot to mention was that all vehicles owned by the Clan are armored and electric. After Luc, Quinn, and some of the other brothers had a nasty street showdown with a powerful teen witch a few months back; all the cars were retrofitted for urban combat. The vehicles might be earth made, but the technology to operate and protect them is from one of the earth’s mirror worlds.”

Zia blinked as if the new information passed over her head. Clear that she gave little less than fleeting care about the upgrades, he concentrated on stilling himself to share a quick moment of intimate peace with his mate. Goddess only knew what waited outside. One good thing was that her trembling had stopped.

Greg still liked having the invisible barrier of protection their vehicle technology gave. In addition to the practical field enhancements, their surface transportation couldn’t be hacked, incapacitated by EMPs, or penetrated by any known earth tech or brute force assaults—exactly what he wanted to protect his mate in the heat of combat.

These extra features were some of the many cool surface goods in the twins’ vast bag of tricks. Too bad they were in their deep sleep, or he would give them another big up for this brilliant added layer of surface security.

“What do we do now?” the feminine voice of his mate asked, breaking his train of thought.

“You wait here until I get out and come to open the door for you. I need to make sure it’s safe. What you can’t see is usually more dangerous than what you can.”

She nodded, agreement with his plan evident.

Greg got out and scanned the area. Nothing had changed from their earlier drone surveillance. This part of the apartment community was desolate. His warrior instinct engaged and settled in with the familiar comfort that only came with time spent in war zones.

Thick and pungent with the smell of Egolar, the air pressed in to smother and degrade the quality of the atmosphere. No wonder everyone was inside or gone. The sickly sweetness of many Egolars’ emotional addiction was invasive enough to sour every inhale until Greg wanted to spit after each one.

These bastards were feeding off the fear of this community like it was a fucking banquet. He took a moment to look up at the hallway to Zia’s apartment. Sure enough, the light in the hallway was out or removed.

Before he opened the door for his mate to this infested Egolar Den, Greg pushed past their stench to detect any other scents of danger. His chest vibrated as a growl low and deep from his beast rumbled. He’d isolated a few other threats.

Just fucking great.

“Stay close to me,” he said after opening her door and helping her out. “We’ll walk around the corner to meet that Corner store lookout team. Remember, if anything goes awry, I want you to run back and lock yourself in the car. Here,” he reached into the glove box, rummaged around until he found it. Zia watched his every move. “Take this and don’t look back if I tell you to run.” Greg gave her a key fob to the vehicle that would open the doors and start up the engine. “Promise me you’ll run if I say so.”

Gray-green eyes bursting with love stared back at him with a rekindled determination. “I promise. Now, let’s get Boogie to safety.”

They walked hand-in-hand to the corner. The car from earlier sat there. With his keen eyes, Greg saw the two guys recognized Zia. When their attention moved to him, each man’s face turned into intense hatred.

“Zia, move behind me.”

“Why, what’s up? I see them too. They haven’t moved yet.”

“You can’t see their faces.”

“And you can? Oh, forgot, eagle-eyed sight.”

She didn’t say another word as his mate moved to stand behind him. Greg kept his focus on the men while he reached up and switched on the comm device.

“Everyone report in.”

Ajax’s voice came in crackled at first. “Greg, can you hear me?”

“Yes, by the sound of it, there’s some interference on the line, or we’re pushing the range between us,” he said, using his subvocal ability to speak with the other man. “We have a visual on the corner lookouts. Bad news though.” He gave Ajax a moment to confirm he heard him. Hildy chimed in to check in and acknowledge as well. He reached behind to alert Zia and motioned for her to turn on her comm device too.

She did, and her voice came through with a bit of tense apprehension. The effect served to drive Greg to make quick work of this new revelation.

“Okay, everyone look alert. Hildy, I know you haven’t interacted with Egolars in combat yet, but remember, they’re winged as well. Make sure to locate their aerial scouts before revealing your position.”

“Already did. No sign of any so far. Permission to send out a Siren’s call for them to reveal themselves?”

“Hold off. We have more players on the field than advertised.”

“Huh?” Ajax piped in.

“Looks like we got a pair of Imps, and the distinct influence of strong sorcery.”

“Imps and a sorcerer? No way man. This situation just took a turn for the worse.” Ajax’s sentiment lined up with his earlier assessment. “Hate to ask, but do you want to fall back and send a wakeup call to some of the brothers to come help? If so, I volunteer Nolan to take on the Imps.”

Until he was certain of the stakes, Greg would attempt to use diplomatic combat—charm and then swarm with offensive tactics.

“No, not yet. Between the three of us, everything should be fine. Once I get Zia back to the SUV, I can deal with the Imps.”

“Greg, are you willing to do a surface shift if needed? That might be what it takes,” Ajax said.

Greg felt his mate’s energy shift. Damn Ajax and his big mouth. Greg reached behind and brushed her hand with his.

The Dragonling kept talking. “What are they doing in this part of the country? Don’t they usually like to be closer to the coasts, water, and other places like that with huge populations?”

Greg didn’t have time to carry on a long conversation. He needed to get to the kid and get Zia out of here as fast as possible.

“Yes, but these guys reek of sorcery.”

“Does that mean what I think it does?” Ajax asked.

“It does.”

“What does that mean?” Zia asked a little too loud, an adrenaline rush clear in the temperament of her words.

“That means,” Greg said, “that those two poor souls are just along for the ride. There are Imp-level demons in possession of their bodies. We must be ready for anything. They have superhuman strength. With the added influence of sorcery at work, there’s no telling what other upgrades come with this package.”

Hildy’s smooth alto voice coasted in. “Stall them for a few minutes until it’s dark enough and I can handle those two. Hold up, wait.” The comms went silent until she rejoined a few minutes later. “I saw movement around Zia’s floor. All right, here we go.”

Hildy began to do a play by play.

“There’s a small group. I’ll be goddamn. They’re in a box formation with a smaller person in the middle. Can’t be for sure, but the one in the center looks to be that of a teenaged boy. Never seen an Egolar in human form up close, but I suspect the other four with the little fella are ones. From up here the group of them look like stunt double, knock-off versions for Grace Jones, Tilda Swinton, Annie Lennox, and a clean-shaven Jared Leto. Dang, hope that’s not him. That would be such a waste, but I always thought he could go either way with his looks.” She paused. “Looks like they’re on the way back to the building Quinn pointed out.”

Greg needed to know which types of Egolars were at Zia’s place. “Hildy, can you get a better look at that group? Do they look more like fighters or casual humans.”

“Yep, sure can.” Another pause, and then she came back through the comm. “They’re all androgynous-looking but like I described before, tall and athletic.”

She hadn’t said that before, but Greg wasn’t going to quibble. Calling out a few names of people he didn’t know wasn’t the same as actual descriptions. Lucien had been partially right. Both of them needed better field training. Training he would start tomorrow.

For the benefit of the group and clarity, he reiterated what Hildy had reported. “That group could be a combat team. You said they were around Zia’s door?”

“Yeah, let me change my angle. There. Oh shit. Greg, they’ve busted Zia’s door in. They were in Zia’s place.”

A loud gasp from his mate floated over the comm as Zia heard the report. Greg made a note to talk with these two after about comm protocol. Both of them had managed to say too much of the wrong thing. It didn’t matter that the affected party was his mate. It was never a good field position to have an upset or emotionally compromised team member.

He swallowed his desire to lash out at the two and instead said, “Stay clear of them and feed me as much info as possible on what they do. This car with the Imps must be a decoy.”

Greg’s mind whirled with tactics to achieve their core objectives, keep his mate safe and get the boy. He detected movement from one of the lookouts. They were going to bring this fight to Zia and him.

“Zia, these two are coming toward us. Don’t move unless I give the all clear.” He didn’t wait for her response before he continued his commands. “Ajax and Hildy, find out where that group of Egolars went and then make your way over to Zia’s parking lot.”

“What are you going to do?” It was Zia who asked.

“I’m going to attempt to get you back to the SUV. There’s no need to try to tangle with Imps when Hildy has identified where the target is.”

“I’m attempting to confirm that now. Zia, didn’t you say Boogie wore locks?”

Zia answered, still a little too loud as Greg started to back them away without turning his back on the Corner store guys.

“Yeah, and he lightened them.”

“Then it looks like that’s your boy in the middle of that group.”

“Now that it’s confirmed, meet us, and we’ll go to the Egolar Den as soon as I have Zia secured in the vehicle.”

“Wait, I’m not going to sit in a car by myself while there are little devils, Alien Flying Dinosaur-birds, and a missing kid out here. I’m coming with y’all.”

“You’ll be in the way,” Hildy said. “Unless you’re hiding your agility and fighting speed, I’d guess you have no combat training or fighting skills. The SUV is a tank and will protect you. You’re working on your initial stripper name on this assignment too. Don’t make it worse than necessary. Can you do better than Candy Ass?”

Zia’s face fell in disappointment at Hildy’s gruff but valid point. As for a stripper name?

Greg had to give it to Hildy. The woman was a clever and quick thinker. The mention of getting a better name than Quinn was the exact thing needed to get Zia to comply without complaint.

Greg still didn’t grasp the significance of why it had to be a stripper name, though. Maybe it was some right of passage for the females of the Clan.

A new dawning came to him. That would be most clever. Take what human males count as degrading but use it as an homage to some of the females who dare to secure their power. Hmm… he'd ponder this later. For now, they had work to do.

“It’s better if we can focus on getting to Boogie without having to watch that none of them try to snatch you instead.” He tried to explain rationally. Hoping she’d understand, Greg continued. “It looks like this is a community effort on the parts of the Egolars, Imps, and a hidden sorcerer. They’re working together, which strongly lends to the reasoning that there are more traps set to capture you. Something about you the Egolars want so badly that they're willing to work with magic and demons.”

Hildy’s and his words looked to have done their trick. Plus, they were only a few feet away from the car. Oddly enough, the two lookouts hadn’t pursued after them.

They reached the vehicle as the last wink of sunset dissolved. Tall parking lot lights cast dull light across the cars. Evening traffic would start to flow soon. They had to make quick work of getting Boogie to prevent any collateral damage.

Evening work traffic coming home in the middle of an Alien battle was another curveball thrown their way. Greg pushed back the nagging thought to call for help. They were so close. If he could keep a short leash on Ajax and Hildy to work together with him, they could easily handle dozens of Egolar fighters.