Chapter Seventeen – Monica

They stood in the backyard of Harlan and Fiona’s house, ready to begin. After an afternoon spent discussing strategies, they had decided to split into two groups. Monica, Wyatt, and Liam would go with Fiona to Wadepark. Jay and Alex would go with Sapphi and Harlan. Ruby, much to her disappointment, would stay here and watch the children. She was under strict instruction to take them and run or fly if anyone approached the house. Although it appeared Jonas and his men either didn’t know where Jack was or didn’t care. From the surveillance cameras, it seemed that no one had left or entered the barracks since the night Yolanda was kidnapped.

“Take care.” Harlan hugged Fiona, their love for each other visible on their faces as they kissed briefly.

“I know how to look after myself,” Fiona said gruffly as they pulled apart, but her fingers lingered on his chest.

“I know you do. But I’m allowed to worry.” He turned and faced Sapphi and Alex. “Just as I worry about all my family.”

“You make sure you bring them back. And yourself. I will go on a fire-breathing rampage if you don’t come back in one piece.” Fiona turned and walked into the center of the clearing. “We’ll go first.”

With that, the air shimmered and the build-up of static electricity made the strands of Monica’s hair, not tamed in a ponytail, stand on end. Then Fiona disappeared from this world, to be replaced by a massive reptilian-like creature, who swung her sinewy neck from side to side as she flexed her wings.

“Climb aboard.” Harlan approached the dragon and stroked her snout. She closed her eyes as if in ecstasy for a brief moment before they opened again, alert and ready to leave. “She won’t hurt you.”

Hoping Harlan was speaking the truth, Monica approached Fiona’s dragon, running her hand over her snout and stroking her as if she were a horse. Although horses didn’t have shiny bronze scales and large talons that could probably slice through an armored vehicle. Stepping on the foreleg Fiona offered them, Monica swung up onto her back, and Wyatt followed. He sat behind her and they made themselves as comfortable as possible before Wyatt wrapped his arms around her waist and Monica held on to a thick spiney horn, one of many that ran down the dragon’s back.

Harlan stepped back. “Are you ready?”

No, Monica’s bear roared in her head. This was the most unnatural thing they had ever done.

“Yes.” Monica gave him a thumbs up. “We’re good to go.”

Harlan walked back to join the others. Beside him, Liam shifted into his eagle and took off into the air, flying hard to gain height before Fiona pressed her body close to the ground and then leaped into the air. Monica clung to the spine, glad she had worn thick gloves to protect her palms. Fiona’s wings rose and fell in a slow, steady rhythm and they lurched up into the air almost vertically until they were above the trees, and then the flight smoothed out as they skimmed across the top of the trees, following the slope of the mountain, as they flew further away from safety and Jack.

Ahead of them, Liam’s eagle flew hard and fast, not looking behind him as he led them across the mountain, toward Wadepark some hundred miles or more away. The journey was fast, Fiona’s dragon flew straight and true, but Monica got the feeling she could have flown a lot faster if Liam was not with them. As it was she tempered her flight to match the eagle shifter’s speed. He was their lookout man, or bird, keeping his senses alert to what was below, and guiding them around towns and cities.

Relief swept over Monica when at last they reached the open countryside surrounding Wadepark. Below them all was dark, no street lights, no houses. The barracks themselves were also in darkness. Liam swooped down lower and circled the base a couple of times, looking for any signs of life. When he rose back up and joined them, he shook his bird head. A sense of fear prickled at Monica’s mind. What if they were too late?

Angling her wings, Fiona dropped smoothly out of the sky to land on a patch of ground that once was used for target practice. When she was settled on the ground, she angled her leg outward for them to climb down. Monica had never been more grateful to stand on firm ground. Not that the flight hadn’t been exhilarating. But the lack of control over her own life was discomforting.

Or maybe it was the scales and the fire-breathing abilities.

The air shimmered and Fiona stood beside them, dressed from head to toe in black. “I could sense body heat in the building toward the north.”

“You can do that?” Liam asked, impressed.

“I can. Heat is my thing. It’s how I hunt my prey.” She kept her face straight and Monica couldn’t tell if she said the words as a joke, or to shock them. Or if it was the plain truth.

“Remind me to never be your prey,” Liam said and fell into step with her.

“I’m going wolf,” Wyatt said suddenly. “I work better that way.”

Good idea,” Fiona agreed.

“Let me check the phone app.” Monica took Yolanda’s phone out of her pocket and scrolled through the screens until she got to the phone app icon. “She’s somewhere in the buildings to the north as Fiona said.”

“I’ll head that way,” Liam said and shifted into his wolf.

“I hope we’re not too late. They might have left already,” Monica voiced her concern as Wyatt’s wolf moved further ahead of them.

“If we are, then we head down to the river until we pick up their scent.” Liam pulled out his cell phone. “Avery is watching the front gates, she’ll let us know if anyone tried to leave by that route.”

The journey had been timed to perfection, if anyone had been looking up at the sky, they would not have seen the dragon and eagle flying across the dark night sky. Unfortunately, the darkness also took away their vision, until Liam dug into the pack on his back and produced a couple of pairs of night vision goggles. “I took them from the store. Unfortunately, I only have two pairs.”

“I can manage without them,” Fiona insisted. “My normal vision enables me to see in the dark, to some extent at least.”

“It does?” Liam asked with surprise.

“Yes.” Fiona’s brief answer ended the conversation, it appeared she did not like talking about herself, although she fascinated Monica. There were so many questions she would love to know the answer to, questions about Fiona’s long life.

Another time, perhaps, her bear said.

Another time. Right now, we have to track down the source of the heat signatures Fiona saw.

Monica fitted the goggles on her head and pulled them down over her eyes. She’d worn Army regulation night vision goggles before, these worked much the same way but were not as powerful. However, when she switched them on, she was grateful that she was no longer blinded by the darkness.

“Anything?” Fiona asked as they looked around.

“No, there’s a group of buildings to our three o’clock. That’s where Wyatt is heading. It looks as if he may have found a scent.” They followed the wolf, who kept his nose to the ground like a tracker dog. He was intent on heading toward the furthest building, skirting around the others.

“He’s onto something,” Liam said, and they picked up the pace as Wyatt’s wolf disappeared around a corner. They had to stay together; if they got split up, it would be easy for them to be picked off one at a time.

As they rounded the corner, the wolf had disappeared, and Monica’s heart raced as she searched the area for him. Instead of a wolf, there was a man. She looked closer and recognized the outline of her mate. “He’s shifted back.”

Keeping low and hugging the side of the building, they ran toward Wyatt. He lifted his hand up and told them to halt, and then pointed to the building. As Monica stepped closer, she could make out the faint outline of a door.

“The scent leads to this building. I’ll do a perimeter check,” Wyatt said and was about to shift when Liam stopped him.

“Let me. I can look from above. I might even be able to find a way to look inside the building. You can’t beat a bird’s eye view.” He took off his night vision goggles and handed them to Wyatt, who put them on and looked around, letting his eyes adjust to wearing them.

They waited, listening for any sound of movement inside the building, and Monica checked the phone app again. “She’s in here.”

“Like I said,” Wyatt said easily. “I picked the scent up from her phone.”

“Of course, it’s the only thing we have of hers.” Monica nodded, watching the app. The watch didn’t move.

“She could have lost the watch.” Fiona read Monica’s concern.

“There was another scent, too,” Wyatt told them, an edge to his voice.

“Jonas?” Monica asked gently.

“I’m almost certain. It’s been a long time, but one of the other scents was familiar.” He turned around as the sound of ruffled feathers grew closer and Liam landed next to them. He shifted instantly and looked around, before leaning forward to speak.

“I landed on the roof. There’s a half-open skylight. I couldn’t see very much inside; the gap was too small. However, I did hear voices. Someone is in there.” His voice was barely above a whisper and they all leaned in to listen.

“It’s on the move,” Monica hissed, holding up the phone for them to see.

“Time for action,” Wyatt told them, flexing his hands.

A sound of metal scraping against metal rent the air.

They all jumped and hugged the building, pressing their bodies back along the wall. Monica listened, trying to figure out where the sound came from. Liam caught their attention and pointed to the building, indicating the corner just in front of them. As one they moved, each walking quietly along the edge of the warehouse.

Light spilled out for an instant and then the sound of metal against metal filled the air once more. They drew back, flattening themselves out as whispered voices spoke to each other. There was another sound, too, a woman moaning, and a sharp rebuke.

“Stop struggling, there’s no one here. You can shout as loud as you want, but no one will hear you.” The words spoken were sharp, with no sympathy toward their captive.

Monica risked a glance at Wyatt, who returned her look with a brief nod. She didn’t need further explanation, they had just heard the voice of a dead man talking.