Soraya

 

Letting Dez vanish into the night on his own was one of the hardest things I’d ever done.

My chest was tight as I stared after him and began to conjure up horrible fates waiting for him. I hadn’t even realized I took a step forward until hands caught me on either side.

Kesari and Andrei.

“It’s okay, Sora,” Kesari was saying quietly. “He’s got this. He’ll be okay.”

“Cloud, you have important work to do,” Andrei said at the same time.

Together, I let them turn me around and walk back into our base. Hurrying upstairs, we sat down with Keon Graves, a tech guy for the Order who worked in Boston and was a trusted friend of Andrei’s. This came as something of a surprise as Keon was a jolly and slightly overweight guy – I’d been expecting someone cool and brooding – but clearly, they were old friends.

“Your sister is great with computers, Ms. Lafi,” Keon said, gazing at the computer where Talori could be seen in a monitor and she smiled at us. He leaned his chin on his hand, clearly smitten. Kesari and I exchanged amused grins.

“You can call me Soraya, Keon,” I told him.

“Keep your communicators on at all times! Ground squad, let’s go,” Andrei barked out.

All the shifters he’d managed to recruit were surging towards the exits, some shifting and running down the stairs. I was surprised at how many there were – Andrei had managed to get almost two whole squads. I’d never really taken him for the making friends type.

“Watch squad – watch our back, eh?” Andrei asked, pausing at the door and giving me a look. “Don’t worry, Soraya, I’ll be there before Dez walks in.”

He vanished and Keon flexed his fingers. “All right, I’ve got all the cameras going.”

Roy and Kesari were standing side by side and I noticed their fingers were interlinked. An ache of longing for Dez went through me. Pulling my eyes away, I glanced from screen to screen, listening to the stereo-like echo of Talori and Keon both typing furiously at once.

“He’s in Camera B, sis,” Talori suddenly spoke up.

“Where?” I asked.

Keon pointed and sure enough, I saw Dez walking along. Then a shadow exploded out of nowhere, causing the screen to go fuzzy and then I saw Evie standing there, along with Preston. Behind them, only visible to a shifter who could parse that kind of shadow, was Henrik in his shifted form. Dez was on the ground and my heart was in my throat.

“Dez, what are you doing, get up, get up,” I murmured, my fingers curling into the back of Keon’s chair.

“He is garnering their trust subconsciously,” Roy spoke up. “Acting uncertain, assuring them of their superiority.” He sounded impressed. “An excellent tactic.”

“Dez is incredibly smart,” Kesari said with a small, tremulous smile.

We watched as they brought Dez inside, Henrik’s shadow slinking along behind them and then Keon pointed to another camera. “This one was a doozy to break into, but we got it in the end.”

It offered a bird’s eye view of a busy room. Movement was fuzzy and often lagged, but Keon managed to zoom in a little, offering us a view of Dez being presented to Parasite.

“Dez,” I whispered.

“Everyone is in position,” Talori announced. “Don’t worry, sis, he’s gonna be okay. Andrei has eyes on him and will be there in a second if anything goes wrong.”

I didn’t answer, watching as Dez and Parasite interacted. Suddenly Preston reached out and grabbed Dez’s arms. Everyone tensed.

“What is he doing?” Kesari whispered and I wasn’t sure who she was referring to.

“Dez will be okay,” Roy said in a strong, reassuring voice.

Evie had gone off somewhere and now she was coming back. I saw the triumphant smirk on her face, the same she’d worn when she’d held a knife to my throat.

“Something is wrong,” I said, my skin going cold. “I’m–”

The words died in my throat.

I’d seen what was in her hands.

“What is that?” Kesari demanded, leaning forward. “It looks like some kind of collar.”

“That’s exactly what it is,” I said, horror rising in me. “And they’re going to put it on Dez–”

Before I could finish my sentence, Dez had broken free and thrown Preston into his sister. Then he neatly displaced Parasite and my heart soared.

“You get ‘em, baby,” I murmured under my breath.

I saw his hand go inside of his jacket and whip out, a dark, small blur zipping across the screen. My eyes tracked it and then, to my horror, Henrik appeared and caught it.

“No!” Kesari said, leaning forward like she could go through the screen.

“We have to call 911,” I said, “It’s a risk, but we have to–”

Loud static suddenly burst into my ear and we all four let out annoyed cries. Reaching up, I yanked the communicator out of my ear as Kesari, Roy and Keon did the same.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Talori asked.

“Some signal hit our frequency,” Keon said, pushing a finger into his ear and shaking his head. “Oh shit, wait a second–”

“What’s wrong?” I asked in a sharp voice.

“It wasn’t just our communicators, it was every signal in the area. Everything’s jammed.”

At the same time, I realized Dez was fighting with Parasite and had knocked him back. Then he said something to Henrik. And the idiot, goaded by Dez, crushed the smoke bomb.

"Nicely done, Dez," Roy said, as smoke unfurled and the alarms flashed.

“Wait, will those signals be blocked? Keon, Talori?” Kesari asked urgently.

“It depends – see how the feed of the warehouse is still up?” Keon asked and we nodded. Many of the monitors were now scrambled messes, but the one in the warehouse wasn’t. “That’s because the technology is so old, it wasn’t affected by that pulse or whatever. But if whoever owns that place updated their fire alarms to get them to code, it’s possible that no, the signal didn’t go out. And that would mean no one is coming.”

“Dammit,” I muttered. “How far does it go?”

Keon shook his head. “I can’t tell inside of the dead zone, but Talori probably can.”

“Wait, Talori – you can call, can’t you?” I asked.

“By the time I could hack a Charlestown based number to call with, it would probably be too late, but I can try.” Her fingers were flying. “As for the dead zone, it’s small. A few streets over and everything is back to normal.”

“I’ll go,” Roy and I said at the same time.

“Roy, I think you should stay here,” I said and he shook his head stubbornly.

“You’re recovering from injuries, Soraya – Andrei made me promise–”

“Soraya, you got hurt?!” I heard my sister demand angrily and I glared at Roy.

“No, I’m going. Senior agent, my authority outranks you, kid. Stay put,” I said, turning and then abruptly stopping again. My skin went cold as my instincts all began to scream at me at once. “Can we help you?” I asked in soft, slow voice.

A woman had appeared in the doorway, her hair a stark and strange white. She was wearing a thin, white dress, under a shabby coat with no tights. At my question, she didn’t answer, just continued to stare at the floor, her head lolling on her neck and her arms listless at her sides.

“Who is she?” Kesari whispered, her voice high in her throat.

Keon had turned around at my word and let out a yelp. “Woah, is this place haunted?”

I moved forward slightly and sensed Roy flanking me.

“Can you hear me?” I asked.

She looked up and my stomach clenched. She was young and doll-like, her features almost impossibly delicate in her tiny, white face. But there was a thick, bloody bandage taped over her right eye, while the other was dark as onyx. A scarf obscured her neck, but I could see red scratches traveling from her chin down behind it to her neck.

At first, she gazed at us, her face almost sad and then it morphed. Head snapping up, her one eye glinted with opalescence. Her lips pulled back, splitting her cheeks and a row of serrated teeth glinted in the dim light. A gurgling, wheezy laugh came from her throat.

“Hybrid,” I murmured. “Roy, keep those two safe. Keon, Talori – get that shit back online. And Kesari, you’ve got Keon and any of the equipment.”

The hybrid lurched forward, almost hitting a desk and I straightened slightly. Maybe this one wasn’t like the others – maybe she needed help.

“We can help you, you know,” I said, trying to sound kind.

Another wheezy laugh erupted from her and suddenly, she was moving impossibly fast, still swaying a little. It wasn’t a normal run, but more of a stampeding cycle of feet like a bird.

I let her get close enough and then I leaped, shifting and spiraling in the air. She swung around and leaped after me, causing me to land on a desk and immediately jump again.

Already, I was struggling to breathe and a burn of pain started in my side. Another wheezy laugh sounded behind me and I narrowly missed a long, misshapen arm with a swollen hand at the end clawing at me. Rolling over, I shifted back and picked up a chair, throwing it at her.

She caught it, spun around and threw it back.

It came straight at me and then Roy kicked it out the way. In a flash, he’d shifted into his snow leopard form and attacked her. But she toyed with him, jumping back and spinning away, never letting him get close enough.

Running back over to Keon, who was watching with his jaw on the ground, I grabbed his shoulder and turned him to face me. “How are those signals coming? What’s going on?”

We turned to look, but the warehouse camera had gone dark.

“Dez! No!” I cried and then there was a crash. Roy was picking himself up from the wreckage of a desk he’d been thrown into. “Damn, she’s strong.”

And now she was heading straight for us.

“Enough of this,” I said, clenching my fists and shifting back. Running at her, I turned at the last moment and slammed my hips into her stomach. She let out a wheezy laugh and then I raked claws across her chest, hitting something metallic under the scarf.

A collar.

Her foot connected with my side and I went sprawling. But I’d come up with an idea.

Shifting back, I shouted, “Get me water, now!”

The hybrid kept coming, knocking desks out of the way and I got to my feet. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kesari tearing through a bag and grab a bottle.

“Here!” she said, throwing it to Roy, who ran by and threw it to me.

Wrenching open the top, I let her get close enough and yanked off the tatters of her scarf. One of her hands flew out and hit my side, making me see stars. Staggering back, I studied the collar. It would be waterproof in the main, but every electronic device had a weak spot…

My eyes narrowed. On the side, there was a strip of darker metal, almost like a slot that could be removed.

“That’s it,” I said. “Roy, can you pin her?”

“I can try,” he said, appearing on my right.

She glanced at us and giggled. Her foot shot out and I narrowly missed having my ribs splintered again, then she dove at Roy. He yelled as she tackled him to the floor, leering at him.

Running forward as she opened her mouth wide, I yanked off the cap of the bottle, grabbed the side of her collar and pulled free a small square of metal. Then I dumped the water into the opening as she swung her head around.

“Roy, move!” I shouted and he scrambled away, before rolling over and jumping to his feet.

I backed up, too, wondering for a second if it hadn't worked.

Then the collar sparked and a shudder went through her body. It sparked again, her body shaking as electricity shot through her and she fell onto her back, twitching. Abruptly it stopped.

A snarl spat from her mouth as her one eye went wide. And she stood up, glaring at us.

“Uh oh,” Roy said.

Backing up, I tried to think of another idea, as the hybrid’s rage began to cause it to contort and morph, fangs growing longer and arms all but dragging on the floor.

Suddenly there was a neat click and something whizzed through the air. An almost human look of surprise flitted across the hybrid’s face. Her hand drifted up to the dart now sticking out of her shoulder, before she let out a keening moan and toppled forward. Unconscious.

“Damn,” Keon breathed.

Roy and I both whirled around.

Kesari was standing there, looking a little shell-shocked, a huge tranquilizer gun resting in her hands. It was wider than she was. “Um, I found this in the bag.”

“Kesari!” I said, astounded. “Hell of a shot!”

“Of course you did,” Roy said with a happy, affectionate laugh. He walked forward and pulled her close to him, ruffling her hair and whispering in her ear.

Quickly, I ran to the bag and pulled out some of the thick, metallic cables we used in the Order to tie up our prisoners. Once the hybrid was safely bound, Kesari insisted on checking her vitals.

“It’s slow, but it’s steady,” Kesari said. “I wonder how long she’s been a hybrid. I wish I’d thought to bring the golden bullet with us, but I left it behind.”

“It’s okay,” I said, straightening. “That may have tipped someone off.”

“Signal’s back up!” Keon suddenly shouted. “The alert will be going out soon!”

“I have to get to the warehouse,” I said. “Dez could be in trouble.”

Roy was clearly torn, as was Kesari, then she said, “Go.”

Guilt burrowed into me. “Are you sure?”

“If Roy was out there and he was in trouble…” She trailed off as Roy gave her a soft look. “I would go. I wouldn’t listen to anyone. We’ll be fine. We have the gun and each other.”

“Are the communicators back up?” I asked, picking up mine and sticking it back in my ear.

“Working on it,” Talori said.

“We’ll keep an eye on you,” Keon said.

I glanced at the screens, which showed absolute bedlam inside and outside of the warehouse. “If you spot Dez, tell me.”

And with that, I took off.