Queen of Death
Chapter 12

Hunter

Sol is hidden in the shadows but with Tate’s gift we can easily follow her through the hallways beneath the facility. I’ve got my favorite blade in one hand and a gun in the other, ready for any manner of combat if necessary. It sucks not being able to see Solana, especially when she’s leading us through unknown enemy territory, so my faith in Tate needs to be unwavering. I need to believe that he’s got eyes on her and that he’s not letting her get too far ahead of us.

We take a sharp left down another corridor and come to find one of the guards lifeless on the floor. Tate grins maliciously at me and mouths 'Nightshade.' Gods she’s efficient. We end up following a trail of dead guards like breadcrumbs all the way to an otherwise unmarked door.

Solana melts the bioscanner, short circuiting its defenses and enabling us to easily push the door open revealing the exact room Tate was looking to find.

A wall of monitors looms over what can only be described as a command table. Each monitor shows a different view from one of the many security cams they have scattered throughout the facility. There are a dozen computers and two desk chairs sitting back to back which are each occupied by a guard that Solana is restraining.

The door clicks closed behind me and I flip the lock before helping Solana with her task. Tate grabs an extra chair and pulls it up to the command bench, furiously typing away at something on one of the computers.

“I guess you weren’t too worried about security,” I say rhetorically to the guards. “You’ve got maps, shift schedules, security codes, all kinds of shit left out in the open.”

They truly don’t look worried at all, if anything they look amused.

Sol scoffs, “they may be stupid but no one is that stupid. They left them there to be found — a decoy.”

It makes more sense that they were left there intentionally than the staff being careless with their things, but something still doesn’t sit right with me about it all. The little hairs on my arms and the back of my neck are standing straight up, my body preparing for a danger I have yet to see. “Why would they expect them to be found? Why not just have better security?”

Solana and Tate look at first at me and then at each other, an unspoken conversation occurring between the three of us. This place has been operating for Goddess knows how long and we’re expected to believe that they leave their papers out to be found everyday?

No. I don’t think so. They knew someone was coming, and if that’s the case then…

A sudden, ear splitting alarm begins to blare and I see a victorious grin crack like a chasm across the guard’s face. “You have no idea how fucked you are,” he taunts us.

Tate puts an easy bullet between his eyes and then when his head lulls lifelessly to the side he puts another bullet in the back of his colleague’s head without so much as blinking. I’m obviously no stranger to violence, and I will do what is necessary to protect my pack, but Goddess does this life come disturbingly easy to Tate. He almost couldn’t shoot them fast enough.

Where are you three? Are you still with Solana? Ace’s voice links me through the blaring noise of the security alarm. Solana deadbolts the door and then heats the entire door up so much that the metal is glowing an orange-red color. Whoever wants to get into this room now will have to break it down or suffer her heat.

We found the control room. Tate is combing through their computers now, I respond back to Ace.

The alarm continues to scream in the hallway, the molten door doing little to attenuate the sound. Gunfire breaks out, and even though it sounds muffled and far away I still begin to feel a sense of urgency.

“How long before you have what you need?” Sol directs her question to Tate.

“I’m taking everything. I’ll sort through it when we get back.”

She leans against the consol, arms folded neatly over her chest and eyes fixed on him. It’s such an Ace stance I barely contain my laugh.

Tate’s exasperated sigh is betrayed by the smallest lift at the corner of his mouth. He sees it too. “I’ve done this once or twice, you know?”

She arches a high brow at him which lifts the corners of his mouth up even more. “Hunter doesn’t have the same luxury of time we do,” she says to Tate before shifting to face me.

Hunter, it’s time to get the fuck out. There are guards everywhere and they know where you guys are. They’re coming for her. Eli warns me through mindlink.

When my eyes clear Solana is looking at me with worry. “Time to go,” I tell them.

“Go. I’ll be right behind you, I just need another minute.” Tate dismisses us.

“Stay with Tate. I’m going to try to lead the guards away from here and find the others.”

“Hunt—“

“Stay with him, Sol. I’ll see you at home.” I capture her lips with mine for a chaste kiss. Summoning more knives and tucking them in where I like, I nod to Sol to cool down the door and let me out.

The door shuts silently behind me, locking Sol and Tate safely inside. Or as safely as they can be, all things considered. To my left, the way we came, I can hear continued gunfire over the alarm. Rather than head that way to meet up with the guys I choose to go right in the hopes that I can head off any guards that are on their way to the room behind me.

I take off down the hallway, hugging the walls as I go. The hall ends at a t-intersection, another choice between left and right, but the choice is made for me. A bullet grazes my chin originating from my left.

I throw my back against the wall around the corner and wait for the hail of bullets to end. Once there’s a break in the barrage, I step into the hallway facing the source and fire several shots of my own. I know that all my bullets found a home in someone’s flesh, but I can’t tell how many of them I’ve killed.

I summon a shrapnel grenade and throw it at them and take off down to the right. The few guards that survived long enough to follow me are quickly in pursuit.

I lead them through the winding hallways with no idea where I am and no idea if I’m going in circles or running away or toward where I left Tate and Sol. I can only hope that I’m either helping to divert guards away from them or I’m close to finding Ace and the guys.

The group of guards that had been chasing me has dwindled down to almost nothing, and not because of injuries sustained. They’ve caught on that I’m leading them on a wild goose chase and I’m no longer worth their time and energy.

Or at least that’s what I thought until I run smack into the chest of a very large guard. We raise our guns at one another in synchrony but before either of us can pull the trigger his head explodes littering a 6 foot blast radius with blood, tissue, and bone.

“Need a hand?” Dean’s head pops out of the ceiling vent like a bat, upside down and everything, and grinning like a cheshire cat. He reaches down for me and helps hoist me up into the air ducts he’s been crawling through.

Dean is leaner than I am so he has an easier time maneuvering in here. “You’re just as creepy as your brother, you know that?” I tease, crawling ahead of him. “Where are Ace and Eli?”

“We got separated back by the laundry room. Figured I’d come find you guys and give your furry ass a lift out of here.”

Classic Dean. Constantly thinking of everyone else even at his own expense.

We’re army crawling our way through, hoping to find a staircase or the laundry room we saw on our way in. Any landmark to let us know we’re close to an exit. Suddenly, as quickly as it started, the alarm stops.

Dean and I freeze in place, listening for any movement or voices beneath us but the residual ringing in my ears left behind by the alarm is disorienting me and making it hard to distinguish sounds.

I inch forward just a bit to look through the slots in the vent, counting at least three guards below us. Carefully, I summon a time-delay grenade and hand it to Dean. He throws it as far as he can behind us, letting it clash and clatter loudly through the air duct drawing the attention of the guards below us.

Predictably, the guards take off following the sound, spraying bullets into the air duct behind us but after 10 seconds the grenade detonates. The guards scream and curse loud enough for Dean and me to continue scurrying through the air ducts until at last we find a staircase.

I drop a smoke bomb down into the stairwell first to give us some cover. We wait 5 seconds but the only sounds we hear are distant and muted.

We drop down together and check the small window in the door at the top of the landing.

“This has to be the first floor,” I murmur to Dean.

“I don’t care if it’s the hundredth floor, where there’s sunlight there’re windows.”

“Easy for you to say.You have wings,” I elbow him in the rib and he nudges me back. “Cover me. I’ll blow the window and we’re out.”

His expression is wary. He knows it’s the right call, it’s protocol. We get the fuck out and meet up at the house. Going back or waiting will almost always get you killed. We need to trust that everyone else won’t be stupid enough to try and be the hero. But if anyone were to try, it’d be Dean.

I kick the door open with more force than is strictly necessary. Dean fires off several rounds behind me but I tunnel in on the window. I summon a sticky bomb and cock my arm back to launch it at the window when a blur of black and purple whizzes by, smashing through the glass.

We beeline for the opening to freedom together, shifting into our beasts as we pass through the window and race away from the facility.

Before I dive behind the tree line and lose sight of them, I look towards the sky for any sign of Sol, Tate, or Dean. I catch black wingtips disappearing into the clouds which could be Tate or Dean, but it’s more likely Dean since Tate favors the shadows. Solana’s purple and black beauty soars up into the clouds right on his tail.

A few guards try to pursue us but quickly give up the chase. I charge back home as fast as my wolf can manage. Back to my girl and my pack.

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