Azure (The Silver Series Book 5) (24 page)

“
It’s the best lead we’ve
got. It’s got to take us somewhere,” I replied.

“
Of course it does,” she
agreed, beaming. “When are we going?”

I glanced at Jaze. “I don’t think this is a
safe expedition for you, Gem. You could get hurt.”

A glimmer of ferocious tenacity sparkled in
her eyes. “Don’t think you can leave me out on this one, Vance.
We’ve been through too much together. I want to see Rob go down as
much as you do.”

Jaze let out a breath and when I glanced at
him, he shrugged as if to say the choice wasn’t his.

I gave in. “Fine, but you’ve got to promise
me that if it gets too dangerous, I can ask you to hang back.”

Her hand slipped into mine. “Still
protecting me from the world, Vance?” she asked with a hint of
teasing to her tone.

“
As much as I can,” I
replied.

I glanced over and saw Jaze watching us, but
there was no judgment in his expression. I again appreciated his
patience and understanding. “Let’s get ready to go,” I said
quietly. Gem nodded and skipped off down the hallway toward her
room.

“
Can we protect her?” I
asked Jaze in an undertone.

His brow creased. “After what she’s been
through, I doubt anything scares her. My team will keep her
safe.”

I thanked him and walked quickly to my room
to make preparations. Gem appeared a few seconds later with a
scantily packed bag and a pair of shoes hanging around her neck. At
my look, she sighed, “You never know when you might need them.”

I grinned and slipped mine on. “They’re
easier to wear than carry.”

She hesitated, then followed my lead as
though it was painful. I threw a few supplies into my pack, then
straightened to find her watching me, her bright expression
darkened by shadows that had nothing to do with the lighting in the
room.

“
They haven’t found my
parents yet,” she said. “What if I’ve lost them
forever?”

I shook my head. “There’s no way they’re not
looking for you right now. There are just a lot of places to
search.” I felt foolish for saying it, but it must have been the
right thing because tears filled her eyes.

“
You're right, you know,”
she said with a tremor in her bubbly voice. “Jaze will find them. I
know he will.” A tear ran over and she wiped it away with another
smile. “Look at me, falling apart before we go rescue Nora.” She
eyed me sternly. “You're supposed to be the stalwart one, remember?
Not the one who reduces girls to mere blabbering
babies.”

A laugh escaped my lips. “Oh that's my role
now, huh?”

She nodded in all seriousness, a touch of
concern in her eyes. “Nora is safe, too, you know.”

Her words tightened the pit in my stomach.
“I sure hope so.”

Gem touched my arm. “She is,” she said with
the faith that had carried me further than I cared to admit. “I
just know she is. You can’t give up until she’s out of Rob’s
clutches. She’ll be alright, I just know it.”

“
She’s a strong person,” I
agreed.

She rose onto her tiptoes and kissed me on
the nose. “Hang in there, Vance, my reluctant hero. You’ll save the
world yet.”

I laughed and she danced on her toes. “We’d
better get going.”

I nodded and she ran out the door, then
paused halfway down the hall to make sure I was coming. I checked
that the few meager belongings I owned were put away, then followed
her to the front door.

Chapter 21

We pulled up to a small, brown-bricked
security building that controlled the entrance to a fenced-in
compound. The fence was twelve feet high and topped with
razor-wire. A brick wall on the other side hid whatever was inside
from view.

Jaze pulled up to the security building and
rolled down his window. A black-tinted pane of glass slid open to
reveal two humorless officials in dark green uniforms.

“
Sorry, kid, but you missed
the museum about twenty minutes back,” the first officer said in a
tone that indicated we weren't the first strangers to show up at
his window, he just didn’t know we were the first to arrive on
purpose.

“
Really?” Jaze glanced at
Jet with a lifted eyebrow. “How could we have missed
it?”

Jet shrugged, his eyes on the officers.

Jaze lifted his gun and shot both men in the
neck with tranquilizer darts before they could sound an alert. He
set the gun back down and met my eyes in the rear-view mirror. “The
museum would probably have less security.”

I rolled my eyes and he chuckled. Jet
slipped out the door, his dark eyes glittering as though he lived
for breaking and entering into hostile compounds. Gem leaned
against my arm as the werewolf silently tripped the lock for the
door and disappeared inside. A few seconds later, the gate slid
open in front of us. Jet appeared at the passenger door like a
wraith, a half-smile on his face.

“
What's up?” Jaze
pressed.

“
Cameras,” Jet said in his
brief way. “You'll find this interesting.”

Jaze gave him a doubtful look, but pulled
slowly through the gate. “Which way?” he asked.

“
Left,” I replied. Mouse
had somehow printed out an aerial view of the compound despite the
fact that its existence was left out of every major satellite view
of the area that I could find. I had suspicions that he used a
government satellite for the shot. When I thanked him, he acted
like he didn't know what I was talking about, then he handed me a
security key card to use inside the compound and he couldn't hide
his small smile no matter how hard he looked at the
floor.

“
Take a right here,” I
whispered. Floodlights that towered above us lit every inch of the
road. I knew it was only a matter of time before the unauthorized
truck was spotted. The thought of finding information that might
lead to Rob or Nora sent a sharp pain through my chest. I wouldn't
give up any advantage we could gain.

“
There's storage to the
left. We might be able to hide the vehicle there,” Gem suggested,
leaning over the map next to me.

Jaze pulled under a three-sided storage shed
filled with stacks of moldy hay bales. When we climbed out, the
scent of fermenting greenery, opportunistic mice, and the arid
smell of gunpowder filled my nose.

“
Keep together,” I
whispered. Jaze, Gem, and Kaynan fell in behind me while Jet kept
watch at the corner. I pulled out the photo. “This looks like the
control center. I say we take the shortest route there, quick in
and out.”

“
We could have interrogated
the guards at the gate,” Kaynan said. He adjusted the dark
sunglasses he wore to hide his red eyes and gave me an apologetic
shrug. “It might have saved us a headache.”

Jaze shook his head. “No one tells the gate
guards anything. They'd be a liability and Ron's been one step
ahead since he got Nora back. Let's just hope he doesn't know we're
coming.”

Jet's expression said otherwise as he led
the way across a short stretch of asphalt and under an arch cut in
a thick hedge.

The scent of blood colored the air with iron
the further we walked. The next arch led us to a series of posts
with small, flat boards nailed on top. The scent of day-old gunfire
was unmistakable, and the feathers and chunks of wings and feet
twenty-five paces away tainted the air with a mild scent of decay.
By the blood marks on the ground and the surrounding bushes, the
birds had been alive just before they were shot, and some even
after.

A surge of pity ran through my chest that
the creatures had died at Rob's hand. It felt silly to bemoan
chickens, but I had vowed to save every life from Rob's clutches,
and I was determined to include each walk of life in that vow.

We crept further down the hedge and came to
a cement enclosure with a large, black, daunting gate at the
entrance. A quick check showed the gate to be locked. We could
scale it, but the more suspicious activities we performed, the more
likely we were to catch someone's attention.

“
I've got this,” Kaynan
said quietly. He slipped something into the lock, jiggled it, and
the lock popped open with a faint click. The werewolf then slipped
back behind Jaze and Jet, a touch of chagrin to his
smile.

“
Glad to see your skills
put to good use,” Jaze said without a hint of reproach.

“
Nice to have a chance to
use them,” Kaynan replied evenly.

“
I’m just happy I didn’t
have to break the gate down with my muscles,” Gem said. She flexed,
showing her pathetically skinny arms. “I’ll save these babies for
later.”

The others laughed and I smiled at the
sparkle in her eyes. She might have been the weakest of us, but she
was still the bravest. I opened the gate and waited for the others
to pass through, then shut it quietly behind us. The cement walls
rose about ten feet high and stretched for a long distance before
branching off. Several tunnels forked away from the main
walkway.

“
A maze, really?” Kaynan
asked dryly.

“
Original,” Jet replied.
His eyes glittered darkly. The way his gaze roamed the landscape
and his muscles tensed as though he was ready to take down an army
set me on edge.

Jaze looked at me and I gestured right.
Going straight and turning left at the end was the quickest path,
but it also went right past what looked like a guard station and I
would rather be safe than sorry. We walked quickly down the cement
walkway and I know I wasn't the only one who felt a little
claustrophobic behind the tall walls. Gem slipped her hand into
mine and I gave it a reassuring squeeze.

We passed one gap in the wall that led to an
empty cement enclosure that smelled strongly of fear and werewolf
blood. The next gap revealed chains on the ground, excrement, and
more blood; the scent said that the recently missing inhabitants
had been there a long time, suffering from wounds and neglect.

I gritted my teeth and Gem and I both passed
the next gap without looking, but we heard sounds of disgust and
exclamations from the others that matched the scent of death and
decay in the air.

I led the others to the end of the row, then
we turned and walked slowly down the back aisle. Fortunately, there
were no more gaps in the cement wall. We waited at the exit of the
maze until a rotating camera finished its path and turned back in
the other direction, then we slipped past and crept through a small
stand of trees to another enclosure.

The building showed as a black square on the
map. Mouse had circled it and written coordinates on the right side
in case we had any trouble reaching it. He said that was where all
the electronic transmissions came from and guessed it was the
central station for the training grounds. The building smelled of
humans and I wondered how many we would find inside.

Two guards stood at the only door, assault
rifles held loose in their hands and bored expressions on their
faces. Jaze and Kaynan raised their guns, then Jaze counted quietly
and they both pulled their triggers. Two darts flew through the air
to land in the necks of both guards. One let out a soft
exclamation, then they slumped to the ground.

We walked silently across the small cement
clearing and I used the key card Mouse had given me to open the
door while Jet and Kaynan pulled the bodies into the trees. They
caught up to us inside. I folded the aerial picture, wishing we had
a map of the inside but knowing we had gotten lucky so far. I
pulled out my gun and took the right hall with Gem, Jaze and Jet
took the middle, while Kaynan went down the left.

Our goal was to find someone in charge and
interrogate them, then compare the information when we met back at
the truck in fifteen minutes. It wasn't much time, but we figured
any longer and we would risk bringing down the entire training
facility to practice on our hides, though Jaze pointed out dryly
that would definitely help us find Rob, just at the wrong end of
his gun.

The building turned out to have more of a
classroom setting than a control center. Gem and I passed four
classrooms containing about twenty Hunters each. The thought sent
chills through my body that there were so many extremists waiting
to take down werewolves. I worried about the other members of our
team and hoped they were being careful, then a loud hum sounded and
the lights shut off.

The windowless building was pitch-black.
Whoever had tripped the power apparently had shut off the back-up
generators as well, because no emergency lighting showed. Cries of
alarm went up from the classrooms as Gem and I hurried past, their
gray images and wide stares making both of us smile.

We followed the hallway to the left, then
found a closed door with ‘No Entrance’ painted in big red letters
on the outside. “Subtle,” I said softly. Gem grinned and tried the
door. It was locked. I gripped the handle in both hands and turned
it sharply to the right. A pop sounded, then the door swung
inward.

Flashlight beams bounced around the room as
five or six men called out to each other, checking fuses, following
wiring, and trying to get the cameras and computers back online. A
man about six and a half feet tall stood at the back of the room
giving orders. He didn't look as frantic as the rest, but I could
smell the anxiety that flowed from him and knew he hid it well.

“
Stay out here,” I
whispered to Gem. She nodded, her eyes wide.

I stepped into the room and followed the
wall so I could crouch behind the desks if they shone their lights
in my direction. I was almost to the man when shots rang out. I
froze, then saw Kaynan stand with his hands up. All six of the men
had their flashlights trained on him. Blood trickled from Kaynan's
shoulder and I wondered if they used silver bullets. The fact that
this was a Hunter training facility made the possibility very
likely. We didn't have much time to get the bullet out.