The House (44 page)

Of course, it
could be that the adults would be significantly less vulnerable.
They might also have families who knew where they were. The
runaways wouldn’t be missed at least; they would also be more
likely to agree to something that would likely kill them. I tried
to push it from my mind but it was too difficult. It was also
easier than thinking about what I was going to find when I reached
Hunter.

It took a very
long time to traverse the length of the room. It wasn’t far, just
terrifying. Every time anyone came or went from the room, every
time anyone moved, I froze. It made for very slow going and by the
time I reached Hunter my hands were actually shaking. It was one of
the scariest moments of my life.

I knelt next
to him very suddenly. I had to be more careful. Sudden movement
might override the effects of the spell where it wasn’t as strong.
Hunter was further away from the doors than I would have liked, but
I didn’t want to move him until I had a better idea of what was
broken on him. If I moved him with a broken back I could push it
out of place and leave him paralysed.

I could
theoretically have extended this spell; I had been in the lessons
that taught them. I’d mostly been asleep at the back of the class
though, so I had only a vague recollection of spells for hiding and
going unnoticed. I should have paid more attention. I’d known that
at the time as well, but I’d struggled with making spells and it
was easier to say that it was because I couldn’t be bothered than
to listen to the witches laugh when I actually tried. I wouldn’t
risk undoing the spell that was already there. It was enough to
make me curse my own inadequacies. I’d never thought I would ever
need the witch side of my heritage. One day had me perfectly
willing to go straight back to school and learn everything I’d
missed the first time around: fighting, first aid, spells. What
else had I missed that I’d need?

I found
Hunter’s pulse, weak and thready, but there. I could have sung with
relief. I could also feel his breath on the back of my hand if I
put it in front of his mouth and nose. It was a start at least. I
just had to figure out why he was unconscious. It was a long time
for a shifter to be knocked out for.

His forearms
were completely shattered for starters. Even for a shifter it would
need reconstruction, and quickly. He could start to heal with his
bone fragments in the wrong place. There was nothing I could do
about his arms right then, he would need surgery and a qualified
medical professional, which I was not. Next, I felt along his chest
very carefully.

His ribs moved
unnervingly under my fingers. There were bits of bone not attached
to the rest of him. His right collarbone was broken into several
pieces and his shoulder looked wrong. I took his arm and examined
further. As far as I could tell the shoulder was only dislocated. I
looked around at the main room. I could pop it back in myself,
because I’d done it before, but it was most likely to be too much
movement for the spell and a lot of pain for Hunter. I was trying
to avoid waking him in any way that would bring attention to
us.

My only excuse
for not thinking of it sooner was that the spell on the cells had
started to affect me once I was outside them; I had stopped
thinking about the people in them. I gestured Eddie to come closer
to me and I waved at the buttons on the walls. I found myself
speaking into his mind again. It was getting easier every time I
did, like I was building some kind of connection to him.

“Release
Marlow and James first,” I whispered through his thoughts. Then I
returned my attention to Hunter. It took more effort than before to
extract myself from Eddie’s mind. It was starting to feel all too
familiar to me.

I still didn’t
know what to do about Hunter. I had basic first-aid but as far as I
could tell he had no life threatening injuries. There was blood
everywhere but no open wounds. I had no idea if all the blood was
his but I got the feeling it probably was. He hadn’t used his gun,
presumably because it was awkward for close in-fighting. It was
also loud and sometimes the government put up microphones designed
to pick up gun shots.

“Marie,” I
whispered through her mind. She had seen me pass her cell so she
knew I was out. “There’s a spell on the doors extending to just
outside them. Hunter is dying.” I felt tears start to fall down my
cheeks as I thought it. My friend was dying and there was nothing I
could do.

“Try to bring
him back to consciousness, we are somewhat limited,” Marie replied.
There was regret in her voice; she thought that Hunter would die. I
think that part of her felt that we would all die. She had accepted
it. It was terrifying to think that Marie might have given up; she
was one of the strongest people I knew.

Eddie hit the
button on Marlow’s door just as I was preparing to try to bring
Hunter back to consciousness. It distracted me as the small move
all but broke the protection the spell offered. I felt it waver
around me. Without all of the doors closed it wasn’t as strong
outside of them.

Marlow had
recovered from the dart. He came roaring out of the cell and
straight into one of the vampyre in the main room. He didn’t have
his big gun any more. I hadn’t noticed when they had taken it from
him but I had been a little bit distracted. James did almost
exactly the same. He ran from the cell at full speed and took a
vampyre into the cell doors on the other side.

The vampyre
kept his head away from the cell door, avoiding the fate of the one
that had been thrown by Marlow before, but I heard the crunch as
his bones cracked against it. I worried that James would be hurt as
well but it seemed like the vampyre’s body had been enough to
shield him. It made me look back down at Hunter. His body seemed
like it had been thrown into one of the doors.

Hercules came
out of his cell more slowly. He crept around the edge to help Eddie
empty the other cells. He would join in when it looked like James
and Marlow needed help. They weren’t going to get caught twice. I
could see it in their eyes; they weren’t made for
incarceration.

I took
Hunter’s arm and braced his shoulder. Nobody was going to notice me
putting it back now and I wanted to get it done before he woke up.
He was breathing and he had a pulse even if it was weak. He should
heal himself but only if everything was in the correct place. I
still couldn’t do anything with his arms, but I could make sure his
shoulder was useable.

I couldn’t
fight because my knee wasn’t strong enough to hold me. I could
shift and heal it but that would require taking off all of my
clothes in the middle of a fight and giving up the only weapon I
had left. The thought gave me an idea though; if Hunter shifted he
would heal much faster. Shifting automatically rearranges all of
the components in a body. It normally pushes everything back into
the right place for the other form too.

He should have
shifted already really. That he hadn’t said that he was even more
hurt than I had realised. I put it down to him being unconscious. I
didn’t know enough about it to know whether his not shifting was
serious or not. But I could push him over the edge to make him
shift. In theory anyway.

I started to
pull off his jumper in preparation but I couldn’t do it without
hurting him more. I settled for ripping his sleeves off. His wings
weren’t as strong as normal limbs in terms off bursting out of
clothes. I had to hope that he wasn’t wearing anything important;
clothes just don’t survive transformations. I’d lost more than a
few outfits over the years.

I looked
around the room before I entered his mind. Everyone looked fairly
occupied; I would still have to be quick. So far I had been very
lucky that nobody had noticed me but I couldn’t count on my luck to
continue. I sat back further into the corner to hide for the
duration of my time in Hunter’s mind. I would be insanely
vulnerable if anyone found me there.

I slipped into
Hunter’s mind. I had to go deeper than just the surface. Shifting
becomes part of your basic nature and when I’d gone into Eddie’s
mind before I’d forgotten that. Controlling another person’s shift
would be almost impossible, but I wasn’t looking to control Hunter,
just trigger his shift. I was hoping that all I would have to do
would be to edge him in the right direction.

I ignored everything in Hunter that wasn’t his other form. It
was, at least, much closer to the surface than Eddie’s had been.
Hunter had embraced his second form as part of him. He loved being
a shifter. I could feel that in him, that to lose his second form
would be a death to him. It made me hopeful that maybe Eddie would
be alright as well –
if
we could get him to adopt a bit more of Hunter’s
mentality. Maybe I could get them to talk if I managed to pull
Hunter through. If any of us managed to survive this.

I pushed his
mind towards his second form; his unconscious mind had pushed it
away. He had hit his head a little bit too hard but I could almost
feel him healing around me. Eventually he would have shifted on his
own as his brain healed from the insult. I just couldn’t trust that
his body would last that long. He still felt dangerously close to
the edge.

The mind of a
dying man is one of the scariest places I have ever been. I had to
work very hard to keep myself away from his memories. He was
starting to think through his life; he knew he was dying. He didn’t
seem to realise that I was there. He certainly wasn’t helping me to
save himself. He had all but given up on living.

I had thought
that all I would have to do was nudge Hunter in the right
direction; it felt more like I was going to have to drag it out of
him. I ended up using the same method I had with Eddie. I flooded
him with my own magic until it felt like his body would burst with
it. I kept going. I knew the feeling; I just had to pray that it
had the same result.

Shoving power
into someone is dangerous. I was effectively trying to be the
equivalent of the full moon. The extra power forced all lunar
shifters to shift. The only ones exempt were those like me, with so
much power of their own that the moon made little difference. The
trouble came with Hunter being less powerful than Eddie; if I put
too much power into him it would destroy him.

I should have
been slow and careful but I didn’t have time. I had to get him to
shift so that I could return to my own mind. I wouldn’t necessarily
notice anything that happened to my body. I wasn’t paying enough
attention to myself for that, I was too deep in Hunter’s mind. For
all I knew, someone had already found and gutted me. I pushed the
thought away; it was the opposite of helpful right then.

I found that
place in him that was his second form. I could see it in his mind
as he would be. He had truly embraced his nature so I was hoping
that it would be easier to force his shift. I kept pouring power
into him. It felt like it should have drained me, but it was as
though the more power I pushed into Hunter the more I could feel
flowing around me, through me. I didn’t take the time to explore
the sensation. I focused solely on making Hunter shift. On making
him live.

It took longer
than I liked before Hunter shifted. He didn’t shimmer like I did;
it was more a pulling out of one form from the other. His clothes
ripped as his wings folded out. He was an eagle as big as a man.
The only person I’d ever met who was smaller in their other form
was Stripes, most of us got bigger.

It took a lot
of concentration to stem the flow of the power. For a moment it
seemed to turn back at me and I thought that I would be forced to
shift. I had to pull out of Hunter’s mind gradually. He was still
gravely hurt, although his pulse felt stronger and I could hear his
breathing as I pulled back into my own mind. It was a relief to
see.

Hunter lay
awkwardly because eagles aren’t built to lie down like people. He
was blinking awake when I heard the almighty crash from behind us.
I spun on the floor, my knee still protesting at the sudden
movement. A lot of people were entering the main doors.

I expected to
hide automatically but I didn’t. I found myself standing to face
the new intruders. Being in Hunter’s mind wasn’t good for my sense
of survival. I seemed to have found some of his courage, or maybe
the situation had awakened some of my own. I found myself standing
ready to fight despite my state and against my own better
judgement. Hunter was still hurt. I would protect him. I hadn’t
gone through the process of forcing his shift only to lose him.

It became
clear almost immediately that the newcomers were from the Covenant.
My grandfather came through the door in the middle of the rabble as
they started to throw spells around. The room had become a
deathtrap but at least we weren’t on our own any more.

I realised
that my grandfather had probably planned this long before our
foolhardy trip to rescue our friends. He had planned and schemed
and kept me at arm’s length. I think that I forgave him slightly
when I realised that it was him and that, subconsciously, I’d
always expected him to be there to rescue me. I hadn’t expected the
forgiveness. I had railed against my grandfather for so long that
to do anything else was simply unnatural.

I saw Eddie
join the fight. He smashed into several opponents but he was
hampered by the flying spells and subsequent rubble. It was manic
to see; people and walls everywhere. I held my corner but nobody
even noticed me there. Partly because I was still protected by the
cells around me. I didn’t recognise the shifters in them but they
had run out to join the fight like everyone else. I would wait for
Hunter to at least have a semblance of a chance. I hadn’t risked my
mind to save him just to let him be crushed by a stray wall flying
through the air. And there were more walls flying about than I had
ever believed possible. If they weren’t careful they’d bring the
whole building down.