Wolfen Domination (24 page)

            Her joyous excitement deflated like a popped
balloon as visions of Jesse running through the halls dodging bullets with baby
Joshua in his arms rose to her mind’s eye.

            He could be killed.  They both could.

            Would Joshua be better off if she left him alone
and didn’t thrust him into danger by trying to free him?

            She was still weighing years of torturous tests
and the lack of any affection or attention that would be her baby’s life
against the possibility of harm coming to him, when a dark shadow fell over
her.  Her heart felt as if a giant hand squeezed it.  When she whipped around
to see what had caused the deep shadow, though, she was relieved to discover it
was no more than an outcropping of rock.

            With the wet squeak of something rubbing against
rubber, the dingy slipped under it into an inky blackness.  Sound echoed around
them, intensified by the water and with no where to escape.

            They were in a cave.

            And the entrance to the cave was virtually
completely submerged.

            The scrape of something against rock caught her
attention.  She rose up and turned toward the sound just as light seemed to explode
around them.  As the glare died, she saw that Juan had climbed from the water
onto a ledge and lit a small lantern. Setting it aside, he picked up a second
lantern, lit it and set it on an outcropping of rock at about shoulder level. 
The dingy bumped against the edge of the ledge.  One by one the Lycans released
their hold on the rope around it and heaved themselves up onto the ledge.

            Tavian leaned toward her, holding out his hand
while Jesse remained in the water, holding the dingy steady.  She reached up,
clasped his hand and was yanked from the dingy so hard she thought for a moment
he’d dislocated her shoulder.

            That was what came from having most of her weight
on the ass end, she thought irritably, rubbing her shoulder absently while she
waited for Jesse to emerge from the water.  Sloughing the water off, he made
hand gestures at the other Lycans.

            Erin gaped at him, completely at sea.

            He fixed her with a stern look and pointed to the
ledge.  She looked at the ledge and then back at him.  “Stay,” he mouthed.

            She narrowed her eyes at him, setting her jaw
stubbornly.  “NO!” she mouthed back at him.

            She heard his teeth grinding and saw a muscle
working in his jaw.  He glanced around as if looking for help.  The others had
already followed his silent command, however, and disappeared.  Catching her
shoulders, he lowered his head until his mouth was by her ear.  “Not one shriek
or gasp.  No blubbering.  Not one sound,” he muttered in a low growl.

            Erin gave him an indignant look when he pulled
away.  “I’m not stupid!” she mouthed.

            He pretended he didn’t see that.

            “Asshole!” she mouthed at his back as he turned
away to follow the others.

            Naturally, he missed that, too, but she knew
better than to cross him.  He’d stick her back in the dingy and shove it off--or
something equally macho.

            Trailing the pack, she moved as quickly and
quietly as she could manage given that she couldn’t see nearly as well in the
dark as they could.  Her calves began to protest almost at once as they
followed a tunnel that curved sharply upward.

            The tunnel was narrow.  Jesse’s broad shoulders
blocked most of her view, and most of the light from the lantern Juan was
carrying, but she could hear, faintly, the movements of the others in front of
them, the brush of their arm or leg along the rocky surface of the corridor,
the light scrape of a foot not lifted quite clear of the floor.

            She didn’t want to think about how much noise she
was making.  She was winded before they had climbed far at all, and wondered if
her panting breaths sounded as loud to them as it did to her.

            When Jesse glanced back at her, she closed her
mouth, certain she must be making as much noise as she’d feared, struggling to
get enough air without using her mouth.

            The third time he looked back at her, she flicked
a hand at him as if shooing a fly.

            “Rest?” he mouthed at her.

            She shook her head firmly.  She did need to
rest.  She already had a stitch in her side and she’d reached the point where
she
had
to pant just to get enough air in her lungs, but she wasn’t
going to let him accuse her of holding them up later if things went badly.

            Thankfully, the tunnel they were following began
to taper off after a while.  It still sloped upward noticeably, but the angle
was easier to handle.  About fifteen minutes later, they reached a fork.  As
Erin followed them to the left, she peered down the corridor they’d abandoned. 
A few yards beyond the fork, rubble littered the corridor from floor to
ceiling.

            This must be the part the Feds had blocked off,
she decided.

            Did that mean they were close, she wondered?

Chapter Thirteen

            Apparently they were.  Less than ten minutes
later they halted.  Erin craned to see around Jesse, who was still blocking her
view.  To her dismay, she saw a huge boulder blocking the end of the tunnel. 
The light, she discovered, was no longer coming from the lantern Juan had used
to guide them.  At some point, he’d extinguished it.  Through a narrow crevice
along the top of the boulder, artificial light flooded the passage they were
in.

            So close! Erin thought mournfully, wondering why
they hadn’t turned around already.  She realized then that both Juan and the
Lycans had tensed, their heads cocked as if listening intently.  Unconsciously,
she strained to hear, too.

            She didn’t hear anything.

            Apparently, neither did they, for after a moment,
Tavian moved up beside Juan and the two of them began to shove at the boulder. 
It could not be moved quietly, but she saw that they were able to move it with
amazing ease--which explained everything.  They’d paused to make certain no
humans were close enough to hear, and the humans weren’t guarding it because it
hadn’t occurred to them that the boulder didn’t present a problem to the
werefolk.

            They emerged into a cavern that had been
converted into a huge storage area.  To Erin’s surprise, instead of crossing it
immediately toward the elevator shaft on the other side, the men spread out,
examining the cases quickly.

            Juan, who’d apparently been more than once
before, went directly to a large crate, pried the lid off and began pulling
AK47’s from it.  Seeing him, the others hurried over to help themselves to
weapons, as well … except for Jesse, who continued to search the crates and
boxes.

            She didn’t know what he was looking for, but he
was making her nervous as hell.

            She wondered if she should arm herself?

            Apparently not.  When she held her hand out for a
gun, Juan merely gave her a look.  It irritated her, but since she really
didn’t have a clue of how to use it she decided to let the insult slide.

            By the time the men had loaded the weapons, Jesse
was back and loaded down with all sorts of things.  He tossed coils of rope to
several of his men and then some wicked looking knives.

            She hoped that was just to cut the rope.

            The vinyl bag he’d slung on one shoulder clanked
quietly as if it contained metallic objects of some kind.  More ammunition, she
wondered?  The men were armed to the teeth now.

            When he turned to look at her, Erin knew he was
about to argue with her about going any further.  She was tempted to let him
bully her into staying where it was safe, but she wasn’t going to cower in
safety while Jesse and the others took all of the risks to save her baby. 
Glancing away from him before he could start mouthing orders at her, she headed
for the elevator shaft.

            Jesse caught her hand as she was reaching up to
punch the button.  She glanced up at him in surprise.  He was glaring at her. 
Shaking his head, he pointed toward the stairs.

            Feeling a little sheepish, Erin allowed him to
drag her toward the stairs.  It wasn’t until they reached the first landing
that it dawned on her that the elevators had security cameras in them.

            She was really, really bad at this.

            Again the Lycans paused to listen. 
Instinctively, Erin copied them, though she knew by now that she might as well
be deaf compared to the Lycan.  Gesturing to her to wait, Jesse moved to the
front and eased the door open a fraction of an inch, peering into the corridor. 
He hesitated, as if waiting for something.  After a moment, he snatched the
door wide enough to push through and disappeared.

            Tavian grabbed her before she could move.

            A minute passed and then several more.  Erin was
sorry she wasn’t wearing a watch, though she wasn’t certain of how much better
it would’ve made her feel to know how much time had elapsed.  Finally, when
she’d reached the point of considering trying to wrest free of Tavian and
taking off, Jesse pushed the door open again and motioned for them to follow
him.

            Erin glanced up and down the corridor, wondering
what Jesse had been up to.

            She saw a camera lying on the floor at one end,
the wire severed.

            As they raced down the corridor, they passed what
looked like an electronic junction box.  The panel had been ripped off of it
and the wires inside were now a ragged tangle.

            He’d been disabling the video feed?  Wouldn’t
that alert the guards just as quickly, she thought?

            Maybe not.  Although she tensed with the
expectation that any moment an alarm would begin to blast, none did.

            There was nothing but labs on the lower level
they discovered when they’d checked every room along the corridor. 
Backtracking, Jesse punched the elevator button and pushed her behind him while
they waited for it to arrive.

            Thankfully, there was only one occupant when the
doors opened.  The man, who was wearing a lab coat, only managed to gape at
them soundlessly before one of the Lycans slammed him into the rear wall,
knocking him unconscious.  When they’d piled onto the elevator, Jesse looked
the panel over and punched every button.  When the elevator halted on the next
level, he motioned for two men to get off.  Nodding, they stepped from the
cubicle and the doors closed behind them.  When they reached the next level and
the doors opened, two lab techs were waiting.  Two of the Lycans reached out,
grabbed them and yanked them inside.  Erin closed her eyes, swallowing against
the bile that rose in her throat when she heard the sickening crunch of bone. 
They flew wide again as Jesse grabbed her and hauled her into the corridor.

            She looked up at him questioningly as he motioned
to the others.  Two more Lycans stepped out just as the doors began to close. 
The others remained where they were and went up to the next level.

            Lifting his head, Jesse sniffed the air and then
pointed down the corridor.

            Frowning, Erin raced to keep up with him. 
Without any hesitation, he led her directly to the nursery.  Erin’s heart
slammed against her ribcage when she saw the wide observation window.

            Pushing her back against the opposite side of the
corridor, Jesse tried the door knob.  Finding it locked without much apparent
surprise, he slammed his shoulder into it.  The door burst inward, striking the
wall so hard it bounced back.  The man directly behind Jesse caught it, ripping
the upper hinge loose.

            Through the glass, Erin saw the two techs inside
freeze, gaping at the door in wide eyed horror, too petrified with fear even to
scream.  Before they could recover enough wit to do so, Jesse and the other two
Lycans had bounded across the room.  Erin looked away, but she pushed herself
from the wall and rushed inside.  The two techs lay crumpled in one corner.

            Joshua, screaming like a banshee, was lying in a
crib in the center of the room.

            Pain clenched at Erin’s chest as she stared at
him.

            He was so thin he looked almost malformed, his
little body shrunken so that his head looked too big for him.  Tears filled her
eyes as she stared at him, unable to force herself to move.

            Abruptly, rage ousted her devastation.  Rushing
toward the crib, Erin began frantically dismantling the monitors that had been
strapped to him, removing the IV from his tiny foot carefully.

            Fucking low life bastards! She raged inwardly. 
What the hell had they been doing to him?  He looked as if he was on the verge
of starving to death.  Mopping the tears from her eyes and cheeks with her
hands once she’d disentangled him from the medical apparatus, Erin quickly
bundled him in the blanket he was lying on and scooped him from the crib,
holding him close.