Crimson (The Silver Series Book 3) (24 page)

His eyes, now wide with fear and pain,
rolled to mine and he nodded.

“
Good,” I said between
gritted teeth. I stood and carried him by the throat to the door,
then glanced up and down the empty hall. “Do your
narcissistic
snappy thing and get us some help.”

I kept a foot in the door in case his guards
decided to just lock us in and let him bleed to death. Dr. Tannin
did his best to lift his arm, but it was fractured in more than one
place and he gave up and just glared at the cameras. Four
white-faced nurses and six guards quickly showed up panting and
wide-eyed.

“
D-Dr. Tannin?” one of the
nurses stuttered.

“
Have them put Colleen on a
gurney and follow us,” I said in his ear.

The nurses and guards looked from me to him.
He gurgled out something unintelligible, then gestured angrily for
them to listen to me. Two of the nurses ran down the hall and came
back with a wheeled gurney. They moved Colleen carefully from the
bed, then wait for me uncertainly.

The guards toyed nervously with their
weapons. I met their eyes with a gaze of steel. “If you shoot me,
my hand slips and he dies in seconds. Leave the weapons and escort
us to the central control room.”

The guards looked at Dr. Tannin for
agreement. He rolled his eyes, then gestured for them to put their
weapons down and follow us, all the while making an angry, gurgling
noise that I didn’t think was good for his throat; I refrained from
commenting on it.

Each hallway we passed smelled of werewolf,
pain, fear, and blood. The scents awoke my fight or flight
instincts and sent adrenaline surging through my veins. I had to
restrain myself from holding Dr. Tannin’s neck too tight. My
fingers tensed compulsively around the knife hilt in my other hand
and it was all I could do to loosen my grip as Jet had
instructed.

The guards led us to a white-walled room a
few hallways down. The security at the door had apparently already
been notified that we were coming. They backed up without a word
and let us into the room, then fell in behind me. My instincts
warned for me to keep them all in sight, so I backed up to the
nearest wall and gestured with the knife.

“
Open all the gates and
release the locks on the doors,” I commanded.

“
If we do that, the
werewolves will escape,” a skinny man in a poorly-fitting suit
protested.

“
That’s the point,” I
growled with barely contained rage. “Any werewolf currently under
restraint is to be set free in the yard.”

“
And if we refuse?” an
older man with a buzz cut and graying sideburns asked.

My lips lifted in a snarl and I spoke the
words slowly, emphasizing each one. “Then Dr. Tannin dies, followed
by everyone else in this room.” I moved my hand slightly and blood
leaked between my fingers to emphasize my point.

The suited man looked at the other four.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Free the werewolves!”

Two men took seats at the computers and
entered several codes. The monitors around the room showed doors
opening and gates lifting. Werewolves moved out into the hallway,
glanced at each other, then headed for the exit. “Leave,” I said to
the men in a growl that left no room for argument. When they filed
out the door, I bent with Dr. Tannin at my side and tore the wires
from the computers so no one could disable the commands.

The moment we left the room, the technicians
rushed back in. Exclamations and swearing quickly followed.
“Where’s the medical center?” I asked one of the guards who
followed behind the nurses with Colleen.

“
Down the next hall and to
the left.” He led us quickly down the hall to a wide room that
smelled of antiseptic. Nurses waited anxiously with bandages and
surgical equipment at the ready.

“
You better hope another
power surge doesn’t come through while you undergoing surgery,” I
growled in Dr. Tannin’s ear. “You owe Grace her sight.”

A slight noise that could have passed for a
laugh came from the doctor. I pulled him around to face me, my hand
still clamped firmly on his lacerated throat. “What is it?”

His eyes held mine and blood dripped from
the corner of his mouth when he opened it to say, “You do.”

I pulled him close so that we stood nose to
nose. “I wouldn’t be in this situation if it wasn’t for you. I
should be dead.”

His eyes narrowed and took on an edge of
taunting. “And Colleen?” he forced out.

The thought of the fear and pain in her
voice turned my stomach. I glanced at her still form on the gurney.
I don’t know what they did to her, but if it was anything like what
I had gone through, he deserved no mercy, none of them did. I
gritted my teeth against the feral fury that filled my limbs, but I
couldn’t control it any longer. “Get out!” I yelled to the guards,
nurses, and doctors who filled the room. Several moved toward the
door, but the rest stood frozen as though they didn’t know what to
do. I put my knife to Dr. Tannin’s throat. “Get out, now.” The
anger in my voice reverberated from the walls. This time, no one
dared to stand against me. They fled from the room with the scent
of fear trailing behind them.

When we were alone, I pulled Dr. Tannin
close, my hand still across the wound in his throat. “You will
never hurt anyone again,” I said in a voice that barely contained
my anger.

I released my grip and he fell to the floor.
Blood flowed from the wound in his neck to match the rest of his
mangled body. His eyes met mine wide with horror as his life blood
spilled onto the ground around him and he was unable to lift an arm
to staunch it. I pushed Colleen’s gurney from the room and shut the
door behind me, then broke off the doorknob. The nurses and doctors
scrambled to the door as I walked back down the hall, but they
couldn’t open it. They yelled his name and pounded on the door, but
by that point, there was no one left to answer.

Chapter 23

I slapped the knife back around my wrist,
grateful once again for Mouse’s insight, then gathered Colleen’s
sleeping form in my arms. I took a steeling breath and stepped out
slowly into the yard beyond the Development Center exit. The scent
of werewolves filled my nose. At least two dozen in human form
milled around the enclosed yard. They kept their distance from each
other and watched me distrustfully. Several of them advanced on me
as I crossed the yard to the outside wall. I pretended not to
notice and walked past them with Colleen tight in my arms.

“
Let her go,” a voice
growled on my left.

“
She’s been through
enough,” another said.

I turned to find a small ring of hostile
werewolves watching me. They had bandages on various body parts and
wore minimal clothing; hostility and anger rose from them in waves
along with the scent of unwashed bodies and pain. The effect was
intimidating. I pushed down the urge to phase and teach them a
thing or two about manners. “She’s my sister,” I replied, meeting
each of their eyes. “I came from here like she did, and I’m getting
her away from this place.”

“
There’s no way out,” the
first werewolf said. “The walls are guarded on the outside and
there’s some sort of battle going on.”

I followed his gaze to several werewolves on
the top of the barricade, then looked down at Colleen. I couldn’t
leave her, but I had to know what was going on.

“
I’ll take care of her,” a
female werewolf said, jogging up to me.

The werewolf read the trepidation in my eyes
at trusting a stranger. “Colleen and I roomed together for a while.
I tried to teach her how to control the phasing, but I couldn’t
help her and they separated us. It’s okay,” she said with a warm
smile that surprised me considering what they had been through.

I pushed down the worry in my chest and
handed her my sleeping sister. She took Colleen into an alcove
along the wall and sat down in the corner. I looked at my sister
one last time, then climbed the cement stairs to the outer wall and
joined the werewolves waiting there.

Dr. Tannin’s armed guard stood below us. It
didn’t make sense to me that they were outside until I saw a
familiar SUV pull up to the edge of the sparse tree line. The worry
in my chest eased when my friends piled out. Other vehicles skidded
to a halt near it and men filed out armed to the teeth. I assumed
they were Jaze’s Hunters; they gathered around him and awaited
orders.

I climbed back down the wall and met the
gazes of the werewolves waiting inside. “My friends are out there
with Hunters ready to get us out of here, but they’ll need our
help. If we can cause a distraction, fewer of them will be in
danger.”

One of the werewolves, a brawny man with
brown hair and wearing only shorts, shrugged. “A chance to give a
little payback for the things they put us through?” He looked at
the others and they answered with matching grins. “Why not?”

“
Do you have a plan?” a
smaller werewolf asked. He dropped his eyes to the ground when I
looked at him and I fought back a smile at how much he reminded me
of Mouse.

I nodded. “We split into three groups. Group
one will cut the power. I’ve already disabled the control room, so
I doubt there’ll be many guards to stop you. Group two will gather
as many guns as they can find, and group three, well, you’re with
me.”

I let them decide who would do what and
jogged back to the werewolf watching over Colleen. “How’s she
doing?”

She gave a small shrug. “Still sleeping. Dr.
Tannin’s quiet liberal with his tranquilizers. Maybe it’ll give us
time to get her somewhere safe before she phases again.”

I nodded and tried not to show my concern. I
glanced around and saw a protected corner near one of the walls.
“She’ll be safe there if you could stay with her.”

“
I’d be glad to,” she said.
She rose and when I moved to help her, she shook her head with a
smile. “Werewolf, remember?” She carried Colleen with ease to the
corner and made her comfortable near the wall.

The second group returned with several guns.
“Okay, four of you take the doors to the Development Center so any
security left inside can’t attack our backs. The others follow
me.”

“
What are we doing?” the
brawny man asked.

“
We’re going to even out
the odds a bit,” I answered.

“
Be careful,” the man
warned. “A group of werewolves tried to get out when we were set
free and the guards gunned them down without mercy. They’re waiting
for us.”

I opened the steel gate a few inches, peered
out to see guards standing in front of it, and shouted, “The
werewolves have escaped. We need help in here!”

Several of the closest guards turned in
surprise and ran in with their guns raised. I shoved the gate shut
after eight had entered and the brawny werewolf held it closed
against the protests of their companions outside.

“
What’s going on here?” a
guard demanded.

I jumped him from behind and held a knife to
his throat. “You’re too late. The werewolves have taken over,” I
growled in his ear. His muscles tensed under my arm. “That would be
the stupidest move you’d ever make,” I warned him, pressing the
knife tighter. He dropped the gun and his companions did the same.
Werewolves grabbed up their guns and led the guards to a corner of
the yard. “Tie them up,” I ordered. “The Hunters will deal with
them later.”

“
Open the gate,” a guard
from outside demanded, banging on it with his gun.

“
He insists,” I said to the
brawny werewolf. He grinned and opened it again. A dozen guards
rushed inside this time before we could close it, but the
werewolves took my cue and had several of them hostage with guns to
their heads before the gate ws even shut.

“
We won’t kill you if you
surrender quietly and allow my companions to tie you up,” I
offered.

The guards glanced at their comrades across
the yard, then threw down their guns.

“
Good choice,” I agreed as
the werewolves led them away.

The brawny werewolf opened the gate again,
but the next group must have seen what we were up to because they
came in with guns already firing. Werewolves fell around me with
gaping wounds. A bullet tugged at the sleeve of my shirt before it
found a resting place in the werewolf behind me. I attacked the
first two men and threw their guns away, then left them to the
mercy of the other werewolves.

I ducked under another gun just as it fired;
the bullet whizzed past my ear so close the hum sounded like it
came from inside my head. I chopped upward with a fist that sent
the gun flying, then picked up the guard and threw him into the
others. Several fell back with the force of his body and the other
werewolves attacked before they could regroup. Bloody but
victorious, the surviving werewolves took the remaining guards’
guns and tied them up with the others.

Blood streamed from a bullet wound in the
brawny werewolf’s his thigh when he limped back over and opened the
gate, but no one came inside. He stepped out, then hurried back
inside and slammed it shut. “They have bigger fish to deal with
than us.”

I rushed up the wall and stared at the dozen
vehicles that had pulled up while we were working with the guards.
Hunters dressed from head to toe in black waited in groups. Bullets
whizzed back and forth in front of the wall. A Hunter fell,
followed by a guard. Two more Hunters let out cries as bullets hit
home, then they rushed out from behind the trucks, a lethal, angry
group ready to avenge their comrades. A hum sounded behind me, then
the lights shut off. The Hunters slid on night vision goggles while
the guards looked around in dismay, suddenly blind. I watched the
scene below with the stark clarity of my werewolf vision.