New Species 03 Valiant (38 page)

“I just hope that this Valiant comes for you soon.” He

stood. “You smell too good. It has been a long time since

I allowed my body to give in to the urge to breed. Much

too long to be this close to you.”

That made Tammy uneasy again. It almost sounded

as though it were a threat. A s if he warned her that his

control would only last so long. She bit her lip. “What do

you do in here to keep busy?”

He shrugged. “I grow strong.”

She glanced at the large room. There was the twin

bed and the toilet. The small hose with the twist-turn to

shut it on and off and the drain in the floor were the only

other things. She had no idea what he meant.

“You must get so bored.”

“Bored?”

She tried to think of a way to explain it to him. “You

have nothing to do.”

“I get strong.” He moved to the floor beside her and

did pushups. She watched as his muscles strained and

tightened while he quickly lifted up and down. He

eventually stopped and glanced at the wall. He ran at it,

twisted, and slammed his body against it. He did that a

few times, switching shoulders as he hit it. She stared at

the bars and realized they’d bent slightly, just barely, and

she wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t been searching

for damage.

He stopped doing that and walked to the front of the

cell where the bars were. He gripped them and did

pushups while standing. He finally turned and strode to

the center of the cage. He suddenly crouched down and

leapt high into the air. His fingers caught the bars of the

roof, his body hung feet from the floor and she watched

in amazement as he did pull-ups. He seemed to do them

forever until sweat dripped down his body. He released

the bars and landed gracefully on his bare feet. He turned

and looked at her.

“I get strong.”

No wonder all the New Species men were huge and

buff. It’s not a mystery anymore how muscular and in

shape they are if this is what they did all those years

inside their cells.

She nodded. “I saw that.”

“I bathe now. You may turn away.”

She did. She put her back to the area with the hose.

She heard water come on and she heard the odd sound

of Velcro. She wanted to look to see what it was but she

didn’t. He wanted to bathe and even she knew their

definitions of that couldn’t be too different. The sound of

water running lasted a while. It shut off. She heard that

sound of Velcro again.

“I am covered.”

Tammy turned, still sitting on the floor, and faced

927. He had washed his body and his hair was wet. She

saw him return something behind the toilet as he bent.

“What did you put behind the…” She pointed.

He leaned back down. “Soap and deodorant.” He

lifted them and showed her. The soap hung from a tiny

rope and he’d been given a travel-sized deodorant. “They

give us these to keep clean and not to smell. We do not

enjoy bad odors from our bodies. It makes us irritable.”

“A t least they give you toilets. I guess that is good.”

“They do not clean our rooms. We would kill them if

they got so close.”

“I understand.” The jerks who’d brought her there

didn’t want to have to clean up the cell if he didn’t have

the ability to go to the bathroom decently.

He moved closer and sat in front of her. “Tell me

about New Species. Tell me everything.”

Tammy took a deep breath. She started to tell him

everything she knew from the time she’d started to follow

the news. 927 watched her with interest. He smiled a lot.

She continued to talk.

* * * * *

“Someone comes,” a voice over the radio warned

softly.

Valiant leapt from the bed and watched Justice and

Tiger stand from where they had been resting on the

floor. The men moved out of sight of the front door.

Justice gave Valiant a hard look.

“Do not kill them or hurt their ability to speak. They

know where Tammy is.”

“I know that.” Valiant growled softly. “No one wants

her back more than I.”

“I know but I see your rage, my friend. I understand.

I would want to destroy them if someone took my

woman…if I had a woman. I am just reminding you in

case you are not thinking clearly. We need them to tell us

where she is.”

“She’s not even my woman and I still want to kill

them,” Tiger sighed. “They work for Mercile, took one of

our women, and they need to die for that.”

“Quiet,” Valiant suddenly whispered. “I hear a vehicle

coming.”

A n engine died outside and a door slammed. A man

walked up the front walkway, his shoe tread soft, and

keys jingled. In seconds the deadbolt slid and the door

swung open. The human who walked inside was a man

in his twenties. He wore white clothing, similar to the

technicians from the testing facilities, and Valiant bit back

a snarl to remain silent.

The human hooked his keys on a nail in the wall and

slammed the door closed behind him. His arms rose as

he stretched his torso, yawned and turned. It took him

five steps before he realized he wasn’t alone. He froze.

Valiant, Tiger and Justice spread out around the man

the second they walked out of hiding from the next

room. Terror instantly shrouded the human’s face and

the stench of it rolled off him.

“Fuck me,” he cursed.

Tiger growled. “Not even if you begged. You aren’t

our type.”

The man blanched. “What do you want?”

Valiant growled. “You know what we want. Where is

my woman?”

The man started to shake and sweat as he stared at

Valiant. His gaze swept over the big New Species from

head to foot. “Shit.”

“Where is Tammy?” Justice growled from behind the

human. “Talk quickly because my friend wants to make

you scream and bleed. The bed smells strongly of his

woman’s fear. He is very angry.”

The human’s mouth moved but nothing came out.

Valiant roared, the sound filled the room, and he

advanced. The human spun quickly to flee, lost his

balance and collapsed to the floor in terror. A high-

pitched scream tore from his throat as Valiant crouched

and grabbed him by his arms, making sure his nails dug

into them painfully.

“Where is my Tammy?” Valiant snarled the words. He

yanked the man’s upper body closer to his sharp teeth.

“A t the warehouse,” he sobbed. “She’s at the

warehouse.”

“Release him,” Justice growled. “Do not break him.

“Release him,” Justice growled. “Do not break him.

He is going to tell us where that is, aren’t you, human?”

The man jerked his eyes to Justice. He nodded,

terrified. “I will. Just get him off me.”

Valiant released him and backed up. He shook with

rage. The urge to kill nearly overwhelmed him. This was

the human who had taken Tammy to a warehouse to be

thrown in with an imprisoned Species for a breeding

experiment. It took everything he had not to lunge and

tear out his throat.

“Is she still alive?” Tiger inched closer to intimidate.

“She was when I left a little while ago. 927 won’t fuck

her and he didn’t kill her.”

Justice moved, blocking Valiant when he took a step

toward the human on the floor. Justice shook his head.

“Control.”

“I am.” Valiant growled.

Justice turned his furious glare on the human. “What

is your name?”

“Pete.”

Justice blinked. “You are going to take us to this

warehouse. What is the security there? How many guards

are protecting the site? A re they heavily armed?”

Pete stared at him. “You mean how many men are

guarding it? None. It’s just me, Mike and the doctor.”

Tiger growled. “Lie. They would never guard a

testing facility with just three men.”

Pete turned his terrified eyes to the cat-eyed man

glaring at him. “It’s not one. We just brought the one

from the testing facility in Colorado. The doctor wanted

to bring more of them but we have to wait until more

men are available to build more cells to hold them. Right

now it’s just the one we have and just the three of us can

handle him.”

“You are going to take us there but first you are

going to tell us where this testing facility in Colorado is

located.” Justice demanded. “A nd you are going to do it

now.”

Valiant roared again. The man on the floor nodded

frantically, his terrified gaze locked on Valiant.

“I will. A nything you want. Just stay away from me.”

He rattled off an address.

Justice shot Tiger a look. Tiger nodded, grabbed his

back pocket and flipped out his cell phone. He gave the

address to the person he spoke to. He paused.

“How many New Species are being kept there? What

is the security like?”

The man closed his mouth. “They’ll kill me.”

Justice growled and clapped his hands once. The

men from upstairs came down and surrounded the

cowering human. Pete stared at the eight New Species

closing in on him. The smell of his fear became so strong

Valiant could almost taste it.

“You talk or we start at your toes and fingers. It is

amazing how many bones can be broken before shock

starts to kill a man.” Justice growled, inching closer.

“A nswer my questions.”

“Don’t do it,” Pete rasped. “Fuck. Just stay back.

There should be eighty-two males and six females there

unless some of them were moved over the last week

when I left there. Security is tight.” He paused.

“Keep talking,” Valiant growled at him. “Where would

they be moved to? Where are the other testing facilities?”

“It’s not like that,” the guy hissed. “When the first

testing facilities were breached, people panicked. We

found an abandoned building and it took us some

months to prepare the new location to hold them.

Everyone was scared shitless that our testing facility

would be discovered, we wanted to get out of there as

fast as possible, but it takes time to build sturdy enough

holding cells to keep your kind locked up. We moved

them to the address I gave you and sometimes we lend

some of them out to a few of the other doctors who

weren’t arrested. I don’t have nothing to do with that and

I don’t know anything except sometimes a handful of

them disappear but are later returned. You’re going to

have to talk to the doctor about where they go and who

has them. He’s in charge. Nothing gets done without his

approval. His name is A dam Zenlelt.”

“How many guards are there? Where are our

people?”

“They are being kept underground on the second

level. It used to be a parking lot two floors down but

they enclosed it to house those bastards. They usually

have about twelve guards topside and maybe six

downstairs. I don’t know all the doctors and support staff

but I’d guess maybe twenty in all onsite during a work

shift.”

“Is it rigged with explosives?” Tiger growled.

Pete shrugged. “Hell if I know. I’m not security. I’m

just the doctor’s assistant. Me and Mike are the muscle.

That’s all. We take care of 927 and whatever test subjects

the doctor personally is working with.”

“What about Tammy?” Valiant moved closer, glaring.

“Tell me everything.”

The man swallowed. “We threw her into the cell with

927. He killed the last two women we put in with him.

He just fucking killed them. He’s crazy. He won’t kill your

bitches but he kills regular ones like me.” He slammed

his mouth shut. “That came out wrong. You know what I

mean. He broke through the partition we have in place to

keep him back when we open the cell door. He sniffed

her a lot and she was yakking up a storm to him trying to

get him not to kill her. He just took her to his bed and

lay down with her. When I left he was feeding her, and

hell, he tore up the meat for her. It was freaky. If he will

use his teeth to make bite-sized chucks she can eat, sleep

with her, then you would assume he would fuck her. We

think he’s gay.”

“He slept on her?” Valiant growled.

“He slept on her?” Valiant growled.

The man winced. “Well, it is kind of cold at night and

we don’t give him blankets.”

“Calm,” Justice ordered Valiant. “He did not breed