Through The Veil (32 page)

A man came barreling around the edge of the building,
carrying someone. “Jonah!” he hollered.

Brooklyn hung limply in his arms, a trail of blood flowing
from her. She appeared dead.

Lori began to rush out of their hiding area, but Marcus
pulled her to his chest, clamping his arms around her torso. He understood her
desperation to get to Brooklyn, but if they rushed out there they’d be in just
as bad of shape as Brooklyn.
“Hang on. Don’t just barrel out there or we’ll
all end up like that. We’ll get her in a moment.”

Jonah stuck his head out the back of the truck and his eyes
widened in shock when he saw Brooklyn, exposed wings and all. “Holy shit, she
has wings.” His focus quickly shifted from her wings to her wound. “What
happened?” He glared threateningly at the man holding her as he jumped from the
truck and rushed to her side to staunch the flow of blood. “The Others weren’t
supposed to be hurt.”

“She wasn’t in the facility with them,” the man explained.
“She came out of the forest and her wings were hidden underneath her clothing,
so I didn’t know. We thought she was part of the lab staff when she began
flashing some bad-assed swords.”

“Okay.” His expression appeared grim. He took her pulse and
checked her wound. “
Goddammit
! Get her inside the
truck. We’ll take her with us. Hopefully, it’s not too late although, fuck, it
looks like she’s bleeding out.”

As the man climbed back inside the truck with Brooklyn,
Jonah turned to the men standing guard. “Everyone inside the building. Go find
Shar
. This place is going to blow,” he looked at his watch,
“in four and a half minutes. We’re out of time. Find her now!”

The men standing guard rushed into the building.

“This is it,”
Lori said.
“Two against two.
Let’s go.”

Marcus gave a sharp nod and followed her, praying that she
stayed safe as they crouched low and moved across the gravel drive. The guns
he’d pilfered off the original guards were in his hands, ready for trouble. No
one noticed them. As they moved, he instructed,
“
Griff
,
you have four minutes before that building blows. Get your ass in gear.”

“I have to go out the back way. Follow the highway and
I’ll fly and meet you further down the road with
Shar
.”
Griff’s
voice strained with the effort of escaping.
Marcus didn’t have a good feeling about this, but they were out of options.

Marcus and Lori stood at each side of the back of the
truck. He held his breath for a count of three while he peeked inside. The two
men inside the truck hadn’t noticed them yet as they were focused on Brooklyn’s
injuries. The three Others were also in the truck…in fucking cages like
animals. They appeared to be unconscious, at least that’s what Marcus hoped for
since none of them had moved.

Lori touched the base of the truck and conjured manacles to
snake up from the steel floor. They snapped around the men’s wrists and ankles,
the excess chains pooling to the floor. Both men jerked in shock. “What the…”
The man next to Jonah tried to raise his weapon, but he was too tightly bound.

Marcus pointed his guns at them. “Drop your weapon. Now, and
I won’t kill your leader.”

Jonah growled down at the manacles on his wrists. “I don’t
know who the fuck you are, but if you don’t release me right now, she’s going
to die within the next thirty seconds.”

Brooklyn’s features were waxy and blood pooled under where
she lay. Damn. He jumped into the truck and stepped forward to feel her pulse.
It fluttered weakly against the pads of his fingers.

“Marcus?”

“Do you know what you’re doing?” he asked Jonah.

“I know enough, but that won’t matter if I don’t have my
hands back. Now!” Jonah’s hard grey eyes bored into him. He appeared like a guy
who kept his head in high-stress situations and right now, he seemed intent on
saving Brooklyn’s life. He actually may be her only chance right now.

“Release him,” he instructed Lori aloud. To Jonah, he said,
“Make one wrong move and I won’t think twice about blowing your brains all over
the side of the truck.”

“Fair enough.” As soon as his hands were released, they
began to fly across Brooklyn’s mangled torso again. He didn’t bat another eye
at the two of them, completely focused on saving Brooklyn.

“Lori, I need to keep an eye on him. Can you watch for
anyone coming toward us and check the Others?”

She nodded and moved toward Savannah, maintaining touch with
the truck to keep the other man completely bound. She reached toward the cage
holding Savannah.

Jonah growled, “Don’t you fucking touch her.” He hadn’t even
looked up, but he was definitely keeping tabs on their movements.

“It’s okay,” she reassured him. “She’s not dangerous. I just
want to get her out. She doesn’t deserve to be caged like an animal. None of
them do.”

Jonah stilled for a moment to look up at her in shock. “Who
the hell are you people?”

An alarm went off on a band Jonah wore on his wrist.

“Fuck, we’re out of time.” He still had his hands inside
Brooklyn, but he turned toward Marcus. “Let my man go free to get my men out of
the building. It’s about to blow. Right now I have her artery in my hand. If I
let go, she’s dead. I’ll go with you and keep her alive. We need to work
together on this so that no one else dies.”

“Jonah, you can’t—” the man with Jonah argued, shaking his
head emphatically.

“I can. I just did. Get everyone out of here, Alan,” Jonah
told the man, very self-assured about the fact they would let him go. “We don’t
have time, and I’m not leaving Savannah again.”

They didn’t have time to debate it. “Let him go, Lori,”
Marcus instructed. To Alan, he said, “No one follows us, or we won’t think
twice about killing your leader.”

Alan hesitated, looking to Jonah, but Jonah nodded his head.
“Go!” After his man departed, Jonah grimaced at Lori and Marcus. “I hope one of
you knows how to drive, because we have got to get out of here now or else
we’re all going to die when the building blows.”

“Marcus, go. Get the truck moving. I can handle things
back here,”
Lori instructed.

He gave her a hard, quick kiss and then jumped out the back
of the truck. Goddess, he hoped he could hotwire this thing.

* * *

When the engine grabbed, Lori breathed for what felt like
the first time in the last thirty minutes. They took off in a flurry of gravel
and dirt, speeding along the hard-packed road.

“
Griff
, are you clear of the
building?”
she asked.

“Almost,”
he sounded like he was in pain.
“I
can see the door now.”

A loud explosion echoed across the mountains and the ground
shuddered.

“
Griff
!”

There was no answer. Nothing from him. No emotion. Nothing.
It felt so much like the way Brooklyn felt to her right now.

“Marcus, I think
Griff
is
hurt. We have to go back.”

“We can’t. We’re about to have our own issues. A whole
group of military vehicles just entered the property and are in pursuit to keep
us from escaping. I think they’re ES soldiers. Keep everyone down back there.
It looks like we’re about to take some gunfire.”

Jonah and Brooklyn were already on the floor and he
continued to monitor Brooklyn with his hand inside her chest.

“Someone’s about to start shooting. So, be ready,” she told
him.

“You can communicate with the driver telepathically,” he
observed.

She didn’t confirm or deny that. The less information he had
the better. The only reason he was still with them was because he appeared to
be keeping Brooklyn alive, for the moment.

The pounding of gunfire echoed outside the truck, but it
still sounded too far away to do any damage.

“Where are we going?” he asked. When she didn’t answer he
continued, “You do realize those are ES soldiers chasing us, right? You won’t
be able to evade them for long.”

“Is she going to live?” Lori hated seeing Brooklyn so still
and pale. The blood continued to seep out of her wound, but it had slowed
significantly. Lori didn’t want to ask if that meant she was getting better, or
if she was just too far gone to bleed much more.

“I don’t know. She needs surgery, but I don’t see how that’s
going to happen. With those,” he gestured to her wings spread across the truck
floor, “we can’t exactly take her into the neighborhood hospital, not that
there are those out here either.”

“Are you a doctor?”

“No.” He shook his head. “I’m just a poor schmuck that’s
seen way too many people shot so I know a bit of trauma medicine.”

“I guess that’s a good skill to have when you’re the one
doing the shooting.”

His gaze sharpened as he looked at her. “The way I see it,”
he shrugged toward the gun in her arms, “I’m not the one being threatening
here. I’m the one keeping her alive.” His eyes hardened and his lips thinned as
he looked worriedly toward Savannah’s cage.

She didn’t know what his intentions had been at the labs,
but he appeared to truly care about Savannah and the Others. That prompted her
to give him the benefit of the doubt. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

His features softened at her apology.

“You know Savannah, don’t you?” she asked.

Marcus took a sharp turn and all of them slid across the
bottom of the truck. Pings sounded as a rain of bullets pelted the side of the
truck. The cage holding William, the panther shifter, slid into Jonah’s side
causing him to grimace in pain.

“If they don’t kill us, your boyfriend might.”

The bone-rattling swerving continued for another ten minutes
until finally, the gunfire ceased.

“Did we lose them?” Jonah asked.

“Yes,” she answered.

Marcus had kept her informed of everything going on as they
traveled. Neither one of them could get in touch with
Griff
.
They were only about fifteen minutes away from the Veil. The trek that had
taken them hours on foot across the rough terrain had been relatively short in
the truck traveling at this breakneck speed.

She’d been watching Jonah as he worked on Brooklyn. It
appeared he may be an Other. As he focused on Brooklyn’s wounds, an electrical
surge sizzled off him that Lori had never sensed from any other human before,
but it was similar to the energy around the Veil and the
ley
line crystals. Also, every time he touched her, Brooklyn’s color seemed to
improve slightly. “How’s she doing?”

Jonah pressed his lips together with a grimace. “She’s
holding on, but I’m not sure how much longer I can keep her that way. Do you
have any idea how much longer before we can stop? We need to go someplace with
surgery capabilities where they can be discreet about what she is. I can give
your driver directions if you don’t have access to someplace like that.”

“We’re almost there,” she answered.

His eyes widened with shock, but she needed to know more
before she told him anything else about where they were headed. “What’s your
tie to Savannah?” she asked him. “Are you an Other?”

He studied her cautiously. “I’m not sure I can trust you.”

“Believe me, the feeling is very mutual, but from what I’ve
seen here,” she waved a hand at Brooklyn, “you’re an Other, too. You already
know I have abilities, so I’m thinking that maybe we’re on the same side.”

“What side would that be?”

“The one where this,” she waved her hands over the cages,
her voice shaking with emotion, “is unconscionable, no matter who you are.”

While they’d been traveling, she’d opened the sides of Tim
and Savannah’s cages, although they were both still unconscious. She tried not
to worry about that since Jonah seemed to think they were okay. Not knowing
William’s frame of mind, she’d left his cage closed. Without Savannah
conscious, she didn’t know if she could calm him if he turned against them in
animal form before he realized what happened.