Winter's Scars: The Forsaken (Winter's Saga 5) (18 page)

“Why?”

“Testing.  He wanted to keep you alive so your blood could—”

So focused was Meg on the concentration it took her fuzzy brain to force her will on Chaunders’ mind, that she didn’t hear the hurried footsteps coming from down the hallway. 

“My blood could do what?”

“Cure him.”

Just then, the door burst open and in marched two thick-shouldered soldiers—one short and stocky, the other tall and lean.   They looked to have dressed hurriedly by the bed-head hair they were both sporting.

Meg jumped on the bed and yanked the doctor to a sitting position, blocking her body with his ample smelly one.   She changed her knife’s position to jab the man in the fleshy tissue adjacent to the spine.

From over Chaunders’ shoulder she hissed at the interlopers.  “Get out!” 

The two soldiers exchanged a look of resigned worry.  Chaunders was holding his throat, keeping the blood from oozing between his fingers as well as he could.

“I said,” Meg enunciated perfectly, “get out!”  Desperation eked into her voice as she realized she just lost her chance to find out what the hell was really going on.  And she was left weakened with her efforts to push her will on the gross guy at the receiving end of her knife.

“Dr. Chaunders, sir,” Short and Stocky spoke up.  “We got a distress signal from this room.”

Meg jabbed the knife deeper into Chaunders’ gelatinous back fat.  By the way he yelped, she was sure she’d broken skin.

“Get out or the smelly guy gets it.” Meg cocked her head toward Chaunders.

“We can’t let you do this, Miss Williams.  We have direct orders from Dr. Williams to keep you safe and to do so by any means necessary.”

“I don’t care what Dr. Williams wants.”

Tall and Lean spoke up.  “We’re to keep you at the chateau with or without force.”

“With.  I choose
with
force.” Meg felt a small burst of strength rushing into her with the adrenaline.  She leaped off the bed, wanting to get away from the foul smell blossoming off the doctor.  Every movement he made exacted a fresh waft of rancid body odor.  She had been holding her breath for as long as she could stand it. 

Tactical advantage be damned,
she thought. 
I’d rather take on these two idiots than have to inhale one more molecule of Chaunders’ stench.

“Miss Williams,” Short and Stocky spoke up, “we will escort you back to your room now.”  From his waistband he pulled out what looked like a taser gun.  Tall and Lean followed suit.

“Do you know who I really am?”

She sensed hesitation from both soldiers before Short and Stocky spoke up.

“You’re Meg Williams, daughter of Dr. Kenneth Williams.”

“No, I’m Meg Winter. I’m the one who’s going to make you regret ever underestimating a girl.”

Meg tapped into her reserve energies, so sure this was a life-or-death moment. 

She watched each soldier carefully, moving her body to the center of the room as they positioned themselves to shoot.  Short and Stocky moved into position first.  She could sense his intentions perfectly—as though he’d just whispered a countdown for her. Just as he shot, Meg ducked behind the bed.  Only the probes didn’t fly overhead as they should have. 

She peeked around the foot of the bed and saw something that made no sense to her already foggy brain.  Tall and Lean was standing holding his taser pointed directly at his partner and had shocked him.  Short and Stocky crashed to the floor, body spasming. 

The grotesque doctor still bleeding from the throat began screaming profanities at Tall and Lean.

Meg started crawling backward with her knife in hand trying to figure out why the crazed soldier took out his partner when she heard a second taser gun discharge.  

The screaming from the doctor stopped, and the bed started squeaking convulsively.  The soldier was now holding a second taser gun and had shot Chaunders.

Panicked, Meg picked up the nearest chair and threw it with all the strength she could muster at the nearest window.  The windowpane’s shattering glass glistened like wet snowflakes against the night’s sky.  She needed to escape, now.

Chapter 37  Out of the Frying Pan

“Wait,”
Tall and Lean called to her.

She wanted to jump out of the broken window and run, but a wave of exhaustion caused the room to blacken her peripherals.  She weaved on her bare feet trying to focus on the soldier.  He’d dropped the tasers and was standing holding his hands up in the universal
I’m not going to hurt
you sign.

Meg knew she didn’t have much time before reinforcements arrived, and she had no idea what to think of the soldier who had just cleared the room for her.  But her body was screaming in defiance at being forced to move when all it wanted to do was collapse.  And her mind was playing tricks on her.  Nothing would feel better than to close her eyes and sleep somewhere safe.

“You’re feeling the effects of the nearly three and a half months of medically induced coma,” the soldier’s worried eyes watched her sway on her pale feet.  “Your muscles have suffered mild to moderate atrophy.”

“Three and a half months?  What?  Who are you?”

“You don’t remember me?  You only saw me once in Tucumcari, New Mexico.  I’m Gideon, and I’m not going to hurt you.”

Meg leaned back precariously toward the shattered window,
as the white gauze drapes lifted with the cool breeze and played with her long, dark curls.  She racked her Novocain numb brain trying to remember him.  Instead, all she could do was shiver, feeling icy fingers wrap around her aching body. 

Gideon was mesmerized by the girl as she fought valiantly to stay awake.  A cold breeze blew into the room causing the gauzy, thin curtains to billow around her ghost-like in the night’s zephyr.

“Why should I believe you?” Meg slurred, desperately fighting to keep her eyes open and reaching out to hold the curtain aside so she could watch his face.

“What choice do you have?”  He said logically as he took a few hurried steps toward the girl barely able to stand, teetering toward the three-story drop at her back. 

“I—” Meg’s knees buckled.  Gideon moved with catlike speed and grace, sweeping her up before she could hit hardwood floor, but in her feeble effort to catch herself, she cut her forearm on a protruding shard of glass. 

“Shit,” Gideon grimaced at the blood seeping from her cut.  She lay limp in his arms, her head hung back, exposing her graceful, thin neck.  He watched by the light of the moon, the pulse in her throat and swallowed sympathetically at the exhaustion and pain she must have been feeling to have passed out just then.

Hurriedly, he turned and started back down the corridor toward the garage, where he already had the keys in a car waiting for him to escape with the girl.   He opened the door to the back seat and carefully leaned in to lay her down.  Fighting to remain gentle despite the urge to be rough in his anxious efforts to get away, he even paused to cover her with the blanket he’d stashed on the floorboards.  He ripped off the sleeve of his hoodie in one stroke to use as a bandage on her arm. He tried to think of everything, but how could he prepare for every possibility when stealing away the most valuable asset two powerful men were fighting over?

He hurried around to the driver’s side and started the car.  Careful not to make any more noises than necessary, he backed down the long driveway before turning the car around and exiting the chateau’s privacy gates. 

Gideon kept checking the rearview mirror to see if he was followed, but so far, it didn’t seem like anyone realized his actions yet. 

Maybe I’ll get lucky and they won’t discover I’ve left with the girl until morning
he thought wistfully before remembering the girl’s machines would have been screaming once she detached them.  They knew she was gone. 

Who am I trying to kid here?  They’ll figure this out very soon and Williams himself will be called.  He’s going to send an army after us.
  Gideon pursed his lips together tightly and stepped on the accelerator.   

He glanced behind him and saw the girl had tucked both her fists daintily under her chin.  She looked so angelic and peaceful. 

What am I doing?
He took a slow deep breath and reached for the new prepaid cell phone he’d purchased just last night.  His fingers didn’t even need to look at the keys for him to type the eleven digits and listen.

“Remove the disguise.  Let the Monarch rise.”

Gideon paused to allow the Monarch alter to come forward to talk while the alter known as Gideon continued to focus on driving.  “Sir, Sirus here.”

“What is the status of your mission?”

“I have the girl.  I’m driving away from the chateau now.”

“How did you get her to come along?”

“She passed out, sir.  I carried her.”

“Be careful, candidate. She could awaken and touch your skin.  Skin-to-skin contact must be avoided.  She will manipulate you if you’re not careful. Keep perfect timing on the tranquilizers.  She’s too powerful when she has all her senses about her.  Remember what happened in Flagstaff.” 

“I remember, sir.”

“Bring her back to Kentucky.  Two first-class tickets are waiting for you at the
Naples Airport.  You have the passports I provided, correct?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Memorize this: United flight 1731 departing at 4:51 local time.  Gate 12.  The tickets are under Gideon Niche and Naya Arkdone.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Call again once you’ve boarded the aircraft.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Replace the disguise; let the Monarch hide.”

Click

Gideon blinked, pinching the bridge of his nose and adjusted his position in the driver’s seat.  Glancing behind him, he saw the girl still sleeping.  She hadn’t moved since the last time he saw her.  He knew he should inject her with the tranquilizer, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it when she was already incapacitated.

He sighed deeply, eyes wide with a task he felt compelled to do.  He had to get the girl to Nap
les.  They had to catch a flight.  He felt something heavy tugging on his shirt pocket.  He reached inside and pulled out a slim black cell phone.  He had no memory of getting a phone, but things like this happened to him all the time.  Without a second thought, he slipped the phone back into the same pocket and started searching the road signs for the next highway that would take him to the airport. 

Chapter 38 
Jaimie

Dr. Williams smiled widely at the flight attendant who just introduced herself as Jaimie.  She was new to his flight crew, but he liked her immediately.  Of course, it was the color of her eyes that captured his interest.  They had rings of bright green around the hazel irises. 

She turned away from his leering smile a little unnerved but determined to do a good job.  She was saving for the trip of a lifetime—a few of her girlfriends were p
ooling their funds to take a vacation in the Bahamas together.  She was so close to the white sandy beaches, she could nearly smell the coconut oil. 

Or was that actual coconut oil she smelled on the wealthy doctor who’d hired her?
 

With an inward shrug, she turned to retrieve his requested coffee from the small galley at the far end of the aisle.

Williams watched the way her long blonde hair draped down her petite back and wondered what it would be like to feel the silky tresses caress his new skin.

Just then, a vibration forced him from his thoughts.

His manservant, Stanley looked up from the magazine he had been thumbing through to watch his Director look at the caller ID to see who it was before narrowing his eyes and touching the screen.

“She’s gone,” Chaunders gasped, still trying to stop the bleeding at his fleshy throat where he could still feel the blade she wedged there only minutes before.

“What the hell do you mean, ‘she’s gone’?” Williams spat into his phone.

“I don’t know what happened.” Sweat trickled freely down Chaunders’ back, pooling in the small of his gelatinous backside.

Williams was up, out of his seat on his private jet and pacing the aisle, shaking with fury.  “Start at the beginning,” he enunciated.  Spittle in the form of white foam began to form at the corners of his mouth.

“She came into my room.  Somehow she woke up and came into my room and held a knife at my throat asking where she was and demanding I tell her everything.”

“Did you?”

“I didn’t get a chance to!  I always sleep with that emergency button near me.  I pushed it and two metahumans came rushing in.”

“She b
ested two metahumans in her state? She must have been barely able to walk after the months of—”

“No sir.  One of the soldiers turned on the other.  He used a taser gun on him then another on me.  I just came to and called you.  Both he and the girl are gone.”

“Which metahuman was it?”

“Gideon, sir.  Gideon Niche.”