Winter's Warrior: Mark of the Monarch (Winter's Saga 4) (9 page)

***

“Oh dear God, no!” Evan called.

“Is she alive, Meg?”

Pant, gasp, pant…
nod.

Creed started the van and rolled off the lawn to get back to the main road.

“Just point me in the right direction, Meg.  We’ll get her.”

Meg’s whole body began shaking—adrenaline pumping, ready to fight.  “It’s too risky with everyone.”  She was looking down at the baby in her arms through the tears that sprung into her dark eyes.  “She’s been shot in the back,” Meg managed to say, a sob catching in her throat.

Desperately, she moved to hand the baby to Farrow who instinctively opened her arms to receive the little bundle.

“Stop the van.  Let me out.  I have to save her!” Meg gushed.

Creed obeyed immediately.

Meg was trying to untangle the baby’s sticky little fingers from her hair as quickly as possible.  He ended up with a chunk still in his grasp, as Meg was determined to run to her mother no matter what.

“Listen to me,” Meg turned to the occupants of the van.  Her eyes seethed with equal parts anguish and determination.  “I need you to blow up the Research Hospital, no matter what.  Can you do that Evan?”

“What if M
om’s near the hospital?”

“She’s not.  She’s in the middle of the courtyard.”  With still shaking hands, Meg yanked her duffel bag open and pulled out two
hand grenades.  “When you hear these go off, that’s your signal.  Don’t hesitate, Evan.  I can’t live with the thought of what has happened in that building, or what has
yet
to happen, and there isn’t an innocent soul left there. 
End it.
” Meg cringed at the thought of her harvested eggs thawing in some petri dish somewhere in there—or Creed’s seed waiting to be added so Williams could create thoroughbred metahumans. 

He wanted to dissect her children. 

No.  Never.

Creed jumped out of the van, grabbing his gun.  “How far away can you be from the building and still remote detonate the explosives?” he asked Evan.

Evan narrowed his eyes, thinking.  “About fifty yards.”

“Good, get going and listen for the signal, detonate then get the hell out of here.  We’ll meet you back at the hotel.  Clear?” Creed nodded at Alik who had moved to the driver’s seat.

“Clear.”

Meg jumped out of the van and slipp
ed the grenades into her waistband before checking her semiautomatic for clips. 

Alik pulled away from the Research Hospital and headed toward a spot he figured would be about half a football field away to be ready. 

His eyes kept darting up to his rearview mirror to watch his sister and Creed Young sprint back toward the courtyard at the center of the compound.

Evan’s face was pressed into the back glass, watching helplessly as his big sister ran back into the mouth of hell.

Meg and Creed didn’t need to speak to one another.  Their connection was so strong.  Creed felt Meg’s love envelop him with the same iridescent cloth of his dreams, and Meg felt Creed’s abject devotion through her empath’s glistening strands.  They were of one mind—one strength—fueled and refueled equally by one another.

“How bad is it?” he asked his dark-eyed beauty as they hugged
the shadows making their way back to the bowels of Williams’ hell.  For a split second, Creed watched her in the moonlight—her long hair draped around her muscular shoulders, hands still clutching two semiautomatic weapons.

“Meg?”

Just as Creed was about to ask again, he heard the answer for himself. 

Williams’ maniacal laughter echoed raspy and hollow around the courtyard ahead. 

This is what a demon’s laughter sounds like,
he realized with absolute certainty.

Meg slammed herself against the nearest building, ducking
deeper into its shadow.  Creed followed her every move. 
“Mom!”
she gasped in a whisper only loud enough for Creed’s sharp hearing, but laced with the pain of a thousand screams.

Meg slipped one of her guns in her waistband and crouched in the shadows of the men’s barracks.  She crawled on her belly through the white Iceberg Roses, oblivious of the sharp thorns digging into her face and arms as she never lost her
empath’s sight leading toward her mother.  Creed, having already switched off all pain sensors to cope with the gunshot wound Slider dealt him back at the admin building, only cringed at the thorns when he saw them tear at Meg’s beautiful, pale skin.

She stopped crawling, locking eyes on the scene some sixty yards to her left.  The scene was even worse than her gift warned.  Her mother
lay sprawled, face down in the grass. Slider and Williams stood over her.  Slider’s gun was aimed directly at her mother’s soft brown hair that fluttered innocently in the night’s breeze.  Williams’ face was thrown back in a menacing laugh.

Take care, my sweet Meggie,
she heard her mother’s thoughts as clearly as if she’d spoken them in a whisper at her ear.

No M
om!
Meg was oblivious of the tears slipping down her terrified cheeks to christen the fistful of earth below.

You know what has to be done, Meggie.  Look after your brothers.  You have been the joy of my life, little one.
I love you so much.  Tell your brothers I love them, too.  Go with God.  Run, Meg.  GO!

Even as she was sending these thoughts to her daughter across the courtyard, the boots of the metahumans running in formation at double time could be heard. 

The first of the soldiers emerged from the northeast corner of the courtyard.  Williams barked orders at them and they moved to grab Margo. 

Creed had positioned himself beside Meg, there in the darkness.  The scent of roses was overpowered by the fresh mulch that had been placed around the base of the bushes
, smelling of both life and death. 

Meg’s eyes were locked onto Williams.  As he stood, bloody head tossed back in wicked laughter, something on the ground around his feet began to shift. 

His shadow. 

It was his shadow cast by the courtyard’s lamps that began to morph.  They shimmied together and almost seemed to bubble before they turned a wet, sickly black like hot tar.  The black shadow grew beyond the laws of physics.  It seemed to be taking on a shape of its own…separate of Williams.  But as the evil doctor moved his arms out to his side, Meg saw the shadow stretch dragon-like wings
. 

A demon shadow?

Creed’s strong hand reached out and grabbed Meg’s.  “The grenades, where are they?”  He whispered with a controlled calm that forced Meg’s attention. 

Did
he see what I just saw?

She reached to
her waistband and pulled out the two metal, lumpy spheres. 

“On the count of three, we throw these.  You throw right, blocking the soldiers’ path toward the admin building.  I’ll throw left, aiming for Williams and Miro.    We both run to your mom.   I’ll collect
her, and you provide cover fire.  Then we get the hell out of here.”

“How?” Meg was trying to control her panic, drawing her strength from Creed’s courage.

“Send Alik an empath message.  Tell him to stop the van at the gate.  Can you do that?”

“I think I can,”

“No time to stop now, they’re about to take her away.  Ready?” 

Together Creed and Meg carefully moved to a standing position, still hidden in the shadow of the building and nodded a silent countdown, yanked out the safety clips and threw their grenades.

They arched perfectly, the moonlight glinting off the olive green metal. 

Meg closed her eyes and forced herself to focus on Alik
, mentally screaming down the silver connection she knew tied her to her brother, insisting he stop the van and wait for them. 

“What’s wrong?”  Farrow had moved to sit in the front passenger seat next to Alik while they waited for their signal when she noticed a strange expression take over Alik’s face.  The baby had settled back into a deep sleep and was drooling on Farrow’s strong shoulder.  His fist was still holding a lock of Meg’s dark hair.  The little boy had moved his hand to hold it close to his face, as though breathing her scent was his soothing tonic.

Alik had been quiet and on-edge, but now he looked as though he w
as trying to hear something from far away, his eyes wide and ear cocked.

“Alik?” Evan’s voice came from the back of the van.  He was holding the metal box in his hands, fingers trying not to feel twitchy as the d
etonation button was right at his fingertips.

“After we detonate, we need to drive to the front gate and wait there.” Alik’s voice sounded whispered and dreamlike.

“What?  Why?  Creed told us to go back to the hotel.” Farrow tried to stay calm, as the baby seemed to sense her sudden change in emotions by stirring in her arms.  She couldn’t help it, though.  The idea of staying one second longer near Williams, his deadly metas or his secret Monarchs made her heart race and her muscles knot. 

“Meg,” Alik said softly.  “She’s telling me to stay there and wait for her.”

Just then they heard what sounded like one enormous explosion.  All their heads whipped around to follow the sound and saw a burst of light.

“That’s the signal.  Detonation in three, two, one!” Evan flipped the safety cover up and pressed the switch.  The grenades’ explosion sounded like a sneeze compared to Evan’s explosives designed to demolish an entire three
-story building and the basement below. 

Thunderous explosions one right after the other blended into a deafening roar.  The cement walls of the hospital seemed to melt off the metal frame like a surreal Salvador Dali painting.  White dust burst violently into the air causing a malevolent plume of gases and debris. 

“Drive, Alik!” Evan called, as the thick dust cloud exploded and burst toward their van.  Alik stepped on the gas pedal and glanced in the rearview mirror just in time to see the first of a series of jarring explosions coming from what used to be the third floor. 

“Combustibles in the labs,” Sloan murmured what everyone was thinking, her gray eyes wide with a mix of shock and resolve.

The whole van shook with the force of each new chemically induced blast.

Fire licked its wicked tongue from the shattered glass windows scorching what was left of the cement walls.

The roar of the building being turned into toxic rubble echoed through the countryside, off the fifteen-foot cement perimeter walls and punched holes through the thick foliage surrounding the Facility. 

With their ears still ringing from the explosions, Alik, Evan, Farrow and Sloan weren’t sure if they really were hearing semiautomatic gunfire until a few bullets ricocheted off the side of the van.  

Instinctively, Farrow curled her strong body around the squirming little boy and dove to crouch on the floor of the van.  Everyone else ducked, too.  Everyone except Alik.

“She’s coming,” Alik said, his voice more excited and present now.

“Open the back doors,” he yelled over the gunfire to Evan who obeyed his brother without question.

BOOM!  BOOM!

Just as they knew it would, the deafening surprise explosions caused everyone to dive for the ground.

Ever the tactical advantage soldier, Creed started picking off metasoldiers one by one even as he and Meg ran to Margo’s side.

“Meggie,” Margo’s eyes were wide with fear, her face pale and lips ashen.  “I’m sorry.”  Her body was strewn on the ground where the soldiers had dropped her when the grenade exploded.

“
You’re okay, Mom.  Be still.  We’ve got you now.”

“I told you to run,” she slurred, her eyes fluttering closed.

“Sorry, Dr. Winter,” Creed answered on behalf of Meg.  “The only orders I follow are hers and she wasn’t leaving without you.”

Meg turned away to continue shooting defensively at the quickly recovering soldiers scattered around the courtyard.  Creed took one look at Margo’s limp legs and knew something was very wrong.  He reached down and scooped her up carefully, feeling her back slick with blood.

Margo grimaced once, then her soft brown eyes rolled back in her head and her body hung wilted in Creed’s arms.

Without exchanging another word, Creed and Meg ran toward the front gate with desperate determination. 

“Is Alik there?” Creed called between blasts of gunfire.

Meg cringed at her gun.  “I hope to God he’s there.  I’m almost out of ammo.”

The two rounded the side of the far-too-contemporary fountain at the administration building’s circle drive and kept moving.  The soldiers behind them were organizing, more joining in the chase.

Meg called to her brother with her heart. 
We’re coming, open the doors now!