Winter's Wrath: Sacrifice (Winter's Saga #3) (38 page)

Well, I have news for you buddy!  I’m no Mother Teresa!  I’m not passive like G
andhi
.  I
rage
when I’m mad
,
and if you’re going to be around me, you’d better damn well get used to it.

Meg took a deep breath, before she spoke.  “Is she worth risking the objective?”

“No, the objective comes above anything,” he answered decisively.  “If there’s time.  If we’re able to even find her.  I just wanted to know what you thought about offering her an out.”

“Do you love her?” 
Oh, sh
oot
.  I can’t believe that just came out of my mouth.
  For half a second, Meg thought maybe, just maybe, she hadn’t just said that out loud.  Then she saw the look of horror on Creed’s handsome face.

“Do I
love
her?  What the hell kind of question is that?” he blurted in an irritated whisper, glancing around the plane to see if they had an audience.  At this point, Meg didn’t care if the whole world was watching. 

“If you expect me or my family to risk anything for her, I’d say it’s a pretty valid question.”  She turned angrily in my seat to face Creed full on.  Her heart was racing.  Stupid adrenaline.

Creed looked completely perplexed.  He shook his head for a moment before a smile crept across his lips.  “She’s a little kid, Meg.  True, she’s a medical genius, but she’s only like twelve or thirteen-years-old!” 

Meg looked around frantically for a hole to crawl into.  Heat flew up her neck, stopping to pink up her cheeks before bursting out red ears.  She wanted to disappear. 
Why can’t I have a cool super power like that?   Why can’t I turn invisible?  No
instead I get to be all—Meg-like.
 
Argh!

Creed was still smiling at the girl with the dark eyes.  Meg resisted the urge to punch him in the mouth. 

“In that case,” she tried to sound level-headed, “I think it would be great to help another metahuman escape.”

He chuckled and shook his head.  “Great.  Glad we got that cleared up.”  He stood to leave, but stopped.  He turned around and leaned over the empty seat between them.  His breath was warm on her still-red ear.  “You are so damn cute when you’re jealous.”

He moved with the grace of a tiger, even when dodging a magazine hurtling straight for his head.  Meg heard him chuckling all the way back to his seat. 

Maze looked up innocently at Meg and blinked.  “Oh, you just zip it,” she grumbled.  He yawned and laid his head back down on her boot.

Men!

Chapter 4
2
  It’s Time

From the moment the wheels of the plane touched the tarmac on German soil, the atmosphere was crisp with anxious energy. 

It was time to go. 

Margo reached out her hands to the rest of
them
standing around the motel room that had
been
turned into a makeshift headquarters for
the
rag-tag team. 
They
followed her lead and joined hands.  Slider and Gavil exchanged uneasy looks, but allowed their hands to be held, joining in the circle.

“It’s time, dear Lord,” my mom began, head bowed in reverence.  “It’s our time to fight for you.  You taught us there will be times to turn the other cheek, and there will be times for battle.  Tonight these children will walk into battle against a true evil.  Please be with them, guard them and strengthen them.   Help them wipe this world clean of the demon that lives to cause pain.  And please, dear Lord, send them all back to me safely.  If you are with us, no one can be against us.  In your great name we pray.  Amen.”

The room filled with “amens” from the rest of
the room
. 
Even
Gavil mouth the word
.
and smiled inwardly at the thought
they
may have saved another meta.  Slider, on the other hand, just nodded respectfully and released the hands of those beside him.

Creed had taken on the leadership role in our group.  Gavil, though determined to achieve the objective, still kept his distance from
Meg and her family
.  It just seemed natural for Creed to step up and take over. 

To the room, Creed spoke. “Equipment check.  Evan, you good?”

Evan shuffled through the duffle bag draped across his chest, mail-carrier style.  “All good,” he answered.

“Everyone check your side
arms.” 

A series of clicks and shuffling snaps confirmed the soldiers
’
weapons.

“Watches.  Everyone set your clocks to my mark,” Creed held his own wrist watch up and glanced around the room at the others to be sure they were ready.  It’s 7:45 on my mark…mark.”  He called to the room.  All seven metas adjusted their watches to the exact same time.

“Com
m
check
, channel one
.”  He offered an up-nod to the room as he flipped a small switch on his earpiece and walked away from
the group.
 
Everyone
scattered as far as
the two-room suite would allow
and
turn
ed
on
their
communication devices
to
perform a roll call.

“Meg?” Creed’s warm voice vibrated in
her
ear. 

He started with me,
Meg
grinned stupidly to
her
self before mentally smacking the giddiness out of her voice. 
Get a grip, idiot!
 

“Meg, here, check.” 

“Gavil?”

“Gavil here, check.”

“Alik?”

“Alik here, check.”

“Slider?”

“Yep, check.”

“Evan?”

“I hear you loud and clear.”

“Farrow?”

silence

“Farrow?” 

“I can’t hear a damn thing,” Farrow called even as she came stalking out of the bathroom, frowning at the malfunctioning earpiece.

Evan walked over to her, taking the device in his talented hands.  “Hum…” he mused.

“Ev, can you get it to work?  We have no time.” Creed had an eerie calm about him.  Meg had seen him like this before, but it was always unnerving to watch someone she cared about switch off their humanity and function in soldier-mode. 

“Oh, sure.  I can fix it en route.”  Evan grabbed a small box of tools to take with him.

“Excellent.”  To the room Creed said, “Load up.”

All the metahumans walked with purpose toward the door.  They had already said their goodbyes to
Margo
, but just as Meg was about to step across the threshold, Maze let out an ear piercing howl.  She turned to see him bolting toward her, full speed. 

“Maze!”  She knelt to catch him in open arms.  “Calm down, big boy.  It’s gonna be okay.  I’ll be back real soon, and then we’ll have a great game of fetch.”  Maze licked her face like she’d been smothered in peanut butter.  

“We have to go, Meg
.
”
T
he strength the girl sensed emanating from Creed’s aura actually made her shiver.  He was standing right behind her.  She gave Maze one more big hug then ordered him to “sit” and “stay.”  Her coyote whined painfully, but obeyed, inching a little closer even as he stayed on his haunches, desperate to follow. 

Talk about
déjà
vu.
 

“I love you,” Meg said to her mother and Maze as she pulled the door closed.   Wiping the tears from her face, she ran to join the others in the van. 

Creed hurried to the driver’s door. 

They drove in silence the seven blocks to the building that housed Zuverlässiger Transport, parked a block away and walked on silent feet toward the loading lot.  It was a medium-sized distribution building.  A couple dozen white vans sporting the company’s red stripe were parked neatly in the lot.  Two vans were being loaded by burly, bearded men who were laughing and talking casually with one another. 

Too bad they’re speaking German, I thought.
  Meg couldn’t understand a word they were saying.  The metas all ducked behind the nearest van except Farrow. 

She sauntered up to the men.  She was the only one not dressed for battle.  Farrow was wearing a form fitting black dress and high heels.  She’d slathered on deep-red lipstick, too.  The workers gawked as she made her sultry way toward them and in perfect German explained that her car broke down a block away and would any of them be able to please come look at it for her.  She batted her lashes innocently.  All four men ogled openly at her. 

Meg glanced at Alik and saw daggers in his eyes.   

Farrow led them back toward the van and rounded the corner.  As she did, Alik, Creed, Gavil and Slider each grabbed one of the guys and held a cloth to their noses and mouths until they hung unconscious in their arms.  Evan and Meg opened the back doors of the van and helped put the four bodies in the back, leaving the cloths draped across their faces. 

“You sure that won’t kill them?” Meg whispered to her littlest brother as they ran to the van the men had been loading. 

Evan grinned adorably.  “I created it just for tonight.  It has all the anesthetizing effects of chloroform without the risk of toxicity.  I could tell you the chemical compounds I used, if you like.”

“That’s okay, Ev.”  Meg climbed into the back of the van they were using as their way into the compound and plopped down next to a box of what looked like dry noodles.  “I’ll just call it your ‘Sleepy Solvent’
.
”

Evan shrugged, his eyes glistening with excitement.

This time, Alik drove with Evan sitting shotgun. 
They
didn’t want to risk their video cameras catching sight of Creed, Gavil or Slider, in case they were recognized by the guards.

Farrow was busy pulling on black jeans and yanking the dress over her head, unashamed of the tight black athletic bra she exposed as she dug through her bag for her long-sleeved black shirt.

Meg
noticed the boys watching her out of the corners of their eyes.  All except Creed, who kept his head down and focused on the .45 caliber in his lap.  He reached into his bag and grabbed what looked like a metal tube.  As
she
watched, he screwed it onto the barrel of his gun.  A silencer. 

“Hey Farrow, here’s your comm
piece,” Evan said passing her the small device he’d just fished out of one of his pockets.  “Try it now.”

Farrow put it right to her ear and turned her head away from everyone to muffle her voice.  “Farrow, here.  Can you hear me now?”

“I can hear you,” Alik’s voice echoed.  Farrow smiled and gave Evan a thumbs-up.

Alik kept talking, “You were a natural back there, getting those meat heads to pay attention to you.”

Meg saw Farrow frown
.
“That was the plan.”

Alik was quiet.  Everyone waited for his response with awkward curiosity.  Meg couldn’t stand it anymore.  “Okay Alik.  Next time,
you
get to wear the dress, heels and lipstick.”

The van burst into laughter. 

“All ri
ght, everyone.  Turn on your comm
and keep
it
open on channel
two
.  Maintain silence unless necessary.  We’re getting close.  Look sharp.”  Creed was peering between Alik and Evan to look out the front windshield.  “Pull over here.”

Alik slowed the van and pulled off to the side of the road.  There was a cluster of trees and brush providing good coverage.  Slider and Gavil were already jumping out of the van, Creed held back a moment.  His soldier’s calm slipped when he turned to look at the dark-eyed beauty of his dreams.  Meg’s empath skill created a strong link between them.  She could feel his anxiety, mixed with affection. 

“I’ll see you soon,”
s
he said and smiled reassuringly.  He stared into her eyes as though desperately trying to memorize her before nodding once and gracefully leaping out of the van.  The doors closed firmly, and they were gone.

Meg took a deep breath.

Through her earpiece, she could hear Creed’s slow deep breathing.  He was running.  Slider and Gavil were there, too, racing on either side of him and though she could hear them
,
her empath senses focus
ed
entirely on Creed
,
making him easy to distinguish.  She tried to send him calming emotions and could feel him reaching out even as the van rounded the bend.  The Facility’s massive front gates loomed. 

Farrow and
Meg
stayed out of sight as Alik pulled the van to a squeaky stop and rolled down his window.  A m
etasoldier was already walking forward
, clipboard in hand.