Chapter 15
With Severo by his side, Cyrus was at the head of the group marching in through the Bureau’s breach point on the trafficker’s ship, Brick Bond.
Moments before, breach jaws had shot out and ‘bitten’ through the haul of Brick Bond’s docking port.
Quickly expanding and creating airtight seams around the edges, it had instantly created a doorway inside.
From there, the lengthy bridge on the jaw compacted, pulling them up alongside the other ship, until there was only a short connecting space between the Bureau’s craft and theirs.
Inside they found no one there to greet them—hostile or otherwise—though fighting could be heard elsewhere on the ship. Which wasn’t surprising as Cryptid Means had already breached, and he was positive the captives had likely already been fighting the crew of Brick Bond before that.
The place in his vision had been a large cafeteria, and based on his understanding of the layout, it had to be located in the core center of the ship.
He headed up the stairs, into the main level of the outer loop of the spacecraft, and as soon as he realized no one was shooting at them, Cyrus took off down a hallway that didn’t follow the curve, hoping it would lead him to Killian and Skya.
Severo followed beside him, while others broke away whenever they came upon combatants, Ender’s people, and more.
While Cyrus did not slow, he stumbled slightly in shock on spotting Soren Odette, the Second in Command of Cryptid Means. Then again, it was surprising to see the Harpy there. As far as he knew, the man rarely left Earth, or Ender’s side.
Soren’s eyes narrowed on him as he passed. Cyrus was unsurprised when the Harpy started to follow, but became angry when the man stopped him.
He growled, flashing his fangs dangerously as he yanked his arm from the Harpy’s hold.
Soren scoffed, as if finding the threat laughable. “Care to explain why my boss suddenly, out of nowhere, decided to come on an expedition into space that’s been in works for fucking months, Grimm?”
“We don’t have time for questions, Soren!” Severo snapped.
“You’re going to fucking make time!”
Cyrus barely covered up his shock at that bit of information.
He couldn’t even remember the last time Ender was reported to be directly involved in anything that Cryptid Means got up to in the last hundred years.
The Gorgon, as far as the Bureau knew, tended to stay underground, running things in the shadows.
If he was directly involved in shit, the man had managed to keep it under wraps for a long while.
Instead of giving in to the urge to just ask if the Gorgon was actually there, Cyrus answered the bird’s question, “Not particularly.”
Soren let out a clipped-sounding laugh. “Is that so? Well, since you won’t explain, let me make it fucking clear…
I’d appreciate it if you and your bastard fellow Fates would keep their damn threads the fuck out of our lives, and sure as shit out of Ender’s!
Your kind has done enough damage to him already, haven’t they?
I honestly just want to know, how you have the fucking audacity to use him!
?” By the end of the Harpy’s rant, the man was in his face, mere inches from him.
Cyrus didn’t step back, even as he tensed at the vitriol in Soren’s questions. The urge was there to defend himself, and his family, but he wasn’t sure he could, because Soren clearly knew things that he didn’t.
“Back off, Soren,” Severo snapped, as he shoved the Harpy back. “He didn’t purposely—”
He cut the Dweller off. “Don’t defend me. He knows as well as I do that, regardless of if I intended it or not, Ender is here when he shouldn’t be. And he has a right to ask questions, but now is not the time. When we find Killian and Skya, then he can ask.”
Cyrus didn’t wait for any agreement, he just took off running again. However, he wasn’t sure if he was running towards the love of his life, and his best friend’s child, or away from whatever Soren was going to tell him about his family.
Severo let out a frustrated growl behind him, but said nothing as he started to follow, and while the Harpy did the same, staying just as quiet while trailing behind, the hatred in his eyes spoke volumes.
Killian tackled the trafficker down to the ground, and was almost bucked off right before he slammed the butt of the empty gun into the man’s head.
But he held on, and one knock was enough to keep the trafficker down.
The ones that followed splattered blood on his face and hands as he finished caving the man’s skull in.
The whole time, he tried not to hear the whimpers and soft crying of the many scared children behind him.
He couldn’t take the risk that the bastard would get up.
And after a few fights already, Killian didn’t trust that his own strength was enough to take down every trafficker he came across without being sneaky.
He hated to admit it, but he’d let himself grow soft over the years, not training as much as he used to.
Hell, he barely worked out anymore…and Killian fully regretted that now.
Taking a calming breath as soon as he heard the man’s heart stop, with his bloody gun in hand, he stood, turning to stare down into the faces of the frightened children. “It’s okay, we’re going to be okay. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Killian would do all he could to keep that promise, even if it meant dying. They were alone now. Unfortunately, untrained captives were not the best listeners.
He looked back down the hall, and then forward. There weren’t any doors, or places to hide. Go forward or go back? He wasn’t even sure if he was going the right way now… Or if he ever was.
The problem was that the ship was so big, he hadn’t figured out, or had the time to check, what fucking model it was. As much information as he remembered about Riker off hand, he didn’t recall jack shit about the Skinwalker’s ship.
Forward—he would go forward. Mainly as Killian couldn’t trust that whoever was attacking Riker would be any more friendly than the traffickers.
Taking another deep breath, he turned back around and continued down the hall.
The automatic door didn’t open when they reached it, but he wasn’t surprised, as none of the others had.
Prying the electric lock panel open, as Killian had done with all of the others he’d come across, he manually hacked the system and unlocked it.
When the doors slid upward, he paused briefly, listening for people before cautiously stepping through.
As he eyed what appeared to be a ballroom-sized cafeteria, shaped like a half circle, with chrome floors, ceiling, chairs, tables, benches, and a food serving line against the only flat wall, he had to say, he was seriously tired of chrome.
Because aside from the clothes people were wearing, it was apparently the only damn color to see on the entire ship.
Inside the room, there were two doors on either side of the food line; one door was to the far left, and the other was on the curved right wall, along with an open doorless hallway.
Killian’s gaze flicked around to the five possible ways he could go, and he sighed, before deciding to go for the door to the left. Mainly as it was the only one that appeared to be unlocked already, and he feared the hallway would take him back the way he came.
“Stay close, stay quiet as can be, and hug the wall,” he ordered.
They nodded, some sniffling as they bravely gathered against the wall, determination on their little faces.
“We’ve got this.” He smiled and winked at Skya, who briefly hugged his leg before getting with the others. But he frowned on noticing that Zenny was still standing close to him. The kid was shifting back and forth on his feet, biting his lip.
Crouching slightly, he hesitantly and very lightly gripped the kid’s shoulders, who he had recently learned was, beyond belief, a Cupid. “Zenny, it’s going to be okay, but you need to join the others.”
Zenny suddenly hugged him. Killian’s eyes widened in surprise, but he didn’t have time to react beyond that as the little Cupid had already rushed away to join the other kids.
Clearing his throat, he took a deep calming breath as he straightened up. His ears openly listening for danger, Killian started skirting around the room towards the left doorway, his little pod of fish following behind him.
Killian spun at the sound of Skya screaming, his eyes widening when he saw the toddler floating. It looked as if part of the wall had reached out and grabbed her, but only seconds later, the disguise folded back to reveal the man holding her, with a gun pressed against her head.
“Riker,” he hissed, his eyes boring into the Skinwalker. He hadn’t realized the man was so skilled that he could take on the appearance of more than just living beings.
Killian didn’t even take the time to think, he just felt the world around him and let his anger be his guide.
For Sirens, besides their voice, the weather, and more specifically, the unforgiving ways of the ocean—or in this case, the water—was his to command, and even stunted by the collar, it would answer!
Feeling the life-giving liquid in the pipes below the floor, he pulled it upward. Luckily, unlike Water Nymphs, his powers didn’t come with all the fanfare. Right as the pipe burst open beneath Riker, he used the man’s brief distraction to lunge for him.
With one hand, he clamped down on the wrist holding the gun, yanking it upward, while he transformed his nails into claws and dug his other into the Skinwalker’s neck.
Riker screamed, and did just what he wanted him to—he dropped Skya.
He had to forcefully ignore it when the toddler yelped as she hit the floor.
“RUN, CHILDREN!” Killian bellowed, using all of the power he could reach to command them to move. Even though his words were partially choked off when Riker tried to wrap his hand around his neck, it worked.