Chapter 24 - Leo #3
Carefully, I walked forward to the double doors behind the desk.
I had no doubt there was probably some sort of mechanism the receptionist was supposed to press to unlock the door, but none of us really had the skills to hack it, nor did I expect there to be a manual on how to use it.
I drew my fist and punched right at the handles where the doors met.
It didn’t give right away, but I hadn’t expected it to.
I punched the door again and again. It hurt every time my knuckles connected with the thick metal, but I found it quite cathartic.
Ricky joined me, both of us alternating our jabs, until finally the door let out a strange, broken buzzer sound.
“That sounds like our cue.”
Squeezing our fingers between the gap, Ricky and I began to pull the doors apart. Together, we were able to get it open enough for even me to squeeze through, which I did.
“That was so impressive,” Ven said, her cheeks flushed the faintest pink as she stepped through. It was a little thing, but I loved how much she appreciated the wolf side of me—outside of what had happened at the party. Most humans would be scared or suspicious, but Ven rolled with the punches.
There were several cubicles, all with their own desk and computer, along with plenty of tools laid on them: clipboards, voice recorders, a truly impressive number of pens, and some electronic tablets.
But more interesting was the long window in the wall to the left.
It was nearly the entire length of the room and looked in on what appeared to be a cold storage room if I had to guess.
And by a cold storage room, I meant something that looked like a cryochamber on a spaceship.
It was filled with hundreds upon hundreds of tubes, all of them labeled.
From where I was standing, I couldn’t read the labels, though.
“Stay here,” I said. “Let me check this out first.”
I took a cautious step toward the door but stopped short when I saw the keypad right above the lock.
“Huh. It looks like we’re going to have to punch this one, too.”
My knuckles were already practically healed, but it didn’t have the same weak point as the other set of double doors.
“Wait, I think I see a control panel over here. Let me fuck around with it for a bit,” Ricky said, walking into the back corner opposite of the door I was standing in front of.
“How do you know how to do that?” Ven asked, and I didn’t blame her.
Although her and Ricky had spent quite a bit of time together, it was mostly just concerning his healing.
She had so much still to learn about the both of us.
Maybe, once everything calmed down a bit more, we could spend a whole week getting to know each other properly, playing those cheesy ice-breaker games.
“I’m not exactly an expert, but scouting got me some experience with keypads and security cameras. Can’t guarantee anything, but I figure I may as well try.”
“Go ahead,” I said.
He undid the front of the control panel and stared at it. It took a while, but better than pressing buttons all willy-nilly.
“All right, I think I got it.”
Sure enough, he flipped a switch, and the keypad in front of me beeped before the little light in the corner turned green.
“Good job.”
I didn’t make a big deal of it, but I was more than a bit proud.
Even after everything Chadwicke had put Ricky through, he’d made it to the other side and was starting to thrive.
Maybe once we were all united again, he could do some online classes in security or tech.
Ricky had always wanted to expand his education, but he never got the chance with our pack often being in a fraught position.
It would be wonderful if that could finally change.
First, however, we actually had to reunite with the rest of pack. Taking a breath, I opened the door, half-expecting some alarm to go off or a trap to spring up.
But no. Nothing but silence.
I checked the labels. They weren’t written in English or anything remotely similar. I didn’t recognize any of the symbols. Once I was sure the area was clear, I’d get Ven to take pictures on her phone. That thing sure came in handy.
I was nearly done with my inspection when I heard the door behind me suddenly close with a more definitive thud. I had left it cracked, so I suppose the sheer weight of it had eventually forced it closed. I wasn’t too worried. At least I wasn’t until I heard it give an ominous beep.
Shit.
“Wait, what was that sound?” Ven asked, her voice dulled from being on the other side of the wall.
Both of us hurried to the door, and I wasn’t exactly shocked to see the little light had turned red.
“Hey, Ricky, some help here?”
“No problem. I got you!” He flipped the switch again, but nothing happened. Instead, another door on the opposite side of the room let out the same positive beep, and when I glanced over, its light was green. “Huh, okay. Let’s try something else.”
Ricky began to fiddle, and I tried to keep my patience, I really did, but after a couple of minutes and several button pushes and switch flips, it felt awkward to stand there staring at him.
“I’m going to check out the next room,” I said, trying to keep my tone light.
I could tell by Ven’s face that she was incredibly worried, and I wished I could soothe her.
But for the moment, I’d pretend everything was fine.
Who knew? Maybe it was. “Don’t worry, I’ll put something in the door so it can’t close behind me. ”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Just stay safe. Guard Ricky for me, will you?”
Her smile was tenuous, but it was there, so I headed over to the door. Before I opened it, I grabbed an empty tube tray from a lower shelf to wedge it between the door and the wall. I didn’t want to get locked in another room.
I opened the door, and at first there was just darkness, the only illumination coming from the room behind me. After setting up my little fail safe for the entrance, I felt along the wall for the light.
My fingers brushed a switch, and I flipped it on, wondering what sort of strange, scientific display I would see next. Half of me wondered if it would be cages of cute and pathetic-looking animals, and if maybe I could free them all, but that idea died pretty much mid-thought.
There were cages all right, but they weren’t filled with animals.
Instead I saw dozens upon dozens of what had to be magical test subjects, all clearly being tortured and neglected.
Some were unconscious, some seemed to be in a trance state, and others were so chained up and gagged they probably couldn’t do anything even if they wanted to.
Their wide eyes all landed on me at once, their pupils dilating as they realized someone who didn’t belong had entered their prison.
Fuck. We had really crawled into the belly of the beast.
I had to free them, but I also needed a full assessment of the situation. Were there more? Were there others in even worse distress? Were the restraints enchanted, or could I break them like the doors on the loading dock?
“Ricky,” I called, trying not to let panic seep into my voice. “I need you to hurry up with that door. This shit’s bad.”
“Why? What’s happening?”
“You’ll see it when you get here.”
It was cruel to be so vague, but I didn’t want to waste time explaining. I moved to the door on the opposite end of the room, wondering what hell it would lead me to.
It would have been better to wait for my friends and make sure our exit was secured, but the creatures around me were beginning to grunt in distress. I couldn’t just stand there staring at them.
I found another empty test tube rack and went through the second door, making sure to prop it open.
I really wasn’t sure what to anticipate, but what was waiting for me was surprisingly banal.
Just a long, empty hallway lined with simple brown doors on either side.
For a moment, I wondered if I was dreaming, because it seemed like the nonchalant sort of logic such things used, but then I heard the faintest sound all the way at the end of the hall.
Muffled, as if it was in a soundproofed room.
Soundproofing had never held up to shifter senses.
I didn’t need the lights to turn red or an orchestral score to tell me that wasn’t a good sound, but I found myself creeping toward it anyway.
I tried to move as quietly as possible, keeping my heart beat low even though my heart wanted to ricochet out of my chest. My sense of dread grew with every single step.
The tension in the air seemed to crescendo all around me.
When I finally reached the door, the sound was more consistent, but not more identifiable. It almost sounded like a shrieking wind from miles away muffled by a door stopper trying its best.
I had to find out.
I turned the knob quietly, carefully, then stepped inside.
Right into an operating room gallery.
The room was small, basically the equivalent to a box seat, and it looked over what I could only describe as a scene out of some sort of medical horror movie.
Wizards—not warlocks, this time—and a couple of mind-walkers were actively carving out the chest of a subject who was very much awake and alive, screaming at the top of their lungs and trying to fight the restraints that bolted them to the table.
They were in so much pain. Even if I couldn’t smell it, I could see it, I could hear it.
Every ounce of calm I possessed vanished. I had to get that person off the table.
The group hadn’t noticed me yet, and I used that to my advantage. Without so much as another thought, I launched myself through the window, tackling one of the surgeons.
It was pandemonium. The whole room filled with steam as I rapidly shifted into my wolf form. Although I did keep in mind my promise to Vanessa, I was sure she wouldn’t object to me making sure I did whatever I needed to do to free the test subject.
And what I needed to do was rip some throats out.
I had long since learned that speed was key when you encountered magic casters, so I tried to blitz them as best I could.
It worked to my advantage that wizards were more scholarly.
Their magic didn’t come to them as naturally as it did to witches, warlocks, enchanters, and people otherwise born with inherent magic.
I was able to tear through three before one got a fireball off.
It hurt like hell, but it took me close enough to the subject for me to bite at one of the chains around their ankle.
It didn’t break right away—I hadn’t thought it would—so, I kicked out at another wizard who was muttering the base of some spell, sending him flying into a wall.
I returned my attention to the chain. My instincts told me to yank it, but I didn’t want to accidentally rip the victim’s foot off.
That would make escape a whole lot harder.
Luckily, it broke, but as I went to work on one of the restraints holding his wrist in place, a wizard threw himself toward the wall and hit a red button.
An alarmed wailed, nearly deafening me, and the entire energy of the building changed.
Uh-oh. I had most definitely fucked up.
I didn’t let that distract me, however. Running toward the wizard, I slammed into him, locking my jaws around his flailing arm.
Let him cast one of his fancy spells without any hand movements.
He screamed as I ripped it off, but the screams petered out when I let go of his unattached limb and closed my teeth around his throat.
I made quick work of the remaining two, and as I was about to turn my attention to the victim, another set of doors burst open, and more enemies poured in.
Some were dressed like the security guards at the estate, and some wore lab coats.
I even spotted some in those same collars I’d seen the brothers use on my pack.
Suddenly, it was twenty-to-one in a very enclosed space.
Not exactly great odds.
I had taken on way more than that at Chadwicke’s, but that had been an entirely different situation. I hadn’t fought more than a chunk of ten at one time, and there had only been two magic users in that entire fight—not counting the warlock. The ratio in this situation would be way different.
Most of all, though, I knew I had to get back to Ven and Ricky. What if they were being attacked?
Saying an internal apology to the person lying on the table and promising I would return for them, I then left right back out the surgical window and raced through the hall.
The caged creatures were now almost all roused, and if they could make noise, they were.
Some of them were even reaching out of the bars of their cage, no doubt pleading me to take them with me.
It hurt right down to my core to leave them behind, but I had to.
I had fucked up, but I would make it right.
I would make it better. I would return. No matter what.
It didn’t take me long to reach that same room I had been locked in, but this time Ven was at the door, trying to pry it open, while Ricky was clearly still fighting with the panel.
“What did you do? What did you do?” I heard her demand in a panic.
“It wasn’t me!” Ricky shouted.
I knew I shouldn’t, but I shifted into my human form. I had to tell them what had happened in case things got even worse.
“Oh, my God, Leo! We’ll get you out! I swear, we almost have it!”
“I’m the one who set off the alarm,” I said as quickly as I could. “There’s a whole lot of people about to pour in here who really wanna hurt us.”
“Wait, what?”
“This isn’t a testing facility for animals! It’s a testing facility for us! Shifters! Changelings. Sprites. Nymphs.” I listed everything I’d seen, and I was sure there were more I couldn’t identify by sight.
“What? I-I—”
I didn’t get to hear whatever Ven was going to say because all the enemies who had been following me burst into the room, and suddenly, I was enveloped in another fight.
It wasn’t pretty, not by a long shot. Acid sprayed toward me as I leaped at my closest attacker. I managed to tackle them to the floor and sink my teeth into their head, but not before that liquid hit my coat and the entire room began to smell of melting fur.
Even though it was my fur, it still smelled horrendous. I couldn’t pay much attention to that because I had to move on to my next target, latching my jaws around one of their knees and shaking until I heard it crack.
It turned into a bloodbath, and it wasn’t until after maybe my third or fourth enemy, when I was blasted up into the ceiling by a surge of ice, that I glanced toward Ven’s face.
I didn’t mean to do it again, but I was doing everything that had scared her so much the last time. If I did make it out of here, would she ever be able to forgive me? Or had I just successfully sealed her perception that I was a monster?