Red Awakening (Red Zone 2)

“I’m not losing anything. I’m trying to find Mace’s bat. It has to be with them. Right? I mean, instinct would tell it to find the other bats.” She took a deep breath and screeched. “Bat!”

“What the hell?” Striker gaped at his teammates. “She knows about his animal?”

“Yeah.” Ignacio shrugged out of his waterlogged shirt and wrung it out. “We need to take her with us and sort this out.”

Keiko turned a fiery glare on Ignacio, which would have been funny under any other circumstances. She was tiny, battered, and clearly exhausted. She was a woman who was at the very end of her resources, and she was facing off against a man with twice her bulk and a whole lot more muscle. Striker could see why his friend was enamored by her.

Worthy mate, his snake said in agreement.

“You’re taking me with you anyway,” she angrily told Ignacio. “I go where he goes.” She pointed at Mace before turning her face back to the sky. “Baaaat!”

Striker ran a hand over his bald head. “That isn’t going to work. His animal doesn’t listen to anyone but him.”

“Not even him, half the time.” Sandi brushed the hair from her brother’s forehead.

Keiko didn’t listen. “Bat, get down here. I know you’re up there!”

Striker didn’t see how she could know any such thing. It was just wishful thinking.

He caught Ignacio’s eye. “You think it’s still trapped in the research facility?”

“Who knows? I haven’t seen it, but it’s got to be alive.”

Yeah, because Mace was still alive, and even though they’d never tested their premise that if one half of their weird little duo died, it would mean the end of the other, they all believed that was exactly what would happen.

“Bat!” Keiko screeched. “Get down here now. Stop messing around with your friends.”

Striker let out a sigh as two tanklike vehicles came screeching to a halt on the rise above them. Gray bolted out of the first vehicle, closely followed by several more members of his team.

“You need to stop screaming for the bat,” Striker told Keiko. “You aren’t helping anyone.”

“We need to find the bat. If we don’t, they won’t survive.” She glared at him. “Do you have a better idea? No? Well then, butt out. Baaaaaaat!”

Gray came up beside them. “Should she be screaming like that?”

“Unless you’ve got a gag on you, I’m not sure how we can stop it.” Striker nodded to Mace. “Get him loaded in. I’ll bring her in the second vehicle. We only have a small window to get out of here before the cameras are back online and Enforcement find out exactly what happened.”

“On it,” Gray said, striding toward Mace.

“We need to go,” Striker told Keiko. “We need to get Mace and you to a doctor.”

“Not without his bat,” the stubborn woman replied.

“I don’t think you’re in a position to negotiate,” he said.

“Baaaatt!” was the only answer he got.

Striker opened his mouth to tell Keiko that her time was up. If she wanted to go with Mace, then she needed to leave now. Only the words didn’t come out, because a tiny bat, one that was smaller and lighter in color than the rest, spiraled down from the mass above them—heading straight for her.

“Bat,” she laughed, cried, called. Reaching her hands high toward it.

And damned if the flying rat didn’t flutter right into those hands. Striker’s jaw dropped as her shaky grasp brought the tiny creature to her chest and held it close.

“You’re a really bad bat,” she scolded. “You knew you had to come back to Mace, and you went off to play instead. I’m not happy with you.” Her hands trembled as she walked the creature over to its other half. She looked equal parts scared of it and relieved that she held it. Dropping to her knees beside Mace, she placed the bat on his chest. “Go on, get back where you belong.”

The tiny, fluffy bat butted her hand, as though it wanted more petting. She let out a stunned laugh. “Later, okay.” And then she shooed it up Mace’s chest to his shoulder. “Do your joining thing. I’ll pet you later.”

And to everyone’s astonishment, it did exactly what it was told to do. One second, it was walking across Mace; the next, it was a tattoo on his shoulder. Keiko ran her fingers over the bat drawing.