Then it was done.
Orrin sat back, gray and trembling. “It’s not pretty, but I think you’ll live.”
When she tried to sit up, her father and Gage shifted, assisting rather than restraining. She winced as she came vertical. Growing new muscle and tissue and who knew what else was painful business. The new skin was smooth and pink and very tender beneath her exploring fingers. But it was whole. And though what lay beneath ached, it no longer felt mortally damaged. She looked at Orrin. “Thank you.” And if her voice cracked, she blamed it on the screaming.
A small crowd had gathered, Embry realized. Fifteen or so other Mirus were scattered through the remains of the generator room. The remains of their impromptu army of prisoners. No one was fighting.
“Not that I’m looking a gift horse in the mouth, but why aren’t there more soldiers beating down the door?” she asked.
“I collapsed the access to this room. They’ll be digging through rubble for days.” This from a slant-eyed man who might’ve been cast as a Nordic god. The Drakyn she guessed.
“It’s nice to have a reprieve, but now we’re trapped. No food, no supplies. It’s only a matter of time before they capture us all again. And you know they’ll come in with more backup and more firepower now that they know what we’re capable of.” The feline tilt of the woman’s head suggested she was some sort of cat-shifter.
Others added their voices, their concerns and complaints, until the babble echoed off the concrete walls and crashed around Embry’s aching head. A piercing whistle cut through the cacophony and made half those present cover their ears.
“Arguing isn’t going to get us anywhere. Now we’ve got a wide variety of the races represented here. Surely there’s someone among us who has an ability or a skill that will help us to get out of this God forsaken bunker.” Gage surveyed the faces gathered. “Can anyone teleport?”
“I could, if not for the iron shielding,” said Orrin.
“Anybody walk through walls?” No answer. “What about Persuasion? Can anybody control whatever guards we might encounter?”
“I can, but only a few at a time,” said a lanky boy with a torn T-shirt proclaiming The Force is strong with this one. He couldn’t have been more than fifteen, thought Embry.
“C’mon people. Think about your abilities. I know you’ve been tortured and abused and experimented on here. I know they’ve kept you bound by whatever means necessary. But you’re out of your cells and you’re alive. Figure out how we’re going to get out of here,” said Gage.
“I think I can help.” The voice was soft, and it came from the far side of the room, from a petite girl with a fall of dark blonde hair that might have resembled honey if it were clean.
“How?” asked Adan.
“I’m a Seer,” she said.
“How’s a Seer going to help us out of this mess?” asked a female vampire. “We don’t need to have our futures told.”
“Futures aren’t all I see. I also see possibilities, alternatives. They’re always changing.” She stopped, closed her eyes for a long moment. “And one of them includes us going up and out of this ventilation shaft.”
“What ventilation shaft?” asked Embry, getting slowly to her feet.
She gestured to the blank stretch of concrete. “The one behind this wall. We just need someone to make a hole big enough for us to get inside and climb.”
“That would be me,” said the Drakyn. Moving over to the girl, he placed a hand on the wall. “Here?”
She corrected his position by a few inches, then she and everyone else backed away, giving him plenty of room.
His shift wasn’t like the shift of any species Embry had ever observed. Most of them were painful affairs that took anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour, depending on circumstances. No matter what level of magic was involved, it was a very physical change, complete with lots of pops and groans and snaps as the body was forced to do apparently unnatural things to accommodate a new shape. But the Drakyn was fast, his shift an all but instantaneous blur that left the room reeking with a scent of magic that even she could smell.
He must be old, Embry realized. Very old. How in the hell did they capture him?
Looking over his great, scaly shoulder, the Drakyn took aim and thrashed his spiked tail into the wall. It only took one blow. Then he turned his massive body and cleared the debris with his clawed hands until the hole was large enough to hold a man. His shift back was just as fast. “Going up?” he asked.
Chapter 12
The climb took considerable creative maneuvering and some piggybacking to make sure that the weaker and more seriously wounded of the party made it out of the base. But hours after she and Gage had driven through the fortified gates of Fort Hurley, they and all the Mirus who had survived the siege crawled out of the ventilation shaft and into the star-studded night. A few of those who were able immediately teleported or flew away. The Drakyn was one of them. As she watched his dragon form grow smaller and smaller with distance, Embry couldn’t blame them. Who knew how long they’d been trapped here?
Those remaining lay sprawled on the rocky ground, catching their breath, assessing their various injuries. Embry sucked in great lungfuls of the sharp mountain air, clearing the scents of smoke and blood and sweat from her nose. Not an easy feat, since she and everyone else were covered with it.
Gage dropped down beside her. “How’s that shoulder?” He leaned over to examine it. His touch was hesitant, gentle.
“I’ll live.”