Python's Embrace (Bitten Point Book 3) (14 page)

A true killing machine. But Constantine knew cold-blooded. He lived it every day. And he would live for tomorrow.

His tail whipped from behind and around the body of the lizard thing, but he got him only around the waist before the creature pumped its wings and tried to rise from the ground. Constantine’s weight acted like an anchor and kept it grounded. While the thing couldn’t fly, it did manage to drag, and Constantine could do nothing to stop it, especially since all his body wanted to do involved finding a nice, warm spot so he could sleep.

The many darts now being fired into him from behind injected him with lethargic poison, more than he could handle.

His strength ebbed, and the thing yanked him to the edge of the yard then onto the outskirts of the bayou. It kept tugging him past the muddy shore so that the water sucked at his body, his oh so heavy body.

In the distance, he could hear Princess barking. He heard the thudding footfalls of the humans approaching, ready to claim their prize.

Too much. Too much for him to handle alone.

He let go of the lizard thing. Let go and let himself sink. Sink in the water and slither down into the darkness that embraced him.

T
hings happened so fast
. One moment Aria flung the sock at Parker to distract him, and the next Constantine grappled on the floor with a monster while she made a miraculous catch of a flying dog.

Even more astonishing, Princess allowed herself to stay nestled in Aria’s arms without trying to tear a chunk off. Common ground made them temporary allies. But their truce didn’t change facts. With Parker threatening, and Constantine occupied, they needed to fly. Like now.

Aria barreled out the door, Princess tucked under her arm. A part of her cringed that she didn’t stay to help Constantine, but Aria knew she couldn’t stand against Parker. It wasn’t just the henhouse that feared wolves.

Outside proved no safer, though. Men with guns aimed her way, and Ace stood blocking her path.

“Move!” she shouted.

Except her orders couldn’t compete with Parker’s shouted, “Grab the girl and put her in my car.”

No.
Ace only mouthed the word, but Parker must have seen it because a moment later, Ace hit the ground on his knees, his face a rictus of pain. As Ace curled his fingers around the collar, the burning stench of his flesh made her tummy churn.

Though under obvious torture, he struggled to get to his feet. To obey his master Parker or to help her? She couldn’t know for sure. She couldn’t take any chances.

Given Ace knelt in her way, Aria did the only thing she could think of. She ran at him. Princess wiggled in her grip, and as Aria leaned down to scoop a handful of rocks, she let the dog loose. Then she rose again, hands full of debris that she flung at his face.

Despite his obvious pain, Ace saw the dirt coming and turned his head, thus missing her as she bowled into him. For a second, as their skin made contact, it sizzled—in a fried chicken kind of way.

Ouch! Hissing in pain, she pushed away from Ace, but not before booting him in the ribs and kicking him in the head to the excited yips of Princess, who darted in with snapping teeth.

One problem out of the way, she kept moving. As she ran, she noted Princess galloped beside her on stubby legs. Something fluttered in her mouth.

Speaking of flutter, a wild beating pounded in her chest.

Free. Fly free. Let me out.

This time the knowledge of her inner eagle didn’t frighten or freak her out. Instead, she welcomed the known presence of her friend and invited her in.

Take us to the skies.

Except she couldn’t bring forth her bird. She tried. She pulled. It remained out of reach.

I’m a prisoner!
She shared her eagle’s horror, yet it wasn’t the knowledge that she couldn’t shift that made her stumble, but the darts that hit her.

Her tiny frame couldn’t handle the injection of so many drugs at once. As she slumped, she heard Parker again. “Grab the girl and bring her. We’ll leave the others to clean up the mess.”

What mess? The house was clean. Her thoughts whirled in a chaotic circle, her eyes lost focus, but she felt enough to know Ace was the one to scoop her in his arms and toss her in a waiting black truck.

From the backseat, she craned to look, noting as the SUV sped away that the monster that attacked Constantine in the house had dragged his limp body outside.

He’s dead.
The realization hit her like a hurricane gust, sending her falling, falling, falling into an emotional spiral.

It wasn’t the fact that Constantine couldn’t help her that traumatized, but more the fact that she’d killed him. She’d brought this danger to his home. And because of her, he was dead.

A chilling realization she didn’t get to mull over for long because darkness swallowed her whole, and the next time she woke, she was strapped to a gurney, in a room filled with boxes, packed and ready for shipping.

Where am I?
Didn’t matter. Wherever she’d found herself didn’t bode well.

I’m awake.
But for how long? As soon as Parker or any of the other bastards in this place noticed, they’d drug her again.
Drug me and do unspeakable things.

But they misjudged if they thought their sleep-inducing darts would stop her for long. She’d experimented a lot growing up, drugs of all kinds. She’d batted at butterflies on ‘shrooms. Eaten bags and bags of chips while high. She had a bit of a built-in resistance now when it came to illegal substances. It was why she now resorted to tequila. The fiery liquid could be bought cheaper and was less likely to get her arrested.

And if I get out of here, I am buying the biggest bottle I can find and getting properly sloshed.

If she got out. A frantic urge to escape saw her scrabbling at the straps that held her down.

She eased off the table, her feet bare and sticking out from the bottom edge of the plain cotton gown she wore. The latest fashion statement worn by prisoners held by madmen.

Her naked toes curled from the chill in the floor, but that worried her less than the fact that her knees threatened to buckle.

Oh hell no. She couldn’t collapse here. Not now. Who knew what would happen to her the next time she passed out.

I don’t want to become a monster.
Already she felt something different within her. Her eagle was still present, but it couldn’t get out. It was stuck within. A temporary glitch in her ability, or a more serious symptom of the last time she’d found herself a prisoner and injected?

She wavered on her two feet as determination pushed back the lingering drugs. Time to take stock of her situation.

Dire.

Kind of obvious, so she took a peek around. The room must have served as one of their examination spots. Counters along two sides. The gurney she’d eschewed for her own unsteady two feet. Nothing remained in the room except for boxes. Someone was packing up their operation and readying to leave. Given she still lived, she’d guess they meant to bring her with them.

Like hell.

Time to blow this joint, this time for good. Putting her ear to the only door in the room, she took a listen. She could hear muffled voices and the odd stray word or phrase—“Hour,” “Trucks waiting,” “Time for a coffee?”

It was busy out there. Too busy for her to hope to slip out unnoticed.

And she shouldn’t leave without a weapon, but what could she use?

No guards had left a loaded gun for her to use. In opening a box labeled medical supplies, she hit the jackpot.

With shaking hands, she filled the syringes she found wrapped in crinkly plastic with the contents of a few bottles, a chemical cocktail that would either induce hallucinogenic butterflies or nightmares. Either worked.

Armed with one in each hand, she couldn’t help the rapid flutter of her heart as she heard the scrape of a key in the lock.

They’d come for her.
But they’re not taking me.

She flattened herself against the side of the door. It opened. A guard took a step in and uttered, “What the fuck?” as he noted the empty gurney.

His surprise proved her advantage.

A mere human mercenary dressed in black fatigues, he couldn’t move fast enough to avoid the pair of needles she jabbed him with. She managed to depress the plungers before he flung her away.

She hit the wall with a thud, but while it caused her to shake her head, she recovered. The guard, on the other hand, blinked and blinked again as the cocktail coursed through his bloodstream.

With laced fingers, she swung at him. The super fist knocked the guard hard into the wall, where she plowed into him, shoulder first. He slumped to the floor, eyes shut, unconscious. The additional kick to the head—because she recognized Mr. Handsy from her last stay—was for good riddance.

That done, she went to the door and peeked out. The hustle and bustle had died down. A few cautious steps in the hall showed a lack of windows, but several doors. All of them open. All of the rooms empty. Useless. None of them provided an escape.

However, she’d kind of expected that. If she were correct, Parker had brought her back to Bittech, in the hidden subterranean levels.

I escaped from here once before.
She just couldn’t remember quite how. She did know she wouldn’t find any windows to climb out of, which left her only one real choice. The elevator.

From her last stay, she already knew it required a keycard, which she filched from the snoring guard’s body. To avoid discovery, she shut the door behind her, engaging the lock.

An invisible clock ticked in her head, urging her to make haste. Any moment, someone might come looking for her.

She dashed to the elevator and slapped the card against the scanner. It took a moment, but the screen turned from a processing flashing red to a green approved. The elevator door slid open, and she couldn’t have said who was more shocked, the human wearing a lab coat who peeked up from his tablet, or her.

“You’re not an employee. How did you escape confinement? And what do you think you are doing?” he exclaimed.

“Checking myself out,” she muttered as she lunged at him. Amazing how many human doctors worked for Parker. While the doctor might not have an animal side to call on, he was still bigger than her. They grappled. Well, mostly she clung to him and tried to stop him from slamming the red alarm button on the wall of the elevator cab.

A rabid fierceness possessed her. She yelled as she wrestled. Grunted. Stomped her bare feet and thrust with her knee until she made contact. Usually, the expression was hit two birds with one stone, but in this case, she hit two balls with one bird knee.

As the man slumped, she shoved him out of the elevator doors. It was only as the doors shut that she noted she’d dropped her stolen keycard. It mocked her on the floor outside.

Too late to grab it. The elevator sealed itself and moved. She just didn’t know where. She flattened herself against the back of the cab, hands clammy with sweat, a tremble to her frame, but her fear only strengthened her determination to fight.

The elevator jolted to a stop, and she braced herself as the door slid open.

She gaped as one of her jailors, the lizard thing known as Ace, filled the opening. Despite the fact that he’d helped her escape before, she couldn’t ignore the fact he’d dragged her here on Parker’s orders. Running into him now didn’t bode well.

“Going sssomewhere?” Ace hissed, his forked tongue adding sibilance to his words.

“Well, your hospitality has been great and all, but I really think I should be heading out.”

As he leaned in closer, Ace’s wings fluttered, the leathery sound alien to her ears. She knew what wings sounded like when ruffled, the soft whisper of feathers. This noise had none of that soothing quality.

“Ssso sssoon? I think that isss a good idea.”

“What?” She couldn’t help replying, her eyes wide.

“Run hard and fassst,” he advised. Ace wrapped a leathery hand around her arm, and he pulled her from the elevator. “Run and don’t look back.”

“I’m not a mouse to be hunted,” she hotly complained, tugging at his iron grip.

Ignoring her feeble attempt, Ace dragged her down the hall to the far end where an EXIT sign mocked her with bright red letters.

It was only as they passed a room with its door open that she noted the slumped body of a guard no longer paying attention to the dozens of monitors.

“What did you do to him?”

“Made sssure he wouldn’t pay for my actionsss.”

Aria gazed at Ace in askance. What game did he play? He’d just captured her and brought her to Bittech on Parker’s orders. Then again, Ace didn’t have a choice with the collar around his neck. She’d seen what that collar could do with poor rabid dog, Harold. The smell of burning hair never quite went away.

The controlling collar rested around Ace’s neck, a heavy reminder he didn’t control his choices or actions.

They’ve caged him.

A horrible thing to do to anyone, enough to drive many to madness, except Ace didn’t exhibit the same rabid fury in his eyes as the other monsters she’d met. As a matter of fact, he showed no emotion at all.

Even now, as he tugged her toward that hope-inspiring EXIT sign, he maintained a placid expression. He didn’t seem to care about anything, which made his sudden interest in her all the stranger.
Why does he want me to run?

Perhaps he toyed with her. Some prey liked to play with their food.

I won’t be anyone’s dinner.

A door along the hallway opened, and a man in a white lab coat exited. He looked up from his clipboard with a frown. “Where are you taking this subject? And why isn’t she in a cage on the truck already with the others?”

“Bite me,” was Ace’s reply. “I don’t answer to you.”

The answer seemed to satisfy the guy because he made no move to stop Ace as he tugged her past.

The EXIT sign led to another elevator, one she didn’t recall ever seeing, with only one button.

The elevator doors slid shut, enclosing them in the tiny cab. Earlier, she’d travelled without qualm, even if she didn’t like the small box. Now, with Ace taking up most of the space, she couldn’t help but pant as the confined area closed in on her.

The doors reopened to a cavernous room she’d never seen before. Abandoned skids, empty of cargo, littered the space, as did a few empty cages.

“Where are you taking me?” Aria dug in her heels, but that didn’t stop Ace’s advance. His grip tightened.

“Ssstop fighting me,” he hissed. “I’m trying to help you. It is not sssafe for you here.”

“Duh. I think the kidnapping and confinement gave it away. Wait until I tell the SHC.”

Ace snorted, a blustery sound. “Who do you think is running this place?”

He confirmed what Parker claimed, and her heart sank. But that didn’t mean she didn’t pump him for more info. She’d need every bit of evidence she could get if she was going to convince people to do something about the corruption on the council. “Bittech is managed by some dude and his son.”

“Who get their orders from sssomeone on the council. And that person wants you out of the way.”

“Parker.” She growled his name.

“Parker is nothing but a lackey, no matter how big he might think he isss.”

Another player involved? Just how high did this travesty go? “Why did he come after me?” Because Parker was the one who’d encouraged her to find out all she could when she expressed an interest in the reports she’d seen.