Things That Go Hump In The Night (2 page)

Chapter Two: Trevor

“An American aid worker has been kidnapped by militants in Syria,” General Lockhart said, in a secret meeting with the Delta Shift.

None of us replied but the air in the room was suddenly tense. The situation in Syria had been deteriorating lately, and militants had been kidnapping civilians and extorting their countries. When the country couldn’t meet the kidnapper’s demands, the civilians were being killed in horrendous ways. No Americans had been kidnapped up to that point, but it appeared that was no longer the case.

“Where was he kidnapped from?” I asked.

“It’s a woman,” the General responded and Logan immediately got up and started pacing the room.

“Keep calm, soldiers,” the General continued as myself and the other men of Delta Shift started bristling, our werewolf sides coming to the surface. The General watched us silently as we each used our inner strength to keep the werewolves at bay.

Logan had the least control of all of us, which is not to say that he ever lost control. Unlike the rest of us, he was the only one that had not completely healed from the attack; he had visible scars on his face from the encounter. With the General’s permission he’d grown a short beard over his face to keep questions at a minimum.

The rest of us had no scars on our bodies at all, having healed to the point where it looked like no injuries had ever even occurred.

Consequently, Logan sometimes needed some leeway when confronted with bad news. But he always managed to get himself under control and keep it that way during missions.

“Okay,” I said. “Where was she kidnapped from?”

“Iraq. She’s a humanitarian aid worker with the Red Cross. Meredith Dunne, aged twenty-six, originally from Massachusetts.” The General was silent for a moment before he continued. “This is a unique mission, soldiers. We’ve never had to save a civilian woman before. And we’ve never had to rescue any Americans from the Syrian militants.” It was silent in the bunker-like room, the only light coming from a single bulb in the ceiling.

“I have a daughter her age,” the General said softly, and none of us responded since no response was necessary. We all knew what he was thinking, because we were thinking it too.
Those sick fucks were going to pay.

“What’s the plan, sir?”

***

Four hours later we were in a cargo plane headed for Syria. We knew the mission, we knew the plan, and we knew what needed to happen.

“Trev,” said Michael from beside me. I looked over at him and took in his combat gear. We all wore black from head to toe, black scull caps, tight black shirts and black combat pants and boots. There was no military insignia on any of it, nor any American flags.

We each had a small pack on the ground at our feet with an identical outfit inside. Once on the ground we would shift immediately, the packs specially designed for us to carry with us as werewolves. Once the mission was complete, we would shift back to human form and dress in our second set of combat gear before the helicopter came to pick us up.

“Yeah, Mikey?” I asked him. Michael was the youngest of the Delta Shift members, only twenty-seven, and he had a baby face in opposition to his six-foot-five stature and bulky muscles.

“You think it’ll be different, saving a woman?” he asked me, his eyes looking down at the ground. Normally Michael was a joker right up until a mission started, but none of us were much in the mood for laughs right now.

“Maybe,” I said, cracking my knuckles and staring across the plane at the cargo nets on the other side. “We can’t let it be different, though. We’ve got to do our job, get to her as fast as possible, and get the fuck out,” I continued, knowing that at the very least, the time post-mission would be different for me. I was already wondering what it would be like to try and soothe a woman instead of a man before we passed her over to the hospital officials. Guess I’d find out.

“Okay,” I yelled over the noise of the plane so I could get all four of the guy’s attention. “We’re landing in Cyprus. Then we’ll take a helicopter to Syria. It will be about 0200 local time when we arrive. We know where she is, so we get her and meet the helicopter at the extraction point one hour later. If for some reason any of us gets separated from the group, go to the safe house and await instructions. Got it?” I heard a chorus of agreements. I closed my eyes and tilted my head back against the plane’s interior wall, focusing myself on what lay ahead.

***

Meredith:

I’m alone again. I don’t even care about the pitch black dark anymore; it’s as if my brain has shut down to keep me sane. I hurt everywhere, one massive ball of pain. But I feel no fear and the relief of that is somehow freeing. I’m so tired I lie down on the cement floor and pillow my aching head on my arms. I curl my legs up toward my chest, my skin scraping against the floor where it is exposed. I realize that in order to cope with the horror of my situation I have come to accept it. I’m starting to lose myself.

I must have slept for a while because I wake with a start to the sound of loud, angry growls right outside my cell. They are louder than any noise I’ve ever heard an animal make.

What fresh hell is this?

I hear human screams and bodies being thrown around, hitting walls and floors. I’m still not afraid though, because the screams are coming from male voices - the voices of my captors. I listen closely as I hear running, sliding, and scraping noises coming closer to my cell. There are growls and roars, and then growls and roars with slightly different tones, almost as if they are communicating with each other.

Suddenly the door to my cell slams open, hitting the wall with a huge screech of metal on concrete. I squint against the light coming in from the hallway; I haven’t seen any light at all for days now so even the dim glare hurts my eyes. I put my hand over my face as I hear an animal walking slowly into my room.

Okay, now I’m scared again.

I pull my hand away and I see an enormous wolf standing in front of me, staring down at me. Even though I am crouched on the floor, I see that he is absolutely enormous, bigger than any normal-sized animal. He pads slowly up to me and I shrink back against the wall. He’s not being aggressive and I wonder if I can sneak around him and out the door somehow. Then I hear the other animals out in the hallway fighting with my captors and I realize that is a bad idea. I glance up at him and get caught in his stare, his golden brown eyes strangely captivating. He shakes his head from side to side, as if in a ‘no’ motion and I am stunned.

He’s intelligent.

He backs away a few steps and his body starts to shiver, the hair on his neck and back seeming to shake from the vibrations. All I can do is stare in shock as he stands up on his hind legs, easily ten feet tall, and transforms right before my eyes. His back legs elongate and the fur is gone, while his chest widens and his head and teeth become smaller. My heart is beating so hard I feel nauseated. I cannot believe what I just witnessed.

Maybe my brain hasn’t really been protecting me after all. Maybe I really have gone insane. Because before me stands a beautiful man with the body of Michelangelo’s David, and he’s just as naked. I can do nothing but stare.

“We’re from the U.S. Army and we’re here to rescue you.”

I hear him but it doesn’t register. His voice is deep and melodic, and it would be soothing if I thought it was real. I watch him quickly get dressed in full black Army gear and still I say nothing.

“Meredith?” he says when he is done, and I catch eyes with him again. The same golden brown eyes from the wolf gaze back at me and I do throw up now, leaning over and dry heaving, nothing coming up from my empty stomach. He’s beside me now on the floor.

“It’s going to be all right. Where are your injuries?” he asks while he runs his hands over my nearly naked body. I don’t flinch as he touches spots that hurt; numbness has settled in and I gratefully welcome it.

He is real. This is real. His touch on my skin is real. 

I have one more conscious thought before I give in to the dark that is pulling on me – Please God, let this nightmare be over
.

***

Trevor:

She has been beaten, that much is obvious just by looking at her. She has bruises on her face and her blonde hair is matted with blood. Her blue eyes were huge in her face as she stared up at me, as shock seemingly set in. As I ran my hands over her body I could feel a fracture in her ankle and open wounds all over her skin. I tried to keep my temper as realized the extent of her abuse.

After she fell unconscious, I let out a roar, my anger at her captors immense. This was the difference, I realized, between saving women versus men. I was always sympathetic to the men we rescued, it was a job and one I took seriously. This however, seeing a woman hurt so egregiously, went against everything I believed in as a man. Men protect women; they don’t hurt them.

Anger coursed through me at the thought of what she must have gone through, and I realized I wouldn’t know the extent of her injuries until we were out of here. But I would protect her. Until we got back to the states she was my responsibility. No one would hurt her again.

We had been in the building for ten minutes now, three minutes longer than planned. The fighting was over and I heard the guys shifting out in the hallway. I looked around the room they had kept her in, noting that there was a small half-door in a wall leading to a side room. I wonder if they had ever let her out of here, or if they had just come in through that door. My hands fisted at my sides as I thought of her in here for days, alone. And then not alone.

Fucking bastards
.

I covered her with a small blanket I had in my pack, and picked her up. I walked out into the hallway, nodding my head to the guys as we all stepped over bodies and walked as quickly and quietly as possible down the stairs.

We walked outside into the night. I stayed in the shadows of the building while Michael and Logan went ahead and Derek and Alex flanked me. We heard the chopper lifting off four blocks over and I raised one hand off of Meredith’s back into the air, making a ‘V’ shape with my fingers. The men all looked at me and immediately changed course, moving between buildings to head in the opposite direction.

Fifteen minutes later and two miles further, we came upon a building much like any other in the town. Derek opened the door and we all went in under the cover of night. I moved over to a bookshelf made of large pieces of cut stone, each weighing at least 100 pounds. Derek, Logan, and Alex started moving the stones while Michael guarded the door from inside. The guys moved just enough stones out of the way to make a small hole to slide through. Derek went through first and I carefully passed Meredith to him. The rest of us clambered through and quickly replaced the stones, closing up the entrance to the safe house.

We silently followed Derek down the stairs to a reinforced door at the bottom. He entered the code and the door slid open, allowing us thirty seconds to enter before it automatically closed and locked us inside. Once we had made it in and I heard the door close and lock behind us, I breathed a sigh that was equal parts relief and frustration. That door could not be opened for three days, by us or anyone else. The safe house was underground and sound proof.

There were enough provisions for five men for a month. We had missed the chopper by about one minute but as we each were keenly aware, every second counted in a mission like this. Now we would wait out the three days, take care of Meredith, and wait to hear from General Lockhart about a second extraction plan.

The safe house was made up of a small living room area with a couch and a few chairs. A galley kitchen was along one wall. Two bedrooms and a bathroom led off from the living room. Both bedrooms had one queen-sized bed and two sets of bunk beds. Without even discussing it, we all knew Meredith would get one of the bedrooms to herself and we’d all sleep in the other. Derek gently placed her on the queen-sized bed in one of the rooms and turned out the light as we left the door open to congregate in the living room.

“Fuck. We missed it by one minute,” Michael said from the couch, where he was sitting with his head in his hands.

“It’s okay.” This was from Derek as he rummaged through the kitchen for some food.

I walked over to the small command center along one wall. In the three years of Delta Shift, we had only had to use a safe house one other time. That was when a mudslide in Nicaragua had made extraction impossible. I picked up the satellite phone and dialed Colorado Springs.

“Delta Shift,” I said into the receiver as it was picked up on the other end by General Lockhart.

“You all accounted for, son?”

“Yes, sir. We’re hunkered down in the safe house. We’ve got her and…she’s got some injuries. I’m unsure how severe at this point, sir.”

“What happened, soldier?” I knew he was asking me why we had missed the extraction.

“I’m not sure yet, General. We’ve yet to debrief. I wanted to call in right away.”