Phoenix (15 page)

“That ought to keep him down for a bit,” he muttered, striding forward to where Ajax was extricating himself from the charnel house that had become his mine. “Sorry we took so long to get here,” he said, gripping Ajax’s forearm in greeting. He looked around, taking a quick mental count of the shifters he saw moving. “Any losses?” he asked grimly.

Ajax shook his head. “Miraculously no. It should have been far worse, but two of my men were taking a cart full of debris to the surface, and saw the attackers before they even entered the mine. We managed to retreat down here and form a barrier after calling for help.”

Uriel whistled slowly. “Wow. Luck indeed.” He shook his head in disbelief at the way they had emerged from the attack unscathed. “How many prisoners did we get?”

Ajax took a quick tally from his men. “Three, including the one you put to sleep,” he said with a chuckle, gesturing at the dozen plus darts sticking out from the side of the bear.

“Well, let’s see what we can find out,” Uriel said and strode forward to where two bears were being held against their will.

“They won’t shift back, sorry,” one of the Emeralds said apologetically.

Uriel looked at the one struggling less. “Talk to us, or we’ll rip your claws out one by one and stick them into your eyes until you do.” His voice was ice, frozen hard and uncompromising. The shifter didn’t move. “You threatened my friends, my family, and my loved ones. Don’t think for two seconds I give a shit about you or any pain we might inflict on you,” he growled.

The bear eyes flicked rapidly back and forth between him and Ajax, but the Emerald Alpha’s face was made of the same stone they mined—hard and unyielding. He must have seen something in the two of them, because a second later a large man was lying in the spot his bear had been seconds before.

“Better,” Uriel said, crouching down in front of him. The other captive tried to wrench his way free and attack, but Ajax’s foot was quicker and he caught the attacker hard in the side of the head with a swift kick, and the shifter collapsed in a heap, unconscious.

“Now,” Uriel resumed conversationally. “What say you tell us who you are, and who sent you?”

“Fuck you,” the shifter spat.

“Are you that eager to die?” Ajax asked calmly.

“If I must, I will. We do as the True Form wishes.”

Both Uriel and Ajax looked at each other. They had recognized the capital letters the prisoner had put on that title.

“The True Form?” he asked.

“You’re pathetic,” the prisoner said, laughing. “That is why you all must die. You don’t recognize how unworthy you are. L—” The shifter caught himself and started again. “Our leader is of the True Form, and he will not cease until only those who recognize the purity of the True Form are left.”

Uriel rolled his eyes. “This sounds like some kind of crazy zealot,” he commented to Ajax. “Wants to eliminate any who don’t match his idea of ‘perfection.’” He was ignoring the prisoner on purpose, making up wild accusations in hopes that their prisoner might snap and reveal more to them. He wasn’t sure if Ajax would pick up on his tactic, but he had a feeling the sharp Alpha would see what he was doing and follow along.

“But what is the True Form?” Ajax asked. “Is this a human trying to eliminate us shifters?” he asked Uriel, as they ignored the prisoner for a moment. “Seems ironic that he would use other shifters to do that.”

The prisoner snarled and strained against the Emerald bears who were holding him in place. “Humans could never stand up to lowlifes like you and I, let alone the True Form,” the prisoner said, before dissolving into a fit of laughter.

“That’s enough,” Uriel said to the guards, and he turned away as they snapped their prisoner’s neck.

“Did you catch that?” Ajax asked.

“Yeah, he referred to us and him as lower than this True Form person.”

Uriel snorted. “What a ridiculous name.” He shook his head, focusing back on what they had learned. “Still, tells us a lot. Whoever—or whatever—this person is, they consider themselves above us, and are shifters. That doesn’t leave a whole lot of options, now does it?”

Ajax nodded. “Now what type of shifter do we know that might be arrogant enough to consider itself perfection above others?” He asked the question, but they both knew the answer.

“I fucking hate dragons,” Uriel muttered.

“Can you tell us any more?” he asked the second prisoner, who still had yet to shift back. The bear ignored them.

“End him,” Ajax commanded and the Emeralds gladly disposed of yet another attacker. That left only the one Uriel had knocked out cold.

“I’ll ensure this one gets transferred to the jail,” Uriel said to Ajax. He was eager to leave, to get back to the LMC office and be with Sydney.

“I can handle that for you,” came a deep voice.

The two looked up to see Gabriel coming down the mine shaft, surrounded by all the remaining trainees.

“Good to see you Gabriel,” Ajax said and the two exchanged greetings.

“How did the pickup go with Marcel?” Uriel asked.

Gabriel’s eyes flared. “There was no pickup. They never even called. Someone must have called in and faked it somehow.”

Uriel felt something click in his brain.

“Really?” he asked slowly. “Can I speak to you for a second?” He didn’t wait for an answer, pulling Gabriel deeper into the mine, until they rounded the hard turn and were out of earshot of the others.

“Who told you that there was a call up there?”

“Norman,” Gabriel said slowly.

“Did you ask him for the authentication codes from Marcel?”

The Stone Bears had recently set up codes with the Alphas, to ensure that when they called in, the Stone Bears knew it was them. They hadn’t told the Sentinels about it, figuring they would ask their bosses what the gibberish words meant.

Gabriel frowned. “No, I didn’t think about it, but—”

“Let’s see,” Uriel said, knowing he was on to something here. He walked back around the corner.

“Justin, you answered the call from the Jade Crew earlier today, correct?”

The Sentinel nodded.

“Did anything stand out about that phone call?” Uriel pressed.

“Yeah,” Justin replied immediately. “He said the words ‘dancing duckling’ at the end. I told Gabriel that.”

Uriel nodded, turning to face another of the Sentinels.

“Norman, did Marcel say anything weird when you took his call earlier?”

Uriel expected the shifter to stumble, to try and make something up. He was fairly positive he had caught their mole, that Norman had created the diversion phone call to ensure backup couldn’t arrive here in time to save the Emeralds. What he didn’t expect was for the shifter to turn and make a run for it.

Ajax and Gabriel moved fast, but Uriel was faster. His hand swept to his waist with incredible speed, snatching up his dart gun smoothly and efficiently. The gun came up, barrel tracking the fleeing target. He squeezed the trigger and the familiar
snap-hiss
of the gun echoed in the chamber as a flurry of darts hit Norman in the back. The shifter cried out, his arms flailing widely as he fell head-first onto the cavern floor.

“Get these two up to the complex as fast as you can,” Uriel ordered, gesturing at Norman and the shifter he had knocked out earlier. The other Sentinels leapt to obey. He handed a gun and two of his remaining clips to Raphael, who would escort them back. Keeping them knocked out would be far easier than trying to keep them restrained.

“Anything else going to happen?” Uriel sighed dramatically.

Sydney

With a sigh she killed the engine. It was good to be home, and she was exhausted. Not long after Uriel had left, there had been a horrific crash at the base of the mountain. The medical staff at the Mining Consortium office had actually been closer to the site than the Origin EMS team, and they had gone to help. Courtenay had taken Sydney along to help her out, and they had worked side by side to treat the terrible injuries.

When the EMS team finally showed up, the women from the LMC office had the situation well under control. What had followed was plenty of paperwork that everyone hated.

“That’s strange,” she muttered, as the usual noises Bruce made when she got home were conspicuously absent.

She put her key into the lock and tentatively opened the door, wondering why her dog wasn’t there to great her.

“What the heck?” she said aloud. The front hall light was off. She always left it on, so that Bruce could see her when she came home. A light flickered from farther inside.

Not sensing any immediate danger, she closed the door behind her, and stepped into her house. Something crunched under her foot. Putting her bag aside she crouched down and grabbed whatever it was.

A smile blossomed on her face as she recognized the object even in the dim light.

“Uriel,” she said softly, dropping the rose petal to the floor. Now that her eyes were adjusting, she could see an entire trail of them leading deeper into her house.

She kicked her shoes off and began to follow the red markings. They led to the kitchen, where a sudden smell hit her.

“Oh my God, is that pizza?” she gasped.

“Perhaps,” came Uriel’s voice as he appeared behind her.

“You sir, are amazing,” she told him, putting her hands around his neck and allowing herself to be kissed by the man she loved.

“One tries,” he replied before kissing her again. They weren’t deep, passionate kisses, but light, enjoyable, comforting touches, which was just what she needed.

“I am so glad you didn’t do gourmet home cooking,” she said, backing away as she flipped open the box and grabbed a slice. “Bacon
and
pepperoni? What did you do?” she teased, pretending he was bribing her.

“It’s what you did,” he said, joining her and taking a piece himself. They leaned back against the counter and munched happily.

“What is that supposed to mean?” she asked after taking a couple of delicious bites.

“You fixed me. Cured me. Whatever you want to call it,” he said after swallowing his own cheese-filled mouthful. “I cannot thank you enough. But this is a start,” he said.

“A start?” she asked, quickly downing the rest of the slice. “What’s next?”

Instead of replying, Uriel handed her another slice, and then pointed at the ground. It was then that she noticed the trail of petals led to the pizza box, but then turned and clearly went back out of the kitchen.

Frowning, she looked at him suspiciously before beginning to follow the trail to the next destination. Which, it turned out, was the bathroom. There was warmth billowing out of the tub and candles lit everywhere, providing the perfect setting.

“Oh my,” she said, setting the half-eaten slice of pizza down as Uriel lifted her shirt above her head. Sydney continued to relax as Uriel did all the work of disrobing her and most importantly, handing her back her pizza.

He offered to hold it while she got in the tub, but Sydney was too hungry for that. She munched away happily as she dipped her toes into the water. Then, not caring what Uriel thought, she stored the tip of the slice in her mouth and used both hands to lower herself into the lovely water.

“I’ll be right back,” he said cryptically, but she didn’t object, leaning back into the towels he had set up for her to use as a backrest.

“Bliss,” she whispered.

“Here you go,” came Uriel’s voice a few seconds later.

She opened her eyes.

“Thank you,” she said, laughing and shaking her head at him as she accepted another pizza slice.

“You’re very welcome,” he said.

“So you think I fixed you all up, do you?” she asked as the warm water leeched the soreness from her.

“Well, you might not be a doctor, but you’re just the prescription I needed,” he told her.

Sydney’s jaw dropped and she almost let go of the heavenly slice of pizza. Bacon prevailed however, and she maintained her grip on it, unwilling to waste such delicious food.

“How long have you been waiting to use
that
line?” she asked, rolling her eyes at him.

“About six hours, since I came up with it,” he said flatly.

“Unbelievable. Just unbelievable,” she said, but she was laughing and couldn’t help it. “So, tell me about what happened.”

Uriel nodded and proceeded to fill her in on all the details, and what they had learned about their enemy.

“They said that their master is already among you?” she asked, sitting up straighter

Uriel frowned at her and said nothing until she relaxed back into the bath.

“Better,” he said with a wink. “Yes, when we got the two prisoners back to the complex, we managed to get that out of them. We think it’s a dragon leading them, but we don’t really understand his motives just yet. The prisoners made it sound race related, but we don’t have anything concrete.”

She could sense he didn’t want to be talking about it right then, so she changed the subject.

“I could get used to coming home to this every day,” she told him, slipping lower into the tub as the water rose up and over her shoulders. A warm, euphoric glow had replaced the dull sense of exhaustion she’d had upon walking inside. “Where’s Bruce?” she asked.

“Happily chewing away on a new bone out back,” Uriel told her.

“You bribed my dog to keep him quiet?” she accused.

“Yep.”

“Well, good thing I have a guard bear now,” she said, reaching out and taking his hand and cupping it to her face.

“That you do,” he told her. “Although I can’t promise to do this every day. Not unless you move in with me up at the complex. I’m always on call. I have to stay there most nights,” he told her.

“I know,” she said. “But we’ll work something out. Somehow. What do Caia and Gabriel do?”

“She mostly stays with him, and on nights he’s not on call they go to her place.”

“Oh. Well, I can’t leave Bruce. But we’ll find a way together.”

Uriel leaned in to kiss her. “Good. I like being together.”

“Me too,” she said. “Besides, the complex is no place for kids.”

The hand holding her face jerked slightly in surprise. “Kids?” he asked.

She looked up at him. “Yes, kids. I thought all you bears were obsessed with having children? Am I not allowed to want them as well?”

He shook his head. “It’s not that,” he said with a smile. “The way you said it though…how many kids were you expecting there to be?”

Sydney smiled evilly. “Well, I do come from a family of eight children. My mother is one of nine and my dad one of seven.”

Uriel blanched.

THE END

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