Page 22 of Shifter’s Thunder

It was the question every captive asked first in a new pen. In a prison where the walls ate everything and the sun never rose, subjective time was the only reality that mattered. It was the only way to measure their existence.

“Twelve years, one pen,” she said, trying to hear everything in spite of the pounding of her heart. “You?”

“Nine years. Three pens. I’ve been here the longest. Danya is the newest.” He glanced at her, then at his feet as he dodged a dark spot on the floor. “Are you a shifter, too?”

“Dragon,” she said. “Tanner is a thunderbird.”

Javier’s eyes widened, a flash of awe breaking through his stoicism, but before he could respond, a dull whump echoed from the direction of the trash portal. The floor quivered beneath them.

Javiar glanced over his shoulder. “I thought I heard an explosion.”

“Me, too.” She suspected one of Tanner’s surprises had been triggered. “Tanner! They’re coming!”

“Faster!” Tanner didn’t look back.

They sprinted now, lungs burning, the squishy floor sucking at their toes. They were close to the wide intersection that led to the prisoner pens. If they could just make the turn, they would be on the comparatively straight path to the exit. “It’s not long, now.”

Suddenly, high-pitched, rhythmic yipping and earsplitting screeching filled their world.

The children whimpered. Avelunne faltered, her heart threatening to burst out of her chest.

They rounded the final curve and skidded to a halt. The path was blocked.

A pack of necros, their hairless bodies twitching and teeth bared, crouched across the corridor. Behind them towered Tippizoars. The two-headed fugor’s carapace glowed with agitation, and both heads swiveled toward their entrance. They must have quick-ported in.

She had led them straight into a trap. It was her plan, her path, and now it was going to be her fault they all died.

Chapter 11

The necros swarmed. Tanner met the wave of attackers with precision. His talwar blade lopped off heads like he was dead-heading spent blooms in a garden. Ugly, stinking, zombie blooms that bled black. He kicked the corpses toward the incoming wave and stood his ground to protect Avelunne and the children.

A keeper lunged through a gap, thrusting a cattle prod into Tanner’s ribs. The shock hit him like a sledgehammer, rattling his teeth, but his invisible armor absorbed the burn. He stumbled, then snarled. With a backhanded slice, he severed the keeper’s hand at the wrist. The limb flopped to the floor, tentacles still convulsing around the weapon.

“Catch!” Tanner kicked the severed hand toward Maysan. The girl didn’t flinch. She stomped on the wrist, pried the tentacles loose, and snatched up the prod. She spun and jammed the electrified tip into the gut of a second keeper rushing her. The creature convulsed and dropped. Maysan ripped the second prod from its grip, now wielding both stolen weapons with a savage grin.

To his left, a third keeper bypassed his guard. The cattle prod sparked against the young pale girl. She dropped like a stone to the gore-slicked floor.

“Do not damage them!” Both heads of Tippizoars screeched from the rear. The monster stood well back from the melee, holding what looked like a modern drone controller and using delicate-looking mid-thorax hands to manipulate it. “They are essential stock! Restrain them!”

Avelunne roared like a feline and lunged at the keeper standing over the fallen girl. She grabbed the creature’s wrist above the cattle prod, and suddenly, pure lightning enveloped the keeper’s arm. A sharp crack echoed as the keeper’s arm and upper torso exploded in a shower of nasty wet fluid.

Tanner hadn’t known she could do that in human form. But there was no time to admire her lethality. The necros were regrouping, climbing over their own dead to get to the fresh meat.

He focused a telepathic message to Avelunne. “Get the children out! “

She couldn’t hear him. Damnit. He shoved a headless corpse aside and roared out loud. “Go! Take them and go! I’ll cover you!”

He decapitated two more necros, his arm moving with practiced precision. A wave of fairy magic bloomed to his left. The door to the vacated prisoner pen was suddenly the source of more necros streaking out to flank him. For some reason, they ignored Avelunne and the children. “Avelunne! Move!”

Movement flashed in the corridor leading to the exit. Tanner braced for enemy reinforcements, but it was Timoki and Rutera. They hadn’t left. Rutera wielded an AK-47 with a drum magazine. They moved toward the clump of children, still protected by the ruthless Maysan.

To his right, Avelunne grabbed two necros by their throats and slammed them backward. The impact cracked bones as she pinned them against a scorched section of the wall. The fleshy surface unexpectedly tried to absorb them as they thrashed.

Tanner refocused on his job, letting his anger and his thunderbird magic turn him into a slaughter machine. Heads rolled. Every swing cleared the way for the escape.

“Shifters! Come with me!” Timoki pulled the arms of two teenagers toward the exit, hauling them past the carnage toward safety.

Gunfire added to the chaos. Tanner redoubled his efforts to draw the necros to him and away from the people he loved.