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“I didn’t get to watch it, but yeah.”
That meant the drug, or serum, or whatever they were using, had been loaded into tranq darts. If it wasn’t so awful, I might think it was clever. It also explained how they’d managed to get the drop on Desmond, Ben and Fairfax. If someone was able to take them down from a distance, they got to avoid the fight altogether. Smart.
The shift didn’t take long. Soon the man was a wolf and shaking off the tattered ribbons of his clothing. But Mercy hadn’t banked on his response to the change, because the first thing he did was leap at the person nearest him, sinking his razor-sharp canines into the throat of his former coworker.
Jerking his head side to side, the wolf tore out the man’s trachea, and a spray of blood colored the animal’s gray fur a nasty red. Another body for the pile. As the wolf looked for his next victim—evidently whoever happened to be closest to him—I scouted the surrounding area, hoping to find an obvious place Mercy might be hiding.
“Now, now, girlie. Why don’t you step down off that table and we go see your mother?” This from Buzzcut, who hadn’t lowered his gun even to see what the wolf was up to.
“Why don’t you step closer so I can give you a shorter haircut?” I spat back.
“If you come with me, I might find it in my heart to let your friends live.”
That made me snort. “Please. You can’t keep your own men alive, and I’m supposed to believe you can magically protect mine? Nuh-uh. If anyone’s making promises here, it’s going to be me.”
“It will be very hard to make promises if you’re dead.”
“You’re not going to kill me. No one else here needs to die.” As I spoke, the wolf leaped onto the back of a guard who’d been running for it, ripping the dude’s ear clean off. “Except that guy, maybe.”
“Control the animal,” Buzzcut snapped. Another guy went to one of the pig stalls and located a long stick with something like a noose attached to it. As far as I could tell it was something old-timey dogcatchers had used to capture animals without risking a bite.
That must have been what they’d used to get Ben and Fairfax tied up so quickly. I didn’t think it was likely they’d domesticated them in such a short period of time.
The wolf versions of my little brother and the other member of his pack had been chained to one of the pigpen rails and were growling and tugging at their restraints. A hunger for blood was nakedly apparent in their eyes, but if I managed to release them, would they help us or get themselves killed?
I decided not to tempt fate.
Once we were out of this mess, I could make my apologies to Ben. At least he’d be alive to hold a grudge.
“There’s an office past the cooling units,” Holden called down. “You might not be able to see it from there, it’s pretty small.”
Aha. Finally things were starting to go my way.
“Des, you think you can cover me?” I didn’t much care if Buzzcut could overhear everything we were saying. I was ninety percent certain he wouldn’t shoot me, and the remaining ten percent honestly didn’t care whether he did or didn’t. If I died running for it, this whole mess would be over. If I made it, then it would end in a much happier fashion.
One way or another, I was ready for this to be done.
Desmond shifted his focus to Buzzcut. The other remaining men seemed mostly interested in avoiding the wrath of the wolf, while two of them attempted to back him into a corner so they could chain him up. This was my window, and I had to take it.
“Don’t do anything foolish,” Buzzcut warned.
“Foolish is my middle name.” I made sure a bullet was in the chamber and glanced over my shoulder to where the meat hooks were dangling from the ceiling. “Well, actually it’s Merriweather. But you might agree that sounds pretty foolish.” Shrugging, I jumped off the table, tucking into a ball as I landed so I could roll towards the cooling room. The bullet wound in my side was kicking up quite the fuss. I hadn’t taken any time to see if there was an exit wound on my back, but given how much pain I was in, I was certain the slug was still inside me.
I pushed that problem into Later Secret’s worry list.
Later Secret was really going to hate Past Secret.
I got to my feet and ran like hell, staggering to the side when a bullet exploded a chunk of wall to the right of my head. Ringing filled my ears, but still I ran. I ducked around the first corner I could find and pressed my back to the wall, taking a moment to regain my composure.
The small office Holden had spotted was about ten feet away and had been built like a little metal shed inside the barn, rather than creating an actual room. The walls were corrugated metal, and the roof was made of a similar material. Footfalls across the roof sounded like comical bell gongs. I lifted my gun in time to see Mercy jump down from the top of the shed and duck through the door.
I could fire and hope the bullets perforated the side of the office walls and got her at the same time. But depending on whether or not the metal was reinforced, there was a chance those bullets might come back at me, and I didn’t need any more holes in me for the time being.
Plus, Grandmere might be in there, and she’d only get caught in the crossfire. Mercy would love that, me being the one to kill Grandmere, saving her the trouble.
And I couldn’t bust my way through the door, either. She might have guards inside waiting to take me out. Or, hell, she could have rigged the place to explode the second I opened the door.
With too many unknown variables, I was stuck staring at a small metal box, trying to figure out what to do.
