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The lion laughed, showing a whole lot of pointy teeth. “You don’t scare me, little human. I could eat you for a snack.” He licked his lips.
“She’s right,” the Fae colonel backed up the detective. “This is over. Drop the sword, or I will drop you where you stand.” His gun with the wide barrel never wavered.
Liliana had no doubt that whatever weapon Colonel Bennet had would be effective against the were-lion. She was afraid that the unseelie prince wouldn’t care if that gun killed both lion and sprite. A seelie Fae sprite was probably not someone he felt responsible to protect.
The spider seer raced across the front of the neatly landscaped grounds of the medical center, ballet slippers squelching through mud. Seconds after she ran past the center, four armed men ran out of the main entrance.
In the lab, Sergeant Giovanni followed her commanding officer’s lead and kept her gun up.
“Don’t think I’m bluffing, Colonel,” growled the lion. “I will kill this irritating little bug.”
“Regardless of what you do,” Colonel Bennet answered, “you’re done here.”
The lion-kin seemed to consider his options for a moment. No one had a clear shot at him with the sprite held up in front of him like a shield and overturned granite tables blocking a shot at his legs.
The colonel jerked his chin at Sergeant Giovanni, widened his eyes, and tilted his head.
She nodded, as if that had been a clearly spoken order.
They edged in opposite directions around the sides of the room. In a few more steps, they would each have a shot. The lion couldn’t protect both his flanks at once.
Detective Jackson talked to the lion-kin. “You’re not in a good position here. Just put her down, place the weapon on the floor, and no one has to get hurt.”
Pete edged closer, empty hands held out, carefully not blocking Detective Jackson’s shot.
“Stop now, all of you, or she’s dead!” the lion growled. He dug the sword tip into the back of Siobhan’s leather jacket. It pushed her forward and arched her back enough to change her facial expression from anger to pain. Only the thick leather kept the sword from piercing her.
Pete froze in place, but saw the Fae prince and Sergeant Giovanni still creeping closer along each wall. “Colonel, please!” he begged.
The prince’s jaw tightened, and his nostrils flared in anger, but he stopped creeping closer to the lion.
Sergeant Giovanni stopped when the colonel did.
“You’re going to be okay,” Pete said softly to Siobhan. “Don’t worry.”
Siobhan rolled her eyes, despite the pinch of pain around her lips. “I hate being the damn hostage.”
At the obvious standoff, Doctor Nudd came in from around the doorjamb. “He killed soldiers from your SET unit,” he told the colonel, voice shaking with rage. “The first two died slowly over a period of days. After that, when he saw the first signs of toxic reactions to his nanites, he got the widow spiders to eat the soldiers to hide the evidence. Their acid venom destroyed the nanites completely. It wasn’t just six soldiers either. Ten are dead. He shot and buried some in the forest and the last two are dying.”
“You knew.” Nudd held up the folder, shaking the proof at Periclum like a weapon. Everyone else was frozen, but Nudd walked down the center of the room in front of the big lion, crunching broken glass under his shoes. “You knew the nanites were deadly, and you just kept doing it anyway!” Nudd set the folder down with shaking hands on a wrecked work bench. “I don’t think I can save the last two.” He rubbed his hand through his messy hair. “When you realized one batch was killing your subjects, you just changed the nanites slightly and went right on. You put them in Lieutenant Runningwolf less than an hour ago, and I don’t even know if I can save him.” He pointed a shaky finger at the big werelion. “You are no doctor. You sicken me.”
Periclum eased the pressure on the tip of his sword against Siobhan’s back, as if forgetting that he held her. “That’s rich, you telling me I’m not a doctor. I use science, not hand wavey mumbo jumbo to heal. You’re nothing but a witch doctor pretending to do medicine.”
While they yelled at each other, Liliana kept running. She was almost there. She might make it.
“Stop where you are, ma’am, or we’ll shoot!” a soldier shouted behind her.
No, no, no.
She couldn’t stop now.
Bullets splashed a trail by her feet as she ran around the corner of the sprawling complex. She could see the centrifuge on the wet lawn by the broken window a half block away. She didn’t think it was possible to run even faster as her breath sobbed through her lips and burned her lungs, but she tried.
Lightning flashed, blindingly white, followed rapidly by a bone-shaking crack of thunder.
While they were blinded by the lightning, the lion-kin hurled Siobhan past Nudd and jumped out the window, shifting to full lion form in mid-air.
Pete leapt up to catch the hurtling sprite. The force of impact slammed into his chest and smashed him and Siobhan back against a wall of shelves. The wolf-kin curled protectively around the small woman.
