“Before we go in,” he said, his heart drumming hard in his chest. Her golden eyes on his, curious, luminous… his apprehension evaporated like mist. “I love you,” he said simply. How could he have spent so long grappling with those words? They were the easiest thing in the world to say. She looked at him for a long moment, almost seeming to hold her breath. Then that faint, wondering smile widened.
“I love you too,” she said, as though the revelation had surprised even her. “Now, come on. We’ve got a building to break into.”
Let the armed men come, Conrad thought as he followed Mira and the wolves into the dark, echoing space beyond the doorway. Let dozens of them attack… hundreds, thousands. Right now, he felt like he could fight the whole population of this world without taking so much as a scratch.
But there was nobody to fight. Just as they’d hoped, the building was completely empty—its staff all gone for the night, presumably. The wolves peeled off immediately, their heads low and their eyes intent, something of their wild forms showing in the glint of their silver eyes and their rangy movements through the gloom. Conrad followed Mira through a few doorways, not seeing much in the gloom—some furniture, mostly trash. What had he been expecting? Books full of records that would conveniently explain everything that happened?
And then Mira made a triumphant sound, and he hastened to her side. She was prying open what looked at first glance like a slender book, but that he quickly realized was nothing of the sort—the cover revealed a dark screen which flickered to life when she pressed a part of the lower section, and there were more of the familiar square keys embedded there. Mira had explained computers to him, but he was still getting accustomed to all the different shapes and sizes they seemed to come in.
He heard a shout from some distance away, and he and Mira both looked up at the sound of running footsteps. Vee found them, panting, her silver eyes wild and a look of intermingled triumph and terror on her face. She breathed a few words, and Mira inhaled sharply, looking up at Conrad. He didn’t need a translation. He glanced down at Mira, who gestured wordlessly for him to go.
Vee led him at a breakneck pace through a couple of gloomier rooms… and then to a door that had been knocked off its hinges completely, fresh splintered wood telling him that this was a recent development. The room on the other side was very different from the nondescript, shabby offices he and Mira had been exploring, and a chill ran down his spine as he realized why that was. Hard floors, made of a kind of artificial gray stone… and arranged before him, at least a dozen of them if not more, were prison cells. That was being charitable, he thought, his breath catching in his throat. A cell suggested at least some comfort… a bed, maybe, or at least a bench. These were cages.
Cages that were full of frightened-looking people, fingers looped around the bars. He took in the scene, realizing with a rush that not only were they in the right place but that this organization was more powerful than they’d imagined. He’d been imagining a few dozen men, maybe… but there were more prisoners than that here, some of them injured, all of them clearly frightened. He hurried to help Vee, who was gritting her teeth with frustration as she rummaged through the drawers of a desk that stood against the far wall. Ren, meanwhile, was taking a more direct approach… he was wolf-shaped, and his great jaws were clamped around the metal bars of one of the cells, every muscle in his great body straining as he yanked and tore at it. It was giving way, but slowly.
Conrad frowned a little. There were dozens of shifters here. Why hadn’t any of them thought to do what Ren was doing? There were no guards here to stop them… but then he remembered Vee’s wounded wrists, and he looked to the nearest prisoner. Sure enough, her hands were bound in front of her by dull silver manacles. He felt a shudder of revulsion pass through him at the sight of them, met her exhausted eyes, and tried to promise with his eyes alone that he’d get them out of there.
Vee was still rummaging, clearly searching for the keys. But Conrad was worried about how long that would take, acutely aware he’d left Mira by herself, rummaging through the computers. He couldn’t leave these shifters here, locked up with silver draining the life from them. He shouted a warning, hoping it would be enough… then let the magic move through him.
It was cramped, that was for sure… Conrad could feel his wings pressing against the roof and he hissed disgruntledly, lowering his body to the floor and feeling his forelegs scrape against the cage bars. There was fur pressing against his underbelly and he rumbled an apology as Ren extracted himself with some difficulty. But then Conrad lifted one razor-sharp talon and began to slice through the locks that held each cage door shut, his claws meeting little resistance as they dug through the metal. One by one, the cages fell open. Turning was awkward as he made his way down the line… but eventually, he’d taken care of every single door. Coiled at the far end of the room, he blinked down at the mass of shifters he’d freed… at least two dozen of them, if not more, their faces full of a mixture of awe and relief as they looked up at him.
No dragons among them, he realized. Had any of them seen a dragon before? Vee was saying something, looking up at him and then back at the huddled group. As if in response, one of the shifters shuffled forward. He was a wolf around Vee’s age, with hair a vivid and unnatural shade of green, the sandy brown roots showing. He limped a little as he walked, and the pain on his face was clear. He lifted his hands towards Conrad in an oddly ritualistic gesture.
Carefully, Conrad extended the tip of his razor-sharp talon, facing upward. The young wolf looked at it for a moment, then nodded, seeming to get the idea. Gently, he scraped his metal manacles against the sharp edge of Conrad’s claw, the sharp edge digging through the metal slowly but surely. Behind him, the other shifters watched with bated breath… until finally, with a dull clunk, the manacle fell to the ground in two pieces. Beneath it, the skin was raw and blistered like Vee’s wrists had been… but the wolf’s face was full of elation, a great weight clearly lifted from his shoulders.
“Thank you,” he said, and Conrad inclined his head, grateful that he recognized that phrase at least.
The rest of the shifters lined up then, and he held out his talons as steady and still as he could, well aware that one injudicious movement would be enough to cut deep into an artery… or worse, take a whole hand off. He was also very worried about the time that was creeping past. With each shifter freed, his impatience grew, his worry. Vee was with him, he could tell… she was standing with her arm around the shoulder of the green-haired wolf, love and relief vivid on her features, but she kept looking anxiously at the door. They needed to get out, and soon.
He only hoped Mira had found what she needed.
Chapter 25 - Mira
Take what you need and run, she kept telling herself. Her heart was pounding hard in her chest as she navigated the laptop she’d found. Conrad would be okay, she told herself. He was with the wolves—they could handle themselves. Right now, her focus was on getting what she could get off this computer.
Aunt Heather had surprised her with a tech-savvy turn… it seemed she’d been spending her retirement doing more than just cooking. After the morning’s revelations, her aunt had wasted no time in reflection, barely seeming surprised that her sister-in-law had been a shapeshifting dragon, or that her niece was one too. But she had been very, very interested in what they planned to do once they broke into whatever headquarters the prisoner led them to. She’d headed into the study, returning after some time with a couple of USB thumbsticks, some sleek black hard drives, and a couple of cables. The explanation had been utterly lost on Mira, but the instructions were very clear. Find a computer, turn it on, check it was connected to a network… then put in the thumbstick and let it do its work.
She had no idea what was happening—whatever program her aunt had put on the thumbstick may as well have been a magical spell, though Heather had laughed at that, saying it was simpler than she’d think, that there were plenty of websites with helpful instructions. Now, Mira reflected that she was very glad never to have made an enemy of her aunt, watching the laptop screen as file after file was downloaded onto the hard drive she’d also plugged into the device. She’d opened a few, just to check what she was stealing. The files were packed with information… photos, screenshots of social media pages, even birth certificates and government records. She saw several family trees, with various names circled, crossed out, or highlighted in bright colors. What any of it meant was beyond her—but that didn’t matter right now. This was a smash-and-grab operation. Get in, get the information, get out.
Sooner, rather than later. She could hear noise from where Conrad and Vee had run off, and was just hoping it was positive chaos, whatever it was. She was listening intently to the rest of the building. Quiet as it was, she knew they’d be fools not to assume that there were security guards on their way. It was only a matter of time.
And sure enough, just as her anxiety was reaching a critical point, she heard the sound of footsteps and low voices coming from the front of the building. Catching her breath, she slammed the laptop shut and unplugged her devices as quickly as she could—however much she’d gotten would have to be enough. Time to get out of here.
She wasn’t expecting the sight that greeted her when she found where Conrad and Vee had gotten to. A huddled group of worried-looking people turned as one as she appeared in the doorway, expressions of fear on their faces—she heard Ren bark a quick reassurance that she was one of them, hastening to her side. She took in the scene quickly—the gaunt faces, the wounded wrists—and behind them, the familiar shape of a great dragon, his talons outstretched. A young man was carefully filing through a metal band that was tight on his wrist, and as she watched, it dropped to the ground, its owner uttering a sigh of relief as he flexed the hand it had been attached to.
“Guards on their way,” Mira said, taking in the destruction around them. So much for keeping a low profile, she thought faintly… they’d definitely know they’d been hit. But these were clearly prison cells. Her heart was racing. “Is this everyone?”
“Everyone here,” an older woman said, stepping forward. She had pale yellow eyes the color of sand, and a deep, angry bruise on the side of her face. “But there are other sites.”
A look of relief on Ren’s face, quick as blinking. Mira could see that Vee was standing with her arm around a young man… but Ren didn’t seem to have found his own mate among the freed prisoners. But before she could ask any more questions, there was a sudden crash behind her, and Vee bellowed a warning. Mira felt a flare of that strange, half-familiar magic tingle across her skin, and she moved forward faster than she thought she was able. Behind her, the man who’d been about to grab her swore and stumbled.
More men poured into the room, and Mira turned to face them, instinctively positioning herself between the men and the freed prisoners. The tallest of them stepped forward, and that familiar sneer made her catch her breath. Heather’s prisoner.
“You have a lot of nerve, coming here,” he said, narrowing his eyes and spitting that insult that had made Conrad so angry. She heard him hiss behind her, still dragon-shaped… but the men in front of her didn’t seem cowed. She scanned their ranks, feeling ice in her gut as she realized they were all holding guns. “Surrender now, or we’ll open fire on these half-breeds.”
He meant it, she realized, a chill running down her spine. He spoke so dispassionately, as though he was talking about exterminating insects, not people. What had he called them? It didn’t matter, she realized, her heart pounding in her chest. There was about to be a bloodbath if she didn’t surrender, right now…
But then there was an odd crackling in the air. The men masked it well, but she could see the shock on some of their faces, unease as they lifted their guns. She chanced a quick look behind her, and her heart leaped into her throat. At least a dozen wolves, a handful of coyotes, even a sleek black panther that was uttering a low, frightening growl. And rearing up onto its hind legs in the midst of the group, impossibly tall, was a grizzly bear, larger in the flesh than anything she’d ever seen on TV.