Stolen

CORNERED

Bauer pushed past Savannah and flew through the security sequence. The exit opened and all three of us clambered through. I slammed the door behind us. Savannah shouted that the door was now open to the empty cell across from mine. We dove inside.

"I was peeking around the corner," Savannah said as I gulped air. "When the guards came with the flashlight, I saw the other ones get off the elevator. I cast a confusion spell so you could get past them. It worked pretty good, huh?"

"Very good," I said, not mentioning that I'd been nearly caught in the crossfire. What the hell had Ruth taught this kid? A twelve-year-old witch should be casting spells to calm frightened kittens, not making armed men blast one another to bits.

"Hey," a voice said from the doorway. "Did I miss my party invitation?"

We all jumped. Leah stepped inside, yawning and raking her fingers through her sleep-mussed hair.

"Don't close that!" Bauer said, grabbing the cell door.

Did it matter now? Though I said nothing, I certainly didn't foresee another breakout attempt in our near future. While the opened cells may not have been a trap, they hadn't been a lucky break either. The opposite, in fact. My great escape plan had vanished in that hailstorm of bullets outside. Even if we got through this mess, Winsloe would only need to check the computer logs to realize I'd used Bauer to get past security. He'd make sure it never happened again. I tried not to think of the multitude of ways he could ensure that.

Leah walked to a chair and slumped into it. "Cut my damned foot walking down here. There's glass all over the floor. And how come the doors are open? Not that I'm complaining but-Whoa, what happened to you guys?"

"Flying glass," I said.

"Geez. Not sorry I missed it. Is anyone hurt? I know first aid."

"We're fine," Bauer said, moving to the bed.

While we talked, Savannah leaned out the doorway. "I don't see anyone. Are they all dead?"

"Dead?" Leah repeated as I yanked Savannah away from the open door. "Who's dead?"

I explained what had happened. As I spoke, Leah kept shooting discreet glances at Savannah, who'd collapsed onto the carpet and didn't seem to notice.

"… we should stay in here," I said. "Remain calm and hope they do the same. No sudden moves. Nothing to set them off."

Savannah pushed herself up from the floor. "I know this calming spell-"

"I'm sure you do, hon," Leah said. "But maybe that's not such a good idea."

Savannah's face fell. Leah put her arm around the girl's shoulders and gave her a squeeze.

"Elena and I can handle the guards," Leah said. "We'll find a safe place for you, hon, in case there's trouble when the guards arrive."

Slanting a look sideways, Leah directed my gaze from Savannah to the stray lightbulb pieces on the floor. My heart sank. Savannah. Who else could have been responsible for the whirlwind of flying glass? There'd been only three of us in that hallway and only one who'd been known to propel dangerous objects through the air. It was a big step up from hurling plates, but I'd already seen a demonstration of Savannah's increased powers with that lethal confusion spell. Of course, she hadn't done it deliberately-she'd been hurt as badly as any of us-but that wasn't the point. Whether she intended it or not, Savannah was dangerous. Put her under emotional stress and she reacted with violence.

"Good idea," I said. "We should get Savannah someplace safe." Safe for her and safe for us.

"Sondra, how about you go with Savannah?" Leah said. "My cell's open. Hide in there."

Bauer sat on the bed, knees pulled up, staring at the wall. Back to whimpering jellyfish.

"I'm fine," she whispered.

"You've had a rough go of it," Leah said. "Elena and I can handle this. How about you take Savannah and-"

"I'm fine!" Bauer snarled, head jerking up, lips curling. Then she froze, as if realizing what she'd done. She closed her eyes and shuddered. "I'm fine," she said firmly. "I want to help."

"Maybe we can talk to the guards," I said. "Explain what happened. Is there an intercom, Sondra? Some way we can communicate with them?"

Bauer shook her head.

Outside the cell, something thudded against the exit door. We all stopped to listen. Two more thuds in quick succession, then silence.

"They can't get in," Bauer whispered. "The exit door must have lost power or jammed."

"So much for hoping they were all dead," Leah said. "How many guards are there in total?"

"Three doz-no, thirty," Bauer said. "We-they started with thirty-six, but there's been casualties."

"Lousy odds. Well, let's get Savannah out of here before things get bad."

Leah reached for Savannah, but she ducked and ran to me.

"I want to help," she said, looking up at me.

As if I didn't feel guilty enough just suspecting Savannah of causing the flying glass. But if Leah and I were going to fight this, we had to get Savannah someplace safe where she could calm down.

"We aren't trying to shut you out, Savannah. I know you could help. That confusion spell"-I managed a wry smile-"well, I was impressed, I'll tell you that."

"But…" Savannah sighed, with the weary resignation of a child who could hear "but" coming a mile away.

"But if you stay, Leah and I will be too worried about you to concentrate on the danger."

"We'd be very concerned if you stayed," Leah said, sneaking me a look. "We'd all feel much better if you were someplace else… safe. I'll take you to my cell."

"Fine," Savannah said, in a voice that said our decision was anything but fine.

Leah reached for Savannah's hand, but the girl brushed her off and stalked out the door. Leah jogged after her.

Several minutes later, Leah hurried back. The guards were still beating at the exit door.

"She's in my cell," Leah said. "Hidden under the bed. I closed the door."

I started to nod, then stopped. "You closed the door? What if it jams? How will we get her out?"

"Right now I'm more worried about Savannah getting herself out. If I didn't lock her in, she'd be down here in two minutes flat, trying to help us. We don't need that kind of help." She glanced at the broken glass. "She's helped quite enough already."

"If Savannah made the glass fly, it wasn't intentional."

Leah shrugged. "You're probably right. Anyway, it's not her fault. What can you expect, with a mother like Eve."

"You think that's it? Just because her mother was into black magic doesn't necessarily mean-"

"Eve wasn't just a witch, Elena. Her father was a demon, meaning she was a half-demon/witch hybrid. A brutal combination. Now, I'm pretty laid-back. I don't scare easily. But Eve scared the crap out of me. Sondra, remember when she first got here-"

Bauer whirled to face us. "Who the fuck cares, Leah?! We have God knows how many armed guards pounding at the exit door and you're discussing Savannah's genealogy!"

"Chill out, Sondra. Elena and I have everything under control. We're used to this kind of stuff. All I'm saying, Elena, is to be careful around Savannah. Remember, she's a preteen girl, hormones kicking in and all that shit. It only makes things worse. Who knows-"

"Goddamn it!" Bauer shouted. "They're breaking down the fucking door!"

"You think they'll get in?" Leah asked me calmly, as if Bauer were some lunatic screaming inside a padded room.

"Eventually," I said.

She sighed. "Okay, then. Time to prepare the welcoming party."

When we'd finished planning, we turned off the light. With our night vision, Bauer and I would be fine, and Leah had decided that the overall advantages of darkness outweighed the personal disadvantage of limited vision.

We slipped into the hall, staying behind the corner in case the guards broke through, guns blazing.

"Hello!" Leah shouted. "We're trapped in here! Some of us are hurt! What's going on out there? Can you hear us?"

No one replied. As Bauer had warned, the door was soundproof. Leah tried a few more times, then I motioned her to silence and listened. I could hear only snatches of muffled voices.

"-when's that-getting here?"

"-other door-power out-"

"-radio-again-"

"-off-duty guys?-Matasumi, Winsloe?"

Leah leaned against my shoulder. "Can you tell how many there are?"

I shook my head. "Three, maybe four voices, plus those who aren't talking. Wait, I hear something else."

A loud hissing sounded from the other side of the exit. As I tried to identify the noise, it suddenly rose to a grating whir, loud enough even for a non-werewolf to hear.

"Blowtorch," Leah said. "That'll work. We'd better get ready."

We never got a chance to put our plan into motion. As I swung into the empty cell, the exit door suddenly opened. The guards' shouts of surprise broke into a barrage of commands. Leah darted into the first cell with me. As I wheeled to close the door, I realized Bauer wasn't with us.

"She bolted," Leah said.

"Shit!"

I threw open the door. Bauer was running down the hall.

"Sondra!" I shouted.

She stopped. Instead of turning around, though, she started pounding on the cell door to her right.

"Open up!" she yelled. "Goddamn you! Let me in!"

At first, I thought she'd lost it. Then I realized she was at the one remaining occupied cell, that of the Vodoun priest. Of course, Zaid couldn't hear her. The wall was soundproof. Despite everything happening out here, the poor guy was probably sound asleep. I leaned out the doorway to tell her to hide, but she was already gone, vanishing into Armen Haig's former cell.

As I closed the door, I realized we had a problem. Leah and I were hiding behind a one-way pane of glass. Any guards in the hall could see us, but we couldn't see them. Not good. I scanned the cell for a hiding spot, knowing I wouldn't find one. We were exposed. Any second now the guards would come around that corner-I stopped. Why hadn't they come around the corner already? When I cracked open the door, I heard frantic shouts, then a scream, an inhuman shriek that made my hackles rise.

I motioned Leah back. "I'm taking a look."

"Crouch," she said. "Stay below eye level."

We both hunkered down. I eased the door open. A flash of light ricocheted off my eyes and I jerked back, only to see the beam skitter from wall to floor to ceiling, like someone wildly brandishing a flashlight. Over the screaming, I heard a male voice; then a high-pitched alarm swallowed all sound. I sniffed and smelled something so unexpected I doubted my own senses. The acrid stench of burned meat filled the air. As I inhaled again, second-guessing myself, a guard rocketed by so fast I didn't have time to retreat into the cell. It didn't matter. He flew past, mouth open in a scream swallowed by the siren. Something flapped at his side. I squinted in the near dark, then shuddered. It was his arm, almost severed above the elbow, swinging back and forth as he ran.

The flashlight beam continued to bounce around the walls. Shapes flickered, casting contorted shadows on the wall. The siren wavered and gave one last coughing blip. As it died, sound filled the air: the hissing of the blowtorch, shouts from the guards still hidden around the corner, the endless screams of the guard with the severed arm. Another guard stumbled around the corner, the blowtorch flickering beside him. As he passed our cell, he slid on something, his legs flying out. The blowtorch sailed into the air. Then it stopped. Stopped eight feet above the ground and hovered there, spitting blue flame. The fallen guard sprang to his feet. The blowtorch flew down and sliced him across the back. His arms shot up and he pitched forward, screaming as his shirt ignited. The stink of charred flesh and fabric filled the air.

"Open the fucking door!" a guard yelled from around the corner. "Get us out of here!"

"They're trapped," I whispered to Leah. "I can't see what's going on. The blowtorch-"

Bang! A gunshot. Then three more in quick succession. Four loud metallic clangs.

"They're shooting the door," Leah said. "We should stay put."

"Trust me. I'm not going anywhere."

A sudden roar overlapped the screams and shouts.

"What's that?" Leah asked.

I knew. Even as I squinted down the hall, I knew what I'd see. Bauer had changed into a wolf. She charged the guards. I threw open the door. Leah grabbed my arm.

"The guards are still around the corner," I said. "I can stop Sondra before they see her."

"Then what?"

Bauer reared as she collided with the fiery guard. Yelping, she backpedaled and skittered away from the flames. Then human instinct overtook animal. Wheeling around, she skirted the burning body and continued charging down the hall.

"Just let me-" I began.

"No. Think, Elena. You can't help her."

Bauer barreled past us and rounded the corner. A guard screamed. He raced into the main stretch of hall, blood spattering from his torn shoulder. Bauer ran after him. Before they even reached our cell door, she pounced, landing on his back. As they fell, she sank her teeth into the back of his neck, tearing out a mouthful. Blood and gore sprayed.

"I'll use the distraction to run down to the other exit," Leah said. "Maybe it's open now."

"What-?" I began, then realized she couldn't see what was happening, wasn't affected by it.

Leah brushed past me.

"Watch out! "I yelled, but she was gone and Bauer was too engrossed in her current victim to chase down another.

Bauer ripped chunks from the guard's shoulders and back, throwing them into the air. The guard's body convulsed. His face was stark white, eyes impossibly wide and blank. A guard around the corner shouted, as if just realizing his comrade was missing.

I couldn't watch any longer. I threw open the door and leaped out, no plan in mind other than somehow saving Bauer. Did she deserve saving? Was her life worth risking mine? It didn't matter. She was a werewolf, a female werewolf born from my genes. I had to protect her.

As I tore from the cell, another guard came around the corner, gun raised. He fired. The shot blazed through the darkness and hit Bauer in the left haunch. She lunged at him. He lifted the gun, but she was on him, teeth ripping at his throat. As I ran toward them, two shapes sprang from the darkness. Gunfire resounded down the hall. I dove, twisting around just in time to see the bullets hit Bauer, blasting her in the chest and head.

In that second, even as blood and brain exploded from Bauer's shattered skull, even before her body collapsed to the floor atop the dead guard, I saw the exit door swing open. I saw it and I saw my chance. My only chance. I felt my feet move, my body turn. Savannah flashed through my mind. I couldn't leave without her. Yet even as I thought this I felt my body diving for the open door. I didn't have time to go back for Savannah. Even if I could, should I? Who knew what she was capable of if things got really bad? With Savannah in tow, I might never escape, might die trying. Better to leave her here, underground, where her powers could be controlled, where she was too important to be killed. I'd come back for her later with the others.

I was already in the hall, my body having made the decision even as my brain floundered. What about Leah? Was I abandoning her, too? Coward! But my feet kept propelling me toward the elevator. Once there, I pounded my fist against the button, slamming it over and over, feeling the pain course down my arm and only hitting it harder, punishing my cowardice.

The elevator doors opened. I stepped in.