“Tigers!” Bella yelled, and I nodded at her choice.
“Yes, let’s do the tigers first. They sometimes go swimming first thing in the morning.” Or at least that’s what I remembered from the last time I visited. Selene led us through a little crowd, and we stopped at the little habitats of animals on our way to the tigers.
Twice as we looked over the information signs to read about the animals to Bella, Vincent’s hand almost touched mine. It was like that future cursed me, and now our bodies were magnetized. Wherever I moved, he moved. I didn’t even think he realized we were doing a sort of dance. Crap.
When we finally stopped at the tigers, Selene let Bella out to walk into the underwater compartment to get a closer look.
“Can we talk later?” Vincent asked, and I nodded, with my eyes on Selene and Bella. They laughed, and seeing them so happy made my heart swell. She deserved this. She’d been through so much, and while I knew some days she struggled to get up in the morning, she had support. Jude was the balance to her darkness with his own brand of it. They worked together and had a great life.
“You deserve that too.” Vincent’s breath tickled the hair against my ear, and I shivered.
“Maybe.” It wasn’t the most confident answer, but after Chastine belittled me, I didn’t feel so high on myself. I accepted what I thought I was worth, and since I took her bullshit, that was very telling.
“We both do.” His hand touched mine, and I turned only for my heart to pick up speed. I shook my head without tearing my gaze away from him.
“We do,” he insisted. His head leaned closer, and that darn heart found the rapid speed gear.
Suddenly, the ground shook, a blinding light shut my eyes, and screams filled the air. When I finally managed to open my eyes, Selene had Bella on her hip beside me, and Vincent stood in front of me. People ran in our direction, and I squinted to see what they ran from.
“What happened?” Selene asked, and a concession worker stopped to frantically respond.
“The African predator house melted, and the gate is open. The animals are loose!”
Chapter Thirteen
Vincent
“Selene, get Bella out of here.” Emily cursed and Selene took off. Her powers wouldn’t be any good in this matter. Now all I had to do was get Emily out of here.
“We’ve got to help them.” She stared at the people still flooding the pathway, running. A scream echoed through the park, and Emily ran toward it.
“Shit.” I wasn’t about to fight off a lion; I didn’t possess that power. However, I could take the animals out another way. I ran to the bathroom ten yards away, my power already around me as I closed a stall door. I jumped back fifteen minutes in the past and fled the bathroom to access the African predator house. I watched from a thick and prickly bush as two keepers hit their access codes to the building.
“5303, 5303, 5303, 5303,” I repeated as I walked with confidence to the door and hit the buttons. As I slipped in, I grabbed a brown vest from a coatrack by the door and swiftly moved to the gun case at the end of the hall.
“Hey! New guy!” someone called out, and I waved but kept moving. I peered into the inside containment spaces, and thankfully, no animals were inside.
“Hey, my man. We aren’t supposed to touch those without authorization. No codes have been called,” the same voice called out as I touched the pin pad to unlock the case.
“Seriously, are you crazy?” A hand fell on my shoulder as the building hummed. Shit. I knocked the man’s hand off me, and my sight grew glittering orange as a blinding yellow light shot through the ceiling, melting the metal structure as I left. So it wasn’t an internal explosion. I needed more time, and I needed to get all the people out. I arrived before the previous keepers entered, and hit the code. Instead of marching straight for the tranquilizer guns, I searched for a fire alarm.
Whoever stood in this building in five minutes would burn, and I wasn’t ok with that. I found the alarm down the hall near a small lunchroom and pulled. I heard voices yelp, then delegate what to grab before they left. At least they’d leave. I waited a few seconds before running down the hall to the gun case and hitting the code.
“Denied.” Shit.
I didn’t know when to jump or how long I needed to search for the code. I grabbed a towel from a cleaning station and wrapped it around my fist. Here’s to hoping it wasn’t thick glass. I reared back and lowered my head to avoid any shattered pieces. It didn’t break on the first hit, but the glass splintered. Tempered glass. One more hit and it would crumble. Seconds after, the pieces fell like sand. I grabbed a gun and a case of tranquilizers, then ran.
As I neared the door, the building hummed. Shit shit shit. I flung the door open and jumped into the bushes, as I knew what came next. I covered my head but peered out from the ground to see the origin of the yellow light. It happened so fast I didn’t have time to see it. One second the building was there, and the next it looked like a burnt casserole.
People screamed and it was time for me to get to work. I loaded up the gun and placed two more darts between my teeth. According to the feeding charts in the predator house, there were seven lions: two males and five females. Then there were a pack of hyenas, five if my memory serves me, and finally a cheetah. Only thirteen animals to put to sleep before someone got hurt. The thirty-foot gates that connected the animal house to the outside enclosures were gone, melted into a puddle on the ground. I stepped into the first area and readied my stance.
The cheetah was the first as it skittishly ran around its enclosure. I sighed and hit its back end with the dart on the first shot. It slowed and finally laid down a minute later.
“Thank you, Phillip.” I blessed the seer for suggesting I go to the shooting range with him for practice. Later I’d dissect his motives, but for now, I had more predators to catch. I hid among the trees and buildings as I hunted. The lions had spread out, more nervous than anything. I took three down and had to jump into the enclosure for three more. Only one of the males was missing.
I darted to another set of trees and scanned the area. All zoo goers fled, and I heard a few radios going off with code names to initiate a plan. The police were called and animals would be put down if necessary. Hopefully, I got to the male and hyenas first.
“I’m so not grateful for this.”
