Hamilton growled, but I didn’t know what Row meant. “Who’s leaving?”
“Barnabas and all the top brass he had visiting. Witnesses to the success of the program,” he said with obvious disgust.
Hamilton didn’t hesitate. He shifted and shot into the air a second later. Row shouldered his gun and ran back to wherever he’d been, and I followed him. I couldn’t contribute—I knew that—but I wanted to be the new witness, the one who watched the end of this entire nightmare.
I didn’t have to wait long. A helicopter was taking off from the deck. It was huge and black and stuffed with people in uniforms. I couldn’t say which branches they represented let alone what their names were, but I assumed they had to be folkswho’d get off on having super soldiers at their disposal since they were here.
Whoever they were, Hamilton made sure they wouldn’t be leaving any time soon by throwing a metal rod through the thing that made the blades turn. The helicopter hadn’t been more than ten feet or so up, but it dropped right back onto the deck with some smoke and an awful screeching noise.
With a gasp, I looked behind me as gunshots sounded. I couldn’t see anything around the other end of the cargo container I was hiding beside, but the shouting let me know someone was being apprehended.
“That’s Ramirez,” Row said. “We’re winning.”
“Oh, good.” I refocused on what was happening around the helicopter.
All of the supernaturals were in their other-than-human forms and surrounding the chopper. I grinned in wicked delight, hoping the people inside were about to piss themselves. It didn’t look like anyone was being dragged out and slaughtered, which I supposed was a good thing. So far they’d only killed in self-defense, and I didn’t see that change?—
Oops, spoke too soon. Given the snarls, growls, and general show of murderous intent, the guy who just stepped down from the helicopter was someone the supernaturals absolutely hated. Barnabas maybe? Had to be. So that was the face of evil. He made me think of the rich guy who’d funded the Nazis inIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade, because he stepped down onto the deck with a smile on his face. I couldn’t hear him, but I fully expected he was over there saying that this had all been a big misunderstanding because he was only trying to do good for the world.
I crept closer. Unfortunately, in order to hear everyone over the wind, I had to stand like a foot away from Hamilton andQuillan. They definitely didn’t notice, though, because someone else stepped forward.
“Gentlemen,” he said with a greasy smile, “I think there’s been a misunderstanding.”
Of course he’d go there. This was the dude who was probably running every hateful campaign the administration had. I’d once seen a photo of him being compared to an anal polyp, and now I could see just how true a comparison it was.
Meven Stiller. I’d go to my grave hating that weasel.
Row put a hand on my forearm, and I looked at him only to realize I’d been growling. Like guttural, deep in my throat, growling. That was a first…but well aimed, I thought.
The snake guy rose up so he was towering over tiny Stiller. “A misunderstanding?”
“Yeah,” mini-Godzilla said, “which part did we misunderstand? The kidnapping? Being locked in cages? Or was it the order to assault a bunch of men to?—”
“No-no,” Stiller said. “See that’s where communication broke down. All those men werevolunteers. They were happy to?—”
“The fuck we were!” Row yelled, and now it was me putting a hand on him to keep him where he was. He nodded at me and swallowed hard, and his words were echoed by others ringing around us.
Nobody had volunteered. Nobody was happy.
“Well, that’s not what I was told.” Stiller made a show of turning around and holding out a hand to the guy I’d suspected was Barnabas. Stiller hadn’t lasted long before throwing someone else under the bus.
Barnabas’s smile was worse than Stiller’s because there was a sparkle to his eyes. Religious fanatics smiled like that…right before they hit you in the head with a bible.
“My dear ones,” he said with just a hint of a German accent. “Don’t you want to push talentless humans to becomemore?”
“No.”
My mate. He could ramble when he wanted to, but he also knew that was a complete sentence.
Barnabas took a step closer, that smile still fixed on his face. “You have the opportunity to force an evolution. To bring humans to your level of greatness! Why would you deny them?”
“Because it’s fucking torture?” the centaur said with a stomp of a hoof.
Quillan shook his head. “Because it’s a privilege reserved for our mates.”
“Oh, good point,” I whispered and glanced at Row, still shipping those two inside my pitter-pattering heart.
“Ah!” Stiller said. “See there? You’re gatekeeping these abilities. Leaving it up to fate to choose who advances? Come on,” he scoffed and looked at the others like they’d back him up.
