Dreya was forced to slow then, not only to avoid the man’s body falling to the floor, but also from the cloud of acrid smoke that was suddenly rolling from the room the man had just come out of. But she charged through the haze and kept going. Braden took a peek in the room as he passed and saw a heavy-duty filing cabinet with smoke pouring out of every drawer, a big computer on the desk that had been shot to crap, and two young doctors in lab coats lying on the floor with holes in their heads.
Somebody’s cleaning up.
Braden caught up with Dreya just as a bloody form stumbled down the stairs at that end of the building. He thought it might be Mahsood, but he didn’t have time to check as Dreya ran into automatic weapon fire. Braden went after her, quickly taking in the scene of the three orderlies with MP5s chattering out rounds nonstop at a pile of metal tables across the room before turning on them.
Beside him, Dreya took aim with her Glock, shooting slowly and smoothly at the men. Two of the orderlies went down before they realized they were under attack. The third died as he was turning to engage them.
Braden ran toward the overturned tables, sure no one could be alive over there, but then a woman with long, curly hair and blood on her nightgown came charging out, screaming like an enraged banshee. Eyes wild, she ran straight for the corner of the room and into a wire cage that was set up there. She didn’t slow down even then but threw herself through a big window covered with steel bars and careened out of sight, screaming like a madwoman every second of the way.
Trevor Maxwell popped his head up from behind the tables and looked at them. “I’m guessing John sent you?”
“Yeah.” Braden said, looking in the direction the woman had gone. “What the hell was that?”
“That was the shifter we were after,” Trevor said as he stood, carrying a young girl in his arms. She wasn’t bleeding, but she wasn’t conscious either.
“Do we need to go save her?” Dreya asked.
A pain-filled scream erupted from outside, followed by another, then another.
Trevor shook his head. “That would be a big nope. We might need to track her down and kill her someday, but we definitely don’t need to save her.” Walking over to Braden, he handed the girl to Braden. “Hold her for a second, would you?”
After Braden had her in his arms, Trevor went over to the window and looked out. Then the DCO agent turned his attention to the music box in the corner and a pile of papers on the desk. He shuffled through them, then lifted one out of the pile and stared at it.
That was when Braden realized Dreya wasn’t at his side any longer. He looked over and saw her coming out of another one of the cages that lined the wall. He hadn’t noticed until then, but there were people strapped to beds in three of those makeshift cells.
“Do we need to get them out too?” he asked Dreya, even though he wasn’t sure how the hell they were going to be able to do it.
She shook her head. “No. It’s too late for that.”
Trevor came over to take the teenager from him, but not before Braden saw the pencil sketch of a woman in his hand.
“Is that Rebecca Brannon?” Braden asked.
Trevor shoved the painting into his pocket and cradled the girl in his arms. “Yeah, it’s her.” He glanced over his shoulder at Braden as he fell into step behind them going downstairs. “You two must be new at the DCO. First mission?”
“Second,” Dreya said from in front of them.
“Oh. Well, then this is probably just another day at the office for you.”
Braden thought they might actually make it all the way off the property without meeting up with any more bad guys, but when they got to the parking lot, two orderlies popped up from behind a car and opened fire on them.
Trevor immediately took cover behind a car with the girl, but before Braden or Dreya could even shoot back, a dark-haired shifter burst out of the woods with fangs and claws flashing and tore into the two orderlies.
Braden didn’t realize Trevor was up and moving until he saw the DCO agent walk over to the dark-haired shifter. That’s when Braden realized the shifter wasn’t another agent but a teenager.
Crap, this must be the hybrid kid.
As Trevor handed the girl over to him, the hybrid’s fangs and claws disappeared, concern and fear on his face.
“I stopped them before they got all the serum into her, but they hit her with two syringes full of something, so we need to get her to some people who can help her,” Trevor said. “Can you carry her?”
The teen hybrid nodded, gently cradling the girl to his chest as he turned and headed off into the woods. Braden, Dreya, and Trevor followed.
They hadn’t gone more than a half mile into the dark, quiet forest when the hybrid suddenly stopped at the edge of a clearing, his head cocked to one side as if he’d heard something. Dreya and Trevor stopped, too, mimicking the hybrid’s gesture.
A moment later, a slender, graceful woman with long brown hair stepped out of the darkness and into the clearing. A huge mountain of a man followed at her heels. Surprisingly, he was as quiet as she was.
Beside Braden, Dreya’s breath hitched.
