But the oracles obviously didn’t believe that was going to happen.
“You know I can’t do that. You’re guilty of breaking and entering. Destruction of public property. Theft of school assets,” the security guard said with a pointed glance at Miri from around Eryx’s left arm. “And I’m sure Cryptid Containment will be interested in just who you guys are and where you came from.”
“This is your last chance,” Gallagher growled, and I couldn’t tell whether or not the officer knew he wasn’t bluffing. That he literally couldn’t say anything that wasn’t true.
“We don’t want to hurt anyone,” Claudio added, his hands out in front of him, as if to illustrate that fact. “But we’re leaving this building. Right now.”
Slowly, so as not to spook anyone, the officer reached up for the radio clipped to his shoulder. “Be advised, I’m holding eight cryptids of various species in the genetics lab, at gunpoint. They should be considered both dangerous and aggressive. Send everyone you’ve got.”
“Okay,” Claudio said. “You got us. Everyone, hands up.”
We all complied, because this was clearly an attempt to get the cop to let his guard down. Eryx was the last to raise his hands, and the officer’s gaze followed them seven and a half feet in the air, his eyes widening when he realized just how huge the minotaur truly was. He took up half the width of the hallway on his own.
“Good. Now up against the wall.” The officer made the mistake of gesturing with his gun, and as soon as it was no longer aimed at him, Eryx charged.
Floor tiles shattered beneath his hooves. Breath puffed from his nostrils. The cop fired an instant before Eryx hit him with the power of an entire defensive line. With horns.
Lala screamed. I flinched.
The collision threw the officer back with such force that he dented the wall. Ceiling tiles dropped all around him. He tried to suck in a breath, but could only gasp ineffectually at the air. And when Eryx stepped back, I understood why.
The guard’s chest had been entirely caved in by the minotaur’s shoulder. Completely, visibly crushed. He took one more gasping breath. Then he crumpled to the floor, eyes open but unseeing.
For a moment, no one moved. No one even seemed to be breathing. Then Eryx groaned. He stumbled into the wall, clutching his stomach, and blood leaked between his fingers.
“Eryx!” I tried to push Gallagher aside, but he wouldn’t budge.
“Let’s go.” Gallagher tugged me forward, headed for the exit at the end of the hall.
“I’m fine. Help him!”
“My duty is toyou,” Gallagher growled as Mirela grabbed the lab coat Zyanya still carried and pressed it to the wound in Eryx’s stomach. “We need to get out of here.”
“I’ve got her.” Zyanya took my arm and began gently tugging me toward the door. “We’ll get the van. You and Claudio get Eryx. If he falls, we’ll never be able to lift him.”
Gallagher was phenomenally strong, but the minotaur weighed a ton. Almost literally.
“Go,” I insisted, trying to pick up my own pace to prove that the baby and I would be fine without him for a few minutes. “Help Eryx.”
Gallagher growled. Then he spun on his heels and raced down the hall to help Claudio, who was bowing beneath the burden of even part of the minotaur’s weight.
“Can you walk?” Gallagher wrapped one arm around Eryx’s back, beneath his arms. “We need to get you to the van, and it would take a dozen of us to carry you.”
The minotaur nodded sluggishly as blood seeped through the coat Miri was still pressing to his wound.
Zyanya led me outside and around the dumpster to where we’d parked the van. I climbed into the front passenger’s seat and buckled the belt below the bulge of my belly as she backed out of the parking spot. Then she twisted in her seat to reverse the van around the dumpster, driving onto the sidewalk to park at an angle, as close to the building as she could get.
With the van parked, she jumped out of the driver’s seat, circled the vehicle and pulled open the rear doors. Mirela helped her fold down the last row of bench seats, to make more room in the cargo area, while Lala dug in the backpack we’d brought for anything that would work as a bandage.
Finally, Gallagher and Claudio emerged from the building, with Eryx slowly putting one hoof in front of the other between them, and together they managed to get him into the back of the van. Lala sat with him, pressing a spare shirt to the wound in his stomach; the lab coat was already soaked through with blood.
Miri, Claudio and Gallagher squeezed into the second row. “Go!” I said as soon as all the doors were shut. “But don’t speed. We can’t afford to get pulled over.”
“Take the back way,” Gallagher added. “The security guard probably called in a description of the van before he even came inside.”
“How did they know we were there?” Claudio asked.
“There’s a brand-new silent alarm,” Lala told him. “I overheard one of the lab techs saying that someone broke in a couple of weeks ago and stole tranquilizers, so they put in a new system.”
