Final Extraction by Julie Trettel

Silas

Chapter 11

 

 

 

I was aware of my mission, but Painter had issued me only one objective—get Vada out. This was it, the moment I would rescue my girl and whisk her away to safety where we’d live happily ever after. Only that wasn’t her plan.

“Silas, listen closely. You can’t confuse me or change my mind on this no matter how many times you kiss me senseless.”

All I heard was “kiss me again”.

So I did, but this time she pulled back and gave me a stern look. “That wasn’t a challenge.”

“Don’t do this,” I begged her.

“But there are more. So many more,” she said, looking around sadly.

“And we’ll get them,” I promised her.

She nodded, but I could feel her pulling away from me again. It was like Colorado all over again. She was going to risk her life to save others. I could see now that was just who she was, but I didn’t have to like it and I wouldn’t accept it.

“If I have to throw you over my shoulder and drag you away kicking and screaming, I will, but I am not leaving you behind. Not again.”

“You’re not. You’re leaving me on the inside to do my job, just like Jake, and Martin, and who knows how many others.”

“They’ve contacted you?”

She nodded. “You have to take Jake with you this time. He’s in danger.”

“Jake can handle himself.”

“Trevor thinks he betrayed him. He’ll kill him.”

“Jake’s a big boy, Vada. He’s been through worse than this. He knows how to extract himself if needed.”

“I’m telling you, it’s needed.”

“Then why hasn’t he contacted me?”

“Because he can’t. He’s in trouble. Would you just listen to me?”

I gave her a patriarchal look. Of course I knew better than she how capable Jake was and I had full faith in my man.

She huffed in frustration and I somehow felt like I was letting her down.

“Where is he?” I sighed.

“Laying low. Trevor’s going to blame him for this. He already thinks he botched the burying of those people he killed.”

“Did he?” the detective asked from behind me.

I turned. “He’s off limits. Are we clear?”

“Right this second I feel like I live in a fantasy world, but if you know anything at all, you must tell me, or I could hold you both accountable for conspiracy to murder.”

“You really want to go there right now? There are far bigger things going on here than your stupid investigation.”

He started to protest and then seemed to change his mind. “What are these things? Some kind of cloning experiment or something?”

“No,” I told him. “But if you don’t leave here right now and forget all about this and the things you saw here, I can’t guarantee your protection.”

“Is that a threat?” he asked me.

“He’s not threatening you,” Vada said. “He’s just trying to help you.”

“Withholding information is not helping me.”

“If Trevor finds out you’re here and that you, a mere human, saw what you saw, he won’t hesitate to either corrupt you or kill you. I’d bet on the latter because he’s extremely on edge at the moment. Hence, your dead bodies case.”

“I’m not leaving here without information.”

“Then that’s your funeral,” she said before turning back to me with her hands on her hips.

I couldn’t help it, I laughed.

Stone’s face scrunched up in further frustration.

“Meet me at the trail in thirty minutes,” I told him.

He didn’t look convinced.

“I’m staying at the hotel just outside of town. You know the one?”

He nodded.

“Good, if I don’t show, you’ll find me or someone from my team there.”

A gun shot went off and one of the prisoners that had just been released froze and then fell forward.

“Go!” Vada yelled and much to both our surprise, the detective obeyed. She turned to me. “You too. Go on. Get out of here.”

My heart shattered in that moment and all I saw was red as I pounded my chest and howled.

Vada’s eyes went wide. I sensed fear within her and that was the only thing that tore at the small bit of humanity still within me. I clung to that. She didn’t want me, but I couldn’t bring myself to scare her any more than I had.

Hanging my head in shame, I ran from the building.

I vaguely heard Painter call a retreat as the others left behind me.

I felt like I was suspended somewhere between my animal and my human forms. Not one or the other, but certainly not both either. It was more like being torn in two than coexisting.

I took to the trees at first chance swinging my way across the canopy trying to forget my need to return and physically remove Vada from that place.

Logically, I understood what she was doing. If it had been anyone else in her situation, I probably would have recommended it myself. But she wasn’t anyone else. She was my mate. I was supposed to protect her, and no matter how logical I knew her plan to be, her insistence that I leave her behind and get out had felt like a complete rejection.

I screamed and then started hooting as I moved easily across the forest and away from Vada. My mind was a mess and going to all the dark places I’d been living in since I last saw her just before the building collapsed on top of her.

It wasn’t long before I reached the trail at the point we’d first encountered the detective. I hadn’t consciously gone there even though I’d told him I would. Of course he was there waiting.

He startled and looked up to the sky as I approached. I jumped down right in front of him. He stumbled backwards but caught himself before he fell.

“Wh-what are you?” he asked.

I smirked. “I’m nothing for you to fear, at least I don’t have to be.”

“I’ve seen some weird shit, but there were animals in those cages and then it was people. They turned into people. I-I saw them. I feel like I’m going crazy, but I’m not. I saw it with my own eyes. I’m just really struggling to believe it.”

At that point it would have been easy for me to convince this man that he was merely insane. That he’d imagined it all. Any other day that’s exactly what I would have done, but today wasn’t that day.

I was desperate and would take any assistance possible to track Vada to their next location and end things once and for all. She’d made her choice to stay, demanded it, and I had walked away with my head hanging, miserable, dark, and ready for a fight.

The Verndari were all about keeping things secret and hiding us away from the human world. The Raglan really weren’t that different. They didn’t want everyone knowing what we were any more than they wanted anyone to know what they were really doing. To do so would give them competition and we’d have far more enemies to combat in order to keep shifters safe.

So why tell him? We had all the resources we needed to do the job, but I wasn’t risking anything this time. I’d take all the help I could get.

So, I told him the truth. “I’m a shifter. Just like those people you saw.”

“You-you turn into an animal too?” he managed to stutter.

I nodded. “A gorilla.”

His eyes nearly bugged out of his head and I could see a million questions flying through his mind. Before he could ask them, I explained what I was and how my kind had come to be. I told him about the Verndari and how they were a secret human society sworn to protect us. I explained the history of human folklore like werewolves and vampires and how they were really just stories put into place to actually protect us. I told him everything, and then I told him about the Raglan.

As I explained the kidnappings and the experimentations they were doing and why, he grew quiet, but there was an internal darkness surrounding him too.

“My father died of cancer. He was the strongest man I knew and I watched him slowly fade away. It was agonizing. I felt helpless and at the time I thought I would do absolutely anything to save him. I’d trade my own life, demand the best care, bargain with the devil himself, but I was wrong. I wouldn’t do this. The job I swore was to protect people. All people, even what did you call yourself? A shifter? Even shifters.”

I immediately liked this man and the darkness lifted just a little to let in a shimmer of light, a hope for humanity. I’d not had the greatest experiences with humans in my lifetime. I had been fully prepared to kill this man without a second thought should things have gone badly. I knew now that wasn’t going to be necessary.

“The bodies we found. Were they like you?”

“Probably. Trevor Daniels has a disturbingly high body count across the US and in a variety of other countries. He doesn’t see us as anything more than the beasts within us.”

“Beasts?”

I chuckled. “Just a word, Stone. I control my gorilla, rarely the other way around.”

He gulped. “Rarely?”

I laughed this time and it felt good. “Do you want to meet him?”

He shook his head, but then hesitated and nodded.

I started stripping out of my clothes.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“You did notice the others in the cages were all naked right?”

He considered that and then shrugged.

“Well, they were. Our clothes don’t magically shift with us, so unless you’re cool with explaining to anyone we cross paths with why you’re walking around with a naked man then I’d rather just save my clothes, thanks.”

He closed his eyes but didn’t stop me this time.

“If you want to see this, then you actually do have to open your eyes.”

He did just as I shifted before him. I sat back chuckling to tell him I was no threat to him.

“Um, wow. This is insane. Maybe I really have gone off the deep end this time.” He took a deep breath cautiously watching me. “Are you still in there somehow?”

I nodded my head causing him to jump and this time he didn’t catch his balance. I reached out and steadied him before he hit the ground.

“Woah. You’re not going to hurt me, right?”

I shook my head and belched. For my kind it was sort of an etiquette saying he was welcome and I was okay with him near me, but I could tell that wasn’t at all how he took it as he scrambled to get away from me.

I shifted back and laughed. “I’m not going to hurt you. I already told you that.”

“Well your noises said otherwise.”

I rolled my eyes. “Belching is as non-aggressive a sound as I know how to make. It means welcome.”

“If you say so. I don’t exactly speak gorilla,” he grumbled.

“Clearly.”

I moved to redress as questions started pouring from him faster than I could answer them.

“How many of your kind are there?”

“Are the others a threat?”

“But why are you like this?”

“Noah’s Ark? None of that stuff is really true, is it?”

“What are we going to do about Trevor Daniels? He has to pay for what he’s done here and all the other people, or, uh, shifters he’s killed.”

I smiled, a menacing evil look. “Trevor has my mate. He’s going to die for this.”

“You’re going to kill him?”

“I am, the second Vada is safely away from him.”