Neal (Golden Streak Series) (13 page)

They moved on after handing off the cubs
to three of the others that were leaving. When they came to the holding area, a
large open area that held larger cages, Bronwyn hesitated.

“I can go in and see if you want to wait
here.” She nodded at Rayne. “I’ve not spent as much time in these places as you
did, but I know what can happen to people like us.”

“He would put me in the smallest cage
and not feed me for days on end. And even then it wasn’t fit for eating. I’ve
done things that I thought….” She looked at Rayne. “I have the love of a man
that I nearly worship, a daughter that makes me feel like I can conquer the
world, and a family that I would die for. But the thought of going back into
one of those rooms makes me want to crawl into a corner and whimper.”

Rayne stepped into the room, and Bronwyn
waited. She stood there watching her move from cage to cage. When she touched
her mind, she had to smile. The girl learned fast.

“You do know that by not coming in here,
he wins, right?”
She glared at her.
“I’m just saying that the best way to come out on top is
to get your ass in here and help me. Besides, you owe me for zapping me.”

Bronwyn touched the door to enter.
“You’re
a bitch, did you know that? And so you know, what I gave you was everything I
have. I didn’t hold back. Others have died with only half of what I zapped you
with.”

She was laughing when she entered. Rayne
looked like she just might hit her, but when she entered the room completely,
she nearly turned and ran. The room flooded her with memories and nightmares.
Bronwyn took her hand when Rayne touched her.

“No one in here is going to hurt us. They
are…for the most part most of them have given up anyway and won’t be able to
leave here on their own if at all. Listen to them.”

Kill me please. Leave me here to die.
Some of them
chanted their needs, others mumbled them. One man was begging them to tell his
mate that he loved her, and yet another was asking them to get her out. This
wasn’t as bad as she’d seen it, but it was horrific. They moved from cage to
cage together, putting the weaker ones on gurneys that others had brought. Three
men from the upper areas had come down to help, knowing, they said, what was down
here.

“There is more, missus.” Bronwyn looked
at the larger man. “Just beyond. Don’t know if they live or not, but there are
more of us here.”

He led them to the next level down. This
was where the worst of it was. Cages hadn’t been cleaned for months; animals,
most of them only skin and bones, lay in their own shit and urine. There was no
hope for some of them, and they seemed to have known it. Two had killed
themselves; three were dying. And the rest were so weak it would have taken
more than just the five of them to get any of them out.

“We have to leave them until we can get
them out with help.” Rayne shook her head, and Bronwyn grabbed her when she
went to one of the cages. “They’ll die if we move them. And if they don’t, how
do you suppose we get them out of here and to help with all guards waiting for
us now? You know as well as I do that we’ve only gotten this far without
encountering them is because we’ve come down instead of up. If he catches us
with these injured, he’ll kill us all.”

“They’re hurt.” She nodded at Rayne.
“We’ll come back for them, you promise? We won’t leave even one of them behind
even if we have to take them out kicking and screaming?”

Bronwyn knew in that moment that Rayne
had left someone behind when she’d escaped before. And she still carried the
guilt of it. Bronwyn reached out and touched her head and found the memory.

“He was afraid of slowing you down.”
Rayne nodded.

“Jimmy. I didn’t know his last name but
he was a vamp like Peter. Not as old but up there. They were using him for his
blood, trying to see if they could duplicate his regenerative powers. All they
fed him was pig’s blood, and he was never strong enough to give them what they
wanted. He told me to find some way to escape and to make something of my life,
I was all but carrying him by then, and he was slow in moving. All I was able
to do until I opened my shop was go from one dead-end job to another. He would
have been so ashamed of me.”

“Ashamed of you? How the fuck do you
figure that? You survived, didn’t you? You got your ass out of that dead-end
job situation and put yourself out there.” She bopped her in the forehead with
the palm of her hand. “Get real, woman, you’re more than he could have ever
hoped you’d be. And let’s just say it right now, you’re my friend and that
makes you the coolest of them all.”

She laughed. “You’re insane, do you know
that? And I’m glad you’re my friend. I don’t have a great many…hell, I don’t
have any, so I thank you.”

They left them there. They’d had no
choice really, and as they were leaving they came across another set of stairs.
Before they could move down them, they heard something coming up. Both of them
hid in the rooms they’d just come from and waited. The voices drifted up to
them before the two men.

“I’m thinking that with both of them
here and still breedable, we find someone to fuck them until they have a kid.
Think what we can do with an offspring of either of them.” It was Freddy; she’d
know his voice anywhere.

“Won’t work, I’m afraid. They’re both
cats and can only be impregnated by their mates. Not even artificially
impregnating them works without the right sperm.” The other man laughed, and
Bronwyn looked at Rayne when she whimpered. “Maybe we can find their mates,
bring them here, and have them fuck the shit out of them until we get a whole
litter of them. Could work, I suppose.”

“Yeah, I guess. I guess we have the room,
and if we don’t, well, we could always reduce our numbers by a few. Especially
since we’ll have them doing just what we needed in the first place.” Freddy
cleared the stairwell first and turned back to the other male as he continued. “You
should know that I don’t know if that fucking cunt Lawrence is gonna make it.
That fucking jack wipe hit her hard enough to spill out some of her gray
matter.”

The man stepped into view and looked
right at her. “It seems we’ve been exposed. Hello, Raynie. Long time no see.”

Rayne stepped out from behind the
cabinet. “Hello, Jimmy. I thought you were dead. You helped me out of here only
to bring me back, and I thought I’d killed you by leaving you behind. That
won’t happen again.”

“Yes. When it looked like you weren’t
going to cooperate without someone beating you shitless for days at a time,” he
said with a shrug. “I decided that it would be nice if you lived long enough
for me to kill you myself. You always were a sap. And now that I have you right
where I want you…well, let’s just say that you’re going to pay for not offering
me your wrist when I asked you for it.”

“You always did think the sun rose and
set for you. But I got news for you, you’re nothing but a blood sucking prick
who is going to regret the day he was made. And you know what? I’m going to be
the one that makes you pay.”

“Mother fuck,” Bronwyn whispered.

Chapter 13

Neal saw them but couldn’t quite wrap
his mind around what he was seeing. There were…. “Does anyone else see that?”

Ryland turned to look at him, and he
pointed to the far side of the lab. There were so many people running toward
the tree-line that he thought for sure that he was imagining it. Also he could
see that there were wolves, tigers, and panthers, as well as humans. He looked
at Ryland when he chuckled.

“Someone is helping them escape,” Neal
said. Ryland looked at him. “I bet we can guess who might be doing it too. Come
on.”

They circled the lab and went to the
other side. All of them ran toward the people leaving the large facility and
helped them as much as they could. Small children were shoved in their hands,
while some were lifted by the cats that had come with them and taken deep into
the woods. Ryland pulled out his cell phone and called for help.

“They’re bringing the clinic with them.”
Neal nodded as he wrapped one of the injured in his shirt. “Danny said he’d
call in everyone he could and have them meet us here. I’m going to call Mom
now. See if she can gather up some food and clothing too. I think we’re going
to need it with all these people.”

The beings that hadn’t shifted were near
naked. Most of them had on underwear so dirty and grimy that they looked a part
of their skin. He helped a man whose leg looked to be infected lay down on the
ground. He covered him with some leaves, not knowing how else to keep him from
being exposed. One of the men who had carried a pair of wolf cubs leaned into
him and sniffed.

“You smell like her. She and another woman
helped us out. Said we were to run like the gates of hell had been opened and
we’s being chased. We did, but I’m not so sure some of us will survive it.” He
looked down at the man he’d been helping and noticed that he’d stopped
breathing. “She said that the dead was supposed to have more’n this. We can’t
be letting that lard man win.”

“Lard man?” He figured it out about the
same time the man was describing Holden. “She’s very brave and smart, my mate. Were
they all right when you saw them? The other woman had been hurt badly, I
heard.”

“They be fine as rain when I saw them.
She got herself a foul mouth, she does, when she’s getting a man going. Durn
near took my ear off when I told her that I wasn’t fit to carry them wolves. She
said she would tear it off’n me and feed it to’em if I didn’t get my bottom in
gear.” He looked around when Neal did. “That man needs to be kilt like the
others been. Nobody should be allow’n to do that to peoples that ain’t done a durn
thing to him and his.”

By the time help arrived, they’d lost
three more. One of the pregnant women who’d come out had lost her child, but
she’d seemed so relieved by it that no one had told her how sorry they were. She
was human and told them that the monster that she was carrying wasn’t going to
be anything anyone wanted anyway. The “child” had been so deformed that it was
difficult to tell what she’d been going to have anyway. She let one of the cubs
cuddle up to her while she waited her turn to be helped.

His mom arrived ten minutes later with
several trucks following her. She had baskets of clothes that some of the women
from her sewing circle had been going to use for scraps. The men who had driven
the other vehicles walked around handing out bottled water and warmed soup,
cans of soda for the sugar, and candy bars galore.

“What did you do, rob the local convenience
store?” She pulled him into her arms, and he held her while she sobbed. “It’s
going to be okay, Mom. We’ll get them out. They sent these others to us, so
they can’t be far behind.”

“Look at these poor people, Neal. How
will some of them ever get over this? How did Bronwyn ever survive this?” He
held her tighter to him, not mentioning that Rayne had survived this as well. “You
must think I’m a ninny for sobbing over this.”

“No,” he told her. “I’ve been doing a
bit of crying myself. That man over there told me that some of the people still
in there couldn’t be helped out until a medical team entered. Another told me
that he only got out because Rayne and Bronwyn threatened him. I think they’re
afraid of them.”

She looked up at him with tears in her
eyes. “Son, there are times when I’m afraid of them myself. And Ally can be
just as scary. These women you boys have brought into our family? I would hate
to tangle with any of them. Can you imagine what that person in there is going
to get coming to him with the two of them working together?” She shivered.

Neal started laughing. And as he told
Ryland what mom had said, he started laughing too. Soon most of the people were
laughing with them, having met the two women and knowing firsthand what sort of
trouble they could be.

He almost felt sorry for the sick
bastard that was about to tangle with a couple of the meanest cats he knew. When
he was finished helping the last few of the survivors into one of the many vehicles
that had come across rough terrain to help out, he looked stood next to Ryland
and Peter, who stood staring at the lab.

“If we go in now, we risk getting the
others hurt and probably the two of them. If we don’t, then we can’t help them.”
Ryland looked at him. “I just don’t want to get them hurt either way.”

“We still don’t have a plan. And there
are more coming out still.” Two men and a woman came toward them. “And the way
these people are still coming out makes me think that either the assholes
running this place don’t know they’re getting out, or they just don’t have the
manpower it takes to chase them down.”

“Or they could be dead.” Both he and
Ryland shook their heads at Peter. “I do not mean the women. What I mean are
the ones that work there. They have to be scrambling around, trying to get to
safety. I would be if I were them.”

“What do you think we should do, Neal?
Go after them by ourselves the way these people are coming out, or do we go
through the front doors like we’d planned and take them all on at once?”

“Why not both?” Neal pointed to where another
person was coming from. “You and I could go there, where we’re both pretty sure
our mates are, while the rest go in the front doors and take them all out. We
don’t have to worry so much about getting the innocent hurt. I’m reasonably
sure that most of them have made it to us anyway. And the few that had to
remain behind can be taken care of when we get inside and take care of this place.”

It took them ten minutes to devise the
plan. Mike and his team were going to go in the front while he and Ryland went
in the back. Mike wasn’t thrilled about the plan, but he knew it was the best
way to get everyone else out. But he’d warned him before he left them.

“Destroy everything. And once you find
the addresses for those that are working here, we’ll make sure everything they
might have taken home is destroyed as well. We want to kill this disease before
it spreads to everyone.” Neal nodded and Mike shook him. “I’m dead serious. If
you don’t get everything then you might as well invest in the next lab because
it’s going to happen.”

He and Ryland were running down the same
path that the others had used when the first shot rang out. When he and his
brother made it to the building, they heard shots being fired on the other
side. Neal looked at Ryland and as one, they stripped down. Their cats would
have a better chance of taking anyone on than they would. As their tigers, they
moved into the building, hoping that their mates were going to be found soon.

~~~

They were only going to get out if they
worked together. Rayne stepped near Bronwyn and reached for her hand. Power
surged between them like an electrical wire. When Jimmy stepped toward them,
she raised her hand in warning.

“I’m no longer the little kid you
kidnapped, Jimmy. I’m a grown woman who has come into her power. I would just
walk away if I were you.” He grinned at her in the condescending way he had
about him. “You’re not very smart, are you?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that. I’ve been able
to elude the authorities for most of my vampire life. I’ve managed to become
one of the richest men in the world and have a great deal to show for it.” He
waved around the room they were still in. “Like this lab. It’s the finest I
have ever built, and the next one I build will be even better.” She was glad to
know this one was it. “And I managed to get not one but two of the most dominamt
women I’ve ever seen to stand before me whimpering like the stupid animals that
they are.”

“You think we’re animals now, wait until
you piss us off.” Rayne smiled, thinking that she wouldn’t fuck with Bronwyn if
she was him. But as she’d pointed out, he was pretty stupid.

“Pissing you off is going to feed me, my
dear. Haven’t you heard that your blood is like a fine wine to us? That
drinking from a tiger is just like a good drug, great sex and fantastic orgasm
all at once?” He tisked at her. “And I will drink from you. Drain you when
we’re finished getting all we can from you.”

He walked around them but not close. It
didn’t matter…when she took him, and she would, she was going to fuck him up
regardless of how far away he was. When he stopped near her and sniffed, she
saw him back off. Then when he looked at Freddy, she knew that something was
wrong.

“Smell something you didn’t like? Or are
you just realizing that fucking with us is like a fucking fantastic drug, mind
blowing sex and a black you out it was so fan-fucking-tastic great orgasm it’s
going to be when we kill you?” He sniffed her again.

“It can’t be…there’s no fucking way.
He’s dead. I made sure of it. He was supposed to kill him because he’d gone
rogue.” Rayne looked at Bronwyn and she shrugged, either not knowing what he
was talking about or not caring.

“How do you know Baron Wentcroft? How do
you know him, and when was the last time you spoke to him?” She had no idea who
he was talking about, but before she could tell him that, he slapped her hard
across the face and blood poured from her lip. “Peter Oliver Wentcroft, my
maker, how do you know him?”

Peter? Her Peter? She knew what he meant
when he said maker. And it took her several seconds of him standing over her
screaming at her to answer him for her to realize the man was terrified. She
smiled at him and shoved him away from her. He let himself fall, and she walked
over to him.

“Peter is my friend, and I last spoke to
him this morning just before your idiot flunkies brought me here.” She tisked
him this time. “He is not going to be happy with you when he figures out what
you’ve been up to, is he?”

“Have you called him yet?” Her mind
tried to work around that information. She couldn’t call him, could she? He’d
told her once that if she needed him she only needed to think of him. But she’d
only used a phone to contact him whenever she needed him. She couldn’t reach
Neal, but maybe this would work for her.

“Peter, can you hear me?”
She let her
mind relax and tried again.
“Peter, are you there? It’s Rayne, Rayne
Golden.”

She stood up thinking that Jimmy was
full of shit when she felt Peter touch her mind.
“Hello, love. The men are
very close to getting past the first wave of guards, and your mate and that of
your friend are coming in the way you have let the others out.”

She was so relieved that she nearly forgot
why she’d contacted him.
“Do you know a vampire named Jimmy? He said you’re
his maker.”

“Jimmy? No. It’s a very commoner sort of
name, isn’t it? But I don’t recall a child I’ve made called Jimmy. I knew
a…what was his name?”

“He called you Baron Oliver Wentcroft. He
said your name was Baron Peter Oliver Wentcroft.”
She felt his
laughter.
“I take it that you remember him.”

“Oh yes. I took him as a lover long ago.
Not much of one now that I recall him. Ask him if his name is Theodore James. I
called him my Teddy Bear while we…well, let us just leave it at that, shall we?”

“Please, let’s do.”
She heard him
laugh again and turned to Jimmy. She smiled at him. He looked grim. “He said
your name is Theodore James and that he called you his Teddy Bear. What did you
do, Jimmy? Switch around your first and last name so that no one would know
you? You’re as stupid as a rock, aren’t you?”

He slapped her again. She might not have
fallen back so quickly or so hard had she not been bent over so much laughing.
When he stood up, she did as well and watched him as he paced.

“He can’t enter here. I made sure that
no vampires were ever allowed to enter, and I never brought one into the
facility. He can’t come here to get me.” He grinned at her. “And yes, that’s
just what I did. It made it easier for me to remember my name just after I
changed it just before this one. I was forever forgetting what I changed it to
before.”

“But you don’t know that for sure, do
you?” He stopped pacing and looked at Bronwyn as she smiled at him. “You don’t
know for sure that he can’t come in here no more than you’re sure that a
vampire has ever stepped through your doors. But there have been, hasn’t there,
Freddy? A lot of them, as a matter of fact. You have been working on getting
one of them to change you to one of them so you can live on forever.”