Why the bad guys picked locations near rivers instead a non-cliche place tended to rub Elisa's nerves the wrong way. It was dark, it was cramped, and just as Megan had told them, it was filled with random storage.
Goliath motioned for them to halt and signaled he would go alone. A minute later, two muffled thumps and a pair of softly glowing eyes lead them to a cooler.
Matt nudged his partner, bringing her attention to a yet-to-be-packed box of raw meat and a bags of empty gell pills and white powder.
"Oh man," Elisa breathed. They would need back up, and fast if they hoped to put a stop to ones behind the rise in illegal imports.
A gun clicked. Fired. Goliath growled and chaos insued. Armed and muscled men tackled and flew away from the gargoyle while others took aim to tranquilize him.
"Goliath!" Elisa shouted as he went down.
"Elisa, we've got get out and get help," Matt said, pulling her away from the enclosure.
"No, wait--Goliath!"
From the top of a wooden beam, a blonde man with dark shades jumped down and hit the ground running, charging at the two detectives.
"Elisa!" was all Matt could say in warning before being disarmed and punched between the eyes.
"Soleil Finite!"
Elisa blocked her face from the attack, which shielded her from Megan's spell outburst. The henchmen, however, were not so fortunate and with the bought time, the two females grabbed Matt by the arms and made a run for the nearest cover.
Elisa breathed heavily but as quietly as she could. Matt stirred. Megan covered his mouth when he groaned but it only served to wake him fully. Crates of hardware surrounded them, an odd place to be considering that the meat was not far away and could pose a problem to the business man running the operation.
"You're going to need help," Megan told them, stating the obvious to the detectives' ears.
"Yeah, but we can't leave Goliath back there," Elisa argued, torn between her training and her concern for the gargoyle leader.
"Anyone got asprin?" Matt joked quietly, feeling the bridge of his nose and sighed with relief to find it unbroken. Neither caught the whisperings that told them something was about to happen.
"It doesn't look like she'll be waking up soon," Matt said, bringing Elisa back to the present.
"Stay with her," Elisa began but Matt cut her off with a shake of his head.
"Come on Elisa, do you even know how to fight like...that?" he asked her, refering to her physical change.
"Hey I fought Demona like this once before, a couple of thugs won't be a contest," Elisa replied with confidence.
Matt frowned. "You sound like you're not yourself partner. This is dangerous. We need to move together."
"So let's go," whispered a frail voice from Matt's arms. Megan blinked her grey eyes with effort. "We should at least be able to get..Goliath?..from where they have him. He's chained to the ground a few aisles from here." She frowned and blinked again.
"Another vision?" Elisa asked her.
Megan nodded carefully. "Yeah. Someone's coming to see him soon too. Might be him."
By 'him' Elisa and Matt knew she meant their guy, The one that they had been trying to get a lead on for over a month.
Fortunately, Megan could walk, so Elisa leaded them, with Matt to gaurd their backs while Megan wobbled along between them, alerting them to potential run-ins with other henchmen.
Elisa's heightend senses excited her. She could see in the dimness of the warehouse, hear Megan and Matt and other small sounds as if they were amplified by speakers. She remembered the strength she had in her first transformation and felt a comfort of familiarity deep inside her. She almost missed Megan's whisper, alerting her to Golaith's presence when she caught his scent.
Before Matt caught up to her, she was stealthily making her way to Golaith's side.
Apparently, no one had thought to guard him and that made it all the more easy to break him free. Suspiciously easy.
"Hey Big Guy," Elisa said in a somewhat sensusous tone. What was going on?
"Elisa?" Goliath asked, looking at her through the dark. Elisa smiled. He could see her.
"Yeah, and it's not a mask," she told him, snapping a used chain behind him. "Wanna see?"
"Elisa, what are you doing? Hurry up," her partner whispered across the narrow strip of hall between them.
Goliath's impulse to lean towards her and engage in her game was nipped in the bud when a thud brought their attention to Megan's limp body.
A flashlight directed their way and a hollar threw the cat back into the dog fight. Goliath scooped up the unconscious teen sorceress while Elisa grabbed Matt by the arms and jumped the beams to the roof. The action below ceased suddenly, causing the group to halt in their escape.
A lean figure in the shadows hailed them, also blocking their view from seeing his face.
"Thanks for testing security," the leather vested man said smugly with a faint European accent. "We'll be 'beefing' it up." With a light chuckle, he retreated behind his small army, invisible even to Goliath's sight.
"Guys," Matt warned them, watching the henchmen raise their weapons again to take aim.
Bullets shot past them as the two gargoyles and their passengers narrowly escaped certain capture and heavy wounds. Flapping their wings to give them more altitude, Elisa dropped Matt off at her car and promised to meet him at Manhatten Medical.
The digital clock in Megan's hospital room ticked the minutes to dawn as Elisa and Goliath clung to the building outside the window. Megan's aunt arrived less than an hour later looking awake and well composed for someone who had been woken from bed to be told that her neice was in the hospital.
Elisa glanced into the room, waiting for Matt to show up. She needed him to reassure the thin woman and go through the usual cop-babble for their records. Elisa's chest was clamped by the insecurity of what Megan might say. In the two times that Elisa had been around her, she knew the girl spoke her mind without reserve if it served her purpose whatever those may be.
Meanwhile, Goliath could not help but stray his attention to Elisa's renewed change. Unlike the first time, she appeared confident in her ability to attach herself to the building, in gliding as if she had been hatched and not born, and seemed to be at ease in her present condition. Truely, he thought to himself, she is very beautiful.
"uh-Oh."
Goliath looked to the window to find Megan's grey-eyed aunt looking at them and motioning for them to enter.