When I woke up my face felt like it was on fire, there was also a pressure on my side, someone or something pressed against me, I shot up, wide awake, but dizzy.
"Woah, take it easy, careful you'll fall over" a voice I recognised could be heard and the pressure at my side shifted "Stay where you are a second, it's not safe for you to move too much"
I blinked to clear my head and eyes, the face of Sam Arkut, pale and bloodied looked down into mine, and I shook my head to clear it further and looked about myself.
I was perched on a small bench in a room, no scratch that, a cell, the door was a barred gate, my legs had been pulled up onto the bench and Sam was stood on the bench beside me . . .
"What are you doing here?" I asked
"It's a long story" I tried to sit up fully, and started to swing my legs out "wait!" he hissed "don't touch the floor". Confused I looked over the rim of the bench, a purple slimy tentacle crawled around on the floor "it came out of my neck" Sam said shuddering "I think it's looking for a new body, it tried to get to the dogs but it can't get over the kick plate of the door" I looked over at the door, sure enough two brutish dogs sat, shaking and whining, scared of the creature on the floor, but loyal enough to maintain the command to stay put.
"Stuff this" I said and pulled some magic together, I shot out a lightning bolt at the creature which fried instantly, the tentacle flailing uncontrolled as it burnt. The smell was gag inducing and I got off the table to kick it to a corner, throwing the blanket from the make shift bench over it to stifle some of the smell. I stretched out and felt my bones pop, I must have been laid out for some time.
I took a longer look around the room, a single corridor led away from the door. The room had but one light on a single short cord, no windows, there was no sound other than the soft whine of the dogs and Sam's heavy breathing, no traffic, no trains, so we were probably underground. There was a plate with bread scraps on it and a hunk of protein flakes, there was a lot of blood on the floor, Sam's pale face and blooded neck told me the creature had indeed come from there.
"Are you hurt?" he asked
I gingerly felt my face with my fingertips; a swollen but not broken nose greeted my exploration. Other than that I appeared to be fine, I turned my back to Sam and lifted my hair
"Do I have an incision?" I asked, Sam strained to see as he wouldn't come closer
"No, but you have a scar, it looks old though" good, I wasn't infected.
"Then no I'm not hurt" I told him "you don't look so good"
"A thing just came out of my neck" he stressed, fair point I suppose, I moved to the door, the two dogs bared their teeth and growled but it was half hearted. I whistled to them, one walked over and sat by the gate and let me scratch his ears. His fur was black and short, it was also horrendously hot, the red eyes literally burned with fire and when he growled as I stopped fussing him his teeth were bright white and poured out heat. "He's a hell hound" Sam said "We used to have them to guard our factories"
"He's massive" I said "and soft as butter"
"That was the problem with them, in their own land they are really territorial, but they tend to bond with people more than places, sucks to be the one on the receiving end of one of them if you attack it's master, but you can trash their home and they'll just watch, they're still a good deterrent though, no one wants to mess with them being so big and fierce looking"
The dog's companion feeling left out from the fuss came over and I spent a few moments stroking and petting each one.
"So do you want to tell me how you ended up in here?" I asked
"Turns out it was my brother who ordered my kidnapping" Sam said in disgust "after all I did for him, paid for his rehab, helped pay off his debts, gave him a job, he just wanted to control me, get me out of the way" he sounded tired, as if he'd known this was the truth all along and hadn't wanted to admit it to himself. "I'm sorry you got dragged into this"
"I have a habit of getting involved" I told him "I'm used to it"
The sound of gunfire erupted down the corridor, smoke and shouting soon followed
"What's going on?" Sam sounded worried; the two dogs at the gate turned their heads to the sound and started to growl
"Sounds like the cavalry" I said with a smile, in front of me a key floated towards the door, the curling smoke betraying the steps of a man under invisibility. "You took your time Wizbit" I said with a grin
"Bite me" came the reply, ouch he was touchy, he dropped the spell and the form of Wizbit appeared in front of me, blood stained his shirt and his lip was bust up pretty bad "Damn Ghost you look like shit"
"Love you too" I sneered and stepped out of the cell "you coming Sam?" I asked
"Where are we going?"
"Home" I said, a wet nose pressed against my hand and I looked to the red eyes of the two dogs "you really are useless guard dogs" I said, I patted my thigh and they fell into step beside me.
"Torrin will be pissed if you take home another stray dog" Wizbit said as we walked down the corridor, he handed me a small knife "figured you could use this"
"Are you calling me a stray dog?" KC's voice could be heard over the gun fire and she walked from the smoke towards us, gun up and ready "get your ass out of here, the cops are coming in and we've got five minutes to get out or we'll be caught up in it all" she turned to look me over "Wow girl, you look like shit" I scowled
"Thanks, that's just what I needed to hear" I told her, a clatter at our feet had us looking down at a small grenade. I grabbed Sam and flung him back down the corridor, hitting the deck, the blast went off and I heard KC call out in pain. "KC!" I called "you O.K?"
"Peachy" came the reply "get off me you fat lump" I looked up in time to see her shove one of the dogs from her lap, the animal's side was open and he was bleeding hard, the other was whining and limping "trying to get yourself killed" she grumbled, the dog had either been in the right place or had deliberately shielded KC, sadly though it looked like the open side was too much and he fell to the floor breathing heavily. KC blasted some shots down the corridor and laid a hand briefly on it's heaving flanks "thanks mate" she whispered. She stood and fired some more shots down the corridor. Wizbit, grab the poodle would you?" she said, nodding to the second dog, "Ghost you're walking him, and if he slobbers on my stuff he's out" she stalked off in a huff down the corridor firing off rounds as she went.
Wizbit looked at me open mouthed "what just happened?" he asked
"KC adopted a dog" I said, as surprised as Wizbit. The mage hefted the whining lump of dog over his shoulder
"Seriously?" he asked "he's really bloody heavy"
"Do you want to tell KC no?" I asked, Wizbit shook his head "then let's go" We followed KC up the corridor, her pace quick we had to run to catch up, I kept Sam by me, we rounded a corner and ended up in Lathain's face.
"Quick, we got less than two minutes" he said "our man only has a few more shots in him"
"Our man?" I asked, but was shunted up the stairs and out of a fire exit into a side street, I had no idea where we were, but followed KC out to a pick up van and shunted Sam inside
"Nope, he stays" KC said pulling Sam back out "the authorities are going to need to talk to him, you and the mutt get in"
"I don't understand" Sam began
"Shush sexy, you'll hear it all in the end, now go stay over there like a good kidnapped millionaire" she cooed. Just then Lathain burst out of the doors, a masked figure close behind
"Everyone in and away, the fuzz is here" sure enough the blue flashing lights could be seen and a second later a cop car swung around the corner down our alley way, it swerved right past us and stopped by the fire escape. A thud on the roof of the van made me jump out of my skin. Whisperer swung into the side door and landed neatly beside Wizbit.
"Let's go" Lathain banged on the caging between the van interior and the driver's seat and closed the door. The wheels spun and we lurched out of the alley way, leaving Sam Arkut to be picked up, dazed and confused by the cops.
"Wait a second, why aren't they following us?" I asked as another cop car drove around us towards the scene
"Bucket said we had ten minutes to get you out, after that we would be classed as conspirators in the whole thing" Lathain said, I had to laugh, the pint sized cop was a legend.
"Are you OK?" Whisperer asked me, he was covered in dust and flex that looked like ceiling tile; one hand was crudely wrapped in a bandage
"I'm O.K" I told him "what happened to you?" he laughed
"Someone didn't check the drop on the other side of the wall" he told me "You're lucky you didn't throw me out three feet to the left, I'd have dropped sixty foot straight down" a snort from Lathain gave the impression that I should have dropped him over the edge.
I looked about the van and spotted the masked guy, he pulled off the mask to reveal Travis, I shuddered "you owe me one now Joker" he said to Whisperer, Whisperer simply shrugged, I got the impression he'd take care of it all later.
