Equinox

Chapter Twenty

They know we're here.

I stared numbly into the hardened pit of Fang's eyes. A narrow escape had always been a possibility, and one I was relatively familiar with considering my profession, but I had desperately hoped to avoid any altercations. Judging by the terror now encompassing Nudge's face, we were in big trouble.

"We just have to get back to where we started," I stated, beginning to formulate plans and attack strategies should anyone cross my path.

But Fang was already shaking his head halfway through my sentence. "They found the unconscious guy. We won't make it out that way. Just stick with Angel, don't let her out of your sight. I'll cover Nudge. We stay together unless it's absolutely necessary to split."

I bristled slightly at being ordered around like a common mule. My natural instinct was to rebel against any command thrust my way. After all, I had spent years making the plans. I was comfortable that way. Dylan was comfortable that way … but it seemed the addition of the flock was shaking up more than I first imagined.

I wanted to argue. It wasn't exactly the best scheme, and there was plenty room for disaster in its gaping holes. This wasn't my territory, though. I hadn't the slightest proper footing. Trying to find a way out on my own would be like navigating a maze. I had to trust Fang, no matter how much it pained me to pass him the reigns.

"Should we fight?" I asked, steeling myself.

Grimly, he said: "Punch anyone that gets in your way."

It was awhile before I got the chance. We must have been in an area full of other office spaces, because no one seemed to be looking for any intruders there. Sometimes we heard the patter of running feet, and we'd have to dodge into any unoccupied room we could find, but we managed to stay out of sight. There were no alarms, which was surprising for such a sophisticated operation. Especially considering they were already missing at least four of their successful experiments. But maybe they were trying to locate us on the assumption that we didn't know we had been discovered.

How did Fang and Angel know our presence had been noticed?

We raced down another white hall, one nondescript door blurring after another. We were almost to the corner when a pair of burly looking men rounded from the right and immediately loosed vaguely canine snarls at the sight of us. I skidded to a stop with a squeal of my shoes, throwing out my arm to prevent Angel from going any nearer to our maliciously grinning adversaries. Nudge was already wrenching open a door to our left. We tumbled inside and Fang slammed it shut, twisting the mechanism so that it locked.

"What were those things?" I cried, voice cracking slightly with hysteria. I could have sworn that, just before the door cut off my vision, the two's features had begun to morph. They definitely had more hair and teeth.

"Erasers," Fang supplied, his jaw ground tight.

The 'Erasers' were pounding at the door with immense force. I could hear the wood splintering beneath their capable hands. We had very little time before they busted through our meager obstruction. Luckily, the School seemed to have invested in doors that were a little more reinforced than the norm. Otherwise they would have broken through with a single kick.

I whirled around. A trembling woman outfitted in a pristinely starched white coat was seated at a table, clipboard clasped tightly in hand and eyes wide at our sudden intrusion. She was completely frozen. Perhaps they hadn't put this in the manual. 'How to deal with fugitives'.

"Have a nice day," I told her sweetly, as I skirted around the table and joined the others at the opposite exit.

As I moved, I happened to glance to the side. A wall of windows revealed the contents of the next room over. I couldn't really call it a room, though. Prison was more applicable. A long figure was shackled in the corner. He or she was rigged up to a series of machines, one of which I recognized as a heart monitor. The landscape of their pulse was weak. I couldn't discern many features. Only the unusual gray hue of its skin and the mound of its body, curled in on itself as it was.

Who would purposefully do something like this to a person?

Before I slipped back into the hall, I spat scathingly over my shoulder, "I take that back. Go to hell."

The four of us sprinted through the corridors now. We passed scientists and workers who only gaped as we charged by. Really, who did the hiring around here? Everyone was extremely unqualified to deal with high risk situations. This would never happen at the CSM. If anyone so much as glimpsed an unknown figure running through headquarters they'd clock them in the head and put a boot to their throat for good measure.

"Here," Fang barked, ducking through a doorway.

I herded Nudge and Angel before me. Fang was halfway across the room and I had just stepped over the threshold when everything spiraled into chaos. Two Erasers, fully formed and appearing very wolfish, sprang from behind a row of rolling cabinets. At their backs, I could see blue sky through the thin window panes of the door. We were so close.

One shoved a cabinet toward Fang. He sidestepped it easily, bumping his hip against the cold steel of a hospital bed, several of which lined the rectangular room. Unoccupied as they were, various machinery beeped and whirred into a tangle of disorienting sound. The cabinet upended at Nudge's feet and spewed sheets of paper. Meanwhile, Fang had hurdled the bed and was engaging an Eraser with flying fists. The other was sauntering toward Angel, who had settled into fighting stance. I surged forward, my only thought to protect her from harm, when I was caught by the shoulder from behind.

I didn't have even a fraction of a second to react before an Eraser, putrid smelling and uncomfortably warm, had me in a headlock. A man came from around his back, holding a syringe that glinted in the reflection of the fluorescent lights above. My eyes widened and my nostrils flared like a spooked horse. I reared back, panic wiping my memory clean of all logic and strategy. A primal instinct took over, one which clearly spelled out NO NEEDLES. The scientist was at my throat, plunging the syringe into the soft flesh above my collar, when my sense returned to me.

Emitting a guttural snarl, I slammed my foot into the Eraser's shin, causing him to double over. I bent with him, and the other man stumbled back. Distracted by his pain, the Eraser was left just vulnerable enough for me to hurl us both backward. He connected with the wall with a sickening crunch, his arms falling away. I reached up and yanked the needle from my neck, inhaling sharply at the sensation before I tossed it at the scientist's feet. He looked to it, then back at me. I glared so murderously that he probably wet himself, but as much as I wanted to break his nose (and maybe even jaw), my priority was getting the hell out of this godforsaken facility.

Nudge and Angel had cleared up their Eraser with surprising ease given their age and his size and claws. Fang had not fared so well, judging by the already purple bruise on his jaw and the bloody slashes running down his arm. Despite his injuries, he too was standing over the Eraser's prone figure.

We gathered at the exit, assessing one another for mortal wounds, but we were escaping relatively unscathed. I was the last to leave, and it was with one foot still inside that I heard a scuffle and shout from behind. I turned, catching a glimpse of the door through which we had entered. My father was leaning in the doorway, breathing hard and looking panicked.

Our gazes met long enough for the recognition to register in his eyes, then I was gone.

We ran into the desert and then, ahead of me, Fang's wings extended with a snap. I was momentarily mesmerized by the sight of his black feathers in all their glory. The flock had gone flying plenty of times during their stay, but I had never been present. I hadn't seen his wings since my glimpse of them after my poltergeist attack.

He picked up speed, crouching to take off, then hesitated at the last moment. Angel and Nudge were already gaining altitude, but he remained earthbound. I stumbled to a halt as he whipped around to face me, seeming to realize for the first time that I couldn't just fly away too.

"Go," I insisted, waving my hand upward. "I'll meet you at the car."

He cast a nervous glance over my shoulder. I followed his gaze to the crowd gathering around the doorway. When I turned back, his dark eyes were on me once more. He seemed torn between escape and my safety, and for once I could clearly see the conflict raging on his face.

"I'll be fine. I'll-"

I was cut off by a wave of lethargy. Swaying, I put a hand to my neck, fingers brushing against the place where the syringe had entered my body. My tongue was growing heavier each passing second, and every blink I took lasted longer than the last.

"Tranquilizer," I slurred unsteadily. That had taken effect miraculously quickly.

Past Fang's outline, the sun was a hazy, low spot on the horizon. Two swooping figures circled there, waiting- wondering what our hesitation was. Fang had carried me to safety once, but after a fight and for such a long distance? His wings wouldn't hold the both of us up.

"Max," Fang quipped urgently, reaching out to steady me.

"Go," I repeated. "I'll find someplace to hide, and then when the effects wear off I'll come to the car. Please, I'll be fine."

He raked an agitated hand through his hair. My vision was doubling and I couldn't focus on his face. I tried to take a step away, but as soon as I moved, the ground rushed toward me. He caught me before I hit the dirt, cradling me against his chest. I would have been embarrassed had I not half thought I was dreaming the whole encounter.

"I can't leave you here," he mumbled. My knees were swept from beneath me, and I faintly registered that I was slung bridal style in Fang's arms.

"They won't hurt me, they …" I struggled to form a coherent sentence. "He's my father, Fang. He won't … he wouldn't …"

And then I saw nothing but darkness.

-o-o-o-

Dylan wasn't speaking to me. If he had been a master of the cold shoulder, I really wouldn't have noticed. I was too preoccupied with training the flock and mulling over all the discoveries I had made on our impromptu trip.

A link between the School and the CSM. Paranormals maintaining their solstice strength. My father positively risen from the dead.

But anyway, Dylan was not a master of the cold shoulder, which is why instead of completely ignoring my existence, he glared every time we made eye contact and sat in sullen silence every time I was around. Can you say drama queen? I figured he'd give his simmering act up eventually, either from curiosity or my sparkling personality, but he maintained his anger for a lot longer than I anticipated. March was well under way by the time he had worked himself up to an explosion.

He cornered me by the target range in the arena. Gazzy was running the others through a drill wherein they had to stake a vampire, lasso a fairy, charge through a swarm of pixies, point out the ectoplasmic remains of a ghost, and positively identify the difference between a mermaid and various types of nymphs. I was taking a break when Dylan suddenly manifested from the shadows.

His turquoise eyes were stormy, and his arms were crossed over his blue-clad chest with enough force that all his muscles bulged. I sighed, shoulders drooping, and waited for his speech.

"Can you explain to me what the hell has gotten into you lately?" he spat seethingly.

I raised a dark blonde eyebrow. "I beg your pardon?"

"Oh don't play coy with me," he snapped. "Every since that bird freak and his gang showed up you've been acting strange. I'm supposed to be your partner, yet you go running off with a bunch of virtual strangers whenever you see fit. I have no clue what's going and you seem completely uninterested in filling me in. What happened? Why are you doing everything in your power to keep me uninvolved?"

I rubbed a tired hand across my eye. Leave it to melodramatic Dylan to make this into something completely opposite of what it was. He could make any situation personal.

"You're not uninvolved," I cried, throwing my hands into the air. "You've known everything that I have up until a point, which I would have explained, but in case you haven't noticed, you've been treating me like a leper ever since I got back.

This bit of fact seemed to stump him.

"Look, I get it. Before the flock showed up it used to just be me and you against the world," I said, smoothing my expression into one of undulated calm. Dylan wasn't stupid. He was capable of seeing reason. "But you and I both know that there's been a shift in the supernatural world. It almost got you killed, and I won't stand by and let Anne cover up the truth. I've had my suspicions, but while I was gone I … I saw something that proved what we've been thinking- that paranormals are stronger than they should be."

Dylan sensed the urgency in my tone, but at the mention of Anne his posture straightened. "Speaking of. She drilled us for days after you disappeared, and then all of a sudden you're back and she hasn't given any of us a second glance. Did you talk to her?"

I bit my lip. I had accidentally let it slip that Jeb was my father to Fang, but I really wasn't ready for anyone to know what I had learned, least of all Dylan. I didn't need his pitying stares and offers to "talk". It was best to keep the status of my father's life to myself. Besides, I had a pretty good idea why Anne hadn't so much as mentioned our little vacation, and it had everything to do with her having contact with him and having known this entire time that he was alive.

"Yeah, we had a chat. No big deal." I brushed off the topic as quickly as possible, but if Dylan noticed, he didn't let on. "The important thing is what we found."

"Which is?"

He knew about the School, and that we had found mention of it in Anne's office, so that was all out in the open. He seemed willing to let my lack of invitation for our recent excursion go now.

"The CSM is definitely twisted up with them, but I can't fathom the reason." I then explained the money transfers and pictures. "But other than a few confirmations, we're still at square one."

He tugged at his bottom lip with his teeth. His arms had fallen to his sides some time during our conversation, but they returned to their folded position as he thought. An adorable pucker appeared on his forehead, and I had to look away lest the prickling sensation now taking over the nerves in my fingers and toes show on my face.

"Have you thought of any next moves?" he inquired, tousling the golden locks of hair at the top of his head.

"Have you?" I retorted.

"Well … maybe we ought to take another tour of the science wing."

I beamed, shaking his shoulders. He laughed and brushed away my hands. I expected him to let go, but he held my right wrist for a few seconds longer than normal. His deep sea eyes locked on mine, and I couldn't seem to remove myself from their intensity. He was trying to convey a message, but it was in a language I didn't understand. Is this what Sam had meant about Dylan being jealous?

No. Impossible. Dylan wasn't … We had grown up together, he had seen me wrestle trolls and be spattered in blood. He was not, in any way shape or form, romantically interested in me. It was inconceivable.

I cleared my throat, effectively breaking whatever spell had connected us in those few moments. He released my wrist, and my palms quickly fell back to my side. He ducked his chin and I looked over him, past his shoulder to where Fang was standing beside Iggy.

"Um, I think it's time for a break," I called. "Fang, come with us."