Chapter 11
Teleporting was kind of fun. If you were the kind of guy who liked being suspended in freefall in a pitch-black wind tunnel being buffeted by winds that made an F-5 hurricane look tame while clinging to a complete stranger and dealing with the knowledge that, if either one of you couldn't hold on, you were probably going to get swept into a void from which there wasn't going to be any coming back.
Not so much Joe's thing…
Logistical considerations meant they had to go in all at once. The element of surprise probably wasn't going to be theirs anyway, but they couldn't risk anyone throwing up an EM Shield once Druitt appeared. So, despite the fact that it would not leave the teleporter at his best, all five joined in a kind of group hug and they went in at once.
Joe staggered as his feet hit the ground, trying to remember which direction gravity was supposed to run in again. Nor was he the only one. Everyone in the small group looked distinctly queasy and Druitt looked like he was having trouble staying on his feet.
"You okay, man?" Joe asked, reaching out to steady him.
Druitt shied away, eyes wide, angry, and momentarily fearful. Until Magnus touched his cheek, at which point the deep waters ran still once more.
Joe took his bearings and wondered what it was with these people and abandoned warehouses. There were about twenty people at the far end of the empty space, watching as Ashley Magnus bent over a man tied to a chair and helped herself to a handful of hair, jerking his head back.
"Tell me!" she ordered.
"Ashley," he protested, tears streaming down his face. "Why are you doing this? You're one of us!"
Her voice low and menacing, "Tell me what I need to know and I'll consider letting you live, Tam."
"Ashley!" one of the men standing behind her warned.
Every Cabal operative in the room drew a weapon and leveled it at the Sanctuary team.
"No," Ashley directed, holding up one hand and turning to face her former people. Every face in the room turned to her, expression varying degrees of shock, outrage, and disdain. She ignored them. "These people are my family and that makes them my problem. Especially Helen Magnus and Henry Foss," she told her people. Then she put her gun on the ground and started for the center of the warehouse. She pointed to Henry. "You first, please."
He swallowed hard, then nodded once and laid his taser on the ground.
"Henry!" Will protested, taking a step towards him.
The werewolf shook his head. "Sorry, Will. This is a promise we made to each other a long time ago."
Joe stared. Suicide-pact? Good to know everyone at the Sanctuary was so sane and reasonable.
"Henry," Magnus began, shaking her head.
"Helen," Druitt interrupted, placing a restraining hand on her shoulder. "Let him. This is something he needs to do."
Henry looked at him, expression startled. "Thanks, man."
"And thank you for stepping up to this unenviable task." Druitt inclined his head to Henry. "Good luck, son."
"Thanks, man," he repeated.
Henry drew in a deep breath, then moved to stand before Ashley. Who promptly reached out and drew him into a hug. Joe stared as Henry stood rigid for a good five seconds before wrapping his arms around her as well, burying his face in her shoulder.
"Come home, Ash," the werewolf pled.
"I wish I could. But it's not where I belong any more. If it ever wasin the first place. Thank you for doing this, Henry."
"A promise is a promise."
"I missed you."
"Me, too," he sighed.
"You're waiting for me to stick a knife in your back, aren't you?"
"It had occurred to me you might. Be easier."
"Wish I could, but the Cabal wants you alive."
She broke the hug and pressed her lips to his for a moment before falling back several steps. Henry stared at her in shock for a moment, then shook himself and pulled his t-shirt off.
"You've got to be kidding?" Ashley said, shaking her head.
"Only way I have a reasonable chance against you. This form's never been able to stand up."
"True," she conceded, folding her arms over her chest and watching impassively as he pulled off his pants.
Joe stared at the tableau for a second. He wasn't exactly sure how he had expected the Extraction to go down, but it hadn't involved an unarmed throw-down between a werewolf and a monster-hunter.
Not that there was a lot anyone could do about it when they had about two dozen guns trained on them from a distance that made their tasers completely useless. They had guns with tranquilizer rounds but, if they had opened up with those, the Cabal operatives would have turned them into Swiss cheese.
It occurred to Joe with a sick lurch in his stomach that this went way the Hell beyond 'inadvisable'. Audacious as all shit, yes, and gave them the element of surprise, but still fucking nuts of them.
"Henry," Ashley said as he reached for the waistband on his boxers, "I hope it goes without saying that I've always loved you and still do."
He closed his eyes, drawing a few deep breaths before smiling up at her. "I love you, too, Ash. Now let's get this the hell over with."
Joe frowned at Will. "You said they weren't together."
"They aren't," Will told him. "They just-- Jesus!" The psychiatrist abruptly looked ready to be ill.
Joe followed the direction of Will's gaze and winced. Ashley was on the floor, pinning the arms of the wolf-creature that used to be Henry to the ground with her knees and pummeling the wolf-creature's face, her expression one of intense concentration. It was bizarre to watch the amount of consideration she obviously put into each blow in spite of the rapid way each followed the other. Each blow seemed specifically designed to maximize the stunning impact of the one before. Henry lay there looking dazed.
Magnus took a step towards the pair, but John grabbed her and pulled her into a rough embrace, tightening his hold on her when she struggled to break free.
"Will, we've got to do something," Joe whispered, shaking his head.
Will shook his own head in answer. "She's not distracted enough yet. Any one of us tries moving in on her now and Henry's a dead man."
"She keeps that up, he's one anyway!"
"Not in that form. Trust me, I've seen him take worse."
Henry abruptly bucked under Ashley, hard, knocking her off his body and sending her sliding a good four or five feet across the floor towards their group. He scrambled onto all fours and closed the distance. Magnus had stopped struggling against Druitt, who was holding her close and whispering quickly in her ear.
Joe was starting to get the impression this fight wasn't as on-the-fly as it looked. Henry circled and Ashley evaded, moving ever-closer to the 'rescue party' and their tasers. That suspicion was confirmed when Will moved so that Druitt and Magnus were standing between him and the Cabal operatives. Once he was out of their line of sight, he drew his weapon.
Ashley caught Henry's front leg in both hands, spinning until she was standing directly behind him, dislocating the shoulder with an audible 'pop'. Which Joe thought was bad until she took it in both hands and twisted sharply in opposite directions. Henry yelped the way only an injured animal could and Ashley just twisted harder, face contorted with effort. The sound was like a bb-gun shot at a pane of glass: pop, crack, shatter…
Henry yelped again, jerking free with a sound of bone-on-bone. He fell back a few steps, then turned to face Ashley on his three functional legs, teeth bared in a snarl.
"What are you waiting for?" she shouted, actually beating her chest with both fists as she postured at him. "What's the matter, Dog Boy? Mom neuter you when I wasn't looking?"
Will took three quick steps forward and fired, expression grim. She turned to face him, eyes wide, and smiled.
"You honestly thought a regular taser was going to bring me down?" she laughed, swaying on her feet and looking ready to spring.
"Hoped it would," he answered, shrugging. "Wanted to avoid the alternative."
And he keyed on another switch. Ashley crumpled to the ground and Henry was at her side in a heartbeat.
Joe's head shot up so he could gauge the Cabal's reaction to this development. But not one of them was moving. Which probably had something to do with the fact that Magnus and Druitt were now in their midst, each holding a hostage. Magnus had a gun pressed to her captive's temple, her arm tight across his throat. Druitt was holding a knife to the throat of his hostage, holding her secure with a hand snaked up between her breasts, a joyous expression on his face as he faced down the others.
"Every last one of you knows I'm more than capable," he purred. "So this is how it's going to work."
Magnus roughly propelled her hostage forward and forced him to release their hostage, Bataar Tam. Then all three quickly moved to where Henry and Will huddled over Ashley, Will checking her over and Henry just caressed the side of her face with his bleeding muzzle.
"I am going to take my daughter and my friends, and your friends," Druitt told the Cabal. "And, if no further direct assault is made against the Sanctuary, all three will be allowed to live. Otherwise, I shall take great pleasure in eviscerating each and every one of your people. Including Ashley…"
Joe stared. Druitt seemed perfect serious. He also seemed to kind of get off on the idea. By now, Magnus had forced her prisoner to lay prone against Ashley, and she was leaning over both of them. At her encouragement, Bataar joined them.
"Come on, Joe," Will directed. "Let's get out of here."
Joe joined the dog-pile, not taking his eyes off Druitt. Who was abruptly not where he had been but sprawled with his captive atop them all.
"Everyone hold on!" he ordered.
