She gritted her teeth and rounded the bend just as the explosion rocked the hallway.
Gun up, she hurried back, her rifle sight trained on the doorway. When no one was forthcoming, she ducked in.
“Shit.”
“What is it?” Damiano demanded.
“Cats,” she replied. “I wasn’t counting on them being in fucking jaguar and panther form.”
D was uncharacteristically silent.
The two cats were caged separately. Iron bars and a simple padlock were her only obstacles, so this was something she wouldn’t need D for. Well, that and the keys were lying on the table three feet from the cages.
Taking a deep breath to ward off her pain and fear, she collected the keys and edged over to the first cage. The panther. This was Braden if she remembered correctly.
“Nice kitty,” she murmured as she fumbled with the lock. God help her, this might the dumbest thing she’d ever done.
She threw open the cage with one arm and tightened her grip on her rifle as she backed cautiously away to unlock the other cage.
The panther jumped from the cage and crouched warily in front of her. Her hands shook as she managed to get the lock off the second cage while her eyes never left the panther.
The jaguar hissed and bared his teeth as she started to crack open the cage. Oh hell, it was now or never. She threw the lid open and backed away, tripping when her leg gave out. She let out a cry of pain as she hit the floor.
The cats circled her, intermittent growls spilling from their throats. The jaguar came closer, and Tyana closed her eyes, prepared for death.
He sniffed cautiously at her shoulder then lowered his head and nuzzled the wound on her leg. The panther stalked in on her other side and bumped her side with his head.
She stared dumbly as they continued to nudge at her. Good God, they wanted her to get up and go. She pushed herself up.
“I don’t know if you understand a word I’m saying, but we’ve got to get the hell out of here,” she said as she struggled toward the door. “Eli is out already. All that’s left is Gabe.”
The cats flanked her as she made it out into the hallway. Her leg was growing more numb with each passing minute. She hoped to hell Jonah and Mad Dog had made it over by now but she wouldn’t ask Damiano, because he’d worry that she was fading. And she was.
Footsteps, several of them, echoed in the hallway. She flattened herself against the wall with her gun at the ready. This was going to suck.
Three men rounded the corner at a fast clip. She shot the first before they even realized she was there. She managed to squeeze off another round before the third shot back.
She slammed against the wall as the bullet tore into her shoulder. The cats launched themselves at the men. “D,” she gasped. “I’m hit again.”
The sounds of the cats’ screams mingled with those of the men. Her breaths came hard and sporadic. It hurt. Fuck, it hurt. She glanced down, trying to assess the damage but all she could see was blood, red, pouring onto the floor.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Through hazy vision, Tyana saw two sets of cats’ eyes close to her face. She felt a warm tongue on her cheek and soft fur rub against her nose.
“Go,” she whispered. “You have to get out. They’ll kill you.”
She pushed at the jaguar with her uninjured arm and was stunned at the weakness of the gesture, how much of her strength it sapped to make such a small movement.
“Ty, Ty, speak to me.” D’s frantic voice shot through her ear, and she winced.
She tried to push herself away from the wall, tried to get herself up off the floor.
“Go,” she told the cats as she fell back, her strength spent.
To her relief, they loped off.
“D, the cats are out. If the Falcon secondary is moving in, make damn sure no one shoots them.”
“I don’t give a damn about the fucking cats,” Damiano bit out. “Can you move? Can you get the hell out?”
Shit. She couldn’t even lie to him because he’d see she was still stationary.
“No,” she said quietly. “I’m down.”
More sounds echoed through the hallway. Loud footsteps. More than one person. A lot of them.
“D, is the Falcon secondary moving in?” she asked, unable to keep the fear from her voice.
Before he could respond, she looked up and saw four men round the corner. Not Falcon. Her heart sank. Her rifle dangled uselessly from her hand. She couldn’t even lift it.
Eli shoved himself off the ground, trying to shake off the effects of the paralytic. His mind was clearing now. Fear replaced the fog.
Two men, guns up, sprinted toward him. He recognized them as members of Falcon. The ones who’d shown up in Germany. Neither was Damiano which only left Jonah and Mad Dog. The man in front clearly had to be Jonah.
As he rose to meet the potential threat, two cats burst from the exit he and Tyana had come through.
Falcon halted, their guns up and trained on the cats. But they didn’t immediately shoot.
The cats collapsed on the ground and began their excruciating shift. Eli stumbled over to their naked bodies.
“Tyana. Where is Tyana?” he demanded.
Ian stared at him in confusion. “I don’t know,” he said in a weak voice.
The two men from Falcon knelt over Ian and Braden. They dug fatigues out of their packs and thrust them at the naked men.
“Get them on,” Jonah barked. “Then tell me where the fuck Tyana is.”
“She went back in after you,” Eli explained to the men as they dressed. “You came out. She didn’t.”
Jonah cupped a hand to his ear then cursed. Mad Dog paled.
“She’s taken another round. She’s down,” Jonah reported.
He dug into his pocket then thrust a small ear piece at Eli. “Put this on. You won’t have voice, but you’ll be able to hear. We’re going in after Ty.”
Eli pushed the receiver into his ear and immediately heard the voice of another man urgently asking for Tyana to report her condition.
“We’re going too,” Ian said. “If she went down saving us, we’re not leaving her.”
Jonah didn’t argue. He and Mad Dog tossed the two men extra guns.
“Jonah, she’s on the move.” The voice crackled in Eli’s ear. Damiano. “Not under her own power. They’re Esteban’s men. They’re moving her.”
There was another moment of silence. “Lower level. They said lower level and goddamn it, Jonah, I’ve lost her location. She’s not showing up anymore. You need to move.”
“All right, we’re going in,” Jonah said to the four men. “Fan out. Damiano has lost her location. He mentioned a lower level so we have to find our way down. We don’t have time to waste.”
“Jonah, Falcon secondary has secured the south wing,” Damiano reported.
“Have them close in on our location from the opposite direction,” Jonah said. “I want no stone unturned.”
As he turned to go into the building, Eli reached out and grabbed his arm.
“I can shift. The drug has worn off enough. I can go into places you guys can’t. I need voice, though.”
Without hesitation, Jonah reached over and tore Mad Dog’s receiver from the front of his vest and slapped it on Eli’s chest. “Go,” he ordered.
Eli summoned every bit of his mental energy and evaporated into a fine mist. He streaked into the building and disappeared into the ventilation system. Behind him, he heard the steady footsteps of the others as they ran inside.
Damiano was about to go mad. He itched from the inside out. It took every ounce of his strength not to give in to the urge to shift. To become a predator and go after the ones who held Ty.
Only the fact that he knew he was her only voice, her only comfort, prevented his complete loss of control.