Chapter 18: The final battle

"What the fuck is that?" Mira gasped. It was a continuous growl, one that sounded inhuman and hungry and twenty times as big as the biggest of the Zombie girls.

Hunter leaned against the door as the heavy metal rattled as if something much bigger wanted to open the door and make their acquaintance. He could feel the power that leaked through the metal and the thoughts that tried hard to leach into his brain. He fought it, moving bare inches from the metal. When his skin no longer touched the door, the influence of whatever it was, was gone.

"Whatever it is," he gasped as he heard the door rattle again. "It's strong and hungry. It wants us." He glanced at Dianna and then at the other ASP members behind them. "We'll need to be at our strongest. This thing that Braxton has, it's strong and it's deadly. If it touches you, it will be able to control you. Don't let it touch you."

He glanced at the two weres that were in the other team. "Morph."

Dianna nodded. "Do you know how big?" she asked cautiously.

"If Mage were here, we'd know," Hunter said. He reached out, pulling Mira into his embrace. "Don't let it touch you Mira. You aren't poisonous anymore."

The two Weres had changed. One was a wolf, but he was huge, his fur a dark black that shone almost blue in the light. The other was a sleek cat, the spots of the jaguar evident. He snarled, his fangs gleaming. The other two, one a Vampire and one a ghoul, stood next to them, their eyes wide but blasters in their hands, ready for the fight. Beast yowled his understanding, his hand coming down on Hunter's shoulder, showing his solidarity.

Mirage grabbed Hunter, planting a kiss of quick heat and an expression of love that he couldn't help but understand. "We've got a trip to plan for, don't you go in there and do something as idiotic as getting yourself killed."

"I just love how when I play hero, I'm an idiot, when you do, you're wonderful." He shook his head. "I never thought I'd want to marry a woman with such horrible double standards."

"Double standards!"

Hunter shook his head. "I just came out and told you that I want to marry you and your entire take on that sentence was 'double standards'?" He dropped another kiss on her lips and then reached behind him to grab the door.

The pulsing buzz hit him hard and he gasped, throwing his head back to fight off the will to do what the beast inside wanted him to do. It wanted the ASP members dead. It wanted him to turn his blaster on the woman he loved. He could almost see himself twisting his arm, poking the business end into Mira's beautiful face and pulling the trigger.

He barely heard her voice but he could see her. She was nit picking at him again, every word that came from her mouth was a horrendous insult spoken in her worst nagging voice. How could he have ever wanted to marry someone who treated him and acted the way she did?

"Bitch," he growled, the pain in his head soaring to a new level of awareness and he felt his stomach turn over. He swallowed heavily, his hand shaking as he slowly turned toward Mira, his gun raising.

Mira reached out, wanting to touch him, but before her fingers connected with his skin, she seemed to reconsider. Instead, as the door behind him slowly began to open, she spun, her foot coming out to quickly and almost effortlessly, knock him loose from whatever evil had him in its grip.

She dropped down next to him, watching as the two teams began to rush into what she could see was some freaky kind of laboratory based on the mind of a psychotic serial killer who had to be hooked on some kind of mind altering drug. She could hear the horrified screams of the teams and the glad cries of the beast they had to fight. A splat sounded against the wall, the sound of something wet and gushy being flung against something hard and unyielding. She could hear Beast yowling, his cries growing louder.

Hunt stood up, his hand coming out to take hers. "Thanks," he said. "Let's go help our team."

Mirage stopped him for only one tiny instant. "In case we don't make it out of this ... I want to marry you, too."

His smile was wide and he let his thumb brush over her cheek. "Keep that thought in mind. I want to reward it when we get out of this mess."

She nodded and then followed him into the lab.

Shadow felt his arm tingle and the satisfying vibrations of a punch that definitely wasn't going to be easy to rise from. "You have to be Myler. Mira said you were a whiny, kiss ass."

Myler lay on the ground where Shadow's last punch had landed him. "I have information," he said with a heavy groan. "I will tell you how to kill the beast if you let me go."

Angel snickered, coming up behind Myler to lift him from the ground to his feet. She tipped her head, glancing at the smaller man and then back to her boss. "What do you think, Shadow? We interested in any of his groveling?"

"Depends on what he's got to say." Shadow barely nodded at Angel, managing just to keep from cracking a smile as the man let loose a high pitched scream when he saw the look in Angel's eyes. When she wanted to, Angel could look like a runaway shark hungry for its next meal.

"Don't let her bite me, man. You're going to need what I got to say if you want to kill the monster behind all of this." He struggled futilely in Angel's grip. "You don't know what kind of beast he found. It's indestructible unless you know what you're doing. Anybody you send after this thing is just going to end up dead."

"Start talking," Angel growled, shaking the man she easily held a foot off the ground. "If anybody else dies, you bastard, I'll be back to take it out of your hide."

"Tell her to back off." Myler's voice was high pitched and terrified and he struggled to get free. "I won't tell you anything unless she puts me down," he screamed.

"You know what, Mira was right. You really are a putz."

Myler groaned as Angel shook him roughly. "Talk or else I'll rip your mouth off."

"We don't know what it's called!" he shouted, anything to stop Angel from shaking his head off. "Taylor dug it up in a cavern deep in the Ashanti Mountains. He had it shipped back here. His entire company is based on what that ugly thing can do."

"What can it do?" Marcus growled, taking Myler from Angel's hands and holding him up higher. "My wife is a little thing, Myler. I'm not saying that she couldn't hurt you. She could, pretty damned easy. She'd enjoy it as well. But I know how easily she gets carried away. She'd rip your throat out before she even knew what she was doing." He glanced over at Angel and saw her roll her eyes at him. "So, if you want me to save you from her, you might want to start talking and do it quick." Marcus unfolded his wings, letting them spread to their full width. With his bare chest and his manly physique, he looked like some kind of beautiful angel. One of God's own to reap punishment upon the sinners.

Not too many could list the amount of debauchery, the selection and range of the sins that he could. Sins that would have him slow roasting over the coals of hell for eternity. With the knowledge of what could lay ahead for him, he wasn't in any hurry to get this part of his life over. "Just keep her the fuck back."

"Then start talking." He let Myler down just a bit and hear Angel's deep growl. Myler heard it as well and Angel roared with laughter as a wet stain spread across the front of Myler's pants. "It has to have some kind of weakness, some way that Braxton keeps it contained."

Mylar sighed. "I tell you and you let me go."

"You tell me and I won't let Angel pull you apart. Did you ever see anyone pull the wings off a fly? Tell me now or you're going to find out how it feels to have your arms ripped out."

Angel lunged and Mylar screamed, words flooding from his mouth. Marcus smiled, listening carefully before taking flight. Closer to the high ceilings of Braxton's manor, he found what he was looking for. The belt that was wrapped around his waist was of sturdy material and Marcus slipped it over the hook he'd found, listening as Mylar moaned and then screamed again.

"No! You can't leave me here! I gave you what you needed." His screaming followed them out the door.

"You know where we're going?" Marcus growled to Angel.

"Yeah," she said, climbing behind the wheel. She waited until she saw Lee get into the other SUV, Tinman behind the wheel. Then she turned the ignition and backed out of the long drive, turning down the road that led by the river. "Let's just hope we can get there in time."

Shadow tossed his communicator on the seat next to him. "They aren't answering," he said, slamming his hand into the door frame.

"We'll get there," Marcus said softly, soothingly. "We'll get there." He didn't even glance back at Shadow, just continued working on the three blasters that were on his lap. "Let's just hope this actually works.

Hunter grunted, feeling the crack of plaster at his back as he took another hit from the awful beast. It was ugly, there was no doubt about that. The main part of the beast looked like a huge loogey someone had spat out. It had about thirty eyes, all deep set, moving independently of each other.

If it had been only the one part of the beast, they might have been able to win the battle quickly. But no, it also had tentacles that shot out from the sludgy body. Tentacles that had tiny mouths attached like suckers on octopuses. Hunter had been bitten once and the pain had been excruciating.

He forced himself up and back into the fight, dodging two of the tentacles and making his way to where Beast stood, Dianna at his back. Mira knelt at their sides. She'd taken a lot of hits from this vile beast and she was close to the end of her endurance. He growled as she looked up at him, her pale blue eyes shadowed and dull. She looked beaten.

"Did you get a hold of Shadow?" he called, dodging another tentacle and then letting his blaster cut the damned thing in two. The cut off part wriggled on the floor and he took the time to cook the damn thing with his blaster before he kicked it away.

"They're dead," Mira said softly, knowing that Hunter would hear her. "The communicators are all dead. We don't even get static."

"How is that possible? All our equipment was fully charged and loaded when we left ASP."

"It's the beast," Gregor, the ghoul from the other team said. "It drained them."

Dianna held up her hand, saying two words and sending a bolt of electrical current at the beast. It slashed through the creature and it gave out a shriek that had the teams covering their ears. "That hurt it." She held up her hand and rained current down on the beast's head.

It recoiled its tentacles, giving the ASP teams time to regather.

"It's too fucking strong," Gaia the vampire said, a sigh leaving her pale lips. Dawn was close and it was becoming harder for her to move. They'd lost one of their team members. Craig Oros, a member of the jaguar clan, had been killed within the first five minutes of battle. They'd all learned from Craig's mistakes. He'd rushed the beast and it had picked him up easily, the tentacles winding around his sleek body. His screams had been horrible, the pain he'd felt almost tangible. When the tentacles let him go, he was little more than a dried husk.