Chapter 13: Savage Beasts

The house was almost overly quiet as Dianna and her team entered. They could see the door that Kit had busted in, and they used the same entrance, trying to be as quiet as possible. Mirage's head was up, her eyes constantly moving. She was in the lead, which was usual for her since when anyone found out who she was, they wouldn't come near her.

They went through every room on the first floor and then Hunter and Beast peeled away to check out the second floor. They were back fairly quickly.

"It's empty, Dianna. It's like a tomb in here."

"I ... I'm not too sure of that, Hunter." She held her hands out, her magic shining bright white flames from her fingers. "I can feel others. They are here." She spun, one hand shooting out, the white light flung from her fingers to encase a wall to ceiling portrait of Taylor Braxton. The painting shoot and then slowly opened like a door, the stairs behind it easily seen.

"Nice, Dianna. I'll remember to call you the next time I lock myself out of my house." Mira snorted at Hunt's words.

"She's cheaper than a locksmith and a hell of a lot faster."

"Better looking too," Hunt said, pressing a kiss to Dianna's cheek.

"Okay, okay, enough kissing up, you're both forgiven for getting yourselves in so much trouble while I was trying to enjoy my three days off." She held her hands in the air. "Now, shall we check out the creepy stairs or would you two like to go get coffee."

"It's Beast's turn to get coffee," Hunter complained. "But he always gets mine wrong."

"Well, if you didn't have to have the exact specifications down to the last drop of foam, it wouldn't be so hard to make you happy." Mira slugged Hunter in the arm and headed toward the stairs, her blaster leading the way.

The stairs were badly lit and the shadows almost seemed alive. Mira continued moving down the long set of stairs, grateful when Dianna used her magic to give the some light. Hunter was behind her and then Dianna, Beast bringing up the rear. "Damn, Dianna, you sure know how to call them. These stairs are damn creepy." Mira shuddered as a sudden burst of cold air washed over her. She held her hand up to stop her team, scenting a strange aroma in that burst of air.

"Get back," she shouted as she began to feel the effects of the strange scent. Her eyes fluttered and her body fell to the stairs, beginning to convulse even as a frothy foam came from her mouth. Dianna and Beast hopped back a few steps while Hunter bent, holding his breath, and picked Mira up. He carried her up the flight of stairs and out of the strange opening then right outside where she could get some fresh air into her lungs.

She'd passed out, her body nothing but dead weight. But Hunter preferred that to the strange convulsions that had racked her slender form. He held her gently, calling her name. "Come on, Mira. Open your pretty eyes for me." He gently slapped her pale cheeks, lifting her higher to get her the cool fresh air that came through the garden. "Wake up, baby. Please wake up."

Dianna could hear the pain, the absolute anguish Hunter was going through. She put her hand on his shoulder. "Lay one of your hands on her chest, Hunter and put the other on her face." She waited for him to do as she instructed then began to chant in a strange language, her voice growing deeper then louder. Hunt could feel his hands growing warmer and he could see the white light the pulsed out of them. He didn't move his hands even when he felt Mirage start to cough and then her eyes opened, her irises held pin pricks of red from being asphyxiated. "Hunter?"

Dianna stepped back, breathing a huge sigh of relief. Mirage might be a complete pain in the ass, but she was Dianna's pain in the ass and Dianna wanted to keep her that way. Then she saw Hunter's face and she knew, things were definitely going to be different from now on. "What was that?"

"It was a smell, Dianna. There was a cool breeze and then that smell, almost sickly sweet. Then I couldn't breathe. I felt like I was drowning. The next thing I knew, I was out here." She put her hand on Hunter's shoulder to use to help her to her feet. He stood behind her, his hands on her hips, steadying her. "We're going to have to use masks."

Hunter's head was shaking before she even said the word "going". "No way. You are not going back there until we get some of the lab geeks down here to find out what you inhaled, Mira. And you're getting a complete physical."

Mira rolled her eyes. "Listen, lover, just because I let you have my body doesn't mean that you are going to get to run my life. Dianna cured me. And there could be helpless women being loaded up right now into coffins to send them out to their buyers or auctions, or whatever they do with them. We use the masks and we'll be fine." She glanced at Dianna and then back to Hunter. "If it will make you feel better, once we are done with this, I'll let you take me to the med unit and allow them to poke and prod at me. Okay?"

"I've got your word on that?" he asked, knowing Mirage and her habit of sneaking away when anything that dealt with doctors was thrown at her.

"Yes," she sighed with another roll of her eyes. "Now, can we get back to work?"

Beast skidded up to them, four high quality gas masks in his large furry hands. He yowled when he saw Mira standing. If it hadn't been for her curse, he would have picked her up and hugged her. For once Mira was glad about the curse. Being hugged by a huge Wendigo was not her idea of a fun time.

They each took a mask and fitted it on. The masks had flashlights built into the top strap and they all turned them on. This time, Hunter took the lead, Mira right on his heels. They passed the stair tread where the gas was dispersed but the gas mask took care of any exposure. It took only a few more seconds and they were standing on a piece of sandy ground. They were in some kind of long hallway, the stairs seeming about half way from either side. The sound of water lapping on a beach could be heard and men's voices were coming from the other direction.

The voices were growing louder, the men heading down the hallway. Dianna and Beast scooted into a tiny alcove barely big enough for Dianna and Hunter and Mira ducked behind an outcropping of rock.

"I swear, I heard the gas. Somebody's down here."

"Where?" another man asked. "I don't see nobody."

"Well, maybe they went down to the lake." There were three men and Dianna and Beast took care of the first two, Hunter grabbing the third one and then slammed his head on the stone walls. They hid the bodies on the stairs hearing the same hissing sound of the gas before heading back the way the men had come. They went quietly, no words spoken, hand signs to transmit whatever they were thinking.

Not more than two hundred yards from the stairs, they found what they were looking for. There was a line of girls, their eyes glazed, some barely able to stand, all dressed very scantily. The line was moving slowly as each girl would climb into a coffin, and let the hinged lids close. Some would be crying, their sobs easily heard even as the coffin was wheeled away.

Mira nudged Hunter, nodding toward the figure of a man masked in shadows. "Braxton," she hissed. "He's mine." Before anyone could say a word to her, she was stealthily going around the coffins, sticking to the many shadows before climbing the few stairs that would take her even closer to her quarry.

Dianna shot Hunter a dirty look, one asking why he couldn't control Mira. Then she stepped out into the center of the wide chasm. "Hello, my friends and I are lost. Does anyone know how to get to San Francisco from here?"

The first spurt of gunfire had Dianna rolling and ducking, pulling her blaster to do a little firing herself. She heard a scream and knew she'd got one of the men, then she rolled again, putting herself amidst the women that were still standing in line. "Get down!" she shouted, staring into the blank eyes of even those that were crying. One girl turned, her fingers turning into claws and grabbed her, her mouth opening, her teeth chomping as if she were some kind of Zombie.

Dianna didn't even have time to squeak and she felt Beast's large body behind hers, his fist coming down to strike the woman on the head. She fell to the ground at Dianna's feet. "T-thanks, fur ball," she said, unconsciously using Hunter's pet name for the Wendigo. He yowled loudly and then lifted, Dianna with gentle hands, pulling her away from the women who now began looking at her as if she were lunch. "What the fuck did he do to these women?"

"Shoot first," Hunter shouted. "Ask questions later." He blasted two of the women who looked as if they were deciding upon which end of Beast to start on first. They went down in a heap, only to be stepped over by others.

Dianna began firing again, surely picking off every woman that was in the line, even blasting through one of the coffins to get at one woman who sounded like she was eating the wood to get out. It wasn't a pretty sight and holstered her blaster, her hands coming up, turning a bright white. She took a step forward and it was as if she pushed the light across the room, surrounding every evil thing and causing them to become unconscious. Hunter stood, waiting for Dianna to finish, his eyes moving from one body to the next, searching for his woman. "Mirage," he shouted. "Front and center, baby!"