Unhidden (The Gatekeeper Chronicles Book 1) (2 page)

“I know what my birth date is. But don’t you know it’s rude to ask a woman her age?”

He ignored me and continued, “You were in a car accident at the age of sixteen that killed your parents and put you in a coma for one year. Upon awakening, you exhibited severe memory loss. After rehabilitation, you went into the foster system.” He looked up at me, clucking his tongue. “That must be quite disconcerting.”

“I appreciate your heartfelt concern, but that was a long time ago, and I turned out just fine.” I tried to sound flippant, ignoring the sudden and familiar tightness in my chest.

“That remains to be seen. So, tell me, how does a young woman such as yourself join the military, get accepted into the Army Special Forces’ Delta Force unit, and then become a mercenary for hire?”

“Why don’t you free my hands and I’ll show you?”

“I am certain you are quite impressive.”

“I assure you, I am. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, but I could have told you all of that back in New York, without being restrained.”

“What I need from you isn’t in New York. As for being restrained, I doubt you would have come willingly if you knew what I had planned for you.”

“Why don’t you enlighten me?”

“Oh, but I rather like surprises.” He steepled his fingers under his chin and stared hard at me, as if trying to discover my secrets by sight alone. “You were a very difficult woman to find, Miss Hayes. Even after all this effort, I am still unconvinced you are the one we have been looking for. However, my employer is quite adamant that you are. No matter. We shall find out soon enough.” He looked past me to the goon who was holding my wrists and nodded.

It was time for me to go, or I may not get another chance. I grabbed onto my captor’s large wrists. Using him for leverage, I jerked my knees up, breaking the hold on my ankles. Before anyone could react, my legs went up and over my head, wrapping around the neck of the one holding my wrists. I squeezed my thighs, trying to pop his head like a grape.

Men usually panicked at the asphyxiation and started clawing at my legs to loosen them. This one didn’t seem affected by my squeeze play at all; however, he didn’t like me wrapped around his neck. Clamping his ham hands around my thighs, he pried them apart much more easily than should have been possible.

Placing my palms on the floor, I pulled my knees into my chest and donkey-kicked him in the gut. A deep rumble rose from the shadows, guttural and hungry. I imagined it was what a giant prehistoric bear would have sounded like.

I landed on my feet, spinning into a roundhouse kick. Making contact with my captor’s thick skull, I knocked him to the floor, silencing his growl.

I leapt away and found the wall with my back so I could scan the entire room. Darko still sat in his chair, looking very focused yet also entirely too unconcerned at the activity around him.

Oozing out of the darkness, the brute that had been holding my ankles revealed himself … and he wasn’t human.

I froze, dumbfounded by what I was looking at. The creature stood about six and a half feet tall, all sinuous muscles. He had a humanoid shape with arms, legs, torso, and head, all where they were supposed to be, though that was where the similarities ended. He was completely hairless with arms that hung to his knees, ending in large, clawed hands. His knee joints were bent the wrong way, and a long, black tongue snaked out from a lipless, gaping maw.

My addled brain screamed,
Weapon. Find a fucking weapon!

Military training kicking in, I compartmentalized what I was seeing for processing at a later time, focusing only on survival. I grabbed for the radio in my vest pocket and realized it was missing. They must have taken it off me when they had dragged me into the room. My head had been so fuzzy at the time I hadn’t even noticed. Okay, so I was on my own. It certainly wasn’t the first time.

Instead of running for the door, as I was sure they expected, I leapt toward Darko and grabbed the Tiffany lamp off the table at his side. Swinging it like a bat, the cord unplugged from the wall, plunging the room into complete darkness. My senses went on high alert, straining to hear the sounds of movement coming closer. All was silent.

I held the lamp in my right hand and felt for the table with my left. I found it quickly and followed it around to the back of Darko’s chair in an effort to put a barrier between the creature and me.

I knew I was at a serious disadvantage on all fronts. This thing was clearly bigger, badder, and stronger than I was, and at the moment, I had nothing to fight it with other than an expensive, decorative lamp. I didn’t even know the layout of the room. I could easily run into unseen obstacles. I needed something to give me an advantage.

Suddenly, that bear-like growl caught my attention. Then I heard shuffling and rustling noises coming from the far corner of the room. I could only guess it was my second captor, the one I had sent sprawling with a roundhouse kick. If I had thought one monster was going to be difficult to beat, two of them were going to be virtually impossible. My only chance was to make it back into the hallway and to my gun, where it probably still lay after they had knocked it from my hands.

I could feel them circling me, readying an attack from either side. I heard the groan of floorboards getting too close.

“Are you just about ready to concede, Miss Hayes?” Darko’s smooth voice oozed out of the darkness, causing me to flinch. I was glad no one had seen that. “Or would you like to play the odds, which I can assure you are not in your favor?”

Unwilling to admit defeat, I realized I still had my night vision goggles propped on top of my head. I reached up and slowly eased them over my eyes. “Actually, Darko, I don’t like to gamble, so I think I’m going to change the game.” Even as I adjusted to the contrasting black and white images, I sensed the first creature more than saw it.

I swung the lamp at where I judged its head to be, but it lifted an arm to block the attack, and I ended up hitting its forearm instead. The glass lampshade shattered into thousands of colorful shards. Darko raised his arms over his head to try to protect himself from the raining glass, yet he remained seated in his leather chair, like a king on his throne.

Using the distraction, I leaned over the back of the chair and wrapped the electrical cord around Darko’s neck. Holding the chord and using the back of the chair as leverage, I vaulted myself up and over, landing gracefully to face Darko.

His hands flew to his neck, trying to loosen the cord, but I leaned back, tightening the noose, not giving him a chance to get his fingers underneath it. He wheezed and gurgled, trying to suck in a breath, as I lifted him from his seat by pulling roughly on the cord. I twisted him so his back was to my front, using him as a hostage and human shield. Then I backed toward the door that led to the hallway … and to my gun.

The two creatures were following, but cautiously, staying back a few feet without making any sudden moves. Rumbling growls sounded deep in their chests.

“Hey, kid,” I called to the child who still stood hunched in on herself, trying to stay out of the way of the fighting. Her head snapped up at the sound of my voice, but I couldn’t see the expression on her face through the goggles. “Do you know how to find your way out of the building?” When she gave a small nod, I continued, “Don’t stop running until you are through the front gate. I have friends out there who will help you. Go!” At that, she darted through the door and down the hall in the direction I had come from. I knew Jason would see her in his sniper riflescope and clear a path for her through the gate if she was pursued.

“Call off your goons, Darko, or I’m going to squeeze the life out of you and enjoy doing it.” I tightened the noose, emphasizing my point.

He responded with another gurgle, so I loosened up on the cord just enough to allow him to speak. He gasped for air and hoarsely said, “You’re doing well, Miss Hayes, but you will not succeed in escaping.”

I jerked the cord tight again, continuing to back toward the dimly lit corridor. My head spun to the left and right, eyes darting around for my weapon. As my hands grew clammy at the thought of being defenseless, I finally saw it about fifty feet down the hall to my left.

That’s when someone flipped on the lights. White light burned into my retinas. A spotlight flared behind my closed lids, shards of pain driving into my eyeballs. With my hands on Darko’s leash, I was unable to remove the night vision goggles.

Darko suddenly dropped to the floor and twisted, pulling the cord from my hands and rolling away from me. The two creatures were on me instantly. One backhanded me across the face, knocking my goggles off and sending me careening down the hallway. The wall rushed up to stop my slide, stinging my back. I could feel my face swelling up, and I wiped a trickle of blood off my cheek. Luckily, I landed that much closer to my weapon.

Before I could measure my next move, the creature dove at me. When I rolled to the side, it missed crushing my chest with its bulk, but it landed on my left shoulder, dislocating it. Lightning pain shot through my arm, and I let out a sharp cry.

Claws, teeth, and a slavering black tongue rose over me as I lay prone on the floor. It could have easily ripped my throat out or killed me in a dozen hideous ways. It seemed to realize this, too. Its jaw cracked and popped, unhinging so wide it could make a meal of my head in one bite. Hot, putrid saliva dripped onto my face, leaking into my open wound and searing it like acid. I hissed at the sensation and turned away; however, I couldn’t escape its fetid breath.

It leaned in, eager and hungry, while I was frozen. I would meet death in the jaws of an inhuman beast. It would drink my blood, feast on my organs, and gnaw on my bones for dessert.

Darko’s hoarse voice called from down the hall. “Don’t kill her! We need her.”

The thing paused and let out a high-pitched wail of anger at being deprived of its dinner. The sound shattered my fear.

I threw up a knee, violently slamming it in the creature’s crotch. Thankfully, it was humanoid enough, that it had the same effect as any other male. He howled and rolled off me into the fetal position. I immediately scrambled backward, sliding along the marble floor. My left arm, screaming in pain, remained limp at my side.

With my right arm, I reached over my head to grab the gun. As my fingers wrapped around the grip, the familiar feeling was like coming home again.

I pointed the Glock down the length of my body, and without a moment’s hesitation, I pulled the trigger in three quick, precise squeezes. The head of the creature I had nut-cracked exploded in a spray of blood and gore.

Shifting the gun’s sight, I found the second creature barreling down the hall toward me. The first three shots hit him square in the chest, yet he hardly slowed. I lifted the gun slightly, took a deep breath and held it, then squeezed the trigger, putting a round straight through its eye and into its brain. That time, it stumbled yet still kept coming. I put four more rounds into its head, not missing a shot, before it finally crashed to the floor only inches shy of my feet.

Darko merely stood there, a sly half-smile tugging at the corner of his mouth while I unsteadily got to my feet, pushing myself up with my gun hand. Despite the fact that Darko carried no weapon I could see, for a moment, I considered shooting him. He had set me up, kidnapped an innocent girl, and commanded those creatures. Even though he had stopped them from killing me, I was sure he wouldn’t hesitate if he got what he wanted from me.

With him only a few yards away, I had a clear shot. I pointed my weapon at him, and for the first time today, he reacted. The blood drained from his face, his eyes darting around, seeking escape. He quickly came to the same conclusion I had—there was no escape for him.

My finger tightened on the trigger, but before I could get off the shot, a large animal bounded from the shadows behind him. It leapt past Darko, springing at me on all fours. I didn’t have much time to take it in, but it looked like a cross between a bear and a crocodile. It was the size of a bear with dry, scaly skin, and a mouth full of sharp teeth. Two tusks extended from the roof of its mouth, past its jaw. It bellowed like a foghorn as it charged.

I discharged the shots meant for Darko at this new monster; however, they bounced off its tough hide like harmless insects.

Turning, I sprinted for the exit and all but flew down the stairs, taking three and four at a time. The beast slid past the stairs, slamming into a wall as it tried to slow its momentum, buying me a few seconds.

I hit the foyer and flew through the open front door. I could only pray Jason still had his sniper rifle at the ready and was looking through his scope at that moment.

The beast charged through the front doors behind me, gaining quickly now that it had more room to maneuver. I didn’t hear the crack of rifle shots, thanks to Jason’s silencer, but the beast crashed to the ground like a fallen tree. It slid several feet from momentum, coming to a stop directly behind my fleeing form. I hadn’t realized how close it had been. Only a few seconds more, and I would have been a goner.

I slowed and stopped, turning toward where I knew Jason was hiding in the trees, giving a small wave of thanks. Barely sparing a glance at the creature, not wanting to acknowledge its existence in my world, I staggered to the gate, my chest heaving under the exertion of that sprint.

A small figure stepped out of the shadows directly in front of me, moving with uncertainty. My gun was up in an instant. Seeing the little girl, I jerked the barrel away from her and re-holstered the gun.

“Hey, sweetie. Why didn’t you run out of here like I told you to?” She simply dipped her head, averting her eyes. I kneeled in front of her and tried to sound reassuring. “You don’t have anything to worry about now. You’re safe, and I’m going to get you out of here.”

As she slowly lifted her head, I looked into her serious face yet didn’t find the eyes of a child—not a human child, at least. Her pupils shifted into cat-like slits. Gone was the terrified little girl, and in her place was a cold, calculating creature. I registered momentary shock, but that was about all the time I had to react.