Marcus took the stairs two at a time, Kane waiting at the top of the landing in a poof of pink smoke and barking at him expectantly. Victoria had insisted that they stay together and work building to building in the quarantine zone until they cleared the entire thing. It made sense, especially after his father being taken out of commission and the loss of one of the pack to a group of blightshrews, but that didn’t make it move any faster.
Floor after floor, door after door, three humans and five glimmerfangs pushed through apartment buildings. Seattle had been crawling with Arcanex security, even worse than L.A. For some reason, there didn’t seem to be many walking the streets or patrolling the buildings here. Maybe it was Walter’s presence in the city. It wouldn’t surprise him if he had the whole contingent up his ass for his entire trip.
The morning sun lit up the sky orange and blue, and they’d barely covered a quarter of the first quarantine zone. Marcus dropped heavy duty garbage bags outside the apartment building he left, all filled with the corpses of toxic rodents. James came out next to add a few bags to his pile, then Victoria with five of her own.
“This isn’t working. It’s going to take us forever to cover just this zone. We’ve got two more to get through.” Marcus shook his head and rested his hand on Kane’s head. “I get that it’s risky, but tonight we’ve gotta split up.”
“No,” Victoria’s lip curled slightly. “If we split up in a city this size and one of us gets cornered, we’re absolutely fucked. We stay together.”
“Then we don’t get cornered. Work smart, but work fast.”
“I said no, Marcus.” Victoria squared up with him, flipping her ponytail over her shoulder. “I get this is your thing, but I’ve got the most experience in these situations. What happens when James gets surrounded by Arcanex security? You think they’re going to stop and talk like the last ones did? After what you did to them?”
Marcus’ eyes narrowed, lip and nostril twitching slightly. “And you think having us all grouped up is going to make that better? If we’re spread out, it’ll be easier to dodge the patrols.”
“With what intel?” She snapped back at him, one hand flying into the air as if to pluck something out of it. “Did the spy gods send you a supply drop I didn’t see?”
“No, don’t be a…”
“Ahem!” James cut him off, clearing his throat and physically placing his body in the vocal firing range between them. “I get that I’m just the nerd here, but I had an idea if you two wanna can it for a second so I can talk.”
Marcus slinked back slightly, muscles relaxing, and the snarl on his face releasing. “Sorry…” he muttered to his brother.
“Yeah, sorry.” Victoria nodded and gestured toward him. “Go ahead.”
“Marcus is right, this isn’t a tenable way to do this. That being said, I’m not super excited about getting shot either.” He pulled out his phone and started typing furiously into it before turning and searching the skyline. “Lets find a spot to lay-low for the day. I’ll do some research. If I can find a couple of buildings with the best street views, I can take one of the glimmerfangs with me up to the roof and keep an eye on patrols while you guys spread out in a region before we move to the next.”
“Okay, and what if whatever building you’re sitting on top of fills with patrols? What if you get spotted?” Victoria raised an eyebrow at him.
“Then we hide.” James shrugged, scratching the head of the glimmerfang beside him. “It’s not rocket science. Besides, I’m not going to be the one busting into people’s apartments, so it seems an unlikely scenario.”
Marcus’ jaw shifted back and forth for a minute before finally shrugging and looking past him at Victoria. “I’m fine with that.”
She pursed her lips, eyelids fluttering, before finally nodding. “Alright. Fine.”
The eight of them crammed into a lower level apartment that had been abandoned to wait out the day. Between naps, Marcus and Victoria alternated keeping watch out the windows and doors for wandering Arcanex patrols. While a few did cross, the closest they came to being discovered was by a particularly nosy NYPD officer and his partner, who “swore he saw something in there.”
Marcus peeked out the window again as the sun started to fall, then glanced over to where James was passed out on the floor. There was a part of him who still saw James as the mild-mannered guy he’d been paired with for keeper training. The same sweet guy who he’d invited to dinner to introduce to his big sister. That wasn’t who he was looking at anymore. He idly twirled the ring on his middle finger before glancing over at Victoria.
“Hey, you asleep?” He whispered in her direction, a foot going out to nudge her hip.
“No,” one of her eyes cracked open to look up at him from where she sat against the wall. “You alright?”
“Yeah,” Marcus rubbed the back of his neck, mouth curling up into a tight circle before he spoke again. “I wanted to apologize. I shouldn’t have got on your case earlier.”
“Shut up.” She rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her chest.
Marcus snorted, a little grin forming as he wasn’t sure whether to be amused or insulted. “Rude?”
“You’re hardheaded, you’re not afraid to tell somebody with years more experience than you when you think they’re wrong, and you’re unfortunately pretty good when it comes to game time decision making.” She glanced up at him again and shook her head. “So am I. There is nothing to apologize for. You could use your ears a little more than your mouth, but everybody’s got flaws.”
Chuckling, Marcus shook his head and leaned against the wall. The two of them sat in silence for a minute before he continued. “I’m guessing I’m not the only one that noticed this isn’t working?”
She shook her head and frowned. “No, James didn’t want to say anything. Said you’ve already been through enough, but we know.”
Marcus turned his smile on James’ sleeping form curled up beside a glimmerfang. Just like James to try to protect him, even from himself. “We’ve gotta do something drastic.”
“Like?”
Marcus shook his head, the wheels in his mind spinning as fast as he could will them to. Even when they took the initiative, pushed into the quarantine areas, they were still playing defense. Cleaning up the mess that Arcanex was making. They needed to go on offense. “Maybe it’s time we release the documents we stole?”
“We could,” Victoria shrugged. “Harris would just spin it as being research for the cure, though. There's nothing incriminating enough in it. Maybe with the reports from the people we’ve saved, it would be enough for a fringe section to turn on him, but I don’t think it’s enough.”
Marcus nodded, jaw shifting back and forth. “Probably right. You have any other ideas?”
“Kill him.” She shrugged, the half-smile on her face indicating the percentage of joke the statement was.
“Mhmm…” He frowned at that. It hadn’t been the first time it had crossed his mind, and likely wouldn’t be the last. Maybe that would solve the problem. Snakes aren’t dangerous without their heads, then again, it was possible the company was more hydra than snake in which case they were utterly fucked. “Back burner that one for now.”
Victoria nodded and sighed. “All we can do for now is keep pushing. Try to save as many people as we can.”
Soft James and glimmerfang snores hovered in the silence of the room as the two of them waited for nightfall again. It wasn’t a particularly good plan, but it was the only one they had. Keep moving forward. Keep pushing. He just had to keep his eyes open for an opportunity. Any space in the Arcanex armor that he could slip between.
Marcus, Victoria, and the four other glimmerfangs left James in the building he indicated, fanning out from that point to cover as much ground as possible. Every few minutes they would get an update from James through the walkie talkie app on their phones. He’d also engineered some way to ping the maps of where patrols were moving. How was absolutely beyond him.
Not being shackled to each other was speeding up the process considerably, but the sheer density of people stacked on top of each other in this city was not to be underestimated. Not to mention New York City rats. He’d always heard jokes about them. Watch out, that rat will snatch the pizza right off your plate and run down the street with it. He’d never put much stock in them until today. They didn’t have the same hamster shaped bodies the blightshrews had, but when they were darting from one crevice in a wall into another it was nearly impossible for him to tell the difference. Hell, they’d even fooled Kane a couple of times.
Marcus had taken to dumping the bags of blightshrew carcasses into the street in front of the buildings. Perhaps a little barbaric, but his focus was slowly shifting. He still wanted to save as many people as he could, of course, but he also needed to send a message. What better message than piles of Arcanex sins in front of buildings they were infecting.
He’d gone through four full apartment buildings with blinding speed when the first call of concern came in.
“Don’t want anybody to freak out yet, but I’ve got two patrols coming into my building.” James hushed voice sounded from his phone.
Marcus quickly tugged it from where he’d fastened it next to his shoulder under his jumpsuit and hissed back. “What happened? Are you hiding?”
“Yeah, yeah. I was able to get a camouflage spell off.” He whispered. “I think the motorcade spotted me skylining.”
“What motorcade?” Victoria called.
“Pretty sure it was Walter’s.” James said. “Four vehicles heading southwest, big black SUV’s. One of them had a spotlight on me. Going quiet, I can hear them coming up.”
Marcus frowned as three consecutive beeps sounded. James was a talented spell caster, but if a bunch of goons armed to the tits in magitech nonsense were looking for him… “Come on, Kane.” Marcus called to the glimmerfang who yapped at he and the other hound followed him down the stairs.
He came to a sudden stop at the end of the road, holding out a hand to stop the glimmerfangs from barreling through him. Putting a finger on what he’d expected to see when he peeked around the corner was challenging, but it certainly wasn’t what was occurring now.
Spell carbine shots lit up the sky as James and a pink puff of smoke jumped from rooftop to rooftop, evading Arcanex security. At the base of the building, all four SUV’s James had called out had stopped. Watching the theatrics with his arms folded in front of the center vehicle was Walter Harris.
Marcus’ eyes narrowed on the man. He could end this right now. Sneak up behind them and save the world from the coming misery. Would the six guards he counted around the man surely fill him full of holes? Yeah. It was probably worth the risk.
Just as Marcus started to step around the corner, something brought his gaze back to the rooftops. James, amid a death-defying leap, let out a curse of pain that somehow sounded off louder than the gunfire coming from behind him. His stomach turned and chills stung his skin when James missed the jump, colliding with the side of the building in front of him and starting a rapid descent to the ground.
Green runes flared from under his black sweats. His feet took him as fast as the magic would allow, ripping across the street like some kind comic book hero, and breaking James’ fall with his own outstretched arms.
Gravity was a cruel mistress.
Marcus’ shoulders gave out almost immediately with two loud, grotesque pops. He bit down hard on his cheek to muffle the scream of pain emerging from his chest as all three glimmerfangs appeared in the alley beside him.
“Oh, fuck, Marcus.” James’ voice was trembling between gasping breaths. “My leg. Marcus, my fucking leg, man.”
Marcus had done a full spin, folding over on himself, arms hanging uselessly toward the ground. He took a few deep breaths, pushing the pain away, before turning to check on James’ leg. Blood spurted from between his fingers, covering the wound.
“Let me see it.” Marcus grunted out.
James let out a low whine and scrunched up his face tight so he didn’t have to see as he removed his hand. Blood sprayed from the severed artery within the clean, round hole. Where he should have seen bone and muscle, he only saw the blood coated concrete beneath him.
“Get on Kane’s back. Now.” Marcus took a deep breath and forced one arm up high enough to grab his phone as Kane crawled over to James. “Victoria. Meet us at the plane. We need to get out of here now.”
“On my way.”
She didn’t argue. Good.
“Get your arms under his collar. As soon as the adrenaline wears off, you are going to be in more pain than you could possibly imagine. Hold on as tight as you can, as long as you can.” Marcus used his knees and then chest to help his brother up onto the dog’s back.
“Okay. Oh fuck. Marcus…Marcus, am I going to die?”
“You’re not going to die.” Marcus swallowed hard. “You just hold on. Kane. Get back to the plane.”
The glimmerfang barked, then shot from the alley as if death itself was chasing him.
Marcus peeked around the corner. He couldn’t be certain, but it seemed the same group of guards that had been firing at James were now running down the road in his direction. He needed to keep them off Kane and James for as long as possible. Arms hanging limply at his sides, he stepped out of the alley to face them.
“Missed me, fuckers!” He called before taking off into the alley again.
Running without being able to pump his arms was an adventure in itself. There were several close calls as he ducked and dived through alleyways and onto new streets. Each time he was able to evade capture, but only slightly. Finally, after ducking into an apartment building and taking a window out the other side, he made enough space for himself to head to the hangar.
Victoria and Kane waited for him at the bottom of the steps, her arms crossed as he slowed his approach. “Thought you might try to ditch us. Do it by yourself.” She raised an eyebrow at him.
“Shoulders.” He winced. “Can you put em back in?”
Victoria grimaced, but nodded and moved over to him. “This is gonna hurt.”
“I figured.” He nodded and closed his eyes. “Just do it.”
She grabbed his wrist with one hand, the other on his shoulder, and gently pulled his arm away from the shoulder, rotating it and lifting it to cover the full range of motion. He wanted to scream, but stuck to shaking and drawing blood from his own tongue until a loud clunk sounded near his ear and hot tears spilled from his eyes.
“Fuck me…”
“Not the time for that. One more.” Victoria grinned at him.
“Was that a joke? Seriously? Now?”
She grabbed his wrist and gave it a little tug to get him to focus. “Shut up,” she said before repeating the process on the other side.
After a few more minutes of blinding pain, his arms were usable again at least. He followed her up onto the plane to check with Bridgette. As expected James was passed out before he’d even gotten to the plane, somehow Kane had kept him steady on his back and go her attention. The bolt had shot straight through the femur and severed the femoral artery, but with a gentle touch and no small amount of magic, she was able to stop the bleeding. She’d need a place that wasn’t the cargo hold of a plane to put a permanent fix in place.
“Fine, I’m gonna go convince Hank to get us off the ground.” Victoria’s hand rested on his shoulder for a moment, her fingertips gently caressing the crook of his neck. “You alright?”
Marcus wet his bottom lip, but nodded. “Yeah, just need to get James home,” he said, swallowing hard. She stared at him for a long moment before giving him a nod and letting go to head up to the cockpit. He watched her leave, took a deep breath, then knelt down beside James.
“My sister will kill me if he dies.” Marcus didn’t look up at Bridgette as he sat a hand on James’ shoulder. “Make sure he survives the trip for me?”
“Of course.” Bridgette said, smiling at him when he finally looked up.
Marcus gnawed at the inside of his cheek for a second longer before getting up and sneaking off the plane. Victoria was not going to be pleased, but this ended here. He wasn’t waiting for another member of his family to fall. A puff of pink smoke exploded beside him as the plane pulled out of the hangar, and Kane barked at him.
Marcus let out a breathy chuckle and shook his head. “Was trying to save you the trouble, buddy.” He whispered, sinking his fingers into the dog’s fur as he watched the plane drive off. He swore he saw Victoria’s face in a window before it took off. Wheels lifted off the ground, and Marcus turned to face Kane, burying his face in the dark, soft fur of his neck for a moment. Still with no idea what he was about to do, he kissed the top of the dog's head and turned back toward the quarantine zone.