Smokejumpers Werebear 6: Quint and Lystra Page 3

  She slipped off her pajamas and put on some workout clothes. She liked to go down to the SEA staff gym and run it out on the treadmill. It was the only thing that relaxed her. That and flying around as her dragon, but she was already in enough trouble to do that.

  She left her issued room in the SEA headquarters and headed past the elevators into the stairwell. She ran down the stairs, taking two at a time, trying to get her mind off her son.

  The gym was on the third floor. She stopped at the door with the three on it and exhaled. Fuck it. She continued down, passing the second then the first floor, and opened the door of the basement.

  They could keep her from her son but they couldn’t keep her from her mate. She hated how she left things yesterday. She wanted to explain to Quint why she was here. Why she was fighting for the wrong side.

  She crept around the bend in the hallway hoping that the guard was on break. He wasn’t.

  “Lystra,” he called out when he saw her. She rolled her eyes.

  Frank was always hitting on her. Luckily the bosses felt the same way about him that she did and dumped him down here on the night shift. He was the weird guy on the bus that insisted on speaking with you even though you had headphones in your ears.

  He ran over, waving. “You came to see me, my love,” he said, smiling an awkward, unshaven smile. He gazed down at her legs in her tight running shorts and bit his lip.

  “I’m here to see a prisoner. Quint Fellows. He’s in cell unit eleven.”

  “When are you going to let me take you on a date?” he asked. “There’s a great Arby’s near my house that we can go to. The assistant manager used to date my sister and he gives me free bread sticks.”

  Lystra’s dinner was crawling up her throat, threatening to fly back out, as she pictured herself going out with him.

  “That’s sweet,” she said, “but I’m really busy.”

  He stared at her, thinking. If that thick head was capable of thinking. “You’re so pretty. I have to take you somewhere better than Arby’s. I’m going to go all out with you. I’ll make reservations at The Olive Garden.” He was biting his lip and nodding his head. “What do you think of that?” he asked, rubbing his swollen belly.

  “That sounds lovely,” she said, creeping past him. “And I would love to. But it’s against the Agency rules.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. Otherwise I would’ve asked you out a long time ago.” She stepped backwards down the hall. “Article thirty six, line nineteen. Shifter Enforcement Agency coworkers cannot date.”

  Frank jerked his head back. “I never saw that,” he mumbled.

  “It’s in there.” She grabbed the key to Quint’s cell off the hook. “Too bad too. I hear The Olive Garden has a great Cesar salad.”

  “I can quit,” he called out as she turned the corner.

  She hurried down the row of cells, each one with a thick steel door locking a prisoner in. How many of these shifters were actual, real, criminals? She ran her finger along the smooth door as she walked past it. Probably none of them.

  The longer she worked at the SEA the longer she hated it. It was a good idea in principle; the humans couldn’t know about shifters. They would freak out if they knew that the lady in the store next to their kids could change into a tiger or a mountain lion. They would want them all rounded up and thrown in prisons just like this.

  Someone had to step up and make sure that their secret was safe. That’s when the SEA was formed. But over the years it became corrupt. It was used now for power more than anything else. And innocent people, like Micha and Quint, got stuck in the cross hairs.

  Lystra stopped in front of the door with the eleven stenciled in black on it. Would he even want to see her? She lowered the key and thought about heading back up to the gym.

  No. He’s your mate. He’ll want to see you.

  She just needed someone to talk to. Someone to hold her. Lystra was missing her son bad.

  She slid the key into the lock and it clicked open. She stepped into the dark cell and closed the door.

  It was pitch black but she could always see perfectly in the dark. One of the perks of being a dragon shifter. One of the only perks.

  “Hi,” he whispered. He was lying on his cot, staring up at the ceiling.

  Lystra shifted her weight from foot to foot. “I didn’t know if I should come back.”

  Quint sat up and tapped the bed next to him. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. Lystra stole a glance at his muscular chest and large, tattooed arms as she sat down beside him.

  “I’m glad that you did,” he said. His chest was hairy, just like Lystra liked.

  He lowered his head. “I’m sorry. About yesterday. I didn’t know.”

  Lystra frowned. “Know what?”

  He looked up at her, his eyes tender and kind. “About your son. About what they did.”

  Her chest tightened. She felt the familiar feeling of tears flooding her eyes. She tried to hold the tears back but all of the heartbreak of the past few days came rushing forward. Three months. She covered her hands with her face. She didn’t want him to see her cry.

  A warm arm slid over her shoulders like a comforting blanket. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

  Lystra leaned into his body and let the tears come. It was okay to cry in front of him. He was her mate. His body was warm. It felt nice. It felt right.

  Her inner dragon hummed softly at being near her mate.

  “What is his name?” Quint asked softly.

  “Micha.” She loved saying it. Micha. It made her heart smile. That is until the bitter sweetness came crashing back.

  She pulled out of his embrace and looked at him through wet, narrowed eyes. “How did you know that I have a son?”

  “I have good hearing,” he replied. So did she but she couldn’t hear through these steel walls. Could bear shifters really hear that well?

  “When was the last time that you saw him?” he asked, holding her hand and stroking her palm.

  “Twenty seven days ago,” she said, wiping away her moist cheeks. “I get an hour with him once a month.” She bit her lip as she thought back on her last visit. He was getting so old. “He gets less excited to see me with every visit.” She glanced down at their hands. It felt good to finally talk about this with someone.

  “He looks at me like I’m a stranger. He doesn’t even know who his own mother is.”

  Quint took a deep breath. “And his father?”

  “Gone,” she said. “Before he was born.”

  She had been young. And stupid. And he was a smooth talker. A dangerous combination.

  But Lystra never regretted it. She got Micha out of it. And that hour a month was still worth thirty days of pain, worry and sadness.

  “Have you thought about rescuing him?” Quint asked.

  “Of course,” she said. That was all she thought about for three years. But the SEA had thought of everything.

  He ran his fingers through her hair as she spoke. She had held it in for three years. Lystra had no one to talk to. No one to confide in. She was all alone.

  This man that she had just met was giving her his undivided attention and everything just came pouring out.

  “They have everything so carefully planned.” She shook her head in frustration. She had looked at every angle trying to find a weakness. But there weren’t any.

  “They keep me in a fireproof room for our visits. They make Micha wear a collar. Someone watches over us through a two way mirror and they warned me that if I do anything threatening or touch the collar they will push a button and the collar will electrocute him.” She clenched her jaw, her eyes burning as she held back tears. “And if all of that wasn’t enough they give me an injection that prevents me from phasing.”

  Quint jerked his head back. “I’ve never heard of that.”

  “The agency has everything. It only lasts for about two hours but it definitely works. My dragon is locked up.” She didn’t mention how it burned like
liquid fire as it made its way through the blood stream.

  “They let me see Micha for an hour and then he leaves. They lock me in the room until he’s back at…wherever they keep him.”

  “What about rescuing him at the compound?” Quint asked.

  She shook her head. “I would but I have no idea where it is.” She had spent three years searching. “I’ve looked. I broke into offices, searched through files.”

  Quint listened as he held her hand.

  “I spend most nights flying my dragon. Looking. I must have been over the state a dozen times by now. But nothing.” The SEA were too careful. She might have flown over it ten times without knowing. Micha could be anywhere.

  Quint breathed in slowly. “Lystra,” he whispered. “I know someone who knows where he is.”

  She snapped her hand back and stared at him with narrow eyes. Was this some kind of a trick? Her chest tightened with nerves.

  Quint told her about the mysterious prisoner who seemed to know so much. She was skeptical.

  “Was his name Sue?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” Quint said. “He said that you were the one who locked him up.”

  “He was an enforcer for the mob,” she said. “He pissed off some powerful people. It took seventeen agents to bring him down.” He had broken her arm during the arrest. He couldn’t be trusted.

  “He said that he saw Micha,” Quint said.

  Lystra rolled her eyes. “He’s a liar. I don’t believe him.”

  “He said that Micha has a moon shaped birthmark on his neck.”

  Her mouth dropped. How could he know that? Micha did have a crescent shaped birthmark on his neck. How many times had she kissed that spot? Not enough.

  She stared at Quint in shock. Could it actually be true?

  “We can get to him,” Quint said, staring into her eyes. “We can rescue him and meet up with my Crew. We’ll keep you two safe.”

  She felt an empty pit in her stomach. “No one can keep us safe from them.”

  Quint smiled. “But we have something that they don’t.”

  “What?”

  “A dragon shifter.”

  five

  Four days.

  Quint stared at the plastic bottle of prison-made wine. It would be ready in four days. Four measly, little days. It felt like a lifetime.

  The rattling was back. Quint glanced back at the loose panel on the wall. Sue was signaling him to talk.

  “Who is it?” he asked into the vent after opening the panel.

  “Just your friendly, local girl guides selling cookies,” the deep, booming voice said. Quint didn’t want to meet a little girl with a voice like that.

  “I’ll take fifty boxes. Mint.” Quint’s mouth watered just thinking about them. “Put it on my tab.”

  “Maybe that’s how you can escape,” Sue said. “Dress up as a girl scout and walk out of here.” His thunderous laughing echoed into Quint’s cell.

  It was an idea. Maybe if he got really desperate. He’d have to shave his beard first though.

  “So what was her name?” Quint asked, sitting down and leaning his back against the wall. “The girl that got you stuck in here?”

  “Mia.”

  “Pretty name,” Quint said. “Not as pretty as Sue but still.”

  Sue laughed. “No name is as pretty as Sue.”

  That’s where he was wrong. Lystra was.

  “Tell me about this Mia.”

  “I was reckless and crazy before I met her. When I wasn’t fighting I was looking for fights. My fists were my paint brushes and I was fucking Rembrandt. Don Alesio, the head of the mob around here liked my style. He gave me a job. I liked to bash in heads. He had a lot of heads that needed bashing in. It was the perfect relationship. Until my bear bonded with his daughter.”

  “Let me guess,” Quint said. “That would be Mia.”

  “Yeah,” he said softly. “That was my Mia. She loved me back. Like really loved me. For the first time in my life I felt what it felt like to be loved. It was amazing.

  “Well her Dad didn’t approve and he had me sent here.”

  “How did he do that?” Quint asked.

  Sue chuckled. “The SEA works with the mob. You didn’t know that?”

  Quint had no idea but he wasn’t surprised.

  “How do you think I know where that dragon bitch’s kid is hidden?”

  Quint’s bear growled. He didn’t like his mate being called a bitch.

  “Don Alesio had set up the compound for the SEA. I was there the day they brought him in. I snuck him a juice box and a toy truck.”

  “Sue do you know how to get to the compound from here?” Quint asked.

  “Why? You want to go on vacation?” He laughed.

  “Do you?” Quint asked again. He needed an answer.

  “Yeah,” Sue said. “I could get there in my sleep.”

  Quint hesitated, wondering how much he should tell him. He decided to wait.

  “Have you seen Mia since?” Quint asked.

  There was a long pause. “No,” he said. “Only in my dreams. But maybe one day.”

  He could hear Sue’s bear grumbling from here. It was torture for a bear to be away from their mate.

  “So that’s why I’m here. You know. The classic story.”

  Quint ran his hand through his hair. “Let’s hope it has a classic ending.”

  “What’s that?”

  Quint smiled. “Boy gets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy gets girl.”

  “I hope,” he said, the enthusiasm gone from his voice. “What about you? What’s your story?”

  What could he tell him? He couldn’t mention Lystra. But he didn’t have to.

  There was someone at the door.

  Quint jumped up and slammed the panel back in place as a key slid into the lock. He backed up against the wall, squeezing his hands into fists, ready to phase.

  Logan walked in with two wolf shifters behind him. He had a malicious grin on his face. He cracked his knuckles and walked forward.

  “Time to talk.”

  Screaming ripped down the hall. Lystra’s dragon reared up inside her. The dragon recognized the hair raising screams. It was coming from her mate.

  Lystra sprung up from her desk and sprinted down the hall. She held her breath as she opened the door to the room that the staff lovingly called the conference room. It was where Logan tortured the prisoners. Everyone who entered spoke before they got to leave.

  Lystra had only seen one shifter who had successfully remained silent. He died before he had the chance to talk. He literally spilled his guts before he had the chance to spill his guts.

  She held her breath as she opened the door and stepped inside. Quint was hanging by his wrists from the ceiling. His bare feet were dangling over the blood stained, cement floor. He was beat up, covered in blood and bruises. His head was hanging down, his chin resting on his chest.

  Logan was standing before him with a metal rod in his hand. He was breathing heavy. He must’ve had quite the workout with that stick.

  Lystra surveyed the room. The two wolf shifters were leaning against the wall, watching. The torture instruments were laid out on a metal table beside Logan. There was an empty syringe, which meant that he gave Quint an injection. He wouldn’t be able to phase into a bear for at least another hour. Maybe longer. Logan liked to keep shifters in their human forms so that they could talk.

  Logan turned and watched her as she entered. Quint barely managed to raise his head. He smiled, a pained smile and winked at Lystra, before dropping his head back down.

  Lystra’s inner dragon was enraged. She was ready to unleash hell.

  “Agent Lystra,” Logan said, swinging the rod around in his hand. “You’re just in time for the show. Quint here was just about to talk. Weren’t you Quint?” He slammed the metal rod into Quint’s exposed ribs. He grunted and swung around, hanging by the rope.

  Lystra’s body burned. Lava flowed through her veins. The room lit up in
a bright orange as her eyes seared.

  “What the?” Logan muttered as her skin turned into hard, gray scales. Her back ripped open and dragon wings shot out.

  The two wolf shifters rushed forward. Towards her or towards the door? Lystra didn’t know. They didn’t get far. Fire exploded from her throat. It swallowed the two agents that were in mid shift. They fell to the floor, two squirming balls of fire.

  Lystra’s dragon turned towards Logan and let loose. Flames ripped through the room at the man that kept her a prisoner for so long.

  But Logan was quick. He jumped over the metal table and grabbed it. He brought it down as the flames raced at him and hid behind the metal shield. The torture instruments clattered on the floor.

  Lystra’s dragon forced the fire out. She wanted to melt this man. Melt this whole place. She took a deep breath and blew out another stream of flames. She pushed. Hard. She focused every second of sadness, every second of pain that he caused her over the years into that rush of fire.

  Logan snatched a knife off of the floor and threw it at her dangling mate. It sunk into his chest.

  Her dragon cut the flames and turned her head. Her mate needed help. All of a sudden that was all that was important. Not revenge. She needed to save him. The dragon rushed towards Quint as Logan ran out of the room with half of his body on fire.

  Lystra pulled in her dragon and phased back into her human form. The knife was in deep. In the center of his chest. There was blood everywhere. He was going to die if she didn’t do something.

  Lystra grabbed a scalpel off of the ground, stood on a chair and cut him down. She ran over to the burning wolves and held the blade in the flames until it was red hot.

  She ran back, pulled out the knife from her mate’s chest and held the scalpel to the wound. It seared and hissed as it closed.

  “Come on,” she whispered, glancing back at the open door. He had to recover quick. Or they were both going to die.

  The cuts and bruises all over his body, Logan’s handiwork, were healing. She gasped in relief. The knife wound on his chest was fading. She ran back to her torn uniform and slipped it back on, reattaching the torn parts with the specially designed fabric.