Eros's POV
Exactly three days and twelve hours after I'd left Rosie's dad I was sitting outside the SMH, waiting to see what happens when you inform an angry adult phoenix where his child is.
I think I know what his plan is, my wolf said.
'Phionxes are the undisputed masters of battle plans and strategy. What makes you think you can guess what he's going to do?' I asked with doubt.
There are only a few plans that would involve bringing three adult dragons with. The only one I can think of would be completely destroying the SMH.
'Three full grown dragons?' I asked.
Can't you hear them? Of course you can hear them, I can hear them. Don't you recognize the sound?
'N...' I started to answer before the sound got louder and three dragons following the surprisingly big phoenix came into view.
It was hard to see much of the trio in the dark and from below, but what I could see made me wonder why anyone ever thought it was a good idea to go after dragon babies. The center one was a brilliant gold color that flashed with light from the phoenix's blazing feathers every time it beet its massive wings. It was flanked by a red one on the right and an orange one on the left. The gold one was by far the biggest, dwarfing even the phoenix it was flying behind. I'd seen Rosie's dad up close while he was a phoenix, I couldn't imagine how big his companions were. The red dragon brought a whole new meaning to the word terrifying. His claws were visible even with the less than ideal conditions. They seemed to have a metal covering of some sort, it could have just been a play of lights on white claws, but they reflected the light coming off the phoenix instead of absorbing it how the other two's did. In both the red dragon and the orange one I could see rippling muscle, made more obvious by the harsh shadows generated by their fierce leader.
The phoenix let out screech and as one the dragons behind him lifted their heads, letting out loud roars followed by long streams of fire.
I think the color of the dragon determines the color of fire they produce, my wolf said thoughtfully, probably trying to combat the feeling of fear that had worked its way into my system, I recognize that red, yellow and orange are all colors that fire can be naturally but it seems odd that the red one only has red fire and the orange one only has orange fire.
Rosie's dad gave one more command to the dragons before dropping out of the sky and landing in front of me, instantly changing back into his human form.
The dragonlets fell off his back and landed behind him, shaking their heads as they got to their feet.
What happened to not bringing innocent dragon kits on dangerous missions? My wolf scoffed.
'I think he just wanted to punch us,' I replied before focusing on the man in front of me.
Amazingly he was dressed in the same thing he'd been wearing the last time I'd seen him, a tight black sweater and jeans. I had though that his clothes were destroyed when he changed, apparently phoenixes got special consideration as far as the whole clothes thing goes.
"You're late," I said referring to the extra twelve hours.
"I decided last minute to call in a favor from a witch. It would be a shame if my friends gave an innocent human a heart attack."
What kind of witch does he know? It's quite a feat to hide a group of dragons as they rip apart a building.
'We probably don't want to know,' I answered.
"I can infer what the dragons are for, but what's my job?"
"When the dragons rip off the roof to the SMH we are going to go in and start evacuating people. The werewolves are going to run into an emergency shelter that they have for situations like this but they will automatically assume that the dragons won't hurt the children. They're right. To the best of their abilities the dragons won't hurt anything except the building. That doen't mean that debris can't fall on any of them. I'll deal with the dragon, tree nymph and water nymph wings of the building. You only need to worry about the elf wing. When you're done with that it's your job to figure out where my daughter is. Your wolf should help with that."
He must think us highly incompetent to be evacuating three groups and only have us evacuate one.
'He's making sure we have time to find Rosie.'
As the last word left McFea's mouth, the dragons tucked their wings close to their bodies and dropped out of the sky, creating a loud boom as they hit the roof of the building.
"That's our cue," he said, smiling with a wicked glint in his eye.
He spun around and dashed toward the door to the SMH, making it there just as a chunk of the roof was thrown into the backyard.
You heard the man! my wolf said, far too enthusiastic about running into a building that was getting ripped apart by giant lizards.
"Here goes nothing," I mumbled before rushing into the building behind the phoenix.
Dust filled the air making it hard to breath and obscuring my vision. I covered my mouth and nose, looking around to find the elf hall.
Thank goodness for labeling, my wolf said as I caught sight of the word elf written above one of the hallways, The fact that it's one of the first things we saw when we walked in supports my assumption that he finds us incompetent.
'We can prove him wrong later.'
I ran down the hall, opening all of the doors as I went and telling each of the elves to go out onto the front lawn and join the two dragon kits. None of them questioned it, they just did as instructed with frightened looks on their faces.
When I got to a door with the word nursery written above it, I pushed it open and ran inside.
Sitting in a crib in the far corner of the room was an elf that looked to be about two years old. She was crying loudly and shaking the metal bars of her crib. I rushed over to her and pulled her out as a shock went through the building. She was still crying, but she wasn't screaming anymore and she held on to me tightly.
"Scared," she whimpered, squeezing around my neck tighter.
"It's okay," I told her as I checked the last couple rooms, "We're getting out of here."
The last two rooms were empty, so I took her outside.
"Watch her," I said handing the little girl off to the first person I came across on the lawn before rushing back inside.
Find stairs, my wolf ordered, immediately going working on the second task we'd been given, we need to go down.
I already knew that there weren't stairs down the elf hall, and I assumed the same would be true for the other hall, so I ran around the platform in the middle of the room. There was a door sitting there, conveniently hidden by the piano on the platform.
A small amount of satisfaction made its way into my system as I threw open the door and found a set of stairs next to a hallway. Without a second thought I headed toward the stairs and tried to beat the record for fastest time going down a long, creepy, set of unlit stone stairs.
I came to a few platforms, with doors leading one place and more stairs leading to the other but each time my wolf would tell me that we weren't deep enough. It felt like it took forever, but in reality it was only the third platform I'd come to when my wolf told me we were deep enough.
The door was, naturally, locked but it obviously wasn't meant top keep anyone on a side that they really didn't want to be on. It was a simple wooden door and my foot was the only thing necessary to open it.
I kicked the door hard and it flew inward.
More doors lined the hallway that I stepped into, only these doors were actually meant to hold people in. They were made out of some kind of metal. It was hard to tell what kind because of the thick layer of white paint coating them, but I would be willing to bet that they were magically charmed to keep their intended prisoners inside. That theory was supported by the lack of doorknobs. If these weren't prison cells each of the six doors I came across would have a doorknob and the only thing they would need to lock up would be magical.
The lighting reminded me of a hospital, bright and making the all white color theme seem sterile.
At the end of the hall there was another door, this one belonging to the guard-room based on the fact that it actually opened. My hope started to diminish as I looked at the security system set up. It had a microphone and a keypad. There was no way that my voice would be programmed in and I wasn't informed of any password.
Our voice might not be programmed in, but our father's might be. Our voice is close enough to trick a computer.
'What do we say?'
How should I know? This is a human thing.
'Thanks for that oh so wonderful help,' I grumbled to him before focusing on the lock.
"open," I said going for the most simple thing.
"Access denied," a mechanical voice said from out of nowhere.
"Damn it," I said trying to think of something else.
"Access denied," the voice said.
I think it's mocking you.
'Shut up and let me think,' I snapped at him.
"Emergency override," I said unable to think of anything else to say.
"Access denied."
"Damn it Kenrick why couldn't you make this easier!"
"Access granted, welcome King Kenrick to the west coast SMH."
The door popped open, swinging outward a little and granting me entrance to the control room.
I guess you don't need the pass-code if you have the right password, my wolf as we hesitantly stepped inside.
I ignored him as I looked around the empty room.
A bank of twelve monitors covered one of the walls. Most of them showed nothing but empty rooms but the last two had images of Rosie, laying on an uncomfortable looking cot with her eyes closed, a clear plastic tube fully of some kind of white substance went from her arm to one of those medical things that held up bags of fluid. The bag that was being drained into Rosie was half empty, meaning they'd kept her like this for awhile.
A growl slipped past my lips as I realized that she had probably been like this for the entire time she'd been held captive.
I started looking around furiously, trying to find the thing that would let her out.
A set of keys was sitting next to a slot in the control panel and without thinking I started trying different keys.
I'm so glad that they had to leave in a hurry. Whoever left these here is going to be in a great deal of trouble, my wolf said as the fifth key turned easily in the lock and the doors in the hallway opened.
Ignoring him, I went out into the hall and looked through the doors until I found the one Rosie was in.
The camera didn't show how pale she'd gotten, but standing in the doorway of her cell it was obvious that the eleven or more days of confinement didn't do her any good. Instead of going in to get her, I was just staring, wondering whether to be relieved that I'd found her or concerned that she wasn't in such good shape.
We've got to go, my wolf said softly, urging me to go in.
'I know,' I replied, finally walking into the room.
Sorrow started to settle in the pit of my stomach as I walked closer. My people did this to her, it was werewolves who drugged her into oblivion and werewolves who treated her as if she were a possession. There were no consequences for werewolves who did things like this. Quite the opposite actually, they were going to be praised for being the only ones to have kept a phoenix confined for such a long period of time.
I pulled the IV out of her arm and pulled her into my arms. The sorrow that had been building was made slightly better at having her safe, in my arms. My people may have done this to her, but I was saving her.
Each step that I took made me feel just a little bit better.
I was going to take her out of here, and she would never be put in another position that would allow her to be treated so harshly. If she somehow managed to get herself into a position of vulnerability, I would kill the people who hurt her, I would destroy them.
The trip up the stairs seemed to go a lot faster, despite the fact that I was walking instead of running, and soon we were standing on ground level.
There was no building around us, bits of stone, piping and electric wiring were sticking out of the rubble in some places and the three dragons who caused this destruction were all standing around the stairwell, waiting for me to come out.
They look eager, my wolf noted with confuion, What are they going to do?
'I don't know,' I replied as I started walking toward the surprisingly empty front lawn.
As soon as I was out of their way they continued their task, ripping pieces of the flooring away and throwing it on the building pile in the backyard.
It didn't take them long to get to the first level, and the second after that. Prison cells were ripped open as if they were cardboard boxes on Christmas day, their remains thrown into the pile like so much garbage.
They kept going until they finally reached a metal box.
It looked like it was about fifteen feet by twenty and if I had to guess, ten feet high.
The dragons roared with delight as they wrapped their claws around the thick metal bars that stood on the top, probably how they managed to lift the bomb-shelter when it was being put in, and dragged it out of the hole they'd made to get to it.
A door with one of the most complicated locking system I had ever seen took up one side and I immediately understood what it was.
That was where the SMH werewolves were hiding.
I was a prince, those were my people, but I couldn't feel a shred of pity as the dragons lifted it into the air and set it down on top of the pile of rubble that they had created.
A hand fell on my shoulder from behind and I turned to look at where Rosie's dad was looking at the box with satisfaction.
"The children are all on a private plane, headed toward my house in New York. The witch is with them and when they arrive she is going to try to track down their parents. Any that don't have parents anymore will be able to stay at my estate until further notice. That beauty," he continued, motioning to the box, "is going to take a little trip cross-country. Since you can't fly and I wouldn't want you to miss it when I give your father his little present I'm going to have you ride Sveta. Don't worry too much, she has been commanded to fly smooth since my daughter is going to stay with you," he said before walking over to join the dragons, changing into his more spectacular form as soon as he was with them.
Rosie stirred in my arms a little and I looked down to see her eyes fluttering open. She groaned and closed her eyes again.
"Never again," she grumbled sleepily, "never again cage... Get rid of cages... Chay want person? Got one."
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A/N This is going to be the last chapter in this book. I'm going to start the sequel soon.