Page 21 of Not With the Eyes

They headed quickly back to the elevators, almost faster than Oberon could manage to keep pace with, given her ankles were still in restraints. At the elevators, the guards kept sweeping the empty lobby as though expecting something, or someone, to appear. Instead, everything was cast into strange shadow by the eerie red lights that shone down. The alarmsthrobbed in Oberon's head, threatening to turn a mild headache into a full blow migraine.

She swore the guards nearly cried in relief when the elevators arrived, opening with a cheerful ding completely at odds with the situation. Shouldn't elevators lock down in an emergency situation? Hmmm…

Down, down they went, all the way to the sublevels this time. The elevators dinged, the sound not going far against the dull cement walls that surrounded them.

A sharp bang rang out, making Oberon flinch and cry out even as she registered it was a gunshot. She covered her ears as the second one came. The guards on either side of her lay still on the ground, blood oozing from holes right in the middle of their foreheads. "Fuck." She looked down the hallway, where a shadow parted from the rest of the darkness and removed its facemask. "Give a girl some warning, asshole. My ears are ringing."

"Sorry, love," Scones said. "Next time be in the cell assigned to you."

"Not my fault your mother did a number on my face." When Scones gave her a look, she added, "All right, fine, it's entirely my fault. She's laughably easy to provoke, what can I say?"

Scones holstered his gun and started rifling through the clothes of the dead guards, turned away from Oberon as he asked, "Do I want to know what you said? Why the hell do you look like her? It's creeping me out."

"Because it creeped her out too," Oberon replied. "As to why she tried to beat me to death… I may have implied there was a possibility I was carrying her grandchild."

Scones choked on air again, whipping around, the keys in his hand jangling. "Youwhat. Have you lost your bloody mind? You didn't even have the parts for that!"

"Well, she didn't know that, and it worked, because your father kicked me out before she could get anything useful out of me."

"My father is here?" Scones strode up to Oberon and got her cuffs and collar off.

Oberon rubbed at her sore throat. "Finally. Thank you. Grab that poor bastard there. He's one of us."

"The plan did not include—"

"Do it anyway!" Oberon bellowed.

Scones lifted his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay."

"What happened to the other guards down here? Are any other cells occupied?"

"Dead and no," Scones said as he heaved Rodeo over one shoulder. "Why does this guy weigh so fucking much? He's at least a stone more than he should be at his size."

"He's a 6-level titan." Oberon helped herself to some weapons the dead guards would no longer be needing, as well as their clothes and gear, shifting into a body type that could fit it all properly.

When he was ready, he asked, "So what's the rest of the plan?"

"Head for the loading docks," Scones said. "Plan is a little generous, honestly. We didn't have time to come up with much, as the longer you were here, the harder it would be to get you, and Byron especially was vehemently against you being here long enough for the experiments to start. He's almost as upset about this as me."

Oberon smiled ever so faintly as he nodded to the elevators. "He would be. How did you keep the elevators working?"

"That's all Dixie. Once I got him inside, which was easier said than done, let me fucking tell you, he took care of the rest. Level three."

Not bothering to ask why the loading docks were on the third floor, Oberon mashed the button to open the elevators and led the way inside. Scones grunted as he rested against the back to ease some of Rodeo's weight. "You realize dealing with him is just—"

"I don't fucking care," Oberon retorted. "Byron would want him saved, and I'm part of the stupid Anti-Heroes. Which reminds me." He stepped in close, twined his fingers through Scones's hair, and kissed him until they were both panting for breath and the chiming of the elevator forced them apart. "Thanks for coming for me."

Scones smirked, and that was far hotter than it had any business being. "I was promised a really good reward if I did it quickly."

Oberon smiled in reply, then put all his attention on the situation.

The elevator doors slid open, and they surged out, firing away at the guards waiting for them. Numbers were against them, but the guards couldn't kill them, which went a long way toward evening the odds.

The remaining difference was covered by having the world's best sniper on their side.

"Where are we going?" Oberon asked, wiping sweat from his face as he stepped over bodies, heading for the far side of the docks, where several different vehicles waited. Building must be on some sort of incline that put the third floor at ground level on one side. He didn't remember that from the specs, but he also hadn't given a fuck.

"East," Scones said with a grunt, nodding his head to his right. "Look for a red door."

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