Page 34 of Through the Veil (Endangered Fae #2)

Diego stared from one to the other, his tired brain struggling with what sounded like nonsense words.

Finally, he latched on to the key phrases.

A harsh laugh born of frustration and disbelief leaped from him.

Once begun, the hysterical laughter ran away from him until he ran out of breath, his head on the table as he gasped helplessly.

“Mr. Sandoval?” Morrison’s hand landed gently on his shoulder. “You okay there?”

Diego raised his head, his chest still heaving. “Oh, God, you must be kidding me.”

“We couldn’t be more serious,” the general went on.

“The Institute for Extraterrestrial Research was built in the event of first contact. You’re in a secure base, Mr. Sandoval, hidden inside a mountain, surrounded three hundred and sixty degrees by layers of lead and concrete. This place could withstand Armageddon.”

Scenes from the day the vans had invaded Diego’s front yard played on the screen. The ache in his chest grew to a wrecking ball.

“These are formidable adversaries.” The younger scientist stood, stoop-shouldered and long-limbed.

He used his pen to point to an image of Sionnach leaping at one of the men, back paws poised to eviscerate.

“With a dangerous and varied arsenal.” He pointed to the sky and Angus in his eagle form preparing to swoop.

“Natural physical weapons. The ability to morph.”

Diego held his breath when Finn and Faolchú broke from the woods. While he knew how this would end, more or less, he hoped beyond hope that he might be able to tell if they all still lived.

“The ability to utilize the natural surroundings as offensive weaponry.” The scientist pointed to Faolchú flinging up rocks at the attackers with flicks of his fingers.

Faolchú went down. Blood spattered the grass.

Dragon-Finn soon followed, his wing broken under him and a gaping hole torn in his chest. Diego bit back a cry of anguish.

On screen, Finn shifted back to his own form, dragging himself toward Diego’s convulsing body.

Five tranquilizer darts later, he finally lay still.

“Instantaneous transport.” The scientist pointed to where Faolchú suddenly disappeared. “Though we have yet to discover the location of the ship that must be in close orbit.”

Gracias a dios, Faolchú made it into the Dreaming . Diego bit down on his bottom lip to keep the tears back.

“Even a weapon resembling ball lightning.”

Diego watched in horror as his convulsions intensified on the screen.

A blue sphere formed above him, though to the uninformed observer it could easily have been forming over Finn or Nathair who lay beside him.

The lightning ball hovered, flashing, then split into hundreds of blinding forks, most of which drove harmlessly into the ground.

One hit the house, setting the porch steps on fire, while another hit one of the gray vans.

The van windows exploded in a shower of shards.

He continued to watch the screen in agonized silence as his image and those of the four remaining fae were loaded onto stretchers and into the vans.

The man with the clipboard waved at the house and ordered the fire put out and the area gassed, apparently to discourage any more ‘instantaneous transport’ at the site.

“Are they here?” Diego heard the raw, ragged whisper, shocked that it came from his own throat. “Are they alive?”

“The injured men all survived, though two are still in the infir—”

“No! Dios …what is wrong with you people?” Diego scrubbed his hands over his face. “The people who were with me. At my house. The four you kidnapped.”

Gerry drummed his fingers on the table, an unreadable look on his face. “All four subjects have been secured here.”

“The aliens have been quarantined, since they are quite dangerous,” the younger scientist said as he turned from the screen. “We are grateful for the opportunity to run necessary experiments, though.”

Diego squeezed his eyes shut on a long shudder even as his heart thumped a hard staccato against his sternum. He’s alive…thank God, he’s alive… “What sorts of ‘necessary experiments’?”

“What we’re hoping is that since you were in close contact with the aliens, you might have some knowledge that could help,” the general went on as if Diego hadn’t spoken. “If we’re going to be prepared for the upcoming invasion, any kernel might prove vital.”

“Invasion. I see.” Diego stared at the screen where the vans prepared to drive away from the house.

The whole thing was just too damned surreal.

He had considered the possibility that someone might discover the fae, sooner or later, but not that a paranoid government would be convinced that they were some sort of War of the Worlds landing party.

He blinked at the image onscreen. He thought he saw a tiny blue light hover over the van in the rear, shimmering.

As the line of government vehicles drove away, a green twinkle joined it, both lights zipping after the retreating vans.

He couldn’t be entirely certain, but he couldn’t very well ask them to replay the last scene so he could be sure.

He tucked away the possibility they had been followed and concentrated on the present. His keepers apparently believed rough treatment might kill him. Good. They wanted what he knew in the worst way, so he had some leverage.

“I’ll tell you what I know,” he said softly. “I guess it’s a little late not to. I’m not sure you’ll believe me, but I’ll try. But I’m not giving you anything until you let me see them. The, um, aliens. Speak to them.”

“Out of the question,” snapped the elder scientist. “I won’t have ongoing experiments compromised.”

“They’re far too deadly,” the younger one insisted. “We couldn’t allow it.”

Gerry’s fingers ceased their drumming. His voice was silken cream as he said, “Oh, I don’t think there’s any harm in him seeing them. Through the viewing windows. And maybe he could speak to the control subject. That one seems docile enough.”

What spun through that man’s mind was a mystery to Diego, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. He had to jump at any opportunity to see where they were being held in case a chance came along to get them out.

I can’t even walk, and I’m trying to puzzle out an escape plan? Cart, meet horse, not sure who goes where…

He had to see Finn.

“I have to agree, Doctor.” The general nodded in a way that said there would be no more argument. “Observation won’t compromise your work.”

Diego leaned back in his chair as he was wheeled out again, with a glance up to make sure who had the handles. “Don’t leave me, Zack,” he murmured.

“Not if I can help it,” Morrison whispered back.

The whole group stuck in a tight knot down the hall and into an elevator at the end. The younger scientist pressed the floor button. Seven, Diego noticed, though they descended as the floor numbers increased rather than the other way around, into the depths of the earth.

From Hell’s heart I stab at thee… Not a good time to be channeling Captain Ahab.

Wide corridors lined with interior windows greeted them when the elevator doors opened.

The windows looked in to workspaces of various sizes with counters and high stools, lab equipment and incomprehensible machines.

They stopped at a shuttered window. Gerry flicked a switch and the shutter rose silently to show a bare room no larger than an average prison cell.

In the center of this room, knees drawn up to his chest, rocking, sat Angus.

“The glass is one-way. He can’t see us,” the younger scientist declared.

Diego swallowed hard. While Angus seemed in reasonable physical condition, he stared, wild-eyed, his beautiful, golden hair a disheveled mass of snarls. To see the proud herald reduced to this hit him like a fist to the gut.

“You’re…experimenting on him?” Diego couldn’t manage more than a hoarse whisper.

“Yes. We should see it in a moment.”

A siren shriek split the air, muted outside the cell, most likely deafening inside.

Red and white strobe lights flashed. Angus leaped up and pressed himself against the back wall.

His chest heaved as his wild eyes searched the floor.

Electric sparks spit and hissed along a black grid lining the concrete, seemingly at random.

Angus clawed at the wall as if he could escape up it, agile enough to avoid most of the electric shocks.

A few bit at his feet, though, strong enough that he cried out in pain, and when the siren stopped, he sank back to the floor, sobbing.

For a moment, Diego lost the ability to speak, as if the demonstration had stolen the air from the corridor. He fought for a breath and snapped out, “What the hell was that supposed to prove? That electric shocks hurt?”

The elder scientist gave him an indulgent smile. “Of course it does. The negative stimulus is designed to engender a false sense of peril, to encourage him to morph into his winged form so we can film and study the transformation.”

“And has he done it for you?”

This made the man frown. “No. We’ve increased to voltage three times and still no success.”

Calm, calm, shrieking like a drama queen won’t help him . “Has anyone suggested that maybe he can’t?” His own trouble reaching the flows of magic occurred to him. “Maybe the space is too small or there’s something blocking his abilities?”

“Yes, several variables may be factors.” The scientist nodded, completely undisturbed. “A larger space is being prepared for a new trial tomorrow if this one continues to prove unsuccessful.”

“It’s obviously not working,” Diego persisted. “Maybe give him a break until then? Give him a blanket, at least, let him rest?”