Wyvern Protection Unit - Chapter 42: Chapter 42

Shit. Shit. SHIT.
Larimar took off like a bat, er, Wyvern out of hell from the little cabin deep in the wilds of Cape May. Things were a lot more complicated than he’d assumed when he’d first taken this assignment.
He doubted Jennifer even knew the depths of this case. The second he got Kim on the back of his bike, Larimar sent a signal to his brothers and Jenn from the almost imperceptible distress button he’d had installed on his bike.
His mind raced with terrible, impossible implications. If Harold’s corpse was reanimated, as it clearly was, then they were not dealing with a simple group of thieves. Normals with questionable scruples did not typically use ancient artifacts to raise the dead.
Fuck to the no.
The Wessex Protection Unit was dealing with something much, much darker. That meant Kim was in even more danger than he knew. Fucking hell. He should have never kept her in that shitty little safe house. Should have brought her home the second he’d seen her. But he’d been immediately taken with his beautiful mate and the instinct to claim her overrode reason and logic.
“The helicopter is back,” Kim shouted into his ear.
Hold on tight, Kim.
He sent the message through their link, knowing she heard him when her arms squeezed him impossibly tight. Damn, she was strong. Not the first time he’d thought that about his woman.
He revved the engine, racing at inhuman speeds to get his mate to safety. He stuck to back roads and fields, hoping to lose the cursed copter in the process, but even when it seemed they’d shaken the bastards, they always came back.
I’ve signaled my brothers, they know where we are.
He felt her anxiety as if it were his own. Fuck, he hoped like hell the boys were on their way, He should’ve done a better job protecting her. But even he could not have known what they were up against.
Larimar rolled on the throttle, sending more gas to the newly enhanced engine of his bike, building speed.
The more speed the more distance he could put between his mate and the fucker responsible for Harold Jenkins’ untimely demise. The mere thought of the monster behind that grotesque end was hunting his mate sent his Wyvern into a rage. He did not know what he would do if Kimberley fell victim to that inscrutable motherfucker.
Hold tight.
Larimar took a sharp turn. The seldom used road cut between a field of tall cornstalks, and he hoped like fuck the pilot hadn’t seen them.
“We lost them!” Kim cheered, but it was too soon.
Up ahead an eighteen-wheeler was turned sideways, blocking the exit. Beside it was an average looking black sedan. Larimar growled as he rolled off the accelerator.
No good.
He’d been going too fast. Even as he swerved to avoid crashing head on, he felt his mate’s arms loosen as the sheer force of the turn threw her from the bike.
“No! Kimberley!!!” Larimar roared, shifting his arms into wings to catch her from the air and soften her fall.
Larimar jumped off the bike, lifting her into the air the better to grab her with. He tucked her inside his wings in his half-shifted form, and rolled on the ground, taking the brunt of the crash, until they stopped. He made sure she landed on top of him, safe from the unforgiving asphalt.
But he had no time to check her injuries. Thank fuck, he was already half-shifted. The fight was on. Larimar roared in outrage, his mouth elongating into a draconian maw. Two huge beasts appeared out of thin air and attacked.
He was caught between worrying about his mate and needing to defend her. Yes, he’d stopped her from hitting her head, but something had caused her to lose consciousness.
Fear and anger rose to a fury inside of him, but he couldn’t give way to either. The two creatures attacking were like something out of a horror movie. Like prehistoric monsters, both a kind of sabertooth cat.
Fuck, he snarled as they moved to either side. Working as a team to attack and unman him. But they were grossly mistaken if they thought he would go down so easily. Larimar was no human. He was a Wyvern Shifter.
“Fuck this,” he snarled as he caught one huge claw, pushing it out of his way before it could rip into him.
Good thing he had armor in the shape of some pretty tough motherfucking scales. He completed his shift and loosed a stream of fire in the direction of one of the cats. The thing roared as huge pieces of flesh melted off of him, but still it kept coming.
What the fuck?
Larimar’s beast fought them off, ripping their fur, tearing their muscle, but the decrepit zombie creatures simply would not die. He roared his frustration, always circling back to where Kim lay, immobile.
Then he heard it. A strange noise, out of place during a battle. The cat zombies crouched, growling with broken jaws.
Someone was clapping. His Wyvern snarled and turned his draconian head to see a man in a traditional looking Egyptian sherwani, but in a most untraditional color. The long coat-like top and matching pants were both inky black with irregular shaped ivory buttons running down the front.
The man was pale with dark hair and a mustache, and he was grinning like a kid at Christmas. His eyes glued to the Wyvern as if Larimar was nothing to be concerned with.
The fuck is his problem, he thought with a monstrous roar.
Larimar snarled at the man, too intent on him to notice the prehistoric cats sneaking up to attack. One beast’s skeletal claws raked down his wing, slicing part of the membrane.
Fucking shit, that burned like hell!
He turned and fought off the monster cats. Angry at the futility of his defensive maneuvers. No matter how many times he delivered a deadly blow, the two creatures just kept coming.
“Well done, my fellow visitor to this land. I would love to stay and watch, but I am afraid we must take our departure now.”
Larimar turned, icy fear taking possession once more, and he watched in horror as Kimberley’s limp form was lifted from the ground and delivered through the air as if by ghostly hands.
He lunged forward, only to be held back by the cats. He pounded his wings, trying desperately to reach her, but it was like the creatures weighed ten times as much as he.
How is this possible?
No!
He roared and fought like a wild thing. Every time he almost broke free, he felt more pressure being pushed at him, as if a million invisible hands were holding him down.
The sabertooth cats clawed at him, eventually tearing through his thick hide, ripping through scales like hot knives through butter, and leaving trails of blood in their wake.
Larimar howled, bleeding profusely, he refused to give up. He was still trying to break free as the dark sedan drove around the truck and out of sight.
Panic and pain were his only reality. Then, he sliced and attacked using claws, talons, wings, and teeth. The many invisible hands that seemed to hold him grew weaker, but not enough for him to get free.
Afterward—who knew how long later—the last standing sabertooth cat snapped its jaws at him only to have the visible bones break and crumble. The zombie cats were done. Finally finished. But so was Larimar, he was broken and bleeding, too weak to shift back when he heard the familiar flapping of his brothers’ wings.
His brothers had arrived. They would solve this, they would find and rescue his mate if he didn’t make it. He had to believe he would get her back. The image of her sweet face was the last thing he saw as darkness consumed him.
“He can’t just die,” Arthur Wessex growled and smacked his hand against the wall as he confronted the Shifter specialist hired by their handler, Jennifer Dylluan, to see to their physical health.
“Arthur, please,” Jennifer’s voice spoke in a low hushed whisper, trying to calm down his father.
Why was he so angry? Larimar was the one who felt as though every inch of skin on his body had been rubbed raw with a Brillo pad. He blinked his eyes and started tearing at the wires and nodules that had been placed all over his chest and head.
“Kim,” he grunted and tried to sit up.
“Larimar! You’re back!”
Zircon stopped him from tipping over as Heliodore supported him from the back. His brothers relief slammed into him like fists, but he was glad to see them too.
“Where is she?” he grumbled, his voice sounded like he swallowed a shit ton of gravel.
“Son!”
Arthur ran across the room and stopped short of embracing him, he looked worried and relieved at the same time. An odd combo for the older man.
“Are you okay? How do you feel?”
“Kim? Have to find her. Did you track the car?”
“What are you talking about, son?”
“Sir, you need to sit back. We need to check your⁠—”
“Get the fuck off me,” he growled at the human doctor who squeaked before retreating to the other side of the room.
The scent of the man’s terror tickled his nostrils, but he ignored his Wyvern’s need to make the man basically shit himself. No, his only concern was getting to his mate.
“Larimar, I need you to tell me what happened,” Jennifer said, squeaking and turning her head when he ripped the hospital gown off and shrugged on the sweats Zircon handed him.
“I’ll tell you what happened—a fucking necromancer kidnapped my mate. A necromancer, Jennifer. Where the fuck was Agent Sanchez with that news, huh? And where the fuck were you guys? Why did it take so long?” he roared angrily but his frustration as with himself.
“We flew to your signal, bro, but there was a forcefield of some kind. It kept us from getting to you. You don’t know how scared we were,” Zircon explained, hurt coming off him in waves.
Fuck. Larimar knew how he felt. The brothers shared a bond unlike most Shifters, and pain was something they had shared on more than one occasion.
“We watched it happen. It was fucking terrible,” Heliodore grumbled.
“Larimar! Thank god you are alright. But where’s Kim? We have to find her!” The sound of his sister-in-law preceded the heavily pregnant female as she waddled into the exam room.
“Caro, I know. I’ll find her,” he nodded, but couldn’t meet her eyes.
He had failed. He fucking failed Kimberley, his mate, the only thing in this world worth everything to him. Carolina’s lips trembled, and he felt her sadness hit him through Jasper’s bond. She was his mate’s friend, and now she would know just how unworthy he was of such a gift.
“Look at me, Larimar. It is not your fault,” she growled.
The fierce little female filled the words with a motherly tone he could hardly refuse.
“Kimberley is smart. She is strong. She is alive. Now, stop your guilt trip and bring her home.”
“How did you know?”
“That you are her mate? Of course, I know. She emailed me as soon as you claimed her. Congrats by the way.”
“What?” he asked, confused at her lack of anger.
“Apparently you’re packin’ and in a big way, good for you!” Carolina grinned wickedly, and Heliodore punched him in the arm.
“Ow!”
“Fuck you, dick,” Dor replied.
The sound of simultaneous groans from Zircon and Heliodore sounded as he worked to hide his embarrassment from his sister-in-law and Jennifer, who was looking every which way but at him.
“Uh, thanks? Look, everyone, Kimberley is my mate. And there is something else⁠—”
“What?” Jennifer narrowed her eyes at him, so he spoke to her.
“I, uh, that is, she and I were able to communicate telepathically. Not just imprints or feelings. It was like a regular conversation, but in our heads.”
“From the beginning? She could read your mind?” Dad asked.
“Um, no, it was a conversation. And only after I gave her my mark, that is,” he murmured, and ran a hand over his head as he stood on wobbly feet.
“You need to eat. You bring him a three dozen egg omelet with spinach, mushrooms, and cheese and a forty-six ounce steak, rare, on the side. Now!” Jennifer yelled and turned back to him.
“I need to know everything. You said necromancer, what do you mean by that?” she asked.
“Exactly what it sounds like. This guy had powers, and he used them to force spirits to do his bidding. He reanimated corpses. Hell, he brought two sabertooth cats back to life to fight me. And he brought Harold Jenkins back too. That fucker led the bastard right to us,” Larimar grunted around mouthfuls of food.
He was not especially hungry, but he required fuel to aid his healing. The more he healed, the sooner he’d be able to rescue Kim, and the damage to his arm meant his wings were no good yet.
Fuck.
“Okay, I have a team at the cabin now and they’ve been searching through her laptop. They think they’ve found the IP address where the software tracking her movements originated. We should have a physical address in a few minutes.”
“Great. Hey, where’s Jasper?”
It was Carolina’s turn to whimper now. She turned her big eyes on him and put a hand over her stomach while his father comforted her with an arm around her shoulders. She took a fortifying breath before speaking.
“Jasper followed the car that took Kimberley to some kind of abandoned property in the pine barrens. We lost communication about the time you arrived here,” her voice shook at the end, and he knew exactly what his sister-in-law was feeling at that moment.
His Wyvern pressed against his skin, itching to be freed so that he could find his mate and burn the bastards who took her. He turned to the pregnant female and spoke from his heart.
“I’ll find Kimberley. I swear it, and I will find Jasper too. I’ll bring them both back.”
Larimar swallowed his last bite, standing straight, he flexed his arms. Good enough. Next, he ripped the tubes and needles from his body and snapped his gaze to his two brothers.
“Let’s go.”