Babel Novel
31
Morgan
Complete and utter terror grips me as I watch Rain slump between the two humanoid beings. Their green eyes shining bright in the night and the satisfied smirk on their faces makes me rush forward, only to be pulled back by the one still holding on to me. I go rigid as he wraps his hand around my throat, pressing down to cut off my air circulation ever so slightly. A deep chuckle vibrates his chest against my back and his breath against my ear makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
"Now, now, we wouldn't want to do anything stupid, would we?" He taunts, tightening his grip on my neck and lifting me from the ground a little. I can't stop the whimper that leaves my lips, fear causing my mind to go blank even though I know there is so much I should be able to do in this situation. So much I prepared myself for and now I'm paralyzed. "We're going to have some fun with your friend." I bite back the scream inside of me when he forces my neck at an odd angle.
"Ragna." One of the other two calls to the man behind me. "Deliver your message and be done with this. I have other shit to do." He rolls his shoulders back, causing wings to spurt out of them, large dragonfly wings that look anything but delicate as they flutter against his back, causing wind to blow in my direction. The guy next to me kicks the back of his boots together and he starts hovering in the air and together they lift Rain up with them. The guy behind me suddenly lets me go and I crumple to the ground, quickly scooting away from but he's uninterested in me, walking over to his buddies.
"It would be in your best interest to approve the expansion." He smiles, but there's no joy behind his eyes, just a creepy smile and green eyes shining in the dark of the night. "Or you know, bad things will happen or some shit like that." He rolls his shoulders back causing bright florescent green wings to appear from his back, but they're not Faire wings. They're hard vined and have sharp jagged edges that look like they're emitting some kind of green smoke. I look at the three hovering men and wonder what the hell this is.
"I'd rather die." I mutter, causing Ragna to frown at me and before I know I'm being grabbed by my neck once more and slammed into a nearby pillar.
"I can arrange that." He croons in my ear as I struggle to get air back in my lungs.
"We don't have time for this!" Another voice shouts and Ragna looks away from me and nods. When he turns back to me there's no expression on his face and his bright green eyes dim to a hazy barely there glow.Exclusive © content by N(ô)ve/l/Drama.Org.
"You're smart Morgan. Don't make stupid moves." He almost whispers before he lets me go. This time I fall to the ground with a thud and the force of his wings fluttering above me almost flattens me to the concrete. I watch them fly away, Rain in their hold and then they disappear through a portal, leaving me gasping for air on the cold hard ground.
As I wait for the ringing in my ears to stop, I realize it's still a few hours till the sun is going to rise and I'm alone in this parking lot. The thought should comfort me, even if just because I know they're gone, but Rain isn't here with me, so I'm strung tight. I shudder as I close my eyes and Ragna's dull green eyes appear in my minds eye. My mind goes over broken fragments of the whole altercation, and I conclude it all happened in minutes and not the seconds it felt like. My watch beeps a few times, sounding too loud in the quite of the night.
Irregular heart rate detected Bings ever so helpful voice alerts, and I cough out my laughter. Yeah, no shit. I bring up my arm, having to blink a couple of times to clear the blurriness around my vision and swipe the alert away before pulling up Rain's tracker. I press the incognito button, hoping the humanoids didn't see the watch on his wrist and won't question if it suddenly disappears before disabling all Bings features on his watch except for the tracker so his battery can last as long as possible, not that I plan on them, whoever they are, having him for long.
When the pain in my lungs have eased even more, I push myself up from the ground, sitting against the very pillar that almost just caused my death and then pushing myself up onto my feet. I sway a little, my vision blurring but I manage to keep myself up right. The walk back to my car feels a lot longer than it is and when I'm seated behind the driver's side, I engage my autopilot to take me home before I reach under the seat and pull out my tablet.
As the car makes its way down the road, I search through the last batch of classified files the Commander sent me that I haven't had time to encrypt yet and look through all his projects. Most of them are pay offs he made to various sectors to keep them happy and in line. I sigh in frustration when I don't find anything that has to do with the humanoid creatures I just encountered. I've seen robotic enhancements, and this isn't what that was. Humans don't just sprout wings, and those boots are like none I've seen before. Gravity boots have a certain hum to them and those things were silent, too silent.
As my car pulls into the parking space, I'm certain of two things. Both Sinclair and the Commander are behind tonight's ambush, and it has something to do with why the Bio-Glaze needs expanding. I'm going to get Rain back home whatever it takes, even if I have to go to war for him.
I hobble my way into the elevator and then down the hallway into my apartment, standing in the foyer and activating a full body scan before I head straight for my office.
"Bing, can you try and get me Rain's sister on the line, try until you get through to her." I command as I head to the bookcase and press the button hidden in the right back corner of the second shelf from the top. On the other side of the room a brick pops out of the wall, and I hurry over to remove it and stick my arm into the hole so the sensor can scan my watch. My desk expands and I push the brick back, going to stand behind it as all the files I've ever encrypted for the Commander pops up.
A hysterical giggle bubbles up in my throat as I open the first file and start decoding it, knowing a Faire who would be very interested in the information I'm about to uncover.