He carefully moved Paul and Janna’s unconscious bodies to a protected position under the tables, then looked for the best exit strategy. Shifting the timbers away from the door seemed to be a bad idea. He couldn’t be sure that moving debris out of the jumble would not cause more of the bunker to collapse, so he looked for the area that had the most blast damage.
He undressed, and put his clothes under Janna’s head as a cushion, trying very hard not to examine his caring action. He changed to his bear form and started to dig a way out. The combination of his strength and the sharp claws of his bear meant that it didn’t take him long. The timbers in that area had been shattered, and the bunker hadn’t been thoroughly dug in to start. Instead, they’d covered the upper section in dirt and covered it in turf to camouflage it as a small hillock.
He dug carefully, compressing the sides and roof of the tunnel with his body as he moved forward. When the excavation broke through to the surface (well, into the crater that had to be the cause of the problem at least), he found a small group of four had unpacked their collapsible shovels and were beginning to dig to meet him. Three backboards were lying on the edge of the crater with one of the Valkyrie nurse’s and one of the merc medics organizing supplies. Those who had been manning the shovels took a quick step back.
Boris quickly moved over to the backboards and touched two of them. He then pointed to the rope on one of the soldiers webbing and indicated they should tie the backboards to him. When the nurse objected, the merc medic overruled her. Dragging the backboards behind him, secured to his waist, Boris lumbered back down the tunnel. He stopped every few steps to compress the sides and top again, trying to ensure that their escape route would remain safe. Once all the way back, Boris changed back to his human form. Moving over to his unconscious subordinates, he checked their status. Both had strong pulses and were breathing well. He decided to get dressed before he carefully strapped Paul and Janna to the backboards.
He tied Paul’s backboard to the rope at his waist. Crouching down to avoid the tunnel ceiling, he pulled Paul along with the waist rope and dragged Janna’s backboard behind that. As soon as his chain of backboards and bodies cleared the tunnel, he passed Janna off to the medics and then helped the four waiting soldiers pull Paul up the tunnel on the backboard sled.
He decided it was best not to dwell on their injuries. The medic and the nurse declared them both stable, and he had troops to organize. They had to leave in the next six hours for their deployment areas. As it stood, no one would be able to actually pinpoint the time this battle had taken place, and he wanted to maintain the secrecy as long as possible. The sooner his teams could start gathering information, the sooner he would have more targets to strike.
The first step to retaliation was complete.
CHAPTER THREE
Unknown location in Russia
Shen was terrified of the vampire that had captured him.
What had been a profitable deal for the family’s export business had gone well. His personal arrangement had gone horribly wrong.
The person with whom he was dealing had turned out to be a vampire. Too late, he’d smelt the rotting blood odor as he entered the meeting. He had tried to flee, but the vampire had covered all the exits with his own men. Not wanting to risk exposure by changing in the middle of a city, bringing worse on himself, had seemed the best strategy. Even if it led to him being captured.
He’d been wrong. Any death, no matter how painful would have been better than the last two? Or was it three, months of captivity, of being used as a blood source for the monster to try to improve his human lieutenants. Most of them had wasted away within a week, their corpses used to supplement his food. One, the volunteer of two subjects ago, Andrev he had been called, had changed.
Shen’s family wouldn’t even be looking for him yet. They would assume he was working on more of his private deals. They’d never approved of his black market dealings.
He’d been trapped by the rumor of some experimental processors that never really existed. In exchange, he would provide the location of a hidden weapons dump from the fall of the Soviet Union he had discovered. His curiosity had led him to that arms dump as surely as it had into this trap.
Now he was in a cage, a blood bank for this madman’s experiments. He knew his family was unusual. The previous werecat attempts to change others were rarely successful. Before the successful turn of the Russian, Andrev, he would have rated them as rumor alone.
He prayed that he would soon be allowed to die. He didn’t think it likely, though. The vampire still had a use for him. Or at least his blood.
CHAPTER FOUR
Command Container, Wilderness, Siberia
Boris was agitated. It had been three days since the battle. Janna had remained unconscious. Due to the necessity of destroying the equipment that couldn’t be salvaged from the bunker, it had been a full day before they’d been able to meet up with the container. She still remained unconscious. This limbo, especially after what she had said, was worse than his headaches. Each day had dragged like a year of headaches.
The special phone rang, the ID indicating Frank. He hit the button and answered gruffly, “Boris”
“Hey it’s Frank, Boris. Lance and Dan were concerned that the strike on your bunker might indicate that someone had figured a way to trace our communications so we went back over the first half of the battle. We had footage from three angles of the shot that hit the bunker. The vehicle was the lead, and the turret had been knocked askew by the initial strike. It looks like they already had a round up the spout and it cooked off.”
There was a frown in his voice for the next discussion. “The crater and damage were not consistent with the standard HE round, though. Looks like the Russians, or at least the NVG, have cooked up something new. Something more powerful. Be careful. There may be some other Weres or even vampires on their side, too. I’m getting rumblings that the head of this NVG group is different. Different enough that none of my contacts were willing or able to sell information to European or American foreign intel about the group. The only reason I got anything was that I already knew their name. Even then it cost me a favor. One I need your help with.”
Frank continued, “I need you take out a facility for the favor. Best to keep our accounts current. Besides, they said this one would put them in our debt. Apparently, an NVG linked company has taken over security for one of the Siberian oil refineries. Now production is officially down fifteen percent. The ministry my contact works for has proof that they are siphoning that fuel into their own supply lines, but Defense and the other government departments are refusing to act. He wants it stopped, with no indication of outside help. Dan is biting at the bit and wants to come.”
Boris sighed. It would be good to go and cause some mayhem, but that would leave either Danislav or Paul in charge. Danislav, he thought with a frown. Paul was just too… oddball. “If Janna were operational, I’d say certainly, Frank. Between her, Danislav and Paul they could do anything that was needed while I was away. But she is not up. I am getting worried. She is losing weight despite being on a nutrient IV. I would guess nine or so kilograms over the last two days. If some…” He cut himself off.
He wasn’t going to admit that if something went wrong if she died, he wanted to be next to her. The confusion of his emotions made it difficult for him to sort things out. Somehow, his failure to be with his last love when she died and the situation with Janna had become entwined. He had no idea why or when that had happened.