Home for Horny Monsters Ch. 112

The rats nodded their understanding and clustered together off to the side. Mike summoned a hovering ball of light in his hands and sent it forward to light his way into the forest. The air was filled with the sound of insects and chirping bats and he looked up in the sky to see that a pair of stars had already emerged.

He made a soft hissing sound in the back of his throat and then used the banshee's cry to amplify it. The sound itself was barely perceivable by human ears, but it wasn't humans he was looking for.

If there was a secret base in the woods, great care had gone into concealing its presence. Undetectable by electronic or magical means, Mike was betting that it was probably expertly camouflaged, maybe even hidden below ground. What he needed was someone who knew the woods, somebody who could pass into such a place unnoticed and overlooked. The insects of the forest went silent as the arachnids emerged from their hiding spots, crawling down from the trees and emerging from the litter of the woods to gather around Mike's feet. He told them what he was looking for and asked if they knew of any place where a bunch of humans had built a nest of their own or if they had seen his daughter.

None of the spiders in this part of the woods knew anything, but they were so entranced by the idea of Grace that they offered to help. They all understood the idea that their brood must survive at all costs and empathized with Mike's plight. The rats gathered on a stump to watch in horror as hundreds of spiders shifted beneath them in a pool of legs, then spiraled out into the forest to spread the word. Nodding in satisfaction, Mike checked Tick Tock's straps once more and gave Mace a casual toss into the air where the magical weapon hovered in place.

"Follow me," he said as he picked a random direction and started walking. The spiders leapt and jumped away from him, chittering in their own language to all who would listen. As the fastest spiders carried the message out to the rest of the woods, the slower ones gathered behind Mike to form a river of legs and hair that draped behind him like an ominous cloak that was darker than his mood.

The underground facility bore the silence of a tomb, despite the number of people stationed at the top floor. Bored mercenaries could be seen quietly playing cards as they maintained position, and one squad had huddled around a cellphone that was playing a John Wick movie. Cyrus watched them all from the comparative comfort of the comms room, his back to a new bank of monitors that displayed data from motion sensors along with thermal imaging.

"Got another hit." One of the men watching the consoles stood from his chair. "Sector 5."

Cyrus turned and watched as the main monitor changed channels to reveal a blurry figure sprinting across a clearing. Though the resolution wasn't great, the intruder was feminine and had multiple tails.

"Damn." Dirk sat back in his seat and sipped his coffee. "How far out?"

"Fifteen miles." The operator looked at Dirk. "So two miles further than last contact."

"Good." Dirk gestured at the monitors. "They're sniffing around, but not getting anywhere."

The mood in the room relaxed once more, and Cyrus turned to face the hangar bay. For the last two hours, there had been numerous sightings in the forest, but none of them seemed to come close to the entrance. There were at least two people searching the woods, now. Cyrus had learned early on that the dead zone that had been set up by the Society so many years ago was nearly four hundred square miles. The area was warded against any sort of wireless or magical communication and there were a number of enchantments that regularly swept the area for tracks and then erased them. As long as nobody opened up the doors and wandered out, they could hole up here for months without detection.

There was also a rumor that an escape tunnel was buried deep beneath the facility just in case of a breach, but Cyrus had been unable to confirm its existence. That would have made escaping with the children way easier.

Staring out at the mercenaries guarding the hangar, the mage let out an impatient grunt. Part of the reason he was even up here was that he had heard about Mike's family searching the forest. Originally, he had hoped they would end up nearby and he could simply go all out in an effort to blast through the hangar door and attract their attention. But clearly that wasn't an option either.

A side door opened and a short man carrying a stack of folders walked out. He looked at Cyrus and jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

"They'll see you now."

"Thanks." Cyrus walked past the man and into a darkened room with leather chairs and a mahogany desk. Darius was reclined in the leather seat, still wearing his sunglasses. Standing at the corner of the desk was Elizabeth, her arms crossed as she stared at a large screen on the wall that displayed a snapshot of the video feed Cyrus had just watched.

This was the other reason he had come. He paused long enough to close the door behind him and then cleared his throat. "Evening," he said.

"Master Cyrus." Elizabeth didn't move, but her eyes slid over in his direction. "You have something to report?"

He nodded. "A concern, actually. But I would like to preface my statements by saying that there are no issues with the children and that they are still confined."

"I see." Elizabeth turned to face him. "Please. Continue."

"We seem to have a chain of command problem and I wanted some clarification." Cyrus looked over at Darius, who hadn't even moved yet. "Regarding Sister Laurel and the Order."

"Is there a problem?"

"There is. Sister Laurel seems to believe that she should be in charge and keeps giving orders that countermand my own."

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "And you can't handle her?"

Cyrus shrugged. "Well, that's the thing. She's causing unnecessary discipline issues for me that include your men. I tell your people one thing, then she tells them to do something different. When I confront her, she becomes belligerent. I shouldn't have to explain why this will cause future problems for all of us. I guess I'm uncertain why you included her in the first place. Surely you saw how she fell apart back at the Radley estate."

"Ah, right, right." Elizabeth looked over at Darius, but the man hadn't budged. If Cyrus didn't know better, the man was either asleep or dead. "I believe that may be my fault. I strongly insinuated that she would be in a leadership role here and perhaps she has taken my word a bit too far."

The mage nodded. "That's what she's been telling your people. Let me be up front. I'm in this for the money. You tell me to jump, I'll ask how high because you're paying me enough. But you hired me as an expert. In my expert opinion, Laurel needs to go. She and the Order are a massive liability."

"Hmm." Elizabeth contemplated his words, then glanced over at Darius. "It's probably time for us to have a more...formal conversation with her, anyway. The whole point of hiring you was specifically for your experience in this area. When you next see her, please send her our way."

"I shall." Cyrus threw one last glance at Darius. Was the man even breathing?

"You're dismissed." Elizabeth's tone was suddenly hard and Cyrus snapped to attention. Something weird was going on here and he wondered how he could use it to his advantage. He gave both of them a mock salute as if nothing was wrong and then spun on his heels to leave. Out in the control room, he saw that Dirk had gotten out of his chair and was standing inches away from one of the monitors.

"What the hell am I looking at?" he asked as he fiddled with a knob by the screen that adjusted the contrast. The blurry figure in the video looked roughly ten feet tall. "Bigfoot?"

Cyrus walked past the men as they broke into a debate and headed for the elevator. It had been a couple of hours since he had last checked on the kids and brought them some bedding. He doubted they were asleep and thought it would be a good idea to check on them. Sadly, there was very little he could do to bring them any sort of comfort other than keeping them company.

If he was correct, Yuki, Bigfoot, and Dana were out in the woods. Was there a way he could get any of them a message? He wondered if Dana brought her drones. Could she even use them out here? What if he could breach the gates and set the woods on fire? That would probably get everyone's attention.

The wait for the elevator felt longer than normal. Was it just nerves? Anxiety? When it arrived, Cyrus stepped inside and gazed down the hallway into the hangar. The SoS soldiers were being so quiet that he couldn't hear them. As the doors slid shut, he wondered how many of them would die by his hand, and when. Would it be tomorrow? Two days from now?

He leaned against the wall and tapped his fingers nervously on the metal railing. What he needed was an ally, someone who could watch his back. Hell, he would take being able to ask someone for advice, even if it was Lily.

He chuckled to himself when he wondered what Lily would do. She would shapeshift, no doubt, and find a way to pick people off one at a time. But how did that translate to him?

See if anyone has an old man fetish. He could almost hear her voice in his mind. I bet someone there wouldn't mind a rimjob from a man who can't even trim his beard right.

As usual, dwelling on Lily didn't help him out. He thought back to all the times she had come to visit him, to keep an old soldier company, as she had said. For the first year or so, he had wondered what her game was, but it occurred to him one day that maybe she was just as lonely as he was. An outsider that didn't quite fit in with anyone.

No, that wasn't true. The succubus had a family who accepted her for who she was. Cyrus stopped tapping his fingers and stood as the elevator slowed. Lily didn't come to visit him because she was lonely. She had come because she knew that he was.

You're so moody. That's what she would say right now, and then make a comment about his scrotum, or about how he should hit up the widow down the hall for a blowjob. The woman had brought him cookies a couple of times, but he hadn't been interested. His attention was typically for the Radley house.

His interest had been academic at first, but that was a lie he still told himself. The truth was, he enjoyed his lunches with Mike. The two of them spoke of magic and the world around them, usually avoiding any talk of what lay within the walls of Mike's home. Cyrus liked to think that the two of them had become friends.

Oh, and Death! How many cups of tea had the two of them shared? How many maps had they pored over together? Cyrus would speak at length about the places he had been, and Death would listen quietly, the azure flames of his eyes flickering in interest. They spoke of wars, and books, and the life that Death had found among the Radley family.

It was a life that Cyrus now realized he so desperately wanted.

Shaking his head, Cyrus stepped out of the elevator. If he had to choose someone to talk to right now, it would be Death. The Reaper would listen to his problems and then offer him a cup of tea.

"This is an herbal blend," Cyrus whispered under his breath in Death's voice. "It will help calm your nerves and soothe your tummy." He smiled to himself. A cup of tea would be really nice right now.

"HEY!" Laurel's voice echoed down the hallway. "I'M TALKING TO YOU!"

Groaning, Cyrus broke into a jog. When he got to the cells, he saw Laurel had pressed her forehead against the glass of Callisto's cell. Her people stood by with awkward looks on their faces as the woman screamed at the centaur.

"What's going on here?" asked Cyrus.

"The boy started taunting her," said one of the guards. "Sir," he added.

"And you're just letting this happen?"

The guard shrugged. "You said not to let anybody in. This is...not that, sir."

The other guard piped up. "And he started it. The girl refused to lie down, and the boy said it was because she sleeps with her doll at night, that spooky one."

Cyrus watched in amazement as Laurel continued to shriek at Callisto through the glass. The centaur just smirked at her and turned around to show her his ass.

"Come play with me... come play with me." Callisto did a little dance as he spoke in an imitation of Jenny's voice. "Let's play a game, little girl, ooooooooo."

"SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Laurel's eyes were bloodshot as she screamed, and her face was beet red now. Grace had scooted to the edge of her cell to press her own face against the glass.

"Sister Laurel." Cyrus looked at her teammates and cocked his head as if to say 'I told you so.' The knights and mages looked away, painfully aware that he had been right all along. "Sister Laurel."

"WHY DON'T YOU COME OUT HERE AND SAY THAT TO ME?!?" Laurel hit the glass with her fist. "OH, THAT'S RIGHT, BECAUSE YOU CAN'T!"

Callisto flipped her the bird. Grace mimicked her brother moments later with both hands.

"Sister Laurel." Cyrus put his hand on the glass next to hers and the woman looked up at him. Her eyes were feral when they settled on his, but Laurel took a deep breath and recomposed herself.

"Cyrus." She said his name like a curse.

"Darius wishes to speak with you." He tilted his head toward the elevator. "Right now, please."

"What did you do?" she whispered, her voice like nails on a chalkboard.

He shook his head. "Nothing. Darius, the man in charge of this place, asked me to send you upstairs right now to have a word with him about your leadership role."

"Well, good then." She sneered at him. "Because there are a few things I want to talk to him about, too."

He grimaced as she stormed off, followed by a pair of knights. When he looked inside the cell, he saw that the centaur had a shit-eating grin.

"You shouldn't antagonize her."

Callisto shrugged. "I'm just a child. Not my fault she's too fragile for this line of work."

One of the guards snorted. Cyrus looked over at Grace, who was once again staring straight ahead without blinking. "Is it true that she sleeps with Jenny at night?"

The centaur nodded. "It actually is. And no, I can't explain it. Even I think it's weird."

"You seem so much older than your age."

"Centaurs mature quickly." Callisto sounded tough, but Cyrus could see through the facade. The boy was picking at the edges of his shirt, the fabric already fraying in places. "Especially when they get abducted by assholes."

"You shouldn't swear like that," said one of the mages.

"You shouldn't abduct children, cocksucker." Callisto gave the Order the finger as well. "Just wait until my dad gets here, he's going to mess you up."

"Your dad is in Hawaii, ponyboy." One of the guards grinned. "He left you behind because you don't matter."

Callisto flinched as if physically struck. Cyrus turned to the adults in the room and crossed his arms.

"I'm instituting quiet time," he said, his voice stern. "That's an order."

Everyone else wandered away from the cell and Cyrus shook his head. The people assigned to this unit seemed to think that watching these children was just a game, that they were harmless. If they only knew the truth about Grace...

He looked over at the Arachne, who sat calmly on the floor with her legs tucked beneath her skirt. A terrible idea was beginning to form in his head and he hated it. Looking around the room, he took a quick count of who was down there with them.

There was a guard on each door from the SoS, but that was it. The Order team currently sat at six people, three mages and three knights. He thought about the people upstairs, all waiting for action from the outside. Like Elizabeth had said, it had been a very long day and everybody was tired. Darius had even been non-responsive. Everyone in the control room was monitoring the situation outside and Cyrus hadn't seen them check the interior cameras even once.

It was going to be a roll of the dice. Cyrus was never one to gamble, but the odds would probably never be better. He walked over to Grace's cell, used his keycard to open it, and walked inside. The others weren't paying much attention. After all, they thought Grace was just a scared little kid.

"Hey." Cyrus knelt down next to the Arachne. She looked up at him and bared her teeth in what he assumed was supposed to be a smile. "They say you can't sleep without your doll. Is this true?"

Grace nodded. Cyrus looked over his shoulder to see if the others were paying attention. The guards seemed bored, and the Order were just standing around and chatting.

"I can't sleep either." He put out his arms. "Want to go sit with your brother?"

The Arachne nodded and slid the slap bracelet out from her pocket. With a soft snap, the bracelet curled around her wrist and he watched the fabric of her skirt shift beneath her as her extra legs vanished. He picked the little girl up and was immediately stopped by one of the guards.

"What are you doing?"

Cyrus tilted his head toward the other cell. "Putting her with her brother so they can sleep. This place may be a prison, but we're not trying to punish them."

The man nodded and moved away. Cyrus opened the other cell door and walked inside. Callisto rose from his makeshift bedding and watched the mage with great curiosity as he brought Grace over and set her down next to her brother. He slid the magical ring onto his finger and gave it a twist.

"Can either of you use magic?" he asked. Callisto shook his head. Grace just stared at him, but he knew the answer to that. Her kind had never shown the aptitude for it. "That's fine," he lied, then looked over his shoulder to see if he was being watched. He wasn't.

Sticking a hand into his pocket, he pulled out the protective amulet and handed it to the centaur along with his key card. He also removed a pair of rings and a silver bracelet.

"Put these on when I walk out," he whispered, then poked one of the rings. "That is for Grace. The rest are for you. The card will open the door if you need it."

"Shouldn't she wear more?" Callisto asked, accepting the items.

Cyrus shook his head. "You're a bigger target and slower than she is." He turned to see that they still weren't being watched. Tugging at the sleeves of his coat to loosen them, he walked through the exit of the cell and pulled a rod from one of his inner pockets. The door slid shut behind him and he waved over to the Order.

"Which one of you idiots lost this in there?" he asked, holding up the rod. Curious, they came over to see what Cyrus was holding, the mages frantically checking their belts.

"What is it?" asked the mage closest to Cyrus. The other two stepped around the woman, eager to figure out what he was holding.

"Lightning rod." Cyrus adjusted his grip and sent a pulse of mana directly into the device. The magic circulated through miles of intricately carved runes within it which caused the temperature in the air to drop rapidly as millions of volts leapt from the head of the rod and blasted all three of them back. The resulting thunderclap was deafening, buying him an extra second to step to the side and strip one of the stunned guards of his sidearm.

Without a word, Cyrus fired on both guards with it, putting four rounds in one and six in the other. By the time they slumped to the ground, the knights were on him. He ducked beneath a fist that cracked the tempered glass of the cell wall, then drew a wand from another pocket that had a tip which glowed white-hot. With a slashing motion, he sent a wave of compressed air directly into the first knight, cutting him open from hip to shoulder. The man fell dead, and Cyrus took his blade from him.

It was two on one, now. The knights stood on opposite sides of him, blades held ready to intercept any magical attack he made.