Entanglement

Dante watched the car drive away; watched Azlynn disappear into a sea of traffic. His fists clenched, and he stalked towards Lawson, who was talking in a low, urgent voice with one of the FBI agents. Lawson looked up just in time to see Dante’s fist swing at his face. His fist collided with the chief’s nose with a satisfying crunch, and the man flew back a good twenty feet before he slammed against the side of one of the news vans.

“You better fucking fix this,” he snarled. He took a threatening step in Lawson’s direction, only to feel about five pairs of arms trying to hold him back.

“DeMarco, calm down,” Miller pleaded.

“If you don’t get her back, I’m going to take everything you ever cared about and reduce it to nothing but a pile of ash right in front of your eyes. Do you understand me? That’s not a threat, Lawson, that’s a fucking promise.”

Lawson didn’t reply as several people helped him shakily to his feet.

“I said, do you understand me?” Dante shouted.

“I understand you fine, DeMarco,” Lawson muttered, blood dripping from his nose.

“Good,” Dante spat. “Then un-fuck this situation. Now.”

“I didn’t tell Walden about her,” Lawson said, watching Dante warily. “I didn’t even know about her.”

“I don’t give a shit. You still let that son of a bitch take her.”

“To go up against Walden would be a huge mistake,” Lawson said. “It would cause more than a little problem in my life; in all our lives.”

“You’ve got a bigger problem than him, and you’re looking at it,” Dante said, forcefully shrugging off the arms trying to hold him in place. “I will be a bigger problem than you ever imagined, unless you fucking. Get. Her. Back.”

“Let’s go back to the safe house,” Miller suggested. “This isn’t the place to discuss this.” He nudged Dante towards the van. He went; and smiled grimly when he saw that Lawson had the sense to ride in a separate vehicle.

“You’re a real asshole, you know,” Charlotte said, climbing into the van and sitting beside Miller. “You could have killed him.”

“Yeah well I didn’t,” Dante snapped. “But if I had, I would’ve been doing the world a favor. One less fucking coward.”

They rode in silence the rest of the way. When they reached the safe house, Dante was out of the van before it had even stopped moving and stomping up to the door. The skinny nerd started to ask him for the password, but Dante slammed a fist against the door, sending it flying off its hinges and flinging the nerd against the far wall. He practically flew up the stairs that led to the conference room. Lawson and the others were already there, and Miller, Charlotte, and one of the FBI guys were close behind him.

“So how are we getting her back?” Dante demanded.

“We’re not.” Lawson wouldn’t meet Dante’s eyes as he said it, and everyone else shifted uncomfortably. Dante flipped the heavy wooden table across the room. “Did I not make myself clear, Lawson?” he said, voice trembling with rage. “You’re going to fucking fix this situation. You got her into this, now you’re going to get her out.”

No one replied, and a thick silence laced with tension settled over the room.

“It’s not that simple,” Lawson finally said, keeping his tone low and even. “The facility where they’ve taken her has a lot of manpower; state of the art security systems. You can’t just waltz in the front door.”

“Then I’ll fucking break it down!”

“And what are you going to do when they put the guns on you?” Lawson demanded.

“I’ll kill them. Every last one of them.”

“Then maybe I should arrest you.”

“Yeah, you go ahead and try that. See how it works out for you.”

Lawson sighed. “DeMarco-”

“And what about all the rest of you?” Dante demanded, ignoring Lawson and facing the others in the room. “None of you have anything to say?” They looked away guiltily. Red spots danced in front of his eyes, and Dante whirled on Charlotte, who was standing in the corner with Miller.

“What about you?” he shouted. “Are you really going to stand there and keep your mouth shut? This whole thing is your goddamn fault!”

“Excuse me?” Charlotte narrowed her eyes at him. “How is this my-”

“Because your sorry ass was too busy getting fuzzy to pay enough fucking attention. You got yourself thrown out a motherfucking window and she had to save you. The only reason she had to reveal herself and get carted away to some fucking government lab is because of you!”

Miller moved in front of Charlotte, shielding her from Dante. His eyes were wild and cat-like, and his claws were extended. “Back off, DeMarco,” he growled. “Don’t talk to her like that.”

“You back off,” Dante said, shoving him hard in the chest. “What the fuck do you think you can do to me, Miller? A tiger versus a dragon? That’s like Sylvester going up against Godzilla.”

Miller growled low in his throat, shifting more into his tiger form.

“I tot I saw a putty tat,” Dante said mockingly. “And another thing, what would you be saying if it was her?” He jerked his chin toward Charlotte. Miller’s growling faded, and he shifted back to his human form.

“What would any of you motherfucking cowards be saying if it was her instead of Azlynn, huh?” He spun around to face Lawson again. “If it was Charlotte, there would be no discussion. We’d already be in the car, on our way there. And don’t give me any of that ’it’s an impenetrable fortress’ bullshit. We all know you’re not going after Azlynn because she’s too different. You bunch of hypocritical pansy-asses are afraid of her.” He shook his head, disgusted. “Fuck this. Fuck all of you. I’ll get her back myself. Don’t get in my way, or I’ll fucking kill you.”

He marched from the room.

“DeMarco, wait!” Miller called after him. Dante ignored him, taking the stairs four at a time and striding swiftly through the busted door. The Charger was parked outside, and he climbed in and revved the engine, rocketing out of the parking lot with a sharp squeal of tires, leaving thick tread marks behind. He sped back in the direction of the hotel. He figured someone there would know where they had taken Azlynn.

* * *

“It’s some old military building in Death Valley! That’s all I know!” The agent had already suffered multiple burn marks and several broken bones.

“For your sake, it had better be,” Dante said, dropping the man in a heap on the ground. He got back in the Charger, swerving through traffic like a maniac until he reached a more open stretch of freeway. Then he pressed his foot to the gas pedal and drove over a hundred the whole way.

* * *

The building was located in the middle of the desert. It was really more of a fortress than just a building, but that didn’t really faze him. The sun had just come up, but the warm golden glow did nothing to make the testing facility look any better. Dante got out of his car and did exactly what Lawson said couldn’t be done: he walked up to the front gate. Several cameras swiveled in his direction.

“Identify yourself,” a robotic voice ordered.

“Fuck you.” Dante allowed the heat to build in his hands, then hurled it at the gate, blowing it clean off its hinges and taking most of the outer wall with it. He walked through the rubble, ignoring the sirens that began wailing. When the gunshots rained down on him, he surrounded himself in a wall of flame. The bullets melted before they even touched him.

Inside, the building was chaos. Scientists in lab coats were running around frantically.

“Where’s the angel?” he demanded one frightened lab worker. He stared up at him with his jaw hanging open. “Useless,” Dante muttered, tossing him aside. A line of men dressed in black toting giant guns blocked his way to the elevator. Dante superheated the guns until the metal melted in their hands. They dropped the guns, and Dante bore down on them, incinerating two of them to ash and twisting another’s head until he heard the neck bones snap. The man fell to the floor, limp and lifeless.

Dante kept moving, not caring how many obstacles got in his way. He would bring the entire building down if that’s what it took.

* * *

He reached the wing where the living specimens were kept, a trail of destruction left in his wake. He moved up and down the rows of cells, calling her name. He stumbled across an extremely thick, reinforced door covered in locks and complete with a fingerprint scanner, a voice recognition device, and a retinal scanner.

He grinned. She had to be behind that door. It was the hardest one to get through that he’d come across yet. Even all the screeching alarms hadn’t breached this door’s defenses. Dante planted his palms against the door, funneling energy into them. He felt searing heat building beneath his skin. It took a moment longer than the other doors had, but finally the center of the door melted in on itself. Dante stepped through the smoldering hole, making his way down the dimly lit hallway.

The doors to these cells were also thick; made of steel, and they only had a tiny glass and mesh window at eye level. Dante peered into them all as he passed. He heard the sound of soft sobs as he drew near to the end of the hall.

“Azlynn?” he whispered, peering through the window. His eyes caught a flash of black and white feathers, and he used both fire and sheer physical strength to knock the door down. Azlynn whirled from where she’d been crouched in the corner, her face stained with tears. They weren’t clear, like human tears. They were like liquid silver; fallen stars dropping from the violet nebulas of her eyes.

Dante was across the room in less than a second. He pulled her into his arms, burying his face in her neck. “Why are you crying?” he asked.

“Because I don’t know what to do,” she whispered. “I don’t know what I am anymore, or where I belong…” she trailed off, her wings drooping. Dante drew back, cupping her face in his hands. He used his thumb to gently wipe away the tears from her cheek.

“You’re Azlynn,” he said softly. “And you belong with me.”

Azlynn smiled, and then gasped as they heard a noise in the hallway. Dante spun around, shielding Azlynn with his body. He had a ball of flame already ready in his hand.

“Now is that any way to greet your back-up team?” Miller asked. Dante jerked in surprise. Miller, Charlotte, Rico, and Agent Greenberg filed into the room.

“What the Hell are you doing here?” Dante asked incredulously.

“Acting as cavalry, obviously,” Rico said. “Although you seemed to do way more damage on your own than any army in history.”

“The others are on the lower levels,” Charlotte said. “We all followed you a little bit after you left.” She nervously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “We realized you were right, so we came to help.”

“You’re late,” Dante said, but he extinguished the fireball in his hand.

“Yeah, yeah,” Rico said. “Now let’s get the fuck out of here, before Walden sends out the big guns.”

“Walden’s not the one we need to worry about,” Azlynn said. Her tears had dried, and her wings were rustling in agitation. She carefully maneuvered them out of the cell doors.

“Hope you still have those pretty wings the next time I see you, angel girl,” a shrill voice cackled from the cell across from Azlynn’s. She grimaced. “I’ll explain later,” Azlynn muttered.

“Assuming we get out of here alive,” Rico quipped.

“Oh, don’t worry about that.” Azlynn smiled, then strode out through the door Dante had melted. Nearly an entire army of SWAT guys filled the hallway, causing Rico and Miller to curse. Azlynn spread her wings as they aimed their guns at her.

“That’s no way to treat a lady,” she scolded. She lifted both hands, and a black flame appeared in her left palm, a white flame in her right. She hurled both at the oncoming wall of guns, and the floor beneath them melted away. Only a few in the back were able to skid to a halt and avoid tumbling several stories. She sprinted to meet them head-on, jerking guns out of hands and crushing chests with single blows.

Ah, what a woman,” Dante said.

“Come on lover boy,” Charlotte prompted. “You can moon over your girlfriend later.”

They made their way back downstairs without much incident, and they discovered the rest of the team in the lobby.

“You sure made a mess, DeMarco,” Lawson remarked. Dante was taken aback to even see him there.

“Well I warned you this would happen,” he replied.

Lawson sighed, taking in all the damage that Dante had caused. “I suppose I should start prepping my resume,” he muttered. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Not so fast. You still have something we want.” Stanton McNitt was standing amid the rubble, taking in the carnage and wreckage with only mild interest.

“Leviathan is actually running the True Form Society,” Azlynn said, watching McNitt with narrowed eyes. “He’s using the hate group as a front. He has no real interest in killing shifters or Were’s. He wants to recruit them, and any other supernatural he can find. He’s making an army.”

“For what?” Dante asked, perplexed.

“What do you think?” she asked grimly. “He’s trying to take over Earth. And any other dimension he can get his hands on. That’s why he’s working on employing a lot of Mages and shamans; so they can open the doors for him.”

“Very good, Azlynn.” McNitt clapped his hands sarcastically. “I’m very impressed.”

“Why doesn’t he just make a demon army?” Charlotte asked.

“Because,” Azlynn said. “He’s doing all this without Lucifer’s knowledge. He’s trying to become the new King of Hell.”