A demon shadow?

Creed's strong hand reached out and grabbed Meg's. "The grenades, where are they?" He whispered with a controlled calm that forced Meg's attention.

Did he see what I just saw?

She reached to her waistband and pulled out the two metal, lumpy spheres.

"On the count of three, we throw these. You throw right, blocking the soldiers' path toward the admin building. I'll throw left, aiming for Williams and Miro. We both run to your mom. I'll collect her, and you provide cover fire. Then we get the hell out of here."

"How?" Meg was trying to control her panic, drawing her strength from Creed's courage.

"Send Alik an empath message. Tell him to stop the van at the gate. Can you do that?"

"I think I can,"

"No time to stop now, they're about to take her away. Ready?"

Together Creed and Meg carefully moved to a standing position, still hidden in the shadow of the building and nodded a silent countdown, yanked out the safety clips and threw their grenades.

They arched perfectly, the moonlight glinting off the olive green metal.

Meg closed her eyes and forced herself to focus on Alik, mentally screaming down the silver connection she knew tied her to her brother, insisting he stop the van and wait for them.

Chapter 12 Eight Minutes-ish.

"What's wrong?" Farrow had moved to sit in the front passenger seat next to Alik while they waited for their signal when she noticed a strange expression take over Alik's face. The baby had settled back into a deep sleep and was drooling on Farrow's strong shoulder. His fist was still holding a lock of Meg's dark hair. The little boy had moved his hand to hold it close to his face, as though breathing her scent was his soothing tonic.

Alik had been quiet and on-edge, but now he looked as though he was trying to hear something from far away, his eyes wide and ear cocked.

"Alik?" Evan's voice came from the back of the van. He was holding the metal box in his hands, fingers trying not to feel twitchy as the detonation button was right at his fingertips.

"After we detonate, we need to drive to the front gate and wait there." Alik's voice sounded whispered and dreamlike.

"What? Why? Creed told us to go back to the hotel." Farrow tried to stay calm, as the baby seemed to sense her sudden change in emotions by stirring in her arms. She couldn't help it, though. The idea of staying one second longer near Williams, his deadly metas or his secret Monarchs made her heart race and her muscles knot.

"Meg," Alik said softly. "She's telling me to stay there and wait for her."

Just then they heard what sounded like one enormous explosion. All their heads whipped around to follow the sound and saw a burst of light.

"That's the signal. Detonation in three, two, one!" Evan flipped the safety cover up and pressed the switch. The grenades' explosion sounded like a sneeze compared to Evan's explosives designed to demolish an entire three-story building and the basement below.

Thunderous explosions one right after the other blended into a deafening roar. The cement walls of the hospital seemed to melt off the metal frame like a surreal Salvador Dali painting. White dust burst violently into the air causing a malevolent plume of gases and debris.

"Drive, Alik!" Evan called, as the thick dust cloud exploded and burst toward their van. Alik stepped on the gas pedal and glanced in the rearview mirror just in time to see the first of a series of jarring explosions coming from what used to be the third floor.

"Combustibles in the labs," Sloan murmured what everyone was thinking, her gray eyes wide with a mix of shock and resolve.

The whole van shook with the force of each new chemically induced blast.

Fire licked its wicked tongue from the shattered glass windows scorching what was left of the cement walls.

The roar of the building being turned into toxic rubble echoed through the countryside, off the fifteen-foot cement perimeter walls and punched holes through the thick foliage surrounding the Facility.

With their ears still ringing from the explosions, Alik, Evan, Farrow and Sloan weren't sure if they really were hearing semiautomatic gunfire until a few bullets ricocheted off the side of the van.

Instinctively, Farrow curled her strong body around the squirming little boy and dove to crouch on the floor of the van. Everyone else ducked, too. Everyone except Alik.

"She's coming," Alik said, his voice more excited and present now.

"Open the back doors," he yelled over the gunfire to Evan who obeyed his brother without question.

Chapter 13 Not Without You.

BOOM! BOOM!.

Just as they knew it would, the deafening surprise explosions caused everyone to dive for the ground.

Ever the tactical advantage soldier, Creed started picking off metasoldiers one by one even as he and Meg ran to Margo's side.

"Meggie," Margo's eyes were wide with fear, her face pale and lips ashen. "I'm sorry." Her body was strewn on the ground where the soldiers had dropped her when the grenade exploded.

"You're okay, Mom. Be still. We've got you now."

"I told you to run," she slurred, her eyes fluttering closed.

"Sorry, Dr. Winter," Creed answered on behalf of Meg. "The only orders I follow are hers and she wasn't leaving without you."

Meg turned away to continue shooting defensively at the quickly recovering soldiers scattered around the courtyard. Creed took one look at Margo's limp legs and knew something was very wrong. He reached down and scooped her up carefully, feeling her back slick with blood.

Margo grimaced once, then her soft brown eyes rolled back in her head and her body hung wilted in Creed's arms.

Without exchanging another word, Creed and Meg ran toward the front gate with desperate determination.

"Is Alik there?" Creed called between blasts of gunfire.

Meg cringed at her gun. "I hope to God he's there. I'm almost out of ammo."

The two rounded the side of the far-too-contemporary fountain at the administration building's circle drive and kept moving. The soldiers behind them were organizing, more joining in the chase.

Meg called to her brother with her heart. We're coming, open the doors now!

"It's there!" Creed called to Meg as he ran straight for the doors already opening for them.

He climbed into the back of the van, cradling Margo's body against himself protectively.

Meg leaped inside and slammed the doors shut.

"Drive!" she screamed, but she didn't have to. Alik was already stomping on the gas pedal. The white van glistened like a ghost in the moonlight as it sped out of the gates of hell and into the night.

Chapter 14 Should We Stay or Should We Go?.

As Alik drove everybody craned their necks to look back at the fire blazing where the Facility's Research Hospital used to stand. Once they were far enough away, and the firelight was just a glow on the black horizon, the focus shifted to Margo's frail body still draped in Creed's arms. The children were amazed at the small woman who again faced their tormentor by herself.

The moment the baby had heard Meg's voice in the van, he struggled to reach for her, even with his eyes closed. He seemed as desperate for her as a drowning victim craved oxygen. Farrow had gladly passed the squirming baby back to Meg's open arms.

Evan busied himself by trying to figure out how badly injured his mother was. Creed held her as though her weight was no more a burden than a small bundle of dry-cleaning in his thick arms.

"Sloan, help me," he said, trying to control the quiver in his voice.

Shaking her head to regain focus on the here and now, Sloan crawled to where Evan was crouched.

Creed began to shift to allow Evan and Sloan a better look at Dr. Winter's back.

"No, don't move her, Creed." Sloan put a small hand on his biceps, but it was the look on her face that stopped Creed, not her touch.

"The vest didn't catch all the bullets." Evan grimaced at the blood dripping slowly off the edge of his mother's vest.

Sloan's steady fingers had been searching for a pulse in Margo's wrist, but it was so faint that the jostling of the van speeding down the two-lane highway made it very difficult to calculate accurately.

She ducked her head down to see for herself what was making Evan's face turn a sickly shade of paste.

"That doesn't look good, Evan. The fluid looks more watery than it should."

"Spinal fluid," Evan gulped loudly.

"I think so. She needs medical attention immediately."

"We cannot risk stopping. We have to get the heck out of Germany and the further away, the better. Williams has probably already sent half the facility into full alert and they're prepping to start their hunt for us even before the fire goes out on that blaze we left." Evan's face was ghostly pale.

Sloan sighed, trying desperately to stay calm and think clearly.

"Meg? What do we do?" Like everyone else in the van, Alik had been listening to the exchange between Evan and Sloan with bated breath. He knew his sister was the best chance they had at making the right decision for the family.

Meg sat, holding the baby, gently rocking him back and forth and rubbing his back. Her eyes were glassy with concentration.

Everyone waited for her to respond, knowing she needed time to spread her empath wings to feel.

"I can't find her." Meg's eyes glistened as she searched her mother's face.

Without shifting the baby in her arms, Meg positioned herself closer to Creed and her mother so she could reach out and touch her skin, trying to strengthen her empath connection.

"I've never had to do this with Mom," Meg mumbled, a look of anguish on her face. "I've always just thought of her and could feel her emotions."

She sat quietly with her hand pressed against her mother's cool temple. Her dark eyes closed with concentration.

Creed watched her with a mixture of admiration and love.

How could such a small girl be so strong? To offer herself not only to a stranger's dying baby but to reach out and give of herself so she could try to pull her mother back from the edge? Creed knew in his heart what she was doing. He felt her lean her shoulder heavier against his with her effort. She was drawing strength from him, and he nearly beamed with pride that she chose him to be that person for her.

After a few moments, Meg sighed deeply and opened her dark eyes, now rimmed red.

"She's far away. I can barely feel her."

"Should we stay and find a hospital or go to the airport?" Evan asked his sister, eyes wide with worry.

Maze whined, scooting closer to Meg and pressing his warm, furry body against her leg, offering his quiet support.

"I'm torn. Part of me wants to run screaming into the nearest hospital and demand immediate attention for her." Meg shook her head, her hand still gently pressed against her mother's temple, as though she was afraid if she let go, she would never feel her mother's emotions again.

"The rational side of me knows we wouldn't be able to get away with that. Not only are we on Williams' home-turf, but there's no way we'd be able to explain away the bullet wound without getting local police involved. Once they realize we're Americans, we'll have the US Consulate breathing down our necks.

"All of that and we still have to worry about the entire Facility showing up at the hospital and destroying it with us along with everyone else unlucky enough to be there. Williams is pure evil and he is going to demand payback." Meg looked over at Alik and caught his eyes in the rearview mirror. He nodded solemnly, knowing full well what she was about to say.

Everyone sat in silence, waiting for Meg's final call.

"We have to do what we know she would want us to do now. We go to the airport as previously planned and get everyone to safety. Evan and Sloan, what can we do to help you take care of her as best we can until we're home?"

Alik nodded in agreement with Meg's logic and would later look back on this moment, replay it with perfect clarity thanks to his eidetic memory, and appreciate the strength it took for her to make this decision. The old Meg would have acted on pure impulse and her emotional outburst could have been the end of them, but she wasn't that Meg anymore. His sister had truly evolved.

Evan and Sloan looked at each other briefly. "First thing we need to do is get her into a flat, stable position where we can stop the bleeding and prevent her from further damage," Sloan said, logically.

Evan's eyes were scanning the inside of the van as though looking at the contents for the first time.

"There," he said pointing. "We can use those two long broom handles and that tarp to make a stretcher." He jumped up, holding the ceiling of the van to steady himself as they sped down the road to the bright lights of the airport in the distance.