Chapter Nine: Escape

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    Shade felt helpless as she continued to watch Lydia commune silently with Corbin through her gift. The only distraction was the rumbling idle of her performance coupe as it breathed in the cold winter air and exhaled through twin exhaust pipes. The wait, combined with not knowing Corbin's situation was killing her. Finally, Lydia broke away from her mental bond with Corbin to reveal what she'd learned.

    "He's trapped," Lydia informed with a desperate air around her words. "Dr. Harper has him chained up and is taking him somewhere," she added.

    Shade's dark eyes narrowed as her whole demeanor stiffened with menacing intentions rising inwardly for the nefarious Dr. Harper.  "Where?"

    "He doesn't know. Somewhere through a forest that he doesn't recognize," Lydia fearfully explained.

    Shade sighed heavily in frustration as she pounded the steering wheel in anger and looked off through the windshield for a solution. "That could be almost anywhere outside of Bergstad," she groaned.

    Lydia gazed out through the windshield too, as if some clue to his whereabouts would reveal itself beyond the landscape of the academy's campus  of scattered buildings.

    Shade turned back to Lydia with a resoluteness fixed so solidly upon her face that Lydia  grew a little concerned about the intent behind Shade's serious eyes when she met them with her own.

    "There's only one thing left to do," she hinted with absoluteness. "Since he can communicate with you through your gift, and we know he's in danger, you have to trigger his gift."

    Lydia swallowed hard at the idea, realizing it was their only chance, Corbin's only chance. She gave Shade a single nod of agreement, then bowed her head once again to commune across the vast, snow-covered distance with her captured brother who was being taken farther away by the second.

    Corbin, concentrate on me, let me unleash your gift so the power of the Protector can free you.

    The instruction from Lydia was a welcome solution to Corbin for his predicament. He closed his eyes with a deep breath that cleared his mind and made him receptive to whatever she had planned. He sent her a calmed 'Okay' to confirm his readiness. 

    Slowly an image of Lydia appeared in his mind. She was standing at distance, sadly slumped while crying bitterly. She looked toward him with tearful agony shaping the delicate features of her young face. The sight alone put a dagger through Corbin's heart, but then she spoke through broken sobs that threatened to hinder her words.

    Don't let them take you from me. Corbin, I need you, I love you. Please come back to me.

    Lydia fell to her knees after speaking and allowed her head to fall into her hands, causing her heavy black hair to crash down around her weeping face. The image of his little sister so clearly distressed awakened the thing inside him that was a terror to any who would bring such misery to his loved ones. His thoughts suddenly became seared by the fire of anger as he placed all the blame for the troubling image of his cherished sister on the person sitting in the driver's seat of the SUV which was carrying him away against his will.

    Corbin's eyes opened like purple flares that appeared in the rearview mirror, distracting Dr. Harper's attention from the road long enough for her to glance at the glowing reflection in the mirror. The menacing stare aimed in her direction was all the reason she needed to slam on the brakes, bringing the large SUV skidding to a sideways stop in the middle of a blind curve as Corbin's body changed into the beastly form of the Protector, snapping the chains with ease as the bulky form of his gift emerged.

    Dr. Harper bailed out through the driver's side door and hurried away from the idling SUV, but when the peeling and twisting sounds of tortured sheet metal filled the otherwise quiet forest she turned back to see Corbin's snarling alternate form ripping through the roof of the SUV. She watched, both impressed and terrified, as Corbin's wolf-like head and massively broad shoulders squeezed up through the hole made in the vehicles top by lethally honed claws. 

    Corbin's clawed-feet pushed through the bottom of the SUV and were planted into the asphalt of the road underneath as his upper body reached out of the opened top of the hefty vehicle. Dr. Harper began to slowly back away while keeping her widened eyes on the incredible spectacle before her. She couldn't help but gasp when Corbin snaked his arms up through the jagged hole in the SUV's roof, took hold of each side of the hole, and with an angered growl pushed the vehicle away from his body so that it separated into two mangled halves.

    Corbin stepped away from the wreckage, toward Dr. Harper, and let loose a fearsome roar with clenched fists. The frightened Dr. Harper turned and ran for the forest in hopes of escape. He started after her in pursuit, but paused when the lights of a delivery truck rounding the curve glared into view. The driver had no time to react and Corbin was caught between the truck and what was left of the SUV. The collision was brutal.

    When the screeching tires finally stopped and the delivery truck was hopelessly smashed and entangled with the now unrecognizable remains of the SUV, the unscathed form of the Protector sat up out of the mangled mess. Corbin searched the surrounding area with a sweeping glance for Dr. Harper but she was nowhere in sight, swallowed by the dense forest. Next, he looked through the shattered windshield of the crumpled cab of the delivery truck to find the driver slumped against the steering wheel.

    Corbin rose from the pile of wreckage, shook off some of the debris that clung to his thick black pelt, and made his way over to the cab of the truck. He easily tore away the door, then reached inside to carefully remove the driver, who moaned from the disturbance. Corbin took the unconscious man to the side of the road where he laid him safely out of the way, then he went back to the wreckage and rummaged around until he recovered his wallet, keys, and cell phone. With those items easily contained in the palm of his huge clawed hand, he slipped away into the forest under the dark of night which was quickly consuming the last remnants of daylight.

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