My gaze dipped to Leanne on the table beside me. In the streams of sunlight filtering through the cracks in the walls, I could see her face. She looked so much younger than I remembered. She had long brown hair that was a matted mess, pale skin, and a splash of freckles across the bridge of her nose.
I swallowed hard and then extended my arm to press my index and middle fingertips to her neck to check for a pulse. Even though it was clear she was dead, I still felt a need to check. My pulse quickened at the feel of her cool skin.
“Is she gone?” Cato asked in a hushed whisper as he made his way back inside.
I nodded and dropped my hand to my side. The chill of her skin still lingered across my fingertips.
“This one is still alive,” he said. “We need to hurry. Things are getting heated out there. I don’t know how much longer we have before all hell breaks loose.”
I watched as he cut the girl down with speed and agility I didn’t seem to currently have. I really needed to get it together. These girls were counting on me.
And so was Penny.
Cato carefully picked up the girl he’d untied. He nodded to the final girl strapped to a table. “Check her for a pulse.”
“Okay.” I didn’t want to. I was scared to touch another dead girl. I could still feel the coldness of Leanne seeping into the pores of my fingertips, chilling me to the bone.
Noises from the front of the building made their way to my ears. Cato was right; it was getting heated out there. A fight was sure to break out soon.
I stepped to the final table and pressed my fingers to the girl’s neck. Nothing. She was gone. Pain pierced the back of my throat as tears pricked the corners of my eyes. I blinked, refusing to cry for this girl, Leanne, or any others who may have come before.
Right now, I needed to find Penny.
Besides the long tables there were stacks of lumber, old rusty blades on machines I imagined at one point were used to cut wood, and a few wheelbarrows filled with trash and sawdust. There was nothing else here.
A noise above me caught my attention.
It sounded like someone shuffling around. An animal in the rafters, maybe? There wasn’t much light to see by up there, but I could make out a loft. There was a set of stairs near the front door of the building. I tightened my grip on my knife and headed toward them. I was halfway up the stairs when Cato came back. I paused and called out to him in a hushed whisper.
“There’s a loft. I’m checking it out,” I said.
“What about her?” He nodded to the girl on the last table.
I shook my head. “Gone.”
Movement from the loft had my breath hitching and my grip on the thin board tightening.
“Tris? Is that you?” a voice I would recognize anywhere asked.
“Penny,” I breathed.
I made my way up the final few steps faster than they seemed to be able to handle. They creaked and moaned beneath my weight, but I didn’t care. Penny was up there. She was alive. And I would get her out of here.
The loft was lit by a busted skylight. A single bulb dangled from the center of the ceiling, but when I flipped the switch, it didn’t offer much more light than was already available. The loft was small. There was nothing besides a few pieces of rope hanging from the ceiling and a shelf with rusty metal rods and scrap pieces of lumber near where I stood.
“Oh my God, Tris. I’m so happy to see your freaking face,” Penny whispered. She was in a cage that took up the entire far wall. The bars were floor to ceiling and thick. “I thought I was going to die in this hellhole. Hell, I thought you already had.”
“I wouldn’t let you die here. Have more faith in me than that,” I teased as I strapped my knife back to my ankle and then walked to the cage to check out the lock. It was solid. Without a key, I wasn’t sure how I was going to get her or the girls in there with her out.
“You need to be careful though,” Penny said. The way her voice shook when she spoke had me locking eyes with her. “They’re not human, Tris. I shit you not. They’re coyotes or something. Wild dogs. I don’t know. But they’re not human.” In the lighting, I could see that the entire left side of her face was swollen. Dried blood had crusted along her chin. And her clothes were torn. Her eyes were wild and glazed with fear.
“I know,” I said.
Cato entered the loft. “Liam shifted. We need to get out of here. He’ll have my damn head if something happens to you.”
“I can’t leave without her.” I nodded to the cage and Penny. “Without them.”
I refused to.
“Then open the door and let’s go,” he growled. His bear was about to explode from him. I could feel the charge in the air. He was torn between protecting me and helping his alpha against the coyotes.
“It’s locked. Come pick it,” I snapped.
A noise sounded from downstairs. Someone was in the mill with us. Had they heard us? Or could they sense me? Even with Natalie’s bracelet, they’d still have been able to know I was here. I’d hung out with them on more than one occasion. They probably had my scent memorized.
“You’re going to have to figure it out,” Cato said as he tossed me his swiss army knife. “And hurry. Times about up.”
He disappeared down the stairs and I spun to face the lock. This little thing was all that stood between saving my friend and what looked like three others. How had they taken so many girls from town without the police getting involved?
I flipped open all the sections of the knife, searching for which would be best to use. Never in my life had I picked a lock like this before. I’d tried as a kid to lock my bedroom door and then use one of my mom’s million bobby pins to unlock it but always failed.
I didn’t have the patience for it.
The reality of the situation pressed down on me when the sounds of a fight breaking out downstairs made its way to my ears. A loud growl ripped through the mill, causing my heart to kick-start in my chest and my breath to rush past my lips.
“Holy shit,” Penny muttered. “Who are you hanging with nowadays, girl?”
I cracked a grin as I attempted to steady my hands enough to insert one of the knives into the padlock. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me. I’ve seen some crazy shit lately.”
“Okay. Bears. I’ve been hanging with bear shifters.” I held her stare, waiting for her to tell me I was nuts or to laugh in my face. She did neither.
“Right. Okay. Yeah, that sounded like a bear.” She blinked. “As long as they take down these asshats and I get out of here, I don’t care what they are.”
I wiggled the knife in the lock, but nothing happened. “This isn’t working.” I pulled the knife out and glanced at the other options again.
“Try that one,” Penny insisted, guiding me like always as she pointed to a flathead screwdriver. I shoved it into the lock and jiggled with a little too much force. “Breathe. You’ve got this.”
I pulled in a deep breath while trying to focus on what my hands were doing and not the epic fight taking place below me. Penny moved to the other girls huddled together on the floor.
“What’s wrong with them?” I asked.
“They’re drugged still.” She shook two of the girls. They stirred, but their eyes never opened. They’d have to be carried out if they wouldn’t wake. “I don’t know what it was, but they used it on me too. It makes you tired and confused. These girls came today. They’re still doped up good.”
Why would Ezra still have been abducting girls if he knew I was the Mystic? It didn’t make sense. I wondered if it was because he wasn’t willing to risk believing it without proof, so he continued looking in case the rumors were wrong.
Still, I didn’t understand why he was so desperate to find the Mystic.
I was about to say something to Penny when the sound of heels clicking up the stairs caught my attention. Someone was coming, and I thought I knew who.
I froze. “Crap.”
Penny
’s eyes locked with mine. She nodded to the knife in my hand. “Set it on the floor. I’ll try to get the lock with it if this is who I think it is.”
In my gut, I knew who it was too—Jessica, Ezra’s little sister. She always wore stilettos and skintight leather pants. There was a point where I’d thought she was the definition of cool, but then she opened her mouth. Some people just ruined their entire view of them once they spoke.
I laid the knife down and kicked it closer to the cage so it would hopefully go unnoticed but be in Penny’s reach. Something crashed downstairs, sounding as though it broke into splinters, and I flinched.
“Tris, I know you’re here,” Jessica said in her high-pitched voice that grated on my nerves. “I don’t think the guys should get to have all the fun, do you?”
She crested the top step and my heart hammered against my ribs. I unstrapped the knife at my ankle again and gripped it tight.
Another crash sounded from below us, it was followed by a yippy howl from outside.
“See, all the boys are having fun. Demi and the blond girl who came with you are out front having fun of their own too. We should join in, don’t you think?” Jessica asked with a wicked grin. Her head tipped to the side as she stared at me. The knife in my hand didn’t worry her. There was something vicious in her eyes that seemed to grow by the second. I’d always thought she was unhinged, but the look on her face was proof.
“What did Corbin ever see in you? Look at you. You look like a scared little puppy ready to piss itself.” She took a step closer, her heels clicking across the wood floor. Her fingers flexed as her eyes flickered between their natural dark shade and silver. She looked possessed, but I knew it was just her coyote warring with her. “As my brother’s best friend, Corbin was supposed to be mine. Did you know that? Did you know you were dating my man?”
“Corbin didn’t belong to anyone. He did what he wanted,” I said.
“And now he’s dead.” She stopped a few feet away from me. Her eyes looked even wilder up close. Liam’s were intriguing when they brightened because of his bear. Jessica’s were scary when her coyote fought its way to the surface. “Because of you. I’m going to make sure you pay for what you did.”
“Not if I make you pay for your part in all this first.” I gestured to the building before lunging forward with my knife. She sidestepped me, causing me to miss her, and I immediately darted back to put space between us again.
The corner of her lips twisted into a smirk as she sauntered toward me. Sunlight streaming through the busted skylight hit her box-dyed hair just right, making it shift between shades of black and burgundy as she walked. Evil lurked in her eyes, and I knew she wanted to kill me. Not just because in her head she and Corbin were supposed to be together, but because the chick was insane.
The few times I’d hung out with Corbin and she’d been around, I’d picked up on how crazy she was. She was seasoned crazy—narcissistic and manipulative. Once I’d listened to her hash it out with another girl over something stupid. Everything the girl said made sense, but everything Jessica said didn’t. She was too flustered to form a coherent sentence. Of course, alcohol could have played a part in that. She’d had quite a few beers in her by the time the argument happened. Still, no one shut her up. They all were fine letting her tear into this other girl who’d done nothing wrong.
It was like nobody wanted to stand up to her—like they were afraid.
Something shifted through Jessica’s eyes, letting me know a millisecond before she lunged for me that she was about to. My reflexes were fast, but not fast enough. I swung my knife, but she dodged it. When I swung again, she knocked it from my hand and swiped at my feet with her long legs.
I fell on my ass.
All the breath left my lungs. I struggled to get to my feet, but she was too fast. She was on me before I could blink. Her hands gripped hold of my head, and she slammed it into the ground. Stars burst before my eyes as pain radiated from the area. I shoved her, but she was too strong, she barely moved. Her fist connected with my jaw, and I thought I was going to blackout. Somehow, I was able to wiggle my knee between us. Once I had, I used it to flip us around, so I was on top. Then, I let my fists fly. I knew if I didn’t, I wouldn’t get a second chance.
I needed to knock this crazy bitch out.
I was able to get a few blows in, but nothing seemed to affect her much. In a move that seemed more practiced than it should, she shoved me off her and sent me scooting across the wood floor. I scrambled to my feet, but it didn’t matter. She kicked her leg out, slamming into my side and sending me to my knees. Something popped in my side from the blow. A rib maybe? All I knew was that pain bloomed through my side, causing nausea to sweep through me. I forced myself back to my feet and avoided another kick, but barely.
Who knew Jessica was like an MMA fighter in heels?
A loud growl came from outside. It was Liam. I didn’t know how I could differentiate the noise was from him instead of the others, but I could.
“Sounds like your new boyfriend is getting his ass handed to him like you are,” Jessica sneered. “Coyotes get so little respect.”
I inhaled and shifted into a fighting stance. Pain stabbed through my side. Yep, something was definitely broken. I dug my Converse sneakers into the sawdust along the wood floor and raised my fists. Jessica smiled. I swung, aiming for her jaw, but she ducked the blow.
Damn, she was good at this.
When she came back up, she kicked her leg out, connecting her foot with the same injured area of my side. Pain unlike anything I’d ever felt before surged through me, and I fell to my knees.
“Get up,” Jessica shouted. Her tone was inhuman, which let me know her coyote was on the verge of busting free. I knew when that happened, I was a goner. I needed to get my hands on my knife again or something else I could use as a weapon. My gaze drifted over Penny briefly. She was busy using Cato’s swiss army knife to unlock her cage. “Come on. I said get up! I’m trying to have a little fun here and you’re ruining it by being a baby. I can’t believe that’s all it takes to knock you out. I figured you’d be stronger than this. I guess I was wrong.”
There was a board to my right and just in reach. I’d have to move fast to get it before Jessica noticed, which meant I needed to ignore any pain in my side the movement caused. I exhaled a slow breath to ready myself and then dove for it. My teeth clenched together as pain sliced through me. I grabbed hold of the board, gripping it so tight my fingertips hurt as I shot up to my feet.
Another roar ripped through the air. Jessica smirked, her eyes flashing pure silver. “Sounds like someone from your little clan is injured.”
No matter how much I wanted to know who and how bad, I knew I couldn’t risk getting lost in those thoughts. I had to remain present. It was the only way to beat her.
Jessica took a step toward me. One more and she’d be close enough for me to reach with the board. I hoped she didn’t duck my blow this time. If she did, I’d swing again.
Connecting somewhere, anywhere, was the goal.
“This has been fun, but I’m done playing around,” Jessica said. The air charged with shifter magic, and I knew I was in trouble.
“Me too,” I said before swinging the board.
She ducked, but not fast enough. The board connected with her shoulder. It splintered in half, becoming two pieces, and sent shards flying through the air. The vibrations from the blow rippled through my body and I stumbled, losing my balance and nearly falling to the floor.
Jessica rubbed her shoulder, but the blow didn’t stop her. She lunged at me with a wild, feral look flashing through her eyes. Her coyote exploded from inside of her body midair and there was nothing I could do to stop it from descending on me.
Her paws hit me in the chest, knocking me back and pinning me against the floor. I grabbed for the nearest piece of the split board and crammed it in her mouth to keep her from biting me. She shook her head, trying to remove it, but I held it in place. I
didn’t know how long I could last though. She wasn’t a chihuahua. Her heavy body crushed my lungs and pressed unevenly against my broken rib. I bucked my hips to get her off of me, but it didn’t do any good. Her weight and sheer animalistic force overpowered me. My muscles burned. My side ached so much I could cry. And my head thumped.
I wasn’t going to survive this. I knew it. I could see everything playing out in slow motion as though these were the final moments of my life. The funny thing was, I’d foolishly thought I had saved myself from dying in this place when I escaped Ezra’s trunk. But here I was. Already coming back full circle to die exactly where fate had first intended.
As I thought this, my grip on the board slipped and then it happened.
It fell from Jessica’s mouth and landed flat on my chest. Time froze as she hovered over me, her eyes gleaming with the promise of my death. I struggled to pick the board up, but my fingers fumbled. She snarled, and I knew she was going to eat me.
A loud crack rolled through the air.
It took me a few seconds to realize what happened. Jessica slumped against me, suddenly deadweight and I wiggled myself free from beneath her. I forced myself into a standing position and watched as Penny cracked the second half of the board against Jessica’s back again for good measure. Relief rushed through me so fast I thought I might pass out.
“You always did have perfect timing,” I said as I struggled to catch my breath.
“And proud of it,” Penny said as she placed a hand on her hip.
Jessica moved, already coming to. I grabbed the piece of wood from the floor that had slipped free, causing her to almost eat me, and gripped it tight. “I’ve got her. You get the girls out. Cato took the others into the woods. Do the same.”
“Are you sure?” Penny asked. Her eyes were on me. I could feel them, but I didn’t take my eyes off Jessica. I couldn’t risk it.
“Positive,” I said as I stalked forward.
It was time to take this bitch down once and for all.
Chapter Twelve
CAPTURED: GEM CREEK BEARS, BOOK TWO Page 9
