by Jaimi Wilson
If I worked for the Order, the first thing I would do is place spells all over the yard to stop people from breaking in. Why have no magical traps been set off by our presence? No screeching into the night to alert the people inside of approaching enemies?
And worse yet, no one is monitoring the perimeter. Even if I had magical alarms in place, I would still hire people to keep watch over my property. My feelings of unease grow worse the closer we get to the house.
I stop to look up at the rickety house and wonder why on earth the Order lives here. This house with all the boarded up windows looks more like something out of the Addams’ Family, not somewhere the highest members of our society would live.
Suddenly, a hand grabs mine, and I jump to see Benji standing in front of me. I got so distracted staring at the house, that I lost track of where I was and forgot to focus on my surroundings.
Together, we walk around the side of the house to where Josh, Liam, and Neira wait for us, their faces expressing concern. Benji lets go of me as Josh approaches. Josh then pulls me away from the rest of the group, so Neira won't hear what is being said. Benji and Liam keep throwing covert glances my way but I don’t miss the way Neira gently places her hand on Liam’s arm. His gaze softens and I want to storm right back over there and rip them apart but I know Josh had to have a reason for pulling me aside.
Josh glances over to make sure Neira is distracted before he whispers. "Look, I want you to be careful in there. Something about this isn't sitting right with me." He looks back over at the group to see them still deep in conversation. "Benji told me about your concerns regarding Neira. I don't know her as well as Liam does, but just watch your back in there. I don't need two Alphas taking their frustration out on me if something were to happen to you."
I smile at Josh’s words of concern and the look of worry in his eyes. I pull him in for a hug to whisper back, "Thank you for caring. I promise I'll be careful. Besides, I'm a lot stronger than I look."
He smirks at me with laughter in his eyes. "Pretty sure I saw that for myself when you took out that tree."
With that said, we walk back to the group, just as Liam is explaining, "Josh and I will stand guard out here while you three go in and find Sabine. At the first sign of movement, one of us will howl and you better bloody haul ass out of there." He looks over at me pointedly, as if he knows I'd be the one to linger.
Neira places her hand on the window, and it vanishes. Josh grabs onto her and helps lower her into the basement below.
Liam moves in front of me. "I know things aren't quite sorted between us, but you need to know, Jasmine, that I'm not letting you go. If something goes wrong in there, you leave Neira and Sabine and get your ass out here."
I smile up at him, before pressing my lips to his gently. The bite on my shoulder tingles as he traces it absently with his fingers. I pull back with a smile. "No promises," I laugh as I walk to the window and drop down to the room below before he can say a word.
Benji appears in the basement seconds after me and shakes his head, his eyes filled with mirth. "You really just pissed him off, you know? He's going to punish you for that later."
I shrug my shoulders, knowing he speaks the truth. "I know, but it will help him remain vigilant out there until we leave, which was my goal."
Just then, the light in the basement flares on, and I squint at the sudden brightness. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust, but when I do, I see Neira standing by a light switch. For a moment, I was worried we'd all been discovered, but I heave a sigh of relief, knowing we haven’t been caught yet.
With the light on, I can see there are two cells in the basement on one side of the wall, and a small room under the stairs that lead up to the house.
There's no one in either cell, so I go over to open the door under the stairs, hoping Sabine may just be tied up in there, but no such luck.
When I look into the room, though, a shiver works its way up my spine, and I freeze. This little space holds so much magic that it makes it almost impossible to breathe.
"Neira, do you know what this room is used for?" I ask, as a shiver of fear runs through me.
Even though my heart is hammering, and my magic is pulsing to be let free, I remain as calm as I can, even though a ball of dread is forming in my stomach. I hope we can get out of here as soon as possible. This house is creeping me the fuck out.
"There's no one down here," Benji murmurs, moving from the cells towards the door where I’m standing. He sees it empty, but Neira refuses to look inside.
"He's right, there's no one down here. That room is probably just used for practicing magic," she says, distracted as she climbs the stairs. "Come on, they're probably upstairs." She begins climbing the stairs before Benji and I have the chance to object.
We share a worried glance and sigh. Neither one of us wants to go upstairs, but she hasn't left us with much of a choice. We have no real option but to follow her and hope we'll find the people we're looking for, without getting caught in the process.
When we come up from the basement, we end up in the kitchen. Neira is standing in the doorway and I have to nudge her out of the way so we can all step into the kitchen. She lingers behind us as Benji and I look out the doorway to the open entry area. Its a wide sparse space and leads to what used to be a grand staircase. Now it's nothing but a remnant of what could have been beauty. Neira seems to find her courage and pushes past us out into the open area and takes the stairs to the second floor.
The dread I feel continues to build as we follow her up the stairs onto the second floor and stop at the sight of an open door directly across from the stairs. Neira is rushing through the room checking for her sister and so Benji and I move on to another room, finding it to be empty. We check the whole floor, a total of four rooms, before moving onto the next floor.
"Maybe we should leave? This doesn't feel right," I whisper to Benji. My voice echoes up the staircase, and Neira turns to glare at me from the floor above.
"We're not leaving yet! My sister's here, I can feel it. Let's just check all the rooms. If none of us find anything, then I'll leave. But I have to at least try. Locator spells don't lie!" Her voice, while laced with anger, is also filled with sadness, and I know that we have to at least try to find her sister.
She's right about locator spells not lying. If you have an item from a person you’re looking for and combine that with the spell, it reveals exactly where that person is. Sure, she may not be here now, but she at least had been when we left the pack. Considering it only took an hour to reach this place on foot, I doubt they could have moved her very far in such a short span of time.
Benji looks over at me and I can tell he sees I've made up my mind about the situation.
"Fuck!" He runs a hand through his hair in frustration. "Ten minutes. You get ten minutes to look for your sister, then we're out of here, whether you're with us or not. My mate is not staying here longer than she absolutely needs to."
With that, Neira turns on her heels and hurries away up to the top floor. We can hear doors opening and slamming shut, and Benji winces at the sound, even as he quietly opens the door before us. I step cautiously into the room, taking a quick glance around only to find it empty.
I can still hear the doors slamming upstairs. We walk out of the room and climb the stairs to the last floor.
We get to the top of the stairs and see three doors left unopened. Finally, this is almost over. I just want to get out of here already.
After finding nothing in the first two rooms, we move to the final door. I reach out to open it, but Benji pulls me back. "This is like every horror movie I've ever seen. Neira has disappeared and all the rooms have been cleared, which means she’s probably behind this door, which also means, most likely, so are the bad guys. Please, just stay behind me."
He pushes me behind him, and takes my place at the door, muttering under his breath, "Can't believe I'm doing this."
He pushes open the door and takes a step ins
ide as I grip his shirt for comfort.
Neira is standing on the opposite side of the room with tears running down her face as she holds a woman who looks remarkably like her in her arms. Obviously, it’s her sister, Sabine.
"They only wanted you. They agreed to let us all leave, as long as we could get you here."
Neira's words are spoken in my mind, although her eyes remain fixed on Benji.
Sabine's eyes lift and meet mine, widening in horror. She turns to her sister, her eyes crazed. "What have you done?" she whispers, her voice breaking as she continues to stare at Neira with heartbreak evident in her expression.
This was a trap all along. Not a trap for my mates, but a trap for me.
Twenty
Jasmine
I feel a crackle of magic coming from behind me and have to make a split-second decision. I slam my hands into Benji's back, crying out from the sheer force of magic as I send him teleporting out of the room with a crack. If I did that right, he should land right in front of Liam and Josh where they wait for us outside the house. Exhausted, yes, but still alive.
"I'm sorry," I murmur into the blank space where he had just been.
A pop sounds behind me, and I turn, taking a step back. Evan is standing in front of me with a menacing scowl.
He glances over at Neira with a smile. "Well done, Neira. To be honest, we weren't sure if you would be able to hold up your end of the bargain. But, a deal’s a deal, so you may leave and take your sister with you."
Neira starts to drag her sister out through the door, while Sabine curses the whole time, fighting her.
Her screams echo through the house as she begs Neira to help me, and I frown, confused. She doesn't even know me, why is she so worried about what happens to me?
Evan watches me with those cold eyes of his, and I gather my magic, preparing to defend myself. I may have to fight my way out of here, and with the little magic I have left, I'm going to have to throw everything I can at him to even have a chance to escape.
I have to find a way to buy myself some time in order to build my power.
"Why did you go through all this just to get me here? Why not just kill me when you visited the pack?" I ask, hoping by now Benji has had enough time to reorient himself. I'm just praying that Liam and Josh had the good sense to drag his stubborn ass out of here and back to the pack.
My magic is still building, and I would bet anything that Evan can sense it, but still he humours me by responding. "My wife wanted you. To be honest, I couldn't care less, but when she wants something, you can’t exactly refuse her.”
He sighs dramatically, "As for taking you when we came by the pack, we couldn't. You know that. You bound the protection spell with your energy and that of your mates." At my gasp, he smirks with pleasure. "Yes, I know just who your mates are. I'm not stupid."
"Could have fooled me." My face pales; that just slipped out. I didn't want to antagonize him further, but to my surprise, he laughs.
"Oh, Jasmine. If I weren't already a taken man, I may have propositioned you myself."
I fight the urge not to gag. Sure I like my men older, but if my hunch is right based on those pictures I saw, Evan is at least six hundred years old. There is such a thing as too old.
When my power finishes building, I send a blast at Evan before he can react. He goes flying and hits the wall, but then gets up as if nothing happened.
"STOP!" Evan booms into the room.
The command rocks through me, and my magic drains out of me without my say so. What the fuck? I pull it again, trying to fight, but it’s no use. While my magic isn’t completely gone, I can’t seem to activate it, either.
Evan smirks as he sends me crashing to my knees with his magic. I hear the clacking of high heels walking up the stairs towards us. "You can't use your magic, unless I will it. You're cursed, Jasmine."
I shiver at the evil that resonates in his voice, and my heart begins racing. How the fuck am I cursed?
That's when I remember him putting his hands on me and his magic touching mine back at the pack house. That son of a bitch. Before I can shout obscenities at him, however, my mother suddenly appears in the doorway.
"Mom?! What are you doing here? You need to get out now!" I scream, just as Jessica appears behind her.
My mother whips around, snapping Jessica's neck with a flick of her wrist, and I sigh, relieved she took care of her. My mother, while only a level three, is still very capable. If anyone could keep Evan distracted long enough to help me escape, it’s her.
"He's crazy, Mom. You need to leave!"
Evan turns his gaze on my mother, and I watch in horror as she walks into the room, unaware of the danger she's putting herself in. It’s like she can't see him, but that can’t be right; she's walking straight towards him.
He smirks, seeming unbothered by her appearance. That’s when the wheels start turning in my mind.
I was sent to the packs, where I just happen to find my mates. The Order mysteriously appears right after I perform some spell that supposedly affected them. I should have fucking known something was off from the beginning.
The earth would have cut them off from its magic the moment their intentions turned dark. They wouldn’t have felt me use my magic, which means they’ve been watching us the whole time.
My body shuts down as I realize the inevitability of my fate. I was always going to end up here, trapped. It was just only a matter of when.
"You're my mother’s husband," I state. It’s all suddenly so clear, I don’t need to question whether I’m right. She kisses Evan passionately before they part. Her eyes, so much like my own, are shining with glee.
"Yes, Jasmine. Evan is my husband. And together, we're going to make the world tremble at our feet."
I roll my eyes at her dramatics. She has always been such a fucking drama queen. But I know despite her talk, she doesn’t have the power to do anything too dangerous on her own.
Evan takes three strides towards me, bending over to grab my head in his hands. I wait for the magic to soak into my mind the same way it had before when he did this at the pack house, but nothing happens.
My mother watches, her smile slowly dimming as she realizes nothing is happening to me.
"Well?" she demands, tapping her foot impatiently.
Evan looks into my eyes with confusion. "I don't know. When I tried to get into it the other day, it worked fine. Her magic rebelled at first, but then the curse took effect. Maybe binding her magic is affecting it somehow?" he suggests, his eyes worried.
If I were him, I would be more than just fucking worried. If my mother doesn't get what she wants, she will throw a hissy fit that could rival a three-year-old child.
After a few minutes with nothing happening, my mother sighs and waves her hand. Suddenly, iron shackles wrap around my wrists and ankles.
"Take her down to the basement and unbind her magic,” she orders him. “Those shackles will keep her bound, so I suggest you release her curse and keep trying to siphon her magic."
My mother walks away, leaving me alone with Evan. I sit here, restrained and feeling defeated. What a bitch!
Evan grabs the chains attached to my cuffs and pulls me to my feet roughly. “I will get your magic, whether you want to give it up willingly or not. Don't think you can keep it from me."
With that, he drags me down the stairs. I fight not to trip over each step, catching myself on the bannister a dozen times by the time we reach the kitchen.
When we get down the basement stairs, he shoves me in one of the cells. "I'll be back later to lift your curse. In the meantime," he kicks a bucket to my feet, "here's the bathroom."
He slams the door shut and walks up the stairs, leaving me to my own devices. I sit in the corner of the cell on the cool cement floor and put my head in my hands, somewhat limited in my movements by the chains holding me.
This day fucking sucks!
Twenty-One
Jasmine
The chains r
attle as I make my way over to the small bucket they left for me to do my business in.
It’s been two days since they locked me up down here. My magic is bound by whatever it is that Evan cursed me with, and there's no way out. Trust me, I’ve tried.
Part of me holds out hope that Benji or Liam will come back for me. Hell, even Neira would be a welcome sight right about now, but I doubt any of them will come. Josh would stop them before they even left the pack. He may not be Alpha, but he has enough drive to make them see sense, and that my situation is a hopeless one.
The door upstairs opens, and I pull my pants up, preparing myself for Evan. He tries to siphon my magic as often as he can, but so far, he's had no luck.
He unlocks my cell and opens the door, glaring at me as he steps inside the small space. I do the same thing I do every time he comes in, and move over to the small bench, sitting down as I wait for him to get this over with. He's trying to steal my magic. At least, that's what it feels like he's doing. He lets his magic play in my mind, and I'm powerless to stop him. For all I know, he could actually be draining my magic, a little bit at a time, until I finally die.
I wait patiently as he works, knowing it won’t do me any good to struggle. If anything it will hurt me more. The longer he spends trying, the more frustrated he gets until he gives up, pushing my head away. When I turn back to him, he slaps me across the cheek. "How are you doing it?"
"Doing what? I have no fucking idea what you're doing to me! You cursed my magic. How do you know whatever it is you're trying to do wasn't affected by that, you fucking imbecile?!" I scream at him, my anger finally breaking the surface. If I wasn't chained in these magical cuffs, I would rip his pathetic excuse for a dick from his body and then feed it to him!
He turns on his heel and slams the door behind me, leaving me alone in this dank cell, yet again, but I know he'll try it again soon. He always does.
Instead of focusing on that however, I choose to think about the time I spent with my mates, knowing that if I die here, at least I got the chance to get to know them first. I know some people don't even get that luxury of finding their mate.
