by Gaja J. Kos
But still, seeing his face in my mind…
I cursed at myself.
Falling down the rabbit hole of theories wouldn’t get me out of this mess. All that mattered was one thing.
Whoever had put me here had been clever.
Really fucking clever.
There was no scent to discern aside from old piss, crap, blood, and humid stone. No sounds pierced through the walls or the steel door ahead. For all intents and purposes, I was flying blind.
And bound, a voice at the back of my mind supplied.
Yeah, that too.
The bind around my neck dug into my skin as I swallowed. They really had thought of everything. A werewolf’s natural tolerance for pain allowed us to do a fuckload of things. Like snap a few bones to get out of chains. But if I tried to shift…
The half-collar would choke me.
Nausea squirmed in my stomach. What other option did I have, really?
I could wait here for my captor to do who the fuck knew what with me…
Or I could die trying to get free.
A part of me wanted to just give into the panic, break down, and fucking cry myself into unconsciousness. Life, though, had taught me that rolling over wasn’t something you were forced into. It was something you chose to do.
I’d be damned if I ceded control of my fucking existence like that.
So, even as it went against my every instinct, even as that survival-wired part of my brain screamed of the danger, I reached within me and called on the magic of the shift.
The power blazed through me, and on its wings—agony.
The snap-snap-snap-snap of bones ricocheted off the walls. My muzzle opened in a howl, but what came out was a wretched choking sound as the collar crushed my throat.
I almost shifted back when my wolfish mind remembered that breaking bones wasn’t enough.
Choking and gasping, I yanked on my hind legs. They slipped free of the restraints and slapped against the chair, paws limp.
But before I could as much as acknowledge my victory, my body convulsed from the lack of air. I reached for my shift again. The power flowed over me, and the pressure on my throat lessened.
Coughing, I sucked in greedy, ragged lungfuls, then willed myself to calm.
My broken legs started to heal—as did my arms. Shit. I was still too fucked up to do this again, but I had no choice. I couldn’t let the bones mend all the way.
I shifted.
Without needing to refracture my front legs, all I had to contest with was the choking sensation—which was infinitely worse with not enough recovery time thrown in between my attempts. But I had to do this. I had to fucking pull through.
The size discrepancy between my human hands and my paws wasn’t as great as it had been with my legs. Nor was the angle working in my favor.
I focused on wiggling my shoulders, bucking at the hips to slip my paws from the restraints. The half collar threatened to crush my throat to the point of no return, but I kept at it, thrashing now.
One front leg slipped from the restraints.
I repeated the movements, lungs burning and mind fading. Blood tinged the air from where I’d scraped open the skin beneath my fur—
The other leg popped free.
Relief sank me deeper into the abyss, and on my final second of consciousness, I pulled hard on my shit.
Nausea rolled through me as I coughed and sputtered, human-shaped once more, every cell in my body flaming in agony. My bones began to mend—my legs, the dual fractures on my arms. I could feel the garrote of deep bruising around my neck working its way back to normal. Even my wheezing breaths leveled out.
Still, all of it took too long.
Too fucking long that I had to sit here and wait, knowing my captor could barge through the door at any moment.
Every second that passed felt like the turn of a cog in the thundering countdown of my escape going to shit. I gritted my way through it, punching every thought of doom straight in the core so that it shattered instead of inviting the exact shit it was warning about into my reality.
I was a fucking fighter, and the only way to win was to not limit my mind through the slew of anxious, pessimistic mental vomit.
Calm. Open. Sharp.
By the time I regained sufficient mobility in my arms, I’d managed to wrest enough control over myself to let me dive into the next phase. Tentatively, I brought my hands up to the collar.
Nothing but smooth metal met my fingertips.
I reached behind the chair, feeling out the seams. There had to be a mechanism, a godsdamned lock—
My nail caught on something.
I tugged.
The collar swung aside with a motion so sharp it scraped my chin.
A hint of fresh blood tickled my nose, but it didn’t matter. I launched myself out of the chair and scrambled for the door on unsteady feet. Tatters of my clothes fluttered to the ground, my shoes already discarded thanks to my earlier shifts. I shook free of the few remnants that clung to my skin, then launched for the handle.
The buzz of magic prickled my skin and raised the hairs on my arms.
Fuck.
My captor might not have thought anyone would break free of their little torture device, but they weren’t taking any unnecessary chances either. I wasn’t even sure if the ward was there to keep me in or someone else out, but judging by the feel of it, the second I tripped it—if I managed to push through at all—alarms would go off.
A venomous growl rose in my throat.
I didn’t come so far just to give up now.
Whatever came at me, I’d deal with it. I just had to get the fuck out.
I strode across the room to the farthest wall and switched shape. The change came slower to me, weighted down by all the crap that had piled up over the past twenty-four hours or so—who knew how long I’d been stuck the fuck down here—but obeyed nonetheless.
Paws on the ground, I unleashed a battle snarl, then broke into a sprint like a muscle car on steroids.
I blasted straight into the door.
The metal gave under the force of my body, but the second I crossed the threshold, vicious needles of magic pierced my flesh, crawling—no, eating it.
Panic threw my wolfish mind into a frenzy.
I shifted back on instinct and rolled across the ground toward the stairs. The magic…
It was gone.
For a moment, I just lay there, breathing heavily and trying not to throw up. I was okay. I was all right. I didn’t even have it in me to dwell on why my shift had thrown off the flesh-eating power, just dragged myself back to my feet and ran up the stairs.
I was almost halfway up when the door at the top swung open.
A tall, dark figure filled the landing.
I skidded to a stop, bile splashing at the back of my throat as daggers wrought of my deepest fears slid between my ribs.
Aric.
Standing on the landing and blocking my way to freedom was Aric.
Chapter 13
The sight of the vampire I fucking loved, standing with his legs planted firmly on the ground and body taut, gutted me.
Yes, I’d entertained the thought that Aric was behind this. Turned over his motives. But I hadn’t actually wanted to believe any of it.
At its deepest level, my gut refused to get on board with the idea that I’d been so horribly, terribly wrong.
Aric, shit… The weight of it all hit me, and my foot slipped off the stair I hadn’t fully climbed.
I staggered back—
A twitch rocked through Aric’s body.
“Thank fuck.” His voice bounced off the narrow, decrepit walls.
I grabbed hold of the brittle railing to my left, my heart threatening to crash through my ribs. Aric’s sharp gaze roamed down my form. Nudity and werewolves might have been the most natural combination in the world, but in this moment, I was painfully aware of how vulnerable I was before him. The tingle of a shift built up in my body.
“Don’t,” I snarled.
Even in the dim light, I could see his frown.
“Gina, I won’t hurt you.” The softness and shock in his voice didn’t strike me as fake.
I just wasn’t convinced I could trust it. Trust him.
“I don’t know what happened down there”—Aric tried to take another step, but as I growled, he quickly lifted his hands, palms up—“but we have to get out now.”
A traitorous part of me wanted to rush up and throw myself into his arms, but the memories of all the lies and unspoken shit kept me pinned in place. What if he was playing me? Still playing me?
My fingers dug into the railing, bits of rotted wood flaking away beneath my touch. “How did you know I was here?”
“Gina, we don’t have ti—”
“How?” I snapped.
Obviously realizing I wasn’t about to go anywhere with him until he started talking, Aric clenched his jaw and cut a look over his shoulder at the open door.
He turned to me and rapid-fired, “I went after you. I saw you get hit by magic, but I was too slow to stop you from getting taken. I followed you here but lost sight of the damn car. I had to search the whole fucking area to find this building. Even then, I wasn’t sure…”
Darkness and relief warred on his face. He hadn’t even been sure this was the right place.
But it was another bit of information he’d divulged that snagged my attention.
“You know who took me?” I breathed heavily, the wolf within me wanting to rip free at the prospect of hunting down my kidnapper.
“Yeah, and we really need to get going. You’re in no shape to fight”—his gaze raked down my form as if somehow seeing everything I’d just gone through, even that which had already healed—“and I can’t take on a witch and a vampire alone. I ran all the way here.”
He… He ran after the car?
“Where’s here?” I asked.
Though I could feel and smell his annoyance at yet another of my questions, Aric didn’t let it show beyond a straining of his shoulders. “Just west of Karower Teiche. Now come on, they haven’t noticed I’m here yet, but it’s just a matter of time…”
Something about the way he said it left me with the impression that, again, there was more to the story than he was letting on.
I climbed up the stairs anyway because, like it or not, Aric was right. Fighting off a witch and a vamp in our condition, no matter how much my wolf yearned for it, wouldn’t end well for us.
We slipped into the star-speckled night and snuck across the premises. Uncut grass trampled beneath my bare feet and prickled my soles. I snuck a look back at the building I’d been locked in.
An ugly, three-story affair that seemed separated into a main part and a sloppily put-together addition, tucked in the middle of an overgrown field with no signs of life in the vicinity. Perfect for shady business.
Especially holding supes captive.
I kept my senses open to the max as we prowled away from the wretched place, and judging by the tension stringing Aric’s body, he was doing the exact same thing. Everything might look quiet. But quiet could be misleading.
We moved in as much silence as we could muster, Aric slightly in the lead as he headed toward a line of thick brush. He cut me a look over his shoulder. I nodded, then positioned myself straight behind him to minimize the noise.
Something thumped at the house that sounded a whole lot like a fucking door.
I tucked myself against Aric’s back, and he shoved into the brush.
Branches whisked at me, but I hardly felt their scraping sting as I matched Aric’s every step, fighting to discern any sounds of my kidnappers from the rustling and whooshing of the bush. Impossible.
The noises melded into one another and created a bubble nothing could pierce. We could stop, slow… But if a person had been behind the sound that had propelled us into the thicket, if they were following us, then anything but us pushing forward would mean signing our death sentence.
No, we had to keep going. No matter what.
When we cleared the worst of the brush, Aric scooped me in his arms and zapped us across the moderately open space until we hit the next thicket. We stopped in a small opening smack in the middle of the bushes where the shadows were the thickest.
Nothing rushed after us.
Aric paused for a split second longer, monitoring the stretch of land we’d crossed, then set me down and shrugged out of his shirt. He offered the bunched-up fabric to me.
Though I was grateful to slip into its safety, however imaginary it might have been, I dealt Aric a questioning look. If I’d been naked up to this point…
He didn’t answer, but I got my explanation the second he pulled out his phone and called for a cab. Yeah, that was definitely a valid reason to cover up my naked butt.
I kept my eyes peeled on our surroundings while Aric gave a location by the Schröderlinger Straße, then terminated the call.
He started to stash away his phone, but I extended my hand. “You haven’t called ICRA yet, did you?”
“Fuck.” He handed me the phone. “No. I wasn’t thinking straight.”
The raw honesty and self-directed anger made me touch my fingers to his arm.
“It’s all right.” I punched in Finn’s number. “You came to get me. You did more than enough.”
We kept moving through the thicket at a slower but definitely not sluggish rate, and when Finn answered, I quickly updated him on everything, then let Aric speak to him to divulge the details of the location. Once Aric was done, he returned the phone to me.
“I’ll send a team out ASAP,” Finn said.
“Make sure they’re well prepared.” I glanced over my shoulder as if I could still see the house even though nothing but darkness and nature running wild greeted the eye. “I think this is the same place where Emilia was held.”
A purr of an engine whisked against my ears from up ahead, followed by a flicker of headlights filtering through the shrub. Our ride?
Following Aric’s lead, I wiggled through the brush and said to Finn, “Make sure to put witches on protective duty for the team.”
“Will do.”
The line went dead, and I gave Aric back his phone, then wormed my way through the last of the prodding branches. A taxi idled on the side of the road but thankfully didn’t take off at the sight of a bedraggled, barefooted werewolf draped in an oversized shirt and an imposing vamp in a white wifebeater.
The driver turning out to be a supe explained why he hadn’t really batted an eye at the pair of us.
“Head toward Mitte,” Aric said as he shut the door and wound an arm around me. “I’ll give you directions when we’re closer.”
Wise vamp.
I rested my head on his shoulder.
We needed to put as much distance between us and this place first. Specific directions would only be a delay.
The driver said something, but the words were swallowed up in my yawn. The past twenty-four hours seeped into my bones like lead. I tried to fight it, tried to keep myself present and alert, or at least fucking awake, but in the comfort of Aric’s embrace, my mind and body crashed.
The featherlight touch of the sun’s wisps warmed my flesh and gently lured me out of sleep. Sleep I was not ready to get lured out of. I rolled over and dug my face into the pillow.
It smelled so fucking amazing, I sank deeper into its fluffy core, inhaling more of the scent—
The scent.
I jolted awake, shaking the whole damn bed with my uncontrolled moves.
Bed.
Aric’s bed.
The alluring fragrance of the vampire clung to every part of my skin and rose from the sheets I ruffled. At least my jerky wake-up confirmed my body had fully recovered from the lack of sleep, as well as the stress and torture I’d inflicted upon it.
If I ignored my racing heart, I was actually…refreshed.
&nb
sp; Couldn’t even recall when the last time was that happened.
The downside—listening to the sane part of me nagging in a shrill, ear-splitting voice to get the fuck out of bed. Lingering beneath Aric’s duvet, in his godsdamned bedroom, was dangerous fucking territory I was in no state to navigate.
But…
I couldn’t really bring myself to leave just yet.
Leaving meant facing Aric and drilling him for answers I was willing to bet my fur he’d do his best to evade. Was it really so bad to enjoy this moment of crap-free bliss for a while longer?
It wasn’t as if I hadn’t fucking earned it.
So I pushed back against the warnings and invited indulgence in instead. But right as I sank against the pillow to make the most of my break from life, the door straight ahead of me opened.
Aric peeked inside, and the relief on his face upon seeing me awake was so stark, a whole bundle of emotions burst to the surface and wiped away the rational Gina with zero hopes of recovery.
“You’re all right,” he said softly, then crossed the room to sit beside me on the edge of the bed.
He stroked the side of my face with a gentle touch that would have had me purring if I hadn’t caught myself in time.
“You were out for a while.” His fingertips hovered on my cheek. “I monitored you, but…”
He shook his head, and I could have sworn that was a tremor I sensed reverberating through his touch. Aric locked his gaze on mine.
A second passed—a second that struck me as infinitely longer, filled to the brim with something that felt perilously close to love.
Then Aric leaned over and kissed me.
My eyes fluttered shut.
Aric’s mouth moved against mine, warm, tender, yet with a decadently demanding undercurrent that sent a rush of heat—
“Stop,” I muttered so weakly it was a wonder Aric actually took the command seriously.
He straightened, and I had to fortify myself against that soul-stealing gaze.
“Thanks for coming to find me, Aric,” I said. “I mean it. I really fucking do. You didn’t have to charge after me, especially not after our fight, and I’m more grateful than I could ever say for what you’ve done. But that doesn’t make keeping things from me okay.”
