“Convince anyone to back your shifter resource sustainability plan?”
“Not a damn chance.”
They chuckled together and then got silent again. Alessia wasn’t sure what the point of this was. Lana hadn’t said much on the way there and there was no obvious agenda for their discussions. Was it simply to see that Erik was still alive? Would it become part of a larger blackmail? She was happy to see him okay and on the mend, but what she really wanted to know now was if Diego was alive. She hadn’t seen him since they’d been brought there and only had James’ word from days and days ago that Diego was still alive.
“Have you seen Diego?” she asked, waiting for Lana or the man behind Erik to jump up at some taboo conversation between prisoners. But they didn’t move an inch.
“A few days back,” Erik said. “He looks okay. Not beat up or anything but pretty thin and tired.”
So, he was alive as of a few days ago. Alessia had to tell Erik what she knew though. “These are all dragon shifters,” she said, low in the voice. “Diego is apparently some kind of minority here because he’s a wolf.”
“You think they’ll kill him?” Erik asked, leaning in.
“I don’t know. Drake said this isn’t a place that Orlando controls but that doesn’t mean they don’t share his prejudices,” she said.
She was waiting for the blow, for someone to tell them they had to change topics. Lana and the man could certainly hear them but they let them speak. Alessia wondered if that was important or not. But she decided she needed to get out as much as she possibly could, while she could.
“So, what’s next for us then?” Erik asked.
“I don’t know. They could have killed us already.”
“They also could have let us go.”
Alessia’s face went grim. They were truly stuck in a limbo that she didn’t know the outcome. There was no obvious plot here, no obvious way she was being driven. They were just existing as prisoners, fed, occasionally allowed to shower and use the bathroom, and then returned to their cells where she had a debate with her captor about the merits of the film adaptations of Lord of the Rings.
There was a lot they could have done. They were keeping them around for something. She thought of the story of Diego’s girlfriend and the horrific way it ended. Perhaps in the end they’d force them to carry out some awful plot. Maybe this meeting between her and Erik was a way to placate them until then.
Or maybe James didn’t know it was happening at all. Alessia looked around the room. Lana and the other man were busy talking amongst themselves, not even giving a second thought to what Erik and she were saying to each other. They wanted them talking. Alessia looked up, the cameras seemed functioning at first but after squinting and looking closer, she saw the red light usually signifying a recording was nowhere to be found.
“I don’t think James knows we’re talking right now,” she said in a whisper, like they were still in mortal peril in the room.
Erik’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
Alessia nodded to their captors huddled in the corner, conferring amongst themselves. “That doesn’t exactly look like the poster child for a couple of people not doing something shady.”
He looked over and looked back at her. He shrugged. “So what do we do?”
“Where are they keeping you?” she asked.
“The walk is a right turn out of this room, two lefts, a small flight of stairs and then I’m there,” he said. “And you?”
“I haven’t quite memorized it yet, but I know it’s a left turn, down some stairs, a straight walk for a while before a right turn and I think I’m there,” she said. “I’ll try to memorize it on the way back. And Diego?”
“He’s in a solitary cell,” Erik said darkly. “From what I hear, they have him locked up in a room with a little pinprick of light.”
“They don’t like him because he’s a wolf, that’s what Drake said.”
“Is Drake with you?”
“He was. They moved me. I don’t know where he is now as far as place is concerned.”
“Well, if dumb and dumber are on our side, then maybe we can figure it out,” Erik said with a wink.
“Is that the smirk of a man plotting an escape?” Alessia asked with a smile of her own.
“I don’t think we’re the ones doing the plotting,” he said, nodding to Lana and the man. “They seem to have something all their own going on. I say we lay low and let it play out. They won’t kill us, they feed us, they let us bathe. It’s basically the existence of a pet but it’ll keep us safe and alive, and maybe these guys will do the heavy lifting for us.”
“We have to figure out a way to talk to each other,” Alessia said. “I don’t think this little midnight rendezvous will work twice. Besides, we need some kind of eye on Diego and Drake.”
“See, this is why I say you watch too many movies,” Erik said with a chuckle and Alessia couldn’t help but smile back. Maybe she smiled for a little bit too long before she pulled away with a gruff clearing of her throat.
“I think time’s up,” Erik said, nodding to the people headed their way. They broke apart with a nod.
They had a plan. Others around them had a plan too. But something weird was going on and Alessia was more than willing to be a part of it if it meant getting back home to the comfort of her bed and a phone call to her mother.
Chapter 6
“So…” Alessia said when next she was with Lana in the cell a day or so after she’d been carted off to see Erik. “What kind of weird chess game am I now a part of?”
“What are you talking about?” Lana asked from where she was playing solitaire on her phone. They didn’t get service down below so Lana had stocked her phone with games that could be played offline. Once or twice, she even let Alessia play when she needed to put her eyes on a real book or anything that wasn’t the damaging blue light of a digital screen.
“Something tells me James didn’t know about that meeting the other night,” she said.
“Was that ‘something’ blatant obviousness?” Lana said. “You’re no spy, Alessia, but I’ll give you credit for all that show.”
Alessia pouted and turned a little bit red and Lana laughed as she closed the game down and focused her attention on the girl in the cell with a slightly more serious look—as serious as Lana could get, anyway.
“I just hope you and Erik made productive use of your time together in that room,” she said.
“We did,” Alessia said, not wanting to give too much away. Just because Lana was up to something (and occasionally snuck her more food) didn’t mean that she was worthy of too much trust.
“Good,” she said and backed away. “You’re going to meet with your hubby next.”
Drake. Alessia hadn’t seen him in days by measure of the amount of food she’d been given. She didn’t think there was a chance he was too worse for wear, but she also didn’t trust his tension-filled communication with James the last time they were together.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked. “Is this some weird, long-con, mind game?”
Lana’s left corner of her mouth picked up in a crooked grin and she let out a breathy chuckle. She had an air of superiority that would make her and Erik get along just fine. Alessia bristled at staring into the face of someone who thought they knew better, but she held her tongue. Lana was her one chance at getting any kind of freedom from whatever strange game they were in. She wouldn’t piss her off over some pride.
“I’ll let you know when you need to know,” she said. “For now, just play along and go with the flow.”
Alessia didn’t like waiting around and being told what to do. But she didn’t have a choice. She was quickly learning that in virtually all of this, she had no choice. They told her to sit and she did. They said jump and she reluctantly asked how high. Going with the flow felt a lot like being a helpless child, in her eyes.
***
Alessia didn’t like Lana’s words but she a
lso didn’t have a choice in the matter. She was a captive audience and, as Erik so eloquently put it, a pet. She was on a leash and subject to the moods of her owners. She’d have to deal with it all in stride, shut off that pride and the need to know everything. Her mother always said she was a little too curious. She needed to let go.
She wished she was one of those religious people who could so calmly say to themselves, “It’s in God’s hands now,” and be content in her own faith. But her mind buzzed too much for want of sunlight and the feel of real air. She was getting restless and wanted out of this little hellhole of a place they’d locked her in.
“Time to go, princess,” Lana said.
“Is there meant to be a goal for these little meetings?” Alessia asked, getting up and brushing herself off.
“You have your plots and we have ours. The more organic this happens, the better it works for all of us,” she said.
“It might help if we were working together.”
“Don’t mistake this for an alliance,” Lana said, carefully. “I don’t like you that much. You have goals and so do we. They might be aligned, but I’m not about to fall into the trap of being too tied to your allies.”
“I’m guessing ‘we’ doesn’t include James.”
“I’m guessing you should stop prying and just be excited you get to see your man—well, one of your men; that Erik fellow certainly likes looking at you,” she said.
Alessia glared and walked ahead, allowing herself to be pointed in the direction of the interrogation room, this time truly trying to memorize the way. Any part of this place she could map out was better than nothing.
Drake was already there and, luckily, not looking like he’d taken the same beating they delivered to Erik when they first arrived. He didn’t exactly look healthy but he looked alive and safe and that’s as much as Alessia could ask for. She moved forward and hugged him tightly from behind. It caused him to jump but he seemed to recognize her quickly and hugged her back, placing a deep, warm kiss on her temple.
“Alessia,” he breathed in her ear and she shuddered a little too much for the witnesses they had in the room.
God, she missed him. One time together hadn’t been enough. She could feel her cells singing from the contact with him, the way the hairs on her arms stood at attention like she was walking through a field of static electricity. Her body remembered him, remembered his smell and the feel of his arms around her, his breath on her neck.
“All right, keep the PDA to a minimum,” Lana said. “We’ve got fifteen minutes. Talk.”
Then she moved away and Drake’s face turned from the softness of their reunion to complete confusion. Alessia let her hand run along the side of his face and nodded her assurance. She didn’t know how to explain to him what was going on because she wasn’t even really sure she knew. But she could at least assure him this place was safe. What they were doing was helpful.
She moved away from him, despite how cold her skin got from the lack of him, and moved to sit in that same chair that faced him from the other side of the table.
“I think they’re going to try to break us out of here, or stage a coup or something,” Alessia said, quietly. Drake’s eyes widened.
“What the hell makes you think that?” he asked.
“They had me have this same secret meeting with Erik and Lana said some things,” Alessia said.
“You don’t know James,” Drake said darkly. “You’ve been a captive here for days, time blurs together, you haven’t seen the sun. There’s a lot of variables that could go into your thought process right now, including an unrelenting desire to be free.”
“Turn off the professor for a second,” Alessia said with some frustration. “This is weird, right? The cameras are off.”
“I don’t trust James.”
“I don’t think they do either.”
“This isn’t a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Drake said. “Things in this world don’t work that cleanly. We’re in a massive power vacuum right now and everyone is rushing to fill it before the rest of the world decides what they want to do with the shifters. Everyone is ready to step on everyone.”
“I know,” Alessia said and felt a felt a little stupid saying it. Of course she didn’t know. This wasn’t her world. As much as she wanted to help and be a part of things here, she couldn’t force it. She didn’t know. But she was learning. She could be a player in all of this.
“No, you don’t,” Drake said, not unkindly but with that same tone that he used for the first few weeks they’d known each other. The tone that wouldn’t let her have a say in anything in the classes they were meant to be teaching together.
Alessia sighed. She sat back in her chair. She crossed her arms. She thought it would have been easier to talk to Drake than Erik but there they were having a glare stare down. It wasn’t entirely A-typical, but it was still frustrating to Alessia. He was stubborn and captivity had only made it worse for him and Alessia felt her irritation rise.
“We need to figure this out,” she said. “They’re giving us resources and I say we use them as best as we can.”
“You don’t know these people like I do—”
“Oh, will you knock it off?” Alessia said. “I’m getting real sick of the whole ‘older and wiser’ crap.”
“Well, I do have tenure and you have two more years of school and a mountain of student debt to overcome,” he snapped.
Alessia felt, for a moment, she might have a dragon inside her waiting to jump out as well as her blood seemed to boil beneath the surface. He noticed because he was looking at her and she saw the ghost of a smirk. Angry as she got, she had nothing to show for it and they both knew it. He was a stubborn ass and she couldn’t force him to do a single thing.
“I’m getting out of here,” she said. “I don’t care what you think I do or don’t know about your fucked-up inner politics. I came here to find you and I did. So I’m leaving with you too and then we’re going to sort out this superiority complex you have and then you’re going to take me out for an apology dinner.”
His smirk changed to that of a genuine smile and he chuckled. He sat back, his defenses lowering, his attitude diminishing. He was calming down. It didn’t make Alessia any less angry at him. But it didn’t hurt. She sighed.
“Maybe let Erik and I take the lead on this one,” she said. “You’re smart, no one’s denying it. But we don’t have your weird baggage. Whatever we do, just go with it.”
“Unless I think it’s going to get us all killed.”
“Fair enough.”
Chapter 7
Alessia stayed up late that night with Lana who produced a small metal flask after she returned her to her cell and immediately chugged it back before passing it to Alessia through the bars. Alessia hesitated, eying the camera in the corner.
“Is that smart?”
“It’s absolutely never smart to drink alcohol,” Lana said. “It’s a depressant drug, it dehydrates, and it weakens the immune system. But where would human society be without it?”
“I mean the cameras.”
“James conveniently leaves watching that crap up to myself and a few others.”
“And let me guess, everyone’s in on your strange little game you’re playing.”
“Correct, my dear. Now take a drink. You’re making me feel self-conscious.”
Alessia hesitated for just one more moment before Lana delivered a severe glare and she took the bottle. She took a sniff. She was never much good at distinguishing liquor from each other by smell. It was all pure, eye-burning alcohol as far as she was concerned.
“Jesus, it’s whiskey not arsenic or should I get the poison tester, your highness?” Lana asked in a groan and finally Alessia tipped the flask back and into her mouth.
She took in a lot more than she meant to. She swallowed a good portion of it before she was forced to cough the rest back up and out of her mouth as the fumes alone were too much to handle and the sharp,
cutting flavor hit her tongue with a vengeance. Lana rolled her eyes and watched the coughing fit with crossed arms and little interest.
Eventually, with several coughs and aggressive throat clearings, Alessia got a hold of her breathing and swallowed once more. She passed the flask back to Lana with a cringe. She took it and had another sip, smooth and simple with a hint of discomfort. Alessia thought people only drank that way in movies because it was always a bottle filled with water or iced tea. But there was Lana, taking it in like it might have been her grandmother’s lemonade.
“Don’t feel bad,” Lana said. “I’ve got a bit of an immunity to burning sensations.”
“Can you get drunk?”
“Oh, yes. That’s the plan.”
She poured back more of the drink and handed it to Alessia who took a small, more measured sip. She avoided coughing most of it back up but didn’t exactly get it down without a look of utter discomfort. He didn’t understand why people forced themselves to pretend they liked this stuff. Well, maybe someone like Lana did. She had that sort of ironclad exterior that seemed like taking down shots of hard liquor might as well have been orange juice.
“What’s the occasion?” Alessia asked.
“The occasion is I’m probably a functioning alcoholic, but I figured we’re at the point where I can turn you into a partner in crime of sorts,” she said.
If this was some bid for Stockholm Syndrome, it was the strangest and most involved that Alessia had ever imagined. She took the flask as it was passed back to her; by the end of her sip, she felt the effects, the way her limbs were a little bit looser and her skin buzzed.
“So, what’s the deal then with you and professor stuffy?” Lana asked. “You two actually a thing or was that just the kinkiest booty call in history?”
Alessia went red but the numbness on her skin became too much to focus on to be overly embarrassed. She shook her head. “It was building. We’re not together or anything—”
“But you want to be.”
Hero's Bride (Alien SciFi Romance) (Celestial Mates Book 7) Page 49
