Cage the Beast

by Cheree Alsop

  It took every bit of courage I had to let him walk beside me. I knew distance was my best friend. The speed Vicken had shown was terrifying, and his strength made my wolf form feel paltry at best. It wasn’t a sensation I was used to. Since finding out I was a werewolf, the strength that came with it appeared in spurts and strange surges, but it made me feel strong, at least in my human form. I was starting to realize that while there were advantages to being a wolf, the strength wasn’t there when I needed it. I made a mental note to ask Professor Briggs about it when, or if, we made it back to Haunted High.

  “You know I wouldn’t really hurt you,” Vicken said after we had walked several blocks.

  I glanced up at him. He had his hands in the pockets of his long black coat, something I had never seen him do before. I wondered how close he had really come to pulling my neck back far enough to hear it crack. The thought wasn’t a pleasant one.

  I could hear the sirens of fire engines as they headed to the Newton house. They wouldn’t get there in time to save the treehouse, but hopefully they could keep it from spreading anywhere else. The thought of our childhood playhouse up in flames made my heart ache. It was one more thing of Sebastian’s that slipped through the cracks, and it was my fault. If he hadn’t died in the car accident, Grayson would have no reason to want to join the Maes or even know about them. I vowed to make that part right at least.

  His scent became fresh when we neared the gas station at the far edge of Cleary. I paused near the line of scrawny trees that separated it from the tire repair shop. Vicken leaned around a tree to see where I was looking.

  “Is that him?” he whispered.

  I nodded. The sight of Grayson working behind the counter at the gas station as though it was just another day made my hackles rise. Nobody else was there at the moment and Grayson appeared to be busy with whatever task he performed. His red hair stood up in the same unruly way Sebastian’s had, but his football player build was the opposite of how slender Bast had been. I missed my friend and the appearance of his brother filled me with regret and anger for how he had retaliated against my family for something that had been an accident.

  I didn’t know I was growling until Vicken set a hand on my back.

  “Easy. We have to be smart about this,” he warned quietly.

  I nudged my nose toward his backpack where my clothes were.

  Vicken shook his head. “I have a better idea. Wait around back.”

  He left the cover of the trees and headed straight for the gas station. I wanted to call him back, but couldn’t. The look of vengeance on his face should have worried me, but I wanted a piece of Grayson myself. I slipped around the back and stood anxiously by the door. I heard the bell on the front door ring when Vicken entered. Leaning close to the crack, I listened to Grayson’s bored welcome followed by a few pointed words from the vampire. Grayson shouted something, items crashed to the floor, and then the sound of footsteps running toward the back made me take a few steps to the side.

  Grayson flew through the door as though the devil was on his heels. I caught a glimpse of Vicken, his fangs elongated for feeding and a look of pure rage on his face, and realized that maybe the devil truly was. The smell of Grayson’s fear combined with his instability brought my growl from a rumble to a roar. Grayson stopped three feet from the door. He looked from me to Vicken and back again.

  “H-hi Finn,” he said, his voice shaking. “I see Drake got you my m-message.”

  I closed the space between us and bared my fangs completely.

  Grayson’s hands flew up. “Okay, okay, I’ll admit I didn’t think this through. I’m sorry I took your parents.”

  “Where are they?” Vicken demanded.

  Grayson glanced back at the vampire, his eyes bright with terror. “Th-the Maes has them for testing.”

  A shard of fear shot through me. I snapped at him, closing my teeth within inches of his thigh. He jumped and tears filled his eyes.

  “I’m so sorry!” he said.

  “Why are they testing them?” Vicken demanded, giving voice to my questions.

  “B-because of him,” Grayson replied, pointing to me. His finger shook.

  Vicken crossed his arms. “That makes no sense. His mother was the werewolf, not his father. His dad and Julianne are both human.”

  Grayson shook his head so quickly I was amazed it didn’t give him whiplash. “They said if Finn is an Alpha, both bloodlines have to carry the gene.”

  Vicken and I stared at each other. If what Grayson said was true, Dad, Julianne, and Juli’s unborn baby could be in serious trouble.

  Vicken grabbed Grayson’s arm and hauled him back inside the gas station. He set the backpack on the floor and shoved Grayson ahead of him.

  “Close up shop. We need to have a conversation,” the vampire said in a level, ominous tone.

  Chapter Three

  “You’re lucky all their communication with Grayson was digital,” Vicken pointed out as we waited near the Cleary city sign.

  “I think I could pass off as a six foot three red-headed jock drop out, don’t you?” I asked.

  “Maybe if we kill a fox and make you wear it for a hat, and then tell them you’ve been starving yourself on some new fad vegetable diet I hear humans are crazy about. It’s not right. Carnivores needs to eat meat, fresh meat.”

  I stared at him. “What is it with you about wanting to kill things?”

  He lifted a shoulder in a nonchalant shrug. “I’m a vampire. It’s the circle of life and all that.”

  I shook my head. “It’s sick. That’s what it is.”

  “You wanted to kill Grayson.”

  “That’s different. He kidnapped my parents. Don’t you want to hurt the person who took your mom?”

  Vicken fell silent. We both brooded as we anxiously awaited the arrival of the Maes.

  I didn’t know what to expect. Grayson said under their orders he had left Dad and Julianne knocked out by chloroform and tied up behind the sign. They had strictly prohibited him to stay, saying only that they would contact him if his offering was enough. When they emailed back stating that they needed a pureblood monster, he had promised Drake our parents back if he would tell him about my monster friends. I couldn’t hold it against Drake for giving in; he was as desperate to see our parents safe as I was.

  This time, the Maes had responded far faster, according to Grayson. As soon as he sent a picture of Vicken tied up and unconscious the way we had staged him to be, with his mouth slightly open to show his fangs, they had written back immediately and asked to meet. I waited in Grayson’s letterman jacket from Cleary High. The voice in the back of my mind noted that I would have received one of my own at the end of the year in track if I had stayed. I pushed the thought aside and watched the road.

  A small white car appeared in the distance. I waited in silence as it neared the sign and slowed.

  “I’ve been around vampires for too long,” I muttered under my breath. “I was expecting a limousine.”

  “What is it?” Vicken asked from his place on the ground.

  Glancing down, I would have guessed he was unconscious. I had to give the vampire credit for looking even more dead than usual. His head lolled to the side and his chest barely rose with each breath.

  “A white car. Small. Older looking.” I glanced down at him. “Like you right now.”

  “Bite me, weremutt.”

  “Poor word choice coming from a vampire,” I muttered.

  He grabbed my ankle faster than I could respond. I fell against the sign with an oomph.

  “Are you alright?” a wary voice asked.

  I looked up to see that a man and a woman had left the car. A quick glance at Vicken showed him to be as lifeless as ever. I resisted the urge to kick him.

  “I, uh, tripped.” Fortunately, from the correspondence Grayson had shown us, his spelling was poor, his grammar even worse, and his efforts to be stealthy had been bumbling at best. I could act like an idiot and get away
with it. I gave a stupid grin and held out a hand. “I’m Grayson Newton. It’s about time you guys got here.”

  The woman’s tone showed her annoyance when she said, “I’m Eileen and this is Mangus. We came as quickly as we could. You need to understand that there are protocols we have to follow with this sort of thing.”

  Mangus’ attention was entirely on Vicken. He walked carefully toward the vampire. My heart slowed at the sight of a gun in his hand.

  “You didn’t say anything about shooting him,” I said. I was careful to keep my tone level despite the way my heart thundered in my chest.

  To Vicken’s credit, he didn’t twitch at all at the mention of the weapon.

  “Precautionary measures,” Mangus said over his shoulder without taking his eyes from Vicken. “You don’t want to know what happens when a vampire wakes up in a strange car. It’s a mess for everyone, and Madam Opal doesn’t appreciate messes.”

  I knew better than to ask who Madam Opal was, but I filed the name away for later.

  “Unfortunately, Madam Opal only allows us to use stunners on the beasts. It’d be more fun if we could wing them or something,” Mangus said.

  He took aim at Vicken and fired. A small ball pegged the vampire in the chest, opened like the legs of a spider, then sunk the legs into his skin. Vicken’s eyes flew open as a surge of white electricity flowed over his body. His back arched and a gasp escaped his lips before the electricity faded. He crumpled to the ground in a motionless heap.

  I had to stop myself from running to his side. Only the reminder that my parents’ lives depended on acting like Grayson kept me frozen to the spot.

  “I still like seeing them squirm,” Eileen said with a half-smile as the man hoisted Vicken’s body onto his shoulder.

  She pressed the trunk release on the key she held and the trunk of the car popped open. Mangus unceremoniously dropped Vicken inside and slammed the trunk shut.

  “Well, you coming, Grayson?”

  I realized the woman had opened one of the doors to the backseat of the car and was standing beside it with an impatient expression. I hurried over and ducked inside before I could second-guess my actions. Eileen shut the door and walked around to the driver’s seat. Mangus slid onto the passenger seat. He grabbed something from the floor and held it back to me.

  I looked at the black cloth but didn’t take it.

  “Come on,” Mangus said as Eileen pulled onto the road. “Put it over your head. If you take it off, I’ve got permission to shoot you, too.”

  I took the cloth, opened it to find that it was a sack of sorts, and put it over my head. The scent of someone else’s breath made my nose wrinkle, but I didn’t take it off. I sat in my seat and listened to the hum of the tires over the road. Someone turned the radio to an oldies station. I tried to listen to the words to keep my mind from my best friend who had been electrocuted and thrown into the trunk. This trip was already going differently than I had planned.

  I had no idea how much time had passed before the car slowed. The car turned and the sound of the asphalt changed. The brakes squeaked when we came to a complete stop. My heart raced as my door was opened.

  “You can remove the sack now,” Eileen said.

  I pulled it off and looked from her to the building behind her. Night had fallen during our trip and the structure I looked at was lit by hundreds of lights around the outside. The inside glowed brightly as well. The familiarity of the building struck me.

  “Is that a mall?” I asked.

  Eileen glanced behind her. “It was a mall. Now it’s the Society’s headquarters.”

  I refrained from questioning why an organization like the Maes would want to have their headquarters in an abandoned mall.

  Mangus opened the trunk and slung Vicken’s still body over his shoulder. I followed behind them watching intently for any sign of life from the vampire. My ears caught the sound of his slow heartbeat as we neared the doors and I let out a sigh of relief. I wondered anxiously how long he would be out. Neither of us had counted on him being unconscious when we entered the compound.

  My muscles tensed at the sight of men and women standing guard at the entrance. I remembered that I was supposed to be Grayson. If I didn’t get keep in character, Vicken’s odds of getting out alive would be zero.

  “So, uh, a mall; that’s cool I guess.”

  Eileen shot me a glance. “When you see why, you’ll understand. For now, keep your trap shut.”

  I figured Grayson would probably take that advice, especially with guns pointed casually at him. Though their fingers weren’t on the triggers, the guards’ ready stances left no doubt they would shoot me given any reason. When they pulled the doors open at Eileen’s nod, I could feel their eyes on my back.

  Scents assailed my nose as I followed Mangus and Eileen up the wide corridor. I quickly saw why Eileen had said the mall would make sense as the Maes’ headquarters. The separate stores that normally took up each side of the long entrance hallway had been changed into cages. Bars ran from the ceiling to the floor where the windows used to be. The only visible furniture was a mattress on the floor and a corner sectioned off with a sheet that I assumed was for bathroom needs. With the overhead lights glaring down, there was nowhere for the occupants to hide.

  A woman with long white hair and white eyes peered at me from her seat on the middle of her bed. A shiver ran down my spine at the sight of sorrow and dejection in her eyes. In the next cage, a man dressed only in shorts was covered from head to toe in orange scales. He looked like he could be related to Fren from my Care of Green Multicellular Organisms class. The thought made my stomach tighten.

  A glance ahead of us showed two levels and branching hallways filled with similar cages. I wondered uneasily if they were all occupied. Eileen led us to an escalator and we rode up it.

  “Why are there so many cages?” I asked.

  Mangus grunted from where he carried Vicken over his shoulder. “Madam Opal is a collector.”

  At my stare, Eileen grinned. “Interesting, right? She likes to display the various species we could run into out there so members of the Society will be ready to act if they see one. If your contribution,” she nodded at where Vicken hung motionless down Mangus’ back, “Is pure blood, he may be added to her display; otherwise, he’ll be one of the lucky ones.”

  I kept my tone level when I asked, “What do you mean by lucky?”

  Eileen shrugged. “If he’s not chosen for display, he’ll be put in the training range for new Maes to test out their skills. With any luck, he won’t suffer much before he dies.”

  I forced myself to ask, “Why is staying on display not lucky?”

  Eileen and Mangus exchanged grins. “Because those on display are also the test subjects for the various stun weapons Madam Opal lets the children use.” She pointed at a cage we passed. The young man inside sat with his back to the corridor. He was bare from the waist up and red marks marred his skin. “A lot of the weapons are still being tested. I’ve heard that they sting a bit.”

  At her words, the young man turned his head to look at us. His head twisted on his neck owl-like so that he didn’t have to turn his shoulders at all. His eyes were yellow-orange and bright like fire, and the look in them was filled with such hatred and rage I was amazed the bars didn’t melt.

  Eileen didn’t appear to notice the man’s anger. She walked passed without a second glance, but when I looked back, I saw the man’s head turn back slowly and his shoulders hunch in defeat. The image stayed in my mind as I followed the others down up hall.

  The silence set my teeth on edge. Instead of a howling, angry, demanding horde of captives, they sat silently as though they had either given up or there was a punishment for making noise. Interspersed along the hallways and cages were guards with guns who stood still as if used to doing so for long shifts. I wondered how often they rotated through the day.

  I wasn’t surprised to see the occasional demon standing near the guards. Their kind
would be drawn to such a place where pain was used to create order. I ignored their glowering stares and followed the others to the wide room at the far end. The guards barely glanced at me when they opened the iron-barred door for us to pass. I wondered if they got a good deal on bars when they remodeled the place.

  The faint scent of new clothes and shoes still lingered, but only the carpet of the department store remained. In the place of clothing and purse displays, rows of bleachers had been built, and at the far end, a long table surrounded by leather chairs made up the only other furniture. For all the space they had, they definitely didn’t put much effort into decorating.

  Eight individuals occupied the table, four on the side facing us, three with their backs to us, and at the head of the table sat a woman with white hair tucked into a tight bun. Demons sat at their feet and on the table, but the humans ignored them. They appeared to be in deep discussion. Eileen and Mangus waited a respectful distance away for them to finish talking. It wasn’t hard to overhear their conversation even though we were far enough away that I doubted the other two could hear.

  “In order to keep the warlock population manageable, I’m proposing a sweep of the entire eastern side. Our targets are getting sparse in the city section. I’m sure Sir Harbrand would welcome the additions.”

  The woman at the head of the table said, “All those in favor of granting Sir Anderson militia in order to complete his proposal, say yes.”

  A series of yeses followed.

  “All those against?”

  Nobody spoke.

  The woman nodded. “Sir Anderson, your proposal is granted. Check with Sir Harbrand about the number of refills he needs.”

  “Thank you, Madam Opal. I appreciate your consideration. Sir Harbrand will have the additions as soon as I return.”

  The woman nodded. “The Society has your gratitude, Sir Anderson.”

  He put his hand to his heart and gave a strange little bow before he took his seat at the table once more.

  “What is this, some kind of king’s court session?” I asked with a sarcasm that matched Grayson’s. “This is really weird.”