by Cara Wylde
“We could ask him,” said Amber. The hate in her voice was obvious.
“I doubt he’d tell us,” said Tristan.
He handed the dart to Camille, who had risen from her chair behind the screens to greet them. She took it into the next room. Amber guessed she had some sort of improvised lab there.
Tristan took Camille’s place, and Emil sat down in the chair next to him. Tyler stepped closer to Amber and took her in his arms. He placed soft kisses on her neck, and she closed her eyes in delight.
“Thank you,” he whispered in her ear. “This time, you saved me.”
Amber smiled. “You’re so exaggerating.”
“No, really. The fact that you were there, that you weren’t afraid of me… I could have never fought the poison, or whatever that thing was, if you hadn’t given me the strength.”
Amber turned around in his arms, took his face between her palms, and looked straight into his eyes. “I’m not afraid of you.”
Tyler leaned in and captured her lips in a long kiss. Their tongues touched and danced together for what felt like forever. They kissed until they couldn’t breathe anymore, and they had to pull away. Then, Tyler drew her into his arms and squeezed her tightly. She nuzzled the soft fabric of his T-shirt and sighed. This was heaven. She never wanted this embrace to end.
Emil and Tristan started arguing over something, which snapped Tyler and Amber out of their bliss.
“Right now, he’s still strong and cocky. You can interrogate him if you want, but I’m telling you: he won’t tell you the truth,” said Tristan. His voice was calm, but it was clear he had no patience for being contradicted.
“We have to do something. We can’t just sit here and wait for him to come up with God knows what plan. He’s a member of the Calimala! Do you really think he doesn’t have an ace up his sleeve?”
Tyler let go of Amber and stepped closer to the screens. Amber followed him.
“Emil is right,” said Tyler. “He’s oddly calm, don’t you think? For someone in his situation…”
Tristan sighed and shrugged. “Do whatever you like. He’s your prisoner, not mine. But he’ll be much more cooperative when withdrawal kicks in. I bet he’s been on shifter blood for years. He needs regular doses.”
“Have you checked him?” asked Amber.
Tristan placed Stephan’s gun on the table, along with a bunch of vials. Some of them were filled with red liquid, while others were filled with transparent liquid. However, it was clear that the transparent ones didn’t contain the same thing. Some of them had a blue tint, while others had a green tint, or a slightly yellow tint.
“I’ll have Camille check them out after she finishes with that dart. This is not only shifter blood.”
Tyler lifted a transparent phial to study it in the light. “One of these contains the poison.”
“Probably,” said Tristan. “We’ll find out soon enough.”
Amber watched Stephan for a couple of minutes. He was there, at their mercy, and they could do to him whatever they wanted. No one was coming to help him. At least, not for a while. She didn’t know how important he was for the Calimala. Tyler had only told him the Castell family had been part of the guild for centuries, but they hadn’t been among the ones who founded it. The Arte di Calimala originated in Florence, in the Late Middle Ages, and the Castells came from Germany. They joined the Assassins’ Guild because they were in the foreign cloth business themselves. Back then, the members who belonged to the same guild were pretty united, even though they came from different countries and cultures. Stephan could be very important to the Calimala, or he could be just one of the many members and assassins. Amber couldn’t know.
“I have some questions for him,” she said. “And he has no reason to lie to me.”
Tristan rolled his eyes, but stood up and motioned for her to sit in his chair. “When you’re ready to talk, just press this button here.”
Amber sat down and placed her finger over the button. It was a good thing she didn’t have to go to Stephan’s cell to talk to him. She wouldn’t have felt safe. Tristan took the vials into Camille’s lab, but Emil and Tyler stayed with Amber. They kept silent, waiting for her to gather her thoughts and speak.
“Why did you give me shifter blood?”
Her question was clear and concise. At first, Stephan didn’t react, so Amber pressed the button again.
“Answer me, you jerk! I know about shifters, and I know who you are. You knew you were getting me addicted to that thing once you started giving it to me. I want to know why you did it.”
Stephan finally lifted his head and stared right into the camera. His lips curved up into a grin.
“I knew you’d walk out on me one day. I couldn’t have that.” His voice was soft, even warm. It wasn’t the voice of a man who thought he was about to suffer a painful, well-deserved death.
Amber shook her head, even though she knew Stephan couldn’t see her reaction. It made no sense to her.
“You’re insane,” she whispered.
“No, my dear. I knew exactly what I was doing. You turned into a bitch in the past year or so. Always asking me where I was going, why I had to work so late… as if you didn’t know how much my job means to me. You were suspicious, paranoid… I knew you’d eventually find out you weren’t the only woman in my life and you’d flip. Because you’re not like mom, Amber, you see? My mom has always known her place in this family, her duty to her husband and children. But you’re nothing like her. I couldn’t trust you.”
Tears started running down Amber’s cheeks. She couldn’t help it. She felt Tyler’s hand on her shoulder, reached for it, and squeezed it hard. She had been such a fool. A blind fool. She couldn’t believe she had lost ten years of her life married to this man.
Tyler rubbed Amber’s shoulder, trying his hardest not to let his anger get the best of him. She needed his support right now. She didn’t need him to lose control, march into that room, and strangle the bastard until he begged for mercy. Mercy that would never come. Not from him. His heart bled as his mate cried silently. But she had to go through this, he knew that. This was her fight, not his.
Emil was silent beside them. He didn’t dare move. It was beyond him how Tyler could control himself like that. If it had been his Rebecca, not Amber, his vision would have gone black with fury, and the man in the cell would have been saying his last prayers right about now. But this was not Rebecca, and Tyler was not like him. Wolf-shifters were hot-headed. They acted first and thought about the consequences later. Bear-shifters were more rational and calculated. And maybe this was a good thing. After all, they had to keep Stephan alive at least for a while longer if they hoped to get any answers from him. Emil reminded himself it was the very first time when shape-shifters had caught a member of the Calimala. The Order of the Severins had caught an assassin. It was unbelievable! There was no room for mistakes.
Amber sniffed and wiped the tears off her cheeks before pressing the button and speaking into the microphone.
“You’re sick, Stephan Castell.”
Stephan banged his head against the wall in annoyance.
“Oh, enough with the drama already! I couldn’t let you leave, that’s all. So I started giving you small doses of shifter blood. That way, even if you left, you would have come back to me when you realized I was the only one who had the drug that could keep you alive. I got that all wrong, apparently. I never expected you to hook up with a damn bear-shifter. Has he turned you into one yet? You don’t look very ill to me, so you must’ve figured out a solution.”
Tyler realized Stephan didn’t know they had a witch. This was good. This was very good. He had seen Tristan, obviously, but not in lion form. And Camille had stayed hidden. He didn’t want to say this too soon, but things were going according to plan.
Amber pushed the chair back and rose to her feet.
“I don’t want to see him anymore,” she said. She turned away from the screens, and looked into Tyler’s eyes.
“I will go home to Rebecca and Ava, and I’ll call Nathan Moore. You guys can do whatever you want with Stephan, just make sure he signs the divorce papers first. I want him out of my life. I don’t care how.”
Tyler nodded, then hugged her and kissed her forehead.
“I’ll drive you there,” he said.
Before walking out of the room, Amber turned to the screens one last time. She looked at Stephan’s handsome face. How hadn’t she seen the cruelty in his black eyes until then? She pushed the button and said two words only: “Goodbye, Stephan.” Then, she was out of the room and the warehouse, hungrily breathing in the cold night air.
After Amber and Tyler left, Emil studied Stephan Castell for a long while. Eventually, Tristan joined him. Camille was working on the other vials.
“So?” asked Emil. “What was it?”
Tristan drummed his long, elegant fingers on the desk.
“You won’t believe it.” He made an emphatic pause. “It was werewolf venom.”
Emil turned to Tristan. “Werewolf venom. Are you shitting me? Stephan shot Tyler with werewolf venom?”
“Yes.”
“And it had the effects we both saw…”
“Yes.”
“This is bad.” Emil turned back to the screens. The assassins were full of surprises. “This is really bad. Did your witch tell you anything else?”
Tristan thought for a moment, his brows furrowed in concentration. He hoped Emil didn’t sense his hesitation.
“She was just as baffled as I was. She said she had never known shifter venom could be used as a weapon against shifters.”
“Hmm…” Emil rubbed his chin. “Against shifters of a different species…”
“My thoughts exactly.”
“We must make him tell us everything,” he motioned towards the screens.
“He will. The red vials contain pure bear-shifter blood. Soon, he’s going to need a dose, and he’s going to need it badly.”
Two hours passed. Tyler came back, and they all gathered around the table. Camille poured whiskey for everyone, and watched the screens while they talked about the Arte di Calimala and the Order of the Severins. They had big plans for the future. Capturing and interrogating a member of the guild was a great step ahead. It gave them hope that what they wanted to achieve was actually possible. One victory for the Order would be enough to convince other shape-shifters, and maybe even other supernaturals, to join them. It was late in the morning when Stephan Castell finally started to give signs that he might need a dose of shifter blood. Amber had gone without it for almost two weeks, but Stephan probably needed it daily. He looked like he was 40, but God knew how old he actually was, given that years of taking bear-shifter blood kept him young and prolonged his life.
By noon, Stephan was ready to tell them everything they wanted. He needed his dose, otherwise he would die a very painful death. Amber had slipped into a coma. Stephan was in for much worse than that.
“Tell us how the Calimala uses shifter venom,” demanded Tristan.
Stephan swallowed heavily and struggled to speak. His mind was muddled, and he felt his tongue two times bigger. He could barely move it to form words.
“The witches separate it from the blood. We use the purified blood on our own members and assassins, and we turn the venom into a weapon against shifters. Decades ago, we figured out that if we administer wolf venom to a wolf, nothing happens. But if we administer wolf venom to other species… bears, lions, tigers, foxes… hell, I don’t know… eagles, dragons… whatever… the venom weakens them for a short while. It’s usually enough to catch them alive.”
Emil stood up and started pacing the room.
“That’s it,” he said. “They were ready for Tyler because Stephan knew he was a bear-shifter, but they weren’t ready for me. They had darts filled with wolf venom, but when they saw me, they knew it wouldn’t work. The guy I took down first was fumbling with his belt or pocket. He was probably looking for another type of venom.”
Tristan and Tyler nodded. It all made sense now.
“Go on…” said Tristan.
Stephan cackled. He had hoped his explanation would satisfy them, but apparently he had no choice but to tell them the whole story. His mind refused. Deep down, he was still fighting this, he was still trying to convince himself he shouldn’t give in, he shouldn’t let them have such control over him. The guild would be pissed off when they found out how much information he had already given them. But his body craved the drug. No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t fight the primal need to get his fix. He would be stronger then. Maybe he’d even build the courage to break out of his cuffs, break down the door, and kill those three bastards with his bare hands.
“Stephan,” insisted Tristan. “I have your dose of bear-shifter blood right here. Come on. I know you have much more to tell us.”
Stephan sighed in defeat.
“The types of venom can be combined. If we combine, say, wolf venom with bear venom, then the substance incapacitates a lion, or a tiger, or a fox, or whatever, for hours. It’s so strong that it can cause brain damage, so we use such combinations only when we’re dealing with a very strong shifter from whom we don’t necessarily want to extract information. If we add a third type of venom, then the result is lethal. It kills the shifter in seconds. It’s the most efficient one, obviously, but if the shifter is dead, then we can’t harvest the blood. So… bummer. We use it in extreme cases.”
“Wow!” said Tyler.
“More like ‘shit!’, not ‘wow!’” replied Tristan.
No longer able to sit, Stephan let his body drop limp to the floor.
“Please,” he whispered. “I’m of no use to you dead…”
Tristan sighed and gave Tyler one of the red vials and a needle. Tyler took them and headed to Stephan’s cell. He didn’t like this, but there was no other way. They hadn’t talked about what they were going to do with him afterwards, but for now they had to make sure he didn’t die. Amber had called to tell him one of them would have to leave the warehouse to fetch the attorney in the evening, so they were taking things one step at a time.
Tyler unlocked the door and stepped into the small room. He looked at the pathetic body on the floor and couldn’t bring himself to understand how this sorry excuse of a man had disrespected and hurt Amber for ten years. He wanted to kick him. He wanted to grab him by the collar, lift him in the air, and smash his head against the wall. But he couldn’t do it. There would be no honor and no satisfaction in doing it now, when Stephan was nearly dead. He knelt beside him and pulled his sleeve up without looking at his face. He injected the shifter blood and was out of the room before the bastard gave him a reason to make him change his mind.
***
Nathan Moore didn’t spend more than half an hour with Stephan. Emil removed the cuffs so Stephan could rub his sore wrists, drink a glass of water, and sign the papers the attorney had brought with him. He didn’t leave them alone for one second. He had warned Stephan against trying anything stupid.
Nathan didn’t talk much, and he didn’t have to. There was no more negotiating, no more convincing. Stephan Castell had no choice but to let Amber go. He would never see his daughter again, either. The attorney couldn’t tell exactly what the man was thinking as he signed the papers, and he couldn’t ask the questions which had been popping in his head for hours. Emil was waiting by the door, watching them intently. He didn’t know Rebecca Gilbert’s husband that well. The only interaction they had had until now was greeting each other politely when they met at Becca’s office. He had had no idea he was involved with Tyler Atwood, the bear-shifter. Was Emil a shifter, too? He had no way of knowing. And, what was worse, he had no way of asking Stephan.
He loosened his tie a bit, but not too much. He was sweating like mad in his tailored suit, but he had to keep his nerves in check. Nathan Moore had never been so anxious in his life. Why had he accepted to do this? He was not cut out for this. “I should have refused,”
he thought. “I should have said ‘no’. I don’t need their money.” But the moment the thought took form in his mind, Nathan had to bite the inside of his lower lip and admit to himself that, yes, he did need their money. He needed more than their money. He needed a better job. A job that would make him rich, powerful, and give him all the time in the world to build the family he wanted so much. He was 30, he was a good attorney, he worked a lot, but it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. Not for her. And Nathan wanted her more than anything.
Stephan gave him back the papers and the pen. For a split second, their eyes met, and Nathan tried to send him a message. What kind of message? He wasn’t sure himself. Apparently, Stephan understood, because he smiled briefly. Hope flickered in his black eyes, and that sent a pang of guilt right through Nathan’s ribs and into his heart. He stood up, smoothed down his clothes, took a deep breath, and turned to Emil.
“I have everything I need.”
“Good. You know the way, right?”
“Yes.”
As Emil went to cuff Stephan back up, Nathan exited the cell and went to the surveillance room. He knew Tyler and that other guy, Tristan, were there. Before Emil had taken him to Stephan, he had scanned the room briefly, so now he knew where everything was. As he clutched Amber’s divorce papers with his right hand, he dug his left hand into the pocket of his trousers. His fingers curled around the small object. He felt a cold drop of sweat make its way down his spine. Underneath his jacket, his shirt was soaked. “I can’t do this,” he thought. But he could. And he would. He had to.
He entered the room, and Tyler was right by his side, a big smile on his face. Nathan struggled to keep his cool. He hoped the bear-shifter couldn’t actually smell his anxiety.
“May I see?”
“Sure.”
He passed him the papers, and while Tyler was busy studying them, he stepped closer to Tristan. Now, to make the guy leave his chair.
