The Love Potion (Werewolf High Book 5)

by Anita Oh

  “We’re fine,” said Sam.

  “I’ve been better,” Nikolai said. “What happened to Tennyson?”

  I shook my head. “My father was waiting for us. Tennyson was there one second, and the next…” I broke off. “Can you feel him?”

  “Enough talking,” said one of the guards, wrapping more rope around us. “Another word, and I’ll gag you.”

  “Hang on,” said another guard, staggering to his feet and holding his bleeding guts. “We could have a bit of fun here while the boss is gone.”

  I was fairly sure we wouldn’t like their idea of fun.

  “Only the boss’s daughter needs to come through this, right?” said Bloody Guts, grinning evilly at me. “So, let’s play a little game.”

  He stepped on Althea’s hand as he walked forward, hard enough that I heard something crack.

  “We don’t need all these extra werewolves,” said Bloody Guts. “So, let’s make her choose. Which one of these two should we keep and which should we kill?”

  A couple of the other guards snickered.

  “What is wrong with you?” I demanded.

  “I dunno,” said Bloody Guts. “Maybe the fact that I’m holding my spleen inside my body with my bare hands puts me in a bad mood.”

  “That doesn’t make it okay to kill people,” I told him.

  He waved the hand that wasn’t holding his guts to indicate all the bodies lying around the room.

  “If you didn’t kill anyone here, it was only from sheer dumb luck. Don’t act all high and mighty with me, girly. Now, choose.”

  “No,” I said.

  A few of the guards had started to gather around us. They all had guns and knives, and I knew they could probably force me to do anything they wanted if they tried, but honestly, calling me girly was only going to make me mad again.

  “It’s okay, Lucy,” said Sam. “If you have to choose Nikolai, I understand.”

  “What?” I asked, trying to turn my head far enough to look at him.

  “That’s right,” said Nikolai. “You love me. You should totally pick me to live. I’m the man of your dreams.”

  “So, that’s your decision?” asked Bloody Guts, moving toward Sam.

  “What? No. I’m not choosing anyone. This is stupid.”

  If I could delay long enough, my dad might show up. He might be a psychopath, but at least he didn’t make a game out of killing people. At least he was convinced that he was doing all this for noble reasons, not just funsies. Unfortunately for me, Bloody Guts seemed to think so too.

  “If you don’t hurry up and choose, I’ll do it for you. Or maybe I’ll just kill them both. And it won’t be quick, either. Have you ever seen a werewolf die from a cut by a silver blade? Or injected with liquid silver? It’s not easy to watch, let me tell you. But we’ll make you. If you don’t choose, we’ll do one of each. I’ve got fifty dollars that says the liquid silver kills faster. Who wants to take me up on it?” He grinned at me, and a few of the others laughed.

  “When I get out of this,” I told him, “you won’t have any hands left to hold in that spleen.”

  “Decide,” he told me, his eyes looking black and dead in the darkness. “You’ve got thirty seconds, or it’s both of them.”

  “It’s okay, Lucy,” Sam said.

  “Twenty-nine,” said Bloody Guts.

  “It’s not okay,” I said.

  Bloody Guts continued to count down the seconds.

  I couldn’t choose Sam. I’d lost him once, had stood by helplessly while he was taken from me. There was no way I’d let that happen again. But I couldn’t pick Nikolai, either. How could I? Even if my feelings for him were fake, they didn’t feel any less real. And even without the potion, how could I sentence him to death? He was part of my pack. He was a real person, with his terrible fashion sense and even worse jokes and unexpected kindness. I couldn’t let him die, either. It was an impossible choice.

  “Ten seconds,” said Bloody Guts. “Nine. Eight.”

  A few of the guards muttered to each other in low voices, and I saw a couple of them shake hands. They were actually making bets with each other.

  “You people are sick,” I told them.

  “Seven. Six.”

  When he got to five, I saw Althea’s eyes flick open. She didn’t look groggy or injured. She’d been faking this whole time, waiting for the right moment.

  “Four.”

  Her hand snaked out to one of the unconscious bodies close by and grabbed the handle of his knife. In the darkness, none of the guards even noticed.

  “Three.”

  Her muscles tensed, ready to spring.

  “Two.”

  I nudged Nikolai and Sam with my elbows, trying to get their attention enough to warn them without alerting the guards.

  “One.”

  Althea jumped to her feet just as I pushed the three of us forward toward Bloody Guts. Between the three of us, we had enough momentum to knock him off his feet. A few of the guards yelled and sprang into action, but Althea was a shadowy blur, too fast for any of them to react to. She didn’t bother to attack them; she made her way closer to us and sliced through the silver ropes.

  As the ropes fell away, I could feel the pack bond again. For the first time, I really understood the purpose of it. The four of us moved like separate parts of a single entity, dividing the guards from each other and immobilizing them. So many of them were already injured or had let down their defenses when we were captured that it seemed ridiculously easy. We didn’t need to speak to know what we intended to do: maneuvering the guards toward the center of the room and then fleeing through the door.

  Nikolai slid the bolts into place from the outside, and Sam ran down the hallway. I wondered what he was doing for a moment but five seconds after he disappeared into the darkness, the all the lights came back on. Althea hit the button for the room to change. The gears clicked into place, grinding together as the room began to move, and as it did, we could hear the guards yelling and banging on the door.

  The two guards I’d knocked out were still on the floor where I’d left them, and I knew there was one other who had gone to fetch my father, but we had no way of knowing how many more might be lurking around.

  “We have to find Tennyson,” I whispered. “I’m sure my father hasn’t taken him. He wasn’t after Tennyson at all. It was all a trap to make me go with him.”

  “Well, I know one person who might have some idea where they might be,” said Nikolai.

  I looked at him and realized what he meant. I nodded.

  “Katie.”

  Chapter 20

  We huddled together as we moved toward the Red House, all of us on high alert. The night was clear and cold, so any sounds travelled easily, but everything was silent. I knew that if Katie had double-crossed me, she wouldn’t be innocently hanging around our room when we got there, sitting on her bed and studying with her headphones on with no idea there was an attack taking place on school grounds. I hoped she was, but I knew better than to expect it. I knew the others were worried about Tennyson and trying to tamp down on their panic at not being able to sense him.

  There were a few people in the halls of the Red House as we made our way up to my room, and they looked on in surprise at the Golden having invaded.

  When we burst into my room, I expected to find it cold, empty, maybe even with all of Katie’s stuff gone, but she was there. She looked up as we tumbled in, pulled her headphones off in surprise and let them fall onto her open textbook.

  “Hey,” she said, a note of wariness in her voice.

  “Hey, yourself,” said Nikolai.

  “Where’s my brother?” demanded Althea.

  “What’s going on?” Katie asked.

  “Like you don’t know,” Nikolai said.

  “Um, I don’t,” Katie told him. She slowly got to her feet, and even though she didn’t take her eyes off us, I knew she was looking for a way to escape.

  “They attacked tonight,�
�� I told her.

  “Yeah,” said Katie. “I kind of figured from how you’re all covered in blood and freaking out.”

  “They took Tennyson,” I said.

  “Figured that too,” Katie replied, edging toward the window.

  “They don’t trust you, and to be honest, I’m finding that a little bit hard myself right now,” I said. “If you’ve got any idea of where my father might’ve taken him, now might be a good time to share.”

  Katie glanced at the window.

  “If you try to escape, we’ll catch you,” said Althea. “And if we catch you, I’ll end you myself.”

  Katie sighed. “Look, I don’t know where they’d hold someone here. None of my information said anything about that. I do know that they approach the island by boat. They dock at the bottom of the cliff near the lighthouse. That’s the only way I know that they come and go here. Every other access to the island is closely watched, but everyone assumes the cliffs are too dangerous to approach and to climb, so that’s how they get in and out. If they’re holding Tennyson, it’s probably at the lighthouse so they can leave quickly if they need to.”

  The others turned to leave, but I waited a moment.

  “My last roommate betrayed me, and now she’s somewhere being horribly tortured,” I said. “If you’ve betrayed me too, what she’s going through will seem like a cakewalk in comparison.”

  I didn’t wait around for her response. I turned to follow the others out.

  When we got out of the Red House, instead of heading toward the lighthouse, all four of us hesitated.

  “It’s probably a trap,” I said.

  “Do you feel him at all?” asked Sam.

  I shook my head. “I know our bond is still there. When I touch him, I can feel it. But no matter what I do, I can’t break past the effects of the potion to feel him again. No matter how I push…” I sighed in frustration.

  Althea let out a sob and covered her face. For a moment, I was too stunned to react. She always played things so cool. It was shocking to see her have such an overt reaction.

  “Hey,” I said, rubbing her arm awkwardly. “We’ll find him.”

  “Of course we will,” said Nikolai. “He’s definitely alive and not horribly disfigured by those freaks.”

  Althea shook her head, her face still covered. “It’s not that,” she said. “Well, it is, but…” She dropped her hands and looked at me, her eyes filled with tears. “All of this is my fault. I slipped that potion into Tennyson’s tea. I’m so sorry, Lucy. You and Tennyson were growing so close, and I knew that Mother didn’t approve of your bond. She’s always said that if Tennyson doesn’t partner with a girl of his choosing when the time comes, she won’t let him inherit the alpha status and it will fall to me. I really don’t want that, Lucy. I’m terrified of all that power.”

  I stared at her in shock. For a moment, my mind was completely numb.

  “You tipped off Olivia. You were going to have her be the one he fell for,” I said as all of the pieces fell into place. “That was why she stopped me to gloat. If she hadn’t done that, your plan would have worked out.”

  Althea nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes. “I didn’t realize it would break your bond. I didn’t know it would hurt you. I didn’t do it to be spiteful. But now Tennyson is going to die because I wasn’t honest with you all. I’m so sorry, Lucy.”

  Right then, I couldn’t hear her apology. I was so sick of being betrayed by the people I trusted. I’d thought that since I was part of the pack, I’d at least have these people to rely on.

  “Do you have the antidote?” I asked her, my voice cold.

  She’d been so convincing, trying to help me. Making up all those antidotes for me to try out. She must’ve been having such a good laugh.

  She nodded. More tears fell from her eyes, but they just made me angrier.

  “I do, but it’s back at the house.”

  I nodded. “Fine. Sam, Nikolai, you go to the lighthouse and see if Tennyson’s there. I’ll go back to the house with Althea and get the antidote. Then, if he’s not at the lighthouse, I should be able to track him down.”

  Sam started to leave, but Nikolai shook his head.

  “I’m not leaving you with her,” he said.

  “I won’t hurt her,” I sighed. “Just because I’m angry with her. And, anyway, she needs to get the antidote.”

  “That’s not what I mean,” he said, and I noticed how coldly he was glaring at her. “Because of her, Tennyson might be dead. As far as I’m concerned, she’s as complicit as the enemy.”

  She gave another sob.

  “We can worry about all that later,” I said. “Right now, you need to go and find Tennyson. She’s as worried about him as the rest of us. She’s not going to do anything that might hurt him.”

  “She already has,” Nikolai said, but he turned to leave.

  For a moment, I watched as he walked away. I knew that time was a factor, but if the antidote worked, this would be the last time I saw him while I still loved him. It was a bittersweet feeling, and it made my heart throb in pain for a moment. Then he vanished into the shadows.

  “Let’s get going,” I said, walking past Althea toward the Golden House.

  We didn’t speak as we walked, though I could feel the misery rolling off her. I pushed it from my mind. Now wasn’t the time to think about it. Even though I was angry at her, we were on the same side, and we both wanted to save Tennyson. Anything else had to wait.

  We approached the Golden House warily. My father was still around somewhere, and so were some of the guards. We couldn’t be too careful. But as wary as we were, we were both distracted. Which was probably why, when we jumped down from the stone wall, we landed in one of the tar pits.

  I groaned and tried to wade over to the edge, but they’d built it deep into the ground, so it was too high to easily jump out of. The tar was so thick and sticky that it was as if it was trying to pull me back into the pit.

  “Here, I’ll help you up,” Althea said.

  I looked at her, and all my anger vanished. Her long, beautiful hair was caked with tar, and her pale skin and designer dress were covered. She looked like a baby seal that had been caught in an oil spill, and I couldn’t be angry with her. I dragged myself over to where she was standing.

  “I’ll give you a boost up, and then you can help me,” she said.

  I nodded, but before we could move, we heard someone approaching.

  “You go,” I whispered, linking my fingers together to make a step for her. “Go find the antidote. They won’t do anything to me if they find me, but if it’s you…”

  She nodded and stepped onto my hands. “Be careful,” she said. “I’ll be fast.”

  She leapt up and out of the tar pit and I held my breath, waiting to see if whoever was approaching had caught her. Their footsteps didn’t falter, and I didn’t hear any voices. I stared up at the top of the pit, waiting to see who would appear. I really hoped it wasn’t Bloody Guts.

  But it wasn’t.

  It was my father.

  Chapter 21

  “Lucy?” he asked. There was a tremble in his voice that I was fairly certain was suppressed laughter. “Hold on a second. I’ll get you out of there.”

  His face vanished, and for a moment I was left alone with just a square of sky above me. The stars twinkled coldly, as if they were laughing too, but nothing about this was funny. If my father was here, that meant he wasn’t at the lighthouse, which raised the odds of Katie being a double-crosser really high. Which meant that Sam and Nikolai were walking into a trap, and we were no closer to finding Tennyson. And if my father was at the Golden House, he’d probably freed the guards that we’d trapped, so Althea was walking into a house full of armed and angry guards. We were pretty much screwed in every way possible.

  My father reappeared, and he threw something down into the pit. It was a length of the silver rope. I didn’t want to touch it, and it literally repelled me. Every time I tried
to catch hold of it, my body forced itself back. I pulled my hands inside my sleeves, hoping that if I minimized the bare skin close to the rope, I’d be able to hold it. It was like trying to swim against a tsunami, but eventually, I was able to hold on to the rope. As soon as I’d grabbed it, my father started to pull the rope up. I climbed out of the pit, the tar all over me.

  “You’ll be getting that stuff off for the next six months,” my father said helpfully. “Got a bunch of my guys good with these pits, you did. And the other traps you set.”

  “Are you trying to compliment me?” I asked him. Seriously, I would never understand this guy.

  It was hard to move with the tar sticking to my skin. I’d been kind of disappointed when the boys had said “tar pits” to realize they just meant pine tar and not boiling pits of asphalt for our enemies to fall into, but now I supposed it was probably for the best.

  “I assume it’s too much to hope that you were coming back to turn yourself over,” my dad said, starting to walk back to the house.

  I followed him, not sure what else to do. I wasn’t exactly fast enough to escape with this tar all over me.

  “I’ve come back hoping to make you see reason and tell me where Tennyson is,” I said. The more I talked, the more Althea would be able to judge where I was, at least.

  “How about you tell me where my guards are, and I’ll think about it,” my dad said.

  When we entered the house, I automatically turned toward Tennyson’s room.

  “I’m going to clean up,” I told my father. “Then we’ll negotiate.”

  “You’ll understand if I don’t believe that you’ll return of your own volition,” he said, following me.

  It felt wrong for him to be in Tennyson’s room, looking at Tennyson’s things. Tennyson was so private, and my father exploited everything he encountered.

  “Stay right there,” I said when my father was in the middle of the room. “I’ll leave the bathroom door open, and if you touch anything, then your guards can rot.”

  Most of Tennyson’s clothes were too big or too fancy for me, but he had a pair of warm track pants and a hoodie that he slept in, so I found those in his drawer and then backed into the bathroom. It was hard to clean myself up while trying to watch my father through the crack in the bathroom door, but I got enough of the tar off myself to feel human again. The clothes smelled comfortingly of Tennyson, and just for a moment I was sure everything would be okay.