by Helen Scott
Something squeaked to the side, and he saw Ellie sliding on her knees, daggers out as she cut the tender flesh of the back of the knees of two of their opponents, bringing them to the ground so they were at the same level as her before stabbing them in the chest. She was definitely different. He’d never seen her fight like that before, and as the smell of burned flesh reached his nose, he realized that the reason he hadn’t seen her usual display of power was because she had been channeling it into her weapons. She was fierce, and the way she was interweaving magic and her fighting skills let Alec know that he had been worried about her for nothing.
When he heard the crack of lightning behind him, he spun, only to see a man who was about to attack him from behind drop to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Before he could move back to the group he’d been fighting, a few more guards came in through the doors, and the distraction was enough for him to get his knives kicked from his hands. He went to draw the sword that rested down his spine, but there wasn’t enough room with one of the guards coming at him in a flurry of fists, elbows, and knees. The man’s speed wasn’t natural and forced Alec to rely solely on his instincts, something that made him very uncomfortable.
He took a jab to the ribs and a hook across his left cheek before he could get his own shots in. The warm feeling of blood trickling down his face brought everything into an even sharper focus. He let go of the restraint he held on his supernatural strength and crushed the man’s nose. It wasn’t something he ever enjoyed or was proud of, but in situations like the one he was stuck in at that moment, where it was five, now four, against one, he didn’t have much of a choice. The fight stole all his concentration. The only thing that let him know that Ellie was still up and fighting was the flashes of light that occasionally lit up his peripheral vision. The men he fought were no match for him, but it felt like they just kept coming. As soon as he dropped one, another was there in his place. Fortunately, most of them seemed to have been trained the same way, so their moves were becoming familiar to him, making it easier to incapacitate an enemy before moving on to the next one.
“Stop!” The word bellowed throughout the room. Alec ignored it at first, too focused on the enemy at hand. “Stop or I’ll blow her brains out!”
Alec froze, dread pooling in his stomach as he turned toward the voice. It was the man who he’d guessed was in command. He was tall, with sandy-brown hair and a lovely fresh gash running the length of his face. Pride rose in Alec’s chest as he knew Ellie had given everything she’d had before he’d been able to get a hold on her. Two men on each side held her hands at the wrists so that they pointed to the floor. They were smarter than he’d initially given them credit for.
“Put the weapon on the ground,” the tall man said, briefly gesturing with his own gun to the one Alec had just confiscated off an attacking guard.
Slowly, he bent and dropped the gun on the body in front of him. His eyes scanned the room, assessing the situation, as he stood up straight with his hands raised.
“Good. Now, you and the little lady here are going to be put in cells. You fight me, she dies. You sass me, she dies. You resist me in any way, shape, or form, she dies. Got it?”
Alec nodded before locking eyes with Ellie. It was the fear that shone through them that did him in. He knew she would rather die than become property of the Order of Talos, because he had no doubt that that was who was behind all this now that he’d seen the facilities and the guards. If he’d known ahead of time, he wouldn’t have come with just Ellie. He’d have forced his brothers to tag along, as well. It would have turned into a blood bath, but then they wouldn’t be stuck with a gun to Ellie’s head like they were now.
Anger assailed him. Hadn’t she been through enough? All Alec wanted to do was give Ellie the life that she deserved, but between fighting and almost dying at the hands of a crazy witch, to getting stuck in her own head, it was proving more difficult than he ever could have predicted. His hands instinctively curled into fists at the thought of her being hurt or ending up abused by someone like Randall Fields. He couldn’t let that happen.
“Ah, ah. I see you gettin’ all uppity in that head of yours, mister. Remember what I said. You think you can take me out before I put a bullet in her brain? Is that a risk you really want to take?”
“You know . . . I think it is.” Before anyone could react, Alec opened his fists, and his power to control the fluid within a person’s body lashed out. The men surrounding them froze. “I’m really tired of people threatening my soulmate,” he said, his voice cold and deadly. He couldn’t look at Ellie, couldn’t make eye contact with her while she watched the evil inside him come out to play. He’d told her about his ability, but it was one thing to know intellectually and another thing to see it in action.
His brain was bombarded with the knowledge of each of the guards’ bodies, telling him who was dehydrated, who carried a lot of water weight. Everything and anything related to fluid he could figure out through his power. As a young man, he had been a weapon, one wielded by men who couldn’t be trusted with power, so he’d spent most of his adult life trying to shut it off, push it deep into his subconscious where he would never have to think about it again.
“I’ve officially run out of patience, and you’re the ones who are going to pay for it.” He ground the words out as he let the monster come out.
The energy of his power was like a tornado sweeping through the room as it began to control the temperature of the fluid in their bodies. As he called to the power within the water, screams began to fill the air. It was only for a few seconds before they cut off with shudder-inducing gurgles that only the dying could make. He’d boiled them all alive, and they’d all deserved it for laying hands on Ellie and for helping imprison the beings surrounding them. It could have gone another way. He could have frozen them or turned all the fluid in their bodies into water vapor, leaving them looking like mummies, but his anger was sharp and hot and couldn’t be tempered anymore, so boiling it was.
As the last of the noise died down, the room fell into a deep silence, one that spoke of the horror that had just occurred. He looked up, and Ellie had slumped against the back wall by a staircase he hadn’t really paid much attention to before. As he looked up, Alec saw that there was another level of cells similar to the ones that surrounded them now, all of which were full.
He moved toward Ellie, holding his hands carefully neutral at his sides and not making eye contact. If there was disgust or hate in her eyes, he couldn’t bear it. “I won’t touch you if you don’t want, but I need to know if you’re hurt.”
“I’m fine,” Ellie said, her voice tight with unshed tears.
“I’m sorry you had to see that.”
“Why?”
He looked at her then and saw only relief on her face. “Why? Because I basically just slaughtered almost ten people in front of you. You saw exactly what I never hoped you would.”
Ellie heaved herself off the floor, her body clearly aching already from the hits she must have taken, and held her hand out to him. “I’m upset because I had a gun pressed to my head, not because you saved my life and the lives of everyone in here.”
Her skin was soft and supple in his, even if there were some areas that were sticky with blood or slightly swollen, and he just stared down at their joined hands like a blockhead. The problem was the adrenaline still coursing through his veins. It made him want to bed her, and having her skin touching his only increased that need. They weren’t out of the woods yet, though, so even if she were willing, there was no time for them to get frisky.
Movement caught his attention. When he turned to look, he found Ben practically doing jumping jacks, trying to get them to notice him. The younger man began to mouth words to him as Alec focused his attention on everything but Ellie, but he couldn’t quite make them out. He shook his head, trying to indicate that he didn’t understand while he took in the magnificent wolf that paced around the cage. He knew it had to be Imogen, but he needed
a minute to wrap his head around the idea that the large black wolf with golden eyes was the same small, timid woman he’d been trying to gain assistance from.
Ben pulled out his phone, and a moment later, Alec’s own phone buzzed in his pocket, drawing his eyes away from the glorious creature.
The head guards have badges that can open the doors.
The text had Alec moving again, searching the pockets for the laminated IDs of the bodies while trying not to look at them. He was still struggling to admit to himself what he’d done, so he couldn’t even imagine what Ellie or Ben thought. Once he had a handful of the badges, he came over to the glass, and Ben met him on one side of the cage, pointing to the small black panel that he hadn’t even noticed. He swiped ID after ID across it until finally, he heard a click, like he was opening a hotel room, and the whole glass front rotated upward.
Imogen shot out and down the hall. Once there was some space between them, she turned and growled ferociously at them before disappearing through the door. Alec really hoped she came back. Otherwise, he was going to make a lot of enemies in short order. Ben limped out of the room, clutching his side. He hadn’t looked injured earlier, which concerned Alec.
“Where are you hurt?”
“I’m fine. I twisted my ankle as we rushed into the cage, and a couple of the guards got some good hits in, but it’s no big deal.”
“When we get out of the building, I’ll have Hal meet us, and he can heal you.”
“Imogen may need some help, as well. I don’t know how or if shifters heal when they shift, but she took a couple punches before we were able to make a break for it.”
“What the hell happened? And why the hell did you think it was a good idea to lock yourselves in a prison cell?” Alec ran a hand through his hair as his frustrations finally rose to the surface.
“Love, give me the ID card that opens the cells,” Ellie said, gently resting a hand on his arm as she spoke.
Her touch calmed him, re-centered him so he could focus on their situation and not his irrational anger at Ben.
“The fae are on the next level up, third and fourth cells in from the stairs on the left,” Ben said in a clipped tone.
“Thank ye.” Ellie took the badge that Alec held out to her and began walking away from the stairs, going from cell to cell, opening the doors.
Most of the prisoners stumbled out, shock evident from their slack-jawed faces. Some took off full tilt toward the doors, while others were barely confident enough to stick a toe out of their cells. Alec listened as he heard Ellie talking as she opened the cells, reassuring them that they were the good guys, that yes, he did kill all those guards, but no, he wasn’t going to kill them. Her lilting voice and the soothing tones with which she spoke were enough to bring a smile to his face even among the carnage.
Alec didn’t realize Ben had been talking until he took a ragged breath. “So, that’s when we realized we’d triggered a silent alarm somewhere along the way, and when guards flooded the upstairs, we came down, and there were more guards in the doorway, so we had no choice but to duck into the cell and close it behind us. When they started attacking the glass, Imogen went wolf, which was freaking terrifying, by the way, but it is what stopped the head guy from opening the door. If you and Ellie hadn’t shown up . . . man, we would have been in deep shit.”
“Next time call me before you go in somewhere,” Alec said gruffly, not liking that he’d missed the beginning of the story but unwilling to admit how distracted he’d been, either.
“Like I said, I wanted to make sure the fae were here first. No use dragging you away from Ellie if I didn’t have to.”
“I told him he should have contacted you after we scouted the first prison block.” Imogen’s voice sounded behind Alec, and he turned to her with a smile.
She was fully human once more, and her clothing was, thankfully, intact. There seemed to be an extra luster to her hair and a brighter sparkle in her eye. Alec said with a chuckle, “He should’ve listened.”
A creaking sound had his head whipping around, only to find Ellie coming back downstairs with the fae Ben and Imogen had been hunting in tow. Two ethereal women and one young man trailed behind his soulmate. Others followed, as well, but he knew from his experience with Plúr na mBan and the Morrigan how fae carried themselves, and how their facial features were ever so slightly off from humans.
When she arrived at the little huddle that had formed, Ellie said, “We should free the others, as well.”
“Others?” Alec’s brain couldn’t connect the dots for a moment.
“The other cell blocks. I don’t want to leave anyone here, trapped and at the mercy of the Order.”
“If you guys take one building, we’ll take the other?” Ben asked while glancing at Imogen, who nodded in agreement.
Alec didn’t like it. He just wanted to take the fae and get out of there, but he could tell that Ellie wouldn’t budge, and if Ben and Imogen were taking one building, then he couldn’t say no. He glanced at Ellie and nodded his agreement. “What about the badges? We only have the one.”
“How do you think we closed the door?” Ben grinned and pulled a badge from his pocket. With that, they double-checked the cells to make sure everyone had made it out okay, and then moved on to the next building with a plan to meet up with each other again in no more than fifteen minutes. It meant they had to work fast, but that they would know fairly quickly if the other team was in trouble.
Chapter 23
They had made their way through the entire building, and everyone had made it out except the woman in front of him. She was still huddled in a ball in the corner while Ellie sat on the floor in front of her. He’d made the mistake of suggesting that they leave her if she wanted to stay so badly. It hadn’t gone over well. Ellie had dug her heels in and was now sitting on the floor, holding a one-sided conversation with her. The woman’s mousy brown hair was matted and dirty, much like Ellie’s had been when he’d seen her in Purgatory, except she was using it as a shield, hiding her face from them as she tried to squeeze herself into an even smaller ball.
“What the hell? I expected you to be pinned down by guards, not staring at an empty room,” Ben’s voice said as he came down the hall toward them at a jog, with Imogen right behind him.
“Room’s not empty,” Alec said, gesturing to the two women.
“What’s goin’ on, boss?”
When Imogen arrived and took in the scene, Alec noticed her body stiffen.
“Not sure why, but the woman in the corner won’t leave and won’t talk to Ellie, who won’t leave without her, so we’re stuck.”
“Weird, you’d think she’d be flying out of this place like all the others.”
“She’s terrified and doesn’t know who we are. It’s not that hard to understand why she’s resistant.” Imogen’s voice was soft. “Can I try?”
Alec nodded and held out his hand in an invitation for her to go into the room. As she approached, Ellie looked over her shoulder, and he could hear his soulmate introducing Imogen to the other woman. The two of them watched the women desperately trying to interact with her for a while, before Ellie finally stood up and walked back over to them.
“I have an idea, and you’re not going to like it.”
“Oh?” Alec raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest, trying to suppress the slight grin that wanted to break through at her defiant tone and stance.
She walked down the hall and gestured for him to follow. When they were a sufficient distance away, Ellie turned and said, “I’m worried that she may have been assaulted, and having two overbearing men standing at the edge of the room is preventing her from opening up. I want you and Ben to take the fae back to the island while Imogen and I stay here and try to coax her out of her shell.”
“No.”
“You didn’t even think about it.”
“What’s there to think about? Leaving you in a potentially dangerous situation alone or not. I’m always
going to choose not.”
“Okay, so what’s your plan for getting us out of here, then? There are three fae and me, plus Ben and Imogen. You can jump two people at the same time, max. So, what happens then?” Now she’d folded her arms over her chest, with her chin and eyebrows held high as she challenged him.
“I’ll take you and one of the fae and then come back for the other two.”
“Not acceptable.”
“We aren’t going to fight about this. That’s how it’s going to be.”
“That’s shite, an’ ye know it.”
“Why? Because I want to protect you?”
“I’m quite capable of protecting myself. Did so for months when I was in Purgatory. D’ye expect me to be so feart of a few wee men wi’ guns that I’ve forgotten all o’ that?”
Her lush Scots accent was in full swing, and he loved every second of it, but it didn’t mean that he wasn’t paying attention. “You weren’t in Purgatory for months. It was only a few days.”
“Not in my head,” she said, eyes blazing with fierce determination.
Alec sighed. He wasn’t going to win this, and if he fought her, then he was liable to drive them further apart, which would be counterproductive to everything else he was doing. “Fine. I’ll leave you and Imogen with the woman, but only because Imogen’s a wolf. If she wasn’t, then you’d be coming on the first trip with me.”
He could tell that she wanted to argue and show him how much she needed to be protected by Imogen. Her mouth was practically forming the words even though no sound was coming out, but she reined it in and just nodded her agreement. When they walked back to the cell that Imogen and the strange woman were sitting in, he briefed Ben on the situation. The young fury wasn’t exactly happy to leave, but they would only be gone for moments, and Alec didn’t want to make multiple trips if he could help it, since it would be a waste of energy.
Granuaile and Bran were slumped on the floor with their backs against the wall and appeared to be sleeping, while Aoife was staring into the air in front of her as though she could will herself home.
