by C. J. Pinard
“Regardless, let’s get out of here in case we get stuck,” I whispered.
“Wait,” Aden said, crouching down. “Look.”
With the light from the open door, I could see something shiny glinting on the floor. Aden went to pick it up and we both realized it was a small, metal ring latch attached to the floor, so he pulled and a hatch big enough to fit us both opened up.
I could hear water down below, but didn’t care. This had to be the only place Linden had fled to, and I suddenly had a bad feeling about where he was heading.
Aden instructed me to go first, and after climbing down one rung of the ladder in the dark, I could see the bottom. I lost patience and flew down, my boots smacking water. I moved quickly as Aden followed suit. It was dark down here, but there were also fake torches lit on the walls and I realized we were probably in a labyrinth of tunnels that would eventually lead to the prison cells. It was the last place I wanted to be. I told Aden of my fears, but he ensured me he had Linden’s scent and we had to follow it.
The water below my feet didn’t even cover the tops of my boots, and for that I was grateful. I still wasn’t completely dry from my swim in the lake and needed a shower badly. But I didn’t care about that at this point. I only had one thing on my mind. We followed the winding tunnel with our weapons drawn, not saying anything. The only sounds I could hear were our boots slogging over the water, and our controlled breaths.
“So what did you and Karina do while I was getting rescued from the lake?”
Aden glanced at me and then put his face front again. “I was wondering why you looked like a wet dog earlier, but didn’t want to ask.”
I chuckled. “I can imagine. The drainage ditch leads to a lake, but it was like twenty feet up. The mountainside literally vomited me out into the lake.”
“Nice visual,” he murmured.
“So, what did you do? Did you guys find anything?” I asked again.
“No, we slunk around the place, had to hide from a few vamps, but Karina and that place stunk so bad, I was having a hard time concentrating.”
I went to punch him in the arm, but he dodged me. “Jerk.”
“You stink too, Ayla, and so does that husband of hers, so don’t worry. I’m not being biased.”
“Does Sanja stink?” I asked, smirking.
“No, she smells normal, like Mom and Dad.”
“Or, she smells like a witch and you think that’s what normal humans smell like,” I teased.
He shook his head. “No, Celeste doesn’t smell any differently than the witches.”
“You sure she isn’t one then?” I asked, curious.
“I don’t think so. I mean, wouldn’t I know?” he asked, his gun swinging from his fist near the thigh of his dark jeans.
I lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “I don’t know, but it seems like it would take a bit of magic for a wolf to get a human pregnant, don’t you think?”
He stopped walking and grabbed my hand. “Do you think that’s it then? Maybe she is one, and she is tricking me. Has me under a spell, and there is no baby. Fuck, Ayla.” He pulled off his black ball cap and raked his fingers through his too-long dark-blond hair.
I grabbed his face with my free hand. “No, I don’t think that at all. What purpose would that serve?”
“I… I don’t know. We should discuss this later, though, we have shit to do.” He put the hat back on.
I nodded. “Okay. Again, tell me what you found with Karina.”
“We didn’t find anything, that’s what. Just kind of hid out. I don’t have Kellan’s scent, so there was no way I could find him.”
I nodded and left it alone for now.
The tunnel floor seemed to go a bit higher, and eventually, the ground leveled out to a dry, cemented floor and then no more torches. And for the second time today, I thought I could literally see a light at the end of a tunnel.
“His scent is getting stronger,” Aden whispered next to me, his eyes looking ahead to where he pointed with his gun.
“Good,” I murmured.
We kept walking toward the light, and wondered if it was sunlight I could see, and I briefly started to worry about Karina. Then I realized Phil and Maurice would need to hide too, and hoped they were all someplace safe.
“It’s another trap door,” Aden said after we had quickly blitzed toward it. This time, it was in the ceiling, and I looked up and could see it was open.
“I’ll check it out,” Aden mouthed, pointing upward before climbing the ladder.
“Be careful,” I said, having no intention of staying down there another minute as I climbed on the rungs behind him.
The opening led to a bedroom of some kind. It was oddly out of the place from where we’d come from. The room was fully furnished with a huge four-poster bed, dresser, and modern décor throughout. I looked with confusion at my brother. We quickly split up and scanned the room. There were two large closets, and he wasn’t in either one. We looked from floor to ceiling to ensure there were no more trap doors. This room did have windows, and I quickly looked outside and could see we were still on Linden’s sprawling property, as the swimming pool was glinting off the rising sun in the distance.
I briefly thought how foolish it would have been for Linden to come in here with the sun coming up, but who knew what went through the fool’s head. All I knew was that I was about to remove it from his body—as soon as I located the fucker.
The door to the room was shut, and when I went to turn the L-shaped handle, I made a quiet gesture with my finger at my brother. He nodded.
With my dagger out in front of me. Aden had both hands on the revolver. I slowly opened the door, and what I saw before me caused me to scream in horror.
Kellan was on his knees, hands tied behind his back, Linden standing over him with a dagger to his throat and an evil smile on his lips.
Chapter 15
“Drop your bloody weapon,” Linden said, now frowning when he saw Aden’s gleaming silver pistol aimed at him.
“No,” Aden replied, cocking back the hammer with his thumb. The sound was deafening in the heavy silence of the room.
I quickly put my fists up again like a boxer so he would think I wanted to fight clean.
Kellan had a fear in his eyes I’d never seen in my life as he said, “Tell Aden to shoot him now before he kills you both!”
“Looks like you’re the one with your head on the chopping block,” I said, but my gaze was on Linden now.
I regarded Linden carefully, and then took two steps toward him with a cocky smirk that defied all the blistering fear I felt inside. “You thought I’d be alone, didn’t you? You thought Phil and Maurice had them all.”
Linden raised his chin. “I’m going to kill your precious Kellan if you don’t tell that filthy wolf to drop the damn gun. He can’t kill me with that, anyway. A gunshot is just going to merely irritate me.”
I still had my fists up with the invisible dagger in my right like I wanted to box him. I didn’t care how stupid I looked. I was fueled by rage at that point.
He chuckled at me. “Gonna punch me, are you, little wolf?”
“For starters, yes. And shut the fuck up and don’t call me that.”
“Tell your brother to take the shot! I can survive a gunshot wound if he misses,” Kellan growled.
“No, you can’t. Silver bullets, my love.”
Kellan narrowed his eyes at me. “Silver won’t kill us.”
I looked at the windows, which were covered in thick, dark blackout curtains. I knew throwing them aside and letting the morning light in would kill Linden, but it would kill Kellan, too.
Linden grinned and pressed the knife into Kellan’s throat, drawing blood. “You’ve got quite the dilemma now, don’t you, little girl?”
“Aaand, that’s enough,” Aden said, pressing the trigger and releasing a bullet. It went whistling past my head. I screamed and ducked.
The room erupted into chaos. Linden moved quickly to a
void the bullet while I blitzed over to Kellan and covered my body with his. Aden ran to Linden’s body, and when the dust settled, Linden lay on the floor hollering at Aden to get off of him. He had a hand to his neck and blood was gushing fast.
“Hi,” I said to Kellan, staring down at him as he lay prone under me, his hands still behind his back.
“Hi, love.”
I stared into his beautiful eyes and then pressed a kiss to his lips. Then I jumped up, flipped him over, and sliced off his rope bindings with my dagger.
“Get off me, you disgusting wolf!” Linden yelled at Aden.
I heard the front door to the house—cabin?—open and saw Sanja and Evan barrel in.
Ignoring them, I went over and pried Linden’s hand from where he was trying to stop the fast rush of blood gushing from his neck. Aden had the gun shoved into his forehead and used his thumb to load another round with a click.
I shooed my brother off him and straddled Linden myself. With my dagger up high, I twirled it in my fingers, and said, “Sanja, if you would be so kind.”
“Visibilis.”
Linden’s eyes went wide as I pulled the new talisman from between my cleavage. I yanked it off over my head and tossed it at Sanja, since it was getting in my way now. “You’re not the only witch in the house, bitch. Now, listen carefully.” I pressed the dagger into his throat and made a cut from his Adam’s apple to quickly-healing burn-slice the revolver had made. He made a squeaking sound in the back of his throat, but his eyes and face remained defiant.
“I’m gonna list all the ways you deserve to die slowly, and you tell me if I’m wrong, m-kay?”
I heard Aden groan. “Ayla, dammit, just stab him already.”
I didn’t turn around or even acknowledge my brother. Fuck him for trying to ruin my moment.
“One, you ran away like a little bitch when we came for you, so you lose points for that,” I said, grinning down into his pale face twisted in pain. He tried to buck me off, but I slapped him across the face.
Damn, that felt good. “Don’t move.”
“Ayla, let’s speed this up.”
“Fuck o-off, Evan,” I sing-songed.
I heard Sanja snort.
“Two, you put Kellan under a servitude spell. A fucking servitude spell. Who does that? Weak, pathetic people who have to force people into liking them. Who have to make sure he’s surrounded by an entourage. Well, I have news for you, you murderer.” His eyes began to slide shut, and I slapped him again. “Listen to me! Nobody around you likes you!”
“Get off of me, you child,” Linden gritted out, the light beginning to fade from his eyes as I was cutting off his air, and he’d lost a lot of blood.
“You do realize I could have the curtains thrown open right now, don’t you?”
And just like Zeke had, he cleared his throat and then spit a bloody wad of mucous at me. But this time, I dodged it by whipping my head to the side.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” I heard Aden say.
I smiled big. “Looks like your nasty vampire spit got my brother. Which brings me to my next point.” I pressed the dagger into his throat harder, and to my delight, beads of blood began to pop up under my blade. I then drew it back and held it up proudly. “See this? Remember when you asked me what Austyn was?”
Linden said nothing, just struggled under me. Then, when I began to hear him start chanting in Latin, I smacked a hand over his mouth. “Fuck you and your witch mother.”
“Ah, hell. Them are fightin’ words,” Sanja said with a whistle behind me.
Without breaking eye contact with my number-one nemesis, I said, “Could you shut him up for me, bestie?”
“Subjugale mutum,” Sanja whispered.
Linden’s eyes went wide under me, and when I glanced at his neck, I could see the wound Aden had caused from his revolver had healed over. He then tried to speak, and when nothing came out, he looked even more panicked. This gave me a sick satisfaction, which scared me a little, but thrilled me even more.
“Okay, now where was I? Oh yeah, number three. But before I get to that, let’s go back to number two. You put Phil, and I’m assuming Maurice, into a servitude spell, too, didn’t you?”—I put the dagger to his neck and made a clean slice along the healing wound—“Just what is your major malfunction?”
Linden tried to scream, but there was only a silent O-shape of his mouth.
“Ayla…” I heard my brother warn.
“Give me a minute. You said you wanted to be here for this, Aden. Geez.”
I heard him chuckle. “Can’t argue with that.”
“Okay, so number three, which is last, but most certainly not fucking least… I think you and I got off on the wrong foot. Do you remember, like, five years ago, when you went into the mountains at Wolfe Point to find your vampire brother—”
“Ayla”—Aden cut me off—“Only we called it Wolfe Point.”
I rolled my eyes. “God, Aden, aren’t you supposed to be the strong, silent type? Either get over here and help me, or shut the fuck up!”
My annoyance had cost me. Linden used that minor distraction to punch me in the chest and then buck me off. With preternatural speed, I was lying on the floor of the house with my hand to my chest and gasping for air, and he was bolting toward the back bedroom where the hatch that led below ground was.
“Oh, hell no!” I screamed, ignoring the pain in my breastplate where he’d punched me, and blitzed after him.
By the time I reached the room, he had the hatch open and was scampering down. I jumped down after him, my Dagestan dagger still in my hand.
He blitzed down the dark tunnel and took off running. But each time I got close, he picked up speed and bested me.
With my entourage of friends behind me, I kept going until I hit a solid, pale body and fell backward onto my ass.
“Dammit!” I cried. I scrambled to my feet to see that I’d hit Karina, who had her boot on Linden’s chest.
He tried to get up, but I joined my redheaded vampire friend. I quickly straddled his big body, and then raised my dagger.
“No!” Linden hollered.
With a smile, I drove it down straight into his chest. He screamed like a little girl, and I licked my lips in satisfaction. With a flick of my wrist, I twisted the dagger and felt a molten of pure, hot satisfaction overtake my body as Linden’s pain and fear emanated into the air of the tunnel.
“I wasn’t done, asshole,” I gritted out, my hand still on the hilt. “Ya know, I had half a thought to drag you into your own prison and put you in one of the cells down here and give you a taste of your own nasty medicine, but ya know what? Fuck it. This ends today.” I brushed his bangs off his forehead. “So, where was I?”
“Ayla,” he breathed out. “Listen. Please. I only wanted to find you so I could offer you a job. You are powerful and beautiful. I could have made you a legend. I wanted to turn you into the most powerful hunter that ever lived.” He sucked in a deep breath, and I could tell he was in pain. “I could have made you a god.”
I laughed. “Thanks for that, one-percenter. But you’re a day late and a dollar short, as my daddy says. I’m already the best hunter around, and close to godliness. Now shut your ugly mouth and let me finish!” I was pretty sure I spat the last sentence out with my spittle flying all over the dark, echoey tunnel.
“Want another silencing spell?” Sanja asked.
I shook my head. “Nah. I got this.”
Aden grabbed my hand around the hilt of the dagger where I held it, and twisted.
Linden growled to keep from crying out.
“You need to shut up.” The vein in Aden’s forehead was popping out, and I knew he was pissed.
When I’d stabbed Linden, I had purposely missed his heart because I wasn’t ready to kill him just yet. So the dagger was probably piercing his lung.
Kellan appeared at my side, his hands casually thrust into the pockets of his dress slacks. Blood stained the collar of his white shirt and his ha
ir was a mess. He looked sexy as hell. He bent down and pressed his palm flat on Linden’s forehead. “He won’t be getting up again, love.”
“You… can’t… kill me,” Linden croaked out, staring at Kellan.
Kellan grinned down at him. “No, I can’t, but nothing says I can’t help. You have lived long enough, Linden. I’ve been living in literal slavery to you for too long. I let a lot of years go numbly by while I just resolved myself to my fate of serving you, looking forward to when it would be over. But I think it’s been long enough. You hate Ayla because we have a bond, and the one I have with you has been weakened by that. You probably don’t even know why that’s why you want her dead, but I do. It came to me during that time you kept me prisoner in that house.” He pointed toward the opening.
“I’ll free you now, I promise. I’m sorry. What you did to my brother—”he gasped for breath—“it’s… it’s forgiven. We’re even.”
Kellan stared down at him, still restraining Linden’s head. “No, it’s over. You’ve hurt too many people.”
“What about what you did my brother?” I asked, crouched next to him on one side, while Aden was on the other.
Linden just stared at me.
“I was interrupted earlier when you took off like the weasel that you are. Five years ago, you wandered into our mountain territory and killed a large wolf. Beheaded him while his pack watched. While I watched. While Aden watched. The dagger inside you is inscribed with Austyn’s name and is made of silver. You killed Austyn St. John without reason, and for that, you’re gonna die today.”
“One of your…” he coughed and blood spattered us all, “…killed my progeny.”
“Your progeny wandered into our wolf territory! And also, newsflash, asshole, I’m the one who killed your damn progeny. Austyn didn’t do anything. Nothing! I’ve been looking for you for five years. And let me tell you this: I don’t think it was a coincidence that I met Kellan. I think fate, or whatever, brought us together so I could find you and end your reign of terror. Then add the shit I’ve found out you’ve done to others in the interim, and it has just made this all the more easier.” Tears were now leaking down my cheeks as flashes of my parents’ faces crumpled in grief, Austyn’s head lying away from his body, and my brother’s howls of agony that night came rushing back. “I hate you. I hate you so much.”
