Balance

by Leia Stone

  ‘Can you target certain memories?’ I asked her. The abilities she possessed were incredible. She could make a drug addict forget they were addicted, a murderer forget their past, a victim of abuse forget the abuse.

  She shook her head. ‘No, everything goes. They know how to eat and talk and all of that. They know what an apple is and basic information but their personality is gone, personal memories, families are forgotten, desires, fears. All gone. A blank slate.’

  Jesus! I frowned. That would be a hard gift to live with but it made a damn good weapon. What if I could have her take Layla’s memory? Could I trust that Layla wouldn’t turn evil again? That she wouldn’t remember her dark motives. I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind for later. I was Alpha now, my pack needed me. We were a small, all female pack who barely knew each other, but I was Alpha and this was my new family. Mine to protect. Mine. I could talk to any of them without words. I could control them, ease their fears. I felt all nine of them, all strong females and I wished I had Tara in the pack, so that I could communicate with her too.

  I turned around and met each woman’s gaze, slowly walking to each one and asking them the same question.

  ‘Changed or born?’ I asked them.

  ‘Changed,’ one with brown curly hair said.

  ‘Gift?’ I prompted.

  She smiled. ‘I don’t feel pain.’

  My eyes widened in shock as I nodded, making a mental note. She would be next to go into the torture chamber.

  After going around to each girl, I found out in the end that there were only four changed females including myself. The memory taker whose name was Karissa, the girl who didn’t feel pain was Kylee and then Amanda who could heat her hands to 400 degrees. I had the makings of a fine escape plan.

  I felt empty without Kai’s voice here to guide me. His energy was frantic, I could feel his desperation, but I couldn’t communicate with him, no matter how hard I tried. So, I took a deep breath and tried to focus on getting us out of here.

  I glanced over at Sadie. ‘Okay, now tell me how this place works.’

  She met my eyes. ‘Every couple of days they come grab one of us to torture. They will open the cage and take out Tara and then shove the new one in. There will be about six vampires that do the switch. Tara will be too weak to fight.’

  Shit. They really had this planned out. They were playing on our humanity, our pack mentality and togetherness. An idea struck me and I grinned. Sadie gave me a look that said she thought I was crazy.

  I looked at the blonde dominant one that was carrying Layla’s baby. Her name was Chelsea. If they wanted to hurt one of ours, I would hurt one of theirs.

  Just then, the door opened quickly and five vampires with silver bullet guns walked in and surrounded me.

  “Your room is ready,” one of them said to me, sneering.

  Chelsea and Sadie stood and snarled at the vampires.

  I couldn’t fight or they would hurt Tara. Being in this position, having to act weak and let them take me was one of the hardest things I had ever done.

  The two vampires nearest me grabbed my upper biceps and Sadie growled again.

  ‘No!’ I told her and let Alpha power ooze from my command.

  She looked down at her feet.

  I looked at my pack; they looked renewed with hope and ready for a fight. ‘You’re all my pack now. I will take care of you and I will get us out of here. Sadie is in charge while I’m gone.’

  The girls nodded. Then the vampires tightened their grip on my arms, completely unaware that I could communicate to the girls without speaking, and forced me to walk out of the room. They reeked of heroin. The metallic scent hit the back of my throat and nearly made me gag. I wanted to let the Devi loose and rage on these bloodsuckers so bad but I calmed myself. I loved Tara and Max and everyone else who would be affected if Tara was killed. I had to be patient and do this the right way.

  They walked me down the cement hall as I tried to look for any indication of where we were. It looked like a few signs had been spray painted over. They had been planning this a while. I sighed. God, I missed Kai. Although I drew strength from my newly formed pack, it felt wrong not to be in the same pack as your mate. As we passed a door, a scent pulled at my attention. Tara? I inhaled deeper. Yes, Tara! Two doors down from where I smelled her, the bloodsuckers stopped and banged on another steel door.

  It slowly opened to reveal a tall female vampire who wore a starched white lab coat. Her hair was jet black and cropped short, and her face held no mercy. She pinned me with her evil eyes and nodded her head to the vampires holding me. As I was led inside, I glanced around the huge room and my eyes fell on a medieval-looking stand-up steel cage with straps that bolted it to the wall. Oh, shit. Everything in me wanted to shift into my wolf form and run the hell away from here. Then my eyes flicked to a large medical examination table on the far wall. Resting on a side table, were some surgical instruments, an ultrasound machine and the monitor that showed Tara. I knew what this room was. It was where they implanted Chelsea, I was sure of it. I could smell her all over it. Oh God. I squinted at the monitor showing Tara. The black and white screen showed her lying there limply, barely breathing. The feelings I was having were scaring me. I wanted to murder every single last one of these bastards for what they had done to her, to all of us. I wanted to burn this entire place to the ground for the way they were playing us off of each other. I didn’t feel human in that moment, I felt like a monster. A very powerful, pissed off monster hell-bent on revenge.

  The doctor strode across the room and unfastened some buckles, opening the cage. “Be a good girl,” she told me and gestured that I walk into the cage. I took a few deep breaths, fighting my instinct, pushing my wolf down, pushing the Devi down, and crossed the large room walking over to the cage. The two male vampires strapped me inside of the cage, leaving the door open. One of them grazed my boob as he strapped me down and then smiled, giving me a lusty look. I let a growl rumble deep and long in my chest, glaring at him with yellow eyes. The Devi’s deadly power was bubbling just beneath the surface of my skin, I could bring this entire building down on us if I chose to. It was a scary thought and I was feeling less and less in control by the minute.

  The boob grazer looked at the doctor and gestured to me. “Queen Layla wants to know if she can be used as an incubator as well?”

  My food threatened to come up. No. No. No.

  The doctor seemed to consider it, pressing one red manicured finger to her chin.

  Oh God. If Gretchen was right, then I was pregnant. If the vampires found out, they would abort my baby. I tried not to whimper and suddenly felt Kai’s energy, far away, weak but frantic. I felt him. I needed him.

  The doctor shook her head. “Too risky. What if getting her pregnant freezes the fertility powers of her blood? No. Tell Queen Layla to get more female werewolves.”

  The breath I had been holding whooshed out of me. I could tell my new pack was restless worrying about me.

  ‘I’m fine,’ I sent to them and their energy settled slowly.

  Then, the doctor reached into her pocket and produced a thin silver chain, touching it to my skin, I glared at her.

  She smiled, flashing her pointed canines.

  “Incredible,” she stated when she saw that I did not react to the silver.

  I didn’t smell heroin on her but her eyes were black as night and gave me the creeps.

  “Do you know why silver harms werewolves?” she asked me as she fiddled with a plastic IV tube.

  What the hell, was this class time? I was about to get a lecture on werewolves and silver? Jesus. I shook my head. I was pretty sure pissing this woman off was a bad idea so I would play along.

  “In human studies, microscopic amounts of liquid silver are beneficial in killing viruses. So when used on a werewolf, it begins to kill the lycanthrope virus. Since the lycanthrope virus has already killed the human, once you kill the virus, there is nothing left. Dead as a doornail,�
� she said, cheerily.

  I glared. “Is that why silver stakes also kill vampires?”

  She grabbed my arm hard, letting her nails cut into my skin and secured a bloodletting cuff over my upper arm. “Enough chit chat.” She pulled the top of the cage over me, folding me inside like an iron sandwich.

  Gracefully walking over to the medical table she tapped the monitor that showed Tara. “I heard you already know what this is, so no funny business.” Her voice held the heavy sound of a threat.

  The vampires crossed the room and opened the door as she followed them out, leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

  Trapped

  AHHH! I was so screwed. Pulling against the buckles, I looked down to assess the situation. My left hand was free but my right arm was strapped down and inside this blood cuff. Both of my legs were strapped down as well, and the space in the cage was so tight, it brushed the tip of my nose. I felt like Hannibal Lecter stuck in this thing!

  Okay, breathe. Think. Any witch spells involving opening a cage? Before I could finish that thought, the big metal door opened again and Layla and a male and female vampire couple strode in. They were all dressed like they were going to the opera.

  What the hell did she want?

  “This is her. Our little money maker.”

  Layla introduced me with a delighted tone in her voice. I wanted to strangle that happy sound right out of her throat and I couldn’t stop the growl escaping my chest.

  The male vampire was freakishly tall as he walked closer and appraised me. “After Sarah drinks the blood, do I have to?” he asked Layla.

  Layla gave a sly grin. “No need. You just take a little drink from Sarah, like you would during your love making. That’s enough to do the trick.”

  Gross! I gagged and Layla cut me a look that gave me chills. Crossing the room, she went to the monitor and pushed a button. NO! Tara’s bloody murder scream filled the room. Shit. This was going to kill her if they didn’t switch her out soon. Too much silver. I needed to be on my best behavior so they didn’t hurt her anymore.

  “No, stop! I’m sorry,” I told Layla. It killed me to be begging her but I would do anything for Tara or any of my other wolves.

  Sarah didn’t seem fazed by Tara’s screams. She looked at me. “How many incubators do you have?”

  Layla strode across to the cage I was held in and began to open a small six-inch, cut-out access panel in the door. I hadn’t noticed it before. Reaching in, she grabbed the blood bag that hung from the cuff in my arm, detaching it and pinching my IV shut with a clip. Then she clicked on a new bag and opened the IV tubing. How much blood could I afford to lose? I needed to distract her so she would leave the small door open. Sorry, Tara. One more time.

  “We have about ten, with more on the way,” Layla told them.

  Before she could close the access panel and turn away from me, I used the close proximity to spit in her face, making her mouth drop open in shock. Anger lit up her features and she looked like a demon, eyes red, hell-bent on murder. Her fist snaked out and she punched the cage hard, denting it near my face. Then she reached up and wiped her face clean of my spit and walked over to the monitor. The vampire couple looked at me with alarm.

  “Make her hurt,” Layla said into the monitor. Oh God. I wished I could plug my ears.

  Tara’s wails cut right into my heart but it had worked, she left the small access door to the cage open. After a minute or so of Tara screaming, she passed out, going limp on the screen. Tears rolled down my cheeks. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I kept saying to myself, to Tara.

  “Before we arrange payment, can we see the successful result?” Sarah asked Layla.

  Layla flicked her eyes to me, still blazing with anger then she pulled out a walkie talkie. “Bring in my doggy,” she said, shooting me a death glare.

  I suppressed a growl at the use of her word doggy.

  ‘Sadie, they are coming for Chelsea. I am strapped inside an iron cage but I distracted Layla and she left a small access panel open.’

  ‘How did you distract her?’ Sadie asked me.

  ‘I spit in her face,’ I admitted.

  ‘I like you more and more each day. They’re here,’ Sadie commented.

  I searched for Chelsea’s pack bond, flowing strong within me and focused on communicating with her. As an Alpha, I could communicate with anyone in the pack, even in human form. It was a new sensation. ‘Let them take you. Don’t fight. Tara can’t take any more silver,’ I told her. God, I wished Tara was pack and I could talk to her and tell her she wasn’t alone. She had Kai, he was still her Alpha, at least one of us had Kai. I tried not to dwell on the bad shit.

  Footsteps in the hallway outside got closer, and I watched Layla across the room as she pulled out the sonogram machine. Oh my God. I was going to see it. The … thing. I couldn’t call it a baby. I couldn’t.

  The door opened and the doctor brought Chelsea in. Her hair hung limply around her pale face. She looked up at me and her eyes widened in fear when she saw me in the cage.

  ‘I’m here for you. You’re not alone and I’m getting us out,’ I told her firmly.

  She nodded slightly and lay down on the small examination table. She stared at the ceiling, teeth gritting as the doctor pulled up her white scrub top and squirted jelly on her stomach. Now that her shirt was up, I saw that her belly was quite large for only being a month or so pregnant. How long ago had she been captured?

  “How far along is she?” Sarah asked eyeing the baby bump with longing.

  “She was inseminated about four weeks ago but the fetus is four months along. The baby seems to grow faster than human babies do. We think it’s because they are housed inside of the werewolves. They really are perfect hosts. The humans we originally tried all died. Too weak.”

  Jesus Christ. I pulled against my bindings. If this thing was sucking our blood, would it be some kind of werewolf-vampire hybrid? It took everything in me not to vomit. Hosts? Like a parasite. Humans had died over this. My head was reeling.

  The doctor pressed the wand to Chelsea’s large belly and I held my breath. I didn’t know what to think, what to prepare for. The profile of a baby came into view but I could immediately see something was wrong. The head was misshapen, more coned at the top and the nose was nearly missing. My eyes widened in horror as the doctor scanned the chest and I saw that no heart flickered. It was dead. Then, suddenly, it moved, jerky and animalistic.

  “Like us, they do not breathe or have heart beats. But the fetus is growing in size, and we think the head and nose will normalize during the final month. It’s a success!” Layla clasped her hands and the couple seemed delighted.

  The head and nose will normalize? Bullshit. Seriously? You were excited about a non-breathing, no-heart-beating thing with no nose and a cone head?

  I could feel Chelsea’s depression settle over the pack. She was desperate to get out of this situation. She didn’t know Tara and although she cared for another female werewolf, she wanted the hell out of here no matter the cost. She wanted this thing out of her. She was a loose cannon and I understood why. She felt like a piece of meat. Carrying this unnatural thing inside of her was making her crazy. Being Alpha, I was privy to all of her thoughts.

  ‘It’s going to be okay, I will get you out of here. I will fix this, I have a damn good plan.’ I sent waves of calm through my Alpha bond to her. Okay, damn good plan may have been over selling it a bit, but it was the only plan I had.

  Her eyes met mine and I saw a fierceness in them that told me that if I didn’t get us out of here soon, she was going to lose it and put all of us in jeopardy. She was even strongly considering suicide. Anything to get her out of this situation.

  “Will the baby grow old or stay a baby forever?” Sarah asked, her high-pitched, eager vampire voice made me want to dropkick her in the teeth.

  I had a god-awful feeling that the baby hadn’t been able to grow in Layla’s belly before because vampires don’t age. My theor
y was that by using werewolves to incubate and carry them, they were some type of vampire-werewolf hybrid. If that was even possible.

  The doctor met my eyes and seemed to consider if she should comment.

  Layla smiled as the doctor put an arm around Sarah. “We aren’t sure, but we suspect that if the baby can grow inside of the werewolf carrier then it may continue to need werewolf blood for feedings to continue to grow.”

  My stomach dropped. Oh God no. No. This was beyond evil. There was no way they were feeding off of us! Tears rolled down my cheeks.

  ‘Kai, I need you. I can’t do this.’ This would never stop; we would be hunted forever. I felt Kai’s pull on my energy trying to find me, to communicate with me but I couldn’t hear him.

  The doctor wiped Chelsea’s belly clean and then grabbed her by the arm pits and hauled her up, dragging her out of the room.

  Layla strode over to the table and grabbed the blood pouch that she had taken from my arm and enclosed it in a nice silver case, handing it to Sarah.

  “We will wire the money.” The woman kissed each side of Layla’s cheek.

  Layla waved her hand like she didn’t care about the money. “Follow me to the procedure room. You will need to stay overnight. In the morning, we will implant the werewolf of your choosing.”

  Oh God. Not another one. I had to get us out of here now! Layla winked at me before slamming the door and taking her entourage with her. Oh my God, I was so tired. It must be two in the morning and I was having trouble keeping my eyes open.

  Sadie spoke to me frantically.

  ‘They are here to take the next girl and switch out for Tara.’

  ‘Make sure they take Kylee!’ I told her.

  I searched for Kylee within the pack bonds. She wasn’t afraid. Not feeling pain had given her a courageous edge. I closed my eyes and grabbed the link that bound us. I could feel her fighting. She had punched one of the vampires. They slammed her against the wall and she cried out in fake pain.

  ‘They’re taking me,’ she told me.