I got up from the table and followed Finn to the far side of the cafeteria, where nobody would be able to hear our conversation. For a minute, the two of us just stood there, neither of us talking. He shifted nervously from foot to foot, and I thought he was planning his speech in his mind before he started.
Finally, he took a deep breath and began. “Ronnie, I’m sorry for what I said to you on the balcony. It was nasty and hurtful, and I didn’t really mean it.” He sighed, and I could tell that this pained him to admit. “Tanya was right. I do have a type. And she was even more right about them being as stupid as possible. When I heard her say that, I realized something. I don’t like stupid girls. They’re annoying. Really, really annoying.”
“Then why do you sleep with them?”
“You can’t understand, because you’re not a guy, and you’re not a werewolf. Ronnie, sometime in the near future, I’m going to have a mate. One mate. For the rest of my life. After I find that one girl, I won’t be with anyone else ever again.”
“I thought a werewolf’s mate was all about choice,” I said quietly. “Tanya said that they decide who their mates are.”
“I know, but I’m not ready to find my mate. I don’t wanna be tied down at nineteen, and the best way to do that is to make sure I have nothing in common with the girls I sleep with. They’re stupid, shallow, and mean to each other. I don’t want to settle down yet, so I pick girls that I have absolutely no chance of falling in love with. It makes it easier to stay single.”
“I’m not in love with you, Finn!” I snapped, angry that this was the reason he said such hurtful, cruel things to me the other day. “I think you’re brave, loyal, and attractive, and I thought that maybe there could have been something between us a long way down the road from now. I wasn’t thinking about marrying you or asking to be your mate you ass!”
He flinched and ran a hand nervously through his long dark hair. “I’m sorry. I overreacted. I just heard the two of you talking, and I was worried that you were some crazy obsessed chick. I didn’t stop to think; I just wanted you as far away from me as possible. I’m sorry, Ronnie.”
He looked sincere, and now that I’d thought about it, I felt really bad for overreacting. And now that I knew he felt just as bad, I felt like I could forgive him for what he’d said. So I took a deep breath. “It’s alright, Finn. I forgive you. Just don’t ever say anything that horrible to me, or to any other girl, ever again. Got it?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“Alright, now I’m going back to that table, and I’m gonna finish my lunch. Would you care to join us?”
He nodded again. “Sure.”
Chapter Seventeen
Over the next couple of days, I got back to my training, and Annie instantly forgave me for skipping my lessons. She told me that she was in my position once, and she understood what it was like to feel like everyone hated you and wanted you gone. So she didn’t yell at me and she didn’t punish me.
She just told me my assignment for the lesson and told me to get to it.
“Ronnie, today I want you to try something called banishing. Banishing is when you use your powers to force a soul to the other side. Normally it’s frowned upon, because even in death souls should have the freedom to make their own choices, but some souls can be dangerous. Banishing them is a way to keep everyone safe from harm. What I want you to do is reach deeper inside yourself than you ever have before.
“Then I want you to use that power you gather, and start focusing on the spirit of this dove. It’s ready to move on, and you can start practicing on it. When you’ve focused on the dove’s spirit and you have it in your sights, I want you to do the opposite of what I’ve taught you so far. I want you to push the spirit away instead of pulling it through. Just shove the spirit away.”
Closing my eyes, I searched deep inside myself. My power rested at my core as a ball of black, pulsing energy, and it grew as I called to it. Finding it had been easier with each lesson, and now I could do it in the blink of an eye without breaking a sweat. I was progressing very well in some departments, but barely moving forward in others.
The dove’s soul was clearly visible in my mind, and I locked onto it, channeling my power to my fingertips, where it would do my bidding. I could hear Annie’s instructions in my mind, and I did as I was told, focusing solely on the dove’s spirit. It glowed brightly in my mind’s eye, unnoticeable to anyone but Annie and myself, and it came when I called. Before I could start banishing the spirit, the sirens went off, breaking my concentration.
Annie jumped to her feet and ran to the door, and I looked around. The sirens were so loud they pounded through my ears, echoing around inside of my head. I gritted my teeth against the jarring pain, and got to my feet as the double doors were thrown open, slamming Annie to the ground. Her head made a sickening crack as it hit, and a masked man leapt over her unconscious body.
He tackled me to the ground before I could even scream for Finn. His hand crept around my throat, and he slowly began to choke the life from me. I pounded his back, shoulders, and sides, but he was easily six foot two, and he towered over me. Trying to dislodge him was impossible, and I was tempted to give up, but I couldn’t, because I knew what these men wanted from me. Andrew had to have sent them for me since I had declined his offer in the pet cemetery.
He sent them for me the first time and he’d sent them again, hoping to force me to help him accomplish his sick, twisted goals.
The door flew open again, and Finn barged in, looking mean, scary, and more than a little intimidating. He threw himself on top of the man with his hands around my throat, and the two rolled away, giving me a chance to catch my breath. As I lay there on the floor, gasping for air like a fish, I noticed that Annie was still not moving except for the rise and fall of her chest with each slow breath she took.
Another masked man ran through the open doors, tackling Finn like a football player. The sound they made as they collided sounded like an explosion, and the two guys slid across the floor, wrestling for dominance. It was Finn that got the upper hand, and he slammed his forehead into the masked man’s, before shoving him aside and attacking the other man.
I forced myself to look away from Finn, and I crawled over to where Annie was lying on the ground, and I gently slapped her cheek. “Annie? Can you hear me?” She moaned softly, but her eyes didn’t open, and she didn’t say anything.
I slapped her a little harder, and her eyes fluttered slowly open, just as a strong pair of arms wrapped around my waist, hauling me up into the air. I flailed in his arms, kicking and screaming, trying to slip out of his grasp. His arms tightened around my stomach, squeezing the air from my lungs, and I could practically feel my ribs groan from the pressure.
I swung my foot out and back, driving the heel of my boot directly into his groin. He wheezed foul-smelling breath near my face, but his arms didn’t loosen. Instead, he twirled me around, throwing me against the wall. My head snapped back against the plaster, denting it, and sending black spots across my vision.
I slumped to the ground as my vision began to blur and became unfocused. Before I could get to my feet, two more fighters entered the room, and they immediately swarmed Finn. Outnumbered three to one, Finn quickly began to lose the fight, disappearing underneath a mound of masked fighters.
When one pulled out a knife, I grabbed the stool next to me and whipped it across the room. It collided with a man’s back, exploding into splinters. He was completely unfazed by my chair attack, and continued his assault on Finn. Two masked men held Finn’s arms away from him and the third punched Finn mercilessly in the face over and over again, until his nose was broken and gushing blood, and he was spitting up blood through split lips.
“Stop!” I shrieked, getting shakily to my feet. “Leave him alone!” I ran forward, throwing myself onto the back of the man doling out the punches. He brought his elbow back, jabbing my in the side of the head. I fell to the ground, landing painfully on my elbow and hip, an
d I looked up through a curtain of hair to see the masked man still assaulting Finn.
“Ronnie, just go!” he shouted.
I got to my feet, but instead of running for the door, I grabbed the knife from the floor where it had been dropped. “Release him, or I’ll slit my throat!” That stopped their assault on Finn, and they all looked back at me, surprised. “I’ll do it. Let him go, or I’ll kill myself.” My voice and hand wavered, but I refused to look away from the leader of the masked man. “I’m no good to Andrew if I’m dead.”
The masked man slowly backed away from Finn, but the other two didn’t release him. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. I owe this werewolf a bit of pain. He did throttle a few of my men last time we were here…” He walked slowly toward me, favoring one foot more than the other. “And I owe you for breaking my foot.”
I took a step back, but didn’t lower the knife from my throat where it rested, just digging into the flesh. Thoughts swirled through my mind as I considered every possible outcome. While I thought, the sirens still blared, Finn dripped blood all over the floor, my left eye throbbed painfully from where I’d been elbowed, and the leader of the masked men watched me with a triumphant expression on his face. He expected to get his revenge.
“Release Finn and I’ll go willingly with you.” The words left my mouth before I even had a chance to think them through. For a few silent seconds, Finn just stared at me in horror. In that second, I realized that if I could keep Finn from getting hurt even more, I would. I tried to tell myself that it was because he was so willing to get hurt in order to perform his job, but that wasn’t it.
“Ronnie, you can’t!”
I looked at Finn, noticing that bloody drool hung from his bleeding lower lip, and his right eye was already turning black and swelling shut. Turning my attention back to the leader of the masked men, I narrowed my eyes at him. “Let him go, and I’ll come willingly with you. If you hurt him one more time, I’ll use this knife, and you’ll have to return to Andrew and explain why he needs a new necromancer for whatever plans he has.”
The leader flinched at the use of Andrew’s name, and he sighed. “Very well. Put the knife down, come with us peacefully, and we’ll release Finn.”
I snorted. “I’m not stupid. Let Finn go first, and I’ll put the knife down and leave quietly.”
The masked man and I stare each other down, and finally he nodded. “Release him.”
The two other masked men dropped Finn. He slumped to the ground in an exhausted heap, and he looked up at me through pain-filled eyes. “Ronnie, don’t do this…please.”
The second the knife dropped to the floor, the two masked men descended on me. My arms were painfully pinned behind my back, and my head was yanked up by the hair so I was forced to look directly into the eyes of their leader. Slowly, he smiled. “This was much easier than I would have thought.”
“Ronnie…” Finn moaned softly, trying to get to his feet. His arms trembled beneath him, and he slumped to the floor when they gave out. He was too tired to stand, let alone fight off more masked men, and I knew that I’d made the right call in making a deal.
Finn struggled to get back to his feet as the masked men began dragging me from the room. I could have fought them, and I probably should have, seeing as I knew what was most likely waiting for me, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. If Finn was willing to fight and take a severe beating for the sake of keeping me safe, I owed him. If I could stop his pain and suffering, I would do it.
“Say goodbye to your boyfriend,” the leader hissed.
Before I could answer, they dragged me from the room, leaving Finn behind collapsed on the floor. Once he was out of sight, I fought and kicked and screamed, but everyone was too busy fighting to stay alive to help me. When they pulled me around a corner, I saw Tanya and Ezra fighting a group of masked men, and Holly was bent down over the throat of one of her attackers, completely oblivious to the rest of the world as she fed on her victim.
“Tanya!”
She looked up for just a second, and I noticed the panic in her eyes. “Ronnie!” she shouted, darting forward. A man punched her in the stomach, and she doubled over, wheezing for air. Before he could hit her again, Ezra attacked with a ferocious growl. Before I could see the outcome of the fight, the masked men yanked me away, disappearing down another hallway.
The front door appeared, and there was a large black van waiting out front like a cliché from a bad novel. The back doors were opened, and the leader spun me around to face him. “Goodnight,” he taunted. He lifted a tire iron in his hands and swung. It connected with the side of my head, making a dull thump, and everything went black.
Chapter Eighteen
The first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes was the presence of thick iron bars in front of me. Each bar was almost an inch in diameter, and it refused to bend when I pressed against it. Slumping down to the floor, I gave up on trying to break the iron bars, and instead looked around my prison cell.
Pressed up against the far corner wall was a thin mattress just lying on the ground. An even thinner blanket covered it, and there was a stained pillow at one end. On the opposite wall was a metal bucket which, judging by the smell emanating from it, could only be intended for one purpose. I wrinkled my noise as the smell hit, and fought to keep from gagging.
This place was obviously a prison cell, and it was meant to hold me captive until Andrew could carry out his nefarious plans that for some reason involved me. I had no choice but to sit back and wait for him to decide it was time to clue me in. While I waited, I checked my body for harm, and came up with what felt like a sprained wrist, a swollen lump on my head, and a couple of cracked ribs. When I was satisfied that I wasn’t going to die anytime soon from my injuries, I leaned back and started to think.
I’m locked up in a dungeon cell with Andrew holding me captive, and I have no idea what he plans to do with me yet, but I can’t bring myself to be angry with myself. Yes, I chose to go with his people willingly, but I did it to spare Finn’s life, which makes it alright. Finn was willing to get beaten to death rather than leave me to be abducted, and I owed him for that. It doesn’t matter what happens to me now, as long as Finn recovers and survives.
I wonder what will happen to me though. Obviously Andrew plans to use my affinity for death to his advantage, but I don’t know how he’ll go about it. What are the odds of me getting out of here alive and in one piece? With no help coming and no possible way to escape this dungeon, I’m screwed, and the only way I’m getting out of here is probably in a body bag.
I rubbed my temples as my headache started to get worse. Each heartbeat sounded like a gunshot in my ears, and I winced with each pounding beat. Unfortunately, there was nothing to do but sit around in the dark and think and listen to the sound of water dripping to the floor, and the squeak of rodents as they scampered across the dingy floor.
I pulled my knees up to my chest, put my head down in my arms, and started to cry. I wasn’t sure what was worse, waiting for something to actually happen, or what would most likely happen when Andrew arrived. The waiting was making me nervous, jittery, and more and more terrified by the moment. I was sure of only one thing at this point: my future was up in the air. I might survive Andrew’s plans for me, and I might not. There was no telling until he explained what he wanted from me, and I would just have to toughen up and wait until I got the information I needed.
I took a deep, calming breath, and forced myself to put my head up. I wouldn’t let myself appear as a coward when Andrew finally came from me. Wiping away the tears that were starting to dry on my cheeks, I stretched my legs out, leaned back against the iron bars behind me, and just waited. I was ready to just resign myself to whatever fate had in store for me, but I wouldn’t go down without a fight. Andrew may have captured me, and I knew that my chances of surviving were slim, but I would make him work every step of the way.
A door opened somewhere above me and I instantly craned my head arou
nd, searching. Footsteps pounded down a nearby flight of stairs, echoing off the cellar walls, and I cringed as each one drew closer and closer to my cell. When Andrew appeared, I physically cringed away from him, scooting to the far side of the cell, as far away from him as I could possibly manage.
I told myself over and over to just be brave and look him in the eye, but when he cleared his throat, I couldn’t bring myself to lift my eyes to his. All I could do was cower against the far wall, curled up in a tight ball, and stare at his black boots that blended with his black jeans. When he began tapping the iron bars, a shiver ran down my spine, and I finally forced myself to look up at him.
“Now that I’ve got your attention, perhaps you would like to join me for a tour of my home?” The way he phrased it was obviously not meant to be a question. He expected me to follow meekly and obey his requests without complaining or fighting, and I was going to do it. The more I complied with him, the better my chances at surviving probably would be.
He took a keep from around his neck and twisted it in the lock. He slid the door open like a jail cell in a prison, and he swept his arms out in a grand gesture. “Come with me, my dear, and I will show you all that you stand to rule, by my side of course.”
He’d just revealed more about his plans to me in that one sentence than he had so far, and I tried to keep my face calm as I met his eyes. “Fine,” I said tightly. When I got slowly to my feet, my leg muscles cramped and screamed at me, begging me to sit down and relax them. As I limped to the open cell door, I noticed Andrew’s eyes zero in on my legs.
“Are you in pain?” he asked, sounding almost like he cared in the process.
I held my head higher and walked past him, studying my surroundings as I did.
The area outside the dungeon wasn’t in much better shape than the cell I’d just woken up in. The walls were covered with a thick layer of green, spongy moss, and the floor was coated in something slick. It might have been water or blood; the stones the floor was made of were too dark to tell. I walked behind Andrew, and noticed that the wooden stares were rotted and each plank groaned laboriously under my weight–which was considerably less than his–and I winced, expecting it to break.
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