by Dannika Dark
“Don’t worry about food. I can bring you some.”
I realized that Willie probably liked having the company and wouldn’t object to my serving the full sentence. I worried my lip and came up with a different approach. “I can give you something in exchange. Something very… special.”
His eyes lit up. “What?”
“I can’t tell you.”
He glanced at my backpack. “What is it? Come on. Tell me.”
“You have to promise to let me out. I won’t cause any trouble, and I’ll be on my way. Your uncle will never know. What do you say, Willie? Haven’t you ever wanted to do something crazy in your life? Why should your uncle have all the fun? You’re an adult, and you can make your own decisions.”
He sat back and rested on his palms. I knew enough about kids his age to guess what they wanted. Sex wasn’t on this guy’s radar, but he seemed aimless. Like a guy who just got stuck somewhere but didn’t have a quest or a purpose in life.
“It can be a secret mission,” I continued. “What fun is it having kids and grandkids if you don’t have stories to tell them?”
He tipped his head to the side and then shot forward. “Okay. If I promise to let you out, what do I get?”
“Besides an adventure to tell your grandkids? I’ll give you a Breed weapon.”
I hated to give up one of my daggers, but Shepherd had access to an arsenal.
He glanced at my backpack. “Uncle Al would never let you keep knives in your bag.”
“No, but I bet it’s in the front room. I know you wouldn’t just steal it, because you’re not that kind of guy. Besides, if I’m still in the cell, your uncle would figure out it was you. It’s my best one,” I said as if the offer were going fast. I stood up and turned away while scratching the back of my neck. “On second thought, maybe this isn’t such a good idea. I’m not sure if I should hand over such a prized weapon to a human.”
He shot to his feet. “You can’t take it back. A deal is a deal.”
I turned around. “This is too dangerous. I shouldn’t have made an enticing offer like that to a human. You should go home. This isn’t a place for a sweet kid like you.”
Willie kicked the empty sack and marched out of sight.
I held my breath. Had I misread him?
A minute later, he reappeared, a key ring orbiting around his twirling index finger. “Too late to back out of a deal. The dagger’s mine.”
I sighed and gave him a reluctant smile. “All right. You win.” I ambled toward the door when he opened it. “Are you sure about this, Willie?”
He walked out of the room with his chin high and a self-satisfied swing in his step. I followed behind with my bag and obscured my face from the other prisoner, just in case he could see me from his cell.
After shutting the heavy door, Willie hurried over to the locker and tugged at the handle. “Holy crow! Are all these yours?”
I stepped close and peered over his shoulder at the daggers lined up on the middle shelf. “Yep. But the big one—that’s yours.”
His eyes lit up, and he grabbed it immediately. It was still in its sheath and attached to the leg holster. It wasn’t my favorite; I was more attached to the smaller push daggers that fit in the palm of my hand. Those little blades were my go-to weapons. I put two back in the sheaths on my belt and the rest in my backpack along with my phone.
“Be careful. I recently sharpened it,” I cautioned him as he pulled it free. “It’s a genuine stunner. If your uncle or Breed catches you with one of these, it would be bad news.”
“They’re not illegal,” he argued.
“No, but humans aren’t supposed to have them. Don’t you know?”
While he stabbed thin air and reenacted a fantasy where he was the greatest warrior alive, I pondered my situation. I was officially out of the mission, and while I felt compelled to return home and help Niko, I couldn’t bring myself to leave without knowing what Major had planned. Was he here alone, or was General around?
I glanced at the pile of clothes in the bottom of the locker and then to the keys hanging from hooks at the top. There were four, the fifth key still in Willie’s hand.
I turned away, and an idea sprang to mind. “Say, Willie, how would you like something else besides the dagger?”
He turned around and sheathed the weapon. “What do you mean?”
I jerked my chin toward the inside door. “Do you know what the most valuable commodity is in the Breed world? Even more valuable than weapons?”
He chewed on his chapped bottom lip and looked up. “Money?”
“No. Favors. It’s like a rule everyone follows—even criminals. If we didn’t put so much value in them, most of us would be dead. If you let that guy out, he’ll trade you a favor. You can stage the escape to look like a break-in. Guys like that always have friends on the outside, so your uncle will never suspect a thing. Favors are a big deal. You can hold them in your pocket for as long as you want and then ask for anything you need.”
Willie gave me a skeptical look, his light eyes narrowing. “Anything?”
“Within reason. It usually has to be the same value. Granting a man his freedom is big. I bet he’d agree.”
Knife still in hand, he folded his arms. “Like… what could I get?”
“That’s up to you. Maybe down the road someone denies you a loan. All you’d have to do is call this guy up on the favor, and he’d find a way to get your loan approved. That’s how it works. Or maybe you’re in jail or some other sticky situation, and you can’t get out. Or hell, maybe you just wanna become Breed. I bet he could arrange that.”
“You think? My uncle said the Mageri don’t want a minimum-wage worker. I have to be someone special or have some great big job.” Willie shook his head and huffed out a breath. “What do they know?”
“Maybe they’re right. Your uncle’s just looking out for you. I should probably just keep my mouth shut. Nobody wants to be a Mage. Sure, we can run super fast and have all these magical gifts, but who wants to live forever? Long after you’re dust in the graveyard, I’ll still be walking around. And I know you wouldn’t want to be a Vampire. They have all that sonic hearing, and that could probably get annoying. Not to mention night vision and never having to sleep. Though I once saw a Vampire lift a thirty-foot trailer. But people don’t trust them anyhow.”
Willie struck me as the kind of guy who had to think that everything was his idea if he was going to go along with it. Maybe his uncle had made too many decisions and this kid just wanted to feel like he was behind the steering wheel for a change. I almost felt bad I’d be getting him into trouble. But he was an adult now, and maybe this blowout with his uncle needed to happen so he could live his own life.
I pivoted on my heel. “Forget I said anything. You probably don’t need any big favors. You’ve got a steady job, live in a nice town… Anyhow, thanks for letting me out. Take good care of that dagger. She’s been in a lot of battles with some of the toughest criminals alive. Well, most of them aren’t alive anymore. See ya!”
I swung my backpack over my shoulders and jogged out the door and past Willie’s car. A thin sheet of filtered sunlight shone through a heavy blanket of clouds. I flashed down the road to find a good hiding spot. If Willie was tempted by my suggestions, Major would come out this way. Maybe his brothers would be waiting for him, but I still couldn’t be sure if this guy had company or not.
Amid all the forest green and timber, a silver object caught my eye—a sedan parked in an open patch to the right. When I opened the door and peered in, I took note of the keys in the ignition and a metal lion’s head dangling from the rearview mirror.
“This is too good to be true.”
By the looks of all the tire marks, Officer Barnes used this clearing to store the cars of the men he locked up in his Breed jail. This had to be Major’s vehicle. A quick search yielded nothing except for a map of Cognito, an ice scraper, and napkins. I popped the trunk and walked around to check things
out. The trunk was empty, but suddenly I remembered something that Wyatt had mentioned. After looking around, I located the emergency trunk release.
“This couldn’t be more perfect.”
Worst-case scenario, Willie wouldn’t take the bait, and I’d have to get out of the trunk and steal the car. Either way, it was a win-win in my book.
“Worth a shot,” I muttered while climbing in.
I curled up in a fetal position and stared at the trunk release. Fifteen minutes must have passed before I finally heard something outside. It wasn’t a car, so that was promising.
Even though Major was a Shifter, I concealed every drop of my light to be on the safe side. No sense taking any chances. Some people were more sensitive than others to electrical impulses, which could spike with adrenaline. When the car jostled and the door closed, I held my breath.
“It’s me,” I heard him say. “No, just some jackass cop. It’s under control. Where are you?”
I turned my head so I could hear him better.
“You’re shitting me. They’re on foot? That’s like shooting fish in a barrel. … No, that’s not far at all. What happened?” He laughed. “Mechanical issues, huh? Four hours? I can make it there in two, but I don’t see the rush. It’s almost dark, and they’ll set up camp. Look, if we lose contact, I’ll shift and pick up your scent. Just mark a few spots for me.” He cleared his throat and went quiet again. “The cop has some jail set up in the woods. Well, fucking hell, General! I thought you guys were taking off without me.”
There was the faint sound of an angry voice, but it was too muffled to hear.
“I think she’s out, but you don’t have to worry about her. There’s no way she can flash her ass all the way out there. It’s a four-hour drive.”
Four hours? I considered the timeline. Keystone had left that morning, but my arrest staggered the trip. Mechanical issues. I wondered if that meant they’d had the trailer serviced or maybe a wheel rolled off. In any case, four hours left me with enough hope that I could catch up.
“Did that blonde get away?”
My eyes widened.
“Three is better than two. You’ll get a lot for them.” He paused for a minute. “I told you the deer was a good idea. Now we know what we’re dealing with. … Okay, will do.”
My pulse rocketed when the engine started up. They were after the kids? How could they have known? General could have easily ambushed us when our trailer tipped after dodging his trap, but it sounded like they were investigating how many of us there were and perhaps what Breed. We had slaughtered two of his brothers in lion form and almost a third, so this guy was taking his time formulating a plan. I remembered the growl I’d heard in the woods.
Once we began moving, I quietly unzipped my backpack and took out my phone. I changed all my settings to make sure the sound and vibrations were turned off. Instead of calling, I sent Viktor a text message that someone was following them. Just in case his phone was off, I sent the same message to Christian. When neither man replied, I remembered Viktor mentioning his satellite phone. They probably weren’t answering because they were out of range of cell phone towers.
Great.
On the upside, the empty trunk assured me that Major would have no reason to come back here and discover his stowaway.
The downside?
It was going to be a long drive.
Three hours later, the muscles in my neck felt like a box of Cracker Jack that had all stuck together. The trunk wasn’t airtight, so at least I didn’t have any trouble breathing.
What I did have trouble with was listening to an hour’s worth of Michael Jackson. When “Beat It” went on continual replay, I wanted to beat Major with a tire iron.
Eventually the ride got extremely bumpy, and we hit steep inclines that had me smashed against the back end of the trunk. When the car finally stopped and Major got out, I listened closely for other voices. After several minutes of silence, I pulled the release and slowly raised the lid.
Darkness surrounded me. An owl hooted from a nearby tree, adding to the unsynchronized symphony that swelled within the wild woods. Frogs were croaking, crickets chirping, and a strange bird squawked from afar.
Without raising the lid all the way up, I climbed out and quietly closed the trunk. While crouched low to the ground, I peered around both sides of the car to make sure I didn’t have company. Then I used my Mage powers to sense any energy in the area, but I felt none.
I shot to my feet and pivoted. Major had parked the car off what appeared to be a dirt road. Using my mediocre Vampire vision and what little moonlight filtered from the clouds, I spotted a neon-orange piece of material tied around a tree, something General must have left behind to mark where to pull over. Major hadn’t made any other calls that I’d noticed, but they could have been sending messages.
I marched through high grass toward a path that cut between overgrown bushes. “I’m gonna get covered in ticks.”
Major had probably shifted so he could track his brothers, and that posed a danger. If his animal caught wind of me, my plan might backfire.
On the other hand, if I didn’t do something, they were going to ambush Keystone.
After securing my backpack, I moved through the woods and focused on picking up on energy. When I detected a significant current and heard a loud roar, I fell back a step but stayed on his trail. The full moon kept peeking out from behind the clouds, providing me enough light to see far ahead in the distance. The animal moved with grace, not running or stopping to look over his shoulder. He must have been following a scent trail that led to General.
Running through city streets, climbing buildings, and hopping subways had nothing on wilderness exercise. It didn’t take long before I was winded, sweating, and regretting my life choices. Steep hills went on forever, limbs and bushes were like spears, and if I wasn’t sliding on leaves, I was twisting my ankle on a root or stepping in a hole.
When the lion’s energy intensified, I knew he’d stopped to rest. It gave me a chance to catch my breath and focus. I’d never been in woods like these—I was out of my comfort zone. I was a city girl born in a trailer park, so the idea of snakes and getting lost in the wilderness was petrifying.
Major’s lion didn’t rest for long, and before I knew it, I was hot on his trail.
After what seemed like an hour, I struggled to keep up. The bushes were dense, the ground uneven, the moon barely made an appearance, and my heart was pounding against my chest. The steep terrain made it impossible to flash after him to keep up.
Sweat trickled down my brow. My sweatshirt felt like a torture device, yet it was the only protection I had against the branches that were clawing at me like Satan’s minions. At least it wasn’t summer. Hopefully all the mosquitoes were still in hibernation.
Panic set in when I couldn’t sense the lion anymore. I held my breath, listening for the sound of its heavy paws trampling across the forest leaves. I searched the ground blindly for paw prints. There were too many dead leaves, and my Vampire eyes weren’t helpful with the moon hiding behind clouds. After turning in a short circle, I kept following my inner compass in the direction that he’d been heading.
After five minutes, I finally accepted that I’d lost him.
One-way train to panic town, all aboard!
I thought about wild packs, but maybe they weren’t half as threatening as the idea of a real animal. The kind whose sole purpose was to stalk its prey and eat them.
One minute I was jogging through a break in the trees, following what looked like a trail. The next, I was falling into an abyss when the ground disappeared. I slammed facedown into a dark pit, the air whooshing out of my lungs.
Disoriented, I lay there for a minute, doing a mental check on what bones I might have broken. When I opened my eyes, I was staring at a metal spike just inches in front of my face.
I sat up and swayed. A pinch of moonlight revealed two more spikes protruding from the ground, and luckily I’d missed thos
e too.
I rubbed my sore elbow and assessed the situation. Long sticks and slender branches that must have concealed the trap were scattered about. Is this what hunters built to catch animals? After wiping dirt out of my eye, I stood up and measured the distance with my arms. The edge of the hole was too high for me to reach even when jumping, and the walls were too far apart for other creative ways of escape. Climbing was impossible and only brought down chunks of cold mud. I found a root and pawed the earth to dig a little more of it out, but when I tried to use it to hoist myself up, it broke. I flew backward, and my life flashed before my eyes as I came inches from impaling myself on a spike.
I scooted against the wall. Climbing out was a game of roulette that I wasn’t willing to play. But what exactly were my options? To die in a pit, that’s what.
“This wasn’t in the brochure.”
After taking off my bag, I pulled out my phone and cursed. No signal bars.
“Great. This is just great.”
The hole must have been twelve feet deep. I stood up and kicked one of the spikes, but it didn’t budge.
Dying in a hole wasn’t an option. If I couldn’t climb my way out, maybe I could slowly dig my way up at a slant. I took out my push dagger, suddenly wishing I hadn’t given Willie the big knife.
“Now I know what it feels like to dig my way to China,” I muttered, cutting at the wall and pulling away the dirt.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
I froze at the sound of a voice that clung to my spine and made me shudder. After releasing a breath, I steered my gaze up at a formidable man standing at the edge of the hole. I couldn’t see much, only that he appeared as tall as the trees and full of shadows.
Had General caught me?
The figure knelt down and clucked his tongue. “What have we here?”
That wasn’t General’s voice. I tightened the push dagger in my palm, the three-inch blade protruding between my fingers. If he was a Shifter planning to jump in for a meal, he was in for a surprise.
