I leaned over and braced my hands on my thighs, trying to slow my breathing, and I shook my head at the same time. Silt slipped out of my hair onto a small clump of grass beneath me. “Some of that electrical charge was still in my body. I had no idea until it was too late.”
The anger on her features relaxed, but only a little. “You were pretty pissed when you started to use your magic. Are you sure that didn’t have something to do with your loss of control?”
I straightened and inhaled deeply one more time as my breathing returned to normal. “You’re right. I was angry, but normally I wouldn’t have a problem controlling that anger. It would never have happened if it wasn’t for that charge.”
She nodded, a slow movement, and I saw from the look in her eyes that she was churning over and considering something in her mind. “Is more of the electricity in your body?”
“I don’t feel anything.” My hair was sticking to my face, which felt as if it was covered in dust. When I pushed my hair aside, more silt made a nice little shower on my shoulders and the ground around my feet. “But then, I’d had no idea it was still inside me until that moment.”
“Let’s hope not.” Angel gazed in the direction of the landslide for a long moment before looking back at me. “We can’t afford for that to happen again.”
“No kidding,” I snapped at her, suddenly irritated with her talking to me like a child. I calmed my tone. “I’ll have to watch out in the future, to make sure it isn’t going to interfere with my elemental magic again. I’ll deal with it, Angel.”
She gave a deep sigh. “That just scared the crap out of me. I’m concerned that some of the electricity that was in your body might remain and something like that could happen again.”
“Same here.” I rubbed my face on my arm, but that didn’t do any good because my arm was covered with dust, too, and my face felt even dirtier. “Now that I’m aware of the possibility, I can be on guard.”
Angel put her hands in her back pockets. “Sorry to act like a bitch.”
“You’re fine. You’re just concerned.” I wanted a blessed bath instead of having this conversation.
Then like an idiot I remembered the Elvin word for “clean” and I rolled my eyes.
“Avanna,” I said and immediately all of the dirt and filth was erased from every part of my body, and from my clothing.
Angel’s features returned to her natural good-natured appearance. “I was wondering when you’d get around to that.”
“Must have gotten hit on the skull.” I smiled back at her. I didn’t feel a single injury, thanks to Angel probably saving my life. “Of course your shift left you looking as terrific as ever.”
“As long as I’m not seriously wounded, it’s no problem when I shift.” She stretched her arms up like she had earlier before settling on her heels. “Now let’s see what kind of mess we left.”
I appreciated her use of the word “we.”
It took a bit to get back to the rock wall because I’d back-flipped so far to make sure I got out of the way of the landslide. When we reached the clearing, it wasn’t so clear anymore.
“Oops.” I winced at the amount of damage I’d caused as I stepped my way through a heavy layer of rock covering what was once a dirt and grass clearing.
“Doesn’t look good.” Angel walked ahead of me. “There are a lot more rocks than before at the base of the cliff.”
We reached the wall. I stomped my foot. “Like we need any more roadblocks with figuring out these disappearances.”
Angel gave me a teasing smile. “This could definitely be considered a roadblock.”
I was about to answer when I saw something glint in the sunlight behind one of the boulders. Rocks didn’t shine like that. No, it was a metallic glint. I was sure of it.
Only a few more steps in my bare feet through rocks brought me to the bottom of the sheer wall. I’d had to climb over boulders that hadn’t been here the last time. Rocks shifted behind me as Angel followed. She didn’t usually make noise, but she must have been in as big a hurry as I was.
My heart thudded with excitement and I felt a sort of high. A lift of my spirits in knowing that this could be it. This could be all we needed to solve this case.
It didn’t take long to get as close as I could to what I could see more clearly now. Rough stone scraped my skin as I pressed myself against the final boulders. I couldn’t squeeze between the giant rocks, but I could reach through an opening with my arm.
And I touched it.
“This had to be at least four feet behind the rocks.” A smile of satisfaction spread across my face as I ran my fingers along a smooth metal corner. “I may have torn down the place,” I said louder to make sure Angel could hear me, “but I found something. I’m pretty sure it’s a door.”
The more dirt I brushed away, the larger the corner became. I was so into examining the metal and brushing what dirt and rocks I could from it that it took me a few moments to realize Angel hadn’t said anything.
She should be as excited as me. I turned to look over my shoulder—
It took one second, one second too long to comprehend what I was seeing. Angel’s unconscious features, followed by a mess of corkscrew blond curls, disappearing into a forest-green body bag. A silent plastic zipper completed its task by a man wearing a matching HAZMAT-looking suit.
In that single second, I processed several things.
The suit itself.
No scent. Even with my sensitive sense of smell, I couldn’t scent the suit, and the Werewolves obviously hadn’t, either.
It was also why no scents had ever been left at the scene of a Werewolf kidnapping or body dump.
The body bag was of the same material as the suit.
And in that same second, I realized a man stood within my peripheral vision, who must have been the one making the noise on the rocks behind me. Not Angel.
He held a perfume-sized bottle—and was pointing it at me.
One second too late I started to reach for my Kahr.
Unscented spray hit me full in the face.
Darkness took me instantly.
I dreamed of Superman.
The comic book hero lay on a cold, sterile floor in a pristine white room. His body was crumpled, useless.
His muscles wouldn’t respond to his attempts at movement. His heart barely continued to beat. His sense of smell was all but gone. He couldn’t open his eyes, but he knew it was there.
Somewhere beside him.
Stealing his strength.
Stealing his hope.
Somewhere beside him was his kryptonite.
My mind was sluggish. Images of Superman kept coming to me and I didn’t understand why I’d be dreaming and now thinking about a superhero in blue tights, a red cape, and a big shield with the letter “S” on his chest.
In my world, superheroes came out at night, wore black leather, and carried swords and big-ass guns, as Olivia would put it.
Gradually I started to drift away from my dreams of a make-believe hero and was able to start concentrating on my new reality.
Reality.
What was reality?
I touched my collar and flashes of memory came to me. My blood must have stilled completely in my veins as every bit of my memories came rushing back to me.
Finding the metal corner of a door.
A man wearing a facemask and a green HAZMAT suit zipping Angel into a body bag.
Another man in one of the green, sterile suits spraying me in the face with something that felt like powder when it touched my skin.
Then I was gone.
Angel and I had been taken by the very people—or beings—who had been stealing away the Werewolves. One mystery solved in part. Although I sure as the Lord of the Underworld didn’t like the way it had come about.
How had I not sensed them? It had to be something about the HAZMAT suits, which looked like they were used to perform scientific experiments. No, it was more than that.
&
nbsp; The spray.
My sense of smell was shot, much worse than it had been before when I’d been to the scene where Alois was found and had died, and the scene where Kveta and Petra had disappeared. It was much, much worse, like cotton balls had been stuffed up my nose.
The side of my body I lay on ached from being on something very hard and cool. It felt like polished marble on the parts of my skin that were bare. My fighting outfit was snug on my body, and I was still bare foot.
I opened my eyes and sterile white walls and a recessed light above were so bright they nearly blinded me. I looked around the room. It was like my Superman dream, except no glowing green kryptonite. Four flawless, spotless white walls, white floor, white ceiling.
Panic seized me like a fist around my throat, as if my collar was strangling me. I was trapped in some kind of room. I scrambled up and the cold of the floor shot through my bare feet. My black leather fighting outfit was the only relief from the intense white of the room.
I put my hands to my waist—my weapons belt was gone. Lightning and Thunder, my dragon-claw daggers, along with my buckler, Storm…gone. Of course my Kahr was missing along with my XPhone.
Rational thought exited. Something about the room made my heart nearly explode. A scream tried to claw its way out of my throat, making it feel raw even though nothing came out.
Urgency within me grew so intense that I ran to one of the walls. I searched every part I could reach with my fingers and the rest with my gaze. The walls were thick, so thick I couldn’t sense any earth beyond them. It was as if the room had been carved out of solid granite that went on forever.
Finally I found one area in a wall that had the barest break in the smoothness. I ran my fingers along the nearly invisible separation. It was a small block that could be moved, I was certain. Something that could be opened only from the outside, though, because no matter how I tried, there was no way to move it. I shuddered. It must be an opening that food could be shoved through for a prisoner.
Next to the single movable block, I found a door. A door fitted so tightly into the wall that it might as well have been just like all of the other walls.
Then it hit me.
I never thought Drow could hyperventilate. The way my breath jerked in my chest and my vision threatened to close in on me, I was almost positive I was going to pass out. I braced my palms on my thighs and took deep breaths as I ran through everything in my mind.
A windowless, solid room with walls so thick I couldn’t feel earth; recycled air—the oxygen pumped into it had no traces of magic; no water—not even a toilet or sink; and no fire within reach, not even static air that had magic of any kind. I had no way of grasping any of my elements and using them to fight or even save myself in this room.
This was my kryptonite.
In here I was helpless without the elements.
Flashes of men and women in green suits flowed through my mind. Faces hidden behind sterilized suit masks while the men and women poked and prodded me. I had been strapped to a metal table and I had faded in and out of consciousness. Not understanding anything until now. I didn’t even know if any of the elements could have saved me then if I had been truly aware of anything.
A sick feeling settled in my stomach like foul sewage and I looked at the inside of my elbow. A bandage secured a cotton ball.
They didn’t. No, they couldn’t have.
Oh, my Goddess. I tore at the bandage, flung it away, and it landed on the pristine white floor. A small dot of blood spotted the cotton ball. My gaze jerked to my arm and I saw the tiny pinprick of dried blood that was barely visible in the skin above one of my veins. I slumped against the wall with the door and slid down it until I was sitting on the floor.
Whoever kidnapped me and Angel now had a sample of my blood and no doubt hers. When examining the blood, they would have known instantly that I’m not completely human, and that Angel wasn’t human at all.
The only relief I could feel was that I still looked human with my pale skin and black hair. At least I hoped I hadn’t been knocked out so long that I’d gone through the change in my sleep.
My fingernails dug into my palms and I ground my teeth at the combination of the pain and the knowledge that I was in deep, deep trouble.
I looked up at the ceiling and saw a small vent through which the oxygen was being pumped. A much smaller white circle was nearby with a tiny glass lens within it. They had a camera trained on me. I tried to reach out with my senses, hoping to find some weakness where the air vent and camera were, but without my elements, my senses were useless. Both the vent and camera were so small I didn’t think there was anything that could be done with them anyway.
The fact that they were watching me—whoever “they” were—made my stomach feel even sicker than it already was.
Transference…
The thought came to me from somewhere in my head, as if someone old and wise had spoken it. As if it were me when I grew older, telling myself I could do it now.
I frowned. My father had always said I wouldn’t be able to use the transference until I was much older. Perhaps fifty at the youngest. At twenty-seven, I hadn’t developed my full powers, unlike most Dark Elves who had lived for so long, many too many years to count. I’d worked to prove my father wrong and tried to use the transference so many times, but had failed with my countless attempts.
With a deep breath, I touched my collar and ran my fingers along the Elvin runes, as if for strength—or luck. I put my hands down, to either side of me, and tried to relax.
And focused. Focused with everything I had.
I pictured myself in the forest, in the Werewolf camp where I could get help now that I knew where to look for whoever, whatever, had taken Angel and me.
Again and again I attempted to pull myself into that image. Take myself to the last place I’d been. At one time I thought I felt darkness coming for me, the darkness of a transference, but that thought slipped away. Maybe not, but it had probably been my imagination.
I stayed trapped within four white walls.
Giving up was not an option. I touched my collar for comfort before trying again. This time I pictured an empty room. Something nearby that I could get to through stone. But I had no idea of what surrounded me and it made the image in my mind vague.
A distant grating sound, like stone scraping stone, grabbed my complete attention and I no longer focused on the transference. The noise vanished and I held my breath. Something was happening. A much harsher sound echoed in the room.
The door was opening.
ELEVEN
As the door scraped open beside me, I scrambled to my feet. I moved to the side so that I could see out the door. With just the right position, I could take down whatever came through that door and make my escape.
But when the massive door opened, I saw only another thick stone door behind a person wearing a facemask and a green sterile suit. He wore a thick yellow armband and I had an image of red and blue armbands on green suits. I mentally shook my head.
The door he had come through was on the far side of an equally white stone room about six feet high and four feet wide in each direction. Obviously the person entered that room and then closed the door before opening this one. My senses told me that door was just as impenetrable as the one to my prison.
Through the individual’s facemask, I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman because the person was a good six feet away from me. He or she was close to five-eight, my height, but was considerably larger in girth than me. The person held a small glass bottle similar to the one that contained the spray that had knocked me out. The person had the sprayer aimed at me.
My eyes narrowed and my lips twisted into a scowl. I backed up, wanting whoever was hiding behind the mask to walk in, to get close enough that I could use my fighting skills and neutralize him or her. I didn’t need the elements or my weapons to take him out in a one-on-one fight. No bottle of spray was going to stop me.
I saw
a man’s face on the other side of that mask when he walked into the room and the bright light made it easier to see him. Clean-shaven, pudgy cheeks, faint eyebrows, and small blue eyes with no lashes that I could see.
I waited for him to speak. I didn’t have to ask questions now because when I got through with him, he’d be spilling everything he knew within a couple of minutes.
With a hard shove he slammed the door shut behind him. It made more grating sounds and then a reverberating noise when it settled into place. My heart sank a little that there was no visible means of escape, that my elemental magic was useless. I pushed those thoughts away. I remembered the camera but didn’t look at it.
“I’m Dr. Lawson.” He looked at me for a long moment before he spoke again and then his words came out with a nasty edge to them. “You look human, but your blood sample shows foreign bodies that tell us you’re not.” His voice came out through a microphone, sounding tinny and strange. “Bizarre combinations of red and white blood cells…Almost completely unlike the Werewolves as well.”
Almost?
My body tensed as Lawson’s grip tightened on the bottle he was holding. “Tell me what you are and what the beast is that was with you.”
Beast? I rarely cursed, except in Drow, and I had to bite back a long string of words telling him what he could do with himself and that bottle. I wasn’t about to use my native language, which would prove to him that I have a background not entirely human. The language of the Dark Elves is deep and guttural and unlike any earthbound language.
Lawson dug his free hand into a pocket of his suit, and a long needle caught the light when he pulled out a syringe. His pocket must have been reinforced for the needle not to have pierced it.
My heart beat a little faster as he raised the syringe so that it was eye level to both of us. A drop of fluid glistened at the end of the needle. I still had no sense of smell and I caught no odors.
“This is a special truth serum created in our lab. It has been most useful with the abominations that call themselves Werewolves.” He practically spat his last words.
No Werewolves Allowed Page 11
