by Morgan Wylie
“It’s too quiet,” Enock announced gravelly. Just as he said it, a loud sound erupted from the back of the building. The same helicopter Arturo had used to escape his rooftop encounter with Rylen was lifting out of an invisible bunker, appearing to come out of the ground itself. The wind picked up around them as it lifted into the darkness. Impossible to see into the small windows at the passengers, they had no idea who was inside. Mather swore as he held his hand up to shield his eyes as he squinted into the darkness.
“I can’t see a fucking thing,” he declared.
“Wait. Alana’s signal is still where she was moments ago. Either Simmon lied to me, or she’s not on that helicopter. However, Simmon’s signal is moving with the chopper—he must be inside.” Poppy started to move forward but was halted by a large manly arm blocking her way.
“We go first, flower. Let the big bad men sniff out the danger.” Enock winked in her direction. Poppy rolled her eyes, but conceded to his point and gestured her hand for him to lead the way.
“Jet, go first and sniff out the danger,” Mather instructed with a sneer in Enock’s direction.
“Dude, you didn’t need to emasculate me in front of the women-folk.” Enock placed a hand over his heart, pride falsely wounded. A quiet yet girly giggle escaped out of a slightly embarrassed Mazy as she tried to hold in her laughter by covering her mouth with her hands.
“Alana is waiting. Let’s just go find her, shall we? Maybe I should stay back with the girls while you and all the strong, masculine men go first and make sure there is no danger lurking in the dark behind the corners.” Enock’s sarcasm earned him a slug in the arm from Mather, and even the tiger’s lip curled in a silent snarl in his direction. They were done playing. “They know I’m the biggest and baddest amongst them, they just want to make me look bad in front of my team just because they have more numbers. But see, that’s why it’s just us—because I don’t need all the muscle power that several of them contribute.” His whispered explanation to Masia made Poppy smile as he flexed one of his biceps in Mazy’s direction. To her credit, she nodded her head, but her eyes and pursed mouth suggested she could play along with his humor.
Mather cleared his throat. “Eyes open. Poppy, stay close, and as you have the map, you get to help lead. Bastion, bring up the rear,” Mather instructed as he followed the tiger who was already sniffing and skirting his way through and around the door into the darkness and unknown dangers that lurked ahead of them.
Chapter Thirty-One
Those with sensitive ears could hear the clashing of weaponry and shouts from the handful of guards that Teams B and C had encountered. They must have been separated by several walls and hallways. More footsteps could be heard running down another hallway; backup heading to the front entrance to assist the guards under siege. Jet halted his steps in front of Mather and Poppy, and they, too, stopped behind him. They waited for the thudding of running men to pass by where they were hidden. It looked like more of a storage containment area than an actual entry room. Boxes were scattered around the floor, and ripped nets hung from hooks inside lockers without doors. Food rations—dried, canned, and perishable—bottled water, beer and liquor crates, and cigar boxes took up residence stacked within the lockers at random intervals. It didn’t take a shifter or vampire with a sensitive nose to smell that some of their food was rotting… or perhaps it was the body that Jet had just discovered slumped in the opposite corner from where their small team pulled in tight.
Poppy gagged and tried to pull her shirt up over her nose while a gasp came from the newest member, but oddly, she didn’t try to stifle the smell. Masia stepped forward to get a better look at the pile of rags left for trash on the ground. His throat had been torn and shredded on one side. She looked up curiously at Enock, who steeled himself, shoulders back, unwilling to show his weakness at his disappointment in his kind, but he was.
“Vampire got him,” Enock confirmed what they were all thinking. “Poor bloke.”
“Maybe he deserved it,” Masia replied with a shrug, shocking them all.
“She’s right,” Mather agreed and slapped Enock on the back. Only a select few knew how hard it had been on Enock when he became a vampire and the pain he suffered at the hands of his family because of it even though it hadn’t been his choice.
As a team, they silently moved through the room to the end where a door sat closed. Jet lowered his head to the ground and sniffed at the base of the door then yowled softly toward Mather. Mather reached for the handle to open the door, but it was locked. He looked back to Poppy who was by his side and waggled his eyebrows at her, about to show off his manliness. He gripped the handle and gave it a sharp yank downward, breaking whatever flimsy lock was holding the door in place.
Throwing her hand to her head, Poppy sighed dramatically. “My hero, you’re oh so strong.” She batted her lashes at him.
Mather actually chuckled at her theatrics and opened the door slowly, ready for whatever was on the other side. “That’s right, babe. Stick with me.” He shot her an exaggerated wink in good humor, but then something passed between them, altering the fun into the vast abyss of reality that was yawning between them the further he pushed her away from him. Mather’s face fell, transforming into the leader of the mission, back to business mode, and Poppy paused, breathing slowly to rein in her emotions and regain control. The moment weighing heavily upon her, she focused instead on her tablet and the signal blinking in and out, over and over; a silent scream from Alana to her ears alone.
“It looks like there should be a hall down there to the left,” Poppy instructed, now back to business. Jet headed that way, leading slowly and precisely, sniffing at every doorway and pausing at every noise. Painful was the speed of choice. Poppy wanted to run through the god-forsaken building while shouting for Alana at the top of her lungs, her impatience and edginess rising to the surface of her skin, threatening to burst forth in the greatest breakdown any of them would probably have ever seen. Chuckling internally at the mental image of her impending insanity, she breathed in a moment of relief, the absurdity allowing her a reprieve from the damning oblivion her emotions were about to spiral her into. Never before had a man had such an effect on her psyche; she now understood the madness of unrequited love. To Poppy’s surprise, she felt a small feminine hand touch lightly on the inside of her elbow, offering a sense of support and friendship. Masia gave her a small smile. Poppy questioned her with her eyes.
“I have a small sense of your emotions, I think from mixing our energies perhaps?” the girl asked in as quiet a voice as she could and still be heard. Poppy appreciated the unusual closeness this stranger felt to her after only a few hours. Poppy smiled, thanking Masia, and patted her hand as they all walked together for a few moments down the hall. Keeping her eye on her tablet, Poppy directed them around a few more corners to a large reinforced-steel door that with a barricading lever that prevented anyone on the other side from getting through.
“This looks promising,” Enock assessed, pulling the large and heavy steel arm up and out of the way. Opening the door slowly, it came away outward. He looked down into darkness, though he could see just fine with his vampire eyesight, then reported back. “Stairway down into what appears to be a cellar or basement. So stay close, maybe hold on to the shoulder in front of you if you can’t see.”
“Is there a light switch?” a small voice came from behind Poppy.
Enock frowned but looked on the inside wall. After a flick, light lit the path down the stairs. Mather smothered his mouth as he grunted at Enock’s faux pas. “Or we could do that. I was simply trying not to alert everyone where we were at.”
“I’m pretty sure they know by now or they’d be all around here, going about their normal routines,” Mather concluded. “It’s been way too easy and quiet in here. Perhaps they no longer care that we get Alana. I’m guessing the almighty Arturo and his minions, Eli and Simmon, were on that chopper with him.”
“Selfish bastard,
saving himself and leaving his crew to fight his battles and clean up his mess,” Enock agreed, shaking his head in disapproval. “Leaders should never abandon their team to their own destruction. Get them all out or stay and fight.”
“Guys? Alana appears to be moving,” Poppy announced with a tinge of worry in her tone. “She’s down there, though. Hurry, let’s get to her. Someone might be trying to take her out.”
“Not on our watch,” Mather growled as he bounded down the stairs, taking two at a time, moving with the agility and grace of a shifter. He was followed closely by Jet, the girls, and then Enock.
“Bastion, you and Jackson stay up here and keep guard. No one else comes down unless it’s one of our teams, understood?” Enock directed, the fierceness in his eyes conveying the importance of their position. The men nodded and took up post on either side of the door as Enock used his vampire prowess and jumped down the entire flight of stairs with great ease. The visual of the large man, eyes glowing brightly and dreads flying out behind him, gracefully gliding down stairs was something out of a comic book.
The basement had definitely been turned into a prison of sorts. Wall sconces dimly lit the hallway—if a lightbulb without a globe could be called a sconce—and they were few and far between. A crudely roughed-out hallway had been erected in what looked like a rush job, separating one side, with only a couple doors, from the other side, with six doors all spaced evenly apart. All of the doors were ajar… except one.
Mather signaled toward the closed door, pointing to his nose silently. He smelled Alana; she was there in that cell. He tested the door handle, locked again. He gestured for the team to stand back. Mather took a step back, raised his leg, and kicked the door in one swift motion, smashing it against the wall, praying he didn’t hurt Alana in the process. Looking inside, then even walking inside, he came back out.
“She’s not in there,” he whispered to Enock with a frown. He looked for Poppy who had been right beside him to see where Alana’s signal had gone, but Poppy had moved down the row of cells almost to the very end, closing in on the last door on the opposite side of the concrete hallway.
With lightning-quick reflexes, Enock shot down the distance of the hall and caught the metal bar swinging out of the doorway just inches away from smacking the unaware Poppy in the head as she blindly followed the signal on her tablet. Poppy’s head shot up, startled by Enock’s sudden appearance. Taking in the bar that was inches from her head, she slowly stepped back, eyes wide with shock, her face pale, her life-force draining quickly from head to foot. Far enough back, Poppy stumbled into the wall behind her as Mather reached her side, a growl emanating from his throat at whoever dared to take a swing at Poppy. Jet had moved to her other side, the hairs on his back standing on end, and Masia stayed out of the way but still close behind Enock.
Enock yanked on the bar, pulling out an unaware and completely terrified Alana. She let out a cry of relief and ran into Enock’s arms. “It’s you! You came for me!” Enock pulled her close and held her head before he pushed her back far enough to see if she was harmed. A collective sigh escaped the group with a temporary let down at the sudden shock of what had just happened.
“Of course, we came for you,” Enock reassured her. “Are you hurt?” He looked over her best he could but didn’t see anything visible.
Alana gulped and nodded. Her hair was disheveled and her clothes were worse for wear, but otherwise, she was unharmed for the most part.
Mather reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder, giving her a gentle but compassionate squeeze. “That’s good news.”
Alana took a moment and noted each of her rescuers. She spotted Poppy, and her eyes lit up, bringing a smile to her face as she threw herself at Poppy and squeezed her tightly—a lifeline in what had been terrifying loneliness. Poppy embraced her and patted her back soothingly. “You’re all right. You’re safe now,” Poppy muttered, still recovering from the shock from almost being pummeled by her friend.
“Oh my god! I almost hit you, I’m so sorry. When I heard the door upstairs open, I thought they were coming back for me. There was no way I was going with them, and the blood was pounding so loud in my ears, I couldn’t hear who was out here.”
“I know you didn’t know. Enock saved me. I’m ok,” Poppy assured her.
“How did you get out of your cell? The door was still locked,” Mather, ever practical, asked.
“My father let me out. He told me I probably wouldn’t make it back to Rylen before I faded from this life, but said perhaps I deserved the chance to see if my curse really could be broken.” She gulped and turned her head, hiding the sheen of emotion that had built up there. After she breathed in the air of safety, she continued, “He told me to get out, and there’s actually a hidden passageway out the back here, but then I heard someone coming—you as it turns out.” She paused to catch her breath. Her voice was scratchy and dry. “They already left, I think. Escaped like cowards, more likely,” she spat. “Then I used a spell I remembered to lock it again so I’d know when someone else came for me.”
Alana’s eyes finally stopped on Masia. She smiled politely, but she did a double take as if wondering if she should know the young girl before her. “I don’t know you, do I?”
The new girl smiled slowly and shook her head. “No, I’m just here to help. My name is Masia, but please call me Mazy. I’m on Enock’s team,” she said as if that should explain it all.
Alana slowly nodded, her gaze searching Enock’s face. He shrugged. She would find out more later, but for now, she held out her hand by way of greeting. “Thank you for coming. I wish it were under different circumstances. I’m Alana.” The girls shook hands. Alana was very polite and diplomatic, considering the situation. Mather nodded toward her with pride. She would make a fine alpha’s mate, yet.
Mather cleared his throat to move the girls along. “Alana, can you show us where the way out is? Let’s get out of here before the rest of our team tears the building down.” Mather ushered Alana between him and Enock but allowed her to lead the way.
Enock ran back to the stairs and spoke up to their guards at the top. “Come on down, boys, there’s a way out.” Bastion and Jackson rushed down the stairs and rejoined the team, taking up position at the back of the group. Bastion caught Alana’s eye and gave her a small smile and a nod that she reciprocated, telling him she was all right and thanking him for being there all in one gesture. Most of these creatures were simple in communication and understood even the smallest gestures; she appreciated that.
Alana took a deep breath and threw her shoulders back. Time to go home. “I haven’t had a chance to find it yet, but it should be here somewhere. Maybe your sensitive smellers can find clean air coming from it?” Alana asked, hoping it wasn’t offensive to ask. “By the way, who’s the tiger? He’s beautiful,” she said with awe, taking in the black tiger’s unusual gray stripes.
The tiger saddled up next to her and rubbed his head against her arm. She laughed at the sudden attention and embarrassment of calling a boy tiger beautiful, fully knowing he was on the team and he could hear her. “Oops, sorry about that.” The tiger licked her arm in a show of forgiveness. “Ew, that’s not necessary, really.” She laughed again.
“I wouldn’t get too cuddly with that one,” Enock admonished with a smile. “That there is Jet. One of our fiercest—besides me, of course…”
“Of course,” she interrupted with a wink.
“I imagine the boss would want you to refrain from running your fingers through the hairs of his men,” Enock added as Alana realized she had patted the tiger on the head and her fingers were embedded in the tiger’s fur. She gasped at her mistake, embarrassment flooding her face.
“I’m so sorry,” Alana apologized as she removed her fingers. Jet’s hairs were soft underneath and coarse and rough on the top, so unlike the smooth and shiny black pelt of her panther. She longed to run her fingers through Rylen’s fur.
Finally, she felt safe, bac
k with her people, her family… All that was missing was the one she really wanted to see. “Where is Rylen?”
“He was taking care of business away from the Lair when we discovered where you were, and we haven’t been able to reach him yet. Luc is still trying back home. He’s probably on his way as we speak,” Mather explained, but something in his voice pricked her ears, and she looked up to see his eyes. He was worried.
“Is he all right?” Alana’s voice filled with alarm.
“Can you not feel him?” Enock asked, tapping his forehead, indicating the bond they had as mates.
“Oh, I forgot, I’m still getting used to the bond,” Alana supplied sheepishly. She paused for a minute and closed her eyes tight in concentration. Her face screwed up, and she frowned, opening them once more. “I can feel his presence, but I feel blocked. I think he’s blocking me. I hope that doesn’t mean he’s in trouble.”
“I think it just means he’s protecting you; he always will,” Enock instructed her as if this was just another one of his lessons for her.
“I hope you’re right,” she whispered.
“Me too,” Enock responded quietly, worried.
“This must be it,” Mather announced from where Jet was pawing at a part of the wall where there was a strange crack in the cement that started at the ground and reached almost to the ceiling. Mather pushed on it and tried to pry it apart, but it didn’t budge.
Poppy moved up beside him and placed her hand against the cool cement wall and felt her way across it in several sweeps of her hand. Her energy stirred within her chest until it found a place to release its pent up magic. “I found it,” she acknowledged as she found a few trigger points. She tapped into it a trapdoor built with modern mechanics and technology. After the last trigger was sprung, she realized it would have been next to impossible for Alana to get through it unless she had been able to find a way to use her magic. Simmon was banking on a lot there, or he knew something she hadn’t figure out yet. “There, try pushing again, Mat.”
