Andre placed a hand on Henry’s shoulder. “It’s not your fault, Henry. You could have never have known that this shifter would have targeted your girl. Hell, the police department still hasn’t figured out how he found his victims in the first place.”
For the last few months, that had always been the main topic at the Search and Rescue meetings. How did the Shifter Killer choose his victims? The team’s hope was to figure this out and either set up the killer with bait, or order protection on the person that would be his next victim, but they hadn’t made that much progress so far. He had been meticulous with his work, making it nearly impossible for the police to find any evidence.
Henry looked back down at the door and noticed Carly’s keys in the lock. That’s strange, he thought. The Shifter Killer never left anything behind before.
“Andre, look,” Henry said. “Her keys are still in the door.”
Andre looked at the keys and quickly called out to the officers nearby. “Let’s get this whole area checked for prints and anything else he could have left behind!”
12
Carly
Carly opened her eyes to pitch-blackness. Lee had beaten Marissa until she could barely move. She had tried to scoot over to Marissa to help her after Lee had left, but it was no use. Carly’s handcuffs only allowed her to travel along the pipe she was attached to. She stayed up the rest of that night talking with Marissa, trying to comfort her. Marissa’s cries had turned from loud wails to mumbling, incoherent sentences. Carly feared that the trauma was getting to Marissa and that she was close to losing it.
Based on how many times Lee threw down food, Carly guessed she had been trapped for almost two days. After the beating, which Lee had said was for Marissa talking back to him, Lee had remained fairly absent from the warehouse. He only seemed to come back to throw them some meager food and small amounts of water, which Carly assumed was Lee’s way of keeping them alive only to kill them through his special ritual. It didn’t take long for Carly to put the pieces together about who Lee was. He was the Shifter Killer.
The thing that shocked her the most about the discovery was the fact that he was a shifter himself. From what Carly could understand, he hated that aspect of himself and had blamed other shifters for turning him. It still didn’t explain why he had been killing humans. Carly thought the reason she was here was because of the incident at the bar; maybe Lee saw this as an attack of retaliation against Henry. But she couldn’t figure out why Marissa was trapped with her.
Carly’s only comfort the last few days had been knowing that she at least got to tell Henry she loved him before she was captured. She replayed their evening over and over in her head, trying to remember every second of their night together.
She closed her eyes and tried to remember every detail of his face. God, she loved that man, and she could only hope that his abilities would help him find her in time.
Carly was sure Henry was tearing up every inch of Boston trying to find her. If only she was able to leave some clues for him. Carly was determined to stay alive as long as she could to try to give them enough time to find her.
Carly was startled by a click of chains, but realized that Marissa must have woken up.
“You doing alright, Marissa?” Carly called out.
“I’m fine,” Marissa grunted. The life in Marissa’s voice had changed since she had met her. Now instead of talking to Carly, she would only mumble about energy and spirits and how they would help her get out of here. It was as if Carly was no longer there with her. She was completely lost inside her own head. Carly sighed and set out to try and find a way to escape.
Since she was handcuffed to a metal pipe, she needed to figure out a way to either break the lock on the handcuff or break the chain in the middle. Earlier, Carly had pushed herself into the light and saw that the handcuffs were made out of silver. From several reports Avery had done, Carly knew that silver was one of the few things that harmed a shifter. Lucky for Carly, she was human, so the silver wouldn’t affect her, but that also meant there would probably be no way for her to break the chain. That meant she would need to find something to jimmy out of the lock.
She looked closely at the mechanism on the handcuff. Near the base was a small latch where the key should be inserted. If she could find a piece of wire that was thin enough to fit in there she might be able to move the piece over and force open the lock. Being connected to the metal pipe, Carly was only able to move her hands up from the ground and over following the pipe along the wall of the warehouse. She quickly moved her hands up and was able to stand up. The pipe hit just below her waist so started moving her hands down the pipe. As she walked, she searched the ground for a thin piece of wire.
A few feet in front of her, Carly spotted a coiled copper wire on the ground. Relief rushed through her as she moved towards it. Suddenly, Carly heard the warehouse door opening, and she froze in place. Luckily she was cloaked in darkness on the section of the pipe, so she reached out her right leg and was able to move the wire closer to her. Carly heard footsteps and she hoped that if she stayed here in the darkness, Lee would just throw the food again and leave. Carly held her breath.
The clank of trays being dropped on the ground sounded throughout the warehouse. She looked over at Lee’s figure. It frightened her how much his demeanor had changed over the few times that she saw him. He had started to act eerily similar to the shifter that had killed her father. It was as if he was suffering the same mental break. Lee looked out the window and smiled at the moon. Carly followed his line of sight and sucked in a breath when she saw that it was a sliver away from being full.
13
Henry
Henry and the rest of the Search and Rescue team sat in a conference room at the police station. He was determined to find something that would lead him to where Carly was being held. His grizzly bristled underneath his skin. Henry was pissed at himself that he wasn’t more careful. He knew he should have walked her home, but she was so insistent that she could walk herself. Now she was trapped and scared, all because he was an idiot. He looked out the window and saw a faint outline of the moon. He let out a low growl when he saw that the moon was a day away from being full.
Henry looked around at his team. It was a group of about fifteen of them. They had all come from different walks of life, and yet, the one thing that they all had in common was that they shifted. Andre had started the team when shifters came out in public. When Henry had moved to Boston, with his EMT training, Andre recruited him to be a part of the newest branch of the Boston Police Department. They worked in conjunction with the police force, and they had been given a lot of attention and praise over the last few years for using their abilities for the public’s benefit.
The entire team had known about Henry’s relationship with Carly. They had become like a second family to him. The moment that they had found out she was the victim, each and every member told Henry that they would do whatever they could to help. Andre stood in the front of the room and addressed the team.
“Here is what we know so far. The last several victims of Shifter Killer have been human. He kidnaps them, calls their family and friends from a different burner cell phone, and then kills them on the full moon. He normally only captures them a day before the full moon, so this time is different. He kidnapped Carly Tate three days before the full moon. We now have one day left.”
“This time, the Shifter Killer seems to have kidnapped Carly in a rush. He has never left a sign that he or the victim had been at the scene of the kidnapping, and this time, he had left Carly’s keys in the lock and her bag on the ground. I think this means he took her in a rush. Carly either put up a fight, or something spooked him and made him want to get out of there as soon as possible.”
Henry smiled. He knew Carly would have put up one hell of fight. For years, she had taken several self-defense classes, and while Henry and she were dating, he had taught her several easy moves she could do to take down an attacker.
“I know it seems like a lot of space to cover. Mike and Andrew,” Andre pointed to two werewolves. “I want you to grab as many pack members as you can. Get Carly’s scent and start running the blocks. I know that the Shifter Killer normally blocks the victim’s scent, but I think this time we might get a hit.” Mike and Andrew nodded. Andre looked over at Henry.
“Henry, you and I will head over there as well to help with the search efforts. The rest of the team, see if you can help the police find any more information about this guy.”
Henry stood up with everyone else and headed out of the conference room. Andre walked up behind him and put a strong hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t worry, Henry. We will find her.”
14
Carly
Carly knew that today was her last chance to escape. Through the darkness of the warehouse, she could tell that it was daylight outside, which meant that today was the last day for her to escape.
Carly pulled her cuffed hands back up the pipe and started to push her body up into the standing position. She carefully held the chain of the cuffs off the pipe as she walked in order to avoid making more noise than she had to. She wasn’t sure when Lee would be coming back, and she did not want him to find her moving down along the pipe.
Carly slowly walked a few feet down to the area where she had found the small roll of copper wire. When she had found it, she had covered it up with some trash that had been laying near it. When she got to the trash pile, she gently kicked it away. Shit, she thought. How was she going to grab the wire when the pipe that she was handcuffed to hit just below her waist? There would be no way for her to grab it with her hands. She was going to have to move it back with her feet to where the pipe came back down so she could grab the wire with her hands.
Carly carefully pushed the wire back with her feet, kicking it every few inches in front of her. She held her breath the entire time, fearful that she would accidently kick the wire out of reach. When she got back to where the pipe traveled back down to the floor, she was able to move her hands back down and grab the wire.
“What are you doing?” Marissa croaked. Carly jumped, frightened by her voice.
“I’m getting us out of here,” she said.
Carly unraveled the small copper wire and straightened the end. In her self-defense classes, they had taught her how to unlatch a set of handcuffs using a bobby pin. The wire she was using was a bit stiffer than a bobby pin, but it was the best thing that she could find. She put the end of the wire into the hole on the bottom of the cuff where the key was supposed to fit in. She bent it slightly at an angle so that the wire hooked a bit when inside the lock. She pushed it at an angle and slowly moved the wire, waiting for it to catch on the locking mechanism. Because the wire was so pliable, it slipped a few times, and Carly let out a frustrated sigh.
“Come on, you stupid thing,” she said under her breath. Sweat started to form under her brow and she bit her lip in concentration. She would get this stupid lock open. Carly slowly placed the wire back in the lock and moved it slightly to the right. She felt it catch the lock and almost jumped with pure joy. She slowly twisted the lock and suddenly, the cuff clicked open. She moved her hands from around the pipe and picked the lock for the second cuff that was still around her right wrist.
Once she was free, she quickly listened for any sign of Lee walking back in. When she heard nothing but silence, she jumped up and ran over to where she last saw Marissa.
“Marissa?” she loudly whispered. “Where the heck are you?”
“Over here,” Marissa grunted. Carly followed her voice and found her in the corner a couple feet away. Marissa’s hands were in handcuffs and wrapped around another pipe, just like Carly’s were. She quickly got to work, and within a few minutes, she had picked open Marissa’s locks. Carly grabbed Marissa’s hands and pulled her up. Marissa was still weak from the beating Lee had given her a few days ago. Carly threw Marissa’s arm over her shoulder and grabbed her by the waist.
“Can you walk at all?” Carly asked. Marissa barely nodded. Carly started walking slowly and Marissa leaned some of her weight on her. They reached the door where Lee had always come in from, and Carly tested the handle to see if it was locked. She pulled the door open with ease.
“Come on,” Carly said. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
15
Henry
The police department had blocked off incoming and outgoing traffic in the Warehouse District. Several angry commuters had been honking their horns and being obnoxious about it, but Henry did not care. All he cared about was finding Carly as quickly as he could.
Andre had shifted and was flying above the area to see if he found anything unusual happening in the district before the rest of the team went in.
Henry paced along the sidewalk and looked up into the evening sky, waiting for Andre to report back. Finally, after long several minutes, a very large crow landed in front of him. Andre shifted back and Henry threw him some clothing.
“See anything?” Henry asked.
“Everything seems very quiet,” Andre said. “Between the towers, there are about six different buildings the call could have come from.”
“Let’s start with those areas and then we can go from there,” Henry said. He walked over to the wolf pack and handed them various items of Carly’s so that they could get her scent.
“I’ll scout ahead of you, and warn you if anyone is entering or leaving the warehouses,” Andre said. Henry nodded and removed his clothes to shift.
Henry dropped to the ground as his body pulsed with power. He had shifted so many times over the years that it didn’t hurt him anymore now that he was older. It was like second nature to him. As his paws touched the pavement, he took off running towards the warehouses between the towers. The wolf pack followed him, with Andre flying above.
Andre let out a loud caw to let Henry know that they were getting close to the area. Henry quickly put his nose to the ground and tried to isolate Carly’s sweet scent from all the others. He thought about the perfume Carly always wore, which made her smell like fresh lilies. It had always intoxicated him.
He turned down a block and stopped short. He lifted his snout in the air and took in the smell around him. Carly, he thought. It was definitely her scent, but it was faint. It meant she had been in this spot a few days ago. A few of the wolves behind him yelped, letting him know that they picked it up as well. He let out a growl and took off running as fast as he could down the street.
16
Carly
The sun had already set when Carly and Marissa crept out of the warehouse. She leaned Marissa up against the building as she quickly looked around her and tried to figure out where they were. They were surrounded by worn down buildings and a few warehouses. Every building looked the exact same to her. She had no idea where she was, but she knew she needed to get herself and Marissa out of this deserted area.
She looked down a street and saw what she thought was a busy intersection a few blocks away. Hopefully, she could find a phone there and call Henry. She pulled Marissa back up from the ground and froze when she heard a car pull up to the building around the corner. Shit, she thought. Lee is back.
She grabbed Marissa tighter around the waist and started moving as quickly as she could around the other side of the building, away from the car. She spotted a large dumpster a few steps ahead of her and knew that they needed to hide.
Carly heard the car door slam just as she settled Marissa and herself behind the dumpster. She held her breath
as she heard his footsteps and his constant mumbling about finishing his mission. She tentatively peaked around the dumpster and watched Lee open the door to the warehouse and walk inside.
As fast as she could, she jumped up and grabbed Marissa by the hand.
“I know you’re hurt, but we have to run, now!”
Carly took off running, with Marissa limping behind her. She knew that in any moment, Lee would realize that they were gone and come chasing after them. They needed to get off this street and quickly.
Carly spotted a small alley on her right and pulled Marissa down it. They made it about halfway down the alley when Marissa heard a loud scream. Lee knew they were gone.
Carly pulled Marissa faster down the alley. She could spot the main street just ahead of her. Carly quickly looked over her shoulder and saw Lee’s distinct figure standing at the end of the alley. He took off running after them. Carly pushed her legs faster, but Marissa’s pace was slowing her down.
“Marissa, come on!” Carly yelled. Marissa grit her teeth and started to run faster. The end of the alley was just a few feet away, but Lee was getting closer to them. Carly knew Marissa wouldn’t make it if she didn’t create some distraction for Lee. She quickly pulled Marissa forward and pushed her in front of her.
“Go get help, Marissa!” Carly screamed as she turned to face Lee. Marissa looked over her shoulder and appeared as though she was about to stop.
“Marissa, run!” Carly screamed.
17
Loyal To The Bear (Second Chance Shifters 2) Page 5
