Black Orchid (Svatura)

by Abigail Owen

  “Okay. You can hop the teleporter with me. I think as long as you’re touching me, you’ll get sucked along.”

  “Seems risky.”

  “Do you trust me to save Maggie by myself?”

  “No.”

  “Then this is your only shot.”

  Desmond glared at him silent for a moment. “Do it.”

  Nate held up his hands. “Before we go, though, we have a little problem of our own.”

  “What?” Griffin asked. Nate led him outside where Dave was still on the ground. “He saw us.”

  “Doing what?” Griffin asked.

  Nate gave him a dry look. “Something he planned to report back to Maddox. Would have got me in deep trouble. Regardless, I can’t leave him here. They’ll expect him to come back with us. And if we’re going to sneak Desmond in, then I can’t be under suspicion.”

  Griffin clenched his jaw. “Fine. I’ll wipe that memory, wake him up. And then you guys can get going.”

  “Right. Let’s go,” Desmond said.

  Nate looked over at Adelaide, who’d said nothing so far. “Give me a minute.”

  Desmond got right in Nate’s face. “No. Now.”

  Nate’s initial gut reaction was to deck the guy, but something in Desmond’s expression snagged his attention. The guy was losing it. In a quiet voice he said, “Your girl’s in trouble. I will absolutely take you, and I’ll do my best to help you find her and get her out of there. Just let me talk to Adelaide for a minute before we go. Okay?”

  Desmond’s hard jaw relaxed a fraction. After a moment of hesitation, he gave a sharp nod.

  “Pull Dave into that strand of trees.” Nate pointed. “Stay out here while Griffin does his thing. Make sure to be out of sight when Dave comes to. I’ll come out in a minute. Stick close. We have to walk to the pickup point.”

  Desmond nodded. In a blink he was completely gone. The only sign that he remained with them was the fact that the door opened and closed on its own. Nate looked at Griffin. The wolf narrowed his eyes but nodded.

  As Charlotte and Griffin moved to follow Desmond outside, Nate sent his adoptive mother a warm smile. Nate’s earlier conversation with Adelaide had reminded him how important that relationship was. As soon as he had a chance, he’d spend some time with her and Dexter. She gave him a startled blink and then smiled back – half relieved, half worried – before she and Griffin left.

  Nate turned to find Adelaide watching him warily. He moved to stand before her, taking both of her hands in his. “Don’t feel bad for doubting or suspecting me,” he said. “I wouldn’t trust me either.”

  Adelaide’s mouth pulled down at the corners. “But given what we were just trying to do, I should have more confidence in you.”

  He pressed his fingers against her soft lips. “Stop. It’s because of me that you have no memory and that you went through so much. If anyone gets to be the guilty one here, it’s me.”

  She opened her mouth, but he held up a hand. “And since you won’t let me feel guilty about all that, no way I’m I letting you get away with it for a little thing like doubting me for a small second, given all the evidence stacked up against me.”

  Adelaide closed her mouth and then blew out a long breath. “So no guilt allowed?”

  “Nope.”

  “And maybe a little more faith in each other?”

  Nate smiled and squeezed her hands. “Sounds like a plan.” Suddenly he grinned. “You know, love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

  Adelaide shook her head. “I can’t believe you’re quoting The Princess Bride right now.”

  “Uh-uh. That’s Love Story. But since you’ve only seen my favorite movie once – that you can remember – I’ll let it slide.”

  “It’s done and he’s awake,” Griffin informed them. “Desmond’s already invisible. And Charlotte’s taking me back to the castle now.”

  Adelaide then sobered. She nodded at the door. “You’d better get going. Desmond’s waiting.”

  “Yeah.” Nate paused awkwardly, a little unsure of how he should leave her. They’d just run through an entire gamut of emotions together. Finally he leaned in and kissed her cheek. Then he headed for the door.

  “Nate?”

  He turned at her call.

  “Be careful, okay?”

  He gave her his cocky grin and a wink. “What else?”

  He caught the sound of her chuckle as he closed the door. Acting casually on the slim chance Maddox had other spies watching, he started walking across the yard, assuming Desmond would follow.

  “The pickup place is about three miles out,” he muttered under his breath. “We’ve got a satellite phone stashed there so I can call Corin to come get us.”

  “Got it,” Desmond said quietly. “What happens once we get there?”

  Nate thought for a moment. “The base is huge and winding. You’ll have a tough time finding her if you just wander around. Follow me to my room when we get there. Then I’ll go get Sheila. With her tracking skills, she might be able to help us find where Maggie is. We’ll figure out a way to get you both out of there after that.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  Desmond went silent as they approached Dave. The poor guy was shaking his head, as though he was trying to clear it.

  “Dave,” Nate called softly. “Adelaide’s family showed up unexpectedly. We need to go back.”

  Dave gave him a confused look.

  “Dude. You okay?”

  “Huh?”

  “You must’ve hit your head on something, because you’ve got a giant lump right on top. Good thing I had to come back out here.”

  Dave still looked confused. He reached up, felt his head and winced. “Yeah. Guess we’d better get back.”

  Nate released a silent breath of relief.

  They walked in silence for a ways. He assumed Desmond was still with them. Nate let his mind wander over everything that’d just happened with Adelaide. It was a lot to process. If the pleasure and the pain were even a tenth of what it’d felt like to find his te’sorthene and then lose her, Nate couldn’t imagine how Adelaide had survived it. At least he’d been protected by the brainwashing. But Adelaide… No wonder they’d stolen her memories. That kind of connection was worth kingdoms, was worth any sacrifice.

  Adelaide will be mine again, and I hers, Nate silently promised himself.

  Chapter 31

  “This’d better be good. I thought we agreed to avoid being seen together,” Sheila muttered at Nate’s back, as he hustled her through the hallways to his rooms.

  “We won’t be here much longer anyway,” he whispered in return.

  Sheila sucked in a breath. “What do you mean?”

  “Wait for it.”

  He unlocked his door and ushered Sheila in, checking the hallway as he locked the door behind them.

  “Now,” Sheila said, hands on her hips, “what’s this all about—?”

  Her mouth dropped open as Desmond suddenly appeared in the room with them. Sheila frowned and then directed a fierce glare at Nate. “This was a test,” she accused. “What? Did you capture him and now plan to give up both of us to Maddox?”

  “You know, with so many people doubting me tonight, I’m going to develop a complex,” Nate muttered under his breath. To Sheila he said, “This isn’t a test. Do you recognize him?”

  “Of course. Desmond is one of Selene’s High Council.”

  Nate shook his head. “No. Do you remember him in those foggy memories from your life with the Vyusher?”

  Sheila’s brow puckered and then she inspected Desmond with care. After a long, tense silence, Desmond smiled. “Come on. You’ve gotta remember me. We grew up together. When you were first getting your powers, I used to drive you nuts by hiding places and scaring the heck out of you when I jumped out.”

  Sheila gasped. “Oh my God. Desmond. I do remember you.” A smile broke over her face and the old friends hugged.

  Desmond pulled back. “I need y
our help. Maddox has Maggie somewhere in this hell hole. I’ve got to find her.”

  Sheila’s eyes clouded. “Maggie,” she whispered.

  “She vaguely remembers someone named Maggie but not much else,” Nate explained, remembering his first conversation with Sheila about their brainwashing.

  Desmond nodded his understanding. “She’s your best friend, and my—”

  “I’ll help you find her,” Sheila agreed. She glanced at Nate. “So this is what you meant by leaving soon. What happened to spying?”

  He shrugged. “Circumstances changed.”

  He didn’t add that he was planning to get her, Maggie, and Desmond out of there. And any other Vyusher they could find. But he was going to stay behind. He owed it to his family.

  “I might have trouble leaving,” Sheila hedged.

  “Why?” Nate asked.

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “The link with the wolf pack is still giving me trouble. I’m compelled to obey. And Maddox has us on lockdown at the moment.”

  “Can you resist it?” Nate asked.

  She gave them a grim smile. “I’ll certainly try.”

  “So what’s the plan here?” Desmond asked.

  Nate leaned back against the desk he stood near. “Can you apply that invisible thing to others?”

  Desmond nodded. “If I’m touching them, I can. But only for short bouts. And the more people, the harder it gets. Ellie’s helping me strengthen it.”

  Nate looked at Sheila, who nodded, having obviously come to the same conclusion.

  “I can get us through most the base unnoticed, using a combination of my powers to sense the location of others and my knowledge of some of the holes in the security systems,” Sheila said.

  “And we fill the rest in with your invisibility,” Nate added.

  “Okay. But how do we find Maggie?” Desmond asked.

  “We start with the holding cells. I know where those are, and they’re the most likely places we’d take her,” Sheila said.

  “You mean they, right?” Desmond asked. “You’re not one of Maddox’s people.”

  Sheila grimaced. “Yeah. Brainwashing dies hard apparently."

  Nate stood up. “Let’s go then.”

  He reached for the door, but Sheila stopped him. “There’s a camera outside your room. They’ll have seen me come in and expect me to go out. But—”

  “Nuf’ said.” Desmond was gone from sight before they could take another breath.

  “We should split up when we get out the door,” Sheila said. “I know where I can disappear without cameras catching it, so, Desmond, you come with me. Nate, meet us in the common room. Go into the men’s room there.”

  “Got it,” Nate and Desmond acknowledged.

  Nate opened the door, and they filed out into the hallway. After locking it behind him, he pretended to give Sheila a friendly wave and then walked off in the direction of the common room, while she went the opposite way.

  He decided to keep up the casual pretense and poured himself a coffee when he got to the common room. He was stirring in some creamer when a small, feminine hand suddenly lay on his arm, capturing his attention. Nate turned to see Zara standing beside him.

  “Take me with you,” she whispered as she reached past him to pour herself a cup.

  Nate’s heart thundered, and he froze. “What?”

  She tipped her head. “I saw you and Sheila sneaking off into your room.”

  “So?”

  “Soldiers and security don’t mix for a reason. Maddox is a paranoid bastard. It’s how he’s lived so long.”

  “But I’m not a soldier,” Nate explained. “Since I can’t shift and be included in the pack, I’m a different animal.”

  Zara sneered. “Ah, yes. Your assignment with Adelaide.”

  Nate frowned. “How do you know about that?”

  She gave a bitter laugh. “When you’re never far from Maddox, especially when he pretends you don’t exist, you pick up on things. I may not have extra powers, but I’m stealthy. A lot of the time, I doubt he realizes I’m even there.”

  “Huh. Well, then you know I’m not just a soldier.”

  She shook her head. “I’ve been watching you. Since you started to see Adelaide, you’re different. Happier… and sadder at the same time. You were just kinda nothing before. But you’ve remembered, haven’t you? You know who you are. Who she is.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Nate forced an aggravated boredom into his voice.

  She snapped her mouth shut and glared at him for a long moment. And then Nate saw something Zara had never shown, at least in public that he was aware of. Tears welled up in her big blue eyes.

  “Please,” she begged. “Please take me with you. You’re trying to get out of here, right? You and Sheila?”

  Nate’s jaw hardened. “Why would you want to leave? I’ve never seen you away from Maddox.”

  “I can’t—” she sniffed. “I can’t do this anymore. I used to be his, no matter what he says. But now he treats me like a stray dog under his feet. I was the most important person in his life, and now I don’t even get scraps.”

  The tears turned to pure venom in a blink. “And I’ll make him pay for it,” she vowed. She looked at Nate. “With or without you, I will make him pay.”

  Fine line between love and hate, he thought. Nate weighed his options. This could be a test. Zara was desperate for Maddox’s attention. Enough that she’d fake something like this just to feel important to her leader again. But he didn’t quite think she was a good enough actress to pull off the emotions she was cycling through before his eyes.

  If it were just he, he’d take the risk. But with Sheila, Desmond, and Maggie in the mix, did he dare?

  “I can help. I know things,” she said, seeing him weakening.

  “Let her come.”

  Sheila’s whisper in his ear made Nate jump. Zara raised her eyebrows but said nothing.

  “Tell her to meet us by the dorms where the hallway curves and you can’t quite see the elevator doors,” Sheila continued.

  “Okay, Zara,” he said. “But this better not be a double cross, or you’ll regret it.” He passed on Sheila’s instructions where to meet him and watched her go with a troubled frown.

  Then he made his way to the bathroom, assuming Sheila and Desmond were right behind him. As soon as he’d checked to be sure they were otherwise alone, he said, “I hope to hell we don’t regret that.”

  “We’ll know soon enough,” Sheila’s disembodied voice said.

  Nate felt something grasp his shoulder, and suddenly his body was missing. He could see everything around him, like normal, but when he looked down, nothing was there. It was the strangest sensation, almost stifling, claustrophobic.

  “Ugh. Dude. How do you deal? This feels really strange and not in a cool way,” he said.

  “Let’s get going,” was all Desmond said in response.

  Chapter 32

  When they reached the location Sheila had indicated, Zara stood waiting. Nate, Desmond, and Sheila kept quiet, still undetectable, and spent a little time looking around, making sure an ambush wasn’t waiting close by. Once satisfied, Desmond released his hold on Nate – and only Nate, lifting the cloak of invisibility.

  Zara gasped and took a step back. Then she grinned and waved at the empty air around her. “Hello, Desmond,” she said.

  Nate’s eyebrows winged up in surprise, and she shrugged. “I grew up with the Vyusher, remember. But I didn’t have to be brainwashed to come with Maddox. So I still remember everything.”

  He nodded. “So how can you help us?”

  Zara sobered. “I can’t get us out of here. But I have information I can share.”

  “Do you know where other Vyusher are that we could try to take with us?” Nate asked.

  “Only one or two. Most of them are fully brainwashed and bonded to Maddox’s pack now.”

  “How are they doing that?”

  “Melanie.
”

  Nate almost smacked himself in the head. Of course. Melanie. That answer was so simple it should’ve been obvious. “She does more to their minds while they’re asleep?”

  Zara nodded. “Only to the susceptible ones. She’s able to strip their memories and make them think they’ve been with Maddox all along, that the Vyusher are the enemy, and so forth. It worked even better when Karin was here and could force them to turn into wolf shifters too, because then the bond to the pack would solidify things.”

  “And if they’re not susceptible to Melanie’s brainwashing?”

  Zara shrugged. “She keeps them asleep. They don’t die, they don’t wake up, they don’t even need to eat or anything. A form of stasis.”

  “Like Talia when she first came to us?” Desmond’s voice floated to them.

  Zara’s scanned the air where the sound had originated. “Yeah. If Melanie’s not around to renew it every so often, they’ll wake up eventually, depending on how long they’ve been under.”

  “But why not just kill them?”

  Zara pulled her lips back in an ugly smile. “Leverage.”

  “Do you know where Maggie is being held?” Desmond asked.

  “Ah. Now it’s starting to make sense. The attack tonight, huh?”

  “Just tell us,” Desmond’s voice growled.

  Zara grinned. “Well, that I do happen to know. She’s been taken to one of the chambers where Melanie will work on her. As far as I know, Melanie hasn’t tried yet since Maggie was just brought in tonight. But Maddox plans to hold her as leverage over Sheila.”

  “What?” Sheila’s voice broke in.

  “Ah, there you are. I thought you might be hiding somewhere, sweetie.”

  “What leverage?” Nate asked.

  Her gaze flickered to his and then back in Sheila’s general direction. “Maddox suspects that Sheila is starting to question things. But she’s too valuable to lose. Haven’t you felt a new pull on your wolf link? The urge to stay? That’s not just the lockdown.” This last part she directed to Sheila. “So Maggie is—”