by J. C. Diem
“Me,” Reece said with an unhappy smile.
“You,” Mark agreed.
“I remember my family disappearing and being alone and afraid. Then I wasn’t alone anymore. I had you and a new brother and sister. You became my family.”
Kala and Flynn shared a sad look at his usage of the past tense. Now that he was aware of his true origins, nothing would ever be the same between them again.
“What happened? Why did they leave Reece behind?” Kala asked.
“My name isn’t Reece,” he reminded her almost harshly. “It’s Garrett.”
Mark closed his eyes for a few seconds and I could almost feel his pain. “I don’t know why Nina left him behind,” he said to Kala then turned to Reece. “I renamed you Reece, but I didn’t want to strip you of your name completely,” he explained.
“Why call me Reece? What significance does that name have?”
“That was the name my wife and I were going to call our son.” We all felt Mark’s anguish. How could we not when it emanated from him so strongly? “My wife was five months pregnant when Garrison Carter tore our son from her womb.”
Flynn reached out and put his hand on Mark’s shoulder. Tears filled my eyes and I willed them away before they could fall. I didn’t know why Reece had been left behind, but it had been the only blessing in this horrible cycle that had brought Mark back to this compound after eighteen long years.
“What reason could she have for abandoning me?” Reece asked in a harsh whisper.
Mark shook his head. “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask her that when you meet her.”
“Do we even have to meet with the rest of the pack now that we’ve caught the rogue?” Flynn almost pleaded. “Can’t we just end him then leave?”
Reece flinched and his shoulders hunched. “I can’t let you kill him,” he said, looking down at his feet rather than at us.
“What do you mean?” Kala asked.
“He’s not just my brother,” Reece said. His eyes were agonized when he looked up. “I’m his alpha. If anyone is going to kill him, it has to be me.”
A ripple of shock went through our small group.
“I was afraid of this,” Mark said and his shoulders slumped in exhaustion. It was a reminder that he hadn’t yet fully recovered from being in a succubus induced coma for a week. “I’ve avoided coming back to West Virginia because I wanted to keep you as far away from Nina Carter as possible.”
“Well, that plan failed miserably,” Kala declared and took a gulp of coffee. “Now what are we going to do?”
“We need to know how many of the pack were involved in the murders,” Flynn said. “Gareth might not have been working alone.”
I picked up my mug and held it in both hands in a futile attempt to warm them. I felt cold all the way to my bones. “What are the chances he’s going to answer our questions truthfully?” I asked.
“Slim to none,” Kala answered. “That’s where I come in.” Her eyes changed from cheery to cruel in an instant. “I’m very good at making people talk.”
Reece tensed again and I felt more than heard his low growl. Zeus scrambled to his feet and fled to me, sending a startled look back over his shoulder. “You want to torture my little brother?” Reece said in a menacing tone.
“No,” she fired back. “I want to question the rogue wolf who has been eating innocent humans for the past four years.” She met his stare squarely and didn’t back down.
“You’ve lost the ability to be objective,” Flynn told Reece as kindly as possible.
“I’m not an emotionless robot like you,” he said tightly. I saw the flash of hurt in Flynn’s green eyes before he schooled his face to neutrality.
“Flynn’s right,” Mark said. “As Gareth’s kin and his alpha, you’ll do whatever you can to protect him, even if that means fighting your own squad.”
Rubbing his face with his hands, Reece struggled for control. “What am I supposed to do? Watch while you slice him apart?” His frustration was palpable.
“Take a long drive,” Kala suggested. “Stay the night somewhere. By the time you get back tomorrow, we’ll know everything we need to know.”
“Promise me you won’t kill him or leave any permanent damage,” Reece demanded, but it sounded more like a plea.
Kala cut her eyes to Mark and waited for him to nod in agreement. “I promise.” Her mouth twisted as she said it. Our job was to destroy monsters, not to treat them with kindness and respect.
Torn between his job and his duty as an alpha, Reece surged to his feet and headed upstairs. He returned a couple of minutes later carrying a backpack. Without meeting our eyes, he headed for the door.
Flynn waited for the door to close before he turned to Kala. “How are you going to make Gareth spill his guts without permanently maiming him?”
“I can be very inventive when I need to be,” she replied with a crafty smile.
We finished our coffee and I was surprised when my stomach didn’t flop over at the thought of what Kala was going to do to our captive. I’d never seen anyone being tortured before and I wasn’t sure what to expect. It was bound to be bloody, but blood no longer bothered me. A small part of me was looking forward to seeing Gareth in pain. He deserved to suffer after the misery that he’d caused not just us, but all of the humans that he’d killed.
“I’m going to grab my tools,” Kala said after she put her empty mug down. “I’ll be right back.” While she headed up to her room, I rinsed our mugs out and placed them in the dishwasher. I let Zeus out through the door that led to the front of the compound and asked him to remain alert. For all we knew, Nina might be aware of exactly where we were and her pack could be about to descend on us at any moment. Zeus would be able to give us some warning if our defenses were breached.
Kala reappeared then descended the stairs and headed for the door to the outer hallway. Her expression was focused and intent on the task ahead.
Mark held up his hand to stop me when I was about to follow him up to the coms room. “I don’t want you to watch this, Alexis.” He rarely called me by my full name anymore, which meant he was serious.
“I don’t want to watch it, either,” I fibbed, “but I think I need to.”
Flynn appraised my set face and backed me up. “She’s strong enough to handle this, boss. This won’t affect her the same way it would a normal teenager.”
Reminded of my non-human status, Mark reluctantly acceded. We took the spiral staircase up to the second floor and he switched on the computer table. With a few rapid keystrokes, the wall monitors came to life.
We saw the basement hallway and Kala standing at the first cell, waiting to be let in. We also saw the prisoner from several different angles. Looking bored, Gareth stared up at one of the cameras as if he knew he was being watched. “I can feel you staring at me, Agent Steel,” he said. “Let’s get this show on the road already.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” Mark said almost beneath his breath then unlocked the door.
The cell door swung open and Kala entered. She’d changed into a ratty pair of jeans and a black t-shirt that had holes in it. Her feet were bare. Apparently, she didn’t own a pair of shoes that she was willing to get covered in blood.
“I’m disappointed,” Gareth said when she pushed the door shut. “I was hoping Mark would be man enough to question me himself.”
“It takes a shifter to torture a shifter,” she replied with an easy shrug and walked over to the cot. Placing a small brown case on the mattress, she unrolled it to reveal her chosen tools. My eyes were sharp enough to make out several knives, a hammer, a chisel and several strands of wire. She pulled a pair of leather gloves from her pocket and donned them.
An involuntary shudder wracked me from head to toe and it was due to anticipation rather than dread. This was the man who had tried to rape me and steal me away from my mate. Only when Flynn put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me to his side did I realize that I was growling. Tha
nkfully, it was too low for Mark to be able to hear it.
₪₪₪
Chapter Three
Kala examined the selection of weapons carefully before choosing one of the knives. From the gloves and the careful way she handled the weapon, the blade had to be made of silver. It made sense since she was questioning a shifter. Our kind was allergic to the metal and even the slightest touch could cause us searing pain.
Gareth’s gaze dropped to the knife then his eyes rose to her face when she moved to stand in front of him. His expression was contemptuous. He might resemble his brother but their similarities ended on the surface. I’d touched his mind briefly while in werewolf form and it had been as tangled as a ball of yarn. I doubted he’d be any saner while in human form.
“How many wolves do you have in your pack?” Kala asked. We already knew the answer thanks to our surveillance, but he didn’t know that.
“My mother will hunt you down and tear you limb from limb if you harm me,” he said instead of answering her question.
“And here I thought you were a man,” she said mockingly. “I guess you mustn’t be if you’re waiting for your mommy to come and rescue you.”
“Do you know what I do to kitty-cats?” he asked slyly. “I slice them apart then strangle them with their own tails.” His giggle sounded about as sane as my mother’s, which was saying a lot. Listening to Katrina laugh was enough to turn anyone as crazy as her.
Kala raised an eyebrow in boredom and waited for his giggles to peter out. “Let’s try again, how large is your pack?”
“There are thirty-five lycans in our family,” he said almost sulkily. “I’m going to roast you slowly over a fire and watch your eyes pop from the heat.”
“Every time you lie to me, I’m going to hurt you,” she said then leaned down and sliced his t-shirt open. Blood had sheeted down his arm from where she’d shot him in the shoulder with two silver bullets. The bullets had already been expunged, but it would take hours for the wounds to heal.
“How do I compare to my dear brother?” he smirked when his heavily muscled chest and abs were revealed.
“I’m not attracted to dogs, but since you asked, Reece is bigger and better looking than you,” Kala replied. He scowled then tensed when she drew her blade across his stomach.
Flynn winced when I took his hand and clamped down hard on his fingers. I’d been wrong when I thought it wouldn’t affect me to see Gareth being tortured. He looked so much like Reece that it was unexpectedly painful to watch the blood flow down his skin to stain his jeans. The silver blade meant the injury would heal just as slowly as his bullet wounds.
Instead of screaming or cursing as I’d expected, our captive merely smiled. “Your hair is very pretty,” he said conversationally. “Is your fur that color when you shift?” Kala frowned at his lack of reaction then almost backed away at his next words. “Did you know that if you skin a shifter while they are still alive, their pelt remains intact? I thought we’d shift back to human form when we die during the full moon, but I was wrong.”
“This guy is certifiably nuts,” Flynn said in disbelief. “Does he even feel pain?”
Mark was pale and looked disturbed. “I’m not sure. If he does, he’s hiding it very well.”
A normal shapeshifter would have been shrieking in agony at being cut with a silver blade. His veins should have been on fire by now, but he was smiling as if he and Kala were having a polite discussion.
Turning away from Gareth, Kala flicked a glance up at one of the cameras. Her face was too tanned to turn truly white, but she definitely looked rattled. From the way our prisoner was talking he had firsthand knowledge of what happened to a shifter when they were skinned alive. If so, then she was an amateur compared to him when it came to torture.
At the end of the first hour of questioning, Gareth’s torso and stomach were scored with dozens of cuts. He’d shown very little reaction each time the blade sliced open his flesh. Kala was careful not to cut too deeply. Mark had some first aid training, but he wasn’t a surgeon. He couldn’t stitch our prisoner back together if she went too far.
“This has been fun,” Gareth said when Kala took a step back and flicked his blood from her knife to the stained floor. “A cup of coffee would be nice. I’m a little parched.” He gave her a winning smile. “You should send Lexi in to question me next. I’d love to have some more one-on-one time with her.”
Kala knew how close he’d come to raping me and it was the wrong thing to say. I was like a little sister to her and she was fiercely protective of me. Dropping the knife to his cot, she snatched up a length of fine wire. His eyes widened in alarm when she rounded the chair and looped the wire around his throat. Pulling it tight, she leaned down to whisper in his ear. “You’ll never get your hands on her again you sick freak.”
With his air cut off, his face quickly went from red to purple. Blood welled and flowed down his chest. He struggled against her grip, but she was far stronger than she looked and he couldn’t dislodge her. If she kept this up, she’d cut his head off and our questions would remain unanswered.
“Kala, that’s enough!” Mark barked. His voice boomed in the small room loudly enough to make her wince. “Take a break,” he ordered.
She let the wire go slack and Gareth gasped for air. “I’ll kill you for that!” he snarled when his throat healed enough for him to be able to speak. His civilized mask vanished and we all saw him for what he truly was; an insane killer with no hope of redemption.
“Go ahead,” she invited. “Kill me.” Her smirk was wide when he glared up at her impotently. “Oh, right. You’re shackled to a chair. You can’t even scratch your own nuts let alone kill me.” With that, she snatched up her torture kit and left his cell.
I had coffee waiting for her by the time she washed up and joined us in the living room. “Thanks,” she said with a crooked smile and sank down onto the couch. Her clothes were only sporting a few stains so far. She was apparently adept at avoiding the blood of her victims when it spurted from them.
“Do you think he’s going to crack?” Mark asked. Instead of coffee, he was drinking tea for a change. I had a feeling his stomach was rebelling after watching his agent torture our captive. She was his adoptive daughter as well as his employee. It couldn’t have been easy to see her in action.
“I’m not sure,” she said with a shrug. “I don’t think he feels pain.”
“I think he does,” Flynn argued. “And I’m pretty sure he likes it.”
She made a face at that prospect. “If that’s the case, then it won’t get us anywhere to keep on slicing him open. We’ll just be rewarding him.”
“There might be another way to get our answers,” I said slowly as I remembered someone I’d met while hunting the succubae with Reece.
Mark was instantly intrigued and a trifle suspicious. “You’re not going in there,” he said immediately. “Gareth has been stalking you and you’d be giving him exactly what he wants.”
I waved away his concerns. “I have no intention of going anywhere near him. Do you know a half-faery called Kurt Jorgen?”
His suspicion changed to puzzlement. “Not that I’m aware of.”
“He’s a Mind Sweeper,” I explained. “Reece and I met him when the campers who saw the succubus were having their memories wiped. I could tell right away that the Sweeper wasn’t normal.”
“Can you describe him for me?”
“He’s about five foot three, thin and bald. He has pointed ears and teeth and his eyes are nearly colorless. To Reece, he looked short, but normal. His eyes went weird when he was hypnotizing the camper.”
Mark turned thoughtful. “I don’t believe I’ve ever met anyone in the PIA who meets that description.”
“What happened to his eyes?” Flynn asked.
“They started out as a really pale blue, but turned darker and spun in circles when he was using his faery magic.”
“Did Reece see that happen?” Kala queried.
“Yeah, but then he seemed to forget all about meeting him afterwards. I think Kurt uses a spell to keep himself hidden from most people. Maybe I only remember him because he knew I’d be seeing him again.”
Mark became more alert at that. “What do you mean?”
“He told me that he had a feeling I’d need him soon,” I replied. “He gave me his card and told me to call him when I needed his assistance.”
He mulled over the idea for a few moments. “I’ve never dealt with a faery before. I’m going to have to do some research before we take any further steps.”
“I’m starved,” Kala declared. “I’ll make us some lunch while you do your thing.” She twiddled her fingers, pretending to be typing on an invisible keyboard.
“I’ll make lunch,” Flynn corrected her dryly. “You promised to stay out of the kitchen after the turkeypocalypse in Bradbury. You’re only allowed to make coffee now, remember?”
She was instantly crestfallen. “Oh yeah. I almost forgot about that.”
“I wish I could forget,” he said not quite beneath his breath and grimaced at the memory of the horribly burned and disgustingly garnished bird.
“Why don’t you get changed?” Mark suggested to her. “I agree that there’s no point wasting your time questioning Gareth any further.”
“Aye, aye, Captain!” Snapping him a smart salute, she used one hand to propel herself over the back of the couch and loped towards the stairs.
Shaking his head, Mark followed her up to the second floor. He was used to her mercurial moods, but I was still trying to figure her out. I realized I was smiling as I trailed after Flynn into the kitchen. I could only imagine how much of a trial it would have been to raise three shifters. If Kala was a handful now, how bad would she have been as a teen?
“What’s on your mind?” Flynn asked as he searched the fridge for food.
My smile disappeared as I voiced something that I’d been wondering about. “When did you first realize that Reece and Gareth were brothers?”
Looking over his shoulder at me for a moment, he picked out several ingredients before closing the fridge door. “I can always tell when people are related,” he said with a shrug. “It’s one of my talents as a reptile. I knew he was Reece’s brother the moment I picked up his trail in the woods where he left the first body for us to find.”
