by Riley Storm
“Is there any way out where I don’t die?” she asked in a whimper. “What can I do?”
The guard’s face was stony. “Do you really think I’m going to buy the helpless bit? I brought you food, but I’m not a simpleton.”
“Okay,” she said, relaxing languidly. “Fine. You caught me.”
“You shouldn’t have come here.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” she told him dryly. “I can see that now. I was told it was an easy job, all things considered. Nobody mentioned the gang of bodybuilders guarding the place. If I’d known that, I would have stayed away. Trust me.”
The guard’s head turned to the stairs at some sound unheard by her.
“I have to go,” he said, standing up.
“Wait,” she called. “Can I at least know your name?”
“No,” he said and headed up the stairs.
A moment later she was plunged into darkness as the lights went off. There was some snarling of voices that filtered down the curved stairway, but she couldn’t make out the words.
“Perfect,” she muttered, taking the tray and feeling her way to the far side of the cell where a simple metal slab was attached to the wall.
She sat down, ate her food and planned.
Ellyn wasn’t about to give up. Not yet. She would come up with a plan to escape.
Somehow.
Chapter Three
Vlad
Lost deep in thought, Vlad climbed the stairs and headed out into the mansion.
Nobody had told him to go feed the prisoner, but he knew that if he hadn’t, none of them would. Perhaps he would get in trouble for it, perhaps not. With the Cado, he never really knew. The only way to find out what they were going to do, was to ask their leader. Which is precisely where Vlad was headed now.
Light wasn’t the only thing spilling out into the hallway as he approached. There were voices as well. They were slightly muffled by the door but, to his hearing, that was nothing. Vlad leaned against the wall, listening while he waited.
One didn’t just interrupt Cratom when he was in a meeting. The gargantuan head of the Cado in North America was a nasty bit of business, and he didn’t take well to those who thought themselves more important than whatever it was he was doing. In this case, he was talking to someone else.
It was Liroi, Vlad realized a moment later as the other voice spoke again. The idiotic, violent shifter was actually arguing with Cratom for some reason. Vlad frowned, his brain working to pick up on whatever it was they were talking about.
“In time Liroi.”
That was Cratom. Vlad would recognize the gravelly bass of his ‘boss’ anywhere. The man was one of the biggest shifters Vlad had ever met, and he had the voice to match. It sounded like thunder in the sky, and when he laughed—never a pleasant thing—it reminded Vlad of the worst of the storms that used to assault his former mountain home.
“Aw come on boss. Just for a bit. I promise, it won’t be bad.”
Vlad frowned, trying to understand just what the hell would push Liroi to argue with the boss.
“We need to find out more first.” The words were meant as a conversation ender, to stop Liroi from talking, but the vicious shifter wasn’t smart enough to pick up on that sort of thing.
“I’ll find it out for you, boss. I promise. I’ll get whatever information you want. I’ll…I’ll pump it out.”
“You will do no such thing Liroi. Not unless I tell you to,” Cratom snarled.
Vlad heard boots scuffling on the floor and he smiled tightly at the image of Liroi backing away frantically as the boss got riled up.
“Of course boss. Of course,” he whined in that nasally quiver he developed anytime he talked to someone he perceived as his superior.
“I will have someone else interrogate her. Once they find out what she saw, what she knows, and more importantly who she told, then we can consider handing her over to you for…extracurricular activities,” Cratom finished slyly.
There was a pair of chuckles from inside, neither of which evoked any humor in Vlad.
He straightened off the wall, knowing full well now what the pair of them were talking about. More importantly, he knew who. They were referring to the prisoner.
“Once she tells us who she told about our secret,” Cratom continued. “You will lead the team to go get them.”
“Thank you boss. I will do that.”
Vlad heard the sound of boots on hardwood floor and realized that Cratom must have silently dismissed his underling. Moving as silently as he could, Vlad slipped away before the door opened. He didn’t want to be caught outside, nor did he wish to have any further interactions with Liroi.
Moving through the mansion, he found the door he was looking for and bounced his knuckles off it twice. Then he waited a count, and did it twice more.
“Vlad,” the occupant said as the door opened to reveal a familiar figure.
“Sache,” he replied, wondering why his longtime friend wasn’t automatically inviting him in. “We need to talk.”
“Sure. What is it? Is it about the prisoner you caught?” Sache asked eagerly, leaning forward on the doorjamb. He reached up with one hand to stroke the newfound beard he was growing that covered much of his face. The black hair was thick and scraggly, it desperately needed a trim.
“How did you know?” Vlad was caught by surprise.
“I knew it! Cratom is turning her over to you, isn’t he?” Sache hissed with a smile.
Vlad’s stomach sank. “What? No, Sache. What the hell is wrong with you?”
Pushing his way into the room, Vlad motioned for Sache to close and lock the door. “He’s not giving her to me. Nor should he. They should just take her, throw her out the front gates and be done with her.”
“Boring,” Sache muttered.
Vlad watched his longtime friend and clanmate with worry. The way they had left Five Peaks had affected Sache worse than it had him. The shifter was younger, more impressionable, and his emotions had left him feeling betrayed by all those they had once cared for. That was fertile ground for the tendencies of the Cado to lay their tendrils upon.
It’s not like you’re innocent yourself. You came here with him. You agreed to stay. Sache isn’t the only one harboring anger.
Anger, and hurt. But the Cado didn’t look fondly upon those in pain, those who were hurting. They labeled that weakness, and instead focused on the anger, on the rage, and stoked those fires.
Vlad was a bit too old for them to take permanent root. He’d fallen at first, but now his brain was slowly coming around, realizing just how deep in it they were, and how screwed they would be if they tried to leave.
Which is why he knew they needed to do it together.
“He’s going to interrogate her, and then he’s going to give her to Liroi,” Vlad said stonily. “We can’t let that happen. Nobody deserves that fate Sache, and you know it.”
For a moment, something like the old Sache shone through, as both disgust and something resembling the natural repulsiveness that dragons felt for such treatment of humans was visible upon the shifter’s face.
“We need to do something Sache,” he urged. “We can’t let her be…we just can’t let Liroi have his way with her. Plus, they’re going to go after anyone she might have told.”
“Told what?” Sache asked, ignoring Vlad’s pleas.
“I only got there partway through the conversation, but my assumption is they believe she knows about us. That she saw something, and told some people. They intend to round them all up, so that they can’t tell anyone else,” Vlad finished. He was working by the seat of his pants here, filling in blanks from the half-conversation he’d overheard.
“That makes sense,” Sache said, nodding his head. “Can’t have her spreading our secret around to humanity.”
“Not you too,” Vlad said, throwing up his arms. “Think, Sache. It was dark out, she was a distance away. None of it would hold up, everyone would just think she’s crazy! She’s
no threat to us.”
“You don’t know that,” Sache pointed out.
Vlad realized with a start his friend was right. He didn’t know that. Not for sure at least. He was, again, making assumptions about things he hadn’t seen. Though if the prisoner had seen anything about the dragons, he doubted she would have been as calm as she was. Most humans had a hard time with it when they found out.
None of them could handle the initial shock without showing some reaction. It was just too tough on their visions of reality, accepting that something like a dragon shifter could actually be real. Vlad found himself hoping she hadn’t seen anything, but he would have to operate under the assumption she had.
“We need to help her,” Vlad said. “We need to…” he trailed off at the look on Sache’s face.
“You want to help her?” the other shifter said with a sneer. “Someone who broke in here, and tried to steal from us? You would help them?”
Vlad opened his mouth to say more, to tell his friend that he needed to stop parroting the lines he heard from Cratom. That he needed to think for himself.
That wouldn’t go over well though. Sache would only think that I’m abandoning him, rejecting him, like our clan did. That would only drive him deeper into this new mindset.
“The others didn’t do anything.” Vlad pointed out, changing tactics. “They don’t deserve the unnecessary suffering for something they didn’t do. You know that as well as I do. Whoever she told, is innocent.”
He knew Sache would react to that. It was too close to what had happened to them for it not to.
Sache grimaced. Vlad was sure he was feeling trapped, between his newfound loyalty to the Cado, and also to the knowledge that if he sided against Vlad on this issue, he would be committing the same crime that had happened to him.
“Then you had better get the woman to confess to you about who she told, before she tells anyone else,” Sache said, glaring at him, angry at the way Vlad was trapping him in his own logic. “Then maybe you can do something about it if you feel you must.”
Vlad blinked. That was actually a really good idea.
“I will,” he said, heading for the door. “Thank you, Sache. You’re a good person you know.”
Sache grimaced. “I just want to see her get what she deserves.”
Vlad paused, about to argue, but thought better of it. Now was not the time. He knew where Sache was, and how to find him. They could have this talk later. They would have this talk later.
But for now he needed to go find out what the woman had seen, and whom she had told. Maybe that way he could spare her.
Somehow.
Chapter Four
Ellyn
She was awakened abruptly by the lights as they came on overheard, searing into her unsuspecting eyes.
“What the hell!” she yelped, first curling up into a ball with an arm over her face, and then sitting up as footsteps sounded down the stairs yet again.
By the time the owner of the feet was in front of her cell, her eyes had recovered enough to open them to slits, after which they adjusted fairly quickly.
“That wasn’t the nicest wake-up call,” she told the same guard who had given her food, making sure he could catch on to her grumpiness. “What time is it?”
“You were asleep?” he asked, surprised.
“It’s nighttime, and the lights were out,” she said. “What else would I be doing?”
For a second he was perplexed, blinking slowly while formulating an answer. Ellyn watched him this entire time, wondering why it was that he had come back to visit yet again. Was he trying to make friends with her? Was this their version of good-cop bad-cop?
Though usually bad-cop was supposed to come in first, scare her into opening up to good-cop. They didn’t seem to be doing that routine with her. Not yet at least, though she was positive it was coming. There was always a routine.
“My name is Vlad,” he said.
“That’s nice,” she replied, wondering what angle he was playing.
“This is the part where you tell me yours,” he pointed out, waving his hand in her direction in invitation to speak.
She ignored it.
Vlad sighed at her. “Listen, prisoner, I’m here to help you. I brought you food. Now I am here to try and help your friends.”
Ellyn frowned. “What friends? What are you talking about?”
“The ones you told about what you saw while you were watching the house,” he said tightly, his eyes bunching at the corners.
Now Ellyn was certainly confused, but she’d long since learned how to disguise that, to keep her composure in the face of unexpected information or questions. Whoever this guard was, he was an amateur at interrogation.
Was that the point? Were they sending him in to try and get her to relax, to put her at ease?
Or, what if he’s so good, he knows how to pretend he’s not very good? To the point where they think I’ll slip and give something up without actually realizing it. Is that their play?
There were too many unknowns here. It was time to start fishing back for more information.
“I’m not speaking without a lawyer, and certainly not until the police show up,” she said, crossing her arms and leaning back on the metal slab until her back rested against the wall, the picture of nonchalance.
“The police aren’t coming.”
There was no lie in those words. They were spoken stone-cold, flat, and devoid of emotion. The same way someone speaks when they are repeating something they know, but don’t like.
“Why don’t you call them?” she wanted to know.
“Not my decision, for one. And two, because they aren’t. Now, if you want someone to help you, I’m the person. Nobody else here gives a damn about you, I can tell you that much.”
Ellyn uncoiled from the bench and stole across the few feet to the edge of her cell, her face nearly up against the bars while she watched his face. Vlad, he’d said his name was. Not a typical name for these parts, but if he was from elsewhere, she couldn’t hear it.
Tall, ruggedly handsome, goatee, shoulders that would make some doorways tight and a chest that looked like it could stop a freight train. If he shaved and grew out his hair and pulled it to the side, he could be a modern day spitting image of a certain reporter-superhero.
Even his eyes had that sort of friendly, yet distant look to them that bespoke of someone hiding a secret.
They are hiding secrets here. That’s why they haven’t gotten rid of you in one fashion or another. They think you’ve discovered theirs. Discovered it, and told someone else.
That bore thinking on as the pair engaged in a staring contest, her bright brown eyes against his cold azure gaze. Neither flinched.
Ellyn couldn’t help but wonder just what it was that was being hidden out here, in the middle of nowhere. The security bespoke of something big, or someone, she supposed. Maybe that was it? Had she stumbled upon some sort of government operation, a ‘Black Operation’ that was so secret that her rights were being violated to keep it that way?
“Why should I tell you anything?” she asked at last, challenging him.
Vlad rolled his eyes. “Here is what is going to happen. I will leave. Some amount of time later, minutes, hours, maybe a day or more, one of the others will come down here. He won’t be nearly as nice as I will. He will enter the cell, strip you down and search you. Thoroughly.”
Ellyn shivered at the unpleasantness of that thought, but if Vlad thought that was going to be enough to break her, he was in for a surprise. It would take more than a cavity search to get her to tell them anything.
“Then another will come down and haul you to another section of the house. There you will be strapped to a wall, and tortured while interrogated, until you give them what they want to hear. Then, and only then, will you be turned over to the other guard you met tonight. The one who caught you. At this point you will be his to do with as he pleases. And trust me when I say, none of that will please
you.”
Ellyn watched his face intently throughout the entire thing.
“How do I know that this isn’t part of the plan?” she said. “That you aren’t being sent in first to try and scare me with things to come, so that I tell you and spare the others the effort?”
Vlad shook his head. “You’re smart. I can see it in your eyes. You know I’m telling the truth. That I actually want to help you. Or at least, help whoever you told.”
“I didn’t tell anyone,” she said bluntly. “What was there to tell? Oh, I found a house that was just supposed to have an old man in it that I could easily take some stuff from, but it turned out to have a bunch of mercenaries in it?”
He shook his head. “Not good enough. I need more.”
Ellyn turned her back on him and moved to the center of the cell. There wasn’t anything more to give him. Not that she would if she had it to give. No matter what he might say to her, he wasn’t on her side. She needed to remember that, no matter how friendly and honest he seemed.
He was on the side of those keeping her imprisoned.
“If you won’t help me, I can’t help you,” Vlad said after a minute of silence.
“You could just let me go,” she suggested.
“You’d be caught before you got halfway to the outside of the house,” he pointed out.
“Not with your help I wouldn’t.”
Vlad snorted. “You won’t even trust me with your name. Why should I help you?”
She just stared at the blank wall.
“Very well,” he said softly. “I am trying to help you, but I can’t, if you won’t let me.”
There were footsteps as he headed for the stairs.
She turned around, coming to an abrupt decision.
“Ellyn,” she called up the stairs, giving him her name.
The footsteps paused.
Then they continued up and around the stairs. A moment later her cell was once again plunged into darkness.
