“It’s a dark room, bare pipes and brick, beams and a skylight.”
She studied the photos Conah had sent. “Bingo. There’s only one building with a skylight. It’s on the other side of the lot.”
The snow was getting heavier. Good, we’d have cover.
“We need wire cutters,” Leif said.
Jessie held up her hands and grinned. “No, we don’t.”
Two minutes later we were in the lot. Backup had arrived in the form of pack wolves who had the lot surrounded. One howl and they’d descend on the bad guys like a pack of wolves—pun intended.
Sloane led the way toward the building with the skylight and I followed, the humming in my veins confirming we were on the right track. We rushed from cover to cover, getting closer and closer to our target: a tower with a balcony and a single door. It looked like a mini lighthouse. It’d probably been used as a control room or a guard house for the lot at some time, but from what I’d seen in my vision, the inside had been gutted.
We came to a halt, backs to the wall of a squat building opposite the tower.
I grabbed Sloane’s arm. “They’re in there. I can feel it.”
“I don’t sense any eyes on us,” Poppy said. “I think we’re clear.”
“We’re not taking any chances,” Sloane said. “We do this stealth for now.”
Someone screamed, and then there was a blinding light and a figure materialized outside the tower. He was dragging something. A woman. She was limp, body trailing on the ground as he lugged her across the snow by her hair.
I needed to get a better look at him. To see his face, but the snow was a howling blizzard now. Fucking hell, it wasn’t even winter yet.
Where was he taking her? He was headed for the fence, and then another blinding light and he was gone.
“Motherfucker.” Sloane looked back at us. “The guy was using magic. Not sure what kind without getting close. But you guys need to hang back until we’ve scoped the place out and deactivated any spell traps.”
“Do it,” Tor said.
“Ready, Elites?” Sloane looked from me to Jessie and then Poppy.
“Ready,” we said in unison.
We made a dash for the tower, keeping low, using the snowfall as cover. Five seconds and we were in the shadow of the building.
Jessie pressed her hands to the door. “Spell-locked. Chaos.”
“The Order?” Poppy shook her head. “What the fuck?”
“Why the hell would the Order want shifters?” Sloane said what we were all thinking.
“We can worry about that once we get them out.” Jessie traced runic patterns on the door and then slipped her hand along the hinge, extracting a piece of obsidian crystal. “There you are, you bastard.”
The air vibrated.
The spell was broken.
A wave of alarm rushed over me. A metaphysical cry. The buzz in my veins was suddenly a scream.
I clutched my belly and curled into myself.
“Cora?” Sloane put her arm around me.
The threads binding me to my guys thrummed urgently, and I caught movement to my left as the guys abandoned their vigil and rushed over.
“It’s okay.” My voice was a whisper. “It’s her. The connection…The spell on the door must have been muting it.”
“Then let’s tell her to tone it down.” Leif tugged open the door, and the smell of urine and faecal matter hit us.
“Fuck.” I covered my nose and mouth.
Tor, Leif, and Rune entered the tower. Cries of alarm were followed by gasps of shock and sobs of relief.
The alarm vibrating my body cut off suddenly. The connection was severed. Warmth rushed through me, sweeping away the final vestiges of the cold burn that had been eradicating the infection.
“Cora, are you okay?” Sloane was still with me, her arm around me as I straightened.
“I’m fine.”
We backed up as the guys emerged, trailed by the shifters. Astrid was huddled against Leif and the rest of our dire wolf shifters trailed behind him. Tor emerged a moment later carrying a shifter I didn’t recognize. I locked gazes with her arctic blues and a connection zinged between us.
“It was you,” she whispered through cracked, dry lips. “You’re one of us.”
“No, she isn’t,” Tor said, jaw tense. “You don’t belong here, and I’m going to make sure you get back.”
She looked up at him in surprise. “You’re not going to kill us?”
Tor frowned at her. “We’re not the ones who started this war.”
She looked like she wanted to argue but thought better of it. “There’s not much time,” she wheezed. “Our bodies are dying. We can’t…can’t stay much longer.”
Another golden-haired varga hugged the door frame. “They took the others of our kind weeks ago but left us to die.”
“They took Elsi,” one of the Holm shifters said. “They just took her. Can you find her and get her back?”
Sloane and I exchanged glances, but it was Jessie who spoke. “Not right now, but we’re gonna figure this out. I promise.”
“We need to get out of here before they come back,” Poppy said.
Sloane shook her head. “No, we get everyone else out and we scope this place.”
Arctic Eyes groaned in pain.
We need to get the varga through a rift, Rune said.
He was right, we needed to get the varga home and the shifter females back to their packs. There wasn’t enough room for all of us in the two vehicles we’d brought, but there were pack wolves surrounding the lot. Some of us could get a ride with them.
Okay, so I had a plan. “Leif, Tor, get the varga home and our shifters back to their packs. Jessie, you’ll have to go with them. Sloane, Poppy, and I will grab a ride with one of the other wolves once we’ve done a sweep of this place.”
Astrid whimpered and Leif reflexively tightened his grip on her. I caught her slight smile and irritation bit at my chest. I’d never considered myself territorial, but I’d never thought I’d get sexy with two guys at the same time either.
Shit changed. “Astrid, I’m sure you can walk on your own steam. It’s only been a fucking day since you were captured. The varga who can barely stand could do with an assist.” This time I speared Leif with a cool look.
He blinked sharply as if coming to his senses, released Astrid, and turned to help the varga who was clinging to the door frame.
Astrid narrowed her eyes in my direction. I didn’t have time for drama, but I flipped her off anyway.
Poppy stifled a snicker.
“I don’t want you to stay here,” Tor said. “Come with us now and we can double back later and check it out.”
I shook my head. “If the Order finds out the shifters are gone, they’ll wipe this place and we’ll lose our only chance of finding out what they’re up to.”
She’s right, Rune said. Go. I’ll stay with The Elites.
Tor looked torn, jaw ticking, and then he exhaled and nodded. The strategist in him siding with me and silencing the beast that wanted to protect.
“Sloane, keep her—”
“Seriously, Tor,” Sloane drawled. “Do we have to do this every time?”
He tucked in his chin. “No. I know. Make it quick. Don’t fucking linger.”
He strode off carrying the varga woman, and the Holm shifters trailed behind him. Astrid speared me with a final bitchy look before trotting after my mate.
Leif gathered the other varga woman into his arms and shot me an apologetic look.
I sighed and shook my head. I needed to control the territorial shit. I mean, how the fuck would I cope once they started banging other women to procreate?
No. Do not think about it.
Rune stayed by my side. I’ll help you scope.
“Thanks.” I stroked his head. “Let’s see what we can find.”
“We split up and we work fast,” Sloane said. “Cora, Rune, you’re with me.”
We headed towar
d the low building we were hiding against a few minutes ago. It was the closest building to the tower and therefore the most viable spot for the Order to camp out and keep watch on their acquisitions.
This may just be a holding ground, Rune said. There may not be anything of note.
I smiled down at him as I pulled a set of lockpicks from my kick-ass boots and set to work on the door. “They’ve had this place for three years. I doubt this is the first time they’ve used it. There has to be something we can use against them.”
The lock disengaged and we were inside a small foyer. An office of sorts, lined with dusty filing cabinets, cheap-looking chairs, and metal desks. The windows were so grimy hardly any light got through. The open-plan space ran off into the gloom.
We set to work, rummaging through items on desks coated with a thick layer of dust.
If this place had been used at all, then it had been a long time ago. Doubt squirreled its way into my mind. Maybe I was wrong. No. There were other buildings to check out. But it stood to reason if they were using this place as some kind of on-and-off base, they’d keep their station close to the tower where they liked to hold their hostages.
“Nothing here,” Sloane said.
Wait. Rune was by one of the filing cabinets, nose to the ground. Look.
I joined him and crouched to pick up a fast-food wrapper, freshly crumpled with no dust on it.
Rune jerked his head at the cabinet. Move it.
Poppy flicked her wrist and the cabinet shot away from the wall to reveal a door.
I stepped around Rune to get to it. “Well, that’s original.”
“Wait.” Sloane grabbed my arm. “It could be spelled.” She smiled at me. “Check it.”
“Me?”
“You know how to.” Poppy gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “Do it.”
We’d covered testing for spelled items in training. Two runes needed to be drawn in the air above the item, surface, or room you were testing. I hadn’t had the chance to try it out. Yet.
With a grin I brought the runes to mind, visualizing them in my head, and drew on the power inside me. It spiraled hot beneath my diaphragm and then trickled up my arms and into my fingertips. I traced the patterns in the air. They glowed silver briefly and then a silvery haze kissed the door before melting away. If there’d been a spell on it, the door would still be glowing.
Jessie used more advanced runes, ones that detected and disabled. I wasn’t there yet.
“We’re good.” Sloane pulled open the door to reveal a dark, cupboard-sized space occupied by a set of steps leading down. “Ominous much?”
Let me. Rune slipped between us and into the darkness.
I followed with Sloane at my back and Poppy making up the rear.
I kept one hand on the wall, each step measured because my night vision wasn’t as good as Rune’s. Sloane had a hand on my shoulder as we descended.
I was about to suggest a little magical light when the world below grew gray. Rune’s huge body became visible.
There was light down there.
The steps ended in a basement-like space, but it was kitted out as a lounge with a TV, pool table, sofas, coffee machine, and mini fridge. Two freestanding lamps lit up the space, one by the pool table, the other by a desk strewn with papers and piled with books.
“Bingo,” Sloane said. “There should be some info here.”
She strode toward the desk and goosebumps burst to life over my skin. Sloane froze, her head turning slowly to the side, breath pluming in the air as the temperature dropped sharply.
There was a fizzing sound, and the metallic scent of magic hit me. Rune growled in warning.
“What is that?”
“Out. Now!” Sloane ordered.
We rushed toward the steps. Rune hit them first but was thrown backward, his body twisting mid-air so he hit the ground on all fours.
He shook himself and blinked at me. I was not expecting that.
“Fuck!” Sloane pulled her cell out and stared at it. “No reception.”
A gust of icy air blew my hair back. “Sloane, what’s happening?”
She rubbed her hands together and fell into a defensive stance. “We just tripped an alarm, cupcake. Get ready to fight.”
Poppy flanked me, power crackling off her like heat off a radiator.
Rune positioned himself in front of me, body bristling with menace as the world in front of us split and a humongous, viscous cloud of darkness slid into the room. It expanded so it was two meters wide and three meters high, blocking us off from the exit and swelling to take up the room.
My blood ran cold and panic seized my mind, because the last time I’d come face to face with this thing it had been a fraction of this size, and it had almost sucked out my soul.
It had almost killed Jasper.
And it had already killed several potentials.
It was lethal.
And we were trapped in a room with it.
The slau pulsed steadily for a moment and then it rushed at us.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Tor
I lower the varga to her feet in the forest as Jessie works on opening a rift.
The shifter barely weighs a thing, all skin and bones. They’ve been starving her and yet she makes no attempt to attack any of us. The feral hunger that I’ve seen in other varga eyes is absent in hers.
The urge in my veins to slaughter her is also absent. “I have so many questions.”
She looks almost sad. “I can’t answer them. All I can do is tell you that things aren’t always black and white.”
“You kill humans.”
She bows her head. “I know.”
A pang of pity stabs at my chest, surprising me.
Her jaw tenses. “Do not pity me.” She lifts her head and locks gazes with me. “Do not let this interlude color your determination to end us. If we enter your world, we come here to feed, and you must fight us. You must stop us. Do you understand?”
I’m so confused. There is no doubt that the varga are killers, but here’s one who seems contrite, even a little disgusted with her actions. Could it be they aren’t masters of their deeds? Are they being forced to hunt and kill?
Everything I know about the varga is in question. “I need to understand.”
A cough wracks her body, and she sags against me. “I can’t help you with that.”
“Tor.” Leif moves closer to us, carrying the other varga. “She’s barely conscious.”
“We can’t stay any longer,” the ice-eyed varga says. “If we do, we’ll die. The air…Too long, and it’s toxic.”
The air crackles and Jessie steps back with a smug look on her face. “One rift ready for transporting.”
“Sophie.” Arctic Eyes strokes the other varga’s face. “Come, we’re going home.”
Sophie’s eyes flutter open and she smiles weakly. “We lived, Dayna.”
“Yes, but we need to hurry.”
Leif lowers Sophie to the ground and Dayna ducks under her arm to support her even though her own legs are shaking. The two varga head for the rift.
Jessie steps back to join Leif and me as the varga shuffle toward the portal. Dayna looks over her shoulder when she gets there.
“The next time we meet, we will not be friends,” she says. “Do not let down your guard.”
She steps through the rift and the light swallows her.
“What the fuck, Tor?” Leif asks softly.
I shake my head. “I don’t know, but we—”
My chest lurches, and my stomach drops as if I’ve just taken a dip on a roller coaster. My head whips to Leif to find him staring at me, wide-eyed. His hand goes to his diaphragm.
“Cora!” we say in unison.
We turn and sprint through the clearing, because this is no ordinary tug on the threads that bind us. It’s a wrench.
A scream.
Cora’s in mortal danger, and we need to get to her. Now.
Chapter Thirt
y-Nine
Cora
The slau rushed toward us, a wave of darkness intent on swallowing us whole. I brought my hands up and slammed it with lightning from my fingertips, opening up crimson welts across the surface of its body, but the wounds closed up just as quickly as I made them. Sloane and Poppy hit it with their power. Waves of green and blue energy battered the slau, forcing it away from us.
“We need to deactivate the barrier and get out of here,” Sloane yelled.
Jessie was the warding queen, but she wasn’t here.
“Cover me!” Poppy cried.
Sloane and I intensified our attacks on the slau, forcing it further back to clear a path to the steps.
Poppy made a break for it and Rune ran with her, keeping his body between the slau and the witch.
“Focus, Cora,” Sloane ordered. “All we can do is hold it back. Keep it from repairing itself so it can’t attack.”
“I have my iron daggers.”
“They won’t work against a slau this size. You’d need a fucking flurry of iron swords.”
“So, we run?”
“If you want to live, yeah.”
I channeled more power into my hands, chest trembling with the effort. “You’re telling me there’s no way to kill a slau.”
“Oh, you can kill a slau, but not one this size. This is…This is a fucking anomaly. They shouldn’t grow this large.”
We stepped forward in unison, pushing the slau further back. Energy rushed down my arms, flowing out of my fingers in bright white bolts of light.
The slau writhed and shrieked in rage. Faces rippled over its inky surface, eye whites popped open here and there, mouths yawned in desperation, and hands pushed out of its viscous body.
Join us.
Be one with us.
Words from my nightmare. I shook my head and focused on keeping the level of power up.
Rune’s growl battled the slau’s shrieks. A quick glance in Poppy’s direction showed that she was frantically drawing runes in the air.
“How’s it going, Pops,” Sloane yelled.
“I can’t…Sloane, it’s too strong, I can’t—”
A crack and Poppy was thrown across the room. She slammed into the pool table and slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Witch Undecided: The Thirteenth Sign Book 2 Page 23
