Secrets of the Mazza: A Paranormal Romance (Mazza Series Book 3)

by Blake Blessing

  “We need a plan on how to get out of here,” I mumbled into their chests. Egan wasn’t here to tell us if anyone was listening in.

  “Wait.” Rand had conveniently joined the hug right across from me. I locked gazes with him then Yunez. “Are there any creatures in here that could overhear our conversation?”

  Rand glanced around, but Yunez shook his head. “No. I checked as soon as we entered the room.”

  Good. That was very good. I needed to train myself to ask these things when we were in new locations; better yet, I needed to learn to do these things for myself.

  I opened my mouth to ask another question and the door swung open. There was barely time to register what happened when Egan was thrust through the doorway, and then once again, we were trapped. I was so ecstatic to have my Caen mate back with us, the lost chance to rush the door and escape didn’t even cross my mind.

  “Egan!” I separated myself from the guys and ran right at Egan. He caught me around the middle as I wrapped both my arms and legs around him. It was amazing to feel his body against mine, especially when he looked no worse for wear. The comfort of his familiar wild scent twined around me like a soft blanket. “What happened? What have they been doing to you?”

  He grinned down at me, but it was quickly wiped away as he glanced at everyone else. He adjusted his hold on me to keep me in his arms as he addressed the group. “Fuck, I can’t believe you’re here. I love you guys, but you’re idiots for coming. You should have sent someone else.” He hugged me tighter to him on the last.

  “Yeah, no. That wasn’t going to happen. You’re one of my bond mates, it literally was driving me crazy to think about leaving you here for any stretch of time.” I threaded my fingers through the short hair on the back of his neck. Now that he was with us, a small slice of the guilt for going against Yunez drifted away.

  “And now you’ve played into their hands,” he walked us further into the room. “They didn’t mistreat me. Yet. They more or less told me I was bait, on orders from the General, whatever that meant. But I can tell you, they already believe there’s no use trying to sway Issy to their side.”

  I unwrapped my legs from around his waist and wiggled my way down. Hugging him like a koala bear was fun, but it was serious chat time.

  “I heard some of the guards talking. Well, heard is not quite the right terminology. I spied on them. And they had all kinds of interesting things to say, none of which are good for us.” Like he was afraid I’d disappear, he pulled me back into his embrace.

  Nato scrubbed a hand down his face. “What were these things, and why are they putting you with us now?”

  Deep lines bracketed Egan’s mouth as he stared at us grimly. “Whatever happened at the chapel convinced them she couldn’t be swayed. One of the men got out alive.” There was the answer to that question.

  “What the hell?” Rand exploded in a very unusual bout of anger. He was always the gentle one of the bunch. “There’s no way anyone made it out of there. The fire covered damn near all the walls. It was a firebox except for the tunnel we escaped through.”

  “That is not true, Rand. If one of the attackers was a Manno, he might have had enough power to escape. We were there for less than two minutes, it is possible.” Yunez leaned back against the wall, bending one leg up.

  “Why did they let you join us?” I tugged on the bottom of Egan’s shirt to get his attention.

  His burnished hair fell forward as he looked down at me, and a desperate sort of bleakness filled his gaze, “Like I said. No negotiating from them. We’re now all on the chopping block, so they had no need to separate us anymore. And, to them, they have all of your mates or prospective mates.” Even if Phin wasn’t a mate, he was an ally they had no issue disposing of.

  “Fuck.” Yunez shot off the wall and turned around to glare at this. “This temporary handicap is for the birds.”

  “What did the wall do to you?” Jari crossed his arms and tried to suppress his smile. But the twitching gave it away. At least my fun loving mate could find a little humor in this dire situation.

  “Because, Jari, this room is not your ordinary room. It is closing in on us.” Yunez still glared at the offending wall like his ire alone would make it reconsider moving.

  “Fucking hell.” Jari sighed. “They’re trying to squash us to death. Is that what you’re saying?”

  “Yes.”

  No, this couldn’t be how my life ended. If we all died because we didn’t listen to Yunez, I was pretty sure I’d be cursed to walk the Earth as a miserable spirit. I waited for some kind of powers to fill my body. That was the typical MO. Whenever there was danger, BAM. Something would show up to save the day.

  Nothing.

  “That’s not going to work for me. How do we get out of here?” I popped my fingers to give myself something to do. It also made me look a bit more badass. Which was good. Badass trumped scared and crying any day.

  Arguments broke out over the best way to trick the guards into letting us out. And, by that, I meant all the guys sans Yunez, who stood in the corner with his eyes twitching side-to-side, sightless as he tried to find a way out.

  “We could fake an injury,” Sage said.

  Nato cut him down, “No, that won’t work; they left us here to die anyway.”

  “We could unlock the door,” Rand pointed at the metal doorknob. I was sure he assumed the lock would also be metal.

  “I think the lock’s actually made out of wood. But it’s damn hard. I tried to break out of the room they kept me in. It didn’t work.” Egan bit his lip as he also stared at the door.

  More suggestions were tossed out, and every one was shot down.

  Could I bang on the door and make them think I wanted to live bad enough that they’d let us out? I doubted it, they were set on not letting me be a weapon used against them.

  Think, Isolde. Think.

  There were no vents, the door didn’t even look like it had a crack under it. Now that I was really looking at the room, it was already noticeably smaller. I crept closer to a wall and bent down. The movement was barely visible to the naked eye. It wasn’t snail slow, but it wasn’t fast either. Just a steady pace.

  “Aha!” I shouted and jumped up. “Does anyone have any pocket knives on them?” I didn’t have any knives as slender as I needed, but I was sure one of the guys did. Why hadn’t they given me anything other than nipple clamps? Did they think I was more liable to hurt myself than someone else?

  Assholes.

  “Not a pocket knife, but I have this.” Nato pulled a wicked looking, thin blade from under his shirt. The other guys pulled out various sharp weapons at the same time.

  Now, why hadn’t we fought when they tried to trap us? Oh yeah, they had Egan and we didn’t want anything to happen to him.

  “Great, hand it over, I need two.” I took the blades from Nato and Egan, running back over to the wall, but carefully, since I had sharp knives in my hands. You know, never run with scissors? Same principal.

  I worked one of the knives under the edge of the wall until it was stuck. A grating sound filled the air for about two seconds, and then the wall stopped. I ran to the other side so I could do the same thing. Once both moving walls were done, I stood up to admire my handy work.

  “What are the other two walls doing? Are they still moving?” I blew a strand of hair out of my eyes.

  Nato and Rand each took a wall and studied for a long minute. About the same time, they each shook their heads.

  “I think we’re good. Stopping the perpendicular walls seemed to have stopped the room from getting smaller altogether. Doubtful the side with the door wouldn’t move unless the entire hallway moved with it.” Rand crouched, probably just to make sure what he said was truth.

  “Good. Great.” I said as I wiped my hands on my pants. A deep breath left me as my heart came back down to a normal rhythm.

  “That was great. I am impressed,” Yunez sauntered up to me while flipping his midnight locks ou
t of his eyes, forever young, this guy. He pulled me into a hug as he curved his body around mine. I moaned as his spicy scent filled my nose. I know what this was; he was letting whatever Manno effect out he usually kept tamped down. I couldn’t even bring myself to care.

  Footsteps stomped our way as Yunez sighed in exasperation. “Give me a break, she just saved our sorry asses. I wanted a hug and comfort, are you going to deny me that?”

  I moved my head a fraction of an inch to get a look at the guys. Nato was front and center, looking torn on whether to get between us or let Yunez have his moment.

  He left us alone.

  Somehow my hands found their way under his shirt, and they happily trailed over the muscles of his back. He was deliciously warm. And, hard. Hard muscles. A hard erection pressed right into my stomach.

  I gasped, and my eyes flew open as I tipped my head to stare at him in astonishment. But they didn’t open that far; I was still under the haze of lust, which to be honest was a nice change from the fear that had previously taken over my body. Yunez merely let me do what I wanted, which was essentially to cop a feel, and he winked at me.

  “Are we going to just stand here and let her molest him?” Sage scoffed in disgust.

  “You can hardly molest the willing.” Yunez chuckled, and I felt it through my whole body.

  “Okay, Yunez. I’m jealous as hell, but you probably should give Iss a little air,” Rand stepped up beside us, and the blatant need on his face made the fire in my belly burn hotter.

  “Spoilsport.” Yunez stepped away, and my head cleared immediately.

  I did not whimper at the loss.

  Egan laughed good naturedly, and slapped Sage on the back. “You just hate that we don’t have that kind of effect on her.”

  Sage grumbled, but Nato and Jari both nodded.

  Nato answered, “I think we all do.”

  A thought popped into my head. “Rand, do you have this power?”

  He nodded. “It’s about a tenth as powerful as Yunez’s, but I always keep an iron grip on my control.”

  “Thank God,” Sage mumbled, and turned away from us. “I don’t think we could handle two Yunez’s.”

  Egan tried to hide his smile behind a palm, but it was bigger than his hand. So, fail.

  For as possessive as Egan was, he was handling all this very well.

  “There will never be two Yunez’s.” Yunez grinned.

  “Of course not; let’s sit down and rest while we wait. They’ll probably come check on us at some point if they don’t hear us screaming. Then we can fight our way out. Scratch that, you guys can fight our way out and I’ll follow behind. After yesterday’s lesson, I’d do more harm than help. And, I don’t have enough room to use my nunchuck nipple clamps anyway.”

  The guys laughed, but I was serious. I bonded with those nunchucks, and part of the bonding included understanding the limitations of the weapon. Not to mention, the element of surprise when I finally broke those babies out would be a beautiful thing. A laugh escaped as I thought about the look on people’s faces when I whipped those out. Heck, they would probably give me a good three-second head start. If I could learn to knock someone out with the stick end, I might survive yet.

  “Welp, what would we like to chat about to pass the time?” Jari circled one knee with his arm, and picked at a random spec of dirt on the floor. The others picked a spot and took a seat, making a loose circle.

  Nato cleared his throat, “Egan, what happened after you left? Since we have the time to kill, we need all the details. Even something small that you think doesn’t mean anything.”

  “Are we sure they can’t hear us?” The door looked solid, and nothing came through on our side, but I was paranoid.

  “These walls are soundproof, to keep the screaming contained as the people inside are put to death.” Yunez slid back to rest against the wall. The nice wall that no longer closed in on us.

  “Lovely.” Rand rolled his eyes.

  Now that I was sufficiently creeped out by the visual, and curious how they kept the room so white, I focused my attention back on Egan. The previous conversation about screaming and death, would only freak me out in here.

  “I was with Sage. When I left you, Iss, I tracked him down to make sure he didn’t get into trouble. He’d been gone long enough, and it was time to come home.” Sage’s cheeks pinked and he kept his stare firmly on his hands. “I found Rand and Sage in this little bar at the edge of Yunez’s property. Literally right over the line. I thought it would be okay, or I would have made him come back right then. I sat down at his table but left him to brood on his own. You guys know how Sage is. He gets in a snit, but once he has time to work through it, he comes back to the Sage we know and love.”

  Egan was trying to inject some humor into it, so Sage didn’t feel so bad. But, he still was staring so hard at his hands that a fool could tell he was still feeling heavy doses of guilt. I made a split second decision to go to him.

  I could be way off base, but it seemed like my touch and attention settled the guys. I wanted to give that to Sage. He glanced up, and his eyes widened in surprise when he saw me coming toward him. It was awkward crawling across the circle, but I was determined.

  He was completely still as I gently pushed his shoulders and climbed into his lap. His legs flattened, and for a second, the thought crossed my mind that this wouldn’t be a comfortable position for him on the unforgiving concrete floor, then it passed. He needed this right now.

  Acceptance.

  Sometimes, that was all any of us needed, especially when we made mistakes.

  The others acted as if this was just an everyday thing, and maybe it should be. Coming from someone who never had the affection other kids experienced, and knowing they were the same, at least after their families were killed, I wanted this to be our norm.

  I scooted closer to him so my back rested on his front, and I stretched my legs over his. He did have to do some readjusting against the wall, but once we were settled, his arms crossed over my stomach in a loose hold. I sighed in contentment and rubbed my cheek against his.

  He pulled away for a moment to press a sweet kiss against my cheek, and then went back to the way we were. I wanted to catch his eyes, but this wasn’t the time to have a moment. Not while we were being held prisoner, waiting for our supposed deaths. Who was I kidding? If we couldn’t fight our way out of here, it would be our deaths.

  “Anyway,” Egan continued, “Rand was holding up the wall, the perfect silent guard. Minutes after I got there, three guys came in, dressed in regular clothing, all black. I noticed them as they headed toward me. There was no conversation, nothing. It was very clear they came there for one purpose: to abduct one of your mates.” He met my gaze across our circle, and I shivered.

  Even having him back couldn’t dissuade the fear tonight had put into me.

  “How could they cart you off like that? Was there a fight?” I gripped Sage’s arms at my stomach.

  “They didn’t quite knock me out like Nato can do, but they definitely did something to dull my senses. It was almost like I watched it through a haze. Rand, Sage, did you fight them?”

  Rand dug his nails into his thighs. “I wanted to; I definitely shoved the last guy trailing their group, but I stopped and watched them take you. Sage?”

  He stiffened underneath me. “I also felt like I was watching it through a thick film. When they were out of sight was when I snapped out of it.”

  Silence settled over our group as we thought over what they said. Somehow the Shadow Society was blocking Yunez’s sight. And, now we discovered someone had such a strong affinity of the mind, they could effectively turn the guys into zombies.

  How the hell were they stacking the deck so well in their favor? First, we needed to get out of here, and then we could worry about that pesky little problem.

  “So clearly, they have some powerful people on their side.” If I sounded any more blue, I’d be a smurf.

  “Clearly,
” Yunez said. At least he wasn’t one to run away from the brutal truth. I liked that about him; no ostrich impersonations for him.

  Another bout of silence gathered around us. This was some pretty depressing shit; just when I was going to ask another question, something scratched on the other side of the door.

  “Shit,” Jari muttered as they sprang into action.

  I stood and ran toward the back of the room. The last thing we needed in the heat of battle was for one of my guys to stab me by accident, or me to step in the way and distract them.

  The bright light in this white room didn’t take away from the deadly aura surrounding the guys. Nato stood in front of the doorway as the guys fanned around him. The only one not in the V formation was Yunez, who had his back to the wall by the entrance, so whoever came in couldn’t see him.

  My heart throbbed, the pounding so loud it drowned out all the sound in the room. I couldn’t even hear the door anymore, even though the shiny bronze doorknob was turning slowly. My fingers curled into the wall as the door cracked open.

  Two men appeared in the doorway, and by the time they realized we weren’t pancakes, one of them crumpled to the floor. The other gaped at his buddy then whipped his head up.

  “What in Fennina’s hell?” Came out, right as Egan jumped forward and twisted his head.

  Man number two crumpled to the floor.

  Egan just killed that man.

  Nope. He killed them both. I was pretty sure that the guy sprawled out on the floor first was knocked out from Nato, which meant that he was still alive. Until Egan broke his neck, too.

  The door tried to swing closed, but got caught on guy number two. With a lone finger held up to stop us from moving forward, not that I would have moved anyway, Egan stuck his head out into the corridor to see if the coast was clear.

  “All good.” He whispered and stepped over the assholes on the floor. Jari followed, then Sage and Nato. Rand, the sweetheart, looked back to see what I was doing and must have realized I was in shock.