by A. D. Ryan
Still guarded, I stepped inside, looking around the room as if the other shoe was going to drop at any moment. The door closed behind me, and I whipped around, expecting to be alone, but Bobby stood there, still smiling.
“For privacy,” he assured me. I didn’t buy it, though I didn’t sense anyone else behind the two-way mirror, either. Finally tearing his eyes from me, he indicated toward the food with the wave of his arm. “Please, eat. I’ve noticed how you’ve been picking at the food, and I’m sorry they’ve been feeding you poorly.”
I sensed no remorse in his voice, and the wolf was telling me he was likely the one calling all the shots when it came to the terms and conditions of my care. My stomach growled, loud and fierce, and I couldn’t stop myself from heading for the food. I hesitated once more before picking up a slice of ham. One more sniff told me it was clean and extremely fresh, so I took a bite and moaned in contentment as the meat practically melted in my mouth.
I flopped down into one of the chairs and grabbed different foods, glancing up after a couple minutes when Bobby sat across from me, gloating silently with his eyes. “I missed you,” he said.
Chewing a little slower, I let my hands fall to the table, and my eyebrows knit together. “Isn’t that a little beyond your emotional spectrum?” I demanded, eyes narrowing. His lip twitched, poker face faltering slightly.
Trying to hide the burst of anger, he leaned forward on the table and feigned sincerity. “Of course it isn’t, Brooke. You have no idea how difficult it’s been to stay away from you all this time.”
I dropped the half-eaten chicken leg on the table, finally finding the string that was attached to the food; he wanted me to buy into his generosity. Nice try. “You had seven years to come find me and tell me what happened,” I shot back, wiping my hands on my already-filthy pant legs. I realized how gross it was, but I had very few options.
He kept up the charade. “Brooke, it was dangerous for me to reveal myself to you—it’s still dangerous… Haven’t you learned that by now?”
I laughed dryly. “I’ve heard that before.”
“Nick,” Bobby muttered. “Don’t you see? They’re the reason I couldn’t come to you.” He stood abruptly, his chair sliding across the concrete floor with an irritating squeal. It was all very convincing. “Jesus, look at what they did to you the second I came for you. I never wanted this life for you.” A pause fell between us. “They turned you into the one thing we can’t stand. The one thing we’re meant to kill.”
This time I laughed at the humor in his statement. “One thing, huh?” His eyes locked on mine, eyebrows drawn together in confusion. “So all those humans in Scottsdale? The ones who never rose again? David?”
Gotcha.
Bobby sighed unnecessarily. “Your boyfriend was…an unfortunate casualty.” I watched him closely, and you’d better believe I caught the subtle upturn of his lips. I kept my mouth shut, though, and let him carry on spinning his yarn. “I don’t know what they have you believing, but I do know it can’t be the truth based on the way you’re staring at me.”
“You kill people,” I reminded him. “They don’t need to convince me that I’m on the right side.” I folded my arms across my chest and leaned back in my chair. “Regardless of how I chose. Plus, they didn’t lock me up in a cage.”
Bobby’s lips curled and his nose scrunched in anger. “The cages are for your own safety.”
I fought hysterics.
“They have you believing we’re the bad guys…you’ve killed several of my men.”
“So you’re saying you think I’ve been—what?—brainwashed? That I’ve developed some form of Stockholm Syndrome?” I thrust an outstretched arm toward the door, pointing. “You just ripped the heart from one of your own men, yourself!” I shouted.
“Because of what he tried to do to you,” Bobby argued back, almost sounding convincing. He was getting too worked up, so I decided I had to dial it back in order to get more information from him. “Damn it, Brooke. I just wanted us to be a family again.”
I relaxed my shoulders and slumped my head in mock-defeat. It was time to convince him I was willing to hear him out. “I’m sorry.” I hoped he believed the sincerity I forced into my tone. “I’d like to hear your side now.” I looked up at him through my lashes, cheering inwardly when I saw his forehead relax. “Please.”
He sat back down in his chair. “Where should I start?”
“I only barely escaped the fire in Alaska,” Bobby told me.
We’d been sitting in Room One for over an hour. My stomach was so full, it was slightly distended. I planned to ask for the leftovers to make it to Cordelia. Hopefully I’d gained enough of his trust to get him to cooperate.
“They waited until the sun started to rise, trapping us inside, and then doused the house in gasoline and lit it up. The fire spread rapidly. The three others I was trapped with didn’t survive. As it was, I ran out into the day and barely found enough cover from the sun. Thankfully, there was a tool shed on the property that I was able to hide out in until sunset.”
“Where was Gianna?” I asked, unable to keep the disdain from my voice when I said her name.
Bobby looked at me, lips twitching. Based on almost every single interrogation I’d been a part of, I knew he was reluctant to answer my question. “Hunting,” he finally replied.
The wolf inside me sprang forward, only to be shut down by the threat of the damn collar around my neck. Even though it was in the past, the idea of them hunting—taking the lives of innocent humans—enraged me. The wolf paced at the edge of my consciousness, practically salivating for the opportunity to rip Bobby’s throat out. Even though he looked exactly like my brother, I knew he wasn’t, and I silently vowed to give the wolf the chance as soon as I was free from here.
“She had taken a couple of our newer members and was out teaching them how to select and feed without drawing too much attention to themselves. They were staying in a town nearby until sunset, when it would be safe to return.” Bobby must have sensed the change in my demeanor—even I could smell it in the air—because he leaned forward, lacing his fingers together in front of him. “I know what you’re thinking.”
“Doubt it.” I sat back in my chair and crossed my arms. “But do try to enlighten me.”
“We don’t hunt to kill.”
I tried but failed to suppress a laugh. “So what happened to my brother seven years ago…?”
Bobby sighed heavily, dropping his eyes from mine. I sensed his unease. He was no different than any other suspect I’d questioned back in Scottsdale. “What happened to me was planned. Gianna doesn’t —” he cut himself off, and I noticed the tension in his jaw as his anger rose. “Didn’t go to that club looking to kill.”
“No,” I concurred, unable to sit back and listen to him try to feed me a line of bullshit. “She was looking to recruit. I’ve heard all about that club you took us to and the countless others she had set up over the years. Even the one the two of you were vetting back in Scottsdale.” I stood up, placing my hands on the tabletop and leaning toward him. The wolf seemed sated by my change in tone, and I felt her just beneath my skin, lending me some of her strength and confidence. “I know that she came to Scottsdale for me… She wanted to use me as some sort of revenge for what happened to you.”
“Is that what Nick told you?” Bobby asked, his voice changing from the one I knew to something darker. It surprised me, but I tried not to let it show. He, too, stood up and circled the table, darkening eyes on me as he flashed his fangs with a wicked grin. “He always was a bit of a meathead.”
I didn’t budge when Bobby stood less than an inch from me. I wanted to pull away, but I fought the urge; I couldn’t let him think he held the upper hand.
“I always thought you could do better.” His smile widened, and he stroked the back of my hand with his index finger. My skin crawled at the disturbingly intimate gesture, and my stomach tightened. “David, however, showed real promise.”
My chin quivered, and I ripped my hand from beneath his. “Fuck you,” I spat. “Don’t you even speak his name.”
“Touched a nerve, have I?”
Heat flared beneath my skin as my bones started to stretch. I could feel the change was close, but the jabbing of the silver spikes around my neck as it thickened kept me from letting it out. Bobby reveled in my discomfort. I flinched when he brought his right hand up and stroked my jaw, letting his finger slide down and over the thick collar around my neck. “Simple, yet effective, aren’t they?” he queried unnecessarily.
I slapped his hand away as it drifted down my sternum and toward the swell of my breasts. There was absolutely no trace of my brother inside this monster, yet to see his face as he eyed me like some kind of predator made my stomach churn. “You should know that it was in this form that I ripped your precious Gianna’s head off,” I snarled.
He never even gave me a chance to appreciate the look of horror on his face before he wrapped a hand around my neck, just below my collar, and threw me down on the table. I thrashed in his grasp, but I was still weak from the nitrate in my food over the last few days. Plates of food went crashing to the floor as I flailed, trying to pry his hand from my throat as I gasped for air.
His hand tightened just enough to make it impossible for me to breathe. I curled my fingers, clutching the cold skin of his arm and raking my nails down. I could feel my claws break through my fingers as the wolf struggled to fight, and his skin tore easily. Hissing in pain, he loosened his grip, and I gasped for air. With his hand still around my neck, he leaned in close…so close his chilled lips brushed the shell of my ear.
“I could end you,” he snarled.
I struggled again to no avail as he lifted his head.
“I could snap your neck and rip your head off exactly the way you did to Gianna—I want to.” All traces of my brother had been wiped away, his eyes flashing red and then black.
Courage surged through me—or maybe it was stupidity, I couldn’t really be sure in the moment—and I looked him dead in the eye. “Then why don’t you? Why play this game with me? Why keep me caged?”
The sinister smile that spread across his lips petrified me. “Because I need you.”
Chapter7 | treasure
Bobby released me, and I rolled off the table, away from where he stood. The table acted as a buffer between us once more as I caught my breath. When I could finally breathe normally again, I spoke, not shocked to hear just how raspy my voice was.
“What do you mean you need me?” The second the words left my mouth, I thought back to something Cordelia had said right before I’d been taken.
“She talked about some kind of key.”
“I’m the key,” I stated.
Bobby’s triumphant grin was the only answer I needed. “I think so, yes,” he declared, eyeing me up and down as he walked toward the end of the table again. I went in the opposite direction, not trusting him to be too close to me—key or not. “You know, manipulating Nick into attacking you was easier than either of us thought it would be. Who knew all we had to do was be in the general vicinity?” He stopped walking, and I did the same.
“You orchestrated this whole thing.” It wasn’t a question.
“Of course we did. Though, I honestly thought it would take a little more effort. I gave him more credit than he deserved—a flaw left over from this shell, I suppose.”
I shuddered at the memory of that night as well as when Nick explained how he’d only been trying to keep me out of Gianna’s sights. “And if it none of this works?”
Bobby appeared confident and unruffled. “After years of tests and research, I’m fairly confident in the outcome.”
“Which is?” I demanded, even though I already knew the answer.
“The perfect killer.” He looked positively delighted as he imagined the possible outcome. “Without the restraint that the sun puts on our kind, we’d be free to walk in the day. We’d no longer be susceptible to the UV rays.”
“Maybe not, but I could still rip your fucking head off,” I growled under my breath.
“You’d benefit from it, too, dear sister.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’d rather die than have your putrid blood running through my veins.”
He ignored me. “The way silver burns your skin… Becoming a hybrid would free you from all of that.”
“Still not interested. It’s a small price to pay to keep my soul intact.”
Bobby flashes his fangs. “You won’t even miss it,” he told me, moving toward me again. “I promise.”
“How can you even be sure it’ll work? From what I’ve seen and heard, any time we’re bitten by one of your lackeys, or vice versa, the end result is always death,” I reminded him.
Bobby nods. “Our trials haven’t been without sacrifices on both sides.”
“I think the word you’re looking for is murder, but please, proceed,” I amended him, unable to keep the venom from my tone.
Just like when we were younger, Bobby hated being interrupted, his eyes locking with mine contemptuously. “The reason we think you’re the key is that we share genetic ties.”
I let this information swirl around in my head for a bit, wondering how that could make a difference.
“Because we come from the same human bloodline, our scientists figure it’ll act as a stable foundation for the species to coexist within one body.”
I swallowed thickly, realizing he could very well be onto something. “So…what? You w-want me to bite you?”
Bobby laughed hysterically. “Do I look suicidal to you? While I’m almost positive I’d walk away from this, there’s still a small chance the werewolf genes could kill me.”
“Pity,” I snapped. “Let’s say we give it a shot, anyway.”
His eyes narrowed menacingly. “No, the plan is to inject you with my blood. Should you survive, great. If not? Well, it would serve you right after what you did to Gianna.”
“My only regret with Gianna was that I didn’t stretch her death out a little longer for my own enjoyment,” I snapped. Maybe I shouldn’t have toyed with him, but there was definitely something empowering in having the upper hand. Having been denied my dominant nature the last few days, I took pleasure in the way his eyes flashed murder.
With a scream, Bobby put his hands on the table and shoved it forward—hard. It slid across the floor so fast I didn’t have time to react, and it pinned me to the far wall, digging into my lower stomach and sending shockwaves of pain shooting through me. I managed to push it away a little before slumping to the floor, shutting my eyes and clutching my stomach.
Footsteps approached before the table flew across the room and hit the other wall, turned upside down. I didn’t have to open my eyes to know Bobby was kneeling in front of me; I could feel the blast of cold emanating off his body. Opening my eyes, I looked at him without turning to face him. He reached out and brushed the curtain of hair from my cheek and eyed me intensely for a second.
For the briefest of moments, I thought maybe he was going to forego the injection completely and bite me as payback for my surly behavior. The anger in his eyes disappeared as realization of something else sparked. What he realized, I had no clue, but it forced him to his feet as he reached into his pocket and retrieved a needle. I made a move to get away from him, but his reflexes were faster, and he grabbed me with his free arm and hauled me to my feet.
“Relax,” he said roughly, squeezing my arm until it went numb. “It isn’t my blood.” He jammed the needle into my upper arm, through the sleeve of my shirt. I felt the effects of the drugs within seconds, my limbs feeling heavy and my eyelids drooping. Bobby dropped the needle to the floor, and I vaguely heard the echo of it hitting the concrete before he scooped me up in his arms.
“I’ve decided to postpone your transformation.” His voice sounded far away as he carried me out of the room and down the long corridor. “For a few more months, anyway. It seems we might have missed som
ething.”
My eyes fluttered open slowly, my vision still slightly blurred, and my arm tingled from where Bobby had jammed the needle into it. Hushed voices could be heard nearby, but even my hearing had been affected by the drugs. I couldn’t quite make out who was talking, specifically; they were whispering and the drugs kept trying to pull me under.
“Why wait? Strike now,” someone said just as everything faded to black again.
I managed to open my eyes again. Slowly, my vision cleared, but all I saw was the black wall of my prison cell. My head was too heavy to lift, so I couldn’t see those behind the voices. Resting my head on my hand, I strained my ears, but didn’t catch the beginning of what the second person said. “…perfect test subject.”
“…don’t need more testing…time to act.”
Using as much strength as I could, I tried to push myself up. My arms trembled before I collapsed, breathing heavily and disturbing the dust before breathing it in and choking on it. It wasn’t just dust; it was the remnants of Jason. My head was throbbing, but I continued to try and make out who they were and what they were talking about.
“You’re not in charge here,” a male said, and he raised his voice just enough that I recognized it as Bobby. “Remember your place.”
My vision darkened once more, but I recalled hearing angry footsteps, the slamming of the iron door, and then I lost consciousness again. How long I was out, I couldn’t be certain, but when I came to, my strength had only somewhat returned.
Groaning, I was able to push myself into a sitting position. Something cold beneath the ashes cut into the palm of my left hand. I shook the sensation off as I tried to focus on what was happening. My stomach was uneasy, possibly from indulging my ravenous appetite after practically being starved for days and then bingeing.
I pushed my nausea aside when I heard Cordelia call my name. “Brooke?” Her voice was small, and there was a slight tremor in it. She was afraid.
Forcing myself to my feet, I turned to her. “Yeah, kiddo,” I replied, my own voice rough and gravelly. My vocal chords were taking longer to heal after being choked. I could only assume this damn collar had played a role since my transformation had triggered it. “I’m here.”