Dark Veil (The Society Series Book 3)

by Mason Sabre

  Stephen was hot on his heels, muttering quiet curses the entire way. When they came to the empty cages sitting in the subterranean vault, it didn’t take Stephen long to put two and two together. “Fuckers,” he swore violently.

  Cade stared into the cage that had held Gemma. Her shoe lay upturned in the corner, and droplets of blood speckled the floor. His wolf surged to the surface, insistent and demanding. Some Human had dared to hurt his mate. Cade struggled not to completely lose it.

  Not a lot, he told himself. It’s not a lot. Nothing fatal. But that didn’t matter to his wolf. His mate was bleeding, she was pregnant, she was alone, and she was in the hands of monsters. He gripped the bars of the cage and inhaled deeply, trying to steady himself and think lucidly. But his heart thundered in his chest, his pulse racing and his wolf going wild, thwarting any kind of rational thought.

  Even without searching the floors, Cade knew the whole building was empty. He could hear it … smell it. The main room held a wooden table and four chairs. Empty cans and crumpled crisp bags littered the table and floor. He grabbed the back of one of the chairs and swung it around, slamming it into the wall. It shattered into pieces, broken bits of wood clattering to the floor.

  Stephen stood silhouetted in the doorway, staying back. Getting in the way or trying to talk reason to a wolf in this state was a dangerous thing to do.

  “She’s not here,” Cade roared. “I need to fucking find her.”

  “We’ll find her,” Stephen said firmly, trying to evoke some calm into his friend. Shit, he was barely keeping it together himself as he stared at the blood splatters and Gemma’s shoe on the floor. He stepped back as Cade turned and strode out of the mill.

  “God damn it,” Cade shouted as he reached the road outside the mill. He didn’t even have a fucking clue where he was. How the hell was he going to get back to her? God knows what the Humans were doing to her with every minute that passed.

  “Cade.” He heard Stephen’s voice as if from a great distance, barely able to register the words. He couldn’t think straight, let alone follow a conversation. “Cade, you need to listen to me.”

  But Cade was pacing, frantic, desperate, lost in his head. Stephen dared to reach out and put a hand on his shoulder. The wolf spun around with a roar, ready to take out anyone who stood in the way of getting to his mate and unborn cub. Stephen raised his hands in a sign of amity and stepped back, knowing not to push things.

  Stephen’s mouth moved, and Cade could hear the words, but his brain wasn’t processing them.

  Stephen ran an agitated hand through his hair, jaw tight, face stern. “Bloody hell, mate. I need you to try focus. We can’t help Gemma if you’re losing it.”

  Maybe it was the desperate tone in Stephen’s voice, or the comprehension that he needed help to find Gemma, Cade wasn’t sure, but his wolf responded. He grew still and fixed his attention on Stephen.

  Realising Cade was partially listening now, and knowing he was balancing precariously on the edge, Stephen hastened to get some answers before his friend lost it again. “Where is Gemma?”

  Cade suddenly caught sight of Raven behind Stephen, but it was the woman standing next to him that made his wolf go on guard. He didn’t know her—she was a stranger—and something felt off about her. His eyes flickered from man to wolf, his lips curling back to bare his teeth in a growl. He heard Stephen utter an oath.

  Making sure his movements were non-threatening, Raven slowly pulled the uneasy woman behind him, his gesture one of protectiveness. He kept his eyes on Cade, dominant panther to dominant wolf. He didn’t break eye contact, maintaining his dominance by refusing to back down. The intimation that the woman was under his protection and in no way a danger managed to ease Cade’s wolf, his eyes gradually shifting back to man again.

  “Cade, where is Gemma?” Stephen repeated cautiously.

  Cade shook his head as if to clear it. “I don’t know.” He glanced back at the mill before meeting Stephen’s gaze again. “I don’t know. They covered my head and threw me in the water. They were here ... in there ... I don’t know where she is …” His voice trailed off and his face contorted with pain and terror. “I need to fucking find her.”

  “Who has her, Cade?” Stephen tried to keep his voice calm, even though inside he was ready for murder. “Who was it? Was it Patterson?”

  A glassy stare met his and Cade gave a brisk nod. He was holding on by a thread. It would take just one slip up, just one small thing, for his wolf to take over. He would not stop until he found her.

  Cade breathed hard, focusing his mind on where he was. “We go to Patterson’s place,” he said. “See what we can find.”

  “He’s not there,” Stephen said. “We’ve just come from there.”

  “How did you find me? Why are you here?”

  Stephen tensed. Cade’s mind was already on the edge; he wasn’t going to take much more. “We went to Patterson’s place,” Stephen said tentatively. Fuck. How the hell was he supposed to tell Cade that not only was Gemma missing, but they now had Phoenix, too? And it was his fault. “It was a trap. They fucking set us up.”

  Cade frowned. “Set you up? I don’t understand.”

  Stephen took a deep breath and then exhaled heavily. “They wanted Phoenix.”

  Cade stared at him for a long moment, then his eyes darted from Stephen to Anika to Raven. “Where’s Phoenix?”

  Stephen hesitated, his gaze meeting Raven’s before replying. “They took him.”

  Cade’s frown deepened into a scowl. “What? What do you mean? Where’s Phoenix?”

  “Patterson has him, Cade. It’s him they’ve wanted all along.”

  Cade was on Stephen lightning fast, gripping him by the shirt and sticking his face into his. Stephen didn’t try to move away. “You’re lying. You’re fucking lying. Where is he?”

  It was Anika who stepped forward and spoke, though she made sure to keep close to Raven. “He’s a half-breed,” she called out.

  His head whipped around to look at Anika, and Raven took a small step closer to her. Cade let go of Stephen and narrowed his eyes at her. “So what? He’s clear of all that crap of the past. What does being a half-breed have to do with anything?” He paused and his eyes raked over her slim form. “And who the fuck are you anyway?”

  “She’s helping us,” Raven said silkily.

  Cade watched as she swallowed and took a cautious step closer to Raven. She was a nervous thing—young, blonde, tall like Stephen—but her voice didn’t match what her body portrayed. Weakly, she said, “He has power. Humans that become Other are stronger, more powerful.”

  That was no secret. Everyone knew that. “And what does the power mean to the Humans?”

  She glanced nervously at Stephen and then Raven before replying. “When half-breeds are just turned, they go through a transition. It’s a time when all of their powers become big and uncontrollable. This is when they die. When Phoenix was first changed over, was there anything that was big inside him?”

  Stephen’s eyebrows drew together. “His hunger.”

  She nodded. “When my powers came to me, they were so big and strong I didn’t know what I was doing with them. It was like holding electricity in my hands.” She held her hands out, palms facing up, and little sparks crackled. “But also, when the turn happens, the mind is capturable.”

  “What do you mean?” Cade demanded.

  “Like all the cells in the body change. This is what Doctor Marcus told me. He said that when all the cells are fighting, then the mind can be caught and controlled—it is vulnerable then. This is when half-breeds die. Their minds go so mad that it kills them, but if they can link to another, then they can learn control.”

  Cade and Phoenix were connected in mind. It’s what Cade had done to get through to the boy and try save his life when he had found him two years ago. Had he simply been taking control or had he actually saved his life by doing that? “What does that have to do with Phoenix?”

  An
ika shuffled from one foot to the other, ill at ease.

  “What does it mean?” Stephen pushed.

  Her eyes glinted with deep-rooted contempt. “They want to test what the limit is. Shifters can heal well.” She paused before adding, “Can you imagine if that were multiplied?”

  “You have something that is hard to kill,” Raven murmured.

  “Yes. And if you can take control of the mind …”

  “Fuck,” said Stephen. “You have an unstoppable soldier.” He turned to Cade. ““We’re going to have to take this to Society. It’s too big for us.”

  Society. Right now they might be worse than Patterson, Cade thought. If they confronted them about the baby, Gemma would be dead for sure. Trevor would leap up and write the execution warrant in blood if he had to. It would get him Malcolm’s seat. It would get him everything he had ever wanted. He’d treat it like a god damn prize.

  “I am not leaving without Gemma. Go to your father if you like. I’m looking for her myself,” Cade said. He wasn’t leaving without her. He was sure about that. He turned from Stephen with grim determination. He had no idea where he was going, but he trusted his wolf—trusted that he would find the two things that he lived for. He turned and walked away. They could bring Society, but he wasn’t wasting another moment.

  Stephen followed him and grabbed his arm. “Come on, man. Think about this logically. You can't charge in there and save her by yourself. They’ll just kill you. They already tried.”

  “I’m not afraid of them,” Cade ground out. “I’ll fucking kill them all. That’s my life in there—all of it. Phoenix, Gemma, the baby. It’s all I have.” He choked out the last word. Saying it out loud was much harder than just thinking it.

  “Well, you should be afraid of them. I am,” Stephen said. “They’re fucking maniacs, and that’s my sister in there and a kid. I get you. I really do. I want to go in there and rip their heads off and shit down their necks, but I can't, and not being able to do that goes against everything in me. But the thought of finding them like that girl by the river, it scares me shitless. I can't even bear the thought of it. We’ve one shot at this. We can't screw it up. They ran when they dumped you right?”

  Cade nodded grimly.

  “So we barge in there, wherever there is because we don’t have a bloody clue, they’ll kill her. We have to do this properly. Society is properly. They’re bigger than us. If you go there now, you’re just going to end up dead.”

  “I will get in,” Cade growled. “They won’t stop me.”

  Anika and Raven had come up to them, standing just behind Stephen. “No,” she said. “You won’t. They are well-prepared. They’ve been planning all of this for a long time. You and Gemma were just an early opportunity for them.”

  Cade took a step closer to her and Raven stepped forward. “How do you know all of this? How do you know their plans?”

  “She worked for them,” Stephen said slowly.

  Cade’s eyes widened in surprise then cold, hard fury crossed his features. He lunged for Anika, but this time Stephen blocked his path. “She worked for them?” he yelled at him, shoving at his chest. “You let her stand there, still alive, when she has been a part of all this?”

  “They’ve been using her, betrayed her. She’s the one who helped us find this place. She doesn’t know where they have taken Gemma now,” Stephen said. “This was the last place she knew. They dumped her ass.”

  “I don’t believe it.”

  Anika stepped back to Raven’s protective parameter.

  “Fighting about this isn’t going to help,” Stephen said, pushing Cade back.

  “She has answers.” Cade roared. He pushed Stephen but he didn’t budge. A god damn brick wall of muscle.

  “Cade …”

  Cade pointed at Anika, his face twisted with deep hatred. “You are a traitor to your kind? Is that what you are? You fucking helped them to do this?” He strode over to Anika, and Raven automatically shoved her back behind him. He held up his hands in warning to Cade. How dare he? Cade thought. Did he not know that he was dealing with Society? “Get out of my way.”

  “It’s not her fault,” Raven said to him.

  “Who the fuck are you? Are you with the Humans, too? All strays go and lay down with that filth?”

  Stephen sided next to Cade, blocking him from Anika and Raven now. “Come on. Think about this.”

  “I am thinking about this. They have my mate. They have the boy I took in. They’re my life, both of them, and the baby. The Humans have them and people like her,” he pointed to Anika, “they helped to take them from me. I can't just stop and think about it. Thinking isn’t going to get them back.”

  “We’ve got to take this to Society. It’s the only way. This is bigger than us. Don’t you think that if I thought charging in there and killing the lot of them would get us Gemma and Phoenix back, I wouldn’t do it? Because I would. I’d be there now slashing my way through. But we can't. Those Humans are afraid and that makes them dangerous as well as stupid. You know this.”

  “They have Gemma.”

  “I know. Let’s do this right and get her back.” Cade’s wolf growled in protest, but Stephen was right. He’d not let Gemma just die if he could go and get her. It just went against everything inside of Cade. They were just fucking Humans—he hated them all.

  “She isn’t going anywhere.” Stephen said calmly. “And we are going to get her and Phoenix. We just need some back up.”

  “If she dies?” Cade gritted out. “What if we are too late?”

  “She won’t. The Humans are idiots, but Patterson has more sense about him than to kill them. You know that.”

  “He wants war,” Raven said.

  Stephen nodded. “Of course he does. But he wants war that he can win. He’s not going to kill them because that would be suicide. We need Society.”

  Cade breathed hard and pushed down all the negative thoughts of what could happen—what might happen. “Okay,” he finally grated. “Let’s go to Society.”

  * * *

  Malcolm was outside at the back of the house when they found him. He must have just come back from a run because he wore black trousers, shirt open, revealing a well-muscled torso. Even age hadn't stopped him from retaining his muscle. His eyes shone brightly, his tiger still awake in there. He pushed his glasses up onto his nose before addressing his visitors.

  “Where’s Mum?” Stephen asked.

  Malcolm buttoned up his shirt. “She’s out running with your sister,” he said flatly. He raised his eyes to Stephen, not acknowledging the others who were with him. “They are out of earshot so whatever it is that you want to tell me, I suggest that you do it now.” He reached for his tie and put it around his neck. “I judge by the expression on your face that you’re not here merely to enquire about your mother’s whereabouts.”

  Stephen tensed. This was what it was to be alpha—reading people, knowing things and protecting others. He wasn’t sure so much that when he took over he would be able to do it quite so well. “Patterson,” he said bluntly. “He’s taken Gemma and Phoenix.”

  Malcolm paused with his tie half knotted. It wasn’t often that Malcom showed any emotion. He had the perfect poker face, but it was there, fleeting, and Stephen had caught it.

  “Patterson has my daughter?” Malcolm’s voice was gruff as he asked Stephen. “He has taken her? Where?”

  “We don’t know,” Cade said, coming forward. “He had us at Christchurch. But she’s gone.”

  Malcolm frowned. “They had you, too?”

  “Yes. He took us both, but they let me go.”

  “And you left her there?”

  The insinuation in Malcolm’s question pierced icily through Cade’s chest, but right now that didn’t matter. Nothing did except for getting Gemma back. A tick worked along the side of Malcolm’s jaw, his eyes betraying the stoney façade he tried to portray. Even the great Malcolm Davies couldn’t hide his anger and concern when it came to his chi
ldren.

  “We don’t know where she is,” Cade said.

  Malcolm nodded and said nothing. He strode past them all and went to the house, letting them follow. The back door swung open with such force that it slammed into the concrete wall and vibrated. He marched all the way to the quiet room, the four of them trailed after him. He sat and listened to the whole story from Stephen—the planned meeting after they had both been to the other Societies. He told them about Gemma and Cade not turning up and then going to the hotel they had booked. He didn’t mention taking Phoenix to see his father. Or the fact that they hadn’t had two separate bedrooms at the hotel. Cade filled in his side, keeping with Stephen and only saying what they needed to, missing out anything that would land them in trouble.

  When they were done, Anika added quietly, “They’re taking them to Exile.” All faces in the room shot in her direction.

  “What for?” Malcolm asked.

  “They have Phoenix. He’s a half-breed. In Exile … they aren’t restricted like here.”

  “They experimented on her, too,” Raven added. He reached out and brushed the hair from her ear, sweeping it back so they could all see the faded tattoo there. “She was Human, too, at one point.”

  “Do you know where this place is?” Cade demanded. “Did you purposely keep this information from us again? Gave them time to get away.”

  “No,” she said meekly. “I don’t know where it is. I always got taken to places in the dark or asleep.”

  “And now they have let you go?” Malcolm asked. “Just like that?”

  “I was six. They took me and made me Other.” She swallowed hard and took a breath, clearly uncomfortable in the room. She explained to Malcom about Phoenix and how he would be more powerful. Malcom listened, his jaw tight and his eyes fierce. The air around them became charged with each new piece of information that was revealed. His hands balled into fists, but he stayed put, listening and nodding until she was done.

  “What does my daughter have to do with all of this? She is pure.”

  “I don’t really know.” Her eyes darted around the table at every single hostile face. Only Raven seemed to hold a softer expression, but even he sat waiting for her to answer that one. “Maybe because she is pregnant?”