by Cheree Alsop
Dara finally answered. “Finn, what’s going on?”
“Dara, I need you to call Don Ruvine, Vicken’s father, and have him trace this number to get our location. Get his number from the Academy. We’re going to be in serious trouble in just a minute.”
“Finn, what’s happening there?” she asked with worry in her voice.
I thought of the displays, Madam Opal, and the training grounds. “I don’t know where to start. We’re going to have to talk later. But Julianne, my dad, and Donessa Ruvine are in serious trouble if they don’t get help soon. I just hope he has the resources to get them out of here.” A noise sounded up the escalator. “I’ve got to go. Tell them to get here right away.”
I hung up just as several more guards appeared at the top of the escalator. I started up as they jogged down.
“Hurry!” I told them. “The fighting’s in the infirmary. I’ll bring more backup!”
“Right,” their leader said. At his command, their jog turned into a mad dash down the stairs.
I reached the main floor of the mall and glanced around. I needed something that would help me get Dad, Julianne, and the Donessa out of the mall quickly, but I didn’t know what that could be. By the sound of things, more guards were being mustered on the floor above. If they tried to stop our escape, we would be in serious trouble. I had to find a faster mode of travel than running. My eyes fell on a cart near one of the barred enclosures. It looked like the type used for maintenance or carrying supplies.
I ran over to it and maneuvered the cart to the side of the escalator. It was surprisingly fast for a vehicle used to deliver food and jugs of water to the display occupants. I parked the cart and got out, then on impulse, I took the key. I didn’t want anyone moving it when I went down below.
“You there!” a voice shouted.
My heart skipped a beat. I looked up to see guards running toward me. I reached slowly behind me for the gun hidden at the back of my belt. I hoped if they didn’t see me go for the one in my holster, they might think I wasn’t trying to fight back. My hand closed around the cold grip. I sucked in a tight breath, ready to take as many of them down with me as I could.
“Fall in line!” the leader barked at me.
I looked from the cart to the guards who slowed to a stop near the top of the escalator.
“Uh, yes sir!” I replied.
I jogged to the back of the group. As soon as I joined, the leader shouted, “Move it!”
We ran down the stairs in a tight pack. I fought back the urge to smile like a maniac with the way my heart thundered in my chest and adrenaline pounded through my veins. We reached the parking garage and ran to the next set of escalators. I made sure to hang at the back on the way down. When we made it to the training grounds, the leader turned without hesitation toward the infirmary. I jogged with them several steps, then fell back at the last minute and ducked beneath the escalator.
A hand grabbed my shoulder and slammed me to the ground. I found myself staring up into the bright, hungry eyes of Vicken’s mother.
“It’s me, Finn!” I said before she could pull the trigger of the gun she aimed at my head.
“Finn,” I heard Dad say weakly.
The Donessa lowered the weapon. “You changed clothes,” she said flatly.
I nodded. “I needed to blend in. It worked. We’ve got to go now before it’s too late.”
“We’re not going to get far,” the Donessa replied. “Your stepmother isn’t doing well and your father, either.” She didn’t have to say that her strength was faltering. I could tell just by looking at her.
I would have offered her blood, but my dad’s warning that I would need my strength to come back for my baby sister lingered in my mind. Instead, I bent and picked Julianne up before the vampire tried to carry her. My stepmother let out a small gasp of pain and clung to me.
“I’ve got you,” I reassured her gently. “Just hold on.” My dad tried to rise, but his legs shook and he fell back to his knees. The sight of both of them in such poor condition made my chest hurt. I forced my emotions aside and grabbed his arm, hefting it over my shoulder. “Come on, Dad. One last push,” I told him.
“One last push,” he mumbled as he rose wearily at my side. “We’ve got this.”
“Yes, we do,” I agreed. I glanced over my shoulder at the Donessa. “Ready?”
She shook her head. “But if we don’t move now, we might not ever again.”
Her words echoed in my head as we crept around to the front of the escalator. The card reader beeped and the doors slid open. We crouched on the stairs and let the escalator carry us up. I breathed a sigh of relief at the empty parking garage.
“One more escalator and we’re home free,” I told them.
Donessa Ruvine and my dad followed me with slow steps to the next escalator. I watched the top as we rode up, ready to grab my gun if any guards appeared. Fortunately, none did. It looked as though our luck would hold out. If we could just make it to the cart, we would be home free.
As soon as my head cleared the top of the escalator, my heart fell. Guards lined the exit four deep. Their guns were out and their eyes were trained on me.
“Valiant effort, Mr. Briscoe.”
Madam Opal stood to the side of the men and women who needed only her word to shoot. Behind her waited the other members of the Maes leadership. The looks of disapproval on their faces were clear.
I pulled the key from my pocket and passed it back to Donessa Ruvine before our hands were visible.
“Get my dad in the cart,” I whispered.
I stepped off the escalator and grinned at Madam Opal, then shrugged, which wasn’t easy with Julianne in my arms. “I had to try, right?”
“I’ll give you that,” Madam Opal replied. “But we weren’t fooled.”
I laughed at that. “You know you just accepted a werewolf into the Society, right? Is that because you weren’t fooled?”
Her eyes narrowed and I saw several of the other leadership members mutter to each other. From the corner of my eye, I watched the Donessa slowly help my dad into the cart.
“You’ll suffer for your disrespect,” Madam Opal warned.
I glared at her. “You know all about suffering, don’t you? You seem to have made an art form of helping other people suffer here.”
“People?” Madam Opal scoffed. “You mean monsters.”
“Ready,” Donessa Ruvine whispered from behind me and to my right.
“I mean people,” I shot back at the leader of the Maes. “Living, breathing people with hopes and dreams just like you.” I made a show of looking around and took several steps backwards toward the cart until I felt it with the backs of my legs. “Or maybe not like you. I hope they’re not like you. One Madam Opal is too many for this world.”
Her gun was out of her holster and in her hand the moment my words left my mouth.
“Be careful what you say, Mr. Briscoe. These bullets aren’t your little electric shock. They’ll kill you as sure as you’re standing there.”
“You won’t do that,” I replied, though my blood ran cold at the thought.
“And why won’t I?” she challenged. She lifted her gun so that it was pointing at my head.
“You want me for your display,” I replied. I walked slowly around to the side of the cart and handed Julianne to Donessa Ruvine. The vampire set her gently on the front seat.
When I looked back, Madam Opal was walking toward me. Her eyes moved from the cart and then back to my face.
I spoke to keep her distracted. “If you shoot me, you’ll lose probably the only Alpha werewolf you’re ever going to have.”
Greed showed in her eyes at my words and her gun lowered slightly. It was the opening I was waiting for.
I jumped into the driver’s seat of the cart and turned the key the Donessa had left in the ignition. The moment the motor hummed to life, I stepped on the gas. The cart’s wheels squealed on the tiled floor as it sped toward the guards.
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br /> “Vicken?”
I turned my head at the Donessa’s voice. Following her gaze, I spotted Vicken in one of the caged rooms. He was watching everything with wide eyes, his hands on the bars and his expression pained. When he met my gaze, he yelled, “Finn!” and hit the bar with his fist, trying to break free. I saw his knuckles split with the force of the blow, but the bars didn’t show any sign of breaking.
“Vicken!” the Donessa said. “We need to get him!”
Vicken’s gaze shifted to his mother and his eyes widened. “Go!” he shouted, looking back at me. “Get her out of there!”
“I’ll come back for you; I promise!” I shouted. The sight of my friend trapped behind the bars filled me with rage. I wanted to break him out, but there was no time.
“Look out!” Dad warned from behind me.
We were heading straight for Madam Opal’s guard, but I didn’t swerve. I wanted to go out the main doors and they had made the mistake of standing right in front of them.
I gritted my teeth and kept my foot pressed to the floor. Shots were fired in our direction. I leaned over Julianne to protect her.
“Stop them!” Madam Opal shouted.
More shots sounded. Several hit the sides of the cart and others whizzed over our heads. Most of the guards leaped out of the way at the last second. One, a stalwart looking man with steel in his gaze, planted his feet and aimed his gun right at Julianne. I knew there was no way she would be able to survive an electric bullet.
“Hold on!” I called to Dad and the Donessa.
I leaned over Julianne as the man pulled the trigger. Any hope I had that the bullet would hit my vest vanished when it latched onto my upper arm. I had a brief sense of satisfaction when the guard who shot me was hit by the cart and bounced off to the side, then the legs of the bullet sunk into my skin and the electricity surged.
I jerked back in my seat as the jolts raced over my body and through my muscles. My jaw locked and my hands and feet refused to work through the agony. I watched in horror as the glass doors to the converted mall loomed closer. Huge metal plates slid down, no doubt part of Madam Opal’s security defense, but I had no way to swerve. The last of the guards leaped free before we reached them. I had no idea if we would clear the plate in time. I wanted to swerve, to cover Julianne, to do anything but watch the doors race toward us. I couldn’t pull my foot from the gas. It was going to be close.
The cart hit the doors so hard they shattered. I felt the shards cut my face and hands, and then we were through. The cart bounced down the shallow steps, jumped over the curb, and then was racing through the parking lot.
“Stop us, Finn!” the Donessa said.
But the paralysis refused to let up. I couldn’t say why I was still conscious. I could only stare as the wall on the far side of the parking lot came closer and closer. We were going to slam into it and there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn’t even close my eyes. I wanted to apologize to the others in the cart for getting them out of one danger only to place them in the way of another, but I wasn’t even able to do that. I had killed us all.
Shots rang out and small explosions happened beneath the cart all at the same time. The vehicle slowed. Forms ghosted to either side of us.
“Stop the cart,” a man yelled.
I blinked and recognized Don Ruvine running far faster than any human or wolf ever had.
“He can’t,” the Donessa called from the back seat. “He’s been shot!”
The Don glanced over my shoulder and his eyes widened. He grabbed my foot and moved it off the gas pedal. The cart stopped almost immediately.
“Celia?” he whispered reverently.
“Victor,” she replied with relief in her voice.
Tears streamed down the Don’s cheeks when he reached for his wife.
“I never thought….” He let the words fade away.
“I know,” she replied. She sniffed, then I saw her straighten. “The werewolves need help. And Vicken’s still in there! We need to help him!”
“We can’t right now,” the Don told her. “They’ve closed their shield plates; there’s no way through.” His voice lowered. “Given the amount of guards our scans showed, that might be a blessing. We don’t have enough people to fight our way inside. Until you crashed through that door, I didn’t know how we were going to get you out.” He paused, then said, “Celia?”
“Blood,” she replied in a weak voice.
“Get the helicopter!” the Don commanded. “Load them all in! Now!”
I wanted to protest. My baby sister was still there and the expression on Vicken’s face remained burned in my mind as he watched me leave with his mother on the cart. But I couldn’t do more than sit there locked in agony. They lifted me into the belly of the helicopter. My last sight was of the mall, its many windows covered by metal plates that sealed me away from the chance of rescuing the two who needed it most. A hand touched my arm and the pain faded into darkness.
Chapter Seven
I woke up in a dim room. The quiet beeping of the monitor by my head told me that we had made it to Don and Donessa Ruvine’s mansion. The memories of what had transpired pushed against me with such urgency I couldn’t rest any longer. I sat up, unplugged the monitor so it wouldn’t sound an alarm, then pulled the sticky pads from my chest and back. A glance at my arm showed faint burn marks where the electric bullet had hit. I felt a pang of guilt for how quickly it was healing compared to those I had seen on my dad and Julianne.
The thought of my parents brought me to my feet. The shoes I had taken from the guard were gone, as well as the vest. My dark shirt had been replaced with a white tee-shirt. I also wore simple drawstring sweatpants. I shied away from thinking about that; the idea that someone else had changed my clothes wasn’t a welcome one.
I slipped from the room and walked silently up the hall. The marble floor felt cold beneath my bare feet. I followed my nose down another quiet hallway. The realization that I was using scent to track down my parents made me smile. Being a werewolf definitely had its perks. But my smile faded away completely at the thought that they were in this situation because I was a werewolf.
The sound of beeping from the room where Dad and Julianne’s scent was the strongest made my footsteps slow. I hesitated by the door. Seeing my dad the way he had been in the training grounds had been harder than I could have imagined. Beaten, fighting for his life, and desperate to protect Julianne, had turned him into something far different from the high school science teacher who wore his lucky tie on test days and who made us ice cream sundaes on Sunday because he said it was meant to be.
I forced myself to step into the dim room and waited for the grays to take over my normal eyesight. The darkness faded and the grays brought everything out in stark contrast. My heart gave a loud beat at the sight of Dad and Julianne.
The vampires had pushed their beds together. As much as they hated werewolves, it touched me to see that simple act of kindness. Dad was asleep on his side, his bruised face painful looking and dark in contrast to the white pillowcase on which he slept. An I.V. had been put in one arm and clear liquid flowed from the bag that hung near the bed. With his other hand, he held Julianne’s, his arm looped around her protectively as they slept.
Julianne looked pale and worn. Her I.V.s contained both the clear liquid and a bag of blood. I wondered how she had managed to survive at the Maes headquarters after having her baby there. They definitely hadn’t giving her the medical attention she deserved. The fact that she was away from that horrid place made me even more determined to go back and get the others out. Nobody deserved such torture.
“Finn?” she asked softly.
I crossed quickly to her side.
“I’m here, Julianne,” I whispered so I didn’t wake up Dad. I knelt by the side of the bed so I would be at my stepmom’s eye level.
She lifted her hand with the I.V. and set it gently on my cheek. “You’re so brave,” she whispered. Tears filled her eyes.
I fought back tears of my own and shook my head. “I’m not. It’s my fault you were there.”
She gave a motherly smile; the tears fell softly down her cheeks and were lost in her blonde hair. “It’s not your fault there are bad things that happen in this world, Finn. You take so much on your shoulders. I just want you to know how proud I am of you and how proud I know your mother is. You’re so selfless.”
I held her hand to my cheek for a moment to remind myself that not everything in this world was out to kill me. It helped to calm the wolf that fought beneath my skin to tear apart those who had hurt my family. At her caring touch, the wolf stilled enough that I could just feel human for that moment.
“Julianne, I’m going back.”
Her green eyes widened and she shook her head. “Don’t go back, Finn. It’s too dangerous.”
“I need to save the baby,” I told her. “And I need to rescue Vicken. He’s the reason I was able to get you out. I can’t leave him there.”
At the mention of the baby, more tears followed the trail the others had made. It made my heart ache to see the sorrow in her eyes.
“Do what you can,” she finally said. “But come back to us safe, okay?”
I nodded. “I will.”
I stood and had taken several steps toward the door when she whispered my name again. “Finnley?”
When I turned, she said, “You baby sister’s name is Amelia.”
“That’s a beautiful name,” I whispered with a smile.
She sighed and closed her eyes again. “Be careful, Finn,” she said.
I nodded even though she couldn’t see me and slipped out of the door.
I leaned against the wall and let my head fall to my chest. The baby had a name. The fact made it hard to breathe, it made it real, it brought to the forefront the thought that my baby sister, little Amelia, was in the care of people who had tortured Dad and Julianne. They were the monsters. They were the ones who would take a newborn baby from her mother with the goal of waiting to see if the child would someday turn out to be a werewolf. It was cruel and made me sick. I would save Amelia if it was the last thing I did.