by Shen Hart
Chapter One
The cold was seeping through my shirt and jeans, making my joints ache and my muscles hurt. I came to slowly. At first I thought I'd somehow fallen asleep on the kitchen floor, but then it hit me. My aspects were all locked away in their boxes. I felt empty, chained. I sat up with a jolt, searching the darkness for any clue as to where I was. A quiet groan reminded me that I hadn't been alone when everything had gone black. I reached out and ran my hand along the soft cotton of Ryan's shirt. I had to protect him. I moved a little closer to him while he sat up and groaned again. I tried shifting my wolf eyes, but I couldn't; I couldn’t break down the boxes and get to those aspects. Panic began to set in. I couldn't shift anything. My energies were entirely locked down. That wasn't possible. I gulped down the air and kept calm.
Ryan's quiet voice cut through my panic. "Where are we? What happened? What the fuck was that thing?"
I smiled and ran my hand over his shoulders before wrapping my arm around him. That was harder than I first imagined due to his being quite a bit bigger than me.
He leaned into me a little, his breath was quickening and his muscles tightening. "Why can't I shift? Where are we?"
The panic was creeping into his voice. My protective instincts kicked in stronger in response.
"I don't know. I do know that we're going to be ok. I've been in worse situations than this."
It was true, I had, but I had at least partial use of my energies then. I cursed the Sisters under my breath. We needed to focus.
I squeezed his shoulder and closed my eyes trying to focus on my other senses. We needed to figure out where we were and what was going on so that we could get out. His muscles remained tense, but his breathing was slowing down. My ears pricked as I heard heavy footsteps approaching. They sounded as though they were on stone and the slight echo gave the impression of a narrow hallway. I opened my eyes and looked directly ahead into the pitch black. Ryan had tensed again. His head was pointed in the direction of the footsteps.
They stopped, and a gruff masculine voice said, "Food time, mongrels."
A square of dark-yellow light appeared above us and barely three feet in front of us. The faint smell of roast beef mingled with the smell of damp earth. The square went away as the meat landed with a soft splat on the floor. I tried not to cringe. Just because I was some part animal didn't mean I enjoyed eating cold meat off a filthy floor. I leaned forwards and grabbed the meat. I remained pressed next to Ryan. I hoped that my presence would help put him at ease. I didn't want to admit that feeling him next to me was calming me.
"Do we have to eat that? I mean, we don't know what it is and it's been on this filthy dirt-caked floor..."
I swallowed back my pride and handed him a slab of damp, cold meat. "We need to keep our strength up. We don't know what's going to happen to us, but starvation isn't going to help us get out."
He muttered under his breath but took the meat. I cursed the Sisters again as I bit into what I told myself was a nice roast beef and choked it back.
Once we'd both eaten, we stretched our arms out and groped our way around the small stone room we were kept in. Ryan found a small water trough in the corner. It smelled free of filth and blood, and we had no other choice if we wanted to stay hydrated. I cursed the Sisters again. We huddled up against a wall. Ryan wrapped his arm around my shoulders and kept me close.
I broke the silence and said, "So, what do we know?"
He sighed deeply, and it felt like he squeezed the bridge of his nose. "The room is stone, and the light was clearly artificial. It's damp, so we're probably underground. We don't have any use of our energies, which means something very powerful is involved here."
I curled my lip at the final part. "They must have woven some incredibly complex sigils into the wall. I suspect there are soul stones and blood magics involved, too. We heard the banshee in the clearing, and it was a draconic that knocked us out. They also kept us together and are feeding us."
My mind hit against the thought, and I leaned my head on Ryan's shoulder before I said, "There's a reasonable chance we're in a fight pit."
I'd broken down a fight club before, but that had been from the outside, not the inside.
I tried to keep my breathing calm and slow and my muscles relaxed. I didn't want to worry Ryan. I had to get him out of there alive. I didn't know how I was going to do it, but I would make sure he was ok.
I rested my hand on his chest. "We'll get out of this. I promise you, we'll get out of here."
I thought back to the other stupid situations I'd gotten myself into in the past and how far we'd come as a pack in such a short time. The boys had taken a couple of weeks to really come to terms with the death of the siren killer. The murderer becoming human at the last second had thrown them, but they understood that he had to be killed. Ryan had asked questions while Nik quietly listened and Dan shrugged it off. We were becoming a pack, slowly but surely. I refused to allow that to crumble.
I smiled to myself as I thought back to my introduction to the boys, how I'd demanded a receipt so I could return them. I would never have thought of myself as being protective over them then. Yet I swore I would do everything in my power to keep Ryan safe. I would get him out of there. His muscles kept tensing and releasing, his heart rate was too high, and I needed to make him relax and conserve his energy. I had to take his mind off the situation at hand.
I patted his chest softly as a sign of comfort and affection, and also to draw his mind back to me. "Tell me a bit more about your family."
He'd mentioned his sister before, so I hoped for the best. He swallowed hard. Maybe I'd been wrong.
"Well, my sister's a bit of a bitch." He laughed quietly, trying to keep the waver from his voice. "She has always been the one who got high grades in school, had all the trophies and achievements. She told me I'd never come to anything. She's off on the other side of the world saving someone or something. That's what she does. She saves people. She's a gods-damn miracle worker."
He couldn't keep the slight snarl out of his voice.
"Mom and Dad are good people, they always did their best to raise me right. I grew up with them, Mum's sister, and Dad's brother and his wife. Mum's sister's mate died not long after they got married. She never quite recovered and never had any cubs. My uncle and his wife are super cool, though. They taught me to hunt and track. My uncle taught me hand-to-hand combat, and his wife taught me how to handle a blade. They never looked down on me like the others; they always told me I could be something good. I really hope they're right. I want to make the whole pack proud."
I patted his chest softly again and said, "You will make them proud."
Ryan had driven me mad at first, but they all had. He'd fucked up a couple of times with the sirens, and his moping was frustrating, but he’d been making good progress. He was eager to learn and was showing a lot of progress with both his hand-to-hand and his blade work. He was stealthy and cautious. I hoped that he'd be a good shadow for my assassinations. I just had to get him out of there.
The small room was almost silent outside of our breathing. If we listened closely, we could occasionally make out faint screams and heavy footsteps. Ryan held me close and tensed at every one. I focused on the steady in and out of my breath and tried to think logically. The pitch black and the silence would quickly wear us down psychologically. I hadn't even started to prepare Ryan for anything like that. We needed to keep ourselves occupied and mentally remove ourselves from the situation. Dwelling on the surroundings and the multitude of potential outcomes would not be good for us.
Alex's face came to mind. I could see the creases around his ice-blue eyes, the furrow in his brow, and the tightness in his lips. I knew he'd be worried about us.
Instead, I said, "How are you getting on with Nik and Dan?"
Pack bonds are incredibly important. The pack depends on each other, and with our pack being Wyrd Bound we put our lives in each other’s hands. He took a deep breath, his chest
rising steadily beneath my head before he allowed the air to slowly escape again.
"Nik is great, I've known him for years anyway; he's like a brother to me. Sure, we have our problems sometimes, but nothing ever sticks. Dan, I'm not quite so sure on. He's... odd. Don't get me wrong, he seems like a great guy, but there's always a bit of distance between him and us, and he absolutely refuses to take his shirt off. I know you made that comment about Nik and me, but I've never been into guys; I don't want him thinking that I'm gonna jump him if he takes off his shirt!"
I laughed softly. "I'm sure there's another reason for his odd behaviour. I'll take him to one side when we get back and ask him."
We continued talking about easy, familiar things for what felt like a few hours before we fell asleep. It was a fitful, uneasy sleep, but we had to snatch what we could. That was what kept us going over the next few days.
Chapter Two
I had no real way to track how the time passed down there. There was no light source outside of the one in the hallway, and that only appeared when the heavy-booted creature threw cold meat through the hole in the door. We had no contact with anyone other than each other. I had to give it to Ryan; he was holding up better than I had hoped. We paced around the little room on a regular basis to keep our muscles working. It also helped to de-stress us a little when we needed it. We tried katas, but the small space and pitch blackness made them very difficult. We quickly learned to move and catch the meat before it hit the ground. It made us feel a little better, if nothing else. I didn't put too much thought into where the meat came from or what it was. I just viewed it as sustenance.
We discussed everything from the boys, our hopes for the future, Ryan's past and family, to movies, food, and music. I tried to keep myself in the calm alpha position. I didn't give him any more information about myself and my past than I was absolutely comfortable with, and he didn't push. I remained calm and in control. When he grew frustrated or started to withdraw, I held him close and stroked the back of his neck and got him talking again. We had to keep our minds out of the black little box that had become our home. It was the only way we'd survive.
**
We knew that day would be different. More meat had been thrown at us and the square of light remained there for a few moments after the meat had been thrown. I didn't look up at it. It hurt my eyes too much.
"Are they going to throw us in the pit?"
Ryan's voice was surprisingly calm and almost curious. I couldn't hear any fear there. I took another bite of the bland, cold meat and thought for a moment. It seemed like the most logical bet.
"I suspect so. Keep your wits about you. Don't waste any energy fighting them unless you're sure we can get free."
He gave a soft grunt of understanding, and then the waiting began. Our usual conversation ground to a halt as we waited. We fidgeted and paced around the little room.
I took a deep breath and pulled Ryan close to me. "We need to calm ourselves. No wasting energy."
He simply nodded and bent his knees as though to sit, but we heard the heavy boots, and they weren't alone this time. We tensed and stared at the door. I had no idea what to expect, but I had to think we'd be blind at least momentarily. His fingers dug lightly into my ribs as he tensed and held me close when they stopped outside our door. The sound of metal scraping against metal rang in my ears. Every muscle was tensed, ready to leap out of there. Slowly, a thin crack of yellow light appeared forming a large rectangle, and then the door was thrown open. The faint screech of the metal scraping against the stone sent chills down my spine, but the light was too much for my eyes. I turned away to try and protect my eyes.
Large rough hands grabbed me around the scruff of my neck and pulled me backwards towards the door. Ryan growled but stayed close to me. Once I could see again, I saw that we were being escorted by four large draconics, their heads almost brushing against the high ceiling and their shoulders rubbing against the stone walls. They were easily three times as big as me, their skin a mix of black and deep purple scales. Their eyes were the colour of old yellowed paper, and their dense black claws dug into the back of my neck.
"Give us a good fight, we have some big bets on you two."
His voice was gruff and deep, entirely devoid of emotion. We rounded a corner to see the pit. It was smaller than I'd expected.
We entered a large round room with tiered seating along two walls and a cage in the middle. It was only the size of the living room at home. The floors were soft white sand. I wondered how often they had to completely replace that. The thing that confused and worried me was the set of pitch-black metal doors at the back of the cage, two of them. That suggested that whatever we were fighting wasn't entirely under their control. It wouldn't be entering willingly, and it wasn't being dragged there from another cell like we were.
I looked around the room. The only exit, other than the one we’d just walked through, was guarded by a pair of particularly surly-looking draconics. A fat human-looking man with a bulbous nose and small toad-like eyes sat in the middle of the seating on his own raised white seat with a higher back, almost like a cheap white throne. Around him were sat a collection of creatures, from smaller draconics, a couple of banshees, a siren or two, to a number of hellhounds and their demon masters. They all sat and watched us, some with a look of disgust, others with sadistic anticipation.
The toad-like man leered at us. "I do love watching shifters try and fight."
It was as they shoved us through the doorway into the cage that I missed my aspects. I couldn't hold it back any longer. I couldn't repress the feeling that I wasn't whole. My aspects were still there within me, just locked away in small boxes. I felt dull, empty, and in that brief, agonising moment, lost.
Ryan looked to me, his teeth bared, but he couldn't hide the sweet scent of fear.
I stood tall and put my shoulders back. "Remember everything we taught you back at home. I will do my best to protect you, and we will get out of here. Do you trust me?"
I didn't know how I was going to fulfil that, but I was going to give it everything I had. My best hope was to kill whatever came out of those doors and run out the exit between the draconic guards. I hoped it would give us time to get out into the complex and fight our way out. It was weak, but I had nothing else.
One of the draconics threw two dull short swords at us. "Make it interesting."
With that, he sat down near the bulbous-nosed man and a small chime rang out. I put myself slightly in front of Ryan and to the side. I wanted to protect him. An unearthly howl cut through the air. It was quickly followed by the metal doors rattling as something threw itself against them. The distinct acrid, musty scent of fenrath filled the air. Of all the things, it had to be them.
I quickly said to Ryan, "Their claws are poisonous. Kill them quickly. Aim for the throat and the eyes."
His eyes went wide, but I didn't have a chance to address his concerns. The doors opened, and two fenrath charged us. Their burnt-orange eyes bored into mine as they ran on all fours straight at us. Their shoulders were level with mine, corded muscles rippled under their coarse, dense fur. Their long, yellowed teeth were exposed as their black lips were pulled back in a sickening grin. They were the closest thing to what humans called a lycanthrope. The long slightly pointed muzzle was reminiscent of a wolf’s, and thick pitch-black claws adorned each of their toes on large canid paws. The temperament was closer to a honey badger.
It took them no more than three steps to be on us. I twisted to one side, the fenrath slipping in the sand, trying to twist after me, its long legs becoming tangled as it landed on its side near me. I dove forwards and sank the dull blade down through the coarse slate-grey fur into its neck. It snarled and twisted, trying to snap and claw at me. I danced away and plunged my blade into its ribs before it had a chance to get its legs under it again.
I glanced over at Ryan to see him facing down his fenrath. It towered over him at some seven and a half feet as it stood up on its
back legs. He tried to slice at its pale grey stomach, but the fenrath swiped at him. I focused back on my own fenrath. I had to have faith in Ryan.
The fenrath I was fighting had its hind legs under itself and was pushing up into a standing position with its front legs. I took the risk of its jaws and slammed into its shoulder, using my weight to drive the blade into its neck. It yowled as it fell and remained down. The man clapped quietly, giving him a false sense of dignity. The rest of the crowd, however, exploded. The eruption of noise reverberated around the room. It was almost deafening and overwhelming. I refocused and looked through the heavy black bars at him and snarled. He was smiling as though watching the ballet, a restrained little smile with lines around his small dark eyes.
I focused back on the scene I was in the middle of. Ryan had managed to slash the fenrath's hocks, taking it down to the ground. I didn't have a chance to help him finish it, as another fenrath tore into the ring. That was not what I had hoped for. I cursed the Sisters. How dare they allow this to happen? Ryan finished his fenrath quickly, and we worked as a team for a few minutes before yet another fenrath appeared. The bodies were mounting and making things even more difficult. Adding to that was the fact that we were starting to grow tired. Days locked away without proper food had left their mark. Our movements were becoming slower as we danced around the fenrath, trying to get behind them and slash at their legs to reduce their movement without tripping over the corpses of their brethren.