by Deanna Chase
“Thank you,” I said as he slid the drawer open. Inside was a thick file labeled Rhoswen and five smaller ones: Thompson, Daniels, Allcot, Laveaux, Kilsen. My fingers itched to snag my file, but the clock was ticking. It was two minutes to six. We didn’t have time. I grabbed Thompson and Daniels and flipped them both open on Maude’s desk. They each had a signed contract and a picture. My mouth dropped. Thompson was Clea Thompson, the vampire, and Daniels was her college-student boyfriend. They’d both signed on a month ago to work undercover for Maude.
“Shit.” David slammed a fist down on the desk. “That’s why she sought me out. She was spying on me.”
“The Cherry Bomb,” I said tightly. “Maude contracted her to kill me and Phoebe.” My chest tightened. The low-down, double-crossing bitch. We had to get out of here. Hastily, I stuffed the files back in the drawer and turned to flee.
The doorknob squeaked, and I froze. Link stayed by my side, his hackles raised. There was nowhere to hide. David jumped in front of me, knocking my purse to the ground. My phone and the little silver beetle spilled out. Shit.
I peered over David’s shoulder and found Maude standing with her arms crossed. Two guards flanked her on either side. She pressed her lips together in an angry sneer. “Agent Rhoswen.”
I tensed, ready for a fight. “Director.”
“Care to explain your actions?”
“We were looking for you,” I lied.
“In my locked office?” Her skepticism rang through loud and clear.
I shrugged. “It was unlocked. We assumed you’d be back.”
“Director,” David said pleasantly. “We spent the last hour in the records department going through employee files. It was our hope we might spot any suspicious employees that might be leaking information about Willow and her abilities. We were hoping to find a lead. But so far, no luck. If you can think of anyone, please let us know.”
“You think someone’s feeding information from the inside?” Maude asked.
I wasn’t sure if the contempt in her voice was for anyone who would betray the Arcane or the fact we thought anyone she’d hired would go off the reservation. Considering Maude crossed lines all the time, I had to assume the latter.
She gave each of us a hard look. “You’ll need to be debriefed. Come with me.” She stalked toward the door, obviously expecting us to follow.
“I don’t think so,” David said. “We have someplace else to be. But we can make an appointment for later.”
She froze and slowly turned back to face us, her mouth open. She shut it and raised one menacing eyebrow. “You will make time. Now.”
David grabbed my hand and pushed past her. “We’ll be in touch.”
Maude started to say something again, but a loud buzzing started from behind her desk, cutting her off. Then it stopped and clear as day, Phoebe’s voice sounded from the darkened corner. “Can’t you make a tiny exception? I won’t cause any trouble. Promise.” Her tone was sugar sweet, almost nausea inducing. “There’s someone I’m supposed to meet here.”
“Sorry, Kilsen,” a man replied. “The boss warned me you might show up. I can’t let you in.”
“I know all about David’s arrangement with the Arcane and how he’s really working for Allcot. What do you think Maude will do once she finds out? Just let me sneak on in, and I’ll make sure that stays under wraps. Hmm?”
Oh shit! The beetle. It was transmitting Phoebe’s conversation with the doorman at the fundraiser. I met David’s eyes for a split second, then we both took off running down the hall.
“Seize them!” Maude yelled, and to my horror, a dozen guards rounded the corner, heading straight for us.
Chapter Twenty-Five
I snatched Link and fluttered high in the corridor, speeding after David. He tossed one guard after another out of the way, clearing our path. I stuck close to him, acutely aware I was a major liability. As was Link, who wouldn’t be able to shift until we got outside. Neither of us could hold our own in a fight against the guards.
“Hold it!” Maude yelled from behind me.
Yeah, right. Not after she’d just heard my best friend confirm David was working for Allcot. It’s not that Maude wouldn’t have already put two and two together, considering last night’s breakout, but now she had confirmation and witnesses. She could lock us both up with the full weight of the Arcane behind her. Deal or no deal with Eadric.
David barreled through the last of the guards and down the stairs we went. Once back on the main floor, we turned right, the emergency-exit sign glowing ahead. If we could get outside, they’d never catch both of us. David was too fast, and I could wing my way into obscurity.
Just as we reached the emergency exit, someone grabbed my foot and twisted. Sharp agony shot straight to my hip as the guard yanked me down. Oh shit, that hurt.
Yelping, Link slipped from my grip, and I grappled to keep him in my arms. But it was no use. He tumbled to the floor with a loud thud.
“Link!” I cried, using the force of my wings to try to jerk away from my captor.
His little body quivered as he lurched forward, favoring his front left paw.
“Let go!” I twisted and cried out, my knee screaming in protest. I tilted forward, barely able to keep myself from face-planting on the gleaming white tile.
Link snarled at the guard, his hackles raised. Poor kid thought he was bigger than he really was.
In one blink, David appeared, neutralizing the guard clutching my leg with one lightning-fast punch to the head. Instantly, he crumpled to the floor.
“Let’s go.” David grabbed my hand and pulled me down the hall, my wings fluttering hard to compensate for my throbbing knee and hip. Rage fueled me as I watched Link do his best to catch up on his three good legs. They’d hurt my dog. The bastards.
Another white-clad guard dove and caught Link by the tail. Link whipped his head around and sank his teeth into the guard’s hand. Good dog.
“Son of a bitch!” the guard yelled but didn’t let go.
David cursed and sped back to Link as I held the exit door open. And then everything slowed. David reaching down for Link. Link squirming away from the guard. And Maude, feet apart, holding an oversized tranquilizer gun pointed right at David’s chest.
“No!” I launched myself forward, but a double blast reverberated through the corridor and instinctively I hit the floor. I glanced up as David sank to the ground, two large yellow darts stuck in his chest. His wide, unseeing eyes stared past me.
“David!” I crawled to his side and yanked the darts out, but I knew it wouldn’t help. Arcane-grade tranq darts put vampires out for hours.
I swallowed the emotion rising in my throat. There was no time to fall apart. As Maude closed in on me, I grabbed Link and thrust my wings out. I had to get out of there. Commotion filled the hallway as I focused on the exit only a couple of feet in front of me. Just a few more seconds, and I’d see daylight.
“Grab her!” Maude demanded.
My left hand hit the lever for the exit, and the door burst open. I could smell the muddy stench of the Mississippi wafting over the bank. Freedom.
“Gotcha.” Someone grabbed a chunk of my hair, and my head jerked back. Crying out with pain, I clutched Link tight to my chest. A rough male voice rasped in my ear, “Get used to it, faery. I’m going to really enjoy our time together.”
Bile rose in my throat. This was it. How could I have thought we’d survive a trip to the Arcane? How long would it be before I was strapped to an evil scientist’s table while they shot me full of drugs and forced me to cooperate?
“Put her down,” Maude ordered from behind us. The guard spun me around and planted me on my feet. Link, still in my arms, growled. I almost wanted to mimic him.
“Step back,” Maude commanded the guard, waving him away. He made a disgusted sound deep in his throat and shoved me toward my aunt. She towered over me, her eyes the same color as her black wings. Her pupils dilated so far not even the rim of her
blue irises showed. She leveled the gun right at my heart.
Glaring at her, I stood with my shoulders back. “Vampire-grade tranq darts can kill faeries. You’re not going to pull the trigger.”
She let out a mocking laugh, and her lips turned up in a grim smile. “Don’t tempt me.”
Then she pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket. Holding it up, she asked, “Look familiar?”
I stared at Clea’s picture. The contract must’ve fallen out of the file. I closed my eyes, wondering if the situation could get any worse. There was literally nothing I could do. My only skills lay with modifying plants. David and Link were my weapons. But Link was totally harmless in his current state. My bug was broken and lost in Maude’s office. No one was coming. So when two higher-ranking guards—I could tell by the insignias pinned to their uniforms—grabbed my arms, I walked with them, praying David woke up soon. Or Phoebe had somehow heard the mess we were in. Deep down I knew neither was going to help, but the thoughts kept me sane. Until we rounded the corner and they stopped in front of the basement door.
My lungs constricted and my heart sped up. Oh God, oh God, oh God. My wings stretched as if they could somehow hold me back. I twisted to find Maude directly behind me. “Why here?”
Her steely, evil gaze told me everything I needed to know. I was being punished in the worst possible way. Underground, with no hope of escape.
A guard, with hands larger than my head, clutched Link as he squirmed and howled his protest. Ice froze my heart. I couldn’t help him. Just like I couldn’t help David. Or myself. David. Was he still lying sprawled on the floor where they’d left him? What would they do to him? Where would they keep him?
Fear crawled up my spine, quickly transforming to utter panic as the guard behind me pushed me onto the tiny stairway. No railings. No light. Just walls on either side. My eyes refused to adjust to the pitch-blackness. All I could do was keep putting one foot in front of the other or risk being pushed into the abyss.
“Put her in the one to the left,” Maude ordered. A small click sounded from behind us. A bulb in the middle of the room came to life, barely illuminating the dank space with pale green light. A wall of diamond shapes floated in front of me in the darkness. I squinted, trying to identify the odd images.
“Move,” Maude ordered. The barrel of the tranq gun stabbed me in the back, scraping one of my wings.
“I’m going,” I snapped. “Get a grip. It’s not like I can see anything down here in your horror-movie dungeon.”
The tip dug deeper into my shoulder blade. I stumbled forward and landed face-first against cold metal wire. The links crisscrossed over my face and that’s when I realized what the odd diamonds were. A cage. A faery-sized cage. They weren’t just going to leave me down there. They were going to lock me up.
“You can’t do this!” I brought my hands up, clutching the front of the cage, my fingers digging into the metal. “I’m an agent of the Void. I deserve—oomph,” I cried as something hard swept against my legs, knocking me to one knee.
“Shut up or I’ll break your ankle.” It was Maude. She hovered over me, swinging her gun as if it were a billy club. She yanked the cage door open, the rattle of metal on metal echoing through the room. “Get in. Now.”
Fear paralyzed me. Nothing could make me voluntarily climb in a metal cage. Metal for Goddess’s sake. Underground, surrounded by metal. She was trying to kill me.
“Do it,” Maude ordered, her voice lower and harsher than before.
I didn’t move.
Boots clicked against the cement, and then someone grabbed me around the waist, tearing the metal from my death grip, and threw me. Hard. I slammed against the back wall. A sickening crunch registered in my brain before I realized anything was wrong. But as I fell to my knees, a sharp, piercing pain enveloped the entire right side of my back. My wings flexed in protest. A sharp lightning bolt of agony pierced my chest. No air expanded my lungs. I couldn’t breathe. Something was terribly wrong.
“You know, at first when I found out Clea tried to kill you and Kilsen, I wasn’t pleased. That wasn’t in the contract. She was only supposed to bring me information from the Cryrique. I guess she blamed you for the death of her idiot lover. Such a stupid mistake, pairing Cryrique business with his Influence purchase.” She shook her head. “But now I’m thinking a little dose of Cherry Bomb might be exactly what you need.”
I moaned, realizing Clea had played us. She’d known all along Daniels was dead.
Maude let out a demented laugh. “Let’s see you try to fly out of here now.”
The door to the cage slammed shut. A second later, a lock snicked closed with cold finality.
Fading laughter and the sound of retreating footsteps drifted down the stairs as I curled into a ball, trying to control the pain blazing along my right side.
I don’t know how long I lay there, trying not to move. All I could think about was Maude’s final words. Let’s see you fly out of here now.
The blow to the wall had crushed my right wing. I couldn’t move it one little bit without my stomach trying to turn itself inside out. Hot, angry tears pricked my eyelids. The bitch had taken out David, grabbed my dog, and mutilated my wing. If I didn’t get medical attention soon, I knew I could be crippled. Wings were durable in that they could withstand a lot, but if they were crushed, they needed specialized attention, or they’d never heal right. What good was a faery without two working wings?
A dose of good old-fashioned self-pity washed over me and I whimpered. What else was there to do but feel sorry for myself? A faint scraping sounded from outside my cage. Panic sent adrenaline through my veins. Had someone stayed behind? I held my breath, listening.
Scrape, scrape. Scrape, scrape.
“Link?” I said, my voice trembling.
The scraping grew louder, more urgent.
“Link!” My voice rose a few octaves, bringing fresh fire to my upper back. I stifled a gasp as I tensed and battled the pain. Where was he? Did they take him? Oh God, was he locked up too? And what had they left behind?
Gritting my teeth against the fire running from my wing tip to my shoulder blade, I grabbed the cage door and hauled myself into a sitting position. White spots swam in my vision as my back seized up again. Holy shitballs, that hurt. I blinked away the flares clouding my vision and peered through the diamond-shaped openings.
It took a moment for me to make out what was just ahead. A much smaller cage than mine, and Link trapped inside. My heart lightened. They hadn’t taken him. “Hey, buddy,” I called.
His attention was focused on the door. Scrape, scrape. Scrape, scrape. He was using his one good paw to dig as fast as he could, but it was no use. We were sitting on a concrete floor.
“Link,” I commanded. “Stop.”
This time his head popped up, and he tilted an ear toward me.
“I’m right here. Digging won’t help. See?” I reached down to pat the floor. My hand settled over a thick layer of grime. “Ugh!” I wiped the moist dirt on my jeans. No wonder he was trying to dig his way out. I summoned as much strength as I could and forced the words out. “It’s no use, little dude. We’re trapped.”
He gave a few more halfhearted scrapes, then settled with a heavy sigh on the ground, staring in my general direction.
“I know exactly how you feel.”
Link touched his nose to the door of his cage, sniffing the air.
“Is something else here?” I forced myself to stand on shaky legs. I could barely see more than a few feet in front of me. Nothing but the eerie green light and darkness. Feeling my way along the edge of the cage, I peered at our surroundings. Through the gloom, I spotted two more cages. Empty.
Better that than a whole host of prisoners. Right? A sinking feeling of helplessness took over, followed closely by rage. How could Maude do this? Whatever happened to justice? I could stand trial. I deserved a lawyer. This was still America, after all.
But Maude wasn’t work
ing under the law. She was the director of the Void. That meant she did whatever she pleased. And right now, she wanted me locked away.
The power-hungry bitch. But why? What good was I down here? I could make Influence. And apparently change the chemical makeup of vampires. Was that it? Was she afraid I’d turn all vamps into sunbathers?
Damn it! I would not just sit there in a cage and wait to be given orders. Tucking my injured wing close to my body, I ran my hands along each section of the cage. If there was a weak point, I’d find it. I spent agonizing minutes fingering every single connection on the gate, every joint, even the bottom where it hit the floor. Not one area showed a sign of weakness. In total frustration, I grabbed the side of the cage and yanked as hard as I could. Agony brought me to my knees. I gritted my teeth and waited for the worst of the pain to subside.
Idiot. My tantrum had been useless. Not one single sign of movement.
Beyond annoyed, I leaned my head against the cage door, too exhausted to form a plan. My head started to spin, and I vaguely wondered if it was from exhaustion or my broken wing. It throbbed with each breath I took. In a hazy, pain-filled stupor, I slumped down and curled up on my left shoulder.
Exhausted, I faded in and out of consciousness, waking each time Link sighed or moved. After what seemed like hours, I fell into a deep slumber. And dreamed I was sinking in quicksand.
I woke to a sharp pain in my wing and cried out, rolling to my stomach in agony. Gasping for breath, I pushed myself up on my knees, remembering the dream and the panic of trying to fly to safety. Great. I couldn’t even sleep without hurting myself. I blinked, trying to focus as I processed once again where I was. Arcane. Basement. Cage.
How long had we been down here? I had no way to tell. The room was still cast in horror-movie green and darkness.
Across from me, Link growled.
My body tensed. Was someone coming? Nervous energy ran from head to toe. I cut my eyes to Link. He stood rigid, attention focused on the stairs.