Caged

by J. A. Belfield

  If I’d offended Joseph, it didn’t show. His smile broadened before he turned and walked away. Behind him, the corpse I’d created painted a crimson trail in its wake.

  The scent of blood remained strong even once they reached the doors. I inhaled, and followed the path my senses paved until I discovered the werewolf’s DNA coating my forearms and clothing. As the doors clanged departure, a quick swipe of my hand found more of Andrew on my face.

  “Congratulations, wolf.” The shifter’s soft tones seemed out of place in the blackness of my mind.

  I raised my gaze from my palms.

  “Not only have you just shown them exactly what you’re capable of.” She jerked her chin to the left, toward where I knew Kyle lay. “You have just revealed to them your biggest weakness.”

  17

  When I first absorbed the shifter’s words, an invisible substance found home in my oesophagus and blocked any comings and goings my body attempted through there. On top of that, the horror in Lauren’s eyes every time she sent a fleeting glance my way pierced my heart.

  I guessed she had every right to look terrified. In her mind, I must have gone from somewhat friendly and approachable to a monster who’d killed with his bare hands.

  I’d had better days, for certain.

  Wallowing, however, didn’t fit well with me, so I put myself to a more constructive task—ridding my body of dead werewolf remnants.

  Using my T-shirt as body cloth left me with only half my attire, but I’d nobody to blame other than myself. Besides, I had a strong preference for shirtless if it cancelled out my gory appearance.

  Andrew’s blood stank up my T. With each wipe, the grey jersey altered to resemble tie-dye fabrics available from most hippie shops. Once certain I’d removed every last trace, I tossed the cloth into the far corner and crossed to the front of my cage.

  Lauren gave a small shoulder jerk. I frowned at the effect my closeness had on her, and how drasticly my behaviour had provoked her change. I wanted to look at her, to somehow placate or reassure, but my mind insisted she wouldn’t thank me if I did either.

  Instead, I focused on Kyle’s cage, until a murmur from Lauren drew me from my self-shaming thoughts.

  “He hasn’t moved yet.”

  A dip of my head showed her facing the same direction as me. “Thought you couldn’t see in the dark, Lauren.”

  Movement beneath her shirt suggested stiffening or a shrug—I couldn’t be sure which. “I can’t. I just know he hasn’t moved.”

  I frowned. “How?”

  “Just do.” She continued facing forward.

  I went back to Kyle and remained static for minutes until my frustration crept back at seeing only dimness.

  “Wake up, dammit,” I muttered, fingers curling around to grip the bars. In a moment of idiocy, I grappled with the bloody metal, grunting as I hauled, tugged, and shoved, as though I held the power to pry them farther apart.

  “You won’t move them.”

  My chest heaved beneath my efforts as I stared back down at Lauren.

  She didn’t turn to me. “They’re too thick. I already tried.” With her own hands wrapped around them, she pulled a little, as though to prove her point. “Too strong … see?”

  “You … already tried?” My gaze skimmed over the puniness of her arms even her clothing couldn’t disguise, and I almost laughed. “You tried to bend the bars?”

  “I just said so, didn’t I?” A shift of her head brought her eyes round toward me. “So, you can quit wasting energy on something that’s not gonna happen.”

  The moment broke my plummeting mood, and my lips curved into a smile. With a rough double-handed rub at my hair, I turned back to Kyle and spotted shadows dancing in his neighbouring cage. A scuffle announced motion within.

  “Hey,” I said.

  The werewolf who’d only ignored me in silence stepped forward a little, his gaze boring into me, as though he struggled to figure out my intent. Either that or he had speech problems.

  “Hey,” I said again. “Can you see him from there? Can you see my friend?”

  His eyes flitted to his left before settling back toward me, and he gave a slow nod.

  I urged my face between the bars, didn’t get far before the too narrow opening stalled me. “Is he breathing? Are you close enough to see that?”

  He responded with a shrug. I thought that all I’d get until he turned toward the division and lowered into a squat. His head pressed against the rods. What I assumed to be his hand nudged through into Kyle’s space.

  The wolf straightened, and held up a finger. “Gimme a minute.”

  My eyebrow lifted at his heavily accented voice. At a guess, I’d have placed him from somewhere toward Norfolk way.

  He blended with murkiness.

  I peered harder, wishing for even a sliver of light to see.

  “I can’t reach him.” Two deep breaths followed, putting strain on his words. “He’s too far.” Footsteps followed before his face bobbed through the gloom. “Sorry. I tri—”

  A jerked dragging sound from his left took my attention, his whipping to the right.

  My heart thudded as Kyle appeared from the shadowed depths of his enclosure.

  Lauren gave a small gasp, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Kyle whilst his body shuffled across the concrete as though wound by a winch. “Kyle?”

  No response.

  The dark haired werewolf stooped low, slid his hands between the bars. He sent a glance my way before patting at Kyle’s rump. “Hey.” Another prod. “Hey, you okay?”

  Still nothing.

  “Um,”—the wolf peered at me—“he’s out for the count.” He pushed to his feet, scratching at his head as he frowned. “How’d he move?”

  “He’s breathing, right?”

  “Yeah, he’s definitely breathing.” His fingers continued to riff through his hair. “I just don’t get how he moved.”

  I rubbed my hands across my own head and closed my eyes for a second as I allowed my relief a chance to wash through me.

  “I do not wish to intrude upon your moment,” the shifter said.

  I lifted my lids, my eyes narrowing as I studied her back at her bars. “But …”

  “But, you are getting ahead of yourself.”

  “Meaning?”

  “You smell his wounds.” Her chin lifted to her left. “What if the wolf you killed told the truth?”

  My jaw tightened. “Then Kyle’s been bitten.”

  “How long do you think that gives him?” She blew at hair hanging across her features, seemed irritated by it for the first time. “I would imagine, not long.”

  “But …” I tried to peer around far too many bars toward the end of the underground chamber with thoughts of Gabe. Would they treat Kyle as they had Gabe? I turned back to the feline. “Do you think—”

  “I wouldn’t begin to make guesses, if I were you.” She smiled, and the expression lent a honey tone to her eyes. “The only thing I know with certainty is they have a different set of rules for you and your friends than they have for all the others in here. So, tell me …” Her lips remained curved, her eyes holding an intensity that seemed to see through to my soul. “What is so special about you all? Or more to the point, what is so special about … you?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Bullshit!”

  Her expletive caught me off guard enough for a small laugh to escape. “I’m no different to him.” I pointed to the werewolf beside her. “Maybe they’ve made a mistake.”

  She shook her head, and her hair brushed either side of her abdomen like two halves of balance scales. “They’ve brought nobody in here, yet, that they didn’t need. As soon as one is killed, it takes only days—sometimes less—before another takes t
heir place. They know what each of us is … with the exception of the girl.” Her gaze moved to Lauren and back to me. “And the girl has no cause to lie to you. If they sought you for a reason, that reason has to be a good one. So, if I were you, I’d start thinking long and hard about what their motive might be.”

  My amusement nudged aside with each of her words.

  “I’d also start praying for them to bring the anti-venom for your friend—however much the idea might repulse you. Without it, I don’t like his chances.”

  The female’s soothsayer-ish ways grated on my nerves a little. I could only take so much continuous enlightenment, and I’d already filled my quota for the day.

  She stared at me, like the answers to her questions would appear within my features if only she looked hard enough. I repaid her scrutiny, whilst hunting through my brain for what kind of appeal I held for the ones upstairs.

  Given the nature of what seemed to be happening, it had to boil down to my physical abilities. Had I been in that many fights to warrant the interest? Sure, I’d been attacked, and retaliated to the point the instigator wished they’d never bothered—mostly by other werewolves who’d tried their luck when trespassing in our borough. Maybe the fact I’d never lost a fight before I got accosted by that damn vampire had somehow reached their attention? Who the hell knew?

  Who the hell knew how, seeing as I’d not been brought up as a bragger?

  As though joined by a powerful psychic connection, my and the shifter’s head turned toward the double doors at the same time as the werewolf spun to face that way. A split second later, the scuff of a foot landed beyond the steel, and in half that time again, the barrier swung open to reveal the blonde who’d deceived Kyle.

  Hands fisting, I tilted my head a little to the left as she paused in the backlit doorway like she awaited applause.

  In limpet jeans, and a shirt that came with the same clingy effect, she placed her hands on her hips. She seemed to scan our area, and once her gaze landed on me, her face lowered slightly.

  The werewolf receded into the rear of his cube, although he couldn’t possibly have seen who’d arrived—maybe my body language had tipped him. Even the panther showed her willingness to leave me to my own demise as she mirrored his retreat.

  Ahead, one dainty pump-clad foot lifted. The vampire seemed to be choosing a spot around the dried river of blood before placing her sole down. Her other foot received the same consideration, and she hopped across to the other side of the aged crimson trail. Once she had a rhythm going, along the lines of step, hop, shimmy and step, her gaze locked back onto mine for the remainder of her approach.

  She came to a stop beyond my bars, her proximity telling me I offered her no concern, and her eyes did their crazy shit.

  My brow twitched. She looks really pissed.

  “You killed one of my team.” She slid a hand through the bars, poked a finger into my bare chest. “Now, you owe me.”

  I stared down at her, and my lifted eyebrow up a little higher. “Lady, I owe you nothing.”

  “Lady?” The roiling of her eyes and curl of her lip suggested I’d offended her with a title common amongst humans.

  I reined in my smile, ducked my head a little. “Trust me, the term was not meant as any kind of endearment.”

  Her eyebrows did a jig, not unlike a couple kids I’d seen achieve on TV for a commercial. “So, tell me. What do you intend to do to repair the damage you’ve caused?”

  “Are you for real?” I loosened the tightness invading my jaw. “You kidnap a young kid I know, and treat him like crap, pitting him against vampires …”

  The black of her eyes reformed into their solid circles, and she glanced along the cages toward where I knew Gabe lay.

  “He’s barely even an adult, for fuck’s sake, and you allow him to be bitten …”

  Her eyes held surprise when she returned to me.

  “Then you do exactly the same to him,”—I jabbed a finger in Kyle’s direction—“and have the nerve to ask how I’m going to repay your fucking loss of one man?”

  “But your men are not dead, Ethan. I have allowed them to live—assisted in young Gabe’s case.”

  “Kyle’s been bitten. He won’t live much longer with vampire venom in his bloodstream.”

  She smiled up at me as her hand slipped to her rear. When she brought it back around, a syringe balanced between her fingers. “What if I had the power to prevent his death happening, too?” A step forward pressed her chest against the bars. “What would that be worth to you?”

  The urge to snatch through the bars and grab the medicine made my fingers itch, but I knew she’d whip it away before I even got near. Instead, I folded my hands around the bars and leaned in close to her face. “What is it, exactly, that you want from me … Catherine?”

  “So eager to please.” She caught her bottom lip between her teeth. “Bet you like to please in other departments, too.”

  “Not with a vampire, no.”

  Her eyebrows flickered up, down. “You never know. You might enjoy it.” She turned toward Kyle, but only for a split second, before she reclaimed me with her eyes. “Your friend didn’t seem to mind.”

  “He would have, if he hadn’t been tricked into thinking you were something different than what you are.”

  “And he wouldn’t have been tricked if he hadn’t been so gullible. You males are all the same.”

  The grind of my teeth vibrated through my ears like a power tool. “Are you going to tell me what you want so Kyle can be helped, or do you plan to just talk dirty to me all night?”

  “Night?” She smirked. “You have no idea how long you’ve been here, do you?”

  I kept my eyes in check as they went to roll. “Do you see any clocks?”

  She laughed—a sound I recognised from my dazed stupor in Kyle’s hotel room. It irked just as much as it had then. “So …” With her gaze still on mine, she took two steps to her left. “Say I give this to Kyle.” She held up the syringe like she’d been watching too many hospital dramas, and tapped the cylinder with her fingernail. “Will you comply?”

  A right step brought me back in line with her. “Comply with what?”

  “My requests, of course.” She shifted closer to Kyle again—a move I matched.

  “You’re not my type. I prefer my females with a pulse.”

  Amusement tugged at the corners of her lips. “What if I promise my requests will be of a non-sexual nature? Would you, in return, promise to comply?”

  “Help Kyle, and then ask me.”

  A small laugh preceded an even smaller shake of her head. “It doesn’t work that way, darling. In case you didn’t notice, you’re in there, and I’m out here. Guess who’s calling the shots?”

  My growl rumbled through the back of my throat as she turned away.

  The vampire worked keys from her rear pocket and unlocked Kyle’s cage. She pivoted back to me, fixed her gaze onto mine as she entered and on her journey to where Kyle lay in the corner. “So … last chance. Will … you … comply?”

  Before I could stop myself, I nodded.

  What the hell am I doing?

  Her drop to her haunches looked more like a glide than plummet. She folded her fingers around the syringe, held her thumb poised over the plunger, brushing through Kyle’s shaggy hairs coating his rump. With hand and needle in position, her gaze met back with mine. “No promise, no anti-venom.”

  Don’t do it, my mind screamed. It’s a trick.

  “Choice is yours,” she said.

  My focus fixated on the needle—relief for Kyle. “You have my word,” the oath uttered past my lips. Shit!

  I kept the self-aimed groan an internal one, as she stuck Kyle with the needle and applied pressure which I hoped sent much-needed medicine into his bloodstream.
>
  She withdrew the empty syringe and slapped Kyle’s flank before she straightened. “There. He should come around in a few hours.”

  “Does he have to stay in there alone?” I swallowed down a lump that tried to stopper my throat. “What if something goes wrong? What if the serum doesn’t work?”

  “It will.” She headed for the door.

  “It might not.”

  With a clink, the door slid back into place. “It will.”

  “You should have him transferred into here.” My hand fisted, pumped toward the floor. “With me. He needs watching over.”

  “He’ll be fine.” A twist of her wrist turned the key, and she rammed the bunch back into her pocket before spinning. “You wouldn’t be thinking of backing out on our deal, I hope?” Her steps barely made a sound as she crossed to my bars. “If you did, I’d have to kill you.”

  I gave a low growl. “I never renege on a promise.”

  “Good.” The curve of her lips turned her from psychotic to almost charming. “Then, I’ll be seeing you very soon, Ethan Holloway.”

  “I can hardly wait.”

  As if something had tapped xylophone bars in her throat, her laughter tinkled out like disjointed notes. “Funny and cute,” she said as she walked away.

  The doors banged like a death toll on her exit.

  18

  “You are an idiot!” Panther-girl glowered at me through her bars, like my moronic behaviour over Kyle caused her severe offence. “The vampire played you. And you made it easy for her. Idiot!”

  I couldn’t quite make the ‘yeah, I know’ admittance a verbal one.

  “If she didn’t intend to let that one live,”—she flung her arm out to her left and pointed through to Kyle—“he’d never have made it back down here, at all.”

  My jaw tightened at her snappy tone.

  “She used him … to get to you,”—her finger swung around, and she jabbed it toward me—“and you let her.” A growl vibrated past her lips.

  My eyebrows winged up at the first feral sound she’d made. “What’s it to you, anyway, puss?” I winced at my barked tone as well as my words. “Why do you care what I do or don’t agree to? Or what might happen to us? You don’t even bloody like werewolves, remember?”