Caged

by J. A. Belfield

  A backward glance showed nothing of the two vampires. Only the sounds of their frantic passage exposed their positions.

  To the left, I caught a glimpse of a room through the doorway. Like the open space downstairs, sunlight filtered in from somewhere to shower every surface with golden warmth. A walnut desk. High backed seats. A sofa that looked pretty inviting after the concrete bed I’d been kipping on.

  I ducked inside. Inhaled.

  Nothing.

  My feet hit a rug that coated the floor in symmetrical design, and the all too familiar tickle taunted the base of my skull.

  Five strides in, I halted.

  Another inhalation found no scent.

  Doesn’t mean anyth—

  “Do not move.” At Catherine’s quiet voice, I tensed for attack, but a sharp piercing into the flesh at my carotid artery dictated I remain motionless.

  My entire body stiffened. Only my chest moved, pushing forth and releasing beneath the effort of breathing.

  “In the syringe is ten mil of liquid wolfsbane. Do you know what that means?”

  Fuck!

  Of course I knew—as plant, it held the potency to induce uncontrollable changes; I didn’t even want to think about what it could do in its concentrated liquid form.

  I went to nod.

  What the hell are you doing? Quit moving.

  I froze.

  All moisture evacuated my throat, leaving only an arid pathway for speech not even a swallow could cure. “Yes.” Hoarseness deepened my whisper.

  “Good.”

  The slap of feet suggested her backup joined us, confirmed by Mousey’s imaginative curse of, “Bastard!”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t have underestimated him, Chad.” What I presumed to be Catherine’s knee nudged the back of my leg. “Walk, please.”

  With little choice but to obey, I skimmed one foot across the carpet, followed by another.

  “Any chair will do. Take your pick.”

  The needle remained in my neck. Her hand against my back held the temperature of an ice cube. Arching my neck seemed a natural reaction as I shifted forward a little more.

  “I do not wish to kill you, Ethan.”

  “Then you’d better be sure you have good control over your appendages whilst you’re threatening to stab me with that shit.” Afraid of moving my jaw, each word forced past my gritted teeth.

  “I have excellent control. A skill you could do with learning.” The hand at my back switched to take my arm, and she steered me around the nearest seat, urging me into it. “This is the second time you have attacked one of my men.”

  My rear hit the springy cushion of the chair as Catherine’s chilled fingers slid to rest on my shoulder. With each beat of my heart, my flesh seemed to throb around the inserted tube of metal. “You have me secure,” I said. “You want to remove that needle now?”

  “Are you afraid, Ethan?” Her words irritated the drum of my ear with her nearness.

  “Of dying? No.” But I have to rescue my family and save the world from psychos like you before I let anything happen to me.

  Mousey—Chad?—rounded the seat I’d taken. My gaze lifted, locked onto blackness that swirled with erratic energy—what I presumed to be a vampire’s show of fury. Chad took a place beyond the desk in front of me and realigned his dart gun scope to my chest. “The wolf was not in his cage when we went down for him, Catherine.”

  A slight quiver affected the invasive syringe as Catherine’s head brushed the side of my own. “Who was responsible for securing his door?”

  “Me.” Chad’s brow scrunched above the scope he peered through. “I can assure you, the door was locked. He did not exit through any negligence on my behalf.”

  Quiet fell upon the room before a sigh hit my ear. “Relax, Ethan. You’re no good to me dead.” The pressure in my neck slipped out as smoothly as it entered, replaced by a gentle pat of Catherine’s hand.

  Releasing my held breath, I straightened my head.

  Joseph moved beside Chad, his cheeks either side of his nose affected by swelling, though no bruising advertised the blow he’d taken. Only humour pumped from his smirked expression—whether at my predicament, or my ballsy attack, I couldn’t tell.

  Fingers trailing across my shoulder as she passed, Catherine glided to the far side of the desk.

  Her attention turned to Joseph, she leaned in close, and he ducked, offering his ear. The communication that passed between them sounded on par with the false whisperings kids often do when pretending to share a secret—no matter how much I strained my hearing, I couldn’t decipher their words.

  Catherine took a step toward the desk, placed the hypodermic on the surface. “You spend much time talking to the others downstairs, Ethan?” Her gaze locked with mine. “I mean, two days is a long time to spend somewhere with no company, right?”

  Two days? Jesus. Shelley would be spewing. I frowned as the fiery female entered my thoughts and winched further tightness into my chest, but sent a shrug in response to the vampire’s questions.

  “So … tell me …” Catherine leaned across the table, resting upon her forearms, and the blackness of her eyes evaporated from the whites to form two solid orbs. “What have you learned about young Lauren?”

  21

  Although my lips remained sealed as I stared at Catherine, thoughts collided through the riot within my mind.

  The loudest one of them all came in the form of, How the hell had being out of my cage led to questions of Lauren?

  “Want to enlighten me?” I finally asked.

  “On what, Ethan?” Her expression hardened to an iced fury, and for a moment I saw what kept her ranks in line. “The question was simple. Answer it. What do you know about the girl?”

  “Nothing.” My shoulder lifted.

  “You left your cage, yes?”

  I rolled my eyes. “You know I did.”

  Her eyebrow ticked up as she thrust her face a little closer. “How?”

  “Is that a trick question?” I lifted my palms, fingers spayed. “I opened the bloody door and stepped out.”

  “Yes, Ethan, but how did you open a door that was locked?”

  “It wasn’t locked. It wasn’t even closed.”

  She pushed up to stand. The muscles of her jaw tightened, and she rounded to my side, slid one butt cheek onto the desktop at my knees. Her left hand reached toward me, the proximity confirming what I’d come to suspect. Her perfume consumption had been no more than a disguise for her lack of scent.

  I gritted my teeth and held my position when her fingers came to rest at the thrumming beat below my ear.

  She smiled. “You have a steady pulse.”

  My eyebrow twitched. “Shouldn’t I?”

  Her hand shot down between my knees.

  I jolted backward, went to jump up, but the forward jerk of my chair slammed my arse onto the seat, as Catherine grasped the wood and drew me closer with shocking ease.

  She shuffled her rear fully onto the desk and lifted her bare feet, nudging her toes to settle on my seat ledge. If I shifted forward, her pink painted nails would have been at my crotch.

  I followed the line of her denim-encased legs, and met her gaze as she brought her elbows to rest on her knees.

  The curl of her finger beckoned me closer. When I didn’t move, her lips upturned at one corner. “I’m not going to bite, Ethan. Come closer.”

  Leaning a little to the left showed me Chad and the unwavering focus he had on me with his weapon; to the right Joseph’s irritating smile beamed back. I looked to Catherine. “I’d rather not.”

  As she breathed out a quiet laugh, her fingers once again stretched forward, her other hand mirroring on my other side, until they rested against the beat of my pulse. “If
you lie? I’ll know.”

  “I’ve nothing to lie about.”

  “Then you have nothing to worry about, darling.” She wiggled a little, and her eyes shone like two polished onyxes when they locked onto mine. “What happened right before you noticed your door was unlocked?”

  “Nothing. I stretched. I yawned. That’s it.”

  “Did you see anything?”

  “Actually, yeah.” I nodded, pursed my lips. “I saw the inside of my eyelids.”

  Her stare hardened and a flash of temper sparked a glower into her eyes.

  I blew out a breath. “I was asleep, and woke to find the door that way.”

  “When you awakened, did you notice anything about Lauren? Where was she looking?”

  Back to Lauren. Why? I shrugged. “She wasn’t looking my way.”

  “At all?”

  “Didn’t I just say that?”

  “Now’s not the time to get smart with me.”

  “No, it would appear it’s the time for pointless questions.”

  Her fingers tapped against my pulse points for a moment. “Did Lauren say anything when you noticed your door was open?”

  Back to the door. Back to Lauren. “No.” Do they think Lauren somehow opened my door?

  “Nothing at all?”

  My left eyebrow winged up. “We’re going round in circles, here, Catherine.”

  “I’m just trying to figure out Lauren … and how your door came to be open.” She smiled.

  She does think Lauren opened my door. Which would make Lauren what? “I have no answer, to either, for you.”

  “So”—another smile, a flash of fangs—“your door’s open with no idea of how … yet you step out of your cage with no consideration?”

  “What can I say?” My shoulders hitched up with my shrug. “Curiosity got the better of me.”

  “Curiosity killed the cat, Ethan.”

  I chuckled. “Just as well I’m not one, then, I guess.”

  “I guess so.” She didn’t speak for seconds—didn’t move either—except for the smoky blackness in her gaze and the further lengthening of her fangs.

  My lips vibrated with my expelled breath. “Is this why you invited me up here? To ask about my social relationships downstairs?”

  “No. Not even close.”

  “Well, if you’re done with the questions, would you mind removing yourself from me?” I lifted my hands to grasp at her forearms. A tug at each didn’t budge them.

  “If you weren’t so arrogant, you’d save yourself the humiliation you seem so intent on self inflicting.” Her half smile reappeared. “You’re no match for me, wolf.”

  “That’s a big assumption.” With a grit of my teeth, I forced her fingers from my neck. “One only a fool would make.” The muscles in my arms protested the force I exerted to return Catherine’s hands to her lap. “It’s also one I intend to prove wrong in the very near future.”

  “Tough talk.” Her smile extended to the other side of her mouth. “Now, I’m really looking forward to seeing you in action.”

  “It’s not going to happen—not in the sense you mean.”

  “Really?” Her eyebrows arched up. “Why do you think you’re up here, Ethan?”

  I released my hold on the vampire, leaned back in my seat. My left shoulder shrugged up as I folded my arms across my chest.

  “It’s your time to shine, darling.”

  “Then …” I frowned. “What am I doing … here? None of the others—”

  “None of the others have shown disrespect, or misbehaved.”

  Disrespect? Misbehaved? She made me sound like a naughty kid who deserved a clip round the ear for scoffing all the cookies behind the garage. “Disrespect is as much a two way street as its opposite, Catherine.”

  She surprised me by nodding. “You’re right. Which is why I’m showing you a little courtesy by telling you exactly what will happen if you refuse to comply with my requests.”

  “And those requests would be what?” Do I really want to know?

  “I put you in the cage against whatever opponent I’ve chosen for you. You change, without question, and fight, without inhibition.”

  Cage? I narrowed my eyes beneath the scrunch of my brow. “Or?”

  Another of her smiles arrived to fill her face. “Ordinarily? If one of our weres or shifters refuse to change? We make them.”

  “How the hell—”

  “It’s amazing what results come from a sharp electro shock, or a decent shot of adrenaline into the bloodstream. Of course, there are the ones we leave to their own demise. They have only themselves to blame if they don’t change and aren’t strong enough to defend themselves, right?”

  Holy shit!

  “But for you, the option is much simpler.” She slid off the desk and crossed to a bureau on the other side of the office. With her back to me, she pulled down the desk and extracted a decanter from within.

  My brow didn’t ease up as I waited for her to elaborate.

  She poured the dense red liquid from within the crystal vessel into a wine glass. Small glugs forced it past the narrow opening. Once she’d replaced the stopper, she lifted the glass to her lips and drank, her eyes closing for a moment before she turned back to me.

  “You.” She pointed a finger my way, and her tongue darted out, capturing a rogue trickle of what looked and smelled like blood. “If you don’t fight, like I ordered, I will cancel the fight and substitute you with one of your friends.” Black filled her eyes as she sent me a smile. “And they will be made to change however we choose.”

  My teeth ground at her words. “You know what I don’t get?”

  “No.” Another sip on her refreshment painted her lips a bright crimson before she did a little self-cleaning. “But I have a feeling you’re going to tell me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you like to ask what—”

  “No.” I shook my head. “Why are you doing this? What’s the point? What the hell do you get out of this kind of bullshit?”

  A spark entered her eyes. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” After lowering her glass to the open bureau, she headed across to the doorway. “You’re a smart cookie, Ethan—I’m sure you’ll figure it out soon enough.” She paused in the archway with a smile. “I’ll escort you. It’s time.”

  • • •

  Down the spiral staircase, Catherine led me by the hand, whilst Joseph hung on behind by the syringe they’d stabbed back into my neck. Upon re-entering the corridor, we took a right instead of left, and followed the curve of the circular path in silence.

  Like I’d seen the other way, windowed coves ducked off at intervals, and arch-shaped doors that probably led to other rooms. Whilst we’d been upstairs, someone had set each of the wall candles aflame, and their lambent flickers created dancing shadows across the stone.

  The rumbling hit me first—about ninety seconds before the stench crashed down on me with the impact of a forty foot wave. My gags kicked in. The clench of my jaw to restrain them lest I knock the hypodermic in my neck sent an ache through both sides of my skull.

  Like a potent hum of electricity, the noise levels escalated with each step and vibrated through the building.

  My chest rose and fell to a rapid beat. Soreness infected my throat, each shallow breath scraping at the raw pathway. Blood rushed to my head, and my eyes almost lost sight as the vile and stale odours of destruction consumed my every sense.

  About then, the natural defence system of my body kicked in, and my mind began a slow shutdown until I had a vague awareness only of placing one foot in front of the other.

  The corridor became a blurred continuation of glowing grey. Filtered noise arrived as no more than the thrum of a trapped moth. Numbness infiltrated, blocking
the sensory receptors at each of my contact points with the vampires, and at every coiled muscle.

  A clang and a whine penetrated my mind as though arriving from a great distance.

  Even the forceful shove of my shoulders and the forward stumbled stride of my feet struggled to register within my brain.

  At the same metallic screech and clank behind me, I snapped alert.

  The fuzzed and dancing shadows I’d followed in the periphery of my tunnel vision brightened. I blinked against the visual attack, lifting a hand that didn’t want to obey the command to shield my eyes.

  Buzzing lengthened in tempo until the noise evolved into spoken words and shouts.

  Voices of anger, excitement, anticipation, filled my ears—none of which held familiarity.

  A quiet chant of ‘wolf’ should have set my pulse soaring, alongside the barely recognisable call to ‘place your bets’.

  Only once my nose got its act together and dissected the decay from all the surrounding and very much alive forms did panic lay claim to my body.

  My head whipped up. My eyes focussed.

  No longer in the corridor, no longer escorted, I stood inside a cage that made mine downstairs look like a rabbit hutch.

  I spun on the spot, staring at every viewable angle in disbelief.

  From beyond the heavy duty mesh, faces stared at me, their lips moving and producing the sounds my mind had initially muted.

  I blanked them once more and took a deep inhalation in the hope my senses had it wrong.

  They hadn’t.

  I stood in a cage.

  Surrounded on three sides.

  By humans.

  Lots of them.

  Oh, fuck!

  22

  I spun in the centre of the cage, fast enough to induce a wave of nausea, until my gaze fell on Catherine and Joseph, both beaming at me from the other side of a door.

  Hands fisted, I strode over to them. “What the fuck is this? There are humans in here.” The clenching of my jaw scarcely allowed the words to pass through.

  Behind me, a thrum of impatience took over my audience. The order of ‘change already’ shouted out in a deep bass.