by J. E. Cluney
“Obviously not,” Thomas muttered as he turned his attention back to me.
“Have they decided what we’ll be doing with Jackson?” Sean asked, and I could see the nasty intrigue in his eyes as he leaned against the table. He just wanted to add fuel to the fire.
“They’re still discussing it, I’ve said my piece,” Thomas muttered as his hazel eyes hardened. Jackson sure got better looks than this rough looking man. He had a square jaw that gave him a boxed face, and that hooked nose did him no favors. Not even the salt and peppered short beard could save him. His brown hair was crew cut, and I seriously wondered where Jackson got his good looks from. Because he certainly looked nothing like this foul man before me.
“Where is she? And what were those winged supes?” Thomas demanded answers as he stepped closer, standing tall and glaring up at me.
“I’ll tell you where she is,” I sighed, noting the distressed look Jackson gave me, and the interested one from Sean.
I so intended to kill that prick at first chance.
“Where?” Thomas narrowed his eyes in distrust.
“Up your ass with your morality,” I smirked.
I didn’t even see the dagger come out.
3
I passed through the hallway out of the pit and found myself in a brick-walled room with large barred cages around the area. They were small rooms themselves, with a toilet and bed in them. Some had multiples, but the large room had a low stone ceiling, and the brick walls were a muddy red hue, giving the dimly lit space a disgusting glow.
“You’re the new one?”
My eyes landed on the two women in the nearest cell thing, all sides were metal bars that went right up to the ceiling, but at least the large king bed looked decent. The toilet in the corner was a pathetic hunk of porcelain.
“New what?” I asked as I took in their cage. What the hell? Who would lock up some innocent looking women.
No. Not normal women. Their auras were like mine again.
Kitsune women.
“The new one for the pits. I hear the Collector has plans for you to be in the breeding program once one of his males beats you. You’re some tough little warrior, aren’t you?” the same brunette woman said, giving me a toothy grin. She was wearing a long purple skirt and purple crop top, her wavy hair cascading over her shoulders. She looked like she was well looked after compared to the woman perched on the edge of the bed in just her underwear and bra. She had dirty marks and bruises across her skin, and her harsh brown eyes were burning into me. Her mousy brown locks were pulled back into a messy bun, and she had a sweet-heart face, and a petite body shape, different to the woman in purple.
And her underwear was mismatching, black panties with a white bra.
“Why are you here?” I asked back.
“I’ve just been put into the breeding program, but my ‘mate’ is… well, dangerous, so I get brought back here afterwards for safety,” the first brunette said in disgust as she averted her eyes.
The way she said ‘mate’ made it clear that this was nothing like my own mates. A pang of hurt spread through my chest at the thought of them, but I quelled it. They were okay. They had to be.
Because I needed to focus on getting out of this creepy as fuck place.
“I’m Lucy, Lucy Bronton,” the main brunette said and jutted out her hand as she leaned against the bars of her cage. Her ocean blue eyes were intrigued, and I shook her hand as I inspected the other cages. Many were bare, but there were a few other women in here. Not one other one was giving me the light of day.
Broken.
They’d all been broken.
“Savage,” I murmured.
“That’s your name?” Lucy scoffed as she looked back at her cage mate. Even the mousy haired woman was frowning at me.
“Yeah, named myself when I was younger,” I admitted.
“What bloodlines are you?” Lucy asked. “This here is Izzy, Isabella Walter. Mated to an epic Kitsune in the real world, but now she’s here, in this shit world,” Lucy sighed.
I stared at Izzy as she watched me, her hands fisted on the bed. Why didn’t she have clothes?
“What lines?” Lucy repeated as I focused back on her.
“Dorian,” I said, and Izzy gasped as she shot to her feet.
“That’s not possible,” she hissed as she flew over to the bars to plant herself beside Lucy. She was shorter than the curvy brunette, but no less beautiful in her own way.
“Why?” I raised an eyebrow at her.
“My mate, mates, they were the last children of the Dorian line,” Izzy narrowed her eyes. “When their mother got killed by hunters, their lines ended until the kitsune son found a mate. My mate, Samson,” she growled, her nose scrunching up in distrust.
I stared at her, her words sinking in as my body tingled and a wave of unease swept through me. How was this possible?
“When their mother died, so did their sister, Savannah, right?” I murmured, and Izzy’s eyes opened as she just stared at me in shock.
“Savannah wasn’t murdered, she was taken and raised to be a weapon, a huntress, never knowing what she was,” I continued as Izzy’s face dropped to sadness and a hint of excitement.
Lucy was just glancing between us with mild shock and interest as she rested against the bars.
“You’re Savannah?” Izzy murmured, her eyes glittering.
“Yeah, but my hunter father figure never caught my full name when my mother cried it out before his brother murdered her. He called me Sav all my life, until I named myself Savage,” I explained. I felt like this woman should know, especially if she was mated to my brother. Samson. So that was his name. He wasn’t my only sibling either from my memory that Dominic had showed me. My mother had said brothers, so I had more.
We all jumped as a buzzer sounded off and their cage door flew open.
“Come, quick,” Lucy growled as she ushered for me to join them in the cage.
Like hell I would.
“I’m not getting locked up, we’re going to get out of here,” I said as I shook my head. I looked around at the few other kitsune women, knowing that I was the only one with the skill to get us all out. Hopefully.
“We can’t,” Izzy sighed as she rested her face on the metal bars. “The doors are locked, there are cameras, guards. Everything. We’re trapped here,” Izzy murmured.
Like hell we were.
I marched over to the door on the far side of the room. It was obvious it was the only way in and out, considering the door behind us led to the pits. No windows either. What a grand way to live.
Izzy was right though. This door had no handles, and as I reached out to touch it, I felt the magic sizzling off it. Darker magic. Magic that would hurt me if I attempted anything.
I needed to really think this one through.
A voice crackled over some speakers around the room, and I narrowed my eyes at the nearest camera on the ceiling, its little red light blinking ominously at me.
“Enter your cage, or you will be forced to.”
“Where am I?” I asked back.
“Enter your cage, or you will be forced to,” the voice rattled out again.
Forced to. That would mean someone would have to enter the room to force me to.
Good. So be it. That could be my ticket out of this freak-show. I’d come back for Izzy. She was my only link to my real family. I didn’t want to have to leave her, but if I could free us, I would.
“No,” I stated as I crossed my arms, tapping my boot on the stone flooring.
“Enter your designated cage, or we will make you.”
Well, they’d upped their threatening tone.
“Make me then,” I growled, preparing my aura to attack as I turned my attention to the door.
I wasn’t expecting something to shoot me from behind.
The pain shot through my back as I collapsed against the door, and the magic and power vibrating off it hurled me backwards with force.
T
hen darkness washed over me.
4
Leon.
I scowled as I marched through the hall of the institute, heading for the infirmary room.
I shoved through the wooden door to find Damien still in the bed, glaring at the ceiling.
“How are you feeling?” I asked, forcing myself to calm down a little to check in on my brother.
“Pissed off,” Damien growled as his eyes flashed angrily.
“Mr Oxley will be here soon, he’ll help us sort something out. Dominic has been odd, don’t you think?” I muttered.
The witch had barely tended to Damien’s injuries, which was his duty here. He’d then left him to go and make us some dinner now that night had fallen.
Too bad all we could think about was our stolen mate, and Tristan being missing.
“Who took her anyway? Do you really think it was a Collector?” Wesley asked from his seat in the chair beside the medical bed. He had a DS on his lap, but he hadn’t touched it at all. I knew he wanted to distract himself from his thoughts and worries, but not even his gaming could succeed in that tonight.
“It was a golem that took her from the truck. I saw it,” I growled.
“Collectors have golems, the more renowned Collectors,” Damien murmured stiffly as he winced to sit up.
“I think Dom is just funny because Tristan has been taken. He needs to keep his mind busy,” Wes added about my earlier query.
“So you think a Collector took you down from the sky?” I asked as I sat on the edge of the bed.
“Their loyals probably did. It was magic that shot me down,” Damien said as he tried to stretch his arm. He had broken bones, but they were healing incredibly fast like usual. If he’d been just a pure werewolf, he’d be lucky to be alive after that fall.
“Well, we need to figure out where they took her,” I murmured as my mind whirred.
Collectors came in many shapes and sizes, usually supes who became fascinated with other supes and would begin collecting them up. I’d heard about them, but never run into one.
Guess that was all about to change.
“I’ll kill them when I find them,” Damien growled as he closed his eyes against the pain inside.
I could feel his self-loathing for letting them snatch her from his arms.
But how could he have fought them? The magic needed to hold us is powerful stuff, the sort of magic only a warlock could wield.
And that was a worrying thought indeed.
A warlock. One incredibly powerful supernatural creature indeed.
A sense of power filled the house, and we all glanced at each other in surprise.
We had not expected Mr Oxley home so soon.
I knew instantly he was coming to find us, so we waited patiently.
“Do you think he’ll know where to find a Collector?” Wesley asked. I could feel his stress. We were all on edge about our new mate, it was ingrained in us. If we lost her, there was no finding another mate. Mates were for life, that’s why you protected each other.
And I’d failed.
“We both did,” Damien growled as he shifted, pain marring his face as he hissed.
The ugly purple and blue bruising across his bare chest was slowly fading as we waited, but not fast enough.
“So did I, I could’ve done more,” Wesley sighed.
“You shifted and did all you could,” I assured him. Wesley shifting was never an easy feat, but he’d done it in an attempt to save Sav. Too bad we hadn’t made it in time.
Mr Oxley’s cane clicked in the hall, and we all turned as the door was pushed open and he stood before us. The power he emitted was enough to make me bow my head in respect, but he was displeased. That much was obvious.
“Damien, good to see you’re recovering. Now, tell me what happened so I can understand. Leon said over the phone that you were on a hunt, and things went bad. Walk me through it,” Mr Oxley said as he planted himself by the door, his brown suit and slicked back hair giving him the look of a professor with those wire-framed glasses. Both his hands rested on the carved dragon head of his wooden cane.
“Dominic told us you had a hunt for us, a nest of rogue vampires killing people, so we took Sav with us. It went well, the hunt was easy enough, but then her adopted hunter brother showed up, which was off-putting,” I began the story of our shitty day.
“He wasn’t too bad, seemed curious, not dangerous at all,” Wesley interjected, and I shot him a frustrated look.
“But then other hunters showed up. Her brother, Jackson, got shot. Sav got tranquilized. Damien took her to try to get her safety while I distracted them, and things went to shit. Tristan’s demon blade got destroyed, we felt things go bad with Damien so Tristan told us to go after him. We did, Wesley even shifted, but there was magic involved now,” I continued the recount.
“I got paralyzed by strong magic and fell from the sky. I managed to twist us so I took the brunt of the fall, but then Sav’s hunter father came over and just took her from me. I couldn’t do anything but yell and shout. My body was frozen,” Damien snarled, his hands fisting in the blanket covering his legs.
“I went after the truck with Wes, but Wes got brought down too, magic trapping him. I felt it trying to catch me, but I managed to dodge the first few attacks. I saw the truck stopped at a train line, and there was a Golem. It tore the door off, but I couldn’t reach Sav. I got caught by the magic and managed to land without damaging anything. But I was paralyzed until the Golem left with her,” I growled, gritting my teeth as I relived the moments.
Seeing that ugly clay beast with its huge body and smaller head carrying Sav in the distance. Thomas, her father, unconscious on the road.
“I took Damien by shifting again once the magic wore off, because the hunters were closing in and he couldn’t fly. Leon took off, and we tried to find Tristan but there were too many of them. We went after where the Golem went, but we couldn’t find it either. We eventually had to accept that we needed to get Damien treated and work out our next step,” Wesley finished up, his DS falling from his lap and thudding on the floor. No one said another word as he picked it up and just sat it on the counter beside him.
Mr Oxley looked puzzled, his golden eyes narrowed as he took everything in.
I knew he was somehow seeing more of what happened using his telepathy. I could feel him in my head, but I didn’t push him out. He was just trying to find out exactly what happened.
“Dominic sent you to that nest?” Mr Oxley murmured.
Why was that the only thing he was focused on? Sure, Dominic never got things wrong, but there was so much else going on right now!
“Yes, why?” Wes said for me, since I was trying to keep my cool and struggling.
“I never asked him to send you on a hunt. I was still determining whether you all would work well together with your mate in the mix. I was following up leads on her family,” Mr Oxley said softly, his mouth pulled back in a grim line.
“Why would he lie and send us then?” Damien growled.
“The last I spoke to Dominic, I’d sent him to a witch who had contacts, she seemed to know a little of the Dorian lines. He went silent on me after that, hence why I started heading home. And then I got your call to tell me things went wrong,” he said as he turned to me, those golden eyes flashing dangerously.
My stomach flipped as my mouth set.
“Guess we need to have a talk with Dom then,” Wes murmured as Damien growled and pushed off the bed.
He winced in pain but fought through it.
Mr Oxley watched him with both pride and pain, and I knew he cared deeply for us. We were like sons to him.
“Yes, we need to figure out what’s going on,” Mr Oxley agreed as he turned back to the door.
I helped Damien walk, taking one arm over my shoulder as he grumbled in frustration. He had broken ribs and bruising, but surprisingly nothing punctured. Guess we had our angel lines to thank for that.
“I’ll kill him if this is
his fault,” Damien growled.
“I’ll be handling Dominic,” Mr Oxley said sternly as his cane clicked on the wooden flooring.
Damien gave a grunt of disagreement, but nothing else was said as Wesley and I exchanged glances.
Was Dominic to blame for all this? There were so many questions to ask, but I couldn’t dwell on it. I’d wait for Mr Oxley to get answers from Dominic.
But the pain and fear niggling at my insides as Sav danced around my mind made my jaw set.
We had to find her. We had to protect her.
I could tell both my companions were just as turmoiled by her absence.
We needed our mate back. She was a part of us now.
5
Tristan.
I groaned as pain burned through me, and I hung limply from my chains as Jackson murmured to me.
It took me a moment to dull down the blood pumping loudly in my ears to make out what he was saying.
“You all right?”
I gave a sharp laugh followed by a wheeze.
“Do I fucking look all right?” I said sarcastically.
“Well, you didn’t tell them shit,” Jackson said, and I could tell he was thoroughly impressed.
Good, because this torture thing was a bitch.
Despite Thomas stabbing me in the side, it hadn’t been too bad at first.
I’d actually enjoyed it, like I do in my sex dungeon, but they soon caught on that slicing me and carving me up was not something that was going to get me talking.
They’d moved on to sticking with holy water and branding me with crosses using a blessed fucking iron bar.
Turns out that shit is very effective. It burns like fuck and makes all your insides scream like you’re literally on fire.
Right now, being part demon sucked ass.
But I’d not told them anything despite their torture methods. They were now discussing getting a witch in to force answers from me.
Too bad that sort of magic had to be powerful, not just any witch could do it.
I groaned as I moved my head, the droplets of holy water in my hair sliding down my skin and sizzling.