Caged

by Amber Lynn Natusch

  “I’m an only child, Coop. I don’t do sharing,” I retorted.

  “If I’d had one like you first, it’d be an only child too.”

  “You’re an ass.”

  “You’re a grump.”

  The way we bickered back and forth made me start to wonder if he wasn’t auditioning to fill the absent sibling position himself.

  We pulled up to my building around five pm that evening, after what I was told was a thirty-eight hour road trip with breaks included. Coop thought it best given our appearances to not break the speed limit at any point in time, though I was more convinced that it was because his getaway car wasn’t exactly rented per se, but more so ”acquired” in the most dubious sense of the word. However, I was so glad to be home that I couldn’t have cared less how we got there and that included the legalities of our transportation.

  I saw the window of my shop and got teary eyed. I missed my home. I had no idea how long I’d been gone; yet another question off of the long list that had no answers to date. I had to remind myself that it wasn’t back to business as usual, anyways. I wasn’t staying long.

  He handed me my keys, which Sean procured from his little trip to Boston, no doubt. I unlocked the main door to the upstairs apartments, let Cooper in and then followed him up.

  Always good to keep them where you can see them…

  “Which floor?” he asked.

  “Second. Third floor is my dance studio.”

  “You own the whole building?” he asked, sounding surprised.

  “Yes. I didn’t want tenants so I converted it over when I first moved in. It suits me just fine.”

  He shrugged in the way that means everything and nothing and continued up to the door. I unlocked that as well and pushed it open with ease, but hesitated to enter, afraid of the normalcy it implied. Life had been so crazy for what seemed to be so long - I wasn’t sure that I was ready for the mundane, however short a stop it may be.

  Cooper, seeming to sense my unease, stepped in first and flipped on the wall switch, lighting the living room. He did the proverbial three-sixty turn to take the place in, which seemed comical given that it wasn’t really all that big.

  “This is going to be perfect, Roomie. Where’s my room?” he asked with a smile in his voice.

  “Do your delusions impair all aspects of your life, or just the socially related ones?” I quipped, hoping the sting would take some of his enjoyment of our circumstances away. As was typical, it didn’t.

  “Not at all, my dear, in fact they greatly enhance it.”

  I really was beginning to hate him sometimes.

  “The guest room is down the hall to your left, second door on the right. Hope you like pink,” I chided.

  “I make pink look gooood,” he said as he passed me, sticking his face directly in mine.

  Of course you do.

  I was ready to put my plan into action, but I needed to get a few things accomplished first. I had to get some basics together for the trip and somehow hide them outside the apartment door to grab on the way down. I managed to pocket my keys without him being any the wiser, so that was one less thing to deal with.

  “I’m going to grab a quick shower,” I announced. An immediate smile crossed his face with that shit-eating-grin quality to it.

  “Need some help?”

  “Definitely not.”

  Again he shrugged and threw in a head tilt for good measure.

  “Actually, yes.”

  With that his disappointed look transformed into one of pure, unadulterated interest.

  “You can order pizza while I clean up. There should be a menu on the fridge. Get whatever, I’ve got cash in my room.”

  Before he could rebut, I scrambled down the hallway to my room and slammed the door, locking it behind me. I dove under my bed to find a duffel bag covered in dust. I shoved things into it frantically - a packer I was not. I kept reciting “the basics” song over and over in my head: undies, tees, jeans and bras…undies, tees, jeans and bras. In a sheer moment of clarity, I grabbed socks and a hoodie. I really did need to work them into the song somehow. Everything else that was necessary was in the bathroom. I covered my bag with a towel and my clean clothes for camouflage. I breezed past Coop’s door to the bathroom without so much as a peep out of him. Just like with toddlers, Cooper was at his most dangerous when quiet. It raised a lot of concern, but I had no time to worry. I shot into the bathroom and locked it, turned on the water immediately along with my iPod and began packing everything else I needed.

  I did actually shower, but didn’t make an all-day event out of it, just a quick wash and cleaned my face. There was no time to thoroughly wash my mop, so I rinsed and conditioned it as quickly as possible, knowing that I’d have to tie it back to keep it under control as it dried. A hat would likely be involved as well.

  Once I was dressed and looking somewhat more myself in my favorite Seven brand jeans and a vintage tunic, I flashed down the hall again to stash my duffel under my bed. When I came out of my room, Coop was leaning against the guest room door frame. I had a sudden rush of panic, fearing he’d seen my dirty little secret and was gearing up to play with me about it before he crushed my escape plan.

  “Got any clean towels?” he asked, still draped in the doorway.

  I nodded a little too enthusiastically.

  “In the linen closet, top shelf,” I said. I walked past him, opened the closet door, and grabbed a towel. He accepted it when I passed it to him, but as I turned to head for the kitchen he gently grabbed my arm.

  “You’re going to have to come with me,” he said with a serious edge.

  “Hell isn’t freezing anytime soon, Cooper, nor am I going in that bathroom with you.”

  He moved closer to me. Too close. He looked down his perfect nose at me and repeated himself, reminding me that I was not to leave his sight.

  “It’s not like I can’t sneak out of the room once you’re actually in the shower. Besides, how far am I going to get before you hear me making a break for it?” I pleaded, trying desperately to get out of this one.

  He slowly shook his head.

  “Get in there,” he said, shoving me towards the entrance.

  “May I remind you that I’m a killing mach..”

  “NOW!” he hollered.

  Shit!

  “Fine,” I muttered under my breath as I made my way into the bathroom with Cooper hot on my heels.

  He closed the door behind him and locked it. After starting the water up, he assessed the towel I had given him. Apparently he’s a connoisseur of terry cloth.

  When he started to undress, I snapped my eyes shut, squinting as hard as I could. I was pretty sure that he laughed as he entered the shower. Settling myself down on the toilet seat, I heard the screeching of the curtain rings as they passed along the rod, signaling that the coast was clear. At least it should have been.

  I opened my eyes to the lightly tanned perfection that was Cooper’s body. Apparently, in all his genius, he thought it best to only partially close the curtain, allowing him to cleanse and babysit all at the same time. I’d never met a man who could multitask before.

  My brain was screaming at my eyes to close and my head to turn, but a coup had started inside my nervous system and neither was happening. By that time, he was very aware of my staring. He enjoyed it immensely. Though his face was playful, there was a heat in his eyes that I had not seen before. I was mesmerized. At least it kept my eyes above his neck.

  “I had to keep you in sight. You understand, don’t you?” he asked, running the soap up and down his chest. I watched the trail of suds wash down his stomach then slammed my eyes shut, shaking my head slightly. I nodded in response.

  When I opened my eyes I looked away from him, turning my body towards the door. He chuckled to himself and then started whistling some tune I didn’t know. I listened to the water bounce off of his body as he soaped and rinsed. He repeated the process so many times I lost count. He was taking fo
rever. My knees bounced uncontrollably and I sat on my hands to keep me from biting my nails down to stubs. The pizza guy needed to show up sooner than later, or I was really going to lose my shit.

  41

  Cooper eventually emerged from the shower cleaner than a Michelin Star kitchen. I had managed to regain composure during his last five minutes in there, so I looked calm, cool and collected. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t. The pizza guy was thus far a no-show and I was starting to stress that somehow my great escape plan was foiled before it even got off the ground.

  “So when’s the pizza getting here?” I asked casually. “Did they say how long it’d be?”

  He toweled himself off casually while I studied the cracks in the plaster ceiling, realizing that if I tried hard enough, I really could see Jesus in just about anything.

  “He said it’d be about forty-five minutes. Why?”

  “Because I’m dying to find out his opinion on global warming,” I said, hoping that sarcasm would maintain my facade of normalcy. “I’m starving, aren’t you?” He stepped in front of my ceiling view and frowned down at me. I took that to mean he was hungry as well. “OK then, I’ll go round up some money. What’s the total?”

  “One hundred and thirty-five bucks,” he responded.

  “What the shit, Coop? Did you order all their pizza?” I shrieked, totally caught off guard. Werewolves were expensive to feed.

  “You said to get ‘whatever’, did you not? I got what I wanted, and one pie for you.” How thoughtful. I only need a loan to pay for it.

  I took a deep breath and let it out oh-so-dramatically while I walked to my room to get the cash, feigning frustration about the whole thing. Everything was back on track, and I couldn’t have been more pleased with myself, but I kept that smile to myself as I crossed the threshold to my room.

  That was when everything went completely south, in a death spin, crash and burn kind of way.

  The doorbell rang and I was nowhere near the apartment door, and I panicked when I heard Cooper making his way towards it. I knew he couldn’t go down to the outside entrance without the money, so he’d have to wait for me. But he wouldn’t let me go down there alone if he was already in the hallway and he’d know something was up if I insisted upon doing it. Worst of all, my bag wasn’t stashed yet.

  In all my smoothness I sprinted for the living room as casually as one could and tried to calmly tell him I’d get it, but I could see his perfect profile completely ignoring me, turning the knob to enter the stairway.

  It took a few seconds to register the gunshots after they went off.

  Cooper stumbled back to the couch and collapsed half on it, half on the floor. I froze in the hall by the kitchen. I neither heard nor saw anyone, but knew who it was, who it had to be. To think that this was how he thanked Cooper for his assistance was unfathomable and I felt as though I’d never known him. Again. A true mercenary to the core.

  My gaze snapped back and forth from the empty apartment doorway to where Cooper lay bleeding, nearly unconscious on the floor. I was giving myself whiplash while contemplating my next move. My autonomics were working on overdrive and I couldn’t understand how I was controlling a Change, thinking this would be the one time I’d really welcome it. I tried to focus as hard as I could on blocking everything out when I saw Coop lift his gaze to meet mine briefly.

  “Run!” he whispered before losing consciousness or dying. I just couldn’t tell.

  “There’s nowhere that little doggy can run that I can’t find her,” said a voice I knew, right before it burst into laughter so evil I was certain my crucifixes were melting off the wall.

  Then he walked through the door.

  42

  Eric’s entrance was followed quickly by about six others who I recognized from the party at Marcus’s flat. They strategically blocked my exit and had also conveniently moved to obscure my view of Cooper. I felt as though my heart was beating so fast that it was almost still.

  “Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, whatever am I going to do with you?” he asked as he slowly stepped nearer to me with an eerie calm. His face was complacent but his eyes anything but. They were a golden flaming amber; he was enraged.

  I stood my ground for no other reason than to salvage any shred of dignity I had left. That dignity was met with a backhand so hard it knocked me into the wall, leaving a hole where my elbow went through it. As I indelicately regained my balance he pinned me against the wall with his body. He ran his thumb softly across my lip where it had split and was beginning to bleed. He stroked back and forth slowly, coating it in the blood he’d shed. He then brought it oh-so-slowly up to his mouth and sucked it off like a delicacy of the highest order.

  “Mmmm,” he hummed as his eyes rolled back in his head. “Some things really are too good to be true.”

  He grabbed me sharply by the chin and licked my lip, catching it in his mouth and sucking on it until it throbbed even harder than it originally had. I struggled against him to no avail. I needed to Change to win that fight, but nothing was happening.

  He held me tightly against the wall with his pelvis ground into mine. It was in that moment I became startlingly aware of something: I felt nothing but hatred for him. There was no heated reaction I couldn’t explain, no bad behavior I could excuse, and no magnetic draw I couldn’t escape. Our bond was broken. I guess my wolf, who was so drawn to his, didn’t take too kindly to being sold for breeding rights and having her friends shot and bleeding in the other room.

  Cooper.

  I tried desperately to get a look at him, but Eric held my gaze by force and wasn’t relenting one bit. I shut my eyes, trying to connect back to the days of old and tune into my other senses. I heard no movement in Cooper’s direction. There was breathing, but it was too ordinary to be his. He’d taken three slugs to the chest from a sawed off shotgun which tended to make breathing laborious, and I heard nothing that sounded erratic and rushed. My pulse quickened as I assumed the worst. Cooper had once again landed in the line of fire to save my ass, and this time didn’t make it safely to the other side. I tasted the salt of my tears as they streamed past my mouth. It mixed with the pungent metallic taste of my blood.

  “I don’t think you should worry about your friend anymore,” Eric said with mock sympathy, “Silver has such a nasty way of poisoning the system quickly. He cannot undo what’s been done. Neither can you.”

  “You fucker…you make me sick, you son of a…”

  “Shhh,” he soothed with a finger pressed so tightly to my lips that I could neither move nor feel the circulation in them. “Your friend is a pawn in this game, both useless and expendable. You, on the other hand, are beyond valuable, which leads me to discuss my current predicament.”

  I tried to yell profanities at him, but it came out as nothing more than mumbled gibberish, which really didn’t have quite the sting I was looking for at the time.

  “You see, Ruby, I’m in a bit of a pickle because of you. My investors are scathingly angry that you’ve not only escaped captivity, which we’ll talk about in a moment, but also managed to kill an entire pack including their CEO. I’ve done my best to assure them that this little misunderstanding can be taken care of, but they seem less than convinced. They’re under the impression that you’re a bit of a…hm…what was it they said? Ah, yes, ‘a loose cannon’,” he said conversationally. His breath was poison on my skin and it burned with his every exhale.

  He removed his hand from my mouth, flipping it about to help emphasize his soliloquy with gestures. “I tried to remind them that if it hadn’t been from a little help on the inside, you never would have been able to pull off this little stunt. An error that would certainly not occur again. All potential sympathizers have been identified and eradicated.”

  “So you’re sending me back?” I whispered, realizing that death really wasn’t the worst fate I faced.

  He scoffed at the innocence in my voice.

  “Well not back there, you’ve made that impossible. But the
re are others who would have you for similar reasons. You’ll go to the highest bidder,” he said, thrusting his body up against mine again. “What would you have me do? I’m a businessman, Ruby. It’s nothing personal. Never was. I’d hoped to win you for myself given the bond our wolves had, but a better offer presented itself and I took it. Now that offer hangs in the balance, so I have to right it, whatever the cost may be.”

  “This is what he meant. You’re nothing more than a lowlife sellout. Everything he said about you was true,” I said with a sense of awe and regret hanging in the air with my words. Sean had said that Eric was only interested in himself and that he’d known from personal experience. “So what was it with you two? You owe me that!”

  He seemed to consider my demand for a minute before he offered anything up.

  “We know more about each other than you could ever possibly understand, but I’ll tell you what you want to know anyways. We were once brothers. I was PC. For decades I served beside him and the others, maintaining the balance between worlds. One day I met Marcus, and he made me a better offer,” he explained, pausing slightly. “Like I said, I’m a business man. He Changed me that day, and has been my mentor ever since.” His expression changed from indifferent to anger in the blink of an eye and my anxiety spiked instantly. “His death will be avenged. Your little wolf cub over there hardly counts as restitution on that front.”

  With that he grabbed me by the arm and started to lead me to the door. Apparently our moment of sharing was over. I’d hit a nerve and it zapped him right back into business mode. He was taking me down for transport to wherever my new “home” would be, and once again, nobody would know where I’d gone. That little theme in my life really needed to change; it was really getting old.

  “Wait!” I yelled, trying to startle him into stopping. I had no plan, so stalling was the default in hopes that Sean was closer than I thought. “How did you get in here in the first place?” I asked, realizing how weak that sounded even as I said it. He laughed at me, looking all too aware of what I was trying to do. He surprised me when he actually answered.