by Amelia Jade
“And you?”
“Well of course me. That’s the entire point of this. I’m not inherently cruel. I just want something. Something you have. You’re going to bring it to me, if you want her to continue to be unharmed. Do we have a deal?”
Kase desperately wished to destroy something. Anything. To feel his fists reduce it to rubble. Yet that would not help Michelle. He needed to keep his calm. Right now, the stranger on the phone had the upper hand, but that wasn’t always going to be the case.
“What is it you want from me?”
“The data, Kase.”
“What data?” he asked, pretending ignorance.
“You know. I await you at my residence. Come alone, and bring it with you. Don’t be late!”
The line went dead. A moment later, the phone buzzed with a text message from the same unknown number. It was coordinates.
I’m coming, Michelle. Just hold on.
Chapter Twenty
Michelle
She sat up abruptly as consciousness and memories returned. The cold press of iron on her wrists and ankles prevented her from going anywhere, keeping her pinned to the surface she lay on.
“What the hell?” She looked at the metal restraints holding her tight. Where was she?
The last thing she remembered was the truck slamming back down onto four wheels. There had been a sickening thud from outside, followed by something collapsing to the pavement. Then someone had entered the truck before everything faded to black. She’d been knocked out. Drugged, perhaps?
Her brain was rapidly returning to full function, and with it came a host of questions. Where was she? The room wasn’t overly well lit, but she could move her head around. Unfortunately that didn’t give her any major hints. There was no giant map on the wall that said ‘you are here’. The walls. She frowned. The walls weren’t made of metal—they were cut straight from rock. Okay, she was likely underground. It still didn’t help, but it was a start. She also appeared to be locked in a cell of sorts. The one non-rock wall had bars and a door built into it.
Had the government come for her? That’s silly. I haven’t done anything wrong! But who else would have gone to all this effort to kidnap her? Nobody even knew she existed! Not on a ‘power’ scale of influential people. She was a nobody.
“Okay. Let’s see. Where does that leave me? I don’t know where I am, except underground, and I don’t know who has me, which also means I don’t know why they have me. Well, this is certainly proving to be a real informative session.”
The relative calmness given her predicament was surprising, but really, what else was she supposed to do? She was chained to a table with solid steel restraints. Escape wasn’t going to happen, though she tested them again just to make sure. There was no give.
Booted footsteps scraping against the rock floor interrupted the silence. Michelle went still, closing her eyes and pretending like she was still passed out. The person came closer, stopping in front of the bars. After a moment, during which she could hear nothing but heavy breathing, someone started to tap against the metal. It was a slow, metronomic pace. Measured. Heavy.
“I’m aware you’re awake. Your breathing pattern isn’t that of a sleeping human.”
“Let me go!” she snapped, trying to sit up before remembering she was pinned down. “I haven’t done anything wrong. I want a lawyer!”
The person at the door chuckled, a deep, ominous sound. “A lawyer. How quaint. Tell me, why would I get you one of those filthy excuses for people?”
“Because I don’t belong here, and you’re violating my rights.”
“So I am. Tell me again what your point is?”
“That according to the law, you can’t just kidnap me.”
“Heh. Heh heh heh. I don’t think you quite understand, Michelle Barden.”
Prickles of fear stabbed her core. An inkling of understanding made its way into her brain. “You aren’t the government, are you?”
“Very good, Miss Barden. Very good. Which is why there won’t be a lawyer.”
She frowned. The voice sounded vaguely familiar to her. “Do I know you?”
“Yes. We met most recently, actually.”
Lifting her head to get a view of the door, she focused on the person within. All at once her brain clued in to where she’d met him. “You!” she howled in rage. “I should’ve known you would be trouble, you creep! What the hell do you want? Where’s Jerrik? Why are you doing all of this?”
The man laughed. “A quirk in timing, Miss Barden. I was one day too late, you see. One day too late. If I’d acted earlier, none of this would have happened. But now that it is, I have to go to all these lengths. Trust me, I’m no happier about it than you are. It’s such a drag.”
“You can’t seriously think that this is going to convince me to come work for you, do you?” She shook her head, resting it back on the wooden platform. “Knock me out, kidnap me, and not only put me in a cell, but chain me down? Then what were you planning to do? Oh, yes, Miss Barden. Here is the contract. Just sign it, and we’ll pretend like none of this ever happened, of course.’”
The man—she still had no idea what his name was—just laughed. “You had your chance to do this properly. Had it, and you rejected it. Now we’re going to do it my way.”
“That…doesn’t sound very nice,” she said nervously. “What did I ever do to you?”
He laughed. “The same thing you did for your father, Michelle. Nothing! Absolutely nothing at all. Don’t you see, that’s the beauty of it!”
“Fuck you!” she screamed, pulling violently on the restraints. “I’ll fucking kill you!”
The man from the park just laughed. And laughed. He was mocking her, and she knew it, but he’d brought her father into it. Michelle finally fell back onto the table, breathing hard, trying not to cry. It wasn’t her fault! She’d tried her hardest, worked tirelessly to find a cure for him. Night after night she dreamed of finally one day finding success and being able to stand in front of her father, proudly telling him that he was going to live.
But she hadn’t. She’d failed. No matter the formula or the permutation they’d tried, it never worked. Every day her father slipped further and further from her grasp, and there was nothing she could do about it.
“All that time and money,” he mocked. “And you couldn’t do anything with it.”
“We were close,” she ground out. “Another few months, and we would’ve had it.”
“Less, I think, judging from what I saw. Weeks, most likely.” He laughed. “Oh so close. Now it’s all gone. Or will be once he gets here.”
“What? Who?” She was confused. “And what do you want with all of this?”
He rolled his eyes. “Isn’t it obvious? If you found a cure, companies like mine, well, we would stand to lose billions. You don’t honestly think that we would just stand by and let that happen, now, do you?”
Horrified understanding flooded her brain. “You’re a monster,” she whispered. “Do you have any idea how many people will die if you prevent us from finishing what we were working on? These drugs are necessary! My father needs the result of what I’m working on!” Her voice worked its way up until she was screaming at him once more, raw fury at his arrogance taking over.
“They’re all going to die eventually,” he sighed. “We’re just doing what’s in our best interest.”
“Unbelievable.” She sagged back onto the table. “You can’t win, you know. It won’t work. People will stop you. Once I’m out of here, I’ll start again. I remember enough; it won’t take me long. A few years, maybe, then you’ll be toast.”
The monster at her cell door laughed again. “What makes you think you’re getting out of here? I can’t have you get a chance to finish this, or anyone who works for you that knew how close you were. No, there will be some accidents.”
She glared at him. “People will stop you.”
“Who?” he sco
ffed. “Kase? That idiot is on his way here with exactly what I need, and he’s not leaving either.”
“You’re despicable.”
“No, I’m efficient. There’s a difference. You’ll see in the end. Your end.”
Laughing to himself, the mysterious man wandered away down the hall, his laughter eventually trailing off.
Michelle lay back, thinking furiously. Kase was on his way there, he’d said. Which had to mean he thought he was coming to rescue her. But what had that asshole meant by Kase having what he needed? What could he possibly be bringing?
Struggling at her restraints was useless. She was trapped, with nowhere to go.
And soon Kase would be too.
Chapter Twenty-One
Kase
The location he was given wasn’t familiar to him—neither the address, nor the visual of it. Pulling up to a metal gate that interrupted an otherwise contiguous stone wall surrounding the property, he waited. After several seconds there was a buzz, and the gate began to open. He was in the right place, then.
The driveway dipped down a steep grassy slope before executing a sharp reversal and beginning to climb again, at which point the grass stopped and the treeline started transition. Looking back, he couldn’t help but wonder why the boundary between forest and wall. Anyone trying to sneak in would immediately be visible…
Kase had long since stopped trying to figure out who or what the hell he was up against. It just didn’t matter. Someone out there was trying to mess with him, or Michelle, or both, and he was going to stop them. It was as simple as that, really. Just when he’d discovered the truth about himself and his mate, and opened his eyes to reality, she’d been torn away from him by this asshole. Well, not for much longer.
After a half-mile journey, the road came to an abrupt end at a house nestled into the trees. Perhaps a hundred yards behind that the ground sloped up sharply, with the trees becoming thin, and rock replacing earth. The building had log siding on it, but Kase didn’t believe for a moment this was the primary residence of whoever he was to meet. It just looked…off.
A moment later, the front door opened, and a quartet of guards armed with guns emerged from inside and headed toward the truck he’d borrowed from the Enclave’s motor pool. They all wore the same outfit, which implied they were more than just hired muscle for the head goon, but actually employed guards. Curiouser and curiouser.
He got out slowly, taking a deep breath of the evening air. Kase had always liked the freshness being up in the mountains provided. It was why he’d built his own home in a similar, if less imposing, setting. He could breathe in all the clean air, free of pollution and—he went rigid.
Shifters!
His gaze snapped around to the approaching guard. The smell was thick in the air, cloying and irritating his senses. “Wolves,” he snarled, anger rising.
The Enclave maintained a strict policy that only certain non-dragon shifters were allowed into the country. This, of course, was all done without consent from humans, but that never mattered. Only four wolf clans were given permission to live in the little country nestled among the mountains of central Europe. Every dragon knew their scent, knew who was allowed to be there.
These guards did not have a smell he recognized.
“Things really are getting interesting around here,” he called out. “Illegal immigrants. Armed with guns—which, in case you weren’t aware, are also illegal here. You guys just keep racking up the infractions.” He started toward them, at which point all four snapped the rifles up to their shoulder and pointed them at him.
Anger at the arrogance of the wolf pups mixed with fear for Michelle’s safety, swirling around inside like two parts to a chemical bomb. When they fused together, he exploded.
“Oh shit!” one of the wolf shifters yelped as Kase shifted right then and there.
The abrupt increase in his bulk required more room. The truck he’d come in became a casualty of that, propelled across the driveway toward the house by the impact of his flank against its side. Guards dodged the metal missile, diving to the side as it screamed through the outer wall and disintegrated much of the inside.
More shouts erupted and he saw shapes inside begin to move. More guards boiled out of the house a second later, stopping short as they witnessed the massive platinum-colored dragon in the driveway.
“Visas please!” he bellowed, turning swiftly.
One wolf shifter, too intent on aiming his gun, didn’t see the incoming tail and was immediately crushed into paste as he went spinning off into the woods.
Kase turned his snout and breathed quicksilver. The burning-cold metal dripped from the house, splashing several emerging guards who howled with pain. A four-legged animal dropped onto his back, snarling as its claws dug deep into the scales there.
He whipped his head around and almost bit the creature in half, shaking it like a dog would a toy before tossing the dead canine into the house and blasting it with more quicksilver.
Other wolves now worried at his legs and flanks, but Kase was lost in his own mind, unable to control what he was seeing or doing. His insane dragon had the wheel and it went berserk, smashing, kicking, biting, and using its powers to kill as many of the guards as it could.
The dragon’s eyes locked on to one hapless shifter, cut off from the others and still in human form. He lifted his gun and unloaded the entire clip, but the bullets just spanged off the scaled armor of his chest, doing no harm save perhaps marring the surface. The guard tripped, falling on his rear in terror as the dragon snout descended toward him.
In that moment, as his dragon tore the man clean in half, Kase was given the first clear look at the badges on the uniform they were wearing.
It read ‘EPP Security’.
Everything became clear at once. EuroPharma Prix. Those bastards. The fury raging inside of him grew larger, and he snatched back the control from his dragon. He was furious now. Those pharmaceutical bastards had been after the lab and its research almost since the day it was announced what Michelle and her team would be working on.
Which meant that the prime asshole here had to be Everett. That was the dragon shifter he’d smelled inside his house, and who he’d seen at the lab sneaking around. A copper dragon and a sneaky bastard. Kase had never had any interactions with him personally, but he’d known all about the sleazy shifter who wanted to exploit the human race for his own financial gain and didn’t give a damn about legalities while doing it.
Now he’d gone too far, though. Kidnapping Michelle, assaulting a Magistrate. He’d face the death penalty for his actions. Kase just had to make sure he got to the slippery criminal first, before Coltaine returned. Otherwise, all that would be left was a flaming corpse.
More wolves continued to stream from the house, indicating it must be some sort of guard compound. Kase angrily kicked at one of them, his claw opening the shifter’s flank with casual ease. Where was the boss, then? He looked around, saw no paths to the left or right. That left behind the house.
Inhaling deeply, he breathed out a cone of quicksilver, playing it across the house like a fire hose, coating every surface in the brutally cold metal that froze almost on contact. Then he stormed forward on all four legs, right into the structure. It blew apart under his impact, sending missiles of wood and metal in every direction. Wolves ducked and scurried for cover.
Some made it, some didn’t, but Kase was done paying them attention anyway. He emerged from the remains of the house as it groaned and sagged, a giant hole in the middle where he’d made his passage. The two sides creaked and collapsed inward, burying one pesky wolf who’d tried to come after him.
Ahead of him, trees barred his passage. In his insane, uncontrolled rage, Kase almost pushed himself through them, but a shred of sanity returned. He latched onto that, and shifted back into human form, not wanting to destroy the landscape.
A wolf howled at the sight of something more its size and charged after
him as he walked through the giant trees. Its paws were easily audible on the ground, and he even heard it take off in a giant leap. Kase spun in perfect timing, backhanding the creature away. The huge white-furred beast smashed through two smaller trees, the trunks disintegrating.
“Dammit,” he muttered as the trunks toppled over on onto one another. “I was trying to avoid doing that.”
He dropped his right arm, and quicksilver flowed down it, leaping past his hand into a spiral that formed the handle of his weapon of choice—a mighty axe. Another wolf came at him from the side. Kase pivoted with all the grace of a ballerina, and then brought his axe down on its head with all the technique of a professional lumberjack.
“I’m sorry,” he called. “But your request to enter my country has been denied. Get your sorry asses back home or you will be forcefully deported.” He paused, spinning, lifting his axe and bringing it slicing through the air into another wolf that thought it could get the upper hand on him.
Two distinct thuds hit the ground. Kase glanced behind him, not having slowed his forward progress during the entire encounter. “Correction, you will be forcefully decapitated. Do I make myself clear?”
A bullet ripped into his arm, spinning him around. There wasn’t much damage, just a marring of the skin, his body far tougher than anything of that power could put out. It had just been the force of the impact that impacted him. Angrily, he raised both hands over his head, hearing another bullet go whizzing past his ear, and hurled the axe.
The shifter yelped, but his reactions were two slow. The blade bit down into his chest, tossing him backward, through a bush and out of sight. Roaring in triumph and reveling in the bloodshed, Kase turned his crazed eyes toward the hill. A path had formed, and he mindlessly stalked it now. Every so often a wolf would appear as he made his way up the hill, but eventually they stopped, content to instead pace him.
Ahead, a tunnel was cut into the mountainside. Movement came from deeper into the opening, and Kase paused as two figures appeared.