“Nothing. Yet.” I could hear the feral grin in Radek’s voice. He was putting on a show for Tain.
“What do you want? If you touch her, you won’t get anything from me.”
“Answer my questions and no harm will befall your daughter.”
“Fine. What do you want to know?”
“Now we’re getting somewhere. Tell us what you know and we may just leave Jenna out of this. Why did you kill the other wolf? How about just start at the beginning and I will tell you when to stop.”
“What proof do I have that you will not harm my daughter?” Tain said, showing a little backbone.
Stall for a second. Dante interrupted. If he’d been there I would have glared at him.
How the hell am I supposed to do that? I asked, but he was talking to Jenna.
“She’s here now,” I said. “We could just do it in front of you if you would prefer.” I saw the muscle in Radek’s jaw twitch, but that was the only indication that he’d heard me.
“Do you think I would cooperate if you did that? I know I’m dead. So what else do I have to lose?”
She wants to come down. I explained that she’s leverage, but nothing is going to happen to her. She knows that we may have to prove that we’ll harm her to get him to talk. She has agreed to at least make it look like we’re doing something to her. Just let Dek know without letting him know.
“Well we’ll just have to bring her down here then,” I said. “Or you could just talk and not put her through this. It’s your choice.”
“I want her down here,” Tain said.
I couldn’t believe that he would put his own daughter through this. It made me sick. Why didn’t he just tell us what we wanted to hear? I would enjoy ripping his head off if it wasn’t for Jenna.
I agree with you, but you will have to refrain because we need the information from him. I’m bringing her down.
Get down here so we can get this over with. I turned my attention back to Tain and Radek.
Radek had implied that he could tell when I was talking to Dante. I hoped that he was getting that right now.
“She is on her way down.” I kept my voice even and studied Radek out of the corner of my eye. The muscle in his cheek twitched again. It was kind of cute, I thought. I had the urge to run my hand along his cheek. I wondered what he would do if I did. That line of thinking was completely inappropriate, I chided myself.
Oh no, you don’t get to think about him like that. Not until after I can’t hear what’s in your head. I clamped my mouth shut to avoid laughing out loud at Dante’s outburst.
Jenna and Dante appeared at the bottom of the steps. Madon and his wolves were a bit startled, but covered their expressions quickly. The basement was soundproofed even from someone with our hearing abilities. If they wondered how Dante had known to bring Jenna down, they didn’t let it show. Little things like this helped us with our jobs. A little fear and mystery went a long way in suppressing people’s urges to resist us.
Radek’s voice broke into my thoughts. “Now you see she hasn’t been harmed yet. So start talking or I’ll be forced to use alternative methods to get the information that I want.”
“Yes, I see that,” Tain said, still not being forthcoming with the information.
“Are you going to talk now?” I could tell from his body language that Radek was getting frustrated. That wasn’t a good sign.
I knew where this was going to go. Damn, why wasn’t he talking? I knew Radek didn’t want to torture him. A memory flashed across my mind. It could work, I thought. There was another way to get the information so that it wouldn’t be on Radek’s conscience. I needed to discuss it with Radek and Val though.
I’ll handle it. Dante went over to Val and whispered, “Get Nat and Dek and let’s go somewhere we can talk.”
Val looked at him for a second, then said, “Nat, Dek come here. We’ll give Jenna a moment with her father.”
Radek glanced at his father, then me. He followed me from the cage without a word, even though I could sense his curiosity.
Val didn’t say anything, he just went up the stairs expecting us to follow. Madon, his two wolves, Dante and Jenna stayed downstairs while Radek and I followed Val.
“What’s going on?” Radek asked as soon as the door closed.
“Ask Natalya. She’s the one that put a stop to it.”
“I know of another way to get the information from him. It works well on shifters of all kinds and vampires too. It causes extreme pain, but there’ll be no blood. There are no lasting effects.” I was hoping they would listen to me. Dante had seemed to think they would.
“Natalya, he has a death sentence. He’s going to die no matter what we do.” Radek gave me a sad look.
“I know that and so does Jenna, but we don’t have to make this any harder on her than necessary. He’s not talking and I’m guessing that you’re going to have to take it pretty far to get anything out of him. If you let me do this, I will get what we need from him. We could also interrogate Gregory’s vamps at the same time.”
“Dante believes it’ll work or he wouldn’t have said anything.” Val at least was considering it, but he was apparently leaving up to Radek.
“Tell me about it,” Radek said finally.
“It’s something that was taught to me many years ago. The short version is that when I was in training we were taught different techniques to make people talk. Let’s just say that leaving a dead body with no wounds was sometimes more effective. Also, this way we don’t have to kill him, we can leave him to Madon’s wolves so he can face the pack’s justice. That might be helpful in restoring the pack’s balance.”
Radek looked deep in thought. I wondered what was going through his head. Finally he spoke. “All right. What do you need?”
“We can do it tomorrow night. I will need a few items. I can make you a list. One item in particular I will have to call in a favor for. Also I will need a little time to prepare myself.” I was going through what I would need in my head as I was talking. I knew how to get a hold of Azumi even after all these years. A group of us that had gone through training together had stayed in contact through the years. The only problem would be if she could get it to me in time. There was only one way to find out.
Radek raised an eyebrow. “We can do that. It shouldn’t matter if we get it tonight or tomorrow. We need to go and speak to Gregory before dawn. Letting Tain think about it for a while might be good.”
“All right, I’ll inform Madon. Have Dante bring them up here,” Val said to me.
On our way. Dante must have been paying attention.
I had mixed feelings about doing this. On one hand, I would be saving Radek from having to torture Tain. For some reason I felt that I had to protect him, even from his job. On the other, I was going to have to cause pain to another being. I was not looking forward to that part.
“Madon, we will be postponing the interrogations until tomorrow evening.” Val spoke as soon as they joined us.
“Whatever you need to do is fine by me.”
“Good. We need to go talk to Gregory before he turns in for the morning.” Val was looking at me while he was speaking.
“Want to tell me what’s going on?” Madon asked.
“It’s best that your involvement be kept to a minimum,” Val turned his gaze to Madon. I could see a flicker of compassion as his eyes settled on the wolf.
Madon let out a heavy sigh. “Thanks for calming things down for me earlier. It was way out of hand. Without my second right now, my pack is very unstable. Challenges have been issued. I’m going to need a sanctioned match.”
“We can arrange for that as well.” Val’s face held grim resignation.
“Well then, I’ll let you be on your way.” Madon motioned for the door. He gave me a small smile.
Normally he was easygoing and teasing. This serious side of him concerned me. I didn’t like the idea that he would have to fight. Pack challenges were dangerous and sometimes
people died. I think that was when I realized that I truly cared about him. I’d spent a long time not caring about anyone. This is why I spent centuries by myself. It hurt to care about others. I returned his smile as I passed him. As I glanced at the others, I realized that I had many more that I cared about. When had that happened? I wondered.
Chapter Fifteen
As soon as we were in the car I turned to Jenna. “I’m sorry that I have to do this.”
“I know, don’t worry about it. I understand, I really do. He betrayed me just as much as he betrayed the pack. He broke our laws and now he must be punished for it.” Jenna sounded resigned to her father’s fate.
I was beginning to wonder if caring about someone else was worth it. Worth all this pain. I could almost hear Jenna’s heart breaking. I glanced at Radek out of the corner of my eye. Was it worth letting him in? What if something happened to him? How would I live through that? I suspected that it was already too late, he was already in my heart and there was no way to get him out. The scariest part was that I didn’t want him out of my heart.
“What are you going to need?” Val interrupted my reflection.
I noticed Dante staring at me. Oh yeah, he could hear what I was thinking. I was glad he hadn’t interrupted me with his thoughts on the matter. This was something I was going to have to work out on my own.
“Dante will know what I need and can get it for me. I really need a place that I can prepare myself mentally. If Dante isn’t around for a while I can concentrate a little easier. He should have enough time to get everything before dawn. I will need to contact someone and hopefully she will be able to supply me with the necessary items.
“I’ll get what you need,” Dante said.
Val said, “We have another safe house in the area that we can use. Radek, you can drop me and Dante off at Gregory’s and then take the girls there.”
“Of course,” Radek said.
“The directions are already in the GPS system,” Val said.
Silence overtook the vehicle as we were each left to our own thoughts. Well, most of us anyway.
Are you sure you can do this? Dante asked me, making me jump when he spoke in my head.
I’ve done it before so why should I have a problem with it now? I replied in an acidic tone.
You’re not the same person that you were back then. You’re conflicted about this. It has to be all or nothing. Jenna means it when she says that she understands. She’ll be fine.
I got this covered. Don’t worry about me. You of all people know that I’ve done much worse. Besides, I’m a soldier. Nothing more, nothing less.
You’re not a bad person, Natalya. You only did what you had to in order to survive. Stop beating yourself up over it.
Well I’m so glad I have you in my head, Jiminy Cricket! Maybe you should take your own advice, I shot back at him. I knew I wasn’t being fair, but I was close to snapping. He should know not to push me right now. After all, he was able to hear my thoughts.
Oh that was cute.
“Will you two knock it off? Seriously I can almost hear what the two of you are thinking and it’s giving me a headache.” Radek rubbed his forehead. Everyone turned to him.
“What are you talking about?” Dante asked.
“I can tell when you two are talking in your heads and I can almost make it out and it drives me batty,” Radek said.
“That’s interesting,” Val said. “It makes sense though. You did have to use him to get into her head in the first place. I bet it wouldn’t take much to have him join in on your little conferences.”
“Great, just what I need – both of you in my head,” I said.
Radek smiled at me. “Well that could be very interesting, indeed.”
“That’s so not going to happen. Right, Dante?” I narrowed my eyes at him in warning.
“Sure, whatever you say, Nat.” Dante smiled.
Radek just laughed evilly. Dante was laughing now too.
“Shut up, Dante,” I growled.
That got a laugh out of Jenna. I was glad that she was starting to relax even if it was at my expense.
We arrived at a silent Victorian-era mansion. How fitting, I thought. Dante yet again laughed. This was really getting old. We all got out of the car and Gregory met us at the door.
“I see you have all arrived safely,” Gregory said, looking down his nose at us.
“Yes, but only Dante and I are staying. The other three have things they must attend to.” Val didn’t even blink at Gregory’s tone.
How was he able to keep his cool all the time? I wondered.
“Very well. All of my people are out. So we’ll have the place to ourselves to talk. You may enter.”
“Thank you,” Val said, following the vampire into the house with Dante at his back.
The rest of us went back to the car. I sat in the front with Radek. Jenna stretched out on the back seat and closed her eyes. She looked exhausted.
We were silent as Radek drove. The only noise in the vehicle was the voice of the GPS system telling us the directions.
“How’s Val going to get to the house?” I asked finally, not being able to stand the silence anymore.
“I’m sure he’ll find a way. Or I can go pick him up,” Radek said.
As we went further and further away from Dante, I became more and more relaxed. His mind was fading from my consciousness with every mile. It was nice to have my head to myself. That’s when I noticed that I could hear the hum of Radek’s mind. So that’s what he’d been talking about.
“You know, I see what you mean. I can almost hear what you’re thinking – but not quite. It’s weird.”
“Now you know why I find it so annoying.”
Radek soon pulled up to a ranch-style, one story house surrounded by a couple of wooded acres. We got out, grabbed our gear and went in. There was a large living room with a television. There was no wall between the kitchen and living room. In the back was another door. I figured the sleeping area would be through there, so that’s where I headed. I opened the door to reveal a large room with eight beds. I threw my bag on one of the beds.
“Hey Dek, do you have any candles and would you happen to have an MP3 player that I can use?” I asked. I needed to relax and center myself before I could do this.
“Why?” Radek called from the direction of the kitchen.
“Why does it matter?” I countered.
“You’re a real pain sometimes.” From his teasing tone I could tell he was joking.
“Right back at you,” I muttered loudly enough for him to hear.
I heard Jenna turn on the TV in the living room. Maybe she would zone out for a while. It would be good for her.
“I’ll look, but I make no promises on the candles. You can borrow my player.” I heard him rummaging through drawers and cabinets.
A few minutes later, I could feel him watching me from the doorway. I was moving things around the room so that I had space in the middle of the floor.
“I found a few candles for you. Here’s my MP3 player. Do you need anything else?”
I felt the zing of attraction that always passed through me when our eyes met. He gave me that knowing, smug grin of his.
I broke eye contact. “Nope. I’m good, thank you. Now I just need to be left alone for a while. I’m going to see if Azumi can get me what I need; then I’m going to meditate so that I can center myself.”
“Who’s Azumi?” he asked.
“An old friend. Now shoo.”
I wanted him to stay, but there was no way that I would voice that thought. He was looking good in his jeans and t-shirt. His dark hair looked like he’d been running his hands through it all day. My hands were longing to do the same. He had stubble on his chin and between that and his dark eyes, I could just stare at him all day long. I needed to concentrate.
I hadn’t done this in a long time and didn’t want to screw it up. We needed the information and I was going to do everything in my power to ge
t it. It wasn’t ideal to have to torture it out of someone. I would give them every opportunity to tell us what we wanted to know. I would also stop as soon as they broke. There would be very little after-effects of what I would do as compared to what Radek would have done. I needed to get my head back in the game and stop thinking of how I wanted to kiss Radek.
“I’ll leave you to it then,” Radek said as he left. I heard him join Jenna in the living room. The urge to call him back was strong, but I managed to refrain.
I pulled out my phone and opened an email account that I used for only one purpose – to keep in contact with my friends from training. Since all of this new technology had been invented, staying in contact was so much easier than the old days. I sent a quick note with my request. I noted also that I had received many emails over the past year. I quickly sent a note to each of the rest of the crew to make sure they knew I was alive. It wasn’t often that someone was out of contact for as long as I had been.
By the time I was done with that, I had a reply from Azumi. She would be able to provide me with what I needed. I would have it delivered sometime before dawn. I thanked her and told her where to deliver it. I also noted that this meant that she was in the area. I was curious about that, but didn’t ask. The secrecy of our lives was something that had been ingrained into us and was hard to give up. I took a chance and gave her the address where we were. I checked my inbox again. A few of the others had replied to my emails and I took the time to make sure they knew that I was all right. I finally shut down the phone. I needed to meditate and rest.
I started by taking deep breaths and letting them out slowly. After lighting the candles, I sat on the floor and put the headphones on. I found the slowest song and put it on repeat.
Slowly I let the tension leave my body, starting at my head and working my way down to my toes. I let Dante’s and Radek’s voices fade away. Soon I was all alone in my head. I let the memories float over me. They couldn’t affect me in this place. I was drifting off into a trance like sleep.
I stayed that way, gathering my inner energy, until Val showed up at the house a couple of hours later with Dante. I could hear them in the other room. I didn’t get up or open my eyes until I sensed Val’s presence in the room with me. His scent and energy drifted over my senses.
Seizing Darkness (Fur, Fangs, and Fairies) Page 17