by Abby Tyson
"Not quite," said Berto. "Now that we've neutralized the threat, I doubt you'll have much more opportunity for reconnaissance. We've expended enough of our hospitality and resources on you two. Your cottage will be given to someone in real need, while you will be given alternate living quarters. These men will escort you there."
Behind the guards, Savi could see the other door at the top of the stairs was now open. Instead of leading to a room, the regular door was only for show, hiding elevator doors behind it.
The prison.
The prospect of being trapped underground, surrounded on all sides by dark, suffocating earth, filled Savi with a desperate fear. The memory of seeing Jameson that very day hung over her like a guillotine. She couldn't go down there. She wouldn't be hunted like an animal again.
I'd rather die.
"What about Dave?" asked Chloe. "Is he alright?"
"Dr. Khan's work here is done," said Berto, gesturing to the guards. "I expect he'll be leaving shortly."
"You can't do this!" shouted her mom. The guards ignored her and handcuffed both of them, and began leading them towards the elevator. "Let us go!"
"Someone on your team is working with the Zuun behind your back," said Savi, her voice surprisingly strong for how faint she felt.
Berto held up a hand, and the guards paused their efforts. "Why do you think that?" he asked.
Thrown by the amusement in his face, Savi stumbled as she said, "The blood -- my mom's blood that she donated here -- it was at Omar's lab. Someone from the Den gave it to the Zuun."
There was nothing but sarcasm and laughter in his eyes when he said, "Uh-oh, sounds like you've got your work cut out for you, Second, tracking down a mole in our midst."
Why is he acting like this doesn't matter?
The guard tugged on her arm, and a cold breeze licked the back of her neck as the elevator door opened across the hall.
"Let me go and I'll find out who it is!" she shouted. "I'll go back to Omar and figure out who the leak is."
"How very noble of you," he said, "but I have full confidence in my number two here." His smug smirk made something inside of Savi snap.
This was all in a day's work for him. Playing with people's lives, terrorizing them, extorting them -- that's what Berto thrived on. This was what he did for fun.
He's not just a werewolf, he's a monster.
Though she had hardly been able to hold herself up a moment ago, she was now trembling not from weakness, but from rage. Her guard was taken completely by surprise when Savi threw herself against him. He lost his grip and toppled against a pedestal, the glass display box shattering as it hit the floor. The silver wolf began barking and howling as Savi ran down the stairs. She'd barely gone halfway before someone appeared at the bottom, blocking her way.
"Kid? What are you doing?"
Blind fury consumed Savi at the sight of Baxter. She was about to hurl herself at him when someone caught her from behind and slammed her down onto the staircase. Without her hands to break her fall, Savi slipped and slid down the last few steps. Baxter reached out to stop her before she tumbled headfirst into the wall, but she shrieked as if in pain from his touch. Kicking wildly, she managed to make contact with more than a few of his tender places before a guard heaved her up and dragged her writhing body back up the stairs.
"What's goin' on?" asked Baxter over her screams. "What's she doin' here?"
If someone answered, Savi didn't hear it. Giving voice to the searing pain in her heart was the only thing that mattered, the only thing she could control. She blocked out everything around her, becoming nothing but the wordless cries of agony flooding out of her. Her mom's tearful attempts to calm her down couldn't pierce through her hysteria, nor could the stinging slaps from the guard. Only when the elevator doors closed did Savi stop, the air around her growing stale and thick. Her stomach lurched as the elevator descended to the prison -- her coffin, lowering into her grave.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
For the first time, she can see light; a crack through the fingers that cover her eyes. The hands let go, and Savi discovers they're her own hands.
The glaring light hurts, making her squint. She's in a vast desert, with only flat, bright sand extending as far as she can see. Her naked body feels no warmth from the light that shines from everywhere, from nowhere.
"Mom?"
Her voice disappears into the empty air, not even an echo answering her.
"Marley?"
She's the last person on this world. No one is left.
"Dad?"
Falling back on the sand, she buries her body until only her face is above. Then she closes her eyes and presses her head under the sand. The grains scratch at her face, like hundreds of tiny claws dragging her down. She presses down harder, deeper, seeking the darkness.
Savi woke up gasping for air, the windowless steel cell mocking her dream of endless light. She got up and looked through the large porthole window in the door across the aisle to see if Hettie was awake.
When Savi and her mom had been brought underground, they'd tossed her into the cell directly opposite Hettie's. They were unable to talk to each other, as the only way to hear anything outside their cell was for someone to push the intercom button on the other side of their door. But because they could see each other, they spelled out words using the sign language alphabet. It was a laborious system, but they had nothing else to do, and eventually they figured out that they could abbreviate most words and still understand each other.
In addition to reiterating how much she loved Savi's new hair style, Hettie confirmed Second's story about being assaulted and then brought there, but she didn't know if the first bandits -- who did get Savi's blood and the silver-blood mixture -- were with the Zuun or the Alters. Savi told Hettie that she had been there for almost two weeks, and gave her a brief summary of who the Zuun and Berto were, since Hettie had no idea why she was even there.
The perspective between their windows blocked Savi's current view, enabling her to only see Hettie's legs, clad in the same thin, gray jumpsuit that Savi wore. Next time they were talking, Savi would have to suggest they sleep the other way, so they could actually see if the other was awake or not.
Savi sat back on her cot, wondering what time it was. Although there was no clock or windows to gauge the passing of time, she knew it was either late Thursday night or early Friday morning because once per day -- presumably in the morning -- a guard gave her a single tray with all of her food for the day. That had happened twice since she'd been there.
She didn't want to go back to sleep and risk more nightmares, so she stretched and jogged in place for a while, reciting as many poems as she could remember, until that day's tray arrived.
"Happy Friday," Savi muttered to the bowl of oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, pb&j sandwich, salad, BLT, and an assortment of granola bars, cheese sticks, and juice boxes.
A movement across the aisle caught her eye. Hettie was up, waving at her. Even from across the hall, with two impenetrable doors between them, Savi felt something was different about her best friend. Her orange hair seemed more vivid, or maybe she was taller. Was she shimmering?
At first Savi thought being trapped underground and not seeing the sky for two days was finally taking its toll. But as she watched Hettie sign to her, she realized the sensation she was experiencing was familiar. It was the same way Marley and Ren had looked the day after Anwi's Eye. The same intimidating cloak of power that they'd worn was now wrapped around her best friend.
Come to think of it, she hadn't felt it with either of them since that first day. She'd been around coywolves for the past few weeks, and even when Marley flipped the car over, or when Ren was fighting off Zuun, she hadn't sensed anything different like she had that day. Lila hadn't radiated with any special power either, but she didn't need a supernatural aura to make her intimidating. Was it something that faded? Did other people see it too?
Although she was staring straight at her, it took Savi a
few moments to break from her thoughts and see Hettie making goofy faces at her, trying to get her attention.
Sorry, Savi mouthed.
Hettie smiled and spelled out, Fri? tracing the question mark on the window.
Savi nodded. She remembered that Hettie and Colby had been planning on taking Tara and Eric out of the city for their first full moon since they'd been altered.
Colby back to barn with Tara and Eric?
Hettie shook her head no. Meet others in New Hamp. Hopefully Tara and Eric too.
After they ate their breakfasts, Savi told her about unaltering Glenn with her hands. Then she had to explain how he'd become a wolf in the first place, and Hettie was so fascinated by the fact that he'd retained his human brain functions that they'd spent nearly the entire day talking about it.
Savi only had her granola bars left when a guard appeared in front of her cell, holding on to her mom. There must have been another guard because someone unlocked Savi's door, but they stood to the side and out of sight.
Though her mom was pale, with puffy bags under her eyes, Savi was relieved that she appeared otherwise unscathed. But her anger quickly eclipsed those benevolent feelings, and she once again did her best to push away the thoughts that had been haunting her. Savi had refused to think about what her mom had told her about her dad. Now -- trapped in a tomb, not knowing what would happen from one moment to the next -- now was not the time. After this was all over, when she could see the sun again, then she would let herself think about it. Then she would ask her mom all the questions that lingered.
Her door took forever to open wide enough for Savi to step through. Across the hall, Hettie was now wrapped in a blanket, showing no signs of discomfort as her orange hair began to lengthen, spreading over her face. Giving Savi a comforting smile, she crouched on her cot under the blanket.
"Are you alright, sweetie?" asked Chloe, her face more lined than Savi remembered it.
"Yeah. You?"
She nodded, lips set in an anxious frown. "Where are you taking us?" she asked the guards.
"Mr. Almeida requests your presence," one of them said, and started leading them down the hall.
The other guard took Savi's arm, and for the first time she saw his face.
"Don't touch me," she said with a scowl, trying to jerk her arm out of his hand.
"Come on, kid," said Baxter, following her mom. Like all of the guards, he had a tranquilizer gun on one hip, and a regular gun on the other.
"Just like old times," Savi muttered. Baxter's face went blotchy, but he said nothing.
Even though Savi's experience with prisons was limited to what was on TV, this facility was unlike anything she had ever seen. Along the outer wall was a long, unbroken line of cells, about half of which held people altering into wolves. The row of cells was interrupted only by a pair of guards stationed every few doors.
But it was the interior of the prison that was unique. Instead of long, wide hallways of cells, they were clustered together in groups of four, with short, narrow halls in between. The clusters were staggered, so there was no clear line of sight to the other end of the prison, resulting in a disorienting labyrinth of steel. It was into this central part of the facility that the guards led them.
As they passed a cluster of cells, Savi stopped in front of a door, through which someone was visible writhing on the floor. This person was much older than the rest of the werewolves she'd seen. He had stringy white hair and a thick white mustache.
"Warren!" she cried, pulling back against Baxter's firm hand to stay in front of his door.
"He's only altering, come on," the other guard said.
"No, he might not, I need to see, please."
"Second said --" but the guard stopped when he saw Warren's body shifting back and forth, shortening and lengthening, the fur starting to pierce through the skin, then retracting again. "What the hell?"
"What's going on?" asked Chloe.
"He bit me last full moon. We weren't sure if it would work."
Though he was obviously in agony, his mouth wide open in a silent scream, they couldn't hear anything through the soundproofed door.
"Is there something we can do?" asked Chloe, wincing as she glanced at him, then turned away.
"I don't think so," said Savi.
Why does it have to be so painful? Once again Savi felt a rush of guilt that it was her touch that had caused such torment. It would be worth it in the end... but could he survive until then?
Finally Warren stopped thrashing. His eyes were closed, and his body was clenched in the fetal position.
He was human.
But is he alive?
"Is he breathing?" Savi asked.
"I can't tell," said her mom.
Savi pushed the intercom button. "Warren?"
Nothing.
"Warren, it's Savi. Are you okay?"
His leg twitched, and Savi let out a shocked laugh as he opened his eyes. Although clearly too exhausted to move, and bloody drool dribbling from his lips onto the floor, his eyes were triumphant. Savi managed to give him an encouraging smile before Baxter pulled her away from the door.
The guard brought them to a solid steel wall with an iron door, which led to a large room. Dozens of mats, boxing gloves, sparring sticks, and other workout gear hung on the red walls above rows of empty cages. Huddled in the center of the room were about fifty residents of the Den. As she and her mom were brought to a door in the back corner of the room, Savi caught Veronica's frightened eye. Savi wanted to yell, to scream at all them to run, but there was nowhere for any of them to go.
Baxter knocked, and the door opened to reveal a tiny, closet-sized room, barely large enough for the two caged wolves in its center. One, its white fur mottled with gray, was lying in its cage, tired from the altering. The other, wearing a muzzle like the one Ara had worn with a long strap attached to the cage, was tan with a streak of black down its back. Sitting on top of this wolf's cage was a plastic bin that held numerous sealed syringes, along with at least ten bottles of a clear liquid Savi guessed were the painkillers from the medical center.
Second, who had opened the door, moved to stand behind the white wolf's cage, while two other guards were preparing to wheel the tan wolf out into the main room. Savi didn't pay much notice to the other guards, but as she moved to make room for them to pass, one of them brushed up against her. Her heart froze. Her body went numb.
"No!" she shouted, jumping away from Jameson and falling against the wall.
This was no hallucination. He was there. He had touched her. The maniacal presence who had haunted her dreams for a month was in front of her, close enough to kill her.
"What's the matter?" asked Chloe. She followed Savi's gaze to Jameson and saw the loathing in his face. "Who are you?" she demanded.
"Nobody," he said with a sneer.
"Jim," Baxter greeted with a nod.
"Why are you here?!" Savi cried. Then she turned to Second. "Why is he here?"
"Please continue with the graduation ceremony preparations," said Second, addressing Jameson. He scowled at Savi once more before returning to the task of wheeling the wolf out.
Even without the second cage, the room was still crowded with all five of them plus the remaining caged wolf. Savi was already hot and uncomfortable in the small space, but after seeing Jameson, she could hardly breathe.
"If you and Berto want me alive tomorrow," she said, leaning against the wall and trying not to faint, "you'll send him away from here. He tried to kill me at Marcia's, and that must be why he's here tonight."
"Mr. Fisher requested temporary assignment here, as his chapter is searching for a new home."
"Because of you," Jameson spat at Savi.
"It's true, though," said Baxter. "He roughed her up pretty bad back at the barn."
"So did you," Savi snapped.
Second looked thoughtfully at Savi for a moment, and said, "Your safety is a priority for Mr. Almeida. I'll inform the guards to sta
y with him and ensure you two remain separated." Gesturing to the wolf still in the room, she added, "Now, for why you've been brought here. This is the werewolf you are tasked with hollowing."
The wolf's white coat was ragged and thin, with patches of fur missing. It had hardly moved since they'd entered, but its rattling wheeze was proof that it was alive.
"Berto," said Savi.
"Excuse me?" asked Second.
"Your boss is a hypocrite," said Savi, "forcing all of those frightened people out there to become werewolves, while he escapes their fate. It's disgusting."
Second was about to answer when the door behind them opened. Savi's breath caught when Berto's tall figure stepped into the room.
Chapter Forty
Berto's eyes fell on the wolf and said, "Good, I didn't miss it."
"But --" Savi stuttered. She thought back to the man in the medical bed. Second had said Mr. Almeida. He even had the same hair as Berto. It had to be him. Yet there he was, standing beside Second. His usual carefree demeanor was gone, replaced by a solemnity that aged him.
"Who would like to do the honors?" he asked.
"But if it's not you," said Savi, "who is it?"
"This," he said, watching the weak, unconscious animal at his feet, "is my son."
His son. Mr. Almeida. Of course.
"Why are you hollowing him?" asked Savi.
"Why does a parent do anything for their child?" he said, casting a knowing eye on Savi's mom.
"What do we do?" Chloe snapped, clearly not appreciating having anything in common with Berto.
"You tell me," he said.
"The Zuun said it could be done through touch," said Savi, not wanting to reveal that she knew firsthand that it was possible. "I'll try that."
Savi reached in the cage and pressed her hands against the skin beneath the thin fur. The wolf's only reaction was a small quiver at her touch. Savi closed her eyes, trying to remember what she'd done with Glenn, willing it to work.
Nothing happened. She shook her head no.