“All right then.” Jax jumped up and perched on the wall, ready to help Thaniel, when a young girl appeared from thin air right in front of Tierney, scaring the crap out of them all.
“Holy shit.” Tierney jumped and prepared to attack.
The girl ignored her and looked up at Jax. “Wait, don’t go in,” she yelled.
Knife in hand, Jax jumped down and took up a defensive position beside Tierney. Sami moved up on the other side of her, while Thaniel stared wide eyed and pressed his back to the wall.
They all stared in shock at the slight girl who stood at around five-foot-one. Dressed all in black, she seemed mockingly familiar, though her brilliant, blue eyes, and long, raven blue-black hair stunned them the most. She looked like a petite, feminine version of Jax.
“What the shit?” Tierney asked. “She’s a young girl-Jax.”
“What the hell you talkin’ about?” the girl exploded.
“Who are you?” Sami asked suspiciously.
“The fuck?” Jax growled, not seeing what they were talking about.
Tierney frowned. “Who the hell are you?”
“For starters, I’m not young. I’m twenty!” the girl spat at them indignantly.
“So?” Tierney didn’t give a flying fuck about this chick’s age.
“I’m Genna. GennaD,” she said, as if that should mean something to them.
Tierney shrugged.
Genna glared, eyes flashing red.
Something tickled Tierney’s mind. “Have we met?” She frowned. “I think I know this girl from somewhere,” she told Jax and Sami.
“I am not a bloody girl,” Genna growled, not answering her question.
“Yeah, okay. Whatever. Get out of my head,” Tierney snarled, her own anger rising as she glanced at Jax and Sami. “We don’t have time for this.”
“You can’t go beyond the wall,” Genna said in a fierce voice, making Tierney glance back at her.
“Oh, why not?” she asked. Genna scowled at her.
“Why don’t you want us to go beyond the wall?” Sami asked in a nicer tone.
Surprised, Genna turned to him. “Duh! Because you’ll get caught, and what the Master will do, won’t be pretty.” Genna rolled her eyes like they should have known that already.
“Who is the Master?” Jax frowned, head tilted as he studied the girl.
Genna grimaced. “The Master is the Master—and not a nice one, either. You’ll be locked up, experimented on, tortured if you’re lucky, and drained. So, don’t go in there.”
“Forget that. I’m not leaving everyone in there to die.” Tierney started for the wall again.
“Tiern—” Jax said.
She interrupted him. “Don’t try to stop me. They’re suffering. I need to do something.”
Jax smirked. “Wouldn’t think of stopping you. I’ll be right behind you.”
Tierney turned to Sami and Thaniel. “If either of you want to stay—”
“Shut up,” Sami said.
“Real might be inside,” Thaniel repeated.
“Let’s go.” Jax waited for her to go first.
Genna threw up her hands. “You’re all freakin’ idiots.” She glared at them. “Didn’t you hear what I said? You go in, you risk getting caught and becoming a prisoner.”
Tierney was tired of listening to the freakin’ devil-girl as she started to think of Genna. “We’ll be careful. We’re not about to leave others to suffer and—”
“Oh fine,” Genna cut her off. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Marching up to the wall, she raised her hands and, with a hot pulse of air, disintegrated the section in front of them, leaving a gaping hole. She went through, scanned around while the four of them glanced at each other. What else could this chick do?
“That’s—” Sami started to say and just stopped as they all stared at the pile of rubble.
“The frick ya’ll wait’n for?” Genna glared back at them and following her, Tierney glanced around for Soroyan but didn’t spot him anywhere.
“He be with the Bleeders.” Genna nodded at the brick building.
Tierney was about to ask what Bleeders were, when Thaniel spoke up. “How did you do that?” He indicated the wall behind them.
“Oh, look. He speaks.” The evil grin on Genna’s face made Thaniel cringe, and Tierney want to kick her punk ass.
“Quit your shit.” Tierney reprimanded devil girl instead.
“The frick-ever.” Genna stalked past her toward the barn, where they found an old wooden door, surrounded by weeds and propped half-open. Jax started to yank on it, making it groan. Tierney stopped him. She didn’t want to alert anyone to their presence.
“Don’t worry about’s all the noise,” Genna said, head cocked to the side.
“Why? Do you detect a spell on the place?” Tierney asked, thinking she’d caught the faintest tingle of magic.
Genna just glanced at her and gave a tiny shrug. “Yes, sound spell. Guess they don’t want anyone hearing the screaming, huh?”
“Screaming?” Tierney questioned.
Genna ignored her and dissolved that door as well.
They slipped inside and Tierney finally understood what Genna meant as the muted hum of pained moans reached her. She shivered and strengthened her mind shields so the pain wouldn’t overwhelm her.
Without touching the old dust-covered machinery, they wove their way through a large room and into a hallway where the moans grew louder. They passed a few smaller room, until they came to one, filled with dusty awards, faded ribbons hanging on the walls and musty old horse saddles and bridles.
“Oh, pretties!” Genna exclaimed.
Tierney shook her head as the girl darted into the room and the rest of them kept going toward the noise. Tierney gasped when she peered into the next room. A torture room. “Shit!” she hissed at all the horrifying instruments laid out on a wooden table. Most seemed to be covered in dry blood and a rectangular table fitted with restraints stood to one side. The scent of blood permeated everything, making her want to scrub the images from her mind and when she spotted a hook, similar to the one where Thaniel had been kept, she backed away.
“No, don’t—” She tried to stop the others from seeing, but Jax brushed past her.
Tierney’s skin prickled as his dark rage started to smolder. Somehow, Jax managed to quash his fury, though the effort left a sheen of sweat on his forehead. Sami stepped in beside him, stunned and disgusted, while Thaniel peered inside and ducked back out.
Tierney turned away when Genna came up behind them carrying a large, faded multi colored show ribbon.
“What ya lookin’ at?” Genna peered into the room. “Meh!” She shrugged and Tierney remembered why the girl seemed so familiar.
“I remember where I saw you,” she said. Genna just smirked and kept walking down the hallway. “I saw Genna in the caves, during my spirit walk, but … she had wings,” she told Jax and Sami, as they continued towards the growing noise.
“What?” Jax scowled at Genna as she sauntered, without a care in the world, down the hall in front of them.
“You sure?” Sami asked.
“Yes.”
“Yeah. Well I saw you, Miss I can walk with spirits. You called me a demon!” Genna said to her telepathically, her indignation making Tierney mentally shake her head.
She shared a frown with Jax and Sami. Genna, butting into her thoughts uninvited, pissed her off, but she shoved her annoyance aside. She needed questions answered. “You were in a cell, why? And where?” she asked, but Genna didn’t answer. “Can you tell me what they did to my dad, or—” She tried to ask where he was, but the words wouldn’t come out of her mouth. Blasted Promise!
“Shh.” Genna grasped the handle of a steel-reinforced door and pulled it open, and the noise, moans of pain and sobbing became much louder.
“Don’t shh me!” Tierney said, annoyed with the girl. But as Genna peered through the door and stepped into the other room, Tierne
y hesitated. She wasn’t going to like what they found beyond the door. Finally, with bated breath, and heart thundering in her chest, she followed Genna through the door. She itched to give the girl a piece of her mind, but pulled up short instead. The others crowded around her in the largest part of the barn.
“This is my dream,” Sami whispered in horror.
Tierney gazed around the dimly lit space, dumbfounded. Her brain took a second to catch up to the sight in front of her. “Not a dream, a nightmare,” she mumbled.
Five rows of barred cells stretched away from them to the end of the barn. The cells were filled with men, women, children, and various animals of different sizes, shapes and species. Likely Weres, Tierney suspected. Some lay dead, while others displayed horrible gaping wounds.
The foul odor of unwashed bodies, urine, feces, blood, rotting flesh and death made Tierney want to flee. Instead, she swallowed and breathed through her mouth. Fear, pain and despair permeated the place and even with her shields up tight, she caught everything. How utterly cold and uncaring did someone need to be to do this to another?
A few of the occupants suddenly realized that they had company, and began to stir. Calling out to be released, they pulled the others from their misery—until a dull roar of people pleaded to be set free. A soft buzzing, and the clang of many barred doors rolled open, snapped them from their shock. Thaniel was hitting the buttons on the wall, opening all the cells.
“Oh, the Master is going to be so pissed,” Genna chortled as the captives slowly began to emerge. “This way,” Genna shouted, smiling gleefully.
Tierney started to tell her to be quiet, when she remembered the sound spell.
Sami began to wave everyone towards them. “Here, this way,” he called out, indicating the door behind them. “We need them to escape the way we came in, so no one gets re-captured,” he said, then swore at something on the far side of the barn.
Tierney glanced in the same direction, and frowned at the shaft of light shining inside from a set of double doors that were partially open. “I’ll get them.” She hurried away.
Sami, Thaniel and Jax called for Toren and Real, while giving directions on how to find the road. Tierney spotted Genna dancing between the second and third row of cells while animals and people surged past and out the door into the hallway beyond.
“No, not that way,” Tierney called, waving a few people away from the double doors. They didn’t need anyone tipping the Ilyium off. Luckily, they listened and Tierney rushed past the far row of cells, only to slow to a walk at the sound of heart-wrenching sobs. A woman, dressed in tattered rags, sat on the dirt ground outside one of the cell’s cradling a little girl.
Oh hell no … Tierney veered toward the woman, to ask if she needed help, but stumbled to a halt and swallowed. The child lay dead in the woman’s arms. Heart aching, she started to turn back to the doors, when a shiver rushed down her spine. The next instant, piercing fangs sank deep into the left side of her neck.
“Fuck!” she yelled, at the same time that Jax shouted her name. Pain tore through her as whatever bit her, hung on, injecting venom into her. Tierney barely registered Genna’s scared expression from the next aisle, before devil-girl disappeared into thin air.
Making a fist, Tierney swung and punched at whoever clung to her neck. “Take that, you asshole!” she yelled, satisfied at the sound of bones crunching on impact. Intense pain flooded her as a chunk of her neck was ripped away along with the fangs.
Heart pounding, she slapped a hand to her wound, trying to stop the blood. She heard someone screaming, but had no idea who it was as things began to turn blurry. Suddenly, she blinked to find Jax in front of her, and while she saw his mouth moving, she had no idea what he was saying. Brutal pain was beginning to radiate throughout her whole body.
Jax covered her wound with his hand, and all of a sudden, Tierney’s ears popped and her hearing came back. The distant screaming turned to whimpers not far away. She ignored them as her knees had started to shake. She was losing blood fast.
“Use your power to heal, c’mon Tiern,” Jax cried desperately.
She must have blacked out, because when she blinked next, she found Jax staring down at her, looking terrified and realized she lay in his arms, his hand still clamped to her neck. From the corner of her eye, she saw Sami standing over whoever it was whimpering on the ground.
“Tierney,” Jax said, and at the plea in his voice, Sami took a step towards her, allowing her to see past him to who had attacked her. Rage filled her. Shit. Serena—that whore!
“Bitch, I’m going to kill you,” she croaked, glaring at the brunette not far from her on the ground.
“Yuh bwoke myh nosh,” Serena whimpered and glared back at Tierney, bloody hand holding her face.
“Shut up!” Sami yelled and took a menacing step towards the vile woman.
Good. Tierney was glad she’d broken the sneaky slut’s nose.
“Tierney, use your power and heal yourself.” Jax’s voice cracked, pulling her gaze from Serena. She stared up at him, noticing how his blue eyes smoldered with worry.
With a slight nod, she summoned her power, and then tried to direct it to her wound. Nothing happened—she’d lost to much blood. “C-can’t,” she gasped.
“You can. You have to. Please,” Jax’s voice broke, and tears welled up in his eyes. Tierney reached up and touched his face with a trembling hand.
Holy mother, I love him. Wanting to tell him, she opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
With all their attention on Tierney, Serena inched back in an attempt to get away.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Sami roared, reached down and grabbed her arm. He yanked her to her feet and Serena whimpered and sputtered. She kicked at him, trying to free herself, but Sami just twisted her arm behind her back, effectively putting a stop to her fight. Whining, she demanded they let her go.
“Hold on, Tiern. Please hold on. I can’t lose you,” Jax said, but Tierney felt her heart slowing as the blood pumped from her body. She attempted to speak again, but he put his finger over her lips. “Shh, don’t talk, conserve your strength. You need to fight.” Tears trickled down his face. “Don’t you leave me. Please, Tiern.”
Serena, nose healing and no longer bleeding, leered at them. “Ah, is she dying?”
Jax glare in rage at her. “You better hope she doesn’t.”
Serena snorted. “She will. My venom is poison.”
Jax’s darkness began to seep out of him like a living entity. “I’m going to kill you, you bitch,” he snapped, eyes beginning to glow.
“I don’t think so. I’m the only one who can heal her,” she said smugly.
“Thaniel,” Jax called, and trembling, holding onto his rage by sheer will, he motioned the Were-leopard over. “Put your hands here,” he instructed, and when Thaniel did as he said, Jax pulled his hands away.
“Jax,” Tierney’s voice came out a squeak.
“I need you to fight, Tiern. I’ll be right back. I’m going to make her heal you,” he whispered close to her ear. Then he rose to his feet. His darkness tingled over her skin and Tierney soaked it in, loving it.
Her eyes followed him as he went to Serena and ran his finger up and down the blade of his dagger. Suddenly not so brave anymore, the bitch cowered in fear as Jax let more of his darkness out. A thick cloud, similar to the one Tierney had waded through a week ago, surrounded him.
“Heal her,” he growled.
Serena cringed. “Why should I help you? You’ll just kill me after.” Serena’s voice shook as her earlier bravado fled.
“If she dies, nothing will stop me from going nuclear on your ass, and it won’t be quick, either,” Jax threatened, eyes darkening to black, as he reached for her neck and started to squeeze.
“Jax!” Sami grabbed his brother’s arm. “Stop. We need her to heal Tierney.”
Sami’s words finally penetrated Jax’s brain, and he slowly loosened his grip, then he dragged Serena over to Tie
rney on her knees like a rag doll. “Fix her,” he demanded, shaking the woman.
“N-no.” Serena attempted to pull away.
Jax shook her again. “I. Said. Fix. Her!” Rage pulsed from him, making Serena yelp in pain.
“Okay—fine.” Serena trembled as she bit into her palm, drawing blood, and while Jax gripped her neck, she laid her hand over Tierney’s wound and pressed.
Tierney moaned in agony as Serena’s venom hit her bloodstream again. She tried to jerk away, but Thaniel held her tight. Pain seared her from the inside out, turning to frigid ice, as her wound began to knit back together. Tierney frowned. It felt as though she had just been injected with an odd strength. When she was done, Serena pulled her hand away.
“Don’t stop, what are you doing?” Jax yelled.
Serena twisted in his grasp, trying to pull free. “She’s fixed, now let me go!”
Jax ignored Serena as he stared down at her. “Tierney?” His eyes shone a dark midnight blue and Tierney thought she glimpsed a faint ring of red surrounding the blue, but then it disappeared.
“Jax.” She took a deep breath, and Thaniel helped her to sit up.
“Come on, let me go,” Serena whined, pulling at Jax’s arm and trying to free herself.
Once Tierney was on her feet, Jax turned his attention back to Serena. “Where’s Zander?” He squeezed her neck once again.
“I-I have no idea who you’re talking about,” she choked out.
“Zander. Where is he?” Jax repeated his question.
“I told you. I don’t know who that is, now let me go!” she wheezed, kicking at him and trying to break free of his grip.
“Let you go? So you can try to kill us, or seduce one of us again?” he asked, through gritted teeth.
“I-I won’t” she said.
Jax shook his head. “You’re right, you won’t—you conniving bitch,” With a growl, and rage as strong as ever, he raised his dagger. “Tell me where Zander is!”
“Ta—” Serena gasped for air, and thinking she was trying to tell him something, Jax eased up a bit.
“What?” he asked.
“Taraven!” she screeched. “Taraven!”
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