by Cali Mann
He frowned, considering. “And Larkin is on board with this plan?”
I nodded. “She’s got it all worked out.”
“There’s always a chance that Denison won’t bring the brother back anyway.”
“I know. That’s what I’m worried about. That’s why I had you scouring places he might be.”
“He might be holding the boy very close to Thornbriar so he can go back and forth. I’ll reach out to some people I know in the area. Discreetly.”
“Thank you, Uncle.”
“Keep your mate safe,” he muttered. “When word of Larkin’s death gets out, the Council will come down hard on the school.”
“Yes.” Of course I’d do everything in my power to protect Sasha.
“They’ve already been talking about replacing Larkin, or at least giving her a supervisor.”
“What?”
“Yes, the Council isn’t pleased by how easy she’s been going on the spirit shifters. Thornbriar parents are complaining, and it doesn’t look good.” Uncle sighed and rubbed his brow. “This is not a good time for any of this.”
I nodded. It wasn’t. Assholes like Denison stirred things up, no matter what was going on in the real world. In fact, the Council being pissed at Larkin probably made it all the better for him. It didn’t look like Uncle was going to be able to help me much. I needed to find Calder Bass and see what his parents could do. My stomach churned. I knew Sasha didn’t want me too, but I needed to protect my mate and her brother, no matter what.
“I’ll do what I can,” Uncle Derrick said. “And I’ll call you if there’s any news.”
“I appreciate it,” I said. We signed off, and I stared at the phone. I couldn’t afford to waste time moping around. I needed to do something.
25
Sasha
The van bumped along the gravel road, and my teeth rattled. Chuck had slipped us out of Thornbriar through some secret back way. I wished I’d been in any state of mind to absorb it. It might have been useful if I got out of this alive. Which I clearly wasn’t.
After binding my ankles too, he’d dropped me in the back of a handyman’s van. I vibrated on the cold metal floor as we careened down the mountain roads. Each time he turned a corner, I rolled, slamming whatever body part stuck out into toolboxes and other piled junk. I hurt in so many places, I couldn’t even say where. I kicked out my feet trying to brace against the side of the van, but it was no use. The next bit of rocky terrain sent me dancing back.
My thoughts churned. Was he taking me to Alex? Did it matter? I’d done everything I could to protect my little brother and I’d failed. Did Chuck know that the headmaster wasn’t really dead? My hands reached for anything I might use as a weapon. He had to stop sometime, didn’t he? A wrench jammed into my knee, and I squealed soundlessly behind my gag. Then I scrambled to reach for it, but it was too far, and the next turn sent it bouncing away from me.
Maybe he’d returned Alex and taken me instead. That was the better way, wasn’t it? What I’d wanted all along? Sure, my mates would be hurt, but Alex would live. I tried to swallow, but the saliva lingered in the back of my throat and I coughed instead. My mates. Drew would have come to bring me the shawl. He wouldn’t do anything stupid, would he? He knew I just wanted to keep the ones I loved safe.
And Lucan and I . . . the way we’d left things hadn’t been good. My big bad wolf wanted to protect me from everything and everyone. He believed he knew what was best for me. I closed my eyes, feeling the jarring of the rough road in my bones. At some point, I’d bit through my lip and I could taste the metallic blood. Maybe Lucan did know better than me. I only seemed to fuck up everything I touched.
The van slowed and came to a stop. My whole body ached from the stress and the rough treatment, but I hadn’t really been hurt. I tried to call my flame, but I must have burned it out in the headmaster’s office.
Chuck’s rough hands grabbed me, dragging me out of the van. He cut the ropes around my ankles and put me on my feet. I stared at him—he looked less polished than usual. He wore a workman’s flannel instead of his button-down shirt and tie. Had he been on the run? Had someone come after him for a change? I smirked at him.
He punched me in the eye.
My whole body fell backward until I was being held upright only by the grip of his other hand on my arm.
“Keep laughing, spirit shifter,” he muttered. Then he spun me around and pushed me toward a large barn. The wood was faded and old, and part of it had already collapsed. The cool air ran through my thin tee shirt, and I shivered. My heart sank toward my knees. No one brought to an abandoned barn ever lived. Wasn’t that how horror movies went? Not that I expected to leave with my life. I just hoped that my brother had left with his.
I stumbled over a rock and fell to my knees. Chuck yanked me up and dragged me along. My eyes slid to him. His gruff face was set and determined. He’d been planning this all along. Kill the headmaster and then get rid of the kids. No point in keeping us around after this was all over. We’d only be a liability. Someone to point the finger at him later.
My heart sank a little further. I’d been saying “we”. Somehow, I knew that Alex was up in that barn too. Chuck wouldn’t keep his promises. Why? There’d be no need. Who’d come looking for a couple of homeless brats like us?
“Mom,” I said, but my gag muffled my words. Did our mom even care? Was she still alive or had she been another loose end for him to wrap up? Why hadn’t I told anybody else? Lucan had pushed me to see if we could find out something, search for him before this happened. Why hadn’t I listened?
“Mommy isn’t coming to save you,” Chuck said, laughing.
“Did you hurt her?” I asked. Not that I could do anything about it. She was all the way over in Denver, and we were here. And he was taking me to die.
He leaned close to my ear and whispered, “And she loved every minute of it.”
I struggled against my bonds, wanting to fight back, but it was useless. I was helpless. I don’t know why I cared. Mom had never been there for us. We’d walked away without a second glance, but somehow the thought of her at Chuck’s mercy again made me furious.
Chuck snorted.
My eyes dropped to the rocky grass. It was brown, dried, and cracking. No one had been out here for years. An old abandoned barn—who’d ever think to look here? Would the fire spread across the mountain?
I tried to look back, but Chuck yanked on my ropes. How far were we from school? Would it burn up to Thornbriar’s gates? He’d said he wanted to destroy it. To wipe it out. Would he do that to all the innocent kids still there?
We stepped inside the barn, and dust rose from the old hay, making me sneeze.
“Climb,” Chuck growled, shoving me at a ladder.
I shook my head. My hands were behind me. How could I climb? I shrugged my shoulders. He smacked me, the back of his hand slamming into my cheek, the force of it sending me flying into the dirt. Dirt and hay rose around me and I coughed.
Chuck leaned down, raising a knife.
I curled up into a ball and closed my eyes. I was going to die. Here. Now. On the dirty ground. In the middle of nowhere. Drew’s eyes flashed in front of me and Lucan’s smile. I was leaving the only love I’d ever known apart from Alex.
“Get up,” Chuck snarled.
My hands were free. He’d cut the rope. I scuttled to my feet, trying to pull on my fire, through my fear, but nothing. I couldn’t even feel a spark. Lousy powers. Where were they when I needed them?
He grabbed my neck and shoved me at the ladder again. “Climb.”
Yanking down my gag, I snarled, “Why? Just get it over with.”
A dark smile spread across his face. His eyes burned into me.
I glanced up at the boards. I knew then that Alex was upstairs. Maybe alive, maybe dead. I hit Chuck with my bound hands. “You sick fuck.”
He chuckled. “He’s alive.”
I glared at Chuck. How did he know what I’d been thinking?
/> “I had to keep him so until your task was finished,” he said.
The violent gleam in his eyes made me shiver. But my thoughts immediately turned to Alex. Hurt and waiting upstairs. I put one hand over the other, one foot over the other, and climbed the rungs of the ladder.
Chuck came behind me.
Gathering my courage, I kicked out with a foot, hitting him in the face.
He fell back, swearing, “You fucking bitch.”
I scrambled up the rest of the rungs, tearing the gag from my mouth. “Alex?” I called out. The loft was dimly lit by a boarded-up window at the one end, but I searched the darkness. The sound of a squirming body led me to the back wall, and I found my brother curled up in a ball and pressed against the dirty hay.
“Hey,” I said softly, pulling him into my arms. “I’m here.”
He shook, and I pulled the filthy gag from his mouth. “Sasha?”
“Yes.” My eyes darted to the ladder.
Chuck peered at us through the darkness, just his head cresting the floor. “What a happy reunion. Too bad it’s time to die.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, shielding Alex with my body.
“Oh, you’ll see.” His head disappeared below the floor.
I scrambled over to the opening and peered down the ladder, but I couldn’t see him. I could hear banging and grunts down below as he moved things around.
Hurrying back to Alex, I said, “Can you walk?”
“You should leave me,” he said roughly.
“No, I would never leave you.” I felt around him trying to see if he was bound and I yanked on the ropes holding his legs. They only tightened. “Shit.”
“I’m so hungry,” he said, rubbing his face on my arm as if he was scenting my blood.
I’d never seen my brother in such a state. I stepped away, grabbing hold of his legs, and pulled him toward the ladder. He was heavier than I remembered, and we inched along the floor. All the while, I listened, trying to figure out what Chuck was doing below.
A liquid was poured, and I froze. I knew exactly what he was doing. I’d just done the same thing in the headmaster’s office. He was going to send us up in flames, and the whole barn with us. Fuck. “Alex,” I hissed. “You need to help me.”
“I can’t think,” he said, rolling back and forth. “I need food.”
Had Chuck ever fed him? How long had he been here? A week? Vampires starved far faster from lack of blood than they did from lack of food. If I could get him to the window, I could get us out. I tried to pull him faster.
My thoughts whirled as I hunted for options. Sasha, you’re a fucking dragon. Shift and you both can leave. I reached for my fire but there was nothing. Then again, I didn’t want to burn anything down. I only needed to become a dragon. I tried imagining it in my head, but nothing changed.
I tugged harder on Alex, and we reached the ladder. “Chuck! Let’s make a deal,” I called.
“I don’t make deals with spirit shifters, you stupid bitch,” he muttered.
“Can’t we talk about this?” What had made me shift before? Couldn’t I do it again?
“Especially ones who betray me.” He chuckled darkly, and I heard the whoosh of his flame hitting the now accelerant-soaked hay.
“Betray you? How?” I asked, but I knew the answer. Who had told him? How had he found out?
“Now I’ll have to go kill that Larkin—bitch myself.”
I met Alex’s widening eyes in the dim light. He’d heard it too. We were screwed.
26
Cal
I was swimming in the pools, trying to keep my mind off my worries. I knew Sasha was in trouble. No one seemed willing to tell me what was up between her and the executioner, but I knew it couldn’t be good. Then the rumor was flying around that the headmaster was dead, but it hadn’t been confirmed yet. And somehow, she was involved.
I’d seen the guards going into that long corridor off the pools that lead to the one cell they thought was safe enough to hold a spirit shifter. Either Sasha or Molly was locked up down there, and I’d just talked to Vera this morning.
Life with my parents meant moving every six months, but I did get to meet some interesting people. Vera, Molly’s guard, was my mom’s friend, and she’d always been kind to me. She still wasn’t willing to talk about the trouble with the spirit shifters, but I knew she did her job. She kept a close eye on Molly so, if she was around, Molly couldn’t be far behind. As far as I could see, the kid lived in the library. I didn’t think there was any more trouble she could get up to in there. The library was usually empty except for Miss Finch, the new librarian and tutoring assistance teacher. She wasn’t really new, having taken over when the old bear shifter died, but new was relative at Thornbriar Academy.
I dove deep under the water, letting it flow over me. I’d known I was a water shifter long before the dreams had started because I’d always felt at home here, beneath the surface. Even in the empty salt pools of the caverns under Thornbriar, I was home. And for a kid who’d be on the move his whole life, home was a sacred thing.
While I could stay under for a long time, I eventually had to come up for air. When I did, I saw him: Drew running from the hidden corridor, looking worried, a blue shawl wrapped in his arms.
“Hey man,” I called, pushing out of the water. “What’s going on?”
“She’s gone,” he said.
“Sasha?”
He nodded. “The guards brought her down here and now she’s gone.”
Somehow, I knew what had happened. It was a brilliant tactical move. While your enemy was distracted, steal away the prize. “He has her.”
“No,” Drew said, shaking his head. “We did everything he asked.”
I snorted. “That doesn’t matter to a man like the executioner. He wanted her to do it and die anyway.”
“But he has her brother—”
Drew was so messed up, he didn’t even realize how much he was telling me. Why would the executioner want Sasha’s brother? Had he been using him to control Sasha? Shit. I exhaled. Growing up around military strategists had its benefits—I knew what the executioner was going to do next. “He’s tying up loose ends. He’s going to kill them both.”
“I’ll kill him.”
“Come on, man, let’s call in reinforcements. We’ve got to find where he’s taken them.” I grabbed my clothes and shoved them on. Then I pulled my cell out of my pocket and dialed Mom.
#
My folks had checked all the ways in and out of the mountains around Thornbriar, and they’d determined that Denison must have taken Sasha somewhere nearby. They were already combing through any nearby installations and abandoned homes—anywhere they thought the executioner might stash Sasha and her brother.
Drew and I were headed out to join them when we ran into Lucan in the hall.
“What’s going on?” Lucan asked, his eyes on our faces.
“Chuck’s taken Sasha,” Drew said.
“What?” Lucan asked. “She was in the cells. How could . . ?”
“I don’t know how. He just did,” Drew said. “We’re going to rescue her. Are you in or out?”
“Fucking hell I’m in,” Lucan growled. “She’s my mate too.”
“You keep saying that,” Drew muttered.
“We don’t have time for arguments,” I said, heading for the front drive. Mom had said she’d meet us at the front gates.
When we stepped out the door, guards in black uniforms surged around us. We looked around, bewildered.
Poseidon ran up to us, fully suited up for battle. “Lucan, Drew, do you know where she’s gone?”
They shook their heads.
“Fuck,” he muttered. “Kills the bloody headmaster and then disappears from her cell. Save me from spirit shifters!”
I turned and blinked at Drew and Lucan. “She killed Larkin?”
Lucan grabbed Poseidon’s arm and whispered in his ear. The big guy’s jaw dropped. As soon as Lucan stopped speaki
ng, he ran back into the building.
“Come on,” Drew said, pulling me down the drive. Lucan hurried after us.
“What the fuck happened?” I asked. I couldn’t see Sasha killing the headmaster. She didn’t seem like the killing type, and I’d seen enough of that kind in my parents’ work.
“Headmaster’s not dead,” Drew hissed. “Trick to get Denison to give back her kid brother.”
“Sasha’s brother?” I knew Denison had them both, but just as I suspected: here was the why.
“Yeah, the asshole took him to make her do what he wanted.” Drew sighed. “So we all played along.”
I nodded. We approached the front gate where Mom leaned against the guardhouse. She wore her black ops gear: full complement of weapons and a black jumpsuit. Her blonde hair was tied up on top of her head and covered with a beret. She looked prepared. Mom was always ready for the next fight.
Every time my parents went out, I worried that they wouldn’t come home. I’d long ago learned to shove that down in the deepest part of me and ignore the worry, but I hadn’t been as successful as I thought because relief rushed through me at the sight of her.
Her eyes ran over the three of us. “Picked up an extra, eh, Cal?”
I nodded.
“All right, boys,” she said, jerking her head toward the jeep that waited on the road outside the gate. She glanced at the gate guard. “I’ll bring ‘em back safe and sound, Tony.”
Tony laughed and saluted. “I’m sure you will, madam.”
We all hopped in the jeep. Mom spun us around and we headed down the mountain.
“Any luck?” I asked.
“You going to introduce me to these guys?” she said, eyeing Drew and Lucan.
“Lucan Masters and Drew Matoko,” I said. “Now, where are we?”
“Who are they to this girl?”
“Her mates,” I said. “I told you, she’s a spirit shifter and she needs—”
Her eyes narrowed. “You’re not thinking about being her third?”
“No, Mom.” I sighed. I’d had more than my share of fun, but I’d never mated. I don’t know why Mom thought that luck would change. And as gorgeous as Sasha was, I didn’t want to be tied down. I had tons more adventures planned before I did that. But that didn’t mean I wouldn’t help save her.