After a moment’s hesitation, Scott decided to sit.
“How’s your room?”
“Locked,” Scott said.
Dr. Akin chuckled, again reminding Scott of The Grinch. “Yes, well, I’m sure you understand that we can’t just let you roam free.”
Since Scott didn’t do sarcasm, he didn’t reply at all.
“Anyway, I’m sure you’d like to know more about what we’re working on. We’ve got a lot of projects that require your assistance right now. Eventually of course, we’re aiming for a cure – at which point we can give you your freedom.”
And pigs will fly. Actually, that was more likely.
“I’ve got a pet project right now that I’m working on. I’m interested in the effect of the moon on magic. We’re all a little stronger at the full moon. Take me, for example. At the new moon, today, I rate a 7.4. In two weeks, at the full moon, I get a bump to 7.5. We think this is why so many spells are written with the instructions, ‘at the full moon.’ What do you think?”
The man might be on to something, although his theory didn’t explain why other spells were supposed to be cast at the new moon. Why cast a spell during your weakest potential? Scott doubted the question would keep him up at night, but apparently it was the sort of question that would entertain Dr. Akin for years. Scott didn’t gift him with his perspective.
“I think,” Dr. Akin said, “that it will be a more striking difference for you. I’m betting that at the full moon, you will rate off the charts, just as if you had stolen magic from someone else.”
Scott thought the same thing. It was supposed to have been one of his aces, but apparently one the enemy knew he held.
“How do you know I haven’t stolen magic?” Scott couldn’t resist asking, thinking back to the man’s impudent question the day before.
“You didn’t. I was having fun with you yesterday, don’t take it personally. Now, sit in the middle of that casting circle while I draw some blood.”
Scott froze. He was supposed to meekly hand over a sample of blood to this man? True, Dr. Akin already had some, but this was different. This was compliance.
“There is no way sorcerers have been handing over blood samples to you so you can rate their magic on a scale from one to ten,” Scott said to buy himself some time.
“You’re right. We have developed other, slightly less accurate tests. But blood is the most accurate. It’s the only way we’ve been able to detect the lunar cycle patterns in most normal sorcerers, and it’s what we’re going to use to test you.”
Scott growled. “The hell you will.”
“We’ve already taken blood samples while you were asleep.”
“You’ll have to put me to sleep again then.”
“I’d rather not. We’ve found that the presence of foreign magic or certain drugs, especially those used to put a person to sleep, can affect the results of the testing. Besides, as soon as we’re done here, we want to put you in with the werewolves to see if you’re the natural alpha some believe you to be.”
Scott narrowed his eyes. Was the man crazy? Was he seriously suggesting that Scott might agree to be in charge of a gang of captive wolves? Moreover, did he understand that they would resist him precisely because Dr. Akin wanted him to be in charge?
“How many wolves do you have?” Scott asked. “And are any of them like Clinton?”
“That was unfortunate,” Dr. Akin said. “I told you we’re trying to cure them, but not every experiment has been successful. In the meantime, we’re losing control of some of the test subjects and have had to put them down. We’re hoping a powerful alpha can help, so we won’t have to take such measures.”
“No.” He wasn’t even sure he could do it.
Dr. Akin frowned. It reminded Scott of a disappointed parent, hoping to chastise his child into good behavior. “No? I had hoped that explaining a bit of what we do here would help. I wanted to make you feel like you’re a part of something here. I would hate to resort to threats.”
Scott growled.
“Maybe we should just throw Madison in with the wolves instead of you.”
The growl became a snarl. “If you do that, you lose your bargaining chip, don’t you?”
“Maybe. Or maybe we’ll round up a few members of your pack and use them as leverage. We’ve already got a track on several of them sniffing around that research facility in Texas.”
Trapped. God, he hated feeling trapped. He had never felt this way before in his life, and one way or another, he vowed, he would make Dr. Akin pay for making him feel this way now. He wouldn’t risk Madison or his pack, and the damned doctor knew it.
Scott held out his arm for the blood draw.
Chapter 23
HELPLESS RAGE. THAT’S WHAT FILLED SCOTT’S soul as he returned to his prison around lunchtime. Holding out his arm to willingly let another sorcerer draw his blood ended up being the high point of the morning. Afterward, Dr. Akin had forced him into a room with another powerful werewolf, one who might have been alpha material under normal circumstances.
Scott hadn’t killed him. He had fought the other male, and come out the victor, but he’d secured the other werewolf’s surrender. Surrender had been enough for him but not, apparently, for Dr. Akin.
It had been senseless! Scott’s instincts told him that Dr. Akin had only killed the other wolf to prove that he could, to show Scott that the guards knew how to take down a werewolf.
Who else would Dr. Akin kill before this was all over?
Only one thing kept Scott from lashing out in a blinding rage that would inevitably get himself killed: Madison.
She was the only thing that might keep him sane in the coming days, assuming she didn’t drive him crazy. He pictured her sweet face and remembered the feel of her soft body as she’d clung to him the night before. He could almost hear her voice in the dark, asking him personal questions as though she had the right. As though she weren’t afraid, even after he’d told her he wanted her. And he’d answered.
He couldn’t believe how much he needed her now. He’d given her the truth – all of it. Some part of him expected her to reject him now, but he didn’t think he could stand it if she did.
Two stone faces ushered him into his cell, using unnecessary force and smelling of unwarranted pride. They might fancy themselves kings of this prison, but wait until he met them on an even playing field.
They kept their eyes and their rifles trained on him as another stone face brought in a lunch tray – turkey sandwiches from the smell of it. Scott did not look. He had eyes only for Madison, who had risen from her place on the bottom bunk and stood staring at him until all the stone faces left. The lock clicked into place behind them.
He searched her face, looking for signs of fear or disgust. He didn’t see any. There was an underlying anxiety present, but nothing that made him think she saw him as a monster. In fact, the moment the stone faces left, her eyes went soft and moist.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “What did they do?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Her eyes dropped slightly and he cursed softly, under his breath. He hadn’t meant his words as a rejection; he simply did not want to relive his morning right now. Words wouldn’t help.
He took two steps closer, all he needed to be within touching distance. She glanced up at him, uncertainty written on every line of her face, but she did not draw away. In his current frame of mind, that was all the invitation he needed to draw her into his arms and close them around her, pressing her against his chest.
Her arms went around him in return, holding him tightly. She didn’t say anything, perhaps understanding that this was what he needed right now more than words. He hoped she understood.
Her head rested perfectly atop his shoulder. She wasn’t a short woman and he wasn’t a tall man. He only had three inches on her, but it put her at the perfect height for his embrace. She fit him. Her beautiful body, soft and full, fit him perfectly too. This
wasn’t a woman who would break at his touch.
He wanted to kiss her. He wanted more than that, but just now he wanted to feel her lips against his. He had refrained the night before, glorying in her touch alone, forcing himself to let that be all he needed. But today he wasn’t sure it would be enough. Today he felt desperate and unsure.
He placed a finger under her chin and lifted it slightly. Her eyes met his in question, but he didn’t answer in words. He answered by settling his lips over hers in a soft, gentle brushing of skin against skin. Then he backed away slightly.
Her eyes were closed and her lips slightly parted. She looked a bit dazed and very unsure, but she wasn’t pushing him away. He could smell her growing interest and it made his heart swell with newfound hope and need.
He brushed his lips against hers again before deepening the caress. She returned the kiss, a little inexpertly but with all the passion he’d known she possessed. She opened her mouth to him, welcoming his explorations. Welcoming him.
Why, though?
The niggling question started at the back of his mind but made its way forward until he could no longer ignore it. He wanted to quash it. He wanted to smash that voice into pulp. But it was the voice of instinct, the voice of intuition, and it had a concern.
Last night she’d talked to him in a way she never had before, clearing the air between them in the manner of someone who knew she was going to die. If that’s why she was responding to him now, if that’s what was going on, then he had to back away, no matter how much it killed him. He couldn’t take her now, truly claim her as he knew he would this time, and let her withdraw should they ever escape. It would destroy him.
It took a few seconds for her eyes to open and when they did they were full of question.
“Don’t offer more than you’re willing to give,” Scott found himself saying, a little more harshly than he intended. “I just might take advantage.”
She pulled away slightly. “Then why did you stop?”
He backed up a step, turned around, and spotted the lunch tray sitting on top of the dresser. He needed time to regroup, to gather his wits. He also needed his strength in the coming hours because, far-fetched though it was, he had the beginnings of a plan.
* * *
Madison ate her lunch in silence, trying not to show through look or words that she felt a little hurt. That kiss – her first kiss with Scott – had made her feel like she’d never really been kissed before. She had still been trying to decide if she wanted him or not, but when his lips met hers, she’d had her answer. Whether it was wise or not, whether it would last beyond this captivity or not, she did want him.
Yet he’d pulled away.
“I’m going to cast a spell,” Scott said when they finished eating.
“Okay.” Madison collected their plates and set them atop the tray on the dresser. Then she stood back so she wouldn’t interrupt whatever Scott wanted to do.
Scott glanced around the sparsely furnished room. “I need a casting circle first.”
Madison followed his gaze, frowning. She understood that the purpose of the casting circle had more to do with focus than anything else, but that for advanced or unfamiliar spells, it was often critical. Holding all the pieces of the spell together in one’s mind without some physical assistance was needlessly difficult.
“What about the sheets from the beds? We could lay them in a circle.”
“Good idea.” Scott stood, stripping first the top bunk, then the bottom.
“What are you going to do?” Madison asked.
Scott sat in the circle, just off center. “Sit with me.”
She hesitated. She had worked in a casting circle once, when Evan had tried to teach her to make the most of her talent, but it had been a long time, and she didn’t trust it. One way to link with another sorcerer was to join hands in the middle of a casting circle. Linking made two sorcerers more powerful than they could be individually, but Evan had once confided that if the two sorcerers involved weren’t equally powerful, the stronger of the two could overwhelm the weaker.
“Now, Madison.” Scott’s voice permitted no refusal. She sat.
Scott offered his hands to her, palm up, and she took them, trembling slightly at the casual touch. It felt more intimate than it should after what had passed between them earlier, but she had to push those feelings to the side for now. She also had to remain still and silent while Scott worked his spell.
It didn’t take as long as she feared it might. She sensed the evenness of his breathing when he fell easily into his quiet place, then the tingle of power when he called upon his magic. He mumbled something under his breath that sounded a little like Latin, the words sending a ripple through the air that seemed to make it thicken around them.
Scott’s eyes flew open. “It’s safe to talk now.”
“What did you do?” Madison glanced at the TV console, where she knew they had installed at least one microphone.
“I cast a silencing spell around us.”
“You don’t need the circle for the silencing spell,” Madison said. He had cast it too easily to have needed the props.
“That’s true. I know the silencing spell pretty well. It’s useful in combination with illusion magic.”
“I imagine no one sees you unless you want them to.” Madison frowned. “So how did you get caught?”
Scott shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t want to talk about it right now. Let’s talk about magic instead.”
Madison didn’t like how many things Scott was keeping from her, but she had no choice but to go along with it for now.
“You have a plan.” It wasn’t a question. Madison’s heart started beating faster at even the possibility of hope. She hadn’t resigned herself to death. She just had no idea how to stop it.
“I do. I won’t tell you everything in case they try to torture it out of you, but you should know that most of the work will fall on your shoulders.”
“Mine?” Madison squeaked the word, then cleared her throat. “Scott, I don’t have the magic to escape from a prison guarded by sorcerers. I’m not sure you do, either. Plus they probably have cameras everywhere, outside this room if not inside, so going invisible won’t work.”
“You’re right. Traditional illusion magic won’t work. But, years ago, I developed a spell that I thought would fool cameras. True invisibility.”
Madison’s eyes widened. “How? And what do you mean you thought it would work? Didn’t you test it?”
A shadow fell across his face. “I tried. The spell required the power of the full moon. I went into the woods to be closer to nature, close to the node, and close to the pull of the moon. I arranged my casting circle, ringed with white and black candles.”
“What happened?” Madison asked, though she thought she knew.
“A werewolf bit me.”
“Oh.”
“I’ve never been human at the full moon since, so I’ve never been able to work the spell.”
“You won’t be human during this full moon either,” Madison pointed out.
“No, but you will be.”
Madison was so startled by the idea that she nearly backed out of the circle, which would have broken it. Scott stopped her just in time.
“I can’t work a spell like that!” Madison protested. “I can barely light a candle when I really, really concentrate.”
Scott stroked her hand with gentle fingers, reminding her of their earlier kiss.
“Are you trying to distract me?” she asked.
“Maybe just relax you. It is a risky plan.”
“I still don’t understand the plan. How am I supposed to pull off a spell that you’re only strong enough to pull off at the full moon?”
“You won’t be using your magic, you’ll be using mine.”
She couldn’t have heard him correctly. “Your magic?”
He nodded, once.
“What are you going to do?” Madison asked. “Let me drain you?”
“No.” His shocked expression told her the thought had never occurred to him. “That wouldn’t be good enough anyway. There is more power in me at the full moon because of the wolf. I think that might tip the scales.”
“Then what?”
“We’ll be linked. You do understand linking, right?”
A little bit. “Mostly just that the strongest one controls the link.”
“The strongest one can give up control if he wants to. Or needs to.”
“But I would be...” Madison swallowed and tried again. “I’d be with you as a wolf.”
“My wolf didn’t kill you the last time.” Scott didn’t look her in the eyes, reminding her that they still hadn’t finished talking about the last time. They had only scratched the surface of what had come between them that night.
“Your wolf didn’t kill me because you, er, marked me.” Madison could feel her face burn, but Scott wouldn’t let go of her hands so she could hide her embarrassment.
“We’ll talk about that part later,” Scott said.
“It seems like a critical piece of the plan.” A deadly piece of the plan. She might have lost some of her irrational fear around Scott, but fear of his wolf was perfectly rational.
“Please, Madison,” Scott said. “It’s the new moon. We’ve only got two weeks and we need every minute if this is going to work. I don’t think we’ll get another month to try.”
Madison looked at Scott, trying to find some measure of reassurance in his expression. This plan of his – which he hadn’t fully explained – had more holes in it than swiss cheese. But his instincts were often right; they had saved her at least once before.
If only so much of it didn’t fall on her shoulders. He wanted her to channel vast amounts of magic? Could she even do that? Would a link still work with him in wolf form? Or would the wolf kill her before the plan had a chance to work?
I don’t think we’ll get another month to try.
“What went on up there today?” Madison asked.
He shook his head. “It’s nothing you need to worry about. This is what you need to worry about. Can you do it?”
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