by Mandy Rosko
Gregory was fast, as most werewolves were. Cedric only had time for his eyes to go wide before that giant fist was hurled into the side of his head.
Seth winced at the sound of Gregory’s knuckles bashing into Cedric’s skull, and the way the other man’s head flew back. His anger spiked when Gregory raised his fist again.
“Stop that! He’s not going anywhere!” Seth yelled.
“We can’t take that risk,” said Damon. “He still awake, Greg?”
“Kinda,” Gregory said, lifting Cedric’s groggy head with two fingers under the poor guy’s chin. Cedric couldn’t hold himself up, leaving Joey to do that for him. His glazed eyes blinked drunkenly at his attacker.
“Want me to hit him again?”
One more of those, and it would be Cedric’s turn to spend some time as a vegetable. Did sun sprites heal the same way vamps did?
“Greg, stop.” Seth ordered.
Gregory’s lips came together in a firm line, and he half turned to look back at Seth. “You know we can’t listen to you anymore.”
“Regardless,” Damon said. “He looks done, and Wiktor wants them both in decent condition.”
That wasn’t good.
“Guys, please, I promise I’ll go quiet. Just leave him here,” Seth said as he was forcefully shoved toward the door. He put his leg up, his bad one, on the door frame to keep them from pushing him out.
The instant hot throbbing pain of his knee caused his whole leg to tremble as soon as he’d done it.
“Like you said you were going to come quietly last night?”
When Seth was shoved again, he shoved back with everything in his body, knocking Damon away from him and getting back on both feet. His leg killed, but he went into a defensive stance in front of the door, not that it would do him much good since he wouldn’t be doing any roundhouse kicks any time soon.
“That was different. He didn’t know what I was doing. He won’t try and get me when we get to Wiktor’s, okay? He’s not that stupid.”
Cedric’s head lolled as he was held by Joey, who watched the exchange with sad eyes.
Seth couldn’t let them bring Cedric to the Veturious Manse. These guys might not recognize their second hostage, but Wiktor would sure as shit know who Cedric was once he saw him, and then he would know that his son was alive, too.
Or maybe he’d just continue to assume Silus was dead and then torture the fuck out of Cedric for revenge.
“He’s knocked out, and he’s tied up. Please, he’s my friend. I don’t want him hurt. For old time’s sake, please.” His words became more and more desperate the more he spoke, but Seth couldn’t help himself.
He wasn’t begging because Ben was in love with the sun sprite, but because Cedric was one of the guys to take care of Seth and change his bandages when he needed it. Seth didn’t want to see what Wiktor would do to him if he got his hands on him.
“Guys,” Joey started, looking toward his superiors, and for a hair of a second, hope filled Seth’s chest that the wolves might actually disobey, for once.
“No,” Damon said. “He comes with us. Gregory.”
Gregory pulled out a black bag from the inside of his jacket. Seth went apeshit as he pulled it over Cedric’s head and tied the bottom.
“You motherfuckers! He’s gonna kill him! Don’t you get it? He’s going to kill him!”
Adrenaline carried him as Seth kicked his leg out and caught Damon in the gut, and he doubled over, clutching at his stomach. He didn’t care if the wolves were forced to obey anymore, five centuries and a blood oath be damned, he was going to kill them for this.
Damon recovered quickly, performing a neat kick-up, and he grabbed Seth’s bare foot as he attempted to kick the alpha once more.
Seth was easily tackled to the floor as he and Gregory charged him.
A heavy, callused hand clamped down over Seth’s mouth as he yelled and cursed at them, and it stayed there even as Seth bit down hard, drawing blood with his fangs and slicing deep into the flesh.
The two men above him called out orders that Seth couldn’t make out because he was so caught up in his rage. Gregory didn’t tear his hand away until Joey appeared in Seth’s vision, a roll of gray duct tape in his hands. He hurriedly ripped off a long strip and proceeded to wrap it entirely over his mouth and around the back of his head.
“Hold his feet down. Hold his feet,” Damon said as Seth continued to kick.
The fucked-up thing was, despite the size of the apartment, the floors and walls didn’t have the feel of being thin and cheap. They felt thick and solid. Even if there were neighbors home, Seth doubted anyone would hear the racket going on.
“Want me to tie his feet, too?” Joey asked.
“No, he’s walking out of here. We need something to cover him. The sun’s still out.”
Seth glared at Joey as the younger man went off in search of something to use. Joey pointedly avoided looking in Seth’s direction.
“Greg, put your radio on and get outside. We’ll need you to keep watch. Don’t want anyone to see us leaving like this.”
“Got it.” Gregory took off out of the broken door and down the hall to the elevators. With him no longer holding Seth’s feet, Damon put his knees on Seth’s chest to keep him down.
Not that he needed to. Seth was coming down off his adrenaline high and his knee pulsed fire and brimstone for the tantrum he’d pulled.
Seconds later Joey came back with a sheet from Ben’s bed. His jaw was clenched as he held it out for his leading alpha to take, still not looking Seth in the eyes.
Damon grabbed it and began wrapping it around Seth. “We won’t let the sun touch you.”
Seth put all his hatred into glaring at the bastard, but then it didn’t matter anymore as one of those leather black bags was shoved over his head.
* * * *
Ben teleported home just in time to duck behind a tree to keep from being seen.
He wanted to scream, but he bit down on his anger and clenched his fists instead. Those motherfucking werewolves were parked right outside his door, their stupid-ass, black van obnoxiously sitting over the yellow No Parking sign painted on the concrete.
How the hell they’d managed to get the front door open without busting the glass, Ben didn’t know. Maybe one of them knew how to pick locks, or another tenant had let them in or something. Either way, the door was being held open with a rock as the smaller werewolf half carried Cedric to the back of the van.
He had a black bag covering his face. Ben clenched his hands into fists.
They put a bag over his head.
He cricked his neck, relieving some of the building tension. Stay calm, stay focused, assess the situation.
By the way Cedric swayed, Ben could only assume he’d either been drugged or punched out, but it was hard to tell with the leather bag. Regardless, he wasn’t flashing away, despite the sun touching his arms. They must’ve thought he was the teleporter from last night if they’d bothered with putting him out of commission.
Great.
Ben wanted to go to him, just teleport over, grab him, and take him away before they could disappear with him, but he had to wait for…
Seth.
The flare in his chest and stomach terrified him as they brought him out. It was easy to tell it was him because of the way Ben’s white bed sheet covering him steamed in the sun as the alpha led him out.
He was helped into the back of the van without much struggle. Ben wouldn’t struggle while out in the open either, if it meant lighting himself on fire.
He stayed behind the bushes, watching and waiting as the leading alpha and the younger werewolf moved to the front of the van and got in.
He was going to teleport inside the back of the van and grab hold of Cedric and Seth, and then get the fuck out of there before those idiots even knew Ben was around.
His muscles tensed, readying for the teleport. The van started, and he was a hair away from doing the old Ninja Vanish, when, fuck, the
last of the three werewolves jumped into the back with the hostages.
He quietly shut the doors, and then they calmly drove off as though they weren’t about to deliver the two men they had to the devil himself.
Ben ran out of his hiding spot as the van drove to the lot’s exit. He didn’t need to get the license plate since he already knew where that fucking van was headed, but his eyes zoned in on it from habit, and he had the numbers memorized before it disappeared around the corner anyway.
It wasn’t moving that fast, maybe he could still teleport inside it and get them…
No, no, no. Fuck! He could reappear with a spare tire or something inside him, or even end up reforming with another person attached to him, and that Siamese twin thing scared him enough that he pussed out and watched the van go.
“Fuck!” he yelled into the empty lot. There was an empty soda can by his foot, and he kicked it away. “Fuck! Cocksucking, fuck!”
Even if he’d gotten inside the van unharmed, he would’ve had zero point whatever seconds to grab both Seth and Cedric and get them to safety. There was no way he could’ve done that before the werewolf guarding them would’ve gotten his hands on Ben. Cedric was out of commission, so Ben’s chances were better he would’ve only gotten him out, and where the fuck would that have left Seth?
The werewolves would’ve known there was someone else to deal with, too.
Ben couldn’t do nothing. The Porsche was too noticeable. Thank God he’d left his Jeep here earlier today. He pulled his keys out and jumped inside, making the tires screech as he pulled out of his spot and drove out of the lot.
They were down the street a ways, but he could still see their vehicle. It was still fairly early, and a Sunday. The streets weren’t that busy, but Ben couldn’t follow them forever without one of the weres in that van noticing him.
Ben gripped the steering wheel, allowing the weres’ van to drive farther and farther down the road without him. He knew where they were going, and he was taking a huge risk following them like this.
They’d eventually notice, and Ben would be officially fucked. So would Cedric and Seth.
He pulled over, his body clenching, the urge to continue on fighting within him, to teleport directly on top of the van if he had to, just to stay close with the two men inside it.
The black van stopped at a stop sign, made a right turn, and disappeared on Third. Veturious was a small city, ironically sharing its name with Wiktor Veturious, and that road would lead them directly to Verona street, and Wiktor’s mansion, within ten minutes.
Ben punched his steering wheel and dash, cursing and swearing, expunging all of his anger until the red haze of rage left and he could think straight again.
When he opened his eyes and took a calming breath, a woman and her two small children, dressed in their Sunday best, were on the sidewalk staring at him. The woman and her daughter had open mouths. The boy’s grin revealed two missing front teeth, and he looked at Ben as though he were a celebrity.
Ben sent them a limp wave. “Sorry.”
The woman ushered her children away from him quickly, all but dragging her son along.
Ben sighed and leaned back in his seat. He put his hand in his hair and sighed, returning his thoughts to Cedric and Seth.
It was better that he let them go. At least now Ben still had stealth on his side, and he still had to cover his bases with Cyricus.
He pulled out his phone and called Cyricus’s private number. It rang three times before he answered.
“Hello, sir? You will never believe this, but the werewolves have caught your teleporter and the vampire. I’m on my way to intercept them for you now. Yes, sir, I’ll bring them to you immediately.”
He explained as much as he could make up on the fly in ten seconds before he hung up. He’d worry about getting his facts straight, and what he was going to do about not having any teleporters or vampires to hand over to the old bastard, after he rescued Seth.
Silus was going to kick the shit out of him when he found out about this.
Ben teleported straight to Mantua Lake, abandoning his Jeep on the side of the road so he could deliver the news. They had to deal with this before Wiktor got a look at Cedric’s face.
Chapter Sixteen
They left the bag over his head the entire ride back to Wiktor’s evil fucking mansion. It eventually got to the point where Seth thought he would asphyxiate due to a lack of oxygen as he was forced to breathe in the increasingly hot air of the leather bag.
Then it was ripped away, and his entire face was left cold due to the sudden rush of fresh air against the sweat that had built over his skin.
As a vampire, a creature that craved the darkness, his eyes had no trouble adjusting to the dim lighting of the room he was in. He had half a second to be pissed over the fact that he was in another basement before someone came around to look at him.
It was Joey’s sympathetic face that Seth saw, and he held the leather bag limply in his hand.
“Hey,” the kid said.
Seth glared at him. He tensed up when Joey pulled out a pair of long, insanely sharp scissors.
“It’s okay,” the omega assured him, but Seth felt anything but okay as he came closer to his face with those things.
“Just don’t move,” Joey said, and slowly, carefully, began peeling the duct tape enough with his thumbnail to fit the scissors beneath and cut the stuff away.
Seth sat up immediately when the scissors were a safe distance away from his face, suddenly thankful he’d cut his hair so much shorter when Joey began unraveling it from the back of his head.
“Where’s—”
He stopped himself before he could utter Cedric’s name.
Joey hardly seemed to notice as he jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Right there.”
Seth looked, and, right, there he was. The bag was no longer covering his head, but he was still out of it, left to lie against the cold concrete wall of Wiktor’s cellar. His hair was mussed up from sweat, and a nasty plum-purple swelling was making its appearance under the eye where he’d been punched, and then spreading over the bridge of his nose to the other eye.
That sun sprite was no warrior, that was for damn sure.
Seth looked around quickly. No television. No plush carpeting, no leather seats and no fireplace. This was not a part of the basement where Wiktor did his entertaining. They were in his dungeon.
It was clean, and it wasn’t like there were shackles on the walls with skeleton bones hanging from them, but it was still a dungeon.
“Does Wiktor know we’re here yet?”
“Damon just went up to get him. I’m sorry about all this, Sampson, I really am.”
Seth’s eyes went to Cedric once more, and he bit his bottom lip.
The only thing keeping him from losing it right there was the hope that Ben would teleport the guy out any minute now. There was no direct sunlight in this room—and why would there be in any vampire home?—so even if Cedric woke up, they’d still have to wait for the cavalry to arrive.
Still… “How long ago did Damon leave?”
“Couple of minutes.”
As if the vampire was on cue, Wiktor’s snappish voice travelled down the hallway and through the door. “That little shit had better be conscious! Winchester wants him up and ready immediately.”
Seth’s blood turned to frost. He had no time to fuck around, Wiktor was going to open that door any nanosecond now. He had to keep him from seeing Cedric’s face!
Seth jumped up and tackled Joey, pushing the other man down with the weight of his body. The poor kid didn’t even see it coming, didn’t expect Seth to do anything at this point, and he went down hard with a shocked yell.
Seth slammed his knee into Joey’s gut, putting every iota of his vampire strength into it and knocking the air right out of him. It cut off his cry for help and would make sure the kid stayed down.
Mistake.
He’d used his bad knee, and Seth inhaled
sharply at the needle-like fire horror that took over the joint. He might as well have knocked it into a brick wall.
Seth bit down on his bottom lip to keep from screaming. He used his shoulder and good leg to get himself vertical. His hands were still tied behind his back with the plasticuffs, but he had no time to break them.
“Seth?”
Cedric, he was coming to. The other man was blinking as though adjusting to the dim lighting of the room, and looking around almost drunkenly. Then his eyes widened, awareness grabbing hold of his body as he shifted farther into his corner, no doubt realizing where he was and that he couldn’t move his hands.
“Sit tight. Your friends are coming soon,” Seth said.
He made for the door, leaving Joey coughing and clutching at his stomach on the floor. “Sorry, pal. Promise I won’t get far,” Seth said.
Twisting, he pushed down on the handle with his elbow and opened the heavy steel door just as Damon pulled it open for his master.
Wiktor’s shocked face, inches from Seth’s, was priceless.
He took the best possible advantage of the stunned men, guaranteeing the vampire would be seeing red and not the sun sprite behind Seth. He kissed Wiktor full on the mouth, yanking himself away just as the vampire pushed him back, rage taking place of his former shock.
“You have to catch me if you want Winchester to have me,” he said, and, throwing the throbbing in his leg to the back of his mind, he pushed through the shocked men and took off down the hall, Wiktor’s enraged screaming bouncing off the walls behind him.
* * * *
Ben and Silus hardly needed much stealth to sneak onto Veturious’s property. Never mind the fact that Ben was a teleporter, but almost to the second they arrived, hidden behind the same shrub Ben had used to hide the first time he’d come here with Cedric, every single guard on the land abruptly left their posts and ran to the nearest entrance to the house simultaneously.
It could only mean that someone was stirring up some shit that required serious attention.
Had to be Seth. Pride swelled in Ben’s chest at the thought.