The Calm Before the Storm

by Mandy Rosko

  Quietly, he and Silus slunk out from behind their hide-away bush.

  Ben had his gun in hand, and even though it was still bright and shiny outside, Silus protected himself only with a long leather duster, gloves, and a pair of black shades. Sun sprite blood worked wonders for him, but he still had to take some precautions against the sun.

  The guy was visibly pissed at having to be back at his old house.

  With no men on the grounds, it was just a matter of avoiding the cameras and staying in the blind spots.

  “Where would he keep them?” Ben asked, keeping his voice low on the off chance there was still a guard that would hear him.

  “South side. Our cellar also acted as a dungeon,” Silus said. “They haven’t been on the property long enough for him to have brought them anywhere else.”

  After Ben helplessly watched as the werewolves drove off in their van with Cedric and Seth, Ben teleported to Silus’s house. He’d quickly filled the other man in, and had given the vampire about twenty seconds to grab whatever it was he needed before teleporting them both directly to Wiktor’s mansion where they’d both waited for the chance to get inside.

  Silus was still seething. “If he’s touched him, put even a finger on him—”

  “They’ll be fine,” Ben said. They both kept close to the walls of the giant house, avoiding the cameras, ducking and sprinting where needed, until finally they made it to a heavy set of doors, and no windows.

  They were plain steel, there was a handle bolted into the door but nothing else, not even a latch on the handle to open the door with, or a lock that could be picked. There was, however, a keypad on the wall to the right of the doors. This was the part where Silus became useful.

  “Here it is. Come on.”

  Silus all but shoved him out of the way as he punched in the password, or at least, the only password he knew since he’d last been under his parents’ roof. It was a mega long shot, especially since Silus would be using a password that was nearly a year old, but Ben silently pleaded to God that Wiktor wasn’t paranoid enough to have the codes changed since then.

  Someone was not listening to his prayers. The tiny screen flashed red, and blinked PASSWORD NOT ACCEPTED at them, and then beeped obnoxiously. Silus growled and slammed his palm into the machine with a metallic crunch, destroying it and cutting off the alarm, but the door remained locked instead of magically opening like in some movie.

  “Fuck,” Ben said.

  “Teleport us inside,” Silus said, ignoring Ben’s hollow curse and putting his hand on Ben’s shoulder.

  Ben cleared his throat. “No problem.”

  He’d been hoping to avoid this. It wasn’t like there were windows for him to see what was waiting on the other side. If there was so much as an end table in there, or maybe another set of doors, and Ben teleported and reappeared in the wrong spot, he could find himself, along with Silus, temporarily stuck, and easy targets.

  “Hurry.” Silus seethed at him.

  There weren’t many things in the world that would make him risk it during a stealth mission, but Seth and Cedric were among them.

  Ben closed his eyes for focus and took in a long breath. He disappeared, splitting his molecules, and those of his passenger, into thousands of millions of tiny pieces, so small that they could pass right through the door barring their paths, so small they could pass through the wings of a fly.

  He did his best to slow the process so that he might better see where he would reappear, but seeing was difficult when one’s eyes weren’t whole, and everything inside was so pale and gray, and it was hard to distinguish the floors from the walls and ceiling. They were inside, that was all he knew, all he was able to think about in the nanoseconds he had.

  He had to reform himself, and he did. Ben and Silus reappeared on the other side of the door. They were all right. The space was small, and they were lucky to have not reformed with their arms or legs in a wall, but they were all right, and the stone stairs leading down to the hall were empty. Ben released the breath he hadn’t known he was holding.

  Thank you, Jesus.

  Silus released his shoulder and walked down the stairs, his feet barely making any noise, and as calmly as though he hadn’t just risked ending up crushed in a wall. He did, however, lift the collar of his duster as they passed a set of security cameras.

  Ben couldn’t help but notice how one of the black lenses was looking right at him.

  He glared at it and started to follow the other man down. There was no avoiding those now. He and Silus would have to deal with them later.

  Ben caught up with the vampire as they reached the bottom. Still no people. “Is it around here?” he whispered. The lack of any personnel guarding the doors or halls was no longer a comfort, and it had him all twitchy. Where was everyone? They’d all been running into the mansion, not out of it.

  “Just around this corner.” Silus grabbed Ben unexpectedly and slammed him into the wall before he could take another step.

  “What the fu—” The vampire clamped his hand over Ben’s mouth, making a sound that demanded his silence.

  Another second and Ben knew what the other man was doing.

  Voices. Two males speaking to each other, just around the corner that they’d been ready to pass. His pride took a shot in the chest at not having detected them.

  “What’s going to happen to this one?”

  Ben recognized the voice. The younger male werewolf, one of the three Seth had been chummy with the night before.

  “Wiktor’s going to want to deal with him once he catches up with Seth. Boss man’s not happy that he was helping him,” the voice of one of the bigger weres, not the leading alpha, but the other one, Gregory, said.

  Seth wasn’t in the holding room with them. He got away? No. It was still daylight outside. He’d made a run for it before Wiktor could get to the cell and see Cedric’s face.

  He was so full of admiration for Seth’s quick thinking, that Ben didn’t immediately register how the hand over his mouth, how Silus’s entire body, was trembling. He looked up at the vampire.

  Silus’s brows dark brows were down, and his lips upturned, revealing his fangs in a ferocious snarl. Ben was really glad he and this guy weren’t enemies. Then Silus’s grip on him became a little too hard. Ben grunted as the bones in his jaw were beginning to be crushed under the vampire’s grip.

  He calmly brought his free hand up and tapped the other man on the side of the neck, the one place guaranteed to get the vampire’s attention. When Silus looked down at him, as though recalling Ben was there, he immediately released him, offering no apology and still glaring in the direction of the voices.

  Ben rubbed the circulation back into his jaw. “You know those guys?” he mouthed, not daring to even whisper this close to a species known for their excellent hearing and tracking capabilities.

  Silus nodded.

  The werewolves began to laugh, but it was a strained sort of sound. “Never thought I’d see Wiktor so pissed that he’d chase down Seth himself. Guy’s got balls,” Gregory said.

  There was no answer, and Silus stalked forward, turning the corner and heading for the open door containing the two conversating werewolves. Ben had no choice but to follow, keeping their footfalls light and breathing even.

  “Why aren’t you saying anything?” Gregory asked.

  “Doesn’t he look kind of familiar?” Joey asked.

  Ben’s heart stopped. Shit! They were talking to Cedric now. Silus was at the door, and he peeked his eyes through the crack along the side. Ben ghosted his way to the other side of the open doorway, and did the same to get a look, shot his head back, and then looked again when he realized no one was watching the entrance.

  It was just the two guards in the room with Cedric on the floor in the corner. No one else was with them. And why would there be?

  Two werewolves to watch over one bound man would be more than enough. Both guards were too preoccupied with Cedric to notice there we
re two people surrounding them from behind.

  “I think I know this guy, Gregory.”

  “You saw me last night when I teleported with Seth,” Cedric said.

  When he—? Oh shit.

  Silus sent Ben an inquisitive look, but there was no way Ben could explain it yet. Cedric was purposely letting them think he was the teleporter from last night to cover for Ben.

  “Obviously that wasn’t you,” Joey said. Ben watched as he got down on his haunches in front of Cedric, putting them at eye level.

  “Joey!” Gregory snapped, a clear disapproval for Joey’s words in his voice.

  Ben couldn’t follow this at all. The wolves knew Cedric was lying but were going with it anyway?

  “Why would you cover for that other teleporter? If you’re a teleporter at all, why haven’t you tried to leave yet? Greg and I haven’t touched you since you woke up, you could’ve gotten away from us so easy.”

  Ben had to think quickly. He could do another snatch and run like last night with Seth. Neither werewolf was touching Cedric, so there was no risk of taking along any unwanted passengers, but then he’d have to worry about getting Silus out, too, and he still needed to find Seth in this giant fucking maze of a house. He had to do something fast before one of the hounds stuck his nose in the air and scented the two men behind them.

  Silus made the decision for him when he walked out of his hiding place and into the holding cell, this time allowing his feet to make noise over the concrete floor.

  The two weres immediately spun around.

  “What the fuck?”

  “Put your hands in the—” Gregory cut himself off as it became obvious who he was addressing.

  Ben slid into the room, keeping his back along the doorway and his hand on his gun in case it was needed.

  Neither werewolf seemed to even notice him. Didn’t look like they were capable of fighting against him if they had, to be truthful.

  Their mouths were open and hanging. The smaller male dropped to his knees, Gregory held his gun, but it was pointed to the ground as he stared at the face of his master, whom everyone had assumed to be dead this last year.

  “M–My lord?”

  Cedric sat behind them both, a lazy, relieved smile on his lips.

  “My lord,” Gregory said again, his voice not quaking this time around.

  “I command you both to release him. Now,” Silus said, with as much authority in his voice as though he hadn’t been gone at all.

  Joey and Gregory looked at each other, then at Cedric.

  “Holy shit, you’re that sun sprite,” Joey said, figuring it out. “The one from last year who—”

  “I said release him this moment. That is an order,” Silus snapped.

  Ben pulled his Glock from the holster under his arm, keeping the business end pointed down, much the same as Gregory was doing.

  Both pairs of eyes from the two weres in the room went to the piece in his hand, regardless.

  “One way or another, he’s coming with us, guys,” Ben warned.

  Joey sniffed the air. “You’re the teleporter from last night.”

  “That’s right,” Ben said. “I know you two don’t want to do this, so just give him to us, I’ll find your friend Seth, take him out of here, and you’ll never have to see us again.”

  Gregory’s lips thinned. He raised his weapon and pointed it at Silus. Ben in turn lifted his gun and aimed it between Gregory’s eyes.

  “Silus!” Cedric called, alarmed as a man pointed a gun at his lover.

  “What are you doing?” Joey demanded, eyes becoming wild as he looked between his former master and his friend. “Put the gun down.”

  “I’m sorry, my lord, but your father has given us orders.”

  Silus grit his teeth. “And what will he do to the both of you, regardless of whether those orders are carried out? Where is Jackson? Your leading alpha?”

  That had been the same name Seth had asked about last night. Ben got the impression that whatever had happened hadn’t been good.

  Management got it pretty rough around here, it seemed.

  Both pairs of eyes from the werewolves widened briefly, before they took on stoic expressions once more.

  “He’s being punished for allowing Seth to escape in the first place,” Gregory said. “Joey here would’ve taken the fall had he not come forward and put it all on himself. We owe it to him to make sure this next job gets done.”

  “Has he been put to death yet for his failure?”

  Joey’s fists and neck clenched. “Not yet, sir.”

  “Put to death?” Ben couldn’t believe it. “Jesus Christ, why do you guys even work for Wiktor?”

  “We’re slaves, you prick,” Joey said, his face becoming a hard mask.

  “No, no, that part I kind of get, kind of, but what’s to stop the lot of you from just leaving? Find someone else to be your master if you like the servitude thing so much.”

  As one, the two werewolves looked back to Silus, and a flash of genius inspiration came to him.

  “You’re all slaves to the Veturious line? Fine, here’s its heir, right here. Let Silus be your master, and let us all walk out of here. You both liked your other alpha so much? We’ll take him with us, too.”

  Silus stepped forward, and Gregory lowered the gun as his former master went toe-to-toe with him.

  “I am descended from the bloodline by which you owe your loyalty to. Swear your fealty to me, and leave this place.”

  Ben gritted his teeth as the two weres looked between each other, as though thinking it over. He really had no more time to waste, and the itch to run off and find Seth himself, regardless of the consequences, was driving him insane.

  Finally, Gregory lowered himself to his knees next to his brother wolf in front of Silus.

  “Master,” they said as one, lowering their heads until the flesh of their foreheads touched the dirty floor. Then, in a move Ben hadn’t been expecting, they began to peel off their suit jackets and button-down shirts.

  No, not exactly. They were loosening the clothing, exposing their necks and chest to Silus.

  “What the fuck?” Ben demanded. He got the whole wolf dominance thing, he really did, but—”Aren’t you guys taking this a little far?”

  “Silence,” Silus hissed, and then he smiled down at his new servants.

  “My first command will be for you to release my mate. Next, Gregory, you are to quietly inform the other members of the wolf guard of my arrival and the choice to act under my rule. Give them my scent as proof of your new allegiance. Do not inform the humans, as their loyalty is not based on blood. Joseph, you will take me to Jackson’s cell, we are to free him immediately, and then we must make haste to the video recording chamber.”

  “The video record—will you talk normally for once?” Ben snapped.

  “Cut it out, Ben,” Cedric said.

  Joey was already cutting away the plasticuffs that held Cedric.

  Cedric lifted himself to his feet, uneasily walked around Gregory’s looming form, and then threw his arms around Silus’s shoulders.

  Ben watched the two of them, strangely, feeling none of that previous emptiness he used to feel whenever he happened to see them holding each other.

  “Are you well?” Silus asked, attempting to pull back enough to get a look at the bruising on Cedric’s eye.

  Cedric responded by grabbing him by the ears and kissing him hard on the mouth. Though Cedric was taller, he didn’t have that much more height on Silus that the vampire appeared uncomfortable with the act.

  Okay, that was too personal. Ben looked away from their embrace.

  “I am so sick of this melodramatic bullshit,” Cedric said when he pulled away.

  “We shall be in for more of it in a few moments if we do not make haste.”

  “Ceddy, bro, not that I’m not glad to see you’re okay, but I need to get out of here,” Ben said, already backing up toward the door. He couldn’t wait anymore. The werewolf probl
em— these werewolves anyway—was taken care of. He needed to find Seth.

  Cedric pulled away from Silus. “Right. He made Wiktor chase him, but I don’t know where they are.”

  “He wouldn’t have gotten far,” Joey said. “Wiktor will take him to Winchester’s guest room.”

  “Where’s that?”

  “Three floors directly above us,” Silus answered.

  That was all Ben needed to hear. He shot out of the holding cell like a bullet from a gun, determined to find Seth before Wiktor or that fuck could touch him.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Jackson came awake to the sensation of cool water being poured down his hot, dry throat. He swallowed once, twice, on instinct, but then he choked as panic took hold of him, strong and wild as if knives were being held to his throat and balls.

  He was drowning! He was strapped in the chair again and in the pool! He struggled, coming up for air and away from that wretched water. It tasted fresh, different from the chlorine of Wiktor’s pool.

  Didn’t matter. He needed air. He couldn’t breathe!

  “Sir! Jackson!”

  A familiar voice. Hands touching him, gripping his shoulders and chest, but they weren’t hard and restrictive from when his wolves were forced to restrain him. This felt more like Jackson was being pulled away from a bad dream.

  It was Joey’s voice. Joey was the one who’d spoken. He never would have been given permission to speak during one of Wiktor’s sessions.

  He was still half in his nightmare, but now that he was aware that he was dreaming, it was easy to escape it. Jackson yanked his eyelids open, forcefully prying them apart as though they had been glued shut.

  Joey sat above him, his hands still on Jackson’s shoulders, concern on his soft features. Jackson smiled, reached for him, but then his panic took over as he recognized the shadows behind the kid to be other people, the darker one scented of a vampire.

  Jackson gripped Joey by the collar of his suit and attempted to pull him away from the vampire behind him, an excuse on his lips as to why Joey would be in Jackson’s cell, offering him water, and apparently, having released him from his manacles.