Tortured Embrace Read online

  Ramo shrugged. “Who knows? They’re stoned enough, but what are the chances they’d hallucinate the very creature that’s trying to kill us?”

  Jason didn’t know what to think of it. They stood silently for a moment in the afternoon quiet. A few nearby ducks quacked, the echo dying in the cool breeze. Jason cast his eyes across the lake, his gaze panned from Nick to Alex to Adam, a knot forming in his stomach. The hushed sound around the lake was unnerving. He had a sinking feeling about this whole situation. Something was off. The hairs at his nape stood on end. He felt as though a storm was coming; only the sky was clear blue.

  “What?” Ramo asked, picking up on his anxiety.

  All he could do was shake his head, the sinking feeling in his gut building. His pack members felt it too. Nick howled at him, wondering what was wrong. Adam joined in, their message clear: The area seems secure. Why are you worrying?

  “No,” Jason uttered.

  “What J?” Ramo asked again, louder.

  His body hummed now with fear as reality hit. This area was secured, but Wilmington wasn’t.

  In their haste to find the jackal, the Fighters had left their town defenseless. The Chicago crew was back in the city. Fear of their species’ new enemy had brought the five remaining Fighters to a secluded lake, miles outside of Wilmington.

  “Fuck,” he heard Ramo utter, as they all understood.

  There’d been no sign of the jackal aside from the smell because it was a goddamn decoy.

  “Move out,” Jason shouted, as he raced back to the pickup, a pain stabbing through his heart, hoping to God the horrible thoughts running through his head weren’t true.

  ****

  Kevin held the door for Serena as they stepped out of the diner into the cool fall afternoon. Smiling nervously, she wrung her hands, her mind filled with images of her mother and Kevin falling in love and carrying on an affair for roughly two weeks. She’d outright chided Kevin for preying on a married woman, but she was delighted her mother found some semblance of happiness even though it had been short-lived.

  “Thank you so much for meeting me today,” Kevin said, pausing next to her car.

  “Of course. How long will you be in town?” she asked, anxiety overcoming her at the thought of him leaving. She was just getting to know him.

  Smiling hopefully at her, he said, “For as long as you’ll have me, my dear.”

  Without thinking, Serena swung her arms around him, whispering in his ear, “A long, long while then.”

  Kevin chuckled as they pulled apart and she noticed his eyes glimmered with unshed tears.

  Holding his hand in hers, she said, “Come to the library tomorrow afternoon. I’ll show you what I do.”

  “I’d like that. Thank you, Serena.”

  He stepped around to open the door for her as a black van came peeling down the street, the engine roaring noisily disrupting their peaceful afternoon. They both peered at the speeding vehicle, wondering if it would slow down at the stoplight. Surprised, it came to an abrupt stop right next to them, the wide hood of the van lurching forward as the driver slammed on the brakes.

  Just as the side door slid open, Serena’s vision was cut off as someone grabbed her from behind. A dark cloth covered her entire face as a commotion grew around her. The feel of string tightened around her throat at the same instant she heard Kevin shout, then a loud thump, and someone hit the ground.

  Kevin’s shouts were no longer audible as she was hurled into someone’s arms and knocked back onto some sort of metal, her teeth chattering on impact. The wind was knocked out of her, and she fought for breath, coughing into the suffocating hood. Head swimming dizzily, her body began to tremble, her limbs contorting. Please phase, please phase. Hurry!

  A familiar pain shot through her arm, and real panic set in as she screamed, her body flailing wildly in the confined space they’d flung her in. She felt her body, which had begun to grow, shrink back down. The few seconds of power she’d felt gone as the serum began coursing through her veins.

  She fell to her knees, bringing her captor down with her. “No, no, no!” she screamed, her hands hitting every part of Leo she could manage. She’d recognize his filthy stench anywhere. “Please, please, let me go. Don’t take me back there! Please!” she cried desperately, aware now she was in the back of the van and it had begun to move again.

  He gripped her wrists, and shook her hard. “Don’t bother fighting. It’ll be worse if you do.”

  Leo’s snide voice sounded different to her ears. His usual cool and self-assured tenor was now low and subdued, but she didn’t care what he said. She’d been too weak to fight the last time, but not now. There was too much to fight for…Jason, Adam, her nephews. She’d just found her real father. God no! She had to fight!

  “Don’t do this, Leo, please,” she begged, struggling blindly under his hold. “The Fighters are always on patrol. They’re watching me. When the alpha and beta find you, they will kill you,” she added forcefully, saying anything that’ll get to him, yet knowing her words were very true.

  “Nah,” he said, his voice tired and groggy. “Showed some kid one of the Nightwalkers…one of yours in fact…Enchanted him to call his dad and low and behold, it worked. Dad works for your big bro and called headquarters. Your Fighters aren’t around, sweetheart.”

  Cold dread slipped down her spine. The text message Jason had received must have lured him far from the area of the diner. Oh God. A Nightwalker? Were the Fighters able to kill it? She prayed no one was hurt. Standing, she lurched at him. “You bastard!” she uttered through gritted teeth, her head thrashing as she tried futilely to get the cloth off her head.

  As the van sped down the road, she continued to punch and kick, her hands and wrists throbbing from the impact. Leo tried in vain to keep her off, until she managed to land a swift kick right between the legs. His curse was the last thing she heard before a heavy object hit the side of her head, knocking her out cold.

  ****

  “She can’t be far, J. We’ll find her,” Nick’s calm tone barely registered. “The whole pack is out looking for her. There’s bound to be…”

  Jason strode into the round house and into the dining room completely numb with Nick on his heels. Nick went on, but he couldn’t listen to his positive words. He couldn’t hear anything but Serena’s voice telling him she loved him earlier today.

  They were not the last to arrive at headquarters. Aside from Ramo, the entire pack, including the Chicago crew was crammed in the room looking the worse for wear. Most of them half dressed as they’d only just phased back after searching for several hours.

  When they’d reached the diner, they’d found an unconscious Kevin on the ground, a deep gash along the side of his head.

  The instant Jason saw Serena’s father, but no sign of his girl, his heart plummeted. He’d gotten out of the car, faltered, falling back against the door of the truck, dizzied with grief. Not again. Not again, he’d chanted in his head. His body humming with shock, his hand automatically rubbed the ache in his chest as he tried to breathe through the lump in his throat.

  The Fighters had paused for a moment, not knowing whether to go to Kevin or Jason. His body quivering with anguish, he balled his fist in a blood-curdling grip and smashed the driver’s side windshield of his truck. “Noooooooo!” His agony ripping through the pack. His very skin had felt as though it would burst into flames, and the longer they’d searched, the more turbulent he became.

  The instant Kevin came to, they’d drilled him for information before splitting up to search for Serena. Her scent had been cut off near the street where Kevin said a black van had stopped. They could only assume the inside of the van was enchanted to cover her scent so they couldn’t follow.

  Adam had not only called the Chicago Fighters, but in his desperation, he’d called out to the rest of the Blacktail pack, ordering them to phase. The mayor of Wilmington was already blowing up headquarters at the mass of werewolves running around town
in search of Serena.

  Even now, the civilian pack members continued to search for her, their loyalty to their alpha and their admiration for Jason’s famed love for Adam’s sister driving them on. Jason would still be with them had he not been called to headquarters.

  He pinned Adam with a glare the instant he entered, shirtless and barefoot, perspiration running down his chest. Everyone tensed the instant they saw him.

  Adam stood next to the table, his t-shirt flung over his shoulder. Raising a calming hand he said, “We’ll be back out there in a minute. It only makes sense to discuss tactics.”

  Jason didn’t say a word. He was afraid to even speak, barely having the energy to breathe. With his chest heaving rapidly, he looked to Alex who was typing away on a laptop. He didn’t need to ask his question aloud. The Fighter knew what Jason wanted.

  “I’m running schematics from the place you found Serena. From there we can fan out and continue searching. I’m also looking at every building around the area where she might have been housed the last time.” They’d done this when Serena returned, but with no leads. The only chance they had was to search the area again and hope the witches unknowingly left some clue.

  Jason’s stomach knotted for the umpteenth time as he thought of the place Serena had described. His chest ached, a stabbing pain piercing his heart. They needed to hurry up. He couldn’t stand here much longer.

  Ramo finally joined them, strolling in with car keys in hand. He’d gone back to speak to the kid who’d seen the jackal. They all looked to him expectantly. Shaking his head, he said in a serious tone, completely out of character for the guy who treated life as if it were a big joke. “The boy doesn’t remember a thing but the jackal. He described it to me, and it looks like we’re dealing with something bigger than we thought. It’s not the size of a regular jackal. These Nightwalkers are huge.”

  Everyone in the room tensed even more, on top of losing Serena again, they had to watch out for a species completely unfamiliar to them.

  “I searched the entire area and came up empty,” Ramo finished.

  Alex sat back roughly in his chair, dropping his hands in his lap as though the Internet was letting him down. “Jason, there’s got to be something Serena mentioned, something she didn’t tell Eva, but to you in confidence.”

  He glared at Alex, thinking of the witch’s torture, something he knew Serena would not want him to share with the rest of them, but he knew the Alex was just looking for any helpful information.

  Evangeline entered the room with Kevin at her side, a thick bandage over his right temple. She looked to him, and he felt her thinking long and hard about everything Serena told them, worry plastered on her face.

  Finding his voice, he uttered, “Eva described the ballroom and the hallway and everything else. I can’t think of anything you don’t already know.”

  Danny Amato sat in a chair near the window, dressed as if he’d just gotten off work in shirtsleeves and slacks with his duty belt, badge, and vest strewn across the table in front of him. “Walk us through her escape,” he said, looking to both Jason and Evangeline. “I know it’s rough, but we need to hear everything again.”

  Thankfully, Evangeline started retelling them how Serena and Benjamin began sucking out the serum when they were injected…Ben phasing and attacking a male witch and getting him to open Serena’s cell. He knew it was helpful to go over it again, but he couldn’t handle the thought of Serena going through all of it on her own.

  He kept picturing her scared and hurt trying to escape, wondering if she’d be caught or not and his stomach turned. And now she was back there. Pain sliced through his skull just thinking of what they might be doing to her.

  “Serena said Benjamin found a tunnel which led outside, but it was only big enough for a human not a werewolf so she went ahead of him,” Evangeline was saying uneasily. He could feel her apprehension, wondering if she was remembering correctly.

  Alex asked, his tone business-like, “I can’t picture this tunnel in a basement. Doesn’t make sense.”

  Evangeline shrugged nervously, looking to Jason. They were all counting on him to remember something. Serena was counting on him and he could barely focus. How scared had she been trying to escape with witches and Nightwalkers on her heels? How scared was she right now? Was he picking up on her panic at this moment or was it his?

  Pinching the bridge of his nose, he closed his eyes. Then, crossing his arms over his chest, he took a deep breath. With his eyes still closed, he was able to picture the place where she was held. “They were usually brought up to the ballroom from stairs to the left of her cell. Serena said they went right, hoping to find an alternate exit, with Benjamin in his wolf form leading the way. When they got to the end, there was tunnel in the wall. There were a few rooms like hers down there on either side of the stream. They’d walked about …”

  Alex cut him off. “What stream?”

  Caught off guard, Jason opened his eyes to meet Alex’s. “There was a stream running the length of the basement.” He glanced at Evangeline, who looked as though she hadn’t known about the stream. Thinking back on those heart-wrenching conversations when Serena was healing, he remembered her briefly telling him about crawling in the stream into the tunnel.

  At the time he hadn’t paid much mind to the stream part of the conversation. He was trying not to breakdown at the thought of her getting caught trying to escape. “The stream led outside through the tunnel.”

  Alex sat up straight again, typing away on the keyboard. “This would have been useful weeks ago.”

  “Why?” Adam asked, his face concerned, evidently wondering why they were discussing a stream.

  “Narrows it down. There are not a lot of rundown places near where she was found with a ballroom and a…stream…” He trailed off, his eyes narrowing as he read the screen. “The Sweetin House in Hillview,” he said, triumphantly. “Motherfucker! That’s only an hour run from here.”

  Heart leaping to his throat, Jason stalked across the room to the laptop, turning it in his direction. An image of an abandoned building in ruins covered the screen. The bits of limestone left on the land scoured and crawling with ivy. “This place doesn’t even have a roof. How the hell could she have been held here?” He didn’t want to lose hope they’d found where Serena could be, but he couldn’t help but think logically. This place was not livable.

  No one said a word as he read more about the old home until he felt Evangeline’s excitement. They all turned to her at once.

  “There’s a charm which can recreate the physical aspects of the past in a certain place. It’s a difficult spell, not many can do it, but I’m sure Cassandra was able to work her way around it.

  “It may not have been perfect as Serena described the ballroom’s interior in a dilapidated state, but certainly would have been useful. If I’m right, the Sweetin House would look almost the same as it did back then.”

  They all stared thoughtfully at her. No one really knew much about witches’ spells. This sort of magic was unsettling. What else could these witches do?

  She answered their unspoken question. “My mother’s been telling me what she knows about the witch culture,” she said uneasily.

  Before they all harped on the fact Evangeline was a witch as well, Adam said authoritatively, “Okay. We need to scout the place first before going in. Jason, Alex, and Ramo will head out now. We’ll be right on your tail. When you’ve reached the perimeter, Alex call Viola and Cameron.” He turned to the two Weres. “You’ll take a vehicle. We may need another form of transport, especially if they’ve given Serena the serum that keeps her from phasing. Then call me, we’ll continue tactics from here and head out in ten.”

  Just as he, Ramo, and Alex made to move, Evangeline stepped closer into the room toward her mate. They all paused. Adam looked to her questioningly. “Alex says it’s an hour run from here. Hillview is about a four-hour drive. You’ll be lacking numbers if two of you are driving.”


  Narrowing his eyes at her, Adam said, “They’ll leave now. Don’t worry, Eva.” He turned away from her to address Jason. “Go now. I expect a call in an hour.”

  “Adam…” Evangeline interrupted again, stalling them. “You’ll lose time. I can teleport there right now. Take a picture of the place and the surrounding area and be back in less than a minute.”

  Adam froze, the sound of his pulse beating loudly in all their ears. “Absolutely not! Out of the question.”

  “Why? It’s a simple solution…” Evangeline argued, but her words were cut off by the collective growls emanating from eleven werewolves. Jason’s eyes shifted, his teeth baring as he glared. Kevin Goode took a cautious step back toward the wall as the Fighters rose to their feet, arching their backs as they hunched forward, every yellow eye glued to the dining room entrance.

  “My…what a gracious welcome,” came the cocky voice of Cyrus Stewart, the vampire king. He stood with his beast of a manservant behind him, eyeing them all with an arrogant smirk. His black eyes landed on Evangeline, his face softening for an instant before meeting Adam’s glare.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” Adam growled.

  Cameron O’Connell seethed. “How the hell did he get in here?”

  Danny stealthily went for his gun in the holster of his duty belt, his fierce eyes never leaving Cyrus’ face.

  “Relax, dogs,” he said in a bored tone. Rolling his eyes, he held his hands up, “I come in peace.” He took a cautious step forward, then smiled as they all hunched over more, ready to phase and pounce on his ass. “I was invited in months ago when I saved your alpha’s mate.” He said this slowly, looking around.

  Evangeline put a calming hand on Adam’s arm then stepped to the king. “What are you doing here, Cyrus?” She was trying to ease the situation, but they all knew she was putting herself between the vampire king and eleven angry werewolves.

  “Mayor Boyle is in a tizzy over all the activity today. Called to see if I knew anything. I’ll be honest, I didn’t give a rat’s ass what was happening in the Blacktail community, but you did mention these pesky Nightwalkers are after our kind too, so I thought I’d find out what all the fuss was about.”