Relentless (20 page)

I provided information to Myles about what I’d seen as he continued to lay out a plan for us. Periodically, I glanced up in the front mirror to see Jared’s eyes on us. I wondered if he was as uncertain about this as I was. I didn’t think Myles’ plan would work, but I didn’t have a better one, so I kept quiet.

I stood next to Myles at the edge of the trees, the door to the cave only a few feet away. For a while, it’d seemed as though we’d never get here even though we’d rolled along the interstate at nearly seventy miles an hour. Ten miles away, we’d parked the motor home at a small campground then packed a change of clothes for everyone in two backpacks. We’d traveled the remainder of the journey in wolf form using Myles’ innate sense of direction to keep us on track. Thankfully we hadn’t seen any people who might have been alarmed at the sight of several unusually large wolves tracking through the snow. 

The woods thinned at last, and then it was there before us, the rocky precipice just as I’d seen it in my vision, a smooth, flat granite wall looming upward. I knew that a big section of it was a steel door that would open when the right mechanism was engaged. In my vision, I’d seen someone open the door. I only hoped I’d be able to find the latch or lever.

Jared dropped the backpack from his mouth and nosed it open, grabbing his set of clothes in his mouth. The rest of us did the same and hurried off to find a place in the woods where we could transform into our human bodies for this next part of our rescue, or capture, depending on how things went.

We all met back up at the edge of the trees with the concealed entry point only ten yards away. By an unspoken agreement, we settled in to wait in the trees, no one quite wanting to embark on this part of the journey just yet. I leaned against a tree trying to get comfortable.

The shadows had begun to lengthen when Myles glanced at his watch. The first discernable movement he’d made for some time. “It’s been nearly two hours, and no one’s been in or out. I think it’s time to get started.”

We gathered in a circle as Myles reviewed our plan.

“Jared and Robert will take the explosives we made and head down to the cabin. They’ll set them off then come back here but stay out of sight. Alexis, Brynna, and I will wait until people start leaving the lab to come see what’s happening, then we’ll go in the cave and get Lana and Daryl.”

“What if we can’t open the cells?” Brynna interrupted.

“I told you there’s a control panel on the wall. I’m sure that will open the doors.”

“But you don’t know for sure.”

I glared at her but didn’t respond. She was right. I didn’t know for sure.

“We really don’t have a backup plan, do we?” Brynna asked.

Myles sighed. “If we don’t come back out within an hour, Jared and Robert will notify my dad and Louise.”

“Then we’ll come in after you,” Jared stated flatly.

“No,” Myles argued. “You have to stay out of sight. You’ll be our only contact with our pack if we get caught. No matter what happens, don’t come in after us,”

Brynna frowned at Jared. “You hear that? You are our contact, our lifeline. Don’t get caught.”

He ignored her and grabbed his backpack full of explosives. Robert did the same, and they disappeared into the trees. We sat back to wait again. It took a little over an hour before the first of the explosions started. They were setting up a ring of explosives around the cabin, and it shook the ground where we stood.  The rock wall suddenly opened, and we pressed ourselves to the ground as people poured out of the doorway. They raced down the path that led back to the cabin, and we waited as the door slid closed. For five minutes, we lay there, but no one else left. Myles made a motion with his hand, and we set off toward the entryway.

“The person I watched touched this stone on the wall,” I said, pushing at the uneven stone near the edge of the steel door. A whirring noise came from inside the rock face as the door slid back, disappearing into the wall. Myles led the way as we entered. The hallway was exactly as I remembered it. Dim overhead lights reflected off the polished stone floor. Behind us, the whirring sound started again, only louder, and I spun around to see the door slide closed with a resounding thud.

“They were this way.” I pointed down the long hall in front of us. I glanced to the room on our left, which I remembered was some kind of break room with tables and counters. Now it was dark, and I could barely make out the shape of the furniture. We passed the doorway to the dark room, and I heard movements. A group of men, ten at least, came through the arched opening in the rock wall, quickly surrounding us. I could see Myles’ eyes darken, and a bead of sweat ran down his brow. I put my hand on his forearm, and he turned to me.

“Don’t change. They’ll kill you.” I don’t know what had made me say it or where the thought had even come from, but I knew it was true.

“They’ll probably kill us either way,” he growled in a low voice.

“I don’t think they’ll kill us all on the spot. We need to stick to the plan.”

He arched a brow. “I think the plan just went bust. I guess our diversion wasn’t quite big enough. Or they were somehow expecting us?”

“Jared and Robert are still out there. They’ll get help to us,” I whispered.

He caught my hand in his and nodded.

Figures appeared down the hall, coming around the corner and into view. A wave of nausea hit me, and my hand automatically covered my stomach as my insides churned.

Brodin led the way with Eric beside him. A few steps behind them followed the man who had chased me that day in Key West and, beside him, the boy with red hair.

“You’re right, they look exactly alike,” Brynna whispered over my shoulder.

They did. Seeing Eric with his father made me shudder. I guess part of me had been thinking that seeing them when I traveled hadn’t been real, maybe because it didn’t seem real. But here they were in front of me, and I was afraid.

“So, you’ve come to get your friends,” Brodin said. He paused and stared at each of us, his eyes cold and somewhat amused. “You thought you’d just walk in here and whisk them away, and we wouldn’t notice?”

None of us bothered to answer, though I’m sure he didn’t expect us to. We’d all realized we might get caught. I kept my eyes on Eric, but he wouldn’t look at me. His gaze was focused on some point just above our heads. The boy with the red hair moved forward, and I could see a glint in his hazel eyes. I thought he might single me out or say something about me, but he wasn’t looking at me. I stiffened at a movement behind my right shoulder, but it was only Brynna. In my peripheral vision, I could see her pale face was unusually flushed. 

“Are you all right?” I whispered.

When she didn’t answer, I turned my head to look at her. Her gaze was locked on the red-haired boy.

I leaned closer to her. “Do you know him?”

She shook her head, and I twisted back to face the group in front of us as Brodin started speaking again.

“Well,” he continued, “since you wanted to find your friends, let’s take you to them.” He motioned to the young guy with red hair. “Noah, take them.”

The guy who I’d seen in my traveling waved to the men surrounding us, and they closed in, forcing us down the hall, with Eric and his father leading the way. The boy called Noah glanced back at us several times as we followed along behind them. Eric, whose shoulders were rigid, never looked back. I’d always admired Brynna’s hair, not that I’d ever tell her. This guy’s wasn’t quite deep auburn like hers. His had golden, almost sun-kissed strands that hung to his shoulders. He had it pulled back with a piece of dark green cloth that he’d wrapped around the ponytail several times. From beneath the collar of his shirt, the edges of an ornate tattoo wound up the right side of his neck. He had the sleeves of the shirt pushed up to his elbows, and the marks continued down both forearms and across the back of his hands. I met his hazel eyes once, but they were unreadable. After that, he looked past me, to Brynna. I wondered if she was lying about knowing him. They kept watching each other like they’d met somewhere before. We rounded the corner, and the barred cells came into view. I think I could feel the bodies of my friends stiffen as they realized we were going to be imprisoned now. My brain whirred, and I felt dizzy, then fear and panic hit me. I wondered how strong the bars would be, if I might be strong enough to bend them or even break them. I shook my head. Of course I couldn’t break them. I wasn’t that strong. Why would I even think that? I jerked my head quickly to see Myles behind me staring at the bars. My palms felt sweaty, and I pressed them against my jeans. I could hear him. I’d never heard anyone in human form before, but I knew it had to be Myles thinking not me wondering about breaking the bars. Now it even seemed like the thought was in his voice. He met my stare and frowned, then the feeling and the words in my head were gone.

Brodin had stopped in front of the cells. “Well, here we are. Put the girls together and the boy in here with the other one.”

The guards forced us forward, and Brodin eyed Myles as he passed. “These cells were built for werewolves, not humans. So don’t think you’ll be able to break through them in werewolf form and certainly not in your human form.” He leaned toward Myles slightly. “No matter how strong you think you are.”

Myles’ hand snaked out so fast I barely realized he’d moved. His thick fingers closed around Brodin’s throat. Gun muzzles appeared in the edge of my vision, and I leapt toward him, my hand closing over his forearm.

“No, Myles, they’ll kill you.”

Brodin gave a half smile, though his face had begun to turn slightly red. “She’s right, you know.”

The muscles in Myles’ arms relaxed slightly, then my arm was shoved away as Eric stepped between us. The nearest guard raised his gun and brought the butt down hard on Myles’ skull. He collapsed. The boy with red hair grabbed his arm with both hands and slid the motionless body into the cell.

“Did they kill him?” I whispered, my teeth gritted hard against the scream that threatened to burst out of me at any minute.

Eric’s blue eyes were dark and unreadable. His body pinned me to the cold bars. My back became chilled even through the sweater I had on.

“He’s not dead. But if you aren’t careful, you all will be. You shouldn’t have come here.” His words were thick with anger.

“We had to.”

He shook his head slowly. “No, you didn’t. This didn’t concern you.”

“They’re my friends. Of course it concerned me.”

“Your friends are going to get you killed,” he said in a clipped voice.

I stared at him then turned my head slightly to see Lana and Brynna behind the bars. Lana’s eyes were huge with terror. Brynna’s mouth was firm with anger, her fingers blanched white from the grip she had on the bars. I twisted my head the other way until I could see Daryl cowering against the far wall and Myles’ crumpled body on the floor. Slowly, I met Eric’s blue eyes again. I loved those eyes, their color ranging from the blue of violets to that of the summer sky. I don’t know if I’d ever seen them this dark, this unfathomable. I reached toward him and felt the movement of the guards next to us. My fingers found the unruly locks of hair that always seemed to fall over his left eye. I pushed them back.

“So be it,” I whispered.

His hands tightened on my arms, and he lifted me off the ground. I could hear shouting and movement from the cells, but all I could see was Eric’s face, taut and angry as he pulled me closer, took a step toward the door of the cells, then shoved me inside. I flew through the air until I hit the back wall with a jolt, my head smacking the solid surface. My body slid to the ground, and all was quiet.

A fuzzy light penetrated my vision, and I scrunched my eyelids against the sharp pain that shot through my head. Voices hummed around me, and slowly I remembered where I was and why my head hurt. I tried to hold in the tear that formed at the corner of my eye. But I couldn’t, and it burned a trail down the side of my face.

“You okay?” Lana’s voice hovered near my ear, and her hand touched my shoulder.

I nodded, not yet trusting myself to speak for fear I’d let out a sob rather than a word. Eric had done this. Had slammed me against a wall, knocking me unconscious. What was wrong with him? What was wrong with me? How could I have fallen in love with someone so cruel?  The breath that filled my lungs made my chest ache. I took two more deep ones, willing the pain away. We were trapped here, and we had to find a way out, which meant all of us, including me, had to work together. I’d told Eric I’d come, despite the danger, to help my friends. Hadn’t he known I would? My next breath escaped through my lips in a slow sigh. Maybe he didn’t know me at all.

Pressing my hands hard into the mattress I lay on, I forced myself up until I sat on the edge of the cot. I saw that two more cots had been added to the small cell while I’d been unconscious. Brynna sat on one while Lana knelt on the floor beside me.

“I’m fine except for a headache,” I said, finally answering Lana’s question.

In the guys’ cell, cots lined the far wall and seemed to take up most of the space. All of them stood at the bars between us, watching me. My stomach tightened, and then I felt weakness, defeat. Robert and Jared were standing next to Myles.

“Please tell me you got a call in to Louise or somebody in our pack before they caught you.” I said.

They both stared at the floor, then Jared slowly shook his head.

“Did you come in here after us, even though Myles told you not to?”

This time Robert shook his head. “They caught us in the woods on the way back up from the cabin.”

“There’s nothing we can do about it now. You should go to the bathroom and wash your face.” Lana got to her feet, her hand still on my shoulder.

“Is it dirty?”

“It’ll make you feel better. It’s only a little dirty.”

She helped steady me as I struggled to my feet. I wobbled a little at first, but by the time I’d made it to the wooden door at the back of the cell, I was maneuvering under my own power. The mirror in the bathroom reflected the image of a pale, almost sickly girl with dried tear streaks on her face. I only remembered the one tear, but there must have been many more. The water warmed after running for a few seconds, then I splashed it onto my face. I had to forget about what Eric had done. We had to get out of here. A rough towel hung on a rack next to the sink, and I dried my face as I looked around the bathroom. A small shower was to my right with a plastic curtain hanging in front of it and a toilet between the shower and the sink. Obviously, this cell was set up to keep its inhabitants here for a long time. I hoped we wouldn’t be having an extended stay.

When I came back into the other room, Myles and Jared still stood by the bars, but they were leaning against them now, talking.  A few feet away from them, Lana sat on the floor on our side of the cell, and Robert sat next to her on the guys’ side of the cell, their shoulders touching slightly through the break in the bar. Myles’ back was to them, and I wondered if he noticed, if he saw, if he cared?  Maybe I was imagining things after what Jared had said. Had he made me see things that weren’t there? Did Robert love Lana? I glanced at them again, seeing the two blond heads close together. They were talking so low I couldn’t hear them. Robert’s hands were knotted together in his lap, his eyes never leaving Lana. Yeah, he did. I prayed Myles hadn’t noticed. I hoped Lana didn’t love him back. I guess that was mean, but I didn’t want Myles to be married to a girl who loved someone else. Especially when he loved her.

“Alexis,” Brynna called.

I moved to stand next to her at the bars.

“What now?” I asked.

“Exactly.” Brynna’s voice was flat. “What now, rescue team with no plan?”

“We’ll work it out,” Myles said. “We have to be ready.”

“Ready for what? To get killed?” Brynna smacked her hand against one of the bars.

Myles shook his head. “We have to be prepared to take advantage of whatever situation might arise. We all have abilities they don’t know about. We have to use them.”

Brynna snorted. “You’re strong, Myles, but I’m pretty sure they’ve built these cells to withstand the strength of any werewolf.”

“Not really.”

We all turned our heads to look at Jared.

“What do you mean, not really?” I took a step closer to the bars.

“I’m pretty sure I can move them. I pushed really hard against one of the bars over on the far side when we got here, and I know it flexed a little under my hand.”

“Flexing a little does not get us out of here.”

He gave Brynna an irritated look. “I wasn’t even trying hard.”

“Nobody, not even a gifted werewolf, is that strong.”

Jared shrugged. “Maybe not. But I think I might be. “

Myles kept his eyes on Jared. “You know, he really doesn’t know what he can do.”

Brynna stiffened. “Be quiet. Someone’s coming. I hear footsteps.”

It was a minute before any of us could hear the movement in the hall, and I was thankful for Brynna’s ability to hear far beyond what most werewolves could. Three figures stopped in front of our cell. The boy called Noah and two of the guards with what looked like dart guns.

“Do those things shoot tranquilizers?” I whispered to Brynna.

She nodded. “They’ll put you down in a matter of seconds, and you won’t be up again anytime soon.”

“Why don’t we use those against them?”

“Sometimes your brain isn’t always right when you wake up.”

I stared at her and decided I didn’t want to find out what that meant.

“You come with us.” Red-hair guy pointed a finger through the bars at me, and the guard punched at a keypad on the cell door. When he gave it a push, it swung open.

I went forward, glancing back at my friends. Jared had his hands on the bars of their cell, and I could see the muscles of his forearms bulging. I shook my head slightly. Now wasn’t the time to try and break out. We needed to wait until we didn’t have guards standing at the door ready to ding us with some drug. Brynna came forward with me, her hands closing around the bars. The guy with red hair took a half step forward then stopped abruptly. His hand came up a few inches, and I thought he was going to reach out to touch Brynna’s hand, but he let it drop to his side. No one in either cell moved. They were waiting for me to come to the door, but for a moment, all I could do was wait and see what was about to happen between the two redheads. A guard banged the door. He jerked his eyes to me then pointed toward the door. I went out into the hall.

“I’ll be fine.” I said to the others as I stopped. I turned to the hulking guy beside me. “Let’s go.”

He walked beside me along the hallway with the two guards behind us. When I glanced up at him, he gave me a half smile.

“I’m Noah.”

“Alexis.”

“Yeah, I know. Eric’s told me about you.”

That made me stumble, and he caught my elbow briefly.

“Why would he do that? Why would he tell anyone here about me?”

“Because I’m his friend. It’s not like he told his father. Brodin found that out on his own.”

We continued for a few seconds without speaking.

“I see you, you know.”

My heart skipped. “No, I don’t know. What are you talking about?” It was a lie. I knew exactly what he meant.

He glanced at the guards behind us and lowered his voice. “When you travel. I see you. Don’t worry. I didn’t tell anyone it was you, not even Eric. I do it, too. Travel.”

I jerked my head to look at him. “I thought Fenryrians couldn’t travel.”

“Who told you that?”

“Brynna.”

“Throughout our history, there have been very few who could travel. I’m one of those very few.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone about me?”

He gave the half smile again but didn’t answer. Instead, he put a hand on my shoulder to stop me and reached to open a door next to us.

The steel door opened into a large office, and Noah led me to a chair in front of a mahogany desk with beautiful carvings in the wood. Brodin was seated behind the desk. A few feet away, Eric sat on a brown leather sofa, his hands clasped, elbows on his knees, his head bowed.

Brodin stood as Noah pushed me into the leather chair across from the desk.

“I finally get to meet the girl who’s causing so much trouble in my life.”

“It’s you who’s causing the trouble,” I said sharply.

He laughed, and when I glanced at Eric, I saw his head had come up. There was a warning in his eyes. I wasn’t sure if he was warning me about what his father might do or what
he
might do.

Brodin looked to his son. “She’s not scared, Eric. I like that. Not that it matters.” He turned his attention back to me.

“How did you know we had your friends here, or that this place even existed?”

I felt Noah stiffen beside me. My mind struggled with one idea after another before I finally answered. “I…well, Robert had known about this place from some secret surveillance done by the people who run the labs. He…we figured this was the best place to hold them.”

“What secret surveillance?”

“I don’t know. It was…” I didn’t want to set this man on Robert. “There were some secret papers that Robert saw when he was working in a lab in Miami. He didn’t really know what they were, but when Lana was taken, he remembered them, and we were able to get those papers and use them to find this place.”

“Where are they now?”

I glanced around the room. “Where are what?”

Brodin let out a frustrated breath. “The surveillance papers.”

“Oh, we burned them after we figured out where we were going.”

He stared at me, and I tried to meet his eyes but couldn’t. I stared at his brown leather shoes and prayed he wouldn’t see the lie written all over me.

“I’m not sure that I believe you, but I doubt I’m going to get the truth from you. Not yet, anyway. But let’s move on to the subject of you.” My eyes came up to meet his again. He smiled and continued. “You’re new to the werewolf pack, so I’ll be clear here. You will not ever be accepted into the Fenryrians and certainly not ever considered as a mate for my son.”

“Why?” I don’t know why I bothered to ask. After what Eric had done to me, we were over. Besides, I’d been told a thousand times why. I shouldn’t care what his father had to say, but I did. When I turned to the sofa, he was sitting straight, his shoulders stiff. I didn’t want to still care about him. His dark blue eyes met mine, and I could almost feel the touch of his hand against my skin, his mouth against mine. I did still care, very much.

Brodin came around the ornately carved desk and took a seat in the chair next to me, blocking my view of Eric. “Both of our packs are in turmoil. We all want what we want. Unfortunately, we want very different things. In the end, the strongest of the two packs will be the one to say what both packs will do.”

“You mean the most ruthless pack will say.”

He nodded. “Yes, strong and ruthless.”

“The Lycernians can be ruthless, too.”

The chair creaked as Brodin shifted positions. “Of course they can. You have no idea what you’ve gotten in the middle of. Do you think that it’s only the Fenryrians and Lycernians that want different things?”

He made a clicking sound with his mouth as he shook his head. “There are factions within both packs who would go against the ancient ways. Always, the Fenryrians have been the strong ones with a plan to rule. We have always turned the humans into werewolves we can use to further our cause. It is our way. But there are those of us who would have our lives be different, those who would band together with the Lycernians to form one council to rule both packs. One council that would change the way the Fenryrians have lived for centuries. That will not be.”

I tilted my head, trying to see Eric, see his face. But Brodin’s body blocked me.

“How will you stop them?” My voice didn’t quiver as I’d expected it to.

Brodin smiled. “Kill them, of course. Don’t think that all Lycernians agree with living passively alongside humans. There are many of them who would like to see werewolves rule over them. They will stand with us in any fight.”

“Why not just become Fenryrian, join this pack?”

“Because they are much more helpful to our plan if they stay where they are. We always need information. Over time, we have lost some of our strengths because we’ve chosen to mate with changed humans and because, over the centuries, the virus has affected our talents, our gifts.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that many Lycernians have gifts that no longer appear in genetic Fenryrians. It is the price we have had to pay. But we will still succeed. There are gifted Lycernians who will join with us and mate with our pack members in hopes of passing on the gifts.”