Chapter 97 Nico
NICO
Sinthy took our hands like before, and I braced myself.
The last trip was still fresh in my mind, and I was worried it would be worse a second time, but when we teleported this time, it wasn’t as bad.
It wasn’t comfortable by any means. I still felt like I’d been pulled through a vacuum cleaner, but when I opened my eyes inside the bedroom we’d left a couple of hours before, I didn’t feel like throwing up.
Maddy looked a little dizzy, but otherwise, it was a much more pleasant experience than the last time.
“Everyone feel okay?” Sinthy asked.
I let go of her hand and rubbed my face. “As good as I can be. That wasn’t too bad.”
The witch grinned. “It gets easier each time.”
From downstairs, the sound of conversation drifted up. From what I could hear, several people were there. They’d want to know everything that had happened. “Sinthy, I’d like to introduce you to everyone. I know you’ve been through a lot, so if you’re not up to it, it’s totally fine.”
She glanced at the door and chewed on her lower lip. Whatever contemplations she’d been going over were resolved fairly quickly. In a few seconds, she met my gaze. “Yeah, that would be nice.”
The three of us descended the stairs and found Dad, Felipe, Sebastian, Luis, and my brother Mateo talking in the living room. Mateo was the first to see us descending the stairs. His eyes widened in surprise, and he jumped to his feet. “Nico!”
The others spun around. Dad got up and almost ran to give me a hug. As strong as I was, my father was still formidable. His arms wrapped around me tightly, making my ribs creak. “Easy, Pop. Jesus.”
He let me go and grinned like an idiot at me. “We thought you guys would be gone for at least a day. Did everything go okay?”
I thought about small, frail Isme breathing her last breaths. We’d been successful in our mission, but I wouldn’t say it’d gone well. Losing a friend, even one you’d only known for a few hours, was always sad. I gave Dad a weak smile. “We did what we planned.”
Luis’ eyes narrowed. “The vial? Do we have it?”
Maddy nodded. “We do. I’ve got it. I’ll keep it safe until I decide what to do with it.”
The others all stared at her. I could almost hear their thoughts. The vial was basically the shifter version of a nuclear bomb, and now they’d heard they were standing in the same room with it. I was sure it made them both excited and nervous. I hoped it did anyway since that’s how it made me feel.
Sinthy went around the room, introducing herself to everyone. She did a good job of hiding her sadness. Her smile never wavered as she shook hands with each person.
“Sinthy will be staying with us long term,” I said. “She’s agreed to join the pack as our witch advisor.”
Dad’s face went slack, and his eyes darted back and forth between Sinthy and me. “A pack witch? Like the old stories?” He was breathless, like a child who’d witnessed something amazing.
“Yeah,” I said. “She’s part of the family now. I said we’d find her a place of her own soon.”
Dad grinned at me and slapped a hand on my shoulder. The look of pride on his face made my chest ache. Even after all these years, my father’s approval still turned me into a little boy.
Maddy put a hand on Sinthy’s back. “Do you want to get settled in your room? You must be tired.”
Sinthy smiled wearily. “That would be great. I’m exhausted, but first, I need to cast a protection spell on the vial. That’s the most important thing.”
Maddy nodded. “Okay, let’s go. I don’t want you to crash and burn. Come on.” Maddy led her up the stairs.
Once they were gone, Dad clapped me on the shoulder again. “A pack witch? This is amazing.”
“Right,” Felipe said. “A witch and the vial? That’s some heavy-duty shit right there.”
Sebastian grinned like an idiot. “Does that mean we win? I mean, we have the vial, we have the true descendant of Edemas, and now we have our own witch? That has to make us the most powerful pack in a hundred years.”
“Since Edemas’s and Helena’s reign,” I said.
Dad frowned. “Helena?”
I realized they needed to hear the whole story. Most of what they all knew came from stories that had been twisted by royal propaganda. “I need to tell you guys everything,” I said. “Sit down.”
I gave an abbreviated version of the story Isme had told us, and once I was done, they all sat in stunned silence. Finding out the truth was actually a lie was a hell of a thing.
Dad slapped a hand on his thigh. “I always thought those stories sounded like they were full of shit. It always seemed off to me. They really made a dozen generations of shifters believe that the strongest of us was some psychotic warmonger.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Sinthy’s mother told us the whole story. She’d actually been there. She took Sinthy in as a child after her parents were killed for not becoming the royals’ personal witch and warlock. She’s an orphan, and it means she has as much invested in this as we do.”
“What’s the next move?” Mateo asked. “I mean. Is Maddy going to drink that vial?” The fear and wonder in his voice were noticeable even though he was trying to hide them.
“Maddy gets to make that decision,” I said with a shrug. “Her birthright—her call. As for the next move? We’re gonna let Sinthy get some rest, and then I’m going to ask her to cast some protection spells around the pack lands. Every little bit helps.”
The government hadn’t made the final push to round us all up, but the state of emergency and martial law could be enacted at any moment. If the government and royals decided to come rushing in to grab us, we needed all the protection we could get.
“I like it,” Dad said. “I’m sure it will give everyone else a little peace of mind too.”
I glanced at Luis. “Any luck with tearing apart the royals’ access to their fortune?”
Luis gave a half-nod, half-shrug. “One of the pack leaders near Fort Lauderdale had a computer programmer that sent us all a new piece of software. It’s running upstairs right now on my laptop.
It’s supposed to do the work of a dozen hackers all at once.
I’ve aimed it at all their online holdings to see if it can break in and give me access. You want to check it out?”
“Sure, show me.”
In my office, Luis sat and started tapping on keys.
He froze for a moment, then glanced at me.
“Shit, I think it’s almost got something.
Hang on, let me check.” After a few more keystrokes, Luis fell back into his chair, looking shocked but happy.
“We’re in. That dude who developed this is gonna be a millionaire someday. ”
I lurched up from my chair and started circling the desk. “The money? We were able to cut it off?”
Luis’s smile faded. “No, that stuff is harder. The program will need to work longer to have a chance. No, this looks like something else entirely. I think we’ve got access to the security network of one of their labs.
It’s a web-based security cam. The software piggybacked on the internet signal and got us inside. ”
“Which lab?” I asked, taking a seat next to Luis beside the computer.
He searched the name on his phone and found it in seconds.
“Looks like a drug-testing lab—one of the Monroe Group’s subsidiary medical research branches.
It’s in South Carolina, and they’ve contracted with the state to do all their employee drug screenings.
Looks like there’s a walk-in clinic attached to the lab. Kinda weird they’d combine the two.”
“Can we scan through the video feeds of the last month?” Maybe this is one of the places they developed the drug they’re using.”
Luis glanced up, thinking for a moment, then said.
“I think there’s a file in here with all the saved feeds from each day.
Hang on.” He pulled up a file with dozens of thumbnail clips.
Other than a time-and-date stamp, they weren’t labeled at all.
Luis started clicking through the tiny pictures.
“Tell me if any of these look promising.”
I sat and watched as he clicked through the small frames. He was ten slides in when I almost jolted out of my chair. “Stop. Go back, go back. Two or three slides.”
Luis, who’d already gone past the picture I wanted, reversed course and brought up the image I’d seen fly by a moment before. “This one?” he asked.
My mouth was too dry for me to answer, so I nodded.
In the tiny picture, I saw something that made my skin crawl.
A woman was being held between two guards.
The moment the camera took the timestamped photo, the woman’s face was turned toward the camera.
I was looking into the face of Maddy’s mother.
She hadn’t gotten away then, or maybe she had, and the royals had caught her again.
Either way, the date on the video revealed whatever was on the clip had happened about a week ago.
I pointed at the screen and swallowed. “Play that. I need to see what’s happening. ”
Luis pulled up the clip and hit play. As soon as the video started, the breath whooshed out of my chest. I’d been right. Gabriella was being pulled down the hallway by two large men. “Is there audio?” I snapped. “Turn it up.”
A second later, I heard her cursing the guards. Gabriella twisted and yanked at her arms, but the two men had vice-like grips on her wrists and forearms. One of the men yanked her arm hard and hissed at her. “Stop fighting, damn it. You won’t die as long as you cooperate.”
The men dragged Gabriella down the hallway.
They left the screen, but the feed continued on another camera a bit farther down.
The men opened a door and tossed Gabriella inside, then slammed and locked the door.
After that, the men disappeared down the hall.
The feed stayed on the door. Minutes passed with no movement or action.
“Is that it?” I asked.