12. Chapter 12
Chapter 12
I think I hear Jaeger let out a muffled curse, but I’m already rushing into the back rooms, determination in my every move. There, just as I suspected, I find actual, living people.
In cages.
Bile rises up my throat.
“I hear them trying to break in, Anna,” my wolf tells me, referring to my team.
Why didn’t they just… Shaking my head, I blow out a frustrated breath, but I end up choosing to force myself to ignore that for a moment longer.
Gritting my teeth, I start approaching the cages, slowly for fear of scaring the subjects, but they all look too drugged to even register my presence.
Quickly, I locate the ‘cell’ number twelve, in which I find an elderly fae man in that same drugged haze as the rest of them.
Great, now what? I lower myself into a crouch and frown. How do you address a drugged, caged, elderly man without giving him a heart attack? “Um, excuse me?”
Nothing.
“Phinelis?”
The man opens his eyes and it breaks my heart, how much fear I see in them.
“I’m a friend, I’m here to get you out,” I rush to whisper.
He doesn’t seem to believe me, not really, but he does start getting up, visibly struggling.
It’s my wolf I address next. “Are they still trying to break in?”
“They are.”
Then I need to hurry, for their sake as well.
“We don’t have much time,” I tell Phinelis. “Do you know where the keys are?”
He tells me and I find them.
And when I open the cage and get him out, my heart soars with relief, especially when I see the surprise in his eyes. We still have to figure out a way out, but at least this part’s done.
But before I can move on to the other subjects, I spot this glow around his wrists.
And before I know it, he’s slumping to the floor, dying right in front of my eyes, at the same time an alarm starts blaring.
Fucking hell, I think I’ve just killed the man and alerted the vampires to our presence.
I move to at least use my powers to try to heal him, when he grabs me by the wrist and pulls me down, this unsettling spark in his eyes that wasn’t there before.
Blood curdles in my veins even before he lifts himself up a little to whisper in my ear, “She’s in Nasgard.”
“ Who ?” I urge in a low, tense voice. “Who’s in Nasgard?”
No reply. When I look down, I see the man is already dead.
That awful alarm is still blaring and now I can hear Nuala and Dryden barging into the room, yelling at me to get a move on.
And when I jump to my feet and turn around, behind their back, I see Jaeger trying to fight off a soldier.