Chapter 26 Vanessa
VANESSA
“Help me!”
Leo was calling for me; I would know that voice anywhere. Suddenly, I was thrust into a miasma of technicolor. None of it made much sense, just a mire of shades.
“Ven! Help me!”
It was as if his voice conjured the world. All the vague shapes suddenly solidified, and I was back in the lab again, the lights flashing red around me. Leo was in front of me, faceless lab technicians grabbing at him, trying to pull him away from me.
“Vanessa! I need you!”
“I’m trying!” The words coming out of my mouth felt like mush and were incomprehensible.
I threw myself against the window separating us, clawing at it and slamming my head against it, but I was so goddamn weak. I could only watch as Leo was dragged farther and farther away, still crying out my name, begging me not to abandon him.
“No, no, Leo, please! I’ll get to you! I swear I’ll get to you!” I slammed my palms into the glass, as if somehow I would become strong enough to shatter it.
But the crazy thing was, I could have sworn it was starting to give. The faintest green glow appeared around the edges, with spiderlike cracks growing in the glass.
Wait, no. Not spiderlike. Vine-like. Little hairline slivers of emerald. I had no idea what that could possibly be, but I did it again, and again, and again until the cracks began to spread farther out across the surface.
Suddenly, the ground turned to something like quicksand below my feet, and it was pitch black.
I began sinking almost instantly, the floor greedily sucking me down like it was ravenous.
My nails scored along the wall as I tried to grab the window ledge, but there was no stopping the insistent drag.
Bit by bit, the ground swallowed me until the hungering void reached all the way up to my chin.
I was still calling for Leo as acrid nothingness spilled across my tongue. It was a curse and a plague all wrapped up in one, and I couldn’t even spit it out before my entire head was swallowed and I was plunged into the endless dark.
I screamed—at least I thought I did—but there was no sound. Nothing. For a moment, I thought I would spend the rest of my life trapped in an endless void of nonexistence. But then I was dropped into a room where I hadn’t been in quite a while.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire. And by that, I meant it quite literally. Flames lit up the walls to my left while thick, cloying smoke bellowed through my closed door.
It was hot, so abysmally hot! I sat up from the bed and tossed off my comforter. Some part of my brain knew I needed to stick close to the floor and find a way out, but it was like my body was no longer my own. Fear, discomfort, and confusion overrode that small voice that knew what was safest.
I crawled to the closet, opening the door and hiding myself among the plushies there. All the while my mind was screaming that I needed to get out.
Get out.
GET OUT!
“Vanessa! Vanessa, baby, where are you?”
Oh, that voice.
I hadn’t heard that voice in over a decade. It was melodic and usually full of love, but now it was packed with the same terror I felt.
I tried to reply, but when I drew in a breath to answer the call, my lungs filled with smoke, and all I could do was cough.
It was getting hotter, and every second that passed made it harder to breathe. I needed to get out, but all I could do was hide with my toys.
That voice kept calling me, begging for me to come out, but I couldn’t. All I could do was cough and cling to the closest stuffed animal. I was so terrified, my entire body was paralyzed. My grown mind was screaming at me to move, to do something other than hide.
But I didn’t. Even as the world burned down around me, I let my fear win.
“Fuck!” I sat up so fast, my head spun. My stomach churned, wanting to get in on the action, some sort of competition for which body part could make me feel sickest quicker.
“Mrrr?” Goober trilled inquisitively as he rubbed his cheek against mine.
Mudpie wasn’t far behind, kneading my thigh and rumbling lightly.
Fork was missing, but a few beats later he came marching in, dragging his favorite toy along. He jumped on the bed and dropped it in my lap.
Oh, goodness.
They were all trying to help me. I loved my little family, and I couldn’t be more grateful for them.
Ever since we’d returned after our disastrous outing to the medical facility, they could tell something was up.
They’d been extra nice to me, buttering me up, never leaving me alone, almost always sitting on me and purring, like they were trying to heal me.
I loved them so much
“Hey, are you okay in here?” Ricky asked, peering in through the gap between my door and the wall. “I thought I heard something.”
“I’m fine,” I said, the lie tasting bitter on my tongue. “Nightmare.”
“Sorry about that. Want me to make some of that sleepy-time tea you have in the kitchen?”
Only a week had passed since my world had been turned upside down yet again, but in those seven days, Ricky and I had grown more comfortable with each other.
It was nothing like what I’d had with Leo—nothing would ever be like that—but it was nice and familiar in a world that was rapidly becoming more and more foreign to me.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I don’t mind. Especially since I think I’ll make some for myself anyways. I’d like to get a few more winks in before having to face the world.”
I got the feeling he was lying, but that was okay. “Well, if you were already going to make some for yourself, I wouldn’t mind some.”
“Sounds good. Do you want it up here?”
“No, I think I’m good on sleep for now.” To be honest, the thought of closing my eyes and possibly slipping back into another nightmare was too horrifying.
Going out into the garden to siphon whatever peace I could from it would be far better than trying to force myself to go back to sleep. “I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
“Sounds good, I’ll put the kettle on to boil.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. We got to take care of each other, right? That’s what packs do.”
I gave him a soft smile, even though my heart ached.
Pack.
Who would have guessed that would become such a loaded term for me? The word was irrevocably tied to Leo and everything that came along with him. So much had been promised, so much we had all been hoping for.
And all of it was gone.
But I was determined to get Leo back. Our story wasn’t going to end with him being ripped away like that. I wouldn’t let it.
It would be nice if Ricky stopped getting in my way, however.
I’d thought that when we found the loophole in his alpha’s orders, we’d turn right around and go rescue Leo.
But no, that wasn’t how it had turned out at all.
Ricky was open to us going back, but not until we had a plan in place.
What annoyed me the most was that he shot down every plan I came up with.
It was strange to be on the opposite side of such a similar argument that I’d had with Leo, but I was trying to be a little logical while also being speedy. It was called efficiency—at least, that was what I told myself.
While I knew there was some truth in what Ricky was saying, and that infiltrating without enough information last time had gotten us into trouble before, it was hard for me to care.
I wanted to get Leo. There was no telling what they were doing to him, or even if he was still alive.
My biggest hope was that they had no idea who he was, because if they realized he was the head of the pack who had killed three of their brothers…
I didn’t even want to imagine what they would do.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t tried on my own, either.
Ricky still needed a lot of sleep since he wasn’t fully recovered, so I’d waited until after he’d drank a particularly potent blend of tea with extra chamomile before I ventured out back to the medical facility.
I couldn’t use the truck for obvious reasons, but I had my trusty bike.
Yet even with my phone’s GPS, I’d gotten hopelessly lost, which made absolutely no sense.
I wasn’t a savant, but I was pretty good with direction, so it wasn’t likely that I’d gotten turned around.
And yet every time my GPS said I was five minutes from my destination, it recalculated, then I was twenty minutes away again.
They must have put some spell on it after we broke in.
It was the only thing that made sense. And as much as I hated to admit it, that also gave a lot of credence to Ricky’s insistence that we needed to wait for the heat to die down.
There was no doubt they would be looking for us.
Just because we’d escaped didn’t mean we were safe.
Despite my morning shift at the grocery store the next day, I’d ridden around the entire night before giving up and starting back home.
I knew Ricky would wake up before I got there, and sure enough, he’d rolled up with the truck when I was about two-thirds home.
All that biking, along with work, had me practically confined to my bed all night and the next day because my legs hurt so much, but that still hadn’t been enough to distract me from the gnawing in my chest.
They still had Leo. Nothing had changed.
Well, there was no use ruminating on that abysmal failure, so I went out to my garden and tried to do something productive.
My work was punishing me for taking so much time off by cutting my hours, but I didn’t care.
We were heading into the real productive time of my little horticultural space, and I would fare well enough from that bounty.
Especially since Ricky had brought home two rabbits the other day.
He’d skinned and butchered them as well.
I’d been surprised to say the least, but he said it was part of his responsibilities since I took care of everything else.