Chapter 16 – Clawdia
CHAPTER 16
CLAWDIA
M y whole body twitched awake, and I jumped onto my feet, urgency rushing through me as my mind cleared from the pleasure of the dreamscape and turned to my situation and mission.
I listened to the steady breaths and occasional small snores from the hunter in the bed for a few more moments before deciding it was safe enough to make my move.
My bonds glowed inside my chest, which was a relief. Baelen’s seemed to be the strongest, but Zaide’s and Charlie’s, although muted, were now obvious and warm. And by borrowing their strength and confidence, I pushed aside my exhaustion and shifted.
I crawled to grab the handcuffs I’d seen earlier and held them tightly so they wouldn’t jingle as I slowly rose to my feet. Without thinking too much about it or trying to talk myself out of it, I leaned over Michael until my body was inches from his. I shook from the tension. Then, quietly, I secured the handcuffs around the headboard and quickly put his hands inside the manacles and closed them.
Green eyes flashed open, and confusion turned to fury in a moment. I gasped away but only succeeded in sitting on his legs and covering his mouth with my hand as he jerked against his restraints, shaking the bed and making the metal ring loudly.
I shushed him, panic rising in my chest at the noise, and turned my head to the door to check no one was coming to investigate.
“Please don’t scream. I really don’t want to hurt you, and I can see how that’s not very believable right now, but I just want to talk.” His glare didn’t ease, and his lips moved behind my hand. “Please. Promise you won’t scream.”
He took a long time to stare at me, and my heart felt as though it was beating out of my chest, I was so anxious, but finally, he nodded. I scanned his eyes, desperate to see something assuring there, but found nothing. It was a risk, but something inside me said I could trust him, so I carefully pulled my hand away, ready to slap it back down if he made any sound.
He waited a few moments before saying in a low voice, “You’re a shifter.” I shivered at the underlying anger I saw in his gaze but didn’t reply to his accusation. “And you’re naked.”
My eyes widened, and I looked down at myself in horror. I’d completely forgotten to find something to wear before I captured the hunter. I squealed and tried to hide myself with my hands, but he had already seen too much. I jumped off the bed to pick up a folded T-shirt from the chair, my cheeks burning like I was on fire.
“Don’t look,” I hissed as I pulled the shirt over my head.
His lips twitched as my head popped out over the hem of the shirt, but his response was surly. “Looking is the only thing I can do since you have me handcuffed to my bed.”
I sighed and perched on the bed. “You could scream. You could escape. The bars on this headboard don’t look that sturdy. You could probably wrench yourself free with enough strength, and no doubt someone would come to check on you with all the noise. I’d be taken down to the cells where you’re keeping the other supernaturals to await our deaths. But you haven’t done that because you are curious about why I might have done this, what I might want with you, and what I know about your newest leader.”
The silence was palpable as he processed what I said. “You overheard our conversation.”
“I did.” I couldn’t even pretend to feel guilty about it.
He scoffed and sneered. “And I was foolish enough to think you were just a cat.”
I shrugged. “It happens more often than you think.”
“If you overheard everything, then you know that doesn’t happen to me. I always know.” His eyes bore into me. “So you might as well kill me, because if the others find out I let in a shifter, they’ll do it for you.”
“Kill you?” I flinched. “That’s dramatic. I will not kill you, and I’m not planning on letting anyone else know I was here.”
“You’re going to sneak around a hunter complex, and no one is going to notice?” His eyebrows were high, and his voice incredulous.
I rolled my eyes, and I must have done it too hard because I suddenly fell into a vision. It was so fast that I was confused when I blinked away the dizziness to see a young boy with green eyes staring sadly into my soul.
A hand reached through me to pinch at the boy’s ear, and I twisted out of the way to see a woman with a cruel sneer. She growled, “Michael, tell me. Who is it? Who is the supernatural? I’ll make sure they never hurt you again.”
“I—I don’t want to tell you.” Michael stuttered, and his eyes watered. He swallowed and, with his breaking voice, whimpered, “You’ll hurt her. She’s my friend.”
“She hurt you with magic. She is not your friend, stupid boy.” She scoffed and pushed Michael against the sunshine-yellow bedroom wall. He fell to the floor, shaking as she continued her rant. “We don’t make friends with supernaturals. We destroy them. We ensure their power never harms the innocent humans ignorant of this plague.”
“But Mom, I don’t want to hurt anyone.” He sobbed, and I just wanted to hug him. “Alani is my friend. We were playing, and it was an accident.”
“Alani.” His mother hissed and then called out into the hallway, “Thomas, let’s go. We have a name.”
She stormed out of the room and stomped down the stairs, leaving Michael to crawl after her shouting, “No, Mom! No. Please. Please. Leave her alone. She’s my friend. Please.”
“Quit crying, boy,” she called. I followed Michael as he scrambled down the stairs and clutched at her coat, pulling her away from the front door. She tugged herself free without even looking at her hysterical child while a man, presumably Thomas and, from the look of his green eyes, Michael’s father, opened the door and said, “This is for the best. We’ll wipe out another of those monsters, and you’ll never be hurt again.”
“I don’t want that. I don’t want it,” he cried, but they closed the door behind them, leaving him alone in the darkened entryway. He tried to open it, pull at it, but the telltale snick of the lock turning into place made him despondent. With his head against the door, he whispered, “Come back. Come back. I’m sorry, Alani. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. I didn’t mean to tell.”
Tears spilled from my eyes and rolled down my face as I blinked back into the room. Micheal, the adult, was poking me with his foot and calling out, “Hey, lady. Hey. What the fuck?”
“What happened to Alani?” I blurted. “Did your parents kill her?”
His face drained of all color, and he went limp. “How to the fuck do you know about that?”
“Because I saw it. Just now. You wanted to be friends with the supernaturals you came across. You probably felt a kinship with them. But your parents used you to hunt them and kill them. They made you their reason for harming children. I saw you begging for forgiveness behind a locked door.”
His expression flashed from horror to disbelief and settled on anger. “You didn’t see anything. I feel nothing but disgust for supernaturals. They are a plague on this realm, and I hate them,” he declared with his teeth bared, but his eyes were panicked, and his chest heaved.
“But that’s not true, is it?” I said softly, and his lips pressed into a thin line. “Something in your soul connected with them, and you recognized your gift to recognize supernaturals isn’t too different from their own magic.”
“Shut up. Shut your lying, filthy mouth. That’s not true,” he snarled and heaved his body up, wracking the handcuffs against the bed frame like a caged animal and trying to kick me. I moved off the bed to stare pitifully down at him.
The vision told me he was good as a child, but he’d grown up in a place that had tried to rid him of that goodness. The real question was, did they succeed? My gut said no, but I needed more proof before I decided whether to tell him the truth.
“You don’t have to lie to me. I saw it. I know.”
“I was a child. Anything I might have felt then is gone. I know the truth about supernaturals, and I won’t listen to this anymore.” He opened his mouth to scream, and I quickly smothered it.
I won’t get him to admit his honest beliefs to a stranger. I need a new plan and fast.
“If I can’t appeal to your supernatural sympathies, then maybe I can appeal to your hunter sympathies,” I rushed out. “You’re concerned about the new man, Darren, and his leading of the hunters. You’re right to be concerned. You’re right not to trust that no one will let you near him. He’s supernatural. He’s the dragon.”
His eyes burned with rage, but he didn’t scream against my hand or try to wriggle out of the cuffs. I took it as a good sign and continued, “I know this is hard to believe, but listen, because I’m only saying this once. Darren’s real name is Fafnir. He’s a dragon from Norse legend. He rose from the dead weeks ago, along with a witch who can control portals. Fafnir is working with hunters to capture supernaturals because he feeds on magic. You think you are defeating supernaturals, but you are actually making one of the most feared and evil supernaturals more powerful.”
When I pulled my hand away again, he scoffed. “You expect me to believe that?”
I sighed and combed my hair behind my ears. “You can lead a horse to water,” I muttered before standing and searching the room for something heavy.
“What are you doing?” he asked, watching me with wary eyes.
I replied thoughtlessly as I looked under the bed. “I can’t leave you awake here if you’re going to scream and tell the others.” I bit down on my lip and cursed myself for being so foolish.
Who just tells the victim their evil plan? Is this monologuing? Am I going to be defeated now? That’s how it goes in the movies.
“I thought you said you weren’t going to kill me,” he replied darkly.
I peeked up over the mattress to peer at him. “I’m not a murderer. I’m just going to knock you out and leave you here while I rescue my love.”
“Good luck with that. I’ve got a hard head, and you’re going to end up in the same cage as everyone else.”
“If that’s what happens, I’ll accept my fate. I’d rather have tried and failed than leave him to rot because I was a coward.” I picked up a book and weighed it from hand to hand. “But admittedly, I’d regret that in being captured, I was only helping a great evil gain more power.”
“A book isn’t going to knock me out.” I cut him a sharp glance and continued my search. “Did you see anything else? When you had the vision?”
I turned slowly, curious at this turn in attitude, to see him avoiding my gaze. “No. Just that. Why do you ask?”
“You don’t know if Alani is alive?”
“I don’t. Do you?”
“No.” There were decades of anguish on his face. It oozed from the frown lines on his forehead and the wrinkles in the corner of his eyes and lips. He was young, but in that moment, he looked wizened, as if he’d seen things that aged his very soul. That kind of grief couldn’t be faked.
“If we both survive this, I could find her for you? My witch is great at finding things.”
“She’s probably dead. I just …”
“I understand, and I want to help you if you’d let me. I don’t want to hurt you, either. You don’t seem like a bad person, so all I’m asking is for your silence as I save the other half of my soul. I can’t leave him to be drained of blood by your cruel scientists, and I can’t leave him to be drained of magic by Fafnir. I just …” I was at a loss for what to do next.
“Who are you trying to free?” he asked, and despite his lack of emotion, hope leaped into my heart, causing lightheadedness.
Zaide was my priority, but if I saw a way to rescue the other witches and the council, then I wanted to do that too. I wouldn’t tell him that, of course.
I said, “The titan. He’s in a cage, alone. He’s all I want.”
“You love him?”
Just thinking about how much I loved him made me feel full and teary, like I couldn’t contain the amount of emotion I had for him. He adored me in a way no man ever had and wanted me in any and all forms. He was my rock. My safety. I couldn’t wait to feel his arms wrapped around me again or hear him say he loves me or call me “little cat.” This time in person. Being without him was a kind of torture all its own.
Choking back the emotions, I gave him a watery laugh. “Our souls are bonded in a way that goes beyond love. If he dies, so do I. I can feel his pain like an ache under my skin that I can’t soothe.”
He frowned. “Why would you bond with someone if it meant you could die if they did?”
“Because I wouldn’t want to live without him. Because we are stronger together.”
He tilted his head slightly but didn’t acknowledge my words any more than that. Instead, he asked, “What’s your name?”
“Clawdia.”
“I can’t help you, Clawdia.” His expression was blank, but I knew in his heart of hearts he wanted to.
“I didn’t ask for help, Michael. I asked for silence.”
We were at an impasse, and we both knew it. He stared at me for a long time while his fingers twitched, and he fidgeted in his restraints before shaking his head.
“There’s more you aren’t telling me. If you really believe Darren is a dragon, help me protect my people against him. How has he infiltrated us without anyone realizing?”
I glanced at the alarm clock on his side table. It was still morning, I’d only let us sleep for a few hours, but I wasn’t sure when he was expected to be up and around. By explaining, by trying to force him to my side, I was potentially wasting time that could be spent searching for and rescuing Zaide. Each flicker of the red lines on the numbers made my heartbeat stutter.
But it went against all I was to leave a man to his death, especially a death Fafnir delivered. I couldn’t tell him he was supernatural; I didn’t have time to deal with his break in reality. Instead, I told him about Fafnir’s past, as much as I could without giving away my history. I gave him information that could help save him, which made me feel better, and if he understood we were on the same team, he could allow me to rescue Zaide.
While Michael was still skeptical about the history, asking how it was possible, what the proof was, I could see the cogs of his mind turning in his eyes. Things were making sense to him. He believed me, and from his clenched hands and jaw, he was furious about it.
A knock on the door interrupted us, and we froze. “Michael, are you awake? Can I come in?” It was Jack.
Michael’s gaze met mine, and I shook my head, begging with my eyes for him not to give me away.
“Just a sec,” he called to the outside visitor and wiggled his hands in the cuffs, motioning with his eyebrows for me to unlock him.
My heart sank. The cuffs were the only way I had any power over him. While he’d not once asked for me to release him once our conversation calmed, and I didn’t think he’d hurt me, I was reluctant to give up any advantage I had before we reached a conclusion. But the doorknob wiggled, and I knew I had no choice.
“Please don’t give me away,” I whispered as I uncuffed him.
He shook his head and jumped away from me to throw his clothes on. “Hide under the bed.”
I shifted into my familiar form, tucked myself under his bed in the far corner, and prayed this hunter was the person I believed him to be.
The door opened, and loud footsteps pounded past Micheal’s bare feet and into the room. “Come in, then.” Micheal said sarcastically and sighed.
“You look worse for wear. Your patient kept you up all night?”
“In a manner of speaking,” he muttered, and I tensed, waiting for him to give me away. But he continued, “Her wounds are all sorted, and her fur is clean again. Why are you up so early?”
The other man clapped his hands excitedly. “It’s a big day. You need some breakfast in you ASAP.”
“I do? Why is it a big day?” I was also interested to know.
“We are having a big meeting at midday. Attendance is compulsory, and I think this is when they tell us what the plan is, who this Darren bloke is, and what we are doing with the witches.”
“You think that?” Michael hummed with disbelief.
“Well, I’ve heard whispers. You know how it goes.” Jack leaned against the desk and tapped his foot on the floor.
“And why are you so excited?” Micheal sat on the edge of the bed and quickly glanced at me as he bent over to put socks on.
“I think someone’s going to be getting a promotion.”
“Who?”
“You, dipshit.” I heard the thud of a punch.
“Me?” Michael sounded as incredulous as I felt. If they were promoting him, why would they have ostracized him? Why would he feel so distant from his leaders? “What have you heard?”
Jack sighed. “You’ve been mentioned a few times. They said something about making sure you get on stage, probably thinking you won’t, which is understandable because you are a moody so-and-so, but I think for the occasion …”
“But you heard it was a promotion?” Michael asked skeptically.
“They said it’s what you have been born for.” Jack sounded thrilled for his friend, but he was being na?ve.
My heart sank as I realized what it meant.
They are going to sacrifice my hunter before I’ve even gotten him to help me rescue Zaide. Fuck. I’m going to have to tell him. I can’t let him die, but if I prevent him from getting murdered, then my escape will only be that much more difficult. God, what do I do?
“Right. Very exciting. I suppose we’ll go get breakfast, and then I’ll take the cat to the shelter.”
“Hello, anyone home?”
The door creaked open, and I froze at the sound of a voice that haunted my nightmares. The voice of the witch who’d killed mine in a brutal betrayal that almost killed me, too.
Even her footsteps seemed to send me back to a time when I’d hide in Winnie’s room and listen to the stomping of boots up the stairs.
Michael’s tone was like ice and offered no room for debate as he demanded, “Get out of my room, witch.”
“So hostile,” she replied teasingly.
“I don’t want your evil poisoning my things,” he sneered, sounding exactly as disgusted as when I’d asked about Alani. A hunter repeating his lines. “Get out.”
“Fine. I’ll be quick.” She stepped back into the corridor, and the playfulness dropped from her voice. “Someone told me you picked up a cat last night. Where is it?”