Chapter 23
Chapter
Twenty-Three
When the phone rings, I’m so drunk I can hardly make out the Caller ID. “Hullo?”
It’s that damn voice again. “Dominic.”
“Stop calling me. I don’t like you.”
“I don’t need you to like me.”
I don’t have a good answer for that. “Well, good,” I grumble. “‘Cause I don’t.” I try to swipe the call away and miss, jamming my finger into to the charging port instead.
“I wouldn’t hang up, if I were you.”
I freeze. His voice is like knives in my eardrum. How does he know what I’m about to do? I glance at the window, but the shades are drawn. Aleo has gone out to celebrate his last midterm. I’m all alone, but I stumble to my feet to make sure the door is locked.
“I have a business proposition,” the voice continues, calmer now. “I think you’re going to want to hear it.”
All of my instincts scream at me to hang up. To have Duncan or Jane come rescue me. But I can’t move. “OK,” I squeak.
“Good,” he says. “I want you to listen very carefully.”
“OK,” I repeat. When I look through the peephole, there’s no one there. An empty hallway stares back at me.
“I know all about Duncan,” he says, and my stomach drops. “I know he’s a wolf shifter. From a very prominent family. It would be a shame if someone took him away and…” A pause. Contemplative, conspiratorial, dark in a way that has my stomach twisting pre-emptively. “…sold him for a pelt.”
What.
I didn’t even know that was an option.
“Do you know what wolf pelts are used for?”
“N-no.” My hand tightens around my phone. The floor spins underneath me.
“Elite magical camouflage. They can go for hundreds of thousands of dollars. I have three potential buyers lined up.”
I envision Duncan in his wolf form, bound and snarling, staring down faceless men with glinting knives. Acid shoots up my throat. I gag.
“Do you know what we do with the bones?”
“Please,” I beg, pathetic.
“We grind them up into love potions. Wolves are famous lovers, but you already knew that, didn’t you? I’ve seen the way he looks at you.”
“Leave him alone.”
A low hum. It shakes my teeth in my jaw. “I could be convinced. But I’d need something from you.”
“Fuck off."
“Give me one measly scale. If you let me take one of your scales, I’ll leave him alone.”
One scale. That would require a shift. Would leave me in a vulnerable position.
If I say no, he’s going to hurt Duncan. I can’t live with that.
“I don’t know how to shift.”
“Oh, I can help you. All we need is a little time together at the beach. Then you can swim away and never think about me again.”
My shoulders are shaking. “I don’t want to.”
“Then Duncan dies tonight.”
Fuck. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“That’s the beauty of this partnership. You just have to trust me.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I have someone he trusts outside of Dragoncrest Tower, ready to go inside and tell him that you’re in terrible danger and he needs to come out to the parking lot immediately. You won’t be able to intercept him in time. Can you live with that guilt?”
“He’ll pick up the phone if I call.”
The voice goes sly. I can practically hear the sneer in it. “Dominic, I have been planning this for weeks. Do you think you can stop what’s already in motion?”
Somewhere in the background, I become aware of the noise of a ticking clock.
“I need you to choose, Dominic. Will you give me a scale? Or will your boyfriend die tonight?”
My veins are filled with tequila. My head throbs. Panic sinks into my bones. “What do I need to do?”
“I think I’m in trouble,” I tell Duncan’s voicemail. My words are slurred. I’m crying and drunk, stumbling across campus at two o’clock in the morning on a night when almost everyone is out partying after midterms. “Somebody knows what we are. I’m scared. Don’t go outside. Call me.”
I was directly ordered not to do this, but I have to tell him something. In my gut, I know I’m not coming back. If there’s a chance I can save Duncan from the same fate, I’m going to take it, no matter the consequences.
Dragoncrest Tower looms in the distance. If I hurry, I can be there in a few minutes.
I don’t get that far. Loud footsteps echo behind me. A hand closes over my elbow, yanks me close. “Walk,” a voice hisses in my ear.
It’s horribly, woefully familiar. My assailant is a couple of inches shorter than I am, but he holds onto my bicep with bruising force.
I should shake him off, but I’m drunk as fuck. The world is whirling, and I’m too stunned to move.
“You smell like a frat party,” he sneers.
Shame courses through me. I have fucked up so bad.
Before I even know what’s happening, my phone is yanked from my hand, dropped to the pavement, ground under a steel-toed boot. Metal warps. Glass explodes all over the cobblestones. The screen flickers and dies.
I don’t have time to panic. Something hard and cold presses into my side, just below my ribs. I flinch, but I don’t dare look down. If I do, this will all be real.
“Walk,” snarls the voice again, and I do. People pass us, but nobody seems to notice the hooded figure hauling me toward the parking lot, his grip tight enough to hurt. The darkness covers my panic. To anyone not paying attention, we probably look like lovers.
“Stare straight ahead,” he commands, and I obey. “One wrong move, and your boyfriend is going to be a million dollars in my pocket.”
Is the gun just for show? I squirm, and he jabs my ribs hard enough to bruise. My breath catches, and I fight the urge to double over. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
The closer we get to the parking lot, the emptier campus becomes. I throw desperate glances at passing groups, but nobody notices me. The man gripping my waist gives a friendly nod.
When I was little, Gretchen gathered up all the children in the family and forced us to watch a DVD about stranger danger. I don’t remember most of it, but one thing has always stuck with me: Don’t get in the vehicle. If they take you to a second location, it’s over.
We make our way through the parking lot, weaving between cars. I’m desperate now, struggling against him, but I don’t get anywhere. I’m drunk, I don’t know how to fight, and I don’t think it would matter even if I did.
“Stop struggling,” he snarls.
I go to kick him in the kneecap, but it’s too late.
Something glints in the air. Pain explodes across my torso, my face.
The world goes black.