Chapter 15
River
“This place is a dump.” Maxine sidled up beside me with her hands on her hips, overlooking the warehouse sprawl with a curl of her lip.
“Ethan is in danger, Max,” Hunter snapped over her shoulder. “You think you could be serious about it?”
Maxine scoffed, dusting off her corset. “All right, Miss Holier Than Thou. Tell me, how’s the view from your high horse?”
“Can it. Both of you.” I stepped between them to silence their bickering. “Let’s just find a way in.”
We had no time to spare for an outfit change on the way over, which left all three of us monumentally overdressed for the occasion.
Hunter’s suit had not stayed clean for long, Maxine left a trail of shimmering glitter behind her like a ridiculous pink fairy, and my evening gown caught on every jutting bush and outcrop as we edged our way closer to the fence.
Hunter shot me a sidelong look before shrugging and scaling the chain links. I followed close behind, hiking my dress up past my knees and wishing I’d worn something a little more substantial than a goddamn G-string underneath.
Maxine gave a disdainful sigh but followed anyway, her stilettos remarkably silent while her mouth was not. “Honestly, Ethan couldn’t have picked a less grimy location to play hostage in? This dress is already ruined.”
Hunter and I groaned in unison as we dropped down on the other side of the fence.
When we straightened up, I scanned the scene, suspicious of the stillness and hyper-aware of the faint light leaking through boarded windows. I flicked a glance at Hunter. “What do you think?”
Her pupils had narrowed to pinpricks, and though she wore her standard casual indifference like a badge of honor, I knew she was tense.
Whether she wanted to admit it or not, Hunter cared for Ethan.
And judging by the stiff shrug of her shoulder and the panicked look in her eye, right now, she was scared for him too.
“I’m thinking that roof looks promising.” She slunk further into the shadows without waiting for a response. Maxine and I followed, creeping closer to the dilapidated building.
Hunter scaled the wall around the back with the agility of a cat and Maxine and I followed suit—with many a muttered complaint from Maxine’s end when the preening vamp broke a nail on the way up.
By the time I made it to the top, shoving a sulking Maxine out of the way and hauling myself upright, Hunter had already made her way over to the bulkhead and graciously kicked the door in. It wasn’t exactly stealthy, but her blond partner in pettiness was in danger so I could forgive it.
All three of us stared down the illuminated stairwell, then at each other, then we slipped inside—and were thoroughly surprised to find a cold, clinical interior.
My senses sharpened, every inch of me on high alert, but all I could hear was the distant hum of machinery and our own careful footsteps echoing in the cavernous corridors.
“This is… not what I expected,” Maxine whispered, haughty posture sagging with a hint of unease. She shot Hunter a sidelong look, anxiety evident despite her flippant tone. “You think the elves have something to do with this?”
“No,” Hunter muttered, sidestepping Maxine’s puffy skirts with a scowl. “We shut down Cathy’s entire operation. This is… something else entirely.”
Before Maxine could respond, a loud crash resounded down the hallway. It reverberated off the walls, followed by a cut-off yelp echoing from somewhere to our left.
I tensed up. “You think that’s—”
“Yep.” Hunter jerked her head in that direction, and we set off at a run. Shelves of medical equipment and strange contraptions bled into my periphery, an entire macabre laboratory hidden within an unassuming warehouse.
Following the faint sounds of a violent scuffle—the dull thump of fists meeting flesh—we veered down another passage, passing a series of steel doors. Light spilled from one of them left slightly ajar.
We skidded to a stop and I glanced at Hunter and Maxine; they each gave me a grim nod of confirmation. I swung the door open fully and all three of us rushed inside, ready to wrench our friend from whatever horrible torture he was being subjected to.
What we found was… Ethan. Looking perfectly at ease considering the circumstances.
The blond vamp was standing there with his clothes slightly rumpled and his hair a tousled mess, but other than the faint dishevelment, there was not a scratch on him.
He had what looked like a security guard gripped by the collar and one fist raised like we’d caught him in the act of pummeling the guy to a bloody pulp.
“Oh, hey.” Ethan promptly released him when we came crashing in. The guard thudded to the floor with a loud thump. Out cold.
“Hey?! That’s all you have to say? What the hell happened?!” Hunter waved her hands at the scene, tone turned stern like she was scolding a child. “You just up and disappeared—We all thought you were dead!”
Ethan shrugged, sauntering away to retrieve his jacket from where it was hanging over a camera fixed to the wall. “I appreciate the concern, but, y’know…” He glanced down at the guard, yanking his jacket on while the corner of his mouth quirked up. “I think I did all right.”
Hunter stalked forward, stepping over the battered guy on the floor like he was little more than a doormat. “What the hell is going on? We thought you’d been taken.”
“I was taken. Kinda. But I had this on me.” Ethan looked annoyingly pleased with himself as he lifted his shirt up, revealing a tiny, intricate talisman dangling at his scrawny chest.
“Is that—” I tilted my head to get a better look at the necklace, but I only needed one glimpse of Hunter’s stormy expression to understand what it really was. “That’s an elven charm.”
No wonder Hunter looked so put out. It was the only thing capable of warding off telepathic abilities like hers. No doubt Ethan wore it just to spite her personally.
“Yes indeed.” He grinned, patting at the talisman with unabashed pride at his own infinite cleverness. “You remember back at the event when that weird guy bumped into me? I heard his voice in my head, telling me to leave the venue in exactly two minutes and wait outside for further instructions.”
Both my brows shot up. “So it was compulsion.”
Laurie was right.
“Yeah, but it didn’t stick.” Ethan shrugged, flashing a smug little smirk in Hunter’s direction. “Because I always wear this charm.” He met her eyes and smiled with syrupy sweetness.
Hunter huffed, rolling her eyes to the ceiling. “Of course you do.”
Ethan lowered his shirt and straightened out his jacket. “Anyway, because of the charm, I wasn’t actually compelled. But he didn’t seem to know that—So I decided to pretend like it worked, just to see what the guy was up to.”
He nudged the unconscious guard with the toe of his shoe. “Turns out they’re bringing people here, apparently to be turned or experimented on—or both. I’m still figuring out the details.”
Maxine turned to Hunter with a wry smile. “So, your borderline obsessive hatred of magic-repelling trinkets actually saved Ethan’s life. How ironic.”
Ethan’s grin widened and Hunter bristled as she turned on Maxine. “One more word out of you and I will compel you to eat dirt.”
Maxine tapped a finger to her lip, unbothered. “Maybe I should get myself a talisman if you’re going to be making threats—”
“Why the fuck are you all just standing there!?” Without warning, the intercom in the corner of the room crackled to life, making us all jump, and an urgent voice blared overhead. “River?! Can you hear me?”
On cue, Maxine, Hunter, and Ethan all swiveled toward me. Maxine’s eyebrows climbed halfway up her forehead. “Um… Friend of yours, River?”
I stiffened, my heart leaping to my throat. I knew that voice.
“Laurie…?” I turned in circles, confused about how she could even see us, when my gaze eventually settled on the camera watching us from the wall. “Where are you? What the hell are you doing here? I told you to wait—”
“That’s not important right now!” Her usual impatient tone was evident even through layers of static. “You need to get out of there!”
“Okay, who the hell is this Laurie?!” Hunter threw her hands up like this new twist was too much for her. “Will someone please tell me what is going on?!”
“Uh—” I began, but Laurie’s voice sounded again, loud and frantic through the speaker.
“River, listen, there are more guards coming your way and they’re all way more competent than that guy—” We all stepped back to look at the dude still sprawled out on the floor. “These aren’t regular people you’re up against. Please, you have to go.”
Laurie’s voice carried a dire warning, and I understood then that whatever we were about to face, she’d seen it all before. She’d gone directly against my earlier orders and somehow broke into this place before us, but something told me I had to trust her on this one.
She understood this danger better than any of us.
“You heard her.” I grabbed at both Hunter and Maxine—the latter of whom grabbed hold of Ethan—and dragged all three of them toward the door, repeating Laurie’s words with bubbling urgency. “We have to move. Right now.”