Chapter 33 Rhys
RHYS
“Where are they?” I asked, keeping my voice steady despite my wolf’s need to spill the blood of those depraved bastards.
Sable pressed her forehead against my chest, her breathing gradually evening out as the empathic overload passed. She drew strength from our connection, processing the horrific visions that had torn through her.
“Two levels down, through the old holding cells.” Her voice steadied as she spoke. “Rhys, there are children down there. Oracle children are among them, being prepared for private collectors who specialize in supernatural gifts.”
Children. They were trafficking them for entertainment.
My protective instincts exploded beyond anything I’d ever experienced.
We had to save those shifters. No question there.
And we had to expose the rot that had been hidden beneath layers of political theater and false documentation.
We were dealing with evidence of a conspiracy that reached into the highest levels of supernatural government.
One that had been using Council sessions as a cover for operations that made the vampire courts look merciful by comparison.
She pulled back. Whatever messed-up shit she’d seen through that empathic connection was all the reason we needed.
“Time to go,” she said.
I smiled, my fangs ready to elongate as my wolf growled his desire to protect. “Let’s rattle some cages.”
My wolf took stock of threats as we went. We’d survived too many ambushes to take anything for granted. Strange scents layered the air. Silver threading lined the walls, creating a network of dampening fields that would make this place invisible to most enhanced senses.
Clever bastards. Build your trafficking ring under the noses of every southern pack leader, then ward it so it’s completely undetectable.
Behind me, Sable moved silently. I felt her tracking exits, guard positions, the precise layout of corridors that branched off in multiple directions. At the end of a long passageway, partially invisible, were Eve and Astrid, waiting.
Eve and Astrid flanked us. The young Crux wolf held a glamour so precise that eyes slid right past us. My own hand looked like the wall behind it.
The kid was good. Scary good.
“Left here,” Eve whispered, her oracle abilities guiding us through the maze of underground passages. “The main holding area is through those doors.”
The doors in question were massive things that belonged in a medieval castle, not as part of a modern trafficking operation. Heavy wood bound with iron, carved with symbols that made my wolf’s hackles rise. Protection wards, containment spells. Old magic. Old cruelty.
Sable recoiled from whatever lay beyond those doors.
“How many?” I asked. I was already shifting my weight into a combat stance.
“Dozens,” she whispered. “Prisoners—and guards. Low-level vampires among them.”
Vampires in a confined space with silver-lined walls and innocent prisoners caught in the crossfire. This was going to get messy fast.
I caught Sable’s eye, and I could tell she was thinking the same thing I was: Time to fuck some shit up.
“Ready?” I asked.
“Like the man said”—her muscles rippled as she took on a new stance I recognized as an enforcer position—“let’s rattle some cages.”
Eve opened the door in silence, just enough so we could slip through. With some luck, the spell from Astrid would be enough for us to get in unnoticed. As long as no one picked that particular second to leave, since they’d have walked straight into us.
Inside was a chamber that belonged in the deepest circles of hell.
The space was enormous—a natural cavern that had been carved and expanded to hold hundreds of beings.
We could blend in, since there were multiple entrances opening and closing as other prisoners were brought in.
Silver bars gleamed under harsh fluorescent light, casting everything in a sickly pallor.
Cages lined the walls in neat, organized rows.
And they weren’t empty.
My wolf froze, and for a second I couldn’t process what I was seeing.
Dozens of shifters and other supernatural beings too.
The smell of their terror made me want to shut down completely.
Kids huddled in the corners of cages that were barely big enough for dogs, let alone shifter children.
Adult wolves and other supes paced in tight circles, their pack bonds severed and their minds clearly hanging on however they could.
“Holy fucking Goddess,” I breathed.
Through the bond, Sable’s rage turned ice-cold and I immediately knew she’d seen this kind of thing before. Her vampire side was already cataloguing the setup while her wolf wanted blood.
Guards wandered between cages like this was just another Tuesday.
Dwarves and vampires in tactical gear that was obviously designed for one thing—dropping supernatural beings fast and keeping them down.
They had silver restraints that would burn through shifter skin, tranq guns loaded with a cocktail of who-knew-what, and what looked like cattle prods that had been souped-up with magical feedback strong enough to flatten an alpha.
Crossbows and a few good old guns hung off of their belts.
Fuck me. I’d thought we were up against some back-alley amateurs. This was a military operation.
“Processing center,” one of the guards called out in accented English. “Batch seventeen ready for transport to auction facility.”
Batch seventeen. They were numbering people.
My wolf snarled, and I felt Sable’s hand on my arm, steadying me before I did something stupid.
“Strategic approach,” she whispered. “We save them all.”
Right. Think like a beta, not a wolf ready to rip throats out.
The chamber was well laid out—multiple entry points, clear sight lines, designated zones for different types of prisoners. But the vampires had made one crucial mistake.
They’d designed their operation around containing captured supernatural beings, not fighting free ones.
I caught Eve’s eye and gestured toward the left side of the chamber where most of the children were caged. She nodded, understanding immediately. Astrid would maintain our concealment while Eve worked on the locks.
That left Sable and me to handle the guards.
The dwarves would be easy under the circumstances. But six vampires, armed and experienced, in a space designed to amplify their advantages while minimizing ours… Under normal circumstances, I’d call those shitty odds and look for a different approach.
These weren’t normal circumstances.
Sable’s vampire nature rose to the surface—she was ready to unleash the full power she’d inherited from centuries-old bloodlines. Her scent changed, and even my wolf acknowledged her as a superior predator. He looked at her with awe, while I looked at her as my partner.
“On my mark.”
Her fangs extended in her anticipation. “Ready.”
“Now.”
What happened next would’ve been beautiful if it weren’t so fucking terrifying.
Sable moved first, her vampire speed turning her into a silver-edged blur that crossed the chamber before the guards could process the threat. She hit the nearest vampire with enough force to send him flying into a rocky wall, his tactical armor crumpling like paper.
My wolf exploded into action a heartbeat later. Not shifting—that would have taken too long and made me a bigger target. Instead, I found a new speed I hadn’t had before.
It seemed being bonded to a hybrid had its upsides. Awesome.
A second guard turned toward Sable just as I reached him. My fist connected with his jaw hard enough to dislocate it, followed immediately by my elbow to his solar plexus. He dropped onto the stone floor.
“Intruders!” The shout came from across the chamber as the other guards processed what was happening.
Silver magic erupted from Sable’s hands, creating a barrier of crackling energy that sent two more vampires stumbling backward, smoke rising where the power had touched them. Instead of the wild magic she’d unleashed during our early encounters, this was precise, strikes designed to incapacitate.
My brain noted the improvement while my wolf reveled in watching her fight. She’d learned to channel her abilities with deadly efficiency.
A crossbow bolt whistled past my ear, close enough that I felt the rush of air. I rolled to the left, coming up behind another guard as he tried to reload. I caught the subtle click of the mechanism, giving me enough warning to grab his wrist and twist until bones snapped.
“The cages!” I shouted. Eve was already on the first row of locks, still cloaked.
Through the bond, Sable’s attention split in about twelve different ways.
She was tracking every guard, every prisoner, every potential threat.
My head spun just thinking about it. Her vampire side handled the immediate “who needs their face rearranged” calculations while her wolf coordinated with mine in ways that shouldn’t have been possible after knowing each other for, what, a few weeks?
We were fighting like we’d been doing this shit for years instead of figuring it out as we went. Her abilities filled in gaps I didn’t even know I had, and it looked like I was doing the same for her.
The remaining guards were adapting faster than I’d hoped. Instead of engaging us directly, they were falling back to defensive positions that put the prisoners they’d been moving into the crossfire.
Smart. Also completely fucked up.
Silver darts, Sable warned through the bond as a guards raised a tranq gun. Careful.
The weapon fired with a sound like breaking glass. The projectile passed close enough to my shoulder that silver particles burned against my skin, but it wasn’t aimed at me.
It was aimed at a cage full of children who’d been huddling together since the fighting started.
Sable moved, her vampire speed carrying her into the projectile’s path. The silver-tipped dart hit her in the left shoulder, spinning her around and sending her crashing into a row of empty cages.