Chapter 6
Lucie and Gia headed toward the edge of pack territory. The sun had set, and even the moon was not giving them light tonight. The crickets and tree frogs sang their songs, battling for the lead. The wind hissed around the two girls as they stood at the border.
“You know how much trouble I’m going to get in, right? I’m going to be shackled to my bed for the rest of the summer.” Lucie looked at Gia, who shrugged her shoulders.
“Well, we can always go back to the house and wait for everyone else to come back.” Gia smiled, knowing Lucie would never do that.
“Let’s get tracking, Gia.” Lucie watched as Gia grinned widely and headed over the border.
She couldn’t just sit there knowing a bunch of kids went across the boundary.
She probably should have notified Sam, her father’s beta, or at the very least Winston and Adam, her father’s gamma and delta.
She knew she was going to get reamed over this, but it was too late now.
Gia sped through the woods. She was a fast runner and an excellent tracker.
Lucie jumped up into the next tree and quickly raced through the branches, jumping from limb to limb silently.
Her mother had taught her how to be a silent assassin at a very young age and how to use her lycan strength in her human form, since there were times when you couldn’t shift.
Lucie had never been in a real fight, but she was well trained. She often sparred against her stronger brother, which only helped prepare her. She felt confident that if they ran into any trouble, she would be able to neutralize the problem.
After running for several hours, Lucie was getting concerned about not running into anyone yet.
She raced to the top of the trees so that she could see farther, but what she saw in the distance confused her.
She could see several silhouettes in a clearing that were carrying a couple of bodies back with them.
Gia, wait, Lucie called out through their mindlink.
What is it?
I see something strange up ahead. Stay here. I’m going to check it out.
Lucie swiftly and silently closed the distance, wanting to listen to them. She halted a few trees away and took in quiet, shallow breaths.
“We have a couple of vampires, but I’d like to bring a werewolf back, too. I know she would like to test it out on one,” a raspy-voiced man said.
A werewolf? Lucie looked at the two other bodies in black sacks. Those must be the bodies of the vampires. What were these people doing?
“Yes, I agree. It will be beneficial when she goes after the Black Ice Pack,” another voice said.
Wait, the Black Ice Pack? Her pack? Who was going after her pack? Lucie clenched her fists, then made a rash decision. She would allow herself to be taken so she could discover who was after them.
She jumped down to the ground and ran, jumping through the brush, and feigned surprise as she ran into the people on the ground.
“Ask and you shall receive,” the raspy-voiced male said with a chuckle.
Someone grabbed her from behind and placed a cloth over her mouth and nose. It was a drug to make you drowsy, so she quickly held her breath. She faked going limp and felt the man behind her catch her before she fell.
“Put the scent blocker on her and cover her. We don’t need her pack trying to follow us.”
Lucie felt them spray her down with a strange liquid, then cover her in a dark blanket of sorts.
She had to fight herself to remain limp, even as her body was hoisted over the man’s shoulder.
Soon, the man carrying her took off running.
She had to let her head bob around as if she didn’t have control, which was a bit painful.
In the moment, she’d forgotten to mindlink Gia, and now she was afraid to because she didn’t want to give herself away.
They ran for hours … all night, in fact.
She could tell by the change in sounds that morning had come when the men slowed down.
Birds were now singing, and the night chorus had ended.
The fresh scent of the morning permeated the air, and the smell of dampness hit her nose.
She could feel the chill around her as they headed into a building of sorts.
“Put her in there and bind her with silver. She won’t be waking up anytime soon, but even if she does, she won’t be able to leave her silver cell,” the raspy voice called out.
“I’ll notify Beryl of the new test subjects we have available. We’ll be back this evening. Can you handle things until then? It isn’t like they can go anywhere anyway.” The raspy voice chuckled.
Beryl … She knew that name. That was the name of the witch Meryl’s granddaughter that was never found.
They’d just assumed she was living a normal life somewhere.
Lucie wasn’t sure what her plans were, but they involved the Black Ice Pack.
It was highly likely that she was seeking revenge for her grandmother, who her parents had killed before she was even born.
Knowing this alone was enough. Now she just needed to get this information back to her parents.
The man carrying Lucie dropped her unceremoniously, and she landed on the ground with a thud. It was hard, but she continued to play her part. The blanket over her was removed, and cold metal bands clinked around her wrists and her ankles. A metal door closed nearby, and the air settled.
“I’ve got it under control. I’m just going to go and take a nap.” The guy yawned loudly. “Running all night is exhausting.”
The sound of footsteps walking away and then another door shutting echoed through the space. Silence. Lucie continued to lay there motionlessly as she waited to make sure the coast was clear.
“Looks like they captured a wolf from the smell of her. Poor thing. I wonder how long she’ll last? The last one didn’t make it more than a day.”
“We’re the unfortunate ones who continue to survive her damn tests. How long are we going to be stuck here as her prisoners?”
Lucie could hear two voices talking, two people that seemed to be kidnapped as well and decided the coast must be clear.
She opened her eyes as she laid on the stone-cold floor.
Looking around, she noticed a torch hanging on a stone wall on the outside of the metal bars where she was caged.
She slowly moved so that she was in a sitting position.
“How the hell are you awake already?” A male voice asked near her side.
Lucie turned to see a man and a woman inside a cell next to hers. Beyond them were the two other bodies she assumed were brought in with her. She stared at the bodies on the floor in confusion, her eyes widening.
“They’re dead?” Lucie looked up at the other two.
“They were halflings, that’s why. Not full vampires.
The dose they injected them with was too much for them to handle.
Not a big loss on their part, since they still have us here,” the guy said, motioning toward himself and the other woman.
He stared at her suspiciously and furrowed his brows. “How is it that you’re awake?”
Lucie shrugged. “I didn’t breathe it in. I let them capture me so I could figure out what was going on.”
“You let them take you?” The man scoffed. “Idiot. Look at yourself. Now what?” He pointed to the silver chains.
Lucie smirked and looked at the cuffs. Silver. Everyone knew that silver was the enemy of werewolves. It made them weak and vulnerable. But not Lucie. Aedan, Lucie, and Freja were all immune to the effects of silver.
She looked at the two in the other cell. “Are you two vampires?” Lucie asked as she took in their scent. She slowly rose to her feet so that she could take a few steps closer to them.
“Yes we are. We actually also came here for information but found out escape isn’t that easy,” the woman said, rubbing her wrists. There was some odd band over them. She raised it up slightly. “Some weird witch magic is preventing us from using our strength.”
Lucie couldn’t leave them there. She shook her wrists a bit and smiled. “I guess that’s the purpose of these too. So what are your names?”
“I’m Tonya, and he’s my mate, Zach.”
“I’m Lucie.” She smiled at them. “Well, Tonya and Zach … ready to get out of here? I have the information I came here for.”
Zach laughed. “We aren’t getting out of here.” He rested his back against the wall and sighed.
“Oh well, if you want to stay, then that’s up to you.” Lucie jerked her wrist, and the chains snapped in half. She kicked her foot, breaking the lower chains as well. She then pulled a dagger from behind her back that she had hidden and picked the chains off her wrists and feet.
“How did you do that?” Zach asked as he suddenly became very interested in what Lucie was doing.
“That doesn’t really matter, does it?” Lucie smiled at him and Tonya. She then set her gaze on the silver door in front of her. With commanding strides, she marched toward it and kicked the door out. The loud sound of metal hitting the stone floor echoed in the air.
“Hey! What’s going on in there?”
Lucie walked out of her cell just as a dark-complected man with pointed ears came into view. She set her jaw in anger as she stared at him. A dark elf. A traitor to the fairies.
“How the hell did you get out of your cell?” the man yelled. He grabbed something off the wall and lunged toward Lucie.
Lucie narrowed her eyes on the elf and raised up her dagger.
She pushed her lycan strength forward and sprinted into the man.
Spinning at the last second, she pressed her knife into his side.
Red liquid splashed onto the stone ground and trickled over her hand.
She then brought her other hand forward and extended her claws, plunging them deep into his chest. Blood splattered from his mouth as he began to fall to the ground.
As he fell, he jabbed her with a sharp object, cutting Lucie’s leg.
A sudden, intense, burning pain shot down her leg.
She looked to see that she was cut with liquid silver that was laced with something else.
The silver itself wasn’t making her skin burn.
From the scent, there were traces of vervain.
This was a vampire’s weakness. She wasn’t sure why it bothered her more than the silver, though.
Maybe because she had pure vampire blood?
In any case, it was preventing her from healing.
She limped over to the other cell and punched the door down using her werewolf strength. She then used her dagger to cut the bands off both vampires.
“Come on. There are others here who will be alerted because of the commotion,” Tonya said and looked at Lucie’s leg. “Can you run?”
Lucie nodded. Sure, it hurt, but she was going to run out of here on her own two feet. She ignored the pain and followed the two vampires, who sprinted down a tunnel. The tunnel led to the ground above, and she welcomed the fresh air.
“Quickly, this way, so we don’t run into their guards,” Zach said, motioning with his head toward the tree line.
Lucie followed closely, having to push her werewolf strength forward to keep up with them. She glanced back for a moment. She was running in the wrong direction. Home was the other way. But she could sort that out later. Right now, escaping was most important.
“They went that way! Quick!”
Footsteps were closing in on them. With her wounded leg, she didn’t have a chance at outrunning them. She was going to have to turn and fight.