Chapter 98 Maddy
MADDY
Tears of anger blurred my vision. Nico had his arm around my shoulder to comfort me, but nothing helped.
They still had Gabriella. That fucking bitch Viola.
I’d walked in on Luis and Nico watching that security footage, and my wolf snarled at the sight of Viola.
Everything else I witnessed only made my hatred burn hotter.
“Luis, turn it off,” Nico said after the video went black. “We can check more later.”
“No,” I hissed. “Keep going. We need to see what these sick assholes are up to.”
Nico looked like he wanted to argue, but he must have seen something in my eyes.
He gestured to Luis to go to the next video.
For the next two hours, we watched videos of other shifters being experimented on.
Every species I’d ever heard of and some I didn’t even know existed.
One man shifted into what looked like a horse, but he had some kind of allergic reaction to the poison and died.
“It keeps going,” Luis whispered. I could hear the fear and anguish in his voice. What we were watching was nothing short of torture. Illegal medical testing on shifters. It was disgusting.
We found another set of video clips of the cells they kept the shifters in.
After flipping through nearly a dozen clips, we found the one showing my mother’s quarters.
She’d fully reverted back to her human form, and the timestamp on the video showed it was more than a day later than the experimental injection.
She seemed normal and was sitting on a cot, hugging her knees to her chest. They had her under some form of elevated observation.
Multiple cameras were in the room, and she had electrodes on her body running to a machine in the corner.
None of the others had anything similar.
“They don’t know why it didn’t work,” Nico said, watching the video. “They’re watching her to see if they can figure it out.”
“Is that a guess? Or do you know something we don’t?” Luis asked.
“A guess, but I’m pretty sure that’s what’s happening here. Why else are they recording her body diagnostics like that?”
“What’s the newest video?” I asked. “The last one that was recorded?”
“Hang on,” Luis said. “I think I saw it earlier.”
A few clicks later and a new video began playing. Luis turned the volume up for us to hear what was happening. A man in a white coat was pacing back and forth across a lab, a phone to his ear, talking animatedly.
“I’m telling you,” the man said. “There’s not enough.
It’s a simple supply issue. What Viola is proposing works on paper, yes, but if I don’t have enough blood, then it’s pointless to bother.
The little she brought back from Europe is almost totally gone.
It’s already getting diluted. If we make any more of the formula, it’ll be like that first one—you know, the wolf lady?
They’ll shift but change back again. What the fuck do you want me to do?
Viola’s coming back tomorrow for another test, and I have nothing new to show her.
We’ve got to source more of that blood, or this entire goddamned plan is going to fall apart. ”
The man’s voice was verging on panic. It made me wonder how much terror Viola instilled in her own people. This guy was actually part of the royal organization, and even he sounded afraid of what Viola might do. It said a lot about her leadership style. Not surprising.
Nico ran a hand through his hair and recommended we go down for a break. “There’s nothing more we can see anyway. Maybe that software will get us deeper into their network, but we have to let it work,” he said, standing and stretching.
Luis and I agreed and followed him downstairs. We found Tiago sitting at the table, watching the news and sipping on a cup of coffee. “How did it go?” he asked.
“Which part?”
He set down the cup and cocked an eyebrow. “Well, I was talking about the whole witch teleportation to Australia thing. If something else has trumped that in the last day, then I’d love to hear about it.”
We sat with him and went over everything that had happened, filling him in on where we were.
At the end, we told him about the videos and what the scientist had said in the final clip.
Tiago sat in silence for several seconds before nodding toward the tv.
“There hasn’t been another attack since before you all left.
I think she’s out of this drug or poison or whatever.
That big giant wave of them a few days ago was probably her Hail Mary to get governments around the world to institute that state of emergency.
It was almost enough to tip the scales, but now she’s back to square one. ”
“I think he’s right,” I said. “The attacks were happening left and right, and the whole world was ready to lock us down, then boom. Nothing. Why would that happen unless they’d run out of whatever she’d created from my blood? We all know there isn’t a real disease.”
Nico and Luis both shared a look. I could see it dawning on them that Tiago and I were right. Nico smiled faintly. “This is good, though. It buys us a little more time. The governments will be hesitant to do anything if it looks like the crisis is winding down.”
The three of them talked it out more while I fell into my own thoughts.
I couldn’t get the image of Gabriella out of my head.
Sitting in her cell, staring at the wall in some zombie-like state.
They probably had her drugged out of her mind to keep her pliant and consenting to their pokes and prods.
Or was something else causing her to act that way?
Something about the shifting drug they’d given her?
It worried me. Something about it didn’t seem right.
Finally, I sat forward and interrupted the conversation.
“Can we tell where that video of Gabriella is from?”
Luis looked at me, blinking in confusion as his mind tried to catch up to what I was asking. “Uh… I think the locations on the file log. I can find it. Why?”
“Because we need to get her out of there. My birth mother, I mean. Gabriella. We can’t let that bitch keep her locked up like that.”
“How the hell are we going to do that?” Nico asked. “We all almost died the last time we infiltrated a royal stronghold. Who’s to say we’ll succeed again? We have to have a really good plan before we go in there. We aren’t Navy Seals, as much as I wish we were.”
“I think I can help with that,” Sinthy said as she came down the stairs.
We all turned to see the young woman coming toward us. She looked well-rested after settling in and taking a nap. Luis frowned at her. “What? How can you help us with that?”
Nico made an irritated face and glared at Luis like he was an idiot. Sinthy smiled and narrowed her eyes. “Um… I’m a witch?”
Luis’s face went red with embarrassment, and he gave a grudging nod. “Point taken.”
“I can teleport anywhere. If we have a location, I can get us there,” Sinthy explained. “The only problem would be if the area already has magical protections around it.”
“Do you think the royals have gone that far?” Tiago asked. “Could they have enlisted their own witches?”
Sinthy snorted a derisive laugh. “Zero chance. The royals have had enough dealings with witches to know they won’t work for them.
My parents are a prime example. Any time they’ve used one of us for their personal gain, there’s always been a problem.
Similar to the way the Jews who were forced to work in Nazi factories purposely sabotaged the things they were building.
The royals would be too terrified to let a witch be in charge of security like that.
They’d be too worried about some hidden back door they built into the spell to screw them over.
Plus, they’re inherently afraid of us. They know that if we weren’t so rare, we would have already toppled their little shadow government. ”
“What you’re saying is if we can get the location, you can sneak us in?” Nico asked.
Sinthy nodded. “I’m part of the pack now. Whatever my alpha commands, I will do.”
Nico sighed and raised a hand for her to stop. “Nope, this isn’t that kind of pack. We’re more like a family. I won’t ever command you to do something. I can ask, and you can agree or disagree. But I’m not some liege lord here.”
A glint formed in Sinthy’s eye, and she smiled as she pointed at him.
“And that, my dear Nico, is why my mother said I would fit in here. In that case? Yes, I can get you in—of my own volition. But there’s no need for all of us to go.
Get me the exact locale, and I can pop in, grab Maddy’s mother, and pop back out.
Those assholes won’t know what the hell happened.
In fact…” Sinthy shrugged and grinned. “I’d love to see the video when they see her vanish with me. ”
“Hang on,” I said, feeling a little thrill of fear. “I don’t think it’s safe for you to go in there all by yourself.”
“Right,” Nico added. “If you get caught or hurt, how will we be able to help you?”
Sinthy gave Nico a withering glare. “I may look young, Nico, but I assure you I am older than I look. I am more than capable of completing this on my own.” Her face softened. “Though, if you truly want to be involved, one of you can go along as backup.”
“I’ll go.” The words were out of my mouth before I even realized I was going to speak.
Nico spun and gaped at me, fear and surprise written all over his face. “No way. Not happening.”
“She’s my mother, Nico. Why can’t I go?” I snarled. Was it because I was a woman? Was that it? If so, I might actually bite him. Not enough to draw blood but enough to let him know I was serious. My wolf growled.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Nico said, probably reading the feelings boiling in my mind. Being mated was great but being able to feel each other’s emotions was sometimes disconcerting. “This isn’t a male-female power thing. It’s about what’s in your veins.”
I looked at him dumbly for a moment, confused. Then Tiago laid a hand on my wrist. “He’s right, girl. You can’t give them more ammunition.”
Understanding washed over me, and I was suddenly ashamed of how I’d reacted.
Nico, seeing my reaction, put a hand on my back.
“They used your blood to make that poison. If they get you, they’d have more than enough to synthesize more.
It’ll be enough for them to push everything over the edge.
We can’t give them that chance. It needs to be me. I’ll go.”
I couldn’t argue with what they were saying.
I looked down at my hands and the tiny blue veins running under the surface of my skin—all that pain and danger right there beneath my skin.
It was like my body had betrayed me. Until this was over, I had to be even more careful not to let the royals catch me.
Because now it wasn’t just my life on the line, but those of every shifter on earth.
The responsibility was like a crushing weight that made it hard to breathe.
Sinthy gestured to Nico. “Are you sure? Again, I truly think I’m more than capable of doing this alone. But if you insist, we can leave anytime.”
Nico nodded. “I’m sure. Luis, can you double-check her location?”
“Yeah. I’ll make sure the newest upload shows her in the same lab. Come on.”
We all got up and followed Luis and Nico back to the office.
Luis pulled up the feed from Gabriella’s room.
The newest clip had been auto-saved less than ten minutes ago.
Luis pointed at the numbers and letters at the bottom of the screen.
“She’s still there. These symbols must be the location of the lab. ”
I glanced at the spot he was pointing at. Besides the running clock were the words: Meeder, Germany. “Is that a town?” I asked.
“Hang on, I think so, but let me check,” Luis said, pulling up another window and doing a search. A moment later, Luis laughed and pointed at the screen. “It is. It’s a little town in the middle of nowhere.”
Sinthy leaned in, looking at the screen. “I need an exact location. Once I know the building, I can figure out where in the structure Gabriella is being held. I can divine her location.”
Luis pulled up a map program and zoomed in, slowly scrolling across the town. There were several large buildings and businesses, but nothing looked big enough for the massive lab we saw on the video feeds.
Tiago nudged Luis. “Zoom out a bit. I doubt they’ll have this place in the middle of town. I bet it’s on the outskirts.”
Luis did as he asked and found a massive building on the edge of some farmland on the outskirts of the town. “Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Luis murmured.
Clicking on the address, he did a search and pulled up what the building was supposed to be. The name popped up on the screen, and I chuckled. Those cocky assholes.
“Royal Time Seed Lab,” Luis read. “Internet says it’s supposed to be like a Monsanto kinda thing.
Breeding specialty crop seeds for commercial farmers.
I seriously doubt that. Let me cross-reference this with my research on the royals’ holdings.
” A few clicks later, Luis grinned to himself.
“Yup, they own this place. This has to be it, guys.”
“Okay,” Sinthy said. Bring the video of Maddy’s mother back up. I need to watch her and form a connection. I don’t want to teleport into that place and be on the wrong end of the building or something.”
Luis did as she asked, and Sinthy leaned in close, staring at Gabriella.
The rest of us sat there, trying to be quiet, even though we had no idea what she was doing.
Sinthy’s breathing slowed, and I had the strange feeling she was trying to match her breathing to that of Gabriella in the video.
Suddenly, the young woman’s eyes changed.
Instead of the beautiful green they’d been an instant before, a cloudy film seemed to cover them.
The eyes were completely gray, like two stones pulled from a river.
Then without warning, she blinked and stood back up.
Her eyes, once again, were their normal color.
She nodded to herself. “Okay, got it. I should be able to get us at least on the same floor, possibly outside the door, but this isn’t an exact science. ”
“Okay, I’m ready,” Nico said.
I grabbed his shirt and yanked him over to me. I kissed him hard. After a few seconds, he pulled away to catch his breath. “Easy. I promise I’ll be back. Don’t worry about us. Whatever Viola did to her, we’ll fix it.”