Chapter Eight
“Nial, get up, we have to go.”
I was being shaken so hard in my bunk that my head hit the back wall before I had the time to recognize the voice that was whisper yelling at me. I opened my bleary eyes to see Geordie kneeling by my bunk. His eyes were wide behind his glasses, and his hair was wild from whipping his head back and forth between me and the open cell door.
Wait, how had he opened the cell door?
“Geordie, what the hell are you doing? How did you even get in here?”
“Nial, I really wish I could explain, but I don’t have time. I have my orders, and they’re to get you the fuck out of here before the shit hits the fan. I wasn’t supposed to do any of this until Ze was ready to evacuate, but I never question orders. You need to get up, quietly, and come with me. Now. And no questions.”
I got up quickly and as quietly as possible, put on my shoes and followed behind Geordie out of the cell. Geordie could walk so quietly that I would never have known he was there if I couldn’t see him. Me? I was much louder even though I tried to pull my steps before my feet landed on the metal walkway. We had made it down the stairs and were crossing the darkened floor when every light in the place was turned on, blinding me temporarily. When I opened my eyes, my worst nightmare was standing in front of me.
“Hello, whore, I was hoping I’d catch you before you made your escape. I’ve been watching all of you since the moment you got here and knew you’d try to get out one day. And I knew I’d stop every last one of you. You see, I rule this place. I own most of the guards, and the warden owes me a few favors. I’ve been holding all of my cards close until this moment. And I’m going to play every single one.”
Culin stalked forward, and my instinct was to back away from his advance. I knew that would be a deadly mistake. So I followed Geordie’s example and stood my ground, not making eye contact, but not giving up my position either. I did send my energy out to see if I could read his thoughts, and I felt, nothing.
“No, no, no, baby Mage. You don’t get to read or influence me. I told you I’ve been watching you, didn’t I? I made sure I got a spell that would keep you from using that energy on me. You thought you were being so sneaky, but you didn’t know who you were dealing with, did you? I’m so much smarter than you or your black-maned mate over there.”
At the mention of Ze, both Geordie and I whipped our heads around to see Ze and Luke walking onto the floor from the secret door area in the back. Following behind them was Jarvis and Kane, supporting Farley between them. I wanted to run to Ze but knew he needed to concentrate on the situation at hand.
As we had been listening to Culin talk, Geordie had been typing on a tablet he’d pulled out of thin air. He tapped furiously for several seconds, and all the cell doors opened. The inmates in the prison slowly emerged from their cells all around us, but never ventured down to the floor. After a few minutes, we had an arena audience all around us for the confrontation that was about to take place.
A banging on a far door startled me after the quiet of the room. Guards were lined up in the windows and behind the main door trying to get in, but whatever Geordie had been doing had locked them out.
“Will those doors hold, Geordie?” Ze asked from his position on the opposite side of the open floor.
“Yeah, they’ll hold as long as we need them to, Boss. Just need to clean up the trash, and we can get out of here.”
Ze smirked, but Culin didn’t think the joke was funny.
“Trash, huh? You think I’m trash? That’s okay. I’ll take that.”
Culin moved around to his left, trying to move closer to Ze, but Ze mirrored his movements, and they began a slow circle of the floor. Geordie put his hand on my chest and pushed me back, away from where they were slowly spiraling toward each other. We moved to the side a little at a time, small steps spaced apart and eventually made it over to Kane, Jarvis, and Farley. I couldn’t stand the dead silence anymore, so I had to ask at least one of the questions burning my brain.
“I don’t understand any of this, but can you at least tell me what you and Kane are doing here? Are you a part of all this, too?”
Jarvis nodded to Kane and Kane returned the nod reluctantly, then Jarvis breathed his answer into my ear so the sound wouldn’t travel.
“No, we don’t work with Ze, but we want to help, we want out. Kane came to me and told me there was a plot to kidnap you and turn you over to the Syndicate in exchange for Culin’s release. We couldn’t let that happen, cubbie. No shifter deserves that, but most especially not you. So, I told Ze we’d help you stay safe. Tonight, he came to us individually and said he had a plan, so here we are.”
This plan was getting more and more complicated, but I trusted Ze. He had a team now, which might make it all better or worse. I had no way of knowing. But we had to get past Culin first.
Culin and Ze were slowing circling closer to each other. Their snarling and dull growls became louder. I wanted to reach out and feel his emotions but didn’t want to distract him. So I stood back and waited.
All of a sudden, Culin jumped toward Ze and shifted in the air to land as a fully transformed massive wolf.
“Ze, watch out!”
My shout distracted Ze for a split second, his gaze moving toward me instead of his opponent, and that was the opening Culin was looking for. He bit down on Ze’s shoulder, taking a bite out and dropping him to the ground momentarily. The next moment, Ze was replaced by a massive male lion with a dark and silky black mane. He was beautiful and majestic, even with blood dripping from the rapidly healing wound on his front shoulder.
Ze shook out his mane, braced his gigantic paws and let out the loudest roar I’d ever heard. The deep, rumbling sound echoed off the walls, ceiling, and tile floor to reverberate inside my bones for minutes. I noticed movement on the walkways overhead and saw many of the shifters kneeling in place, showing their respect to the obvious king of this jungle. The only ones I noticed who didn’t show their respect were a handful of wolves who looked equal parts pissed and frightened at the scene before them.
Culin couldn’t hide his own fear when even his wolf tried to cower in the presence of this magnificent creature. But Culin’s black soul wouldn’t let his wolf cower longer than a second. He pushed his wolf into submission and attacked Ze’s lion in a full frontal attack, raising up on his hind paws and going for his throat.
Ze rose up in response, and the battle was on. They went hard and fast, slashing claws and clamping teeth. In a few minutes there was blood all over the tile floor and all over the two fighters. It was hard to tell who was injured and who was wearing the blood of his enemy. Both shifters could heal rapidly in their shifted forms, but they were attacking so fast, they couldn't heal before another wound was open.
It was at least fifteen to twenty minutes of a terrible back and forth battle, but in the end, Ze finally got the advantage. Culin’s back paw slipped on the bloody floor, causing him to fall backward and Ze pounced, clamping his jaws around Culin’s throat.
