My phone chirped. Luis was calling. “Marcus, I gotta go. Luis is calling.” I disconnected and answered Luis’s call. “What do you have for me?”
He sounded irritated and pissed. “Well, I found the vault.”
“Why do you sound like that’s a bad thing?”
Luis sighed. “I went into the lower levels of the castle, and the thing has a damned maze of tunnels and passages. Everything looks to be hundreds of years old. Only a few of them even had electric lights running to them. I followed a few passages until I came across a couple of guards. They were taking one of the longest passages. I stayed in the shadows and alcoves while I followed them. They ended up at a chamber doorway. They were there to trade shifts with a couple of other guys. I heard them talking. The vial is definitely being held there.”
“Again, you make this sound like a disaster. Wasn’t this what we wanted? Can you plant the explosives so we can blow it tonight?”
“That’s the problem. We were gonna blow it tonight if we found it. We didn’t want to kill a bunch of innocent people.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t even matter now. It’s so far away from the tourist area no one will get hurt. Hell, we could blow it this afternoon if we wanted.”
“Same thought I had. One problem. I used my phone’s GPS to see exactly where the vault was in relation to the castle. It’s about four hundred yards from the actual castle. But it’s directly below an old church. A church that has been converted into an orphanage.”
I closed my eyes. “Seriously?”
“Yup. That place is over five hundred years old. If I use enough explosives to blow through the door and destroy the vial, the entire passageway will collapse, as will the foundation of the church. The whole place will collapse. We’ll kill two or three dozen kids, and who the hell knows how many nuns.”
“Son of a bitch,” I said. “I guess getting rid of the vial won’t be as easy as we hoped.”
“What’s the play?” Luis asked.
I mulled it over. We only had one option. Ambush. “Okay,” I said. “Marcus found Maddy. She’s in a house right behindthe castle. If the vial is where you say it is, that means they’re gonna bring Maddy over to the castle. We set a trap and surprise them as they move her. They’ll use the tunnels. That’s how I’d move her. No reason to trudgea hundred yards across the yard. They’ll be in the tunnels, in the dark, on their home turf. Plus, their guard will be down because they’ll be so worried about the vial. It’s when she’ll be the most vulnerable to a rescue. That’s when we move. Maddy is the number one priority. We try for the vial if we get a chance or a good opening, but if we get out with Maddy and nothing else, that’s what we take. I’m saving my mate tonight. I don’t give a fuck about anything else.”
73
MADDY
The moon tugged hard at me. It was like I had a thousand fishhooks in my skin being yanked toward the sky. Each day closer to the full moon made me feel more and more like I was going to lose my mind. My skin was tight and uncomfortable. I could almost trick myself into thinking I could feel my wolf right there beneath the skin, ready to explode out. My God, I wished she would. Then I’d finally have a way to fight back. At the moment, I would have killed for a massive, terrifying werewolf body to attack my captors. But other than anxiety, irritation, and pain, I got nothing else from her. So, I had to make do and keep my head clear.
There were no windows in my cell, but as I lay on my cot, I could still feel the pull. Although, that wasn’t why I couldn’t sleep. My eyes were open, and I stared at the dark ceiling, worry swirling inside me. For once, I wasn’t worried about myself. Instead, I was worried about the woman I’d seen on that TV monitor. Gabriella. How had they gotten her? Why was she here? I didn’t have any special bond to her, but she wasn’t a complete stranger. I still had vague memories of her as mychildhood doctor. Plus, she’d done a lot to help Nico and me. I couldn’t just write her off. I wasn’t that kind of person.
Everything that was happening was because of me. No matter how distant a relation, I didn’t want someone to get pulled into my shit storm of a life and get hurt. Even with that thought, I had to wonder if I could risk my life for someone I didn’t really know. Someone who’d been hiding and lying for decades. I’d probably have no way of knowing until the moment came.
After a few hours of fitful, uncomfortable sleep, there was a knock at my door. A small panel slid aside, revealing a man with a tray. He waited until I stepped forward to slide it through. I took the plastic tray warily.
“Good morning, Miss Sutton. Breakfast. Bread, sweet butter, two poached eggs, some sliced meats with cheeses and jam. What can I get you to drink?”
I stared at him dumbly before I found my voice. “Umm… I don’t know… what is there?” I asked, acting as though I was at the most terrifying restaurant in the world.
“Water, fresh orange juice, and apple juice, or we could do a morning cocktail if you like? A Screwdriver? Mimosa? Bloody Mary?”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. “Apple juice is fine. Thanks.”
“As you will. I’ll be right back.”
My captor left me with my breakfast. They were strangely hospitable for people who had two women locked up against their will and were, more than likely, going to kill them or bring them close to death on the night of the full moon. I had no idea why, but my stomach betrayed me again. Since I was starving, I sat to devour the food.
By the time the guard returned with a tall glass of apple juice, I’d finished everything but the bread. I took the glass as I took large bites of the bread that I’d smeared with jam andbutter. That whole day went the same way as the day before. I paced and napped and was bored out of my mind. At lunchtime, they brought me a tray of some kind of potato salad and a sandwich. Then, later on, another meal of sausages, sauerkraut, and potatoes. In the evening, Viola decided to show me my birth mother again. The TV came on for three minutes. I saw the woman who had birthed me sitting on her cot, eating a similar dinner to mine. After that, the TV went off, and my lights were shut off. Time for bed again, and while the pull of the moon was still obnoxiously present, I was too tired to toss and turn. I was able to fall into a blissfully dreamless sleep.
After my breakfast the next morning, a different guard came and opened my door to retrieve me. He stepped in without a word and took me by the arm, guiding me out to the hallway.
“Where are we going?”
The man said nothing. Instead, he continued down the passage, oblivious to any other questions I had. I gave up after a while and went along with it, knowing there was nothing more I could do.
He led me through a door at the end of the hallway and escorted me through twists and turns until we stopped in front of a door. He unlocked it and opened the door. He pushed me inside, and I froze in my tracks. Sitting at the table, with her face in her hands, was my birth mother. She didn’t look at me, but I could see her shoulders stiffen. She knew I was here.
