“Don’tmess with me, child!” Prudence roared. I heard a loud metal scraping sound,like a door and then I was being hauled inside somewhere. It was now or never. Ihad to take Prudence out. I was assuming I had been led to the location ofwhere Layla and the girls were and I couldn’t let Prudence live one secondlonger. Taking a deep breath, I readied myself for what was to come.
“PrudenceHeather Sorensen!” I roared her full name and let the Devi fully come to thesurface. It was like letting my wolf out. With one quick motion, I snapped the zip-tieholding my arms. I was strong; stronger than I should be.
Iheard her gasp.
“Youhave no power over me!” I declared calling up my inner magic and immediatelyregaining my sight as her spell broke. Mist poured in thick clouds from me andsurrounded Prudence. I was in a cement hallway in an underground structuresomewhere. Prudence stood there frozen, her scraggly hair lifting on its ends. Raisingmy hands high over my head, I threw them forward, slamming Prudence against thewall with magical force.
Thevampire who had walked me inside grabbed my arm but I pivoted quickly, bringingan elbow down hard on the back of his neck and he crumpled to the ground. I slowlystalked towards Prudence, she was pinned against the wall in a cocoon of whitemagical mist.
Standingbefore her, I saw her true self. Her magic had been stripped and she was anugly shell of a human. A dark entity that had no place in this world.
“Darknessis the absence of light, so I shine my light on you until you disappear,” Iwhispered in her ear as she continued to stare at me in shock. Reaching up, Iplaced two hands on each side of her head.
“Balance,”the Devi whispered through my lips and quickly snapped her neck as she fell tothe ground with a thud. Staring down at her, I gasped as her face shrank untilshe looked 100 years old. The world was better off without her in it. Shelooked like a frail old human now.
Footstepscaught my attention and I turned to see Layla coming down the hall with fourother vampires. Inhaling, I grinned. I could smell them now. With Prudence dead,her magic no longer worked. Time to kill Layla and be done with this! The Deviinside of me itched with anticipation.
“You’llregret that!” Layla roared and held up a small LCD screen. It looked like ababy monitor.
Thesound of Tara’s wail gave me goose bumps and stopped me dead in my tracks. Ipushed the Devi down and thought of Max. That was his mate, my pack member, myfriend. The mist I had conjured shrank away as I withdrew my magic.
“ShouldI kill her or just torture her? It’s up to you.” Layla held the screen up.
“Stop,please stop!” I begged.
ButTara wailed on. I threw my arms up to blast Layla with magic but Layla held abutton on the monitor. “Kill her,” Layla said.
“No!I’m sorry.” I put my hands down and fell to my knees, head bowed. Oh God. Whatdo I do? With the Devi, I was powerful enough to take out Layla, I could seethat now. But I would not sacrifice one of my friends to do it.
“Stop,”Layla said into the monitor.
Twovampires came up behind me, surrounding me with their presence.
“Playnice and your friends live.” Layla narrowed her gaze at me.
Istood and glared at her as the vampires each firmly took hold of my arm.
“Idon’t see why we can’t have a mutual arrangement. You play nice and supply meblood and female wolves. In turn, I will give you money beyond your wildestdreams.” Layla’s voice was musical, her eyes purple. She was trying to usecompulsion on me. It didn’t work. White mist wrapped protectively around me.
Ineeded to be smart about this. She had Tara in some kind of torture room. Ishouldn’t piss her off. I needed to learn the lay of the land and plan myattack and escape smartly. “I will think about it,” I told her.
Herlips curled into a fake smile. “Well, until then I’m going to have to lock youup with the other dogs. I can’t risk you getting away again.” She winked. Isuppressed a growl at her use of the termdogs. She gestured to Prudence.“It’s a shame. She was very good.”
ThenLayla turned to one of the other vampires. “Find me another witch.”
Herstrawberry-blonde hair was curled, she had on layers and layers of make-up, andher clothes were fancy. “Going somewhere?” I asked casually as they walked medown a hall. I was scanning door numbers, signs, anything. We were in some kindof underground bunker. Would make sunlight a non-issue and no one would hearscreams.
Laylalaughed. “I have my first couple coming to do a surrogate transplant.” Sherubbed her hands together in glee as my heart hammered in my chest. So thenmaybe that meant none of the girls were pregnant yet but they would be soon ifI didn’t stop this.
Wereached a door. “Sorry about taking out your heroin supply,” I spat at her. Screwplaying nice, this bitch was evil. The big steel door opened.
Shegave me an evil glare. “Sorry for burning down Safe Haven,” she said and threwme inside, shutting the door behind me.
What?No!
Ididn’t even have time to process her comment. The room I had just been throwninto was full of female werewolves. I lay on my hands and knees, looking up atthem. The room was made up of four solid cement walls. Looking behind me I sawthat the thick steel door was shut and I heard it lock. Shit. We were trapped.
Iscanned the females who lay on bunk beds or sat on the floor as they stared atme with a mixture of pity and curiosity.
