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“Keaton?” I hissed. “Are you awake?”
“Yeah…”
“Listen.”
His entire body stiffened against mine as he heard it too. The net swayed as we both attempted to turn toward the sound.
“Biter?” I questioned, keeping my voice low.
Keaton listened for a moment. “Too slow. Too methodical. Too quiet.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, unable to argue with his logic. “Whoever it is, as soon as they’ve lowered us, we jump them, right? We still have our weapons, plus that fucking sword. There’s only one set of footsteps. Two against one. They don’t stand a chance. You’re a trained soldier and I’m…”
“Surprisingly competent,” Keaton provided.
“Brave of you to say that when I can’t punch you.”
“You can owe me one.”
“Deal.”
We both fell silent as the footsteps grew closer. Eventually, a beam of light lit up the foliage below. It zig-zagged left and right before lifting to shine right in my eyes. Whoever it was gave a low chuckle. A man, then, the sound too deep to be a woman.
“Ready?” I whispered.
“Ready,” Keaton confirmed.
There were three things wrong with my plan. The first was the expectation of being lowered slowly. That hope came to a crashing end—literally—as the ground rushed up to meet us. The impact knocked the air out of my lungs and left me struggling for breath. The second was in believing he’d release us straightaway. And the third… Well, the third was the most devastating of all.
That was the needle he slid into Keaton’s neck, the speed at which the other man went limp shocking. I had only a few seconds to contemplate what drug might work that quickly and effectively before the prick of a needle in my neck said I’d met the same fate. And then there was nothing to do but fight the waves of darkness pulling me down. They were too heavy, too all-consuming to fight for long, oblivion the ultimate prize.
The return to consciousness came in fits and starts. Like taking one step forward and then two steps back. Sometimes someone said my name, and I tried to answer, but the effort of forming my lips into the right shape was too much, and I inevitably slid back beneath the dark blanket. It was warm and comfortable there. And there were no worries. Maybe I’d stay forever.
“August?”
My name again, impatience in the way someone said it. Couldn’t they leave me the fuck alone? I made a supreme effort, succeeding not only in opening my eyes, but in sitting up.
Keaton sat opposite me, leaning against a brick wall painted white. Although calling it white was generous. There were bad paint jobs, and then there was this, at least a couple more coats needed to cover the brickwork. There was also a patch of pink in one corner that looked like someone had tried to scrub blood away and hadn’t been that successful.
“I was beginning to think that wasn’t your name either when you wouldn’t respond to it,” Keaton said.
“It’s my name.” I struggled the rest of the way up, mirroring Keaton’s position as I let the wall take the lion’s share of my weight. A jangle of metal had me looking down at my ankle and taking in the manacle that encircled it. From there, I followed the chain to an iron ring in the wall. Keaton had a matching one, the range too short by my calculation for either of us to reach the other.
My mouth felt like someone had taken sandpaper to the interior for a prolonged period. I assumed the cause of it to be whatever drug we’d been given, the memory coming rushing back. “We were injected with something.”
“Yeah,” Keaton said, distaste present in his voice. “Whoever brought us here had no intention of playing fair.” He shifted himself higher against the wall. “Current sit-rep, if you want one, is―”
“Sit-rep?”
He grimaced. “Military term, sorry. Short for situational report. I thought you might want to know what I worked out while waiting for you to regain consciousness.”
“How long have you been awake?”
“An hour. Two at most. I’m guessing he gave us the same dose, and you weigh less than me, so it would have hit you harder.”
It made sense. “Go on. Give me the… sit-rep.”
Keaton nodded. “Weapons were taken. All of them.” My hand skipped down to my boot, the blade I usually kept there missing. Not that it would have done anything against a metal chain, but its absence still smarted.
