Dodge
Dodge couldn’t move. They’d moved him. He recognized that in the blur of the world around him. The wolf still struggled for control, wanting to escape the iron restraints that Evershaw exerted over them. He growled periodically and someone would mutter something at him and jab a syringe into his thigh or bicep, and the world would get blurry and slow once more.
But he heard them talking. The three wolves who’d been outside guarding Persephone’s building had all been knocked out or shot, dragged off somewhere and left for dead. All three survived and were recovering, although they insisted on helping search for Persephone. The entire pack mobilized and chased through the city.
Dodge groaned and tried to force his eyes open. “Persephone.”
“We’re looking,” Rafe O’Shea said from close by. “My best trackers are hunting through the city, and the witch is doing whatever she can to find her. The packs are breaking down the doors of every associate Bridger has and beating the shit out of whoever they find. We’re doing everything we can to find her.”
It wasn’t enough. Dodge needed to find her. He didn’t trust anyone else to get there fast enough, even if he had three bullet holes in his chest. The wolf surged up and he felt his form slipping, shifting, and everyone else around him cursed and moved in sudden, jerky movements. Evershaw snarled and pinned Dodge’s shoulders, despite that his shoulders sprouted hair and realigned.
More yelling. Dodge’s control slipped as weakness and pain overrode the last shreds of his humanity. He slipped and slid through the restraining hands as the wolf wrenched them free of the pack restraints. Evershaw tackled him but it wasn’t enough to stop him.
Dodge bolted despite the dozen humans and wolves who stood in his way, and careened through the house. It was Deirdre’s house, though he only noticed it because everything smelled familiar. A red haze crossed his vision and Dodge lost control of the wolf body. He lingered as a passenger in his own mind.
The wolf tore through the cellar doors and then he stood in front of Silas: the only other wolf he trusted to have his back and help him find Persephone.
Then they both launched into the fresh air, avoiding the pack chasing after them, and fled into the city. The only thought that drifted through Dodge’s mind was “we hunt.”
He hunted. He would find her. And anyone who’d hurt her would pay with blood.
Silas howled next to him, and Dodge ran faster despite the constant throb of pain in his chest and legs. He hunted.
Chapter 34
Percy
Ikept passing out. Geordie complained about it more than once, since it apparently took them a while – and a lot of cold water – to wake me back up.
Everything hurt. Breathing hurt. Blinking hurt. Just existing hurt, until I almost wished they would just get it over with and kill me, chop me up, and feed me to the tiger. Any hope of being rescued and surviving the night faded as my blood dripped away and stained the floor red and black. There were no more tears. No clear thoughts or plans for escape. Nothing but emptiness as I waited for it to end.
The black-eyed man took his job seriously. He stopped asking questions after a while and just made me talk. I told them everything. Probably more than they wanted to know. I blabbed every secret I knew, every awful thing I’d done, every word of every conversation I could remember and some I just plain made up.
None of it helped.
When I couldn’t even hold my head up and dipped in and out of consciousness, Geordie cut the plastic ties that kept me in the chair. I slumped but for a moment, hope blazed up that I could run or somehow escape. I even tried to stand as Geordie made a face and retrieved gloves after my blood coated his hands. I fell forward onto the floor, trying to crawl away.
They laughed.
Geordie crouched next to me as I kept trying to make it to the door. In my mind, getting through that door solved all of my problems. It meant life and freedom and survival. I pictured Dodge waiting for me in the hall, ready to take me home to his room in Deirdre’s house. Even when things were the worst and I took refuge in the darkness of unconsciousness, I thought I heard Dodge. Thought I saw him. I tried to remember everything about him. He was brave. I could try to be brave. I just had to face the closest alligator to the boat first.
Geordie scraped the hair out of my face as I lost what remained of my strength and collapsed on the floor. He leaned closer to murmur, “I’m going to enjoy this. We haven’t fed that fucking tiger in days, since the last time you interrupted our work. He’s so hungry, the moment he catches a whiff of all this blood, he’ll do the rest of the job for us.”
I shook my head and whimpered as they picked me up and dragged me out of the kitchen and across to the tiger enclosure. I imagined I could hear Dodge’s voice in my ear, telling me to be strong and keep fighting. That he was coming for me, would rescue me. That we would be together forever and everything would be wonderful.
It felt crueler than most of the things the black-eyed man did to me with his hammer and scalpels and cigarette lighters.
“Such a tragic accident this will be,” Geordie said, almost chortling with glee. “Stupid girl wants to pet the tiger and goes into the enclosure. Hungry tiger does what hungry tigers do. Someone will find what’s left of you tomorrow morning. Problem solved.”
“I hate you,” I whispered. I thought of Deirdre and the pack, of all the shifters who seemed to want to protect me, and managed to wheeze a laugh. “You’re so fucked and you don’t even know it. You can kill me but you’re already a dead man.”
His eyes narrowed as they opened the steel gated door to the main enclosure. The tiger paced inside the smaller shelter where they usually kept him at night, chuffing as he scented the air. Geordie and the other man hauled me into the enclosure and all the way to the other side, dropping me near a large rock that the tiger liked to sprawl on in the sun. “What are you talking about?”
“You’ll find out. They won’t even knock on your door.” The faintest hint of curiosity in his eyes meant I’d gotten his attention. Maybe it would buy me some time. Someone had to be looking for me. They had to be. They probably wouldn’t get there in time to save my life, but at least Geordie and his friend would die slowly in the jaws of a wolf or a lion or maybe they’d be crushed by whatever Deirdre did...
He grabbed the front of my undershirt and shook me. “Focus, bitch. What did you do? No one knows where you are.”
“They’ll find me,” I said. I believed it to my bones. That was what a pack was for. “They’re already on their way. Your clock is ticking.”
