Page 40 of Maddie
She squeezed it and shifted closer to him. He caught a hint of her sweet cherry scent, and it instantly took the edge off his nerves. Next, they were meant to swim. If he hadn’t seen so many fucked-up things in Wonderland already, he would’ve questioned the idea of these glowing fish they had to find.
As Noah lowered his gaze to the ivory, blood-stained swamp, he second-guessed doing so. If the floating body parts weren’t enough of a deterrent, the potential creatures living in the water were. He regretted not asking Maddie about that when she’d mentioned it earlier. But he would brave it regardless, for Alice, so he supposed it didn’t matter.
Maddie tugged on his arm, and he froze at the worried expression on her face. “What?” he whispered.
She put a finger to her lips, then nodded at something in front of them. When he looked up, following her line of sight, he found two trees growing on a large oval patch of land. And between them, another cage. This one on the ground with only the corner peeking out from between the trunks. He tilted his head in confusion. What did it matter if there was another cage? They needed to keep moving because their luck had beenfartoo good today.
An arm flopped out from between the bars and Noah jerked in surprise.Shit.There was someone in there.
“Hello?” a youthful voice called.
Noah shifted closer to Maddie and shook his head. It was too risky—they had no idea who was in that cage or why.
“We see you,” said a second, equally youthful voice. “Please help us.”
They’ll call attention to us if they keep yelling, she mouthed silently to Noah.
It wouldn’t matter if he and Maddie got the hell away from the cage. They had to get into the water anyway and that would mask their scent.Maybe they’re werewolves in human form, he mouthed back.
Maddie shook her head. “The full moon was last week and that’s the only time they turn human.”
“Hurry!” they shouted in unison, but they didn’t seem frantic. It sounded like a trap.
“Maddie, no,” he whispered almost silently.
“Trust me.” She pulled away from him to tiptoe toward the cage. Noah quickly glanced around and rushed after her.The cure.They didn’t have time to be damn heroes.
When they reached the cage, they found two young boys, no older than twelve, in striped T-shirts with shaggy, matted red hair. They hadn’t bathed in months, if the way they smelled were an indication. Like onions and wet dog—though the latter could be becauseeverythingsmelled like wet dog here. Bits of gnawed bones littered the bottom of the cage as the boys—obviously twins—peered out at them.
“Shh,” Maddie warned them. “What are you doing in there?”
Noah was sure that whatever put them in there was lurking in the vicinity, but he wasn’t sure how far away they were. He didn’t hear any rustling close or farther away.
“I’m Dee, and this is Dom,” the toothless one on the left said. “We got stuck in our human form after the last moon.”
Noah scowled. “So they put you in a cage?”
Maddie inched closer. “We’re looking for the cure to vampirism. Do you know which way the glowing fish are?”
“Let us out and we’ll show you.” Dom perked up, his eyes glistening. “Please, let us out. They’lleatus.”
Eat their own kind? Even if they were stuck as humans, someone here had to be their family. And they were young. Sure, werewolves were monsters, but this was next-level brutality. A short howl carried through the swamp followed by a slight grumble.
“Someone will catch your scent soon,” Dee said.
Noah lifted his gun a little higher and glanced over his shoulder. Nothing was coming for them yet, but he didn’t doubt that would change soon. “Maddie,” he whispered under his breath. “We can’t linger around here.”
“We don’t know which way to swim,” Maddie told him. She then turned her attention to the twins and hesitated. “We’ll let you out if you show us, then you can be on your way.”
The brothers nodded, and Maddie took a pin from her hat. As she picked the lock with it, the boys exchanged a devious grin, and Noah stiffened.Fuck. He needed to remind himself that these were werewolf kids, not human ones. “Wait—” he started, but the door to the cage slid open.
The boys shoved each other in an attempt to escape their prison first. Maddie stepped aside and quietly closed the cage behind them. “Hurry then,” she urged the twins.
“Maddie, I don’t think this is a good idea.” Noah grabbed her wrist and leaned closer to whisper in her ear. “I don’t have a good feeling about them.”
“Neither do I,” she admitted. “But what choice do we have? If we left them there, they would probably have alerted someone to our presence as revenge. Be on your toes.”
Noah side-eyed the twins. They could easily lead him and Maddie straight into a trap. Were they even telling the truth about being werewolves? He was pretty sure the odor would even cling to him after they left. But what if the children were bait for unsuspecting travelers? He clicked the safety off of his gun. The blast would wake every sleeping werewolf in the swamp, but if he needed to defend himself, he would.
