Balance (16 page)

                I
woke up to a dull, throbbing pain that pulsed behind my eyes. A groan escaped
me as I was being hauled up to a standing position. From the quiet sound, I
assumed the helicopter had landed as there were no more whirling of blades. I
was exhausted; it was the dead of night and my hands were still tied behind my
back, making my shoulders hurt. My wrists burned but a sharp scent pricked my
nose. I inhaled.

                ‘She
knocked me out. We have landed and I smell water. Not salty, maybe a lake. I
don’t hear running water, so not a river.’

                ‘Jesus
Christ, Aurora. You had me scared. Sylvia thinks the pouch is in Bend, Oregon.
I will look up lakes. Your flying time was about fifty minutes.’

                We
both knew it was a long shot. Oregon, Washington, and California were full of
lakes. I could be anywhere in the Pacific Northwest.

                We
were walking inside, if I could just get this hood off, I might be able to see
some marker of where I was. I did a quick jump up and threw my weight forward
tossing the hood off and forcing the vampires to let go of me.

                Prudence
quickly zoomed into my vision and saturated me with black magic, taking my
sight. I stumbled in the complete darkness. I was blind! My eyes squinted, open
and shut, in pure panic. They were burning.

                “Don’t
mess 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. I
had to take Prudence out. I was assuming I had been led to the location of
where Layla and the girls were and I couldn’t let Prudence live one second
longer. Taking a deep breath, I readied myself for what was to come.

                “Prudence
Heather Sorensen!” I roared her full name and let the Devi fully come to the
surface. It was like letting my wolf out. With one quick motion, I snapped the zip-tie
holding my arms. I was strong; stronger than I should be.

                I
heard her gasp.

                “You
have no power over me!” I declared calling up my inner magic and immediately
regaining my sight as her spell broke. Mist poured in thick clouds from me and
surrounded Prudence. I was in a cement hallway in an underground structure
somewhere. Prudence stood there frozen, her scraggly hair lifting on its ends. Raising
my hands high over my head, I threw them forward, slamming Prudence against the
wall with magical force.

                The
vampire who had walked me inside grabbed my arm but I pivoted quickly, bringing
an elbow down hard on the back of his neck and he crumpled to the ground. I slowly
stalked towards Prudence, she was pinned against the wall in a cocoon of white
magical mist.

                Standing
before her, I saw her true self. Her magic had been stripped and she was an
ugly shell of a human. A dark entity that had no place in this world.

                “Darkness
is the absence of light, so I shine my light on you until you disappear,” I
whispered in her ear as she continued to stare at me in shock. Reaching up, I
placed two hands on each side of her head.

                “Balance,”
the Devi whispered through my lips and quickly snapped her neck as she fell to
the ground with a thud.  Staring down at her, I gasped as her face shrank until
she looked 100 years old. The world was better off without her in it. She
looked like a frail old human now.

                Footsteps
caught my attention and I turned to see Layla coming down the hall with four
other 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 Devi
inside of me itched with anticipation.

                “You’ll
regret that!” Layla roared and held up a small LCD screen. It looked like a
baby monitor.

                The
sound of Tara’s wail gave me goose bumps and stopped me dead in my tracks. I
pushed the Devi down and thought of Max. That was his mate, my pack member, my
friend. The mist I had conjured shrank away as I withdrew my magic.

                “Should
I kill her or just torture her? It’s up to you.” Layla held the screen up.

                “Stop,
please stop!” I begged.

                But
Tara wailed on. I threw my arms up to blast Layla with magic but Layla held a
button 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. What
do I do? With the Devi, I was powerful enough to take out Layla, I could see
that now. But I would not sacrifice one of my friends to do it.

                “Stop,”
Layla said into the monitor.

                Two
vampires came up behind me, surrounding me with their presence.

                “Play
nice and your friends live.” Layla narrowed her gaze at me.

                I
stood and glared at her as the vampires each firmly took hold of my arm.

                “I
don’t see why we can’t have a mutual arrangement. You play nice and supply me
blood and female wolves. In turn, I will give you money beyond your wildest
dreams.” Layla’s voice was musical, her eyes purple. She was trying to use
compulsion on me. It didn’t work. White mist wrapped protectively around me.

                I
needed to be smart about this. She had Tara in some kind of torture room. I
shouldn’t piss her off. I needed to learn the lay of the land and plan my
attack and escape smartly. “I will think about it,” I told her.

                Her
lips curled into a fake smile. “Well, until then I’m going to have to lock you
up with the other dogs. I can’t risk you getting away again.” She winked. I
suppressed a growl at her use of the term
dogs
. She gestured to Prudence.
“It’s a shame. She was very good.”

                Then
Layla turned to one of the other vampires. “Find me another witch.”

                Her
strawberry-blonde hair was curled, she had on layers and layers of make-up, and
her clothes were fancy. “Going somewhere?” I asked casually as they walked me
down a hall. I was scanning door numbers, signs, anything. We were in some kind
of underground bunker. Would make sunlight a non-issue and no one would hear
screams.

                Layla
laughed. “I have my first couple coming to do a surrogate transplant.” She
rubbed her hands together in glee as my heart hammered in my chest. So then
maybe that meant none of the girls were pregnant yet but they would be soon if
I didn’t stop this.

                We
reached a door. “Sorry about taking out your heroin supply,” I spat at her. Screw
playing nice, this bitch was evil. The big steel door opened.

                She
gave me an evil glare. “Sorry for burning down Safe Haven,” she said and threw
me inside, shutting the door behind me.

                What?
No!

                I
didn’t even have time to process her comment. The room I had just been thrown
into was full of female werewolves. I lay on my hands and knees, looking up at
them. The room was made up of four solid cement walls. Looking behind me I saw
that the thick steel door was shut and I heard it lock. Shit. We were trapped.

                I
scanned the females who lay on bunk beds or sat on the floor as they stared at
me with a mixture of pity and curiosity.

                Movement
to my right caused me to turn. I was happy to see it was Sadie approaching me. Never
thought I would be glad to see my husband’s ex-girlfriend.

                “How
nice of you to join us,” Sadie joked and reached out a hand to help me up. Her
normally olive ethnic skin looked ashy and reddish. Her hair was messy and her
eyes looked haunted. What the hell were they doing to these girls?

                “I
figured you might be getting bored by now. Thought I could keep you company,” I
said, grabbing her hand and giving her a sly smile.

                Taking
another look at all of the wolves, I saw now that most looked terrified. They
were all wearing white doctors’ scrubs but at least looked clean and well fed.

                “Everyone,
this is Aurora. She is the reason you’re here and also, probably the only one
who can break us out of here.”

                I
rolled my eyes at her introduction. Way to make them hate me right off. Sadie
was too good at being a bitch sometimes. “I killed the black witch,” I
announced to everyone. “Your pack bonds should be working now. Try to contact
your Alphas and mates.”

                Sadie’s
eyes widened at my declaration, then a concentrated look fell over her face.
She began laughing and tears rolled down her cheeks. “I can hear Brett!” she said.
The others began smiling, clearly lost in their own mental conversations.

                I
nodded. Prudence had messed with their bonds. Now that she was dead, her magic
was dead too. A thought came to me.

                ‘Kai,
I’m inside. All of the girls are fine. I killed Prudence. Have Sylvia try to
find me now. A finder spell should work. The magic has been broken.’
I didn’t tell him about Tara being tortured,
best to keep that quiet for now.

                ‘You
killed Prudence?’

                Surprise
went through the mate bond. Well, technically I think the Devi killed her, I
don’t think I was that much of a badass on my own.

                Then
I thought of what Layla had said before tossing me in this room. With dread, I
asked Kai about it.
‘How’s Safe Haven? Layla said she burned it down? Tell
me it’s a lie.’

               
She might have just said that to piss me off. Safe
Haven was everything to me. It took me years to start it up and get enough
donations to keep it running. It was my one good thing to offer this world.

                He
was silent and I saw that all of the girls were engrossed in their own mental
conversations.

                ‘Kai?’
My stomach knotted with apprehension. If it was
true, I couldn’t handle it.

                ‘Yes,
they burned it down an hour ago. Right after you were taken. I just got the
call.’

                No!
I sagged to my knees.

                ‘Was
anyone hurt?’

                 ‘Almost
everyone got out.’
Kai’s answer was
cryptic.

                Tears
rolled down my cheeks,
‘Almost?’
I needed to know, I needed to hear it.

                Kai
was silent.
‘A mother died saving her two children.’

                Anger
flooded my body as mist leaked from my skin and the ground began to rumble. The
cement floor cracked and the crack raced up the wall reaching for the ceiling.

                “Hey!
Do you want to bury us alive, stop that!” Sadie screamed at me, snapping me out
of it.

                A
TV on the wall flared to life and Tara screamed. She was lying down in some
type of plexi-glass cage. Thousands of small silver needles shot into her skin
as a vampire stood over her pushing buttons on the plexi-glass coffin.

                I
ceased the shaking immediately, calling back the mist and calming my magic. My
hand flew to my mouth as the needles retracted and Tara was left panting, eyes
rolling in her head.

                Sadie
shook my shoulders. “Get your shit together. You can’t do that stuff here. If
you fight them, they hurt her,” Sadie told me.

                Oh
shit, what was I thinking?

                “I’m
sorry,” I muttered.

                Safe
Haven, everything I worked for, gone. A mother’s life, gone. I would have to
deal with it later. I stuffed it all down in my deep, dark place and promised
to deal with it when I had a chance.

                A
blonde girl stood. “I say so what! If we all rush the door next time it opens,
we can fight them off. Let them kill her so that all of us can go free,” she roared.

                Sadie
stalked across the room and stood before the girl. “That’s my friend in there!”
Sadie bellowed. Sadie and Tara had been in the same pack in Seattle for a
while, they must have become close. The two girls stared into each other’s
eyes. A dominance battle. This was a disaster waiting to happen. Ten werewolves
in a room, all from different packs. No Alpha. We needed to be working together,
not tearing each other apart.

                I
strode over to them, knowing this would come to blows if I didn’t intervene.
These girls were both dominants.

                “Enough!”
I snarled and let power ooze from my voice. “We’re all on the same side. No one
is getting killed. Not Tara, not you. No one. I’m getting us out of here.”

                The
blonde girl broke her stare to look at me, and laughed. “Oh yeah? How you gonna
do that?”