Protected (Book 1 in the Ariya Adams trilogy) (26 page)

Devon ran with me a shorter distance than
I assumed we would travel away from the others. We had come up to an old abandoned building on the outskirts of town. Nothing looked familiar to me when he slowed down, then again, what reason had I ever had to walk past the lighted area of the town? There appeared to be only woods beyond it. Maybe hiking, we would have seen it. That was something people liked to do before it got too cold.

Whenever we went hiking, the few times Riley and I convinced Caroline to, we started from the apartment, which was on the opposite side of town. I was familiar with the woods that way
, but not this way. That might be the point, to take me somewhere I didn’t know.

It hurt to think of those times.
Before I knew about vampires. Before Riley and I weren’t speaking. How did I get here? Things were so different. Devon had been carrying me the whole way, and now that we were at this building, he set me down outside the door, making sure not to let go of my wrist. He unlocked it and we headed inside. He was leading me, jerking my arm as he went. He was painstakingly careful not to let go, even for a second. I wouldn’t have tried to run even if he had. I almost said that out loud because I hated that he was touching me and badly wanted him to stop, badly.

Having him this c
lose was making my skin crawl. We went down a rickety flight of stairs and into the basement of the building. There was a chair in the center of the room and he slammed me into it. He started tying me up, attaching me to the chair. I couldn’t fight back yet, not until Emma showed up to see I was cooperating, at least for now. Then she wouldn’t have a reason to hurt anyone. He pulled the ropes on my hands and pain shot through me. It felt like he had cut me, and I couldn't suppress a yelp.

“Careful, it’s a turn-
on when you struggle.” Oh, I was going to vomit.

Was he going t
o try to do something with me?

Now that it was dusk, I looked around the room, straining my eyes to try
to see my surroundings. There were windows higher up surrounding the room, so I could glimpse outside to see what the light situation was. There wasn’t much left.

“Oh
, Ariya, don’t look so tough. You’re avoiding looking at me. I’ve missed you. Haven’t you missed me?”

I raised my lip in a snarl. I was going to go after him the second I could and he wouldn’t even see it coming. I was sure of it. When I didn’t answer
, he continued talking.

“As much as I want to continue chatting
, I'm under orders to gag you. We don’t want you yelling for help.” He shoved something into my mouth and tied it around my head. “Emma will be here soon and then the fun can really begin. I was told nothing could happen before she was here. Seeing you tied up like this gives me plenty of ideas for later, though.” That sentence and the gag in my mouth made the bile I’d been pushing down rise in my throat. Only carefully breathing through my nose prevented me from actually throwing up. He was gone in the next minute.

The room holding me was an empty, damp
, and cold place. I was racking my brain trying to put together where in the world I was. If I escaped, I needed to know the direction to run. There were no sounds of voices, so we weren’t anywhere close to anything. There weren’t even noises like cars, people, laughter, or any of the other normal sounds of a small town early in the evening. There was nothing. Not a single sound except my breathing.

Were James, Caroline, and Nick looking for me
yet? I hoped they weren’t worried. Who was I kidding? Of course they were worried. James would be blaming himself, even though it was completely outside his control. I had to be strong and I had to get out of here. Maybe they would call for help. I knew there were other Protectors. James and his father hadn’t watched out for us their whole lives on their own. There were others. James had said there were a hundred! They would come and help, if they were needed.

It felt like I
had been sitting there by myself forever! My body began shivering from the dampness of my surroundings. If they wanted to freeze me to death, it might actually work. My jacket was in my seat back at the theater, and it was winter in Mineral Point, meaning the temperature was going to be below freezing, if it wasn’t already, the minute the sun went down. I could see the breath coming out of my nose or mouth, whichever I exhaled from. The gag was wet and if I thought about it too much, I started choking. I tried to take calming breaths through my nose and not think about the gag or the cold.

I finally heard heels hitting the concrete
floor and knew it had to be Emma arriving. It was time for whatever plan they had to be put into action.

“Hello
, my dear. That took longer than expected. I apologize for keeping you waiting.”

She yanked the gag out of my mouth. My lips were chap
ped and my throat dry, even though the mouthpiece itself had been wet. My throat was hurting from the cold air, and I knew I had to start talking just to do something to warm up a little bit. My body shook now from the cold more than any kind of fear.

“What was in the syringe?”

“Oh, you are observant. Werewolf blood. It weakens us vampires for a bit until it passes through our system. Since we heal quickly, it doesn’t stay in it very long. Quite clever of me, huh? I told you, always have someone to blame it on. Mine was Devon. He didn’t mind. Now, where to start?”

She was in the best mood I’d ever seen her in. That couldn’t be good. It meant the others had no idea what was going on. She had been there in order for them to discover her. That must mean they thought that Devon was the only bad guy
around. I had hoped somehow they would see through her.

“Where
are the others? Are they okay?”

The panic in my voice was evident. I had done everything she asked and I only hoped it had been enough to spare them from whatever this plan entaile
d.

“
I don’t really have any reason for them not to be, so you’re safe. Oh, Ariya, you should have seen their reaction! It really was priceless. I thought James might die on the spot. He was so distraught.”

She leaned down closer to my face and
sighed a fake and heavy noise.

“He is just devastated
. Who knows if he’ll recover? Pathetic.”

She laughed her evil laugh, not the forced one that I had heard so often wh
en we’d been around the others.

“Now, my job is you. I
actually have two options for you as to how this will play out. Would you like to hear them? Of course, you would! You have no idea why you are here and I’m sure you’re dying to know.” She started circling me and continued.

“I have been instructed to let you know you should come with Devon and me back to … I don’t even know what to call it.” She turned towards Devon
, who was lurking around in front of me. “Base? Home? Whatever.”

She turned back
around to continue circling me. “You will be spending a lot of
quality time
with him as we need to transfer that little gift of yours from vampire curer to werewolf curer. One way we can do that is by making sure you have a little werewolf blood in your system. Scratch that, more importantly, in your child’s system. Those idiots you call friends were right about that being the plan, surprisingly. Although, that’s not hard to figure out, since you’re of no use to us with a gift of healing vampires. If another species is after the human who can save vampires, clearly they’d want to replicate the feature for themselves.”

That was a plan that wasn’t going to fly. I refused to let Devon anywhere near me. The second plan
was not going to be much better, though, I was sure.

“However, I am not good at following instructions
, and I don’t think that plan is in my best interest. My ultimate desire has always been for James and me to reconcile.” She stopped circling my chair and got down in front of my face again. “Therefore he needs someone to turn to when he’s heartbroken. You having a werewolf baby won’t matter to him because he could still save you. But you dead, now that’s more interesting. That’s what will send him over the edge.”

My heart sped up
and I knew she could hear it. Caroline had said vampires had excellent hearing. I wish it hadn’t, because I knew my fear would give her satisfaction.

“Ah yes, death. Could you imagine James
dealing with that? He could barely cope at the thought of you being kidnapped. My plan is for James to come to rescue you just as Devon kills you. He sees that happen, gets angry, inconsolable even. I rush in behind him, crying at the end of my bloodline and relative and well, we turn to each other and live the rest of our lives in peace. No bloodline to protect, and more importantly, no
you
to distract him.” I could see that she meant every word she’d said.

Her tone was venomous. She hated that James and I had ever been close to being something. This was the plan she wanted
. Whoever had told her to bring me back obviously didn’t know Emma well enough. She was selfish. That’s what Caroline, Nick, and even James had said. She cared about herself and the things she wanted. Having me around and alive out there somewhere wouldn’t get her what she ultimately wanted.

“Now,” she continued, “I know which plan I would pick if it were up to me
, but I’ll leave this one up to you. Werewolf baby or death by Devon?”

“What makes you think my deat
h will make James turn to
you
?”

The minute the words were out of my mouth
, she slammed her hand into my face. She was strong and I saw stars. I thought I was going to faint. Pain raced across my face, down my neck, and through my body. That was not something she wanted to hear.

“I would choose your words
very carefully, Ariya. No one is here to help you now or keep me from hurting you.”

She took a step back, looked at me a moment
, and then started untying me. What was she going to do, fight me? She grabbed my arm and we were on the move to somewhere else. Emma continued dragging me, up the steps to the entry door, down another hallway and up another set of steps. We walked up to a huge room that looked like it had to be the largest portion of the building. In the middle of the room was a caged-in area.

“Rei
nforced steel bars are very difficult to break into. Let’s say I trapped you in here with Devon. James wouldn’t be able to get in quickly enough to save you. I rather like that thought. He would be devastated, watching his royal bloodline die off and not being able to do anything. The guilt would consume him. He might just go off the deep end. This is where I’ll keep you and this is where you’ll die.”

She threw open the gated door and shoved me inside
, throwing my jacket in behind me. I hadn’t even noticed she was holding it.

“Here, I wouldn’t want you to freeze to death and have no witnesses of it happening. That wouldn’t work well for me now
, would it?” She laughed forebodingly and stalked off.

This was it then. She wouldn’t let me choose. As if I actually thought she would. I would never agree to go anywhere with them
. I knew when it came down to it, she was going to have Devon try to kill me, no matter what I had said. I’d try and surprise him, and if I could stay alive long enough, James might be able to do something.

Would that put him in danger
from Emma? I had to have faith in James, that if it was one-on-one, he could take her. I knew I needed to rest if I had any hope of staying with it while Devon tried to kill me.

I looked around at the cage. It was quite large. Only the front had the bars open. The rest of the sides were cemented off and some of the cement was chipping away to show the bars underneath. What had this building been? I couldn’t imagine what woul
d have been held in this cage.

I lay on the concrete floor with my jacket acting as a blanket
and decided to go through self-defense moves in my head until I fell asleep. Maybe I should have worked more on offensive attacks, too, instead of just defense. Would it matter if Devon was three times as strong as I could ever even hope to be? He was a werewolf, for heaven’s sake!

No!
I couldn’t afford to think like that. Something I did would matter. I would be able to surprise him, for a little while at least.

I
whispered these reassuring thoughts to myself until I fell asleep on the cold, hard floor beneath me.

There was shuffling around me and I felt myself being picked up. I was fully awake in an instant.

How long had I slept?
Devon was shoving me into a steel chair that had been brought into the cell. He jerked my arms behind me and started tying them again. I noticed he left my legs undone this time. He must not think very highly of me being able to do anything with my legs.

My wrists burned a bit
, but pushing the thought aside, I instead began running through scenarios in my head in which I might have a chance to strike at him and take him by surprise. Being in a caged space meant he would have the key somewhere on him. Without having that key, I’d be trapped. I don’t know how strong I would have to be to knock out a werewolf, but I had to think my chances weren’t great.

Why tie me up now? Did that meant our little fight would begin soon? If that was the case
, then James and the others must be close to finding me. That seemed to be quick. I had only been there since last night. The light in the window that had been in the first room I had been in revealed that it was later in the evening when Emma came in, not a whole new day. If I slept awhile, it might be close to morning now.

It made me nervous that they’d come find me in the daytime. Didn’t Caroline say they were stronger at night? What if Devon was stronger than James during the day? Would it really have taken James less than a day to find me? Perhaps Emma didn’t want to drag things out and dropped some hints for them. Was her acting so good that the others were convinced she was trying
to help with the search for me? Devon seemed to be finished with me, and the sound of his voice stopped the million-question list that was piling up in my head.

“It’s too bad you didn’t choose option one
. We could have had a good life together. I could have taught you quite a lot, Ariya. This will be fun for me, too, though, so I have to be honest with you. I’m not too disappointed.” He laughed, a deep, gruff sound escaping from him.

“Apparently lover boy is close. I think if I got a scream out of you
, he’d show up a bit faster, though. What do you say? Care to speed things up?”

I clamped my jaw shut
, not wanting to satisfy him. The act seemed to make him happier instead of angrier, and he grabbed my leg in his hand.

“This might hurt, my pet.”

All my resolve vanished as he started twisting my leg hyper-extending it. He was going to break it if he kept going. I couldn’t help it. I let out a scream, just as it seemed like my leg was going to snap.

“That wasn’t so hard now
, was it?”

He threw my leg t
o the ground. It was throbbing. That was going to make it difficult to attack him when the time came. I had to compose myself and be ready for it. I refused to cry in front of him and shut my eyes tightly to refocus away from the pain.

Looking up at Devon again, I watched as he
tilted his head, as if listening for something. When a smile started spreading across his face, my heart sped up. Now it really was show time. He hadn’t untied my hands, which was starting to concern me. If my hands were tied to the chair, I couldn’t get anywhere and I had little hope of releasing myself for any kind of escape. I’d have to try and get him to undo the knots at some point.

From what I had learned of Devon
, he was going to drag this out as much as he could. Devon enjoyed pain. It wouldn’t be a quick snap of my neck and voila! It’d be painful for me, and excruciating for James to watch. Devon turned towards me and smacked me hard across the face. He hit me right on my cheekbone and I felt the skin split. It wasn’t as powerful a blow to the head as Emma’s hit had been last night, but it was sharper. I felt a tear - like drop roll onto my jawline, and I knew he had cut open my cheek with his smack to my face.

Would I h
ave a concussion if I survived?

When
I survived. I had to make sure I was positive throughout this. I would make it. When I could lift my head back up to look at Devon, he was grinning a colossal, toothy, grin. He pulled his fist back and punched me in the gut. I started coughing hard. I felt like my stomach had exploded. I gagged a couple times, dry heaving. I hadn’t been fed anything, so it wasn’t like there was much that was going to come up if I did puke. Already being in pain was going to make fighting back even more difficult now. There was no choice, though.
Fight or die, Ariya. Get tough!

The sound of
footsteps coming echoed in the room. It must be James, or Devon wouldn’t have started hurting me yet.

“Ariya!”
I heard him yelling my name.

I looked up at Devon, and he landed another blow to my face. What the heck was he doing? If he wanted me conscious for the rest of this
, he’d have to let up. My cheek had swelled. I could tell because my right eye felt puffy, and it was growing fast.

My chair had been set up facing the entrance way of the cage and the door that led into whatever room I was being held in. I would be able to see James arrive as long as Devon didn’t kill me firs
t. I’d heard him yell my name, so he would be coming through that door any second.

My heart was pounding fast.
I could feel the adrenaline coursing through me. I got another softer slap on the cheek that was already swollen, but not as hard this time, like he was starting to just play with me. It was hard enough to hurt, and I cried out, much as I didn’t want to.

Then,
I heard the door to the room shatter. It flew off the hinges, it was pushed open so hard. It was only James, though. No Caroline. No Nick. I hoped they were okay. I had done everything that Emma’d said to do, and if she hurt them, I hoped James would avenge them. That is, if he ever found out Emma was involved.

“Let her go!” he shouted at Devo
n.

“Ah, James.
It’s wonderful to see you again. I was just warming up here for the big finale. Ariya has been such a tough sport. You’d be proud of her. I had to hurt her to even have her scream when I told her you were near. Isn’t that right, Ariya?”

He lifted my chin up and jostled my head back and forth
, as he talked in a semi-baby voice at his last statement. It was disturbing and I spit in his face. My spit was bloody, and I had a feeling I had bitten my cheek during one of the slaps and not realized it. Devon grinned wider and wiped his face.

“Good girl,” he said, and stroked my hair.

“Devon, let her go. I’m giving you one chance or I’ll kill you right here.” James was livid. I hadn’t ever seen the vampire side of him come out until now.

Devon, being the cocky SOB that he was
, took the key out from his back pocket. Perfect, I now knew where to reach for when I get free. I made a mental note.

“Oh
, I trust you’ll be needing this to get anywhere close to me in time.”

He wiggled the key back and forth. James charged the cage and was brought up short. He tried to rip one of the bars out
, but it wasn’t working. Devon slipped the key back into his pocket.

“
See, I told you you’d need the key. There is no point for you to keep trying. Now, where was I?”

“No,” James growled.

Devon slapped me again, this time on the other cheek. It didn’t split, but it was hard enough to make me dizzy for a second. My mind was focused on staying alive, but other parts of me, the parts where all the pain resided, weren’t sure they would last much longer.

“STOP!”
James was yelling.

Devon wasn’t listening. He was about to hit again. I could taste the blood in my mouth building. I had to do something
. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be awake to fight back.

“Why don’t you untie me
, Devon? Or do you like to beat everyone you fight when they’re at an unfair advantage?”

“Sweetheart,” h
e leaned down and put his mouth up to my ear, “you wouldn’t have an advantage untied. However, would that make you happy?” He paused, looking at me hungrily.

“Beg me.” He backed up and
kneeled besides me grabbing the leg he had twisted earlier.

James was furiously working at the bars. I had to keep buying him time. My leg
was still sore and I wasn’t entirely sure something in it hadn’t broken. I hadn’t heard a snap, but it was still stinging with pain. He started doing the same motion again. That would be too much pain.
Just play along, Ariya
. My stronger side, my survival side, was urging me.

“Please, please
, Devon. Please untie me. Please.” I tried to sound convincing, even though the act of begging him for anything was nauseating.

“That’s better. I knew you’d be begging me for something
, at least. Too bad it wasn’t while you were underneath me.”

He dropped my leg and forced his lips onto mine rashly. His tongue pried my lips open. He pushed his body close to mine and I thought I might pass out from fear of having him physically this intimate with me. It was only a kiss
, too. Please, don’t try anything else. He trailed his fingers down my neck and I jerked back against the restraints in a futile effort to move away from him. He stiffened and then shifted behind me, slinking around the chair. That act elicited another shout from James. He put his mouth into my hair and looked up at James.

“Enjoying the show?” he asked.

“Devon, I swear you’re going to die if you touch her one more time! You have to come out eventually, and when you do, you’re mine.”

James
started tugging at the bars, again. That was actually a good point he made, but Devon didn’t seem concerned. What was Part Two of the plan? Was that what was making him so calm? He must think he was going to escape, but if he did succeed in killing me, James would want revenge. He’d be in a good spot to get it, too, as Devon did in fact have to come out at some point. Maybe it was just that Devon must be cocky enough to think he could beat James.

“
I’m not worried. I have some friends that I’m sure will be helping me out.” He sniffed in my hair again, inhaling deeply. “It is a shame to waste such a beauty.” I just wanted him to untie me already.

James let out a cold laugh. It was another instance of a sound that didn’t soun
d right coming from him.

“That’s what you think. We called in some help when Ariya went missing. I’m guessing that’s something you didn’t plan on because your little friends were rounded up in a matter of minutes. You’re our last loose end.”

Devon stopped for a moment, as if finally realizing he was in trouble.

“You’re lying. And
, I doubt you got everyone. This has been in the works for some time.” Devon started untying me. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to finish off the bloodline, like I was told.”

Just a little more and I could try something I had thought might work.
I noticed that James’ arms fit thought the bars when he was trying to pull at them. If I could get Devon close enough to them, James could grab him. I just needed to cause a second’s worth of a distraction.

I pretended to loosen my hands
uncontrollably when the knots came undone and knew I had to act quickly. Twisting and grabbing the back of the chair with my arms still behind my back I stood, ramming the steel into Devon. It had worked. He hadn’t been ready for me to have the energy to do anything. It was only about twenty feet to the bars where James was, if that. I just needed to get far enough where he could grab some part of me and maybe pull Devon in. My leg felt like it was going to give out from under me, but I had to make it to the bars. I started to move my legs and sprint.

I was almost able to get far enough when one of my legs was pulled out from under me. My head hit the concrete hard. There was a buzzing noise in my ears and I could feel blood pooling on t
he side of my head. It had scraped, or was it deeper? Ringing started and I clenched me eyes together, but I knew I had to keep moving. I wasn’t even sure if I was moving forward, but I tried crawling. Clawing at the ground, I pushed myself, kicking.

“You li
ttle slut!” Devon was shouting.

He had my leg. I turned and started kicking as hard as I could, fighting. I reached my arm out to try and grab at James. He must have seen something could be done because he was forcing his arm
through the bars towards me. A bit further and he would have me. Devon yanked me back, but I flailed my legs and inched up a bit. James’ hand was so close.

“Don’t you even think
about it!” Devon growled again.

He made a mistake trying to re
-grip my leg because I never stopped kicking. When his grip loosened for that brief moment, I was able to move forward a couple of inches. James reached my arm and yanked me hard. I thought my arm would dislocate, but it just tingled, or maybe the pain in my legs was blocking out the pain in my arm. I pulled my legs into my body as much as I could. It had worked.

I heard a ripping noise like cloth tearing
, and when I looked back at James, he grabbed Devon’s head and twisted. There was gruesome crack. My body slumped down and my head felt like it was rolling.