Azure (The Silver Series Book 5) (13 page)

“
You want to touch the
metal as little as possible. The coating absorbs in your skin and
burns for hours,” the werewolf concluded.

“
Nice little trick he does
with the blanket, too,” the werewolf next to him agreed. He was
seated on the floor of his cage, his blanket spread out to protect
him from the bottom of his cell. “Waits until you burn your feet
before he gives it to you. Likes to give you something to think
about.”

“
Smarts, doesn't it?” a
female voice asked next to me.

I turned see a girl a few years younger than
me standing in the cell on my left. Mercifully, she had been given
a tattered shirt to wear along with the unwashed ragged shorts that
were the sole coverings of the other werewolves. She held something
in her hand and lifted it for me to see. “It's just water,” she
explained, “but the more silver you wash off, the less it'll burn.”
She slipped her hand between the bars and waited for me to take the
metal cup.

I took it, then winced as it burned my
fingertips. “More silver, really?”

She shrugged. “They aren't very original.
You get used to it eventually; at least it hurts a little
less.”

“
You shouldn't lie, Gem.
Gives the new guys hope,” the werewolf across from us
admonished.

She rolled her eyes and gave me a winning
smile. “Don't listen to them. I think they're starting to enjoy it
here.”

A cup flew across the aisle between us and
hit Gem's cage with a loud crash. Everyone fell silent for a
moment, but the door at the end of the room stayed closed.

“
Smooth, Jake,” Gem
commented dryly. She turned back to me. “Use a corner of your
blanket to wipe it off your feet; otherwise you'll be up all night
with the pain.”

“
I don't think I'll be
sleeping much,” I said quietly, but I did as she instructed, and
even though my feet still burned and angry red marks streaked
across the bottoms where they had touched the bars, the pain
lessened a bit.

Gem gave me a sad smile. “They're always the
worst on the first day. You'll sleep, trust me.”

“
What are you talking
about?” I pressed.

She toyed with the short strands of her
blond hair which had once been trimmed into something resembling a
pixie cut and refused to answer. I looked at the other werewolves.
The one across from me cleared his throat. “I guess you'll find out
soon enough.” He rose and stretched in the confines of his cage.
“They'll beat you until you phase, then whip you like a mangy cur
with a silver cat-o-nine-tails that'll leave you as striped as a
zebra.”

He turned to demonstrate and a lump formed
in my throat. Black marks that looked like charcoaled burns ran up
and down his back. He flexed, then let out his breath slowly and
turned back around.

“
They healed like that?” I
asked quietly.

He nodded. “They coat the whips with the
same stuff as the bars. It burns and makes the healing process
slower. And it never really stops hurting.” He gave a grim smile.
“They've got werewolf torture down to an art.”

I dreaded the answer, but knew I had to ask.
“What do they want?”

“
The location of your
pack.” His even tone said that they had broken the information from
him long ago. He met my eyes, his gaze grim and angry. “At least,
that's what they tell you. Then, when you finally break and give it
to them,” his eyes narrowed and his expression left no room for
argument, “And you will break.”

The surety in his tone sent a cold chill
down my spine.

He kept speaking, “Then even though they
promised to kill you, they keep you here and torture you for the
sheer, twisted pleasure of it. Day after day, month after month.”
His voice had risen to an angry shout.

He gripped the bars, ignoring the pain of
the silver gel that covered them. “And there's no escaping it
because our werewolf instinct doesn't let us kill ourselves and
they won't kill us despite their promises!” A growl ripped from his
throat and he hit his head against the bars so hard a trickle of
blood ran down his forehead. He staggered back and sat down on his
blanket. He touched the blood, then stared at his fingers as though
he saw something within the dark red liquid.

“
Don't mind Jake,” Gem said
quietly next to me. “He's been here a while.”

“
Everyone's been here a
while,” the werewolf in the cage next to Jake growled.

I ran a finger over the knuckles on my right
hand and frowned. “What if you don't phase.”

“
They beat you to death,”
the werewolf on my other side answered. “But you'll phase. It's
instinctual to protect ourselves and we can't fight it. It's their
way of humiliating us after we’ve given in and told them what they
want to know. They take away our humanity, forcing us to phase so
they can beat us like dogs.” He ran a hand through his dirty brown
hair. “It's degrading.”

“
My friends will come for
me,” I said softly.

Jake lifted his bleeding head and laughed.
Blood ran into his eyes, making him look even more deranged. “Your
friends will come for you? Your pack?” He snorted. “Buried as deep
as we are? You're as delusional as Gem.”

Several of the other werewolves chuckled,
the bitterness of their laughter as biting as it was haunting. I
glanced at Gem. She shrugged. “My parents will come for me. I know
they're searching. They'd never give up.”

“
Give it up, Gem,” a female
werewolf called from a few cages down. “After six months, I'd think
you'd figure it out.”

I stared at Gem. “You've been here six
months? How old are you?”

“
Sixteen,” she replied. She
gave a forced smile. “At least I don't have to worry about passing
Driver's Ed.”

“
How did they find
you?”

A cloud crossed her face. “I was at the
movies with some friends. They jumped us when we were walking back
to our car.” She dropped her eyes, but I could still see the guilt
in them. “They killed Kristy and Morgan when they found out they
weren't werewolves.” The tears in her voice betrayed the carefully
emotionless expression on her face. “They'd still be alive if it
wasn't for me.”

“
It's not your fault you're
a werewolf,” I pointed out. My heart ached for her pain. “Your
parents would agree.”

She gave me a sad smile. “I miss them.”

“
You'll see them again,
don't worry.” I met the eyes of the werewolf across the alley,
daring him to disagree. “We'll get out of here.” He snorted softly
and turned around so his back was to us.

The door at the end of the room opened and
four men walked in. “Gear up, newbie,” the werewolf on my right
whispered. “They're coming for you.”

Their footsteps sounded loud in the cold
gray room. Werewolves backed away from them and kept their eyes
down as if afraid that eye contact would result in another beating.
The men hit several of the cages as they passed, throwing taunting
threats to the werewolves who cowered before them.

“
Ready for another visit,
mutt?” one asked, mocking a werewolf near the door.

“
Miss me, sweetheart?”
another said in a cruel tone that twisted in my gut as he hit a
cage with his silver baton.

A guard hit Gem’s cage and she met his eyes
in a small act of defiance. He paused, his eyes glittering
dangerously. “Looks like you need a little more attention,” he
said. “I’ll make sure you get it.”

The men stopped at my cage and a surge of
adrenaline ran through my veins. I fought to keep from phasing to
protect myself, pushing the instincts down with the threat of
Jake’s words lingering in the back of my mind. The men opened the
cage door and motioned for me to come out. My feet burned when I
walked across the bare bars, but I didn't let it show. One of the
men shoved me and I stumbled, but I kept my footing and walked
quietly with them past the cages of weary werewolves who watched me
with mixed expressions of trepidation and sorrow.

One older woman in the cage nearest the door
held the bars with age-spotted fingers. “Be strong,” she
whispered.

A guard hit her cage with a silver baton and
she cowered against the back, but I met her eyes briefly and nodded
before they shoved me through the door. The depth of pain, hunger,
and hopelessness in her pale blue eyes haunted my soul.

***

We made a very brief stop so I could relieve
myself in a bucket in a corner while the guards turned their backs.
I was informed that I would be given two such breaks a day, so to
make them count. I was then led into a gray room where reinforced
silver handcuffs were slapped around my wrists and looped across a
cargo hook hanging from the ceiling. One of the guards that I
recognized from the Four Corners meeting with Nora’s dad pushed a
button on a remote and the hook rose until my toes barely brushed
the ground. The position made it hard to breathe and the ache in my
side started to throb with my heartbeat.

“
Think you could kidnap my
daughter and not face the consequences?” Rob asked. He stepped into
a view wearing a black tank-top and black pants that smelled of
werewolf blood.

“
Good to see you again,” I
said as pleasantly as I could muster.

He smiled, then punched me in the left side.
I grimaced, but didn't give him the pleasure of hearing me yell.
“It is pleasant to see me, isn't it?” he asked before punching me
in the same place again.

I breathed out with the blow and
concentrated on my heartbeat, willing my body not to phase and give
in to the humiliation Jake spoke about. I refused to let them treat
me like an animal, and the pride of the wolf in me agreed.

“
A tough one, huh? Well, we
have ways of breaking tough cases, don't we, Jeff?” Rob said. The
guard with the button handed Rob a set of silver-plated
gloves.

Rob pulled them on with a grim smile. “We
have several preliminary questions to get out of the way. First,
where's your pack? Nora's obviously been compromised by your lies
and won't tell me, so it's up to you to give them up.” He smiled
when I didn't answer and punched me in the left side again.

Pain ran from my skin deep into my side and
I gasped.

Rob gave a satisfied nod. “Hurts, doesn't
it? The silver penetrates your natural defenses and allows you to
feel the blows like an ordinary man. Convenient, isn't it?”

I held onto his statement that Nora wouldn't
tell him the location of Two. The thought sent a surge of hope
through my mind and also an echoing reminder of our kiss, the taste
of her lips, and the heat of her hand against my chest.

The memory was shattered when Rob punched my
right side with the silver-plated gloves. Pain exploded through my
stomach and ribs with such force I couldn't hold in a yell of
agony. The blow sucked the air from my body and zapped my strength
so that I hung in the handcuffs with my toes brushing the
ground.

When I met his eyes, Rob's eyebrows lifted.
“You might be the biggest werewolf I’ve ever seen, but it seems
even the giant has a weakness,” he said. He punched the spot again
and nodded when I yelled. He turned me on the chain and examined
the scar on my right side. “What happened here?”

Fear of the pain and salvaging what was left
of my pride made me speak. “I got it saving your daughter from a
flash flood.”

A flicker of emotion ran across his face and
for one moment I thought he would be merciful, then his eyes
hardened. “She left against orders, compromised herself, and cost
me two-dozen Hunters in training. She would have deserved what she
got.” He punched my side again so hard black stars appeared in my
vision and my thoughts grew hazy.

“
Where’s your pack?” he
demanded.

He punched me again, tearing another yell
from my unwilling lips, but I refused to answer.

“
You will phase,” he
promised. “You'll tell me where you pack is, then show me the color
of your fur so I know what kind of a coward you are.” He hit me
again, but my body was growing numb and I merely gasped.

“
Do you think he's an
Alpha?” Jeff asked quietly from his side.

“
There's only one way to
find out,” Rob replied grimly. He hit me again and when I didn't
respond, he pulled me around to face him. “Phase,” he shouted so
loud my ears rang. I gave him a small smile and almost laughed at
the anger that answered it. He hit me again and again, but I was
the one in control and we both knew it.

“
You don't want to phase?
I'll live to make you regret it.” Something hissed across the
floor. I opened my eyes to see the nine whips of the cat-o-nine
tails coated in silver. “You'll phase, or you'll die,” Rob
promised.

I closed my eyes and the sound of the whips
through the air whistled loud in my ears before they bit into the
skin of my back with a pain that sent electric shocks down my legs.
I gritted my teeth so hard I was worried they would break, but an
agonized yell betrayed me at the next lashing.

Rob whipped me until I no longer had the
strength left to yell and I hung by my bleeding wrists, but I
refused to phase. The grim pleasure I took in defying him was long
gone, and I held onto my self-control because it was the last thing
I had. His questions burned in my ears, but the answers to them had
long fled my mind.

“
Get him down,” his deep,
angry voice commanded.

The hook lowered with agonizing slowness
until someone detached my handcuffs and I fell to the ground. Blood
poured from the gashes across my back, but I couldn't feel them
past the burning of the silver. I wondered vaguely if my back would
heal striped like Jake's. It felt like a mess of raw hamburger
meat.