Azure (The Silver Series Book 5) (18 page)

“
The Hunters and werewolves
are assembled and awaiting my orders to join us at Lobotraz.” He
motioned for us to sit on a couch and sat in an armchair across
from us. Jet stood by the open doorway, his muscles tense. His
hands closed into fists and then opened again as though in
anticipation of the coming fight, and his dark blue eyes glinted
with thoughts he didn’t voice.

“
Hunters are fighting with
us?” I asked, turning my attention back to Jaze.

He nodded. “Rob and the Hunters at Lobotraz
are part of what we call the extremists. They refuse to comply with
the peace agreements between Hunters and werewolves, and continue
their hunting and killing. The Hunters that will fight with us have
been there for me many times and I can trust them. They will
provide the backup we need to storm Lobotraz.”

Reluctance filling me at trusting a league
of humans who had, as far as I knew, lived their whole lives with
the motive of killing werewolves, but I knew we needed to get back
to Lobotraz as soon as possible to save the other werewolves. I
took a steeling breath. “Okay, where do we start?”

A scrawny werewolf with thin brown hair came
into the room with a poster tube. The werewolf threw us a shy
smile, then dropped his eyes and waited for Jaze to take the tube.
Jaze dumped out the contents and unrolled a blueprint.

“
This is
Lobotraz.”

I stared at it, amazed. “Where did you get
that?”

Jaze smiled. “Let's just say Mouse has some,
well, very particular skills that come in handy in times like
these.”

The thin werewolf smiled again and his
cheeks turned red, but he refused to look at us.

Jaze motioned to the chart. “As you can see,
Lobotraz is shaped like a wheel with spokes, the torture chambers
and Rob's personal offices being at the center of that wheel and
the various werewolf holding chambers branching out from it.” He
glanced at me. “We'll start at the opposite spoke from yours and
work our way around in case yours is being monitored now.”

“
How do we get in?” I
studied the blueprint intently, but the lines and panels made no
sense to me besides the obvious corridors.

Jaze pointed to a small column running
parallel to the spokes. “Here. The venting system runs along the
top of each branch. We'll use them to get around and move as
quietly as possible until we're caught.”

“
And then?” Nora
asked.

Jaze smiled. “Then we show them what
werewolves can really do.”

Relief swelled my chest at finally being
able to do something to stop Rob and free the werewolves under his
guard. I nodded. “That sounds good to me.”

Jaze rose and we followed. “My girlfriend,
Nikki, has breakfast ready in the kitchen if Jet's left us
anything. We'll leave in a half hour.”

Chapter 16

Nora and I followed him to the kitchen where
a girl I was surprised to smell was human had a dish of omelets and
another of hash browns. The werewolf with the red eyes, Kaynan,
joined us, followed by the one named Mouse. I stopped at the smell
and my stomach turned over at the sight of something other than
gray gruel in a silver bowl. Nora’s fingers brushed my arm. “Are
you alright?” she asked quietly.

Jaze turned back, the same question in his
eyes.

I swallowed and nodded. “I can’t- I can’t
remember the last time I had an omelet.”

Nikki brushed her long black hair behind her
shoulder with a quick flick of her wrist and handed me a plate.
“Dive in. They’re still warm and I’ve been fighting to keep them
from Jet all morning.”

I glanced up and saw Jet standing next to
the back door, his eyes on the unfenced yard beyond. A smile might
have touched his lips, but it vanished before I was sure. I
accepted the plate and sat down at the table. Nora took the seat
next to me and dished us both up. I had eyes only for the long
yellow egg loafs stuffed with ham, cheese, peppers, tomatoes,
onions, and bits of bacon. I had to fight down the urge to shove
the whole thing in my mouth and cut a corner off with my fork, then
lifted it to my tongue.

Flavors I had never before appreciated
filled my mouth. The cheese was seasoned with a touch of pepper and
just enough salt to accentuate the flavor of the eggs. The bacon
taste lingered on my tongue with the promise of more to come, and
the mild bite of the onions and peppers combated with the mild
eggs. For half a second, I thought I would break down and cry in
front of the werewolves and humans around me. I blinked quickly,
determined not to let them think of me as a baby.

No one could understand how good something
so simple could taste after three weeks of barely cooked leftovers
from the slaughterhouse. I glanced up and saw a look of
understanding sweep over Jet’s face. He looked younger than me by
about two years, but the memories of hunger and need that I saw in
his eyes let me know that he had suffered far worse, and for a much
longer time. His gaze met mine with the penetrating look of someone
who has survived something so awful the memory lived just below the
surface. He tipped his chin at my plate and indicated without
saying anything that I should eat as much as I wanted without the
worry of going hungry again.

I stared at him, amazed that someone could
express so much without saying anything. He turned his face back
toward the yard, but shadows swept through his dark blue eyes,
etching his jaw as tight as granite as he looked through the memory
to the sunlight that made shadows of the leaves on the grass. I
took a calming breath and turned back to cut another corner off the
omelet only to find two more crowding it on the plate.

“
You looked hungry,” Nikki
said when I glanced up. The human girl smiled at me, completely
comfortable in a room full of werewolves. She was about to dish
another omelet onto Jaze’s plate, but he declined and tipped his
head toward me in a wolf-like gesture. Nikki smiled and scooped
that omelet onto my plate as well. “It only makes sense that the
biggest werewolf I’ve ever seen would have the biggest appetite,”
she commented before she went back to the stove.

I fought back a chuckle that might have
turned into a sob and dove into the food, suddenly completely at
ease despite the fact that I was surrounded by almost total
strangers. Something in the air calmed me and I realized after a
moment that it was Jaze. He conversed quietly with Kaynan, and the
red-eyed werewolf watched him with the look of one who accepts the
leadership of another even though they were equals.

The scent I got from Kaynan was strange. He
smelled like a werewolf, but there was something chemical to the
scent, like the tang of werewolf had been overlaid with something
else that smelled almost human. He had black hair that showed a
sheen of red when it caught the light, and some of his gestures,
like the way he moved without much care and the way he ate appeared
more human than werewolf. Werewolves savored the smell of food as
much as the taste, but he ate his omelet as though he barely tasted
it. Maybe he was just hungry.

I finished the omelets and several helpings
of hash browns while I watched Jaze with his team. Mouse brought a
computer in and ran something by him. Jaze agreed and Mouse
disappeared back into another room without making eye contact with
me. I had seen other grays that were submissive, but the way he
took every word from Jaze without question kept my attention.
Either they had worked together for a long enough time that they
trusted each others’ every move, or Jaze had more control over his
team than I imagined.

“
How are you holding up?”
Nikki asked.

I looked up to answer, then realized she was
talking to Nora.

“
Alright,” Nora replied.
She picked up my empty plate and hers and carried them to the sink.
“You guys have been so kind.”

“
I know it hasn’t been
easy,” Nikki said in a soft tone of understanding. She glanced back
at Jaze; when her blue eyes met his, a warm smile passed between
them. “But we’re always glad to have the company, aren’t we
Jaze?”

He nodded. “Most definitely. You two are
welcome to stay here as long as you’d like. We’ll be returning home
when things at Lobotraz are resolved, and my mother would love to
have you over.”

“
The more the merrier,”
Nikki concluded, and the others laughed.

Jaze’s phone rang and he answered it, then
stood up. “Time to go. The choppers are waiting.”

The thought that we would be taking
helicopters surprised me, and I saw the same feeling cross Nora’s
face. Jaze apparently had much more pull than I imagined. I tried
to convince Nora to stay behind, but she refused, saying that she
wanted to make sure her father was brought to justice for the
crimes he had committed. I worried how she would feel when her
father was truly in custody of Jaze’s team, but it was her father
and I didn’t feel I had the right to argue after what we both had
gone through at his hand. I gave in, but regretted the decision
when we reached the location of Lobotraz.

“
It's a dam?” I asked,
confused.

Jaze shook his head. “It's under the dam.”
At my look, he gestured to several small camouflaged lumps that
looked like rocks on top of the small rise near the edge of the
water. On further scrutiny, they turned out to be ventilation
openings for a cooling system. “We'll start in the branch opposite
from yours. I have four teams going down. They’ll signal us if they
run into trouble. We’ll work both ways around until we run into
opposition; our goal is to get every werewolf out of Lobotraz.”

As much as I wanted to go straight to Gem
and free her immediately, his logic made sense. “Fine, but I'm
going in first.”

He nodded as if he had expected as much and
handed me something wrapped in a cloth. I took it and the rag fell
away to reveal a small handgun. I glanced at Jaze.

His face was grim. “These men will kill any
of us on sight. Be prepared to at least wound them and take their
weapons, but don't be a hero. The only way to save the werewolves
down there and stop Rob and the extremists is to hit hard and fast.
They probably know we're coming and they'll be instructed to bring
you down, so remember the lack of mercy they show and repay it in
kind.”

My chest tightened at the thought of killing
again, but the memory of the pain I had faced at their hands surged
through my scars as though to remind me of the cruelty below. I
checked the safety and made sure there was a bullet in the chamber,
then nodded. “Right. Let's go.”

Twenty SUVs had been parked about a mile
back, and almost a hundred Hunters and werewolves waited for Jaze's
orders. They were a quiet, orderly lot, and respect and pride
showed in their faces when they looked at Jaze. There was
definitely more to the werewolf than I knew from our brief
encounters, and I hoped there would be time later to get to know
the one who got me out of Lobotraz. The thought of entering it
again after all that had happened turned my stomach cold, but I
forced my expression to remain calm and confident.

Two Hunters pried up one of the rock
structures to reveal a pipe below. Other teams worked on the other
ventilation shafts, and soon four of the structures around the dam
had been moved to reveal rectangular steel piping. I glanced back
at Jaze. “You sure they don't have these guarded after you guys
broke me out?”

Jaze shook his head. “Not positive, but we
covered our tracks well. I'm hoping it looked like you vanished
into thin air.”

The thought made me smile. “That would give
Rob something to think about.” I took a deep breath and lowered
myself down the pipe. My werewolf eyesight made flashlights
unnecessary, though the Hunters that would come down last carried
them. Nora dropped down next to me and took a firm grip on my hand.
“It's going to be alright,” I whispered to her.

“
I know,” she replied. “I
just can't wait to get the others out.”

I moved slowly forward, my soft-soled shoes
quiet against the cold metal. Soft thuds announced more werewolves
climbing down the pipe. Jaze would be after Nora, with Jet and
Kaynan following. A group of hand-picked Hunters whom Jaze
reassured me he had worked with on countless rescues would bring up
the rear. The thought of Jaze’s team covering Nora's back was
reassuring.

A thousand possibilities of what could go
wrong flashed through my mind. If they were waiting for us, the
pipes were sealed, Rob wasn’t at Lobotraz, or if the werewolves had
been moved to a new location altogether taunted my thoughts. I
shoved them away and followed the pipe on a steep decline below the
water of the dam. Claustrophobia rose at the thought of being
beneath so much water. If I had known where Lobotraz was before, it
would have been that much harder to stay in the cage.

The smell twisted my stomach with
recognition. Unwashed bodies, festering wounds, fear, refuse,
hopelessness, and rotten food drifted through the pipe to announce
that we were close. I gritted my teeth and stopped at the first
mesh opening.

“
Hold,” Jaze whispered from
just behind Nora. He listened to something in his ear piece, then
motioned for me to move forward. “Cameras are cut,” he said. “We'll
have to move quickly.”

I pulled the screen back and dropped to the
floor of the narrow room. The inhabitants looked only slightly
interested and I remembered my own reaction when Jaze and Jet came
to my cell. It felt like a mirage brought by pain, and then just
another of Rob's cruel torments. I ached for them because I knew
too well what they were going through.

I reached up and helped Nora to the ground,
then Jaze, Jet, Kaynan, and four other werewolves jumped down to
join us. Whispers of fabric and light footsteps heralded werewolves
and Hunters moving to the next rooms from the vents above.