Blood Rule (Book 4, Dirty Blood series) (32 page)

Metal cages had been placed along the
walls and down the center, creating wide rows. They weren’t like
any cages I’d ever seen. These were elaborate in their ability to
contain. The bars along the walls and ceilings all had spikes
protruding, their gleaming points a constant threat if the occupant
moved wrong or inched too close.

The buzz in the air seemed to lead
back to a giant green box in one corner. Posted above and below it,
on the chain-link enclosure that guarded it, were signs that read
“Danger: High Voltage” and “Keep Out” in large
lettering.

“
What is that?” Victoria
asked, pointing to the green box in question.

“
The cages are electric,”
Wes said.

I barely heard him.

Without waiting for the others, I took
off down the center aisle of cages. All of them contained
Werewolves, some of the normal variety, but most with eyes shaded
neon yellow. I scanned faces and fur coloring, looking for
something familiar. Six cages in, I stopped.

“
Rafe?”

The wolf stirred slowly, as if being
woken from a deep sleep. The metal of its cage buzzed ominously and
I didn’t dare go any closer. “Rafe,” I called again, crouching to
eye level. “It’s Tara.”

Rafe opened his eyes. “Tara,” he said
without raising his head. His eyelids drooped low. Underneath, the
yellow in his eyes seemed brighter than I remembered.

“
I’m here. Are you all
right?” I was still too worried to be truly excited. What happened
to him? What had Steppe done? I searched for wounds but found none.
He seemed exhausted. “Are the others here?”

He nodded. I assumed the one answer
covered both questions.

“
I’ll be right back,” I
said.

He didn’t respond and I moved on,
calling out to pack members as I went. My excitement grew as I
found more and more of them. At my voice, they woke. Some sat up,
calling back to me. Most seemed lethargic and dazed. But they were
here. And alive.

Breathless, I ran back to where Wes
and Victoria waited. In the corner, George was currently helping
Logan break into the electrical box.

“
They’re all here,” I
said.

“
No kidding.” Victoria
rubbed her arms, which were covered in goosebumps. Every few
seconds, she shivered. Her eyes swept the room, canvassing. I knew
she hated being this close to so many Werewolves at
once.

“
Tara, look,” Wes
said.

I followed him to the cage on the end
of the left row and stared inside. Instead of a wolf, this one
contained the body of a man, curled up and fully nude. Even from
here, I could see he’d been badly beaten.

I looked closer. “Chris?”

The man stirred and I caught a glimpse
of his battered face.

“
Chris!” I knelt at the
cage, careful not to touch. Chris tried to move and groaned. He
managed to twist his torso so his shoulders leaned against the back
of his cage—the only smooth surface available. He cracked the eye
that wasn’t swollen shut.

George walked up and knelt beside me.
“What happened to you, man?”

Chris struggled to sit up. “Tara,” he
said, his voice cracking.

“
Don’t talk,” I said,
wincing at the gash under his left eye. It was still open and
oozing so I knew it was fresh. Even without the bond, empathy
washed over me. “We’re getting you out of here.”

He shook his head, squeezing his eyes
shut as he did so. “He knows … you’re here.”

I looked around. “What?
How?”

My eyes strayed upward at the same
moment Wes pointed above us and said, “Guys.”

At regular intervals along the
ceiling, mounted cameras pointed directly at us. My breath caught.
Any second, the doors would open and Steppe’s men would come
crashing in. Why hadn’t they already?

Wes wandered closer to the wall,
staring at the camera directly above us. “Huh.”

“
What is ‘huh’?” George
asked.

Logan joined Wes, also staring. “The
wires have been cut,” Logan said.

“
But who would’ve done
that?” Victoria asked.

Wes turned back to me. “What’s your
reading on Emma and Astor?”

“
Um.” I tried to push
aside my urgency to get Chris out of this contraption and focus on
Emma. “She’s calm. Talking to Astor and someone else. They’re still
in the building.”

“
Anything else?” George
asked.

“
That’s all I got. They’re
safe,” I answered. “Now, can we address the problem at
hand?”

“
Which problem is that?”
Victoria asked, hand on her hip. “The problem of our sneaking in
here being way too easy, the fact that the cameras have been
disabled and we didn’t do it, or the fact that all of your mutts
are locked in electrified metal cages that we don’t have a hope of
opening?”

I scowled at her. “Yes.”

“
Oh, I forgot. One
more.”

“
What now?”

“
Even if we do figure out
a way to get them out, what are we doing with
them
?” She gestured to the far row of
cages where I spotted more hybrids—none of which had been a part of
my pack. I recognized a couple from our encounter in the woods the
day Steppe took my pack.

I hesitated. A huge part of me—mostly
the wolf—wanted to leave them here. I wouldn’t be hurting them
directly, though I wanted to for what they’d done, and they
deserved whatever fate Steppe eventually delivered them.
But—

“
If you do that, you’re no
better than Steppe,” George said.

I sighed. “I wasn’t really going to.
But they won’t come willingly.”

His brows rose in a challenge. “How do
you know?”

“
Fine. We give them a
choice. If they want to come, we let them.”

“
And if they don’t,” Wes
began, pausing to breathe deeply, “… want to come?” he
finished.

I studied him. His cheeks were
flushed. “Are you okay?”

“
Fantastic.”

“
Is it warm in here?”
George asked. He ran a hand through his hair, peeling it off his
forehead where it’d become matted with perspiration.

“
Not really.” I gave him a
once-over. “You don’t look so good, either of you.”

“
Don’t feel so good,
either,” George said.

Logan rejoined the group, brushing
something off his hands onto his jeans. “I can get the power turned
off but it won’t last. We’ll have sixty seconds at the
most.”

“
That’s it?” I looked at
all of the pointy cages. There were too many for sixty
seconds.

“
I could make it longer if
I had the code.”

“
What happened to this
being too easy?” Victoria grumbled. She scratched at her arms. They
were lined with red where her fingernails had dug in against the
goosebumps.

“
My advice is—” Logan’s
words cut off with the door being wrenched open. It squeaked on its
hinges even louder than it had for us, a testament to the force
behind the motion. Whoever it was wanted to be heard.

Gordon Steppe strode through, a bright
smile on his otherwise emotionally dead face. “Oh, I think it’s all
been quite easy.”

I turned wildly left and right,
searching for somewhere to take cover. I had no doubt Steppe would
be backed by an army. Chris had been right. It was an ambush and
we’d walked right into it. But only one man and one woman followed
Steppe inside.

And out of all the faces I could’ve
imagined, these were the last two I expected.

“
Mom?” Only Victoria
seemed more surprised than me. “Dad?”

“
Shit.” Logan didn’t even
seem to notice he’d spoken aloud. I tried to remember if I’d ever
heard him curse before.

“
Hello, Victoria,” Mrs.
Lexington said.

Victoria took a step forward, but
Logan grabbed her arm and pulled her back. My lungs contracted as I
waited to see if she’d shake him off. These were her parents. I’d
seen the pain she’d gone through when they’d disappeared. I half
expected her to join them, even if it meant standing next to
Steppe.

But Logan yanked and Victoria halted,
her expression a mixture of longing and resignation.

I exhaled.

At the sight of Steppe, Chris let
loose a growl I was surprised his scratchy throat was capable of.
He lurched forward in the cage on hands and knees, stopping short
centimeters from the spikes protruding from the front bars. A few
other wolves did the same and Steppe laughed.

“
Feisty today, I see,” he
said.

More growls from the cages. I edged
forward, automatically falling into a crouch. My wolf rose, my
muscles tightening. If Steppe wasn’t going to bring an army to
protect himself, I’d take the opening.

“
I don’t think you want to
do that,” Steppe said, his eyes narrowing sharply at me.

“
But I do,” I said. “You
have no idea how much I do.”

Mr. and Mrs. Lexington stepped
forward, a barrier between Steppe and me. One I would remove if
needed. I took a step.

“
What are you doing?”
Victoria demanded, blocking my path.

I tried to shake her off. “Whatever I
have to. That’s what you told me, remember?”

“
I know I said that before
but… you can’t. Just … hold on.”

Mr. Lexington took a step toward me.
The wolves in the cages—my pack—growled. Claws scraped against
metal flooring.

“
Dad!” Victoria’s head
swiveled as she looked back and forth between us. “Stop, both of
you!”

“
I’m afraid stopping is
exactly what’s going to happen,” Steppe said. He glared at me.
“This ends now.”

“
One way or another,” I
agreed. Victoria looked back at me, her eyes pleading, but I
ignored her. Steppe was right. It had to end. Just not his
way.

“
Let them go,” I
said.

“
Why would I do that? I am
completely within my legal rights to capture or otherwise detain
any and all Werewolves. Haven’t you read the new law? Or have you
been a little busy, what with housing a fugitive and becoming one
yourself?”

“
I’m not a fugitive,” I
said.

“
You’ve been summoned for
questioning and failed to surrender. In our world, that makes you a
fugitive.”

“
I’m not coming in. It’s a
setup. You’ve already made up your mind. You and whatever crooked
council you’re leading.”

“
My council is made up of
nothing but the most respected Hunters.” He gestured to Mr. and
Mrs. Lexington. “Upstanding members of our society, every single
one.”

“
Mom? Dad?” Victoria’s
eyes narrowed. “You guys are on the council? But how?”

“
Not possible,” I said.
“They’re hybrids. Werewolves. And not even you, Mr. Rule Follower,
can get around that.”

“
Again, you’ve failed to
keep up with the law, Miss Godfrey. Section three, bullet seven
states that you are, by definition, a Werewolf if you shift out of
your human form into that of a wolf. Mr. and Mrs. Lexington no
longer shift. Therefore, they are not Werewolves. They are Hunters.
They’ve made their choice.”

“
Can they decide that?”
Logan whispered, leaning close to my ear.

“
No,” I said loud enough
for Steppe’s benefit. Mr. Lexington frowned. “If you won’t let them
go, I’ll take them by force,” I said. “The three of you aren’t
enough to stop us.” I still couldn’t believe he’d brought the
Lexingtons as his only backup.

“
You might want to take
another look at your ranks,” Steppe said.

I glanced left and right. On the other
side of Logan, Wes and George both looked green.

“
What’s wrong?” I
asked.

Wes opened his mouth to answer but no
sound came. Instead, he shook his head, his hand clutching his
stomach. There was discomfort, aching pain with no origin or
center, but the bond had gone foggy. Like before. Maybe he was
keeping me out?

“
George?” I said,
uncertainly.

“
Try Emma,” he
mumbled.

I tried—and immediately hit a mental
blank space.

Steppe watched me, a satisfied smile
on his lips. “Problems with your bond?”

I didn’t answer.

I continued trying to search for Emma.
When had I lost her? And what the hell could Steppe be doing to
remove the bond when he hadn’t moved from that spot since he’d
walked in?

“
Your bond won’t work in
here,” he said, “for the same reasons your two leading men can’t
help you.”

Wes and George were still on their
feet but they looked unsteady. Neither one even looked capable of
shifting right now. George’s shoulders heaved with each
breath.

“
You’re not keeping them
here because of the law,” I said. “Or you would’ve killed them
already. What do you really want?”