Nadia
The SUV pulled to a halt in front of her. To Nadia, it seemed to happen in slow motion. The door opened and a man emerged. The first thing she noted was that he was dressed very similar to the men who had tried to capture her when the whole ordeal had first started. Men she now knew belonged to the Agency.
Bad men.
The second thing she noted was that he was looked right at her and came directly toward her. His eyes were wide with glee and purpose, a maniacal gleam that shook her to her core. This man, whatever he was up to, was not up to any good.
A bad man.
The third thing she noticed was that he was coming for her. That’s when she began to scream, but his hand clamped over her mouth before she could. Nadia immediately began to struggle, but the oversized hoodie fell from her shoulders and got tangled up in her wrists. The man tore it off her as he tried to grab her arm to force her in the car.
The last view she had of Jared was his raging bear chasing them down as the SUV accelerated, and the sound of his claws as they punched into the side of the vehicle and removed a chunk of metal. Then they were gone, and he was standing behind them, unable to do anything more.
She tried to scream again then, but an elbow to her stomach knocked the wind out of her. A hood was dropped over her head, preventing her from seeing anything.
“I really don’t think the hood is necessary,” she finally said. “I know where you’re taking me. I was there a few days ago.” She let her tone go smug. “I waltzed in and out right under the watchful eye of your guards.”
One of them snarled, and something hit her in the face, taking all the attitude out of her as she tried not to cry from the pain. Something trickled down the side of her head, but it wasn’t until she tasted the distinct metallic tang of iron that she realized it was blood. The man had made her bleed!
“Where is the Underground?” a voice said at last.
When she didn’t answer, someone reached out and grabbed her shoulder, giving her an impolite shake.
“The who?” she asked, trying to sound confused. “Isn’t that the name of some city’s subway system?”
Another growl, but nobody hit her this time.
“Tell us where the Underground is. Now.” This was a second voice. It was angrier, and impatient.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, trying to sound as exasperated as possible.
“The man you were with, he belonged to a terrorist group known as the Underground,” the first voice repeated calmly, sounding unperturbed by her reluctance to answer. “You know the man. You’ve spent the past few days with him. Where are his friends? Where are they hiding? How many of them are there?”
“Have you ever talked to him?” she asked with a snort. “The man has no friends. In fact, I’d like to thank you all for getting me away from him.” She was making this all up on the run, hoping they’d buy it.
“Thank us?” the second voice said, sounding surprised now.
“Yes. Did you not see that I was running away from him? He’s kept me captive,” she said. “Only this morning was I finally able to get free. It’s allowed me to realize the mistake I made by running away. I should never have done so.” She modulated her voice, trying to sound smaller and pathetic, in the hope that they might believe her.
“Really? Fascinating story,” Voice Number One said. “Too bad it’s all a lie. Now tell us the truth.” His voice hardened as he spoke, and Nadia felt her stomach tighten into knots at what was left unspoken in his voice.
“I don’t know what you seek,” she said at last.
A hand gripped her knee, and slowly began to squeeze. Nadia set her jaw and forced herself not try cry out as the grip got tighter, and the pain increased. A finger from a second hand jabbed itself into her leg just above the knee to the outside, and a blast of pain shot up into her, overwhelming her.
“They’re all over,” she blurted out.
The finger disappeared, and the grip on her knee loosened.
“Explain.”
“They were at the warehouse. You tried to take them. They scattered across the city, to predetermined points. I don’t know where they are. He never told me, and truthfully I never asked. He seemed intent on keeping them all a secret.”
She winced and waited, but the hand removed itself from her knee entirely, leaving behind a dull throbbing pain.
I’m sorry I couldn’t be stronger, Jared.
The truth was, she hadn’t really given them any information. She could perhaps answer their question about how many there were, but she wasn’t even sure she had the full picture, based upon the brief interaction at the warehouse. Everything had been moving at a frantic pace then, and Nadia’s numbers were unlikely to be reliable.
Thankfully, she realized she actually knew very little about the Undergrounds operations, and thus could give away just as little. That made her feel somewhat relieved, though she was nervous about how hard they might try to hurt her if they thought she was lying.
There was quiet mumbling from the other men in the car, but the engine combined with the noise coming in from outside served to drown it out before it reached through her hood.
“We’re here,” a voice said, and the van began to slow, and then she felt it lean forward as it went down a ramp.
The next few minutes were a blur as she was pulled from the van, kicking and screaming. Voice Number Two yelled at her, and slapped her across the face, stunning her as someone else carried her along. There was an elevator ride, some stairs, and then another elevator ride that felt vaguely familiar.
The same layout as the building the other day.
Nadia was literally back where it had all begun. At last they sat her in a chair and strapped her in. When that was done, her hood was removed, and she found herself sitting across from a man in a gray suit.
Her blood cooled instantly as something in his eyes and his body language told her that this man was extremely dangerous, and that she should not mess around with him at all.
“Very good,” he all but purred, his voice so smooth it struck her as wrong. “You’re in my care now.”
Nadia snorted. “Care, is it? Perhaps you should have a word with your associates then.” She hadn’t meant to mouth off to him. It had just happened. She braced herself for another blow, but it never came. Her eyes inched back open.
Then the man frowned, his eyebrows coming together as eyes so dark they were almost black peered at her.
“That is from my men?” he asked.
“That and the bruise on my stomach and the pain in my knee,” she said, her voice a little less haughty this time.
“Excuse me,” the man said, rising easily from his chair and opening the door.
Two men stood outside that she could see.
“Did you hit her?” he asked one of them, his voice just loud enough for her to hear.
“No.” She heard the response, and recognized him as Voice Number One.
“And you?” Suited man turned to the other person in the hallway.
The answer wasn’t as forthcoming.
She watched as the new man, their boss she guessed, reached back and closed the door. There was what sounded like yelling, followed by a thud, and then suddenly the entire wall shook in its frame, sending dust drifting down from the ceiling.
A moment later the door opened and the man in the gray suit reentered the room, tugging on his jacket to settle it back into place.
“You have my apologies on that,” he said with a dip of his head. “They have strict orders not to hurt humans, especially females who cannot fight back.”
Nadia glared at him at his reference to her being impotent when it came to fighting in the shifter war, but she couldn’t fault his logic. She couldn’t fight back against them. But then again, that wasn’t her job. That was Jared’s.
Now if only I hadn’t screwed things up so badly that he might come after me.
That thought came and went quickly. Jared wasn’t going to come after her. Assaulting this place, their headquarters as he’d called it, would be suicide. His friends were scattered across the city, and without them, he didn’t have a chance.
Stay away, Jared. I’m sorry. I wish things could have worked out better.
She sent the thought out, hoping against hope that he might understand. That he would be able to forgive her for what she had done.
“Now, I have some questions I would like you to answer,” the mystery man said.
“No.”
He looked at her in surprise. “No?”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t have any damn information, and whether I tell you or don’t tell you the minute details that I do know, you’re going to kill me. So why should I bother?”
“Kill you? Why would I kill you?” he asked, sounding genuinely confused.
“Either you’re an award-worthy actor, or you’re blind,” she said. “You hate them, and anyone associated with them. Like me. I could talk if you let me go. So you’re going to kill me.”
“Hate who?”
“Shifters. The Underground. Their entire kind. For some stupid reason, you refuse to let them exist.”
The man began to laugh. “Hate them? No, no my dear. You have me all wrong. I do not hate them. That is much too impersonal. After all, they made me. I simply need them, and your friends have been entirely too pesky, getting in my way.”
“They made you?” she asked, now the one confused. “I don’t understand. Why do you kill them then?”
He shrugged. “Business, really, my dear. The serum that can be derived from their blood is insanely profitable to sell, you see. The instant it was perfected, it became the single most expensive substance on the planet. One vial fetches me more than you could ever imagine.”
“Money,” she said dully. “This is all about money?”
“Mostly,” he said. “My subordinates feel differently than I, as do a lot of other people out there. They would be very content to see your friends and those like them…cut out of the gene pool, so to speak. Myself, I’ll settle for just your friends, the annoying ones who won’t leave me alone. I will confess, those ones I do hate.” His voice dropped several levels and anger filled it, causing Nadia to flinch away in fear.
“Besides, once I have enough serum, there won’t be a need for your friends and their kind anymore either. I may be in it for the business, but I can see where it leads. I’ll keep some alive, of course, to give me what I need for more serum. And I’ll need some people to help breed more.” His grin turned evil. “That’s where you come in. Like I said, I’m not going to kill you.”
The door opened.
“Sir, I’m sorry to interrupt, but we think we found some of them.”
The man gave Nadia a look that terrified her to the core. Not for her own safety, but for Jared’s.
“Excellent,” the man said, his lips curving upward. He got up and left the room, laughing to himself as Nadia stared after him in horror.
The moment the door closed she began struggling frantically with her straps. She needed to get free, and fast.
Somebody had to warn Jared that the Agency was coming!