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“No!” she interrupted him. “Ivanna, Niletean, and two Therians I didn’t recognize were captured, and they are in terrible danger. The small town they were investigating is where they’re being held. They were ambushed. The town had magical defenses, and they couldn’t sense them.”
“How could you possibly know that?” he asked, confused.
Ash growled in frustration. The situation was urgent. “Visions! It’s a long story, but Eiko is teaching me magic. The details don’t matter right now. They are alive, but they won’t be for long if you don’t stop wasting time and get your dragon ass over there to rain hellfire on those slaver bastards!”
“That’s enough for me. I’ll go get Viktorija now. How many are there?”
“Hundreds. You better go in there prepared for whatever devious fuckery Jules offers. I swear to God, if you die today, I will learn necromancy so I can bring you back and yell at you.”
“I love you too, Ash. I’ll be careful. Are you okay?” She heard him start running.
“I’ll be okay when you’re all safe. Call me the moment you get back.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Slaver Town, Tuesday, January 8, 2013
The guards had shot Ivanna with another tranquilizer dart. While she hated the grogginess, she was grateful that they’d stopped using lead bullets. They had shot her so many times during her imprisonment that she would be surprised if she still had any of her original brain matter. Her energy was severely depleted, and she wasn’t healing quickly enough to fight the drugs. None of them had heard of a pharmaceutical working on a Therian, but they couldn’t deny the effectiveness.
She peered around the dark dungeon in which they’d been chained. They’d left their captives no potential weapons, and the cuffs prevented them from changing to a form that was better equipped to fight free. The position she was chained in prevented Ivanna from seeing the others, but she could smell them. Niletean was alive but badly wounded and unconscious. Dakota and Valter had survived the ambush, but given their ragged breathing and thready heartbeats, she didn’t know if they would make it through the night. They didn’t heal bullet wounds as quickly as she did, and the drugs worked better on them.
Ivanna assessed the situation and formed plans to free them, discarding them just as quickly. They couldn’t do anything in the cuffs, which essentially reduced them to human power levels. She recognized the magic from the table Nadya had kept her bound to for decades. Stretching her senses outward, she tried to connect with Niletean’s mind and help him overcome the drug’s effect.
Niletean, wake up! she sent. I need your help to get out of here. The others are too damaged.
She heard a sound to her right as he stirred and figured they were bound about six feet apart. “What?” he slurred.
In your head! she snapped.
Where are we?
In the slaver town. We were captured during the ambush. You’re drugged, and we’re all injured. Krish and Deniz didn’t make it. I’ve been trying to come up with a plan to get us out of here while you were napping, but you’re too damned far away for what I wanted to do.
Their conversation was cut off by the roar of a furious dragon. Ivanna sighed in relief and slumped against the wall. It hadn’t been a dream. She’d really connected with Ash, and the vampire had sent the calvary.
She searched for the dragon’s mind. Luca?
To her surprise, she touched the mind of the berserker wolf alpha. Och, Ah’m nae the king. Sorry, lassie. Viktorija sent us to free you. She refused to let Luca leave.
That sounds like her, Ivanna replied. What are you going to do?
The king’s lady vampire requested we “rain hellfire on those slaver bastards,” and Ah hate to disappoint a lady.
Screams erupted outside, and Ivanna smiled. Good. She wanted them to burn. The wait felt like an eternity before Euan in berserker wolf form tore the heavy door off its hinges. He strode across the dank room and tore the chains out of the wall to free the captives. Other Therians filed in behind him, retrieving the injured and unconscious bear and moose shifters as Ivanna and Niletean got to their feet.
Euan shifted to human form so he could speak and offered Niletean a hand. “Yer cousin is proper fashed about ye.”
As they walked outside, Ivanna marveled at the size of their rescue force. Viktorija had sent seventy dragons and as many other Therians.
“That flight was incredible,” Euan gushed.
Looking at the defeated slavers, Ivanna realized that something was wrong. “Is this all of them?”
Euan nodded. “It is.”
Her heart sank. “They’re attacking now. There were hundreds here, and there are maybe fifty now? We need to get back to the palace.”
Mosier Home, Enfield, New York, Monday, January 7, 2013
