Perhaps they’d expected me to go up, which would explain why they’d all been out of the basement.
Regardless, I was officially fucked now.They’ve clamped me to a chair. I don’t know if I can wiggle my way out of these cuffs.They were tight and suffocating and burned like hell.
We have a lead on your location because of your description of the firs and swamp, he said.And Hardt tracked the truck to a country road that leads to a cabin.
I wanted to be relieved. But the familiar guy was looming far too close to my face for that. My nostrils flared as I tried to determine this guy’s wolf type. I jolted as the subtle fragrance of smoke taunted my nose in return.Oh, shit.Hybrid.
And yet, there was also something familiar about his scent.
I inhaled again.
Kristen.
Shit.This was the scent I’d picked up on at Kristen’s crime scene. Faint, but present. And just like before, there was something oddly recognizable about it. I couldn’t place the familiarity, but I swore I’d smelled this guy before. Except the underlying aroma of ash and copper pennies distorted the fragrance.Who are you?I wondered, eyeing him suspiciously.Why do I know you?Howdo I know you?
I felt more than heard Alaric’s shock.Another hybrid?
Yeah, I’m looking at two right now. Hulk Junior and… the familiar guy.These rats were suddenly crawling out of the gutters all over the place.The latter is the one I smelled on Kristen.
Fuck.
My thoughts exactly.
HJ stomped into the cell with a tray that he set off to the side, and behind him, a vamp entered in an all-black suit. Was this the boss? Or the familiar guy?
I looked between them, trying to discern who was in charge here.
They both had an air of authority.
Although, the vamp had a douche-like air around him, too. He reminded me of decorations on a cake.Like a cuntcake, I decided.
But the other guy… he… was not pretty or clean-cut. All mass and strength and danger.
I shivered as the familiar one came to stand in front of me, his hands clasped behind his back and his legs braced shoulder-width apart. His appearance was fairly benign until he suddenly smiled. A shiver ran through my body. Never in my life had I been this close to pure evil.
This…I thought, swallowing.Yeah, this is the boss.I could see it in the way his shrewd gaze ran over me, like he was trying to size me up and decide what nefarious thing to do to me next.
A chill swept down my spine.
This had been my goal all along. But without my ring…Fuck.
Which one is the boss?Alaric asked, his words helping to ground me in the present and keep me from feeling the despair clawing at my insides. Something about this guy just screamedwrongness.Warning. Lethal.
I swallowed again and whispered back, The familiar one is the leader. The guy with the scent I recognize and can’t place. The hybrid.
“You know, you cost us quite a bit three years ago,” the familiar one drawled. “Then you disappeared without a trace. I didn’t understand it. At least not until you explained it to Alaric.”
What?How could he even know that? And three years ago?Shit, this is all related.Just like I’d originally thought. I conveyed it quickly to Alaric, and he grunted in agreement.Where did I tell you about my ring?
The lake,he replied almost immediately.
The memory of that day came back to me. We’d been swimming…
Someone… heard me. Someonefollowedme. Does Silver Lake have a mole?I wondered.
Alaric’s reply was lost as the familiar hybrid grinned again, his expression so dark that I found myself unable to think beyond my impending dread. Power poured off this man, his beast dangerously close to the surface.
How do I know you?I wanted to demand. I’d seen this man before. Felt him.Smelledhim. And yet, his face escaped all my memories.How?
