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A stricken look washed across her face, and she hung her head. "He was nice to me. He was one of them, but he was nice to me, and they caught him trying to loosen my manacles so that it wouldn't hurt so much. They beat him in front of me and dragged him off, laughing. An hour or so later, I heard him start to scream. Another hour . . . and nothing."
That answered my question. The two men stil caged were sure to be Doug and Saz. Paulo had been tortured and murdered. And if Amber was right, then we knew they treated their own just as badly as they treated their enemies. Which would seem to lead to dissent, unless the fear of repercussions won out.
Chase cal ed in his team, and they set about trying to deal with the drug-crazed werewolves and the flayed body. I told him we'd take Amber over to headquarters to get checked out and give her statement. He glanced at the pendant around her neck but said nothing, just nodded.
As we gathered our things--Roz picked up the magical stun gun and stowed it in his belt--and left the building, part of me wanted to see it blow sky high.
I had a fleeting desire to come back after everyone was gone and set off the dynamite, to put this place of misery and torture out of commission, but I knew that was better off left a fantasy. I wasn't a barbarian--yet. But I was rapidly learning just how far the enemy could push in order for me to turn into one.
CHAPTER 20
Along the way, Menol y put in a cal to Luke and asked him to meet us at the FH-CSI building. She made sure to reassure him that Amber was alive and relatively unscathed.
I glanced at Amber. "Do you know what that necklace is you're wearing?"
She frowned. "I have no idea, but al I could think of was, don't let them have it. There's something about this . . . Ever since I found it in an old trunk that I bought at an antique store, I've known I needed to move here, to be near my brother and his friends. It was the final push that got me to leave Rice." Fal ing silent for a moment, she stared at her hands. Then, "I suppose Luke has told you al about him?"
"Yeah, you could say that." I didn't want to dis her husband in front of her--that was the straw that drove some women back into abusive relationships.
She had to come to that point herself.
"Rice . . . the whole Zone Red Pack has a hard time coming to grips with the modern era. The women of the Pack are demanding more. Demanding to be treated with respect, demanding our rights. Some . . . a lot . . . of the men can't handle it. Alpha werewolf males have a tremendous amount of testosterone, and the tendency to bluster is always there. There are so many fights, almost al of the men in our Pack are scarred. You've seen my brother's scars, right?"
Menol y nodded. "I never asked him about them. He just recently told me about the woman--the one he loved."
"That was a tragic situation. Did he tel you that Marla pissed off the Alpha when she refused him because she was in love with Luke? He basical y handed her over to some of the younger alpha males for revenge. She was passed around like a piece of meat, brutal y used. Oh hel , I'l just say it like it real y was . . . she was gang-raped, and the Pack leader watched and forced Luke to watch. It took every ounce of self-control he had not to kil the Alpha right there."
"Luke said she was kil ed?" I hated bringing up painful memories, but talking about her past seemed to be calming her down. And it would help her to trust us when we had to take the spirit seal from her.
"Yeah, she was. When Luke tried to sneak her out, the Alpha caught them--he'd sent someone to spy on them. The Alpha kil ed Marla himself, in front of Luke. Then he scarred my brother and excommunicated him. I wanted to go with him, but I wasn't old enough. Shortly thereafter I was married off to Rice.
He offered the most attractive dowry and situation to my father. Rice is bad . . . but it could have been worse."
"You said you bought a trunk that had the necklace in it. Do you . . . are you attached to the pendant? Why do you think the coyote shifters kidnapped you? Did they tel you?" The time had come. We would be at the FH-CSI building soon, and I didn't particularly feel like airing the info in public.
She paused. "The truth is . . . I can't take the damned thing off. It feels like there are voices in my head, and they're coming from the necklace, but when I go to take it off, they start screaming until I put it back on. I haven't felt the same since I first started wearing it. From the start, it wouldn't let me take it off for more than a moment."
I stared at her, thinking about Queen Asteria. What were we going to do?
Then Rozurial said in a low voice, "The Keraastar Knights. Want to make a bet that . . ." His voice drifted off, but I knew what he was saying. Amber may be making more of a journey than she expected.
"The coyote shifters were after your pendant. Did they try to take it from you?" I couldn't imagine them caring if she went crazy from voices in her head.
She nodded. "Yes, they did. But the minute they put their hands on it, they got shocked. One of them died. And when they tried to make me take it off, the necklace started humming and scared the hel out of them. Why do they want it? What is it? What's going on? And who are you?"
Menol y spoke up. "I'm Menol y D'Artigo, your brother's boss. He asked us to help when you went missing from the hotel. My sisters and I are from Otherworld."
Amber gasped. "I had a dream about Otherworld, even though I've only ever heard of it. I dreamed about a city with cobblestones, and about elves and a circle of people--I have no idea who they were. But there was a werepuma among them, and a young man, and an ancient . . . I guess he was human."
I let out a long sigh. "Amber, there's a lot to explain, but you have to trust us. As long as that necklace is around your neck and you stay here, you're in far greater danger than just from the coyote shifters. There's a demon general out there looking for the spirit seals. And a demon lord in the Subterranean Realms looking for them."
She gasped and cringed back in her seat. "I had no idea."
"My sisters and I--and our friends--are on the forefront of a war even your brother doesn't know about. We're trying to stop Shadow Wing and his army from taking over Earth, and eventual y--Otherworld. And that pendant you wear around your neck is an ancient artifact that wil make his quest a whole lot easier if he gets hold of you."
Amber was silent the rest of the way to the FH-CSI building. We let her be--she'd been hit by far too much to take in over the past few days, and she needed a little while to just rest after her captivity.
At least now we knew why the coyote shifters hadn't kil ed her. On one hand, the fact that the spirit seal had bonded itself to her had saved her life. On the other hand, I had the queasy feeling there was nothing we could do except hustle her over to the Elfin Queen, whether Amber wanted to go or not. We couldn't let her run around with one of the seals around her neck.
