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I wake up in a cage, with a raging headache and an upset stomach. The only thing I have the energy to do is roll over and grab the bucket someone was thoughtful enough to leave beside the mattress I’m lying on. I pull it to my face just in time to yack up my entire burger, fries, and brownie sundae. It’s not the same experience coming back up as it was going down.
I puke and puke and puke until there is absolutely nothing left in my stomach, and then I roll back onto my mattress with another groan—a much weaker one. I’m sweating and shaking as if I’m coming off the worst withdrawals ever.
“Damn, girl,” a weak voice rasps from the cage next to mine. “And I thought I felt like shit.”
The lighting in here is dim and my vision’s a little blurry, but it’s enough to make out that I’m in a large warehouse and a bunch of iron cages are lined along the back wall like a row of jail cells. The girl in the cage next to me is not one I recognize. “Are you Nadine?” I ask, because the smaller woman is not the troll from my vision.
“That vampire bitch? Hell no. I’m Maya. Part of the Huron River werewolf pack out in Flat Rock.”
Oops. I give my werewolf neighbor a cringe. “Oh. Sorry. I’m Nora, by the way.”
I go to shake her hand through the bars but she holds up her arms, and I realize she’s chained at the wrists and ankles to the back wall of her cage.
“The werewolf is callingmea bitch?” a silky voice calls from somewhere down the line of cages. “Hello, pot meet kettle. How do you know my name, human?”
She saidhumanas if it were a dirty word. “Your bastard clan master compelled me to find you.”
Nadine snorts. “Some rescue. Nice job.”
“Again, you can blame Henry. His compulsion wouldn’t let me call for help when Elijah tried to kidnap me.”
Nadine doesn’t respond to this, and things go quiet. I turn to Maya again. “Do you know if Shandra’s here?”
Maya cocks her head to the side. “The troll? Yeah. She’s here.”
The werewolf rolls her head to the side to nod at the cage on the other side of her. I squint past her but can only make out a large lump on the floor. “Is she okay?” I ask.
The woman shrugs. “Probably. They’re monitoring her, but they’ve kept her unconscious the entire time. I think they’re afraid of her being awake. Not sure her bars can hold her.”
Yeah, that’s doubtful. I don’t think there’s much that could stop a raging troll. But then, I’d have thought that about a werewolf and a vampire, too. “How are they keeping you and Nadine in here? Are the cages magic?”
Maya shakes her head and rattles the chains cuffing her wrists. She winces as if the action burns her. That’s when I notice the chains are made of silver. “I think the cages are normal,” she says, “but I can’t do anything with these damn silver shackles on, and as for the vampires, they probably couldn’t get through the bars anyway, but they’re also starving them.”
Nadine scoffs from across the room. “As if wolves are stronger than vampires?”
“Want to go, bitch? When we get out of these cages, I’ll take you on, no problem.”
“Them?” I ask, trying to keep the squabbling to a minimum. Several other captives are groaning and telling the two of them to shut up. My guess is this is not their first verbal sparring match. “How many vampires do they have?”
“Two. They brought the guy in last night just after you got here.”
My stomach drops. “Parker?” When I get no response, I yell again. “Parker!”
“Relax, human,” Nadine says, hearing the panic in my voice. “He’s all right. He just hasn’t woken up from the drugs yet. How do you know Parker?”
I want to spout off some snotty response and surprise myself when I say, “He’s a friend of mine. We were working together to find you. But again, Henry’s compulsion wouldn’t let me call him last night, so I couldn’t warn him they were coming for him.”
“Compulsion isn’t perfect,” Nadine whispers more to herself than me. My guess is she cares a great deal for Parker. That’s going to endear me to her when Parker wakes up acting all scared for me.
My rage boils up in me at her words, though, and I snap at her. “Well, maybe you bloodsucking assholes shouldn’t use it on people. I would have helped Parker if he’d just asked. I was going to. I was already helping Terrance. I didn’t need to be compelled. Henry’s just a possessive douche, and now we’re all going to die.”
I hope that isn’t true, but I’ve obviously been here a while, and my cavalry hasn’t shown up yet even though I still have my phone. That’s not promising.
“I’m sure he was just doing what he thought he needed to find me. Henry cares about his vampires.”
“Oh, I know what Henry cares about.” Himself.
“If you don’t stop disrespecting my master, I’m going to kill you long before the assholes holding us hostage do.”
