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He was right—there was nothing but the desert out there. A long, sandy plain of sand and gravel with the occasional spiny scrub growing here or there.
“You can put me down,” I said after a minute. “It looks like the window’s not going to help at all.”
“You’re wrong about that.” Gabriel sounded thoughtful. “We might not be able to get out of it, but it will let in the moonlight when the moon rises.”
“What good is that?” Christopher demanded. “You know the full moon isn’t until tomorrow night and neither of us has Royal blood in our veins—we can’t change until the night of the full moon.”
“True.” Gabriel frowned. “Mierda! If only we had some Wolf’s Bane!”
Christopher looked suddenly pale.
“Don’t say that, Gabe—that stuff is fucking poison!”
“Wolf’s Bane? What’s that?” I asked.
“An herb that lets a Were Shift out of season—that means change even when it’s not the full moon,” Gabriel explained. “Hell—if you take enough Bane, you could change in the middle of the fucking day at noon!”
“But you’d pay the price afterwards,” Christopher pointed out. “And we don’t have any, anyways.”
“Then we’re just going to have to try and stall things until tomorrow night,” Gabriel said, frowning. “If we could Shift and get the drop on them, we could kill the fuckers before they could shoot us.”
“They have assault rifles,” I pointed out.
“Weres are supernaturally fast and strong and our bite is deadly to humans,” Christopher said. “I think we’d be a match for them if we catch them by surprise.”
I hoped they were right. But again, I had never seen either of them Shift up close and in person, so I didn’t know exactly what we’d be dealing with, if and when they did manage to change and attack our captors.
“So we just have to try and wait it out,” Gabriel said. “Dios, I fucking hate this!” he growled.
I raised an eyebrow at him.
“You mean being held captive in a strange house by men you don’t know who might hurt you or kill you at any time?”
He glared at me for a minute, then sighed deeply.
“All right, little mouse.”
“She’s got a point,” Christopher remarked. “Now we know how Zoe’s been feeling the whole time she’s been with us.”
“Doesn’t feel very good, does it?” I remarked.
“Feels like some fucked up shit,” Gabriel growled. He gave me a direct look. “I’m sorry. We were assholes.”
“Yeah—sorry, Little Sis,” Christopher echoed. He took my hand in his and entwined our fingers. “Will you forgive us?”
“If you can get the three of us out of here, I’ll forgive almost anything,” I said, squeezing his hand.
“Well, we’re stuck for now,” Gabriel said grimly. “We just need to make it to moonrise tomorrow night. Then we can—”
At that point, the door opened and we all spun around to see a man pointing a gun at our heads.
“Don’t move,” he said. “Up against the wall—all three of you. Twitch and you’re dead.”
TWENTY
I felt sick with fear all over again but after we had shuffled over to the wall with the guard holding a gun on us the whole time, someone else came in. It was Lupio—the one who had dressed as a policeman and held the laptop so we could speak with Don Diego. He had changed out of his fake uniform and into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. In his hands were a bowl and several bottles of water.
“You’ve been behaving pretty well, so I brought you dinner,” he said, but then he looked at me and frowned. “Hey—you’re supposed to be naked, chica.”
“The fuck she is!” Gabriel growled. He and Christopher closed ranks around me, putting their big bodies between me and our captors at once.
Lupio’s eyebrows drew low on his forehead. I knew because I could just barely see him by looking over my stepbrother’s shoulders.
“If you’re going to misbehave, I’m taking back your supper,” he said. “Also, Don Diego has authorized me to shoot one of you in the arm or the leg if I have to.” He nodded at the guard holding the gun, who took a step closer and leveled his rifle at Gabriel’s shoulder.
“No, wait!” I exclaimed, struggling to get out from behind the two big male bodies. I squirmed out between them and faced Lupio myself. “Why?” I asked. “Why does he want me naked?”
“Is he watching somehow? Some kind of closed-circuit TV or something?” Christopher demanded.
“Or maybe that fucking camera set up.” Gabriel jerked his chin at the camera on the tripod. We hadn’t messed with the movie equipment—it wasn’t like it could help us get out of the trap if we were in to start filming each other.
Lupio shrugged.
“I don’t know. Don Diego doesn’t tell me all of his business. He simply ordered that the little filly was to be kept desnuda—bare. Don’t worry,” he said to me. “I won’t take you away from your hermanos. He ordered that the three of you be kept together tonight, but I’m afraid you’ll have to give up your clothes.”
