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Luke
“I do not appreciate being summonedlike a common healer,” Scarlett said as a way of greeting.
Zoe frowned next to me, her arms folded over her chest. “You were invited.”
“Not like I had a choice when you’re holding my boyfriend hostage,” she grumbled.
“He’s not a hostage,” I assured her. “And we appreciate you coming. But you understand why we couldn’t just release him.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” she said. “Where is he?”
“Thehumansare all fed and safe in their cells,” Zoe said. Nobody could miss the disdain she added to the word,human. She never hid her dislike of the non-magical species that had caused us to lock down our town so securely in the first place.
Originally, it wasn’t other supernaturals coming for the resources in our lands. It was humans. That had changed as supernaturals got their hands into more human-based businesses, but there was still a general sense of distrust for them.
“If I find out he’s damaged because of you, there will be no end to my wrath,” Scarlett said.
“You think we’d invite you here if we were the cause?” Zoe laughed. “If I did this, I would have finished him properly. It reeks of inexperience. Power, but not practiced. No subtlety.”
That was new, I hadn’t heard that part before. There were so few known witches with the power to grasp minds that hearing about one who was inexperienced sent a chill down my spine. We kept tabs on all the known witches with that power, but of course there would be new witches who would develop it and no way to keep track of them all.
I followed Zoe and Scarlett down the stairs to the basement where we had six cells that were typically empty. That was one perk of being so off the grid here. The only shifters who ended up down here were those on a bender and that was rare.
“Fair warning, it’s not pretty,” Zoe said. “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
She paused at the entry to the hallway and pulled the key ring from a hook on the wall. We’d never upgraded to anything high-tech, so it was still just stone cells, steel bars, chains when needed, and a solid lock. If this place gained popularity, I’d have to reinforce our system.
Scarlett reached out her hand and accepted the key Zoe held up from the others. “What of his friends?”
“All three of them were attacked, but he is the worst of the bunch,” Zoe said. For the first time, I caught true sympathy in her tone.
Scarlett moved forward, peering in the first cell, then bypassing it to reach the next. She paused in front of it. “Mark?”
I inched forward so I could see the human huddled in the corner. He was muttering to himself and his pants were wet from where he’d pissed himself. I wrinkled my nose. He was even worse than when he’d been brought in.
Scarlett unlocked the door and stepped inside. Mark stopped muttering and sat up, his eyes going wide with terror. “Get out! Get out of here!”
“Mark, it’s me, Scarlett,” her tone was more gentle than I expected. She seemed to genuinely care for this man.
“Leave me alone,” he screamed. “Go away!” He picked up his water cup and launched it at Scarlett. She moved out of its way, then turned and walked out of the cell.
Wordlessly, she locked it behind her while the man continued to scream before he curled up into the fetal position and started to sob.
It was gut-wrenching to see him so broken. I didn’t know what he was like before this, but I had a feeling if he could handle Scarlett, he wasn’t normally this afraid of everything.
Scarlett’s face was pure steel when she passed the keys to Zoe. “Tell me you have a lead.”
“We were hoping you could help with that,” I said.
“Only if I’m allowed to kill them when we find them,” she said.
“That sounds more than fair to me,” Zoe said.
“Deal,” I said. “But I want to know if they killed my dad before you end their life.”
Her brow lifted. “The Lost Pack’s alpha is dead?”
I growled. “I’m the alpha.”
