Chapter 10 - Captive
Joss woke up with a vicious headache in a dingy bedroom. She looked over at the window, hoping she could tell where she was by looking outside for landmarks, but someone had painted over the window with black paint.
Slowly, careful not to jar her aching head too much, she got up and began examining her prison. It was a small bedroom in an apartment in a building that was probably built around mid-century and not terribly well maintained. It held a bed, a small nightstand, a dresser and a chair. Every wall in the room held at least one cross and religious picture. The Wolf Hunters were definitely religious fanatics and followers of the anti-Wolf cleric John had told them about several days ago.
There was a small attached bathroom with only a sink and a toilet, and more crosses on the walls. Joss had been raised in the church, but all this overt religion was creeping her out, especially since she knew how these people had twisted it. She found a bottle of Tylenol in the medicine cabinet and took a couple to calm her aching head. She splashed some water on her face while she considered her options.
Her gun and badge had been taken from her. The door was locked, but the lock was old and could easily be picked as soon as she found suitable materials to do so. However, she had no idea what was on the other side of the door, or how many Wolf Hunters were in the next room.
She paused, staring at her reflection in the mirror, why hadn't they killed her? Then a sickening relation hit her: the baby. They wanted her baby. To raise the same way they had raised Tibor. They wanted to turn her child, John's child, into a Wolf Hunter.
Joss clamped a hand over mouth as a wave of nausea swept over her. No matter what, she had to get out of there. It was not just her life that was at stake, it was the baby's life as well.
She closed her eyes and focused on her mating bond, broadcasting as loudly as she could. To her relief she felt John respond. She felt his rage that she had been taken and his relief that she was still alive. Joss realized that while she had been unconscious, he had not been able to feel her, and he may have thought she was dead. She hung her head, ashamed that she had put him through that. Ashamed that she had ignored his loving attempts to keep her and their child safe. He had been right all along, and she had recklessly put herself and the baby in harm's way. She was going to have to figure out a way to make it up to him.
John had been deadly quiet since Joss had been taken. He sat in a corner oozing menace from every pore, watching Finch intently as the software genius tried determine the location of the Wolf Hunter's base of operations using the very limited information at hand.
Finch, Shaw and Fusco kept throwing nervous glances at the ex-operative, fully aware John was on the verge of losing his fragile hold on his control. None of them wanted to be around when that happened; the result was going to be very, very violent.
Suddenly John's attitude changed, his head tilted up like he was listening and his eyes grew soft. Fusco noticed the change first.
"Joss is awake," Lionel stated flatly. John nodded tensely, still listening.
The rest of the team stopped what they were doing and waited quietly. Even Bear was dead silent. After a minute or so, John rose to his feet and removed his gun from his waistband at the small of his back. He ejected the clip, checked it, and slammed it back into the gun with an expression of cold, hard fury on his face.
"I'm going to go get Joss now," he stated flatly.
Fusco and Shaw immediately checked their side arms as well. "Right behind you, John," Lionel said as he stood up.
John focused his intense glare on his friend. "We're doing this Wolf Style," he said quietly. "Once they laid their hands on my mate and cub, there was no turning back."
Lionel nodded, removed his badge from around his neck and stuck it in his pocket. "I got no problems with that. Joss is my partner and my friend."
Shaw walked to the exit, "Let's get this show on the road. I'm driving."
John was coming, Joss could already feel that he was closer, all she had to do was stay alive until he got there. Unfortunately she no idea how long that would be.
She hunted for something to use as weapon to defend herself in case they decided to kill her and take the baby before John could get there. But before she could find a suitable weapon, she heard someone outside the door.
She jumped as the door to her room was opened, but relaxed when she saw it was Tibor. He carried a steaming mug of soup and shut the door behind him.
Tibor looked at Joss sadly and her heart broke all over again for the abused child. She had seen many abuse cases as a cop but the pain in Tibor's eyes were the worst she had ever seen, hands down.
Tibor held the mug out to her, "I'm sorry."
Joss took the mug gratefully and sipped it, "No, don't be, I know they made you help."
Tibor bowed his head, "I have been helping them my whole life. They are…my family."
Joss reached over and grabbed his wrist, "No. No they're not. They killed your real family and made you think you were evil because of what you were born to be - something that you had no control over. Family doesn't do that."
Tibor gently removed his hand from hers. "I am bad, I know that now. I helped kill so many. I am a sinner."
"You're so young, you had no idea…"
Tibor shook his head, "I've known for a long time now that what they were doing was wrong, that it was a sin. But I had no idea how to stop. They…they hurt me when I didn't cooperate."
Joss touched his face, forcing him at look at her, "It doesn't have to be that way. My mate can make them stop."
Tibor nodded, "I know, that's why I helped them capture you."
Joss's eyes opened wide as the implications of what Tibor just said hit her, "They don't know about my bond with John; they think we are far enough away that he couldn't follow the mating bond to me."
Tibor nodded sadly, "They do not know you are strong like me. They think you are normal Wolf. They do not know your mate is coming."
"Thank you," Joss said simply with tears in her eyes.
"It was time to end this; it was time for us to pay for what we have done. Sinners must pay for their sins." Tibor looked at Joss, "You are a nice lady. You understand me and you want to help me. I cannot let you die."
Joss looked down into the soup in her mug. "They were going to kill me and take my baby, weren't they?"
Tibor stared at her sadly for a minute, then shook his head. "No, they were going to take the baby while you were alive, like they did with my mother. They are only waiting a few more weeks so the baby will live when they cut it out of you."
"Faster," John growled.
"I can't go any faster, there's too much traffic," Shaw snapped back at him as she negotiated a corner.
"They have my mate and my child," John snarled, in no mood to listen to reason.
"I know, we will get them back, John," Shaw said. "But traffic is only moving so fast."
"It will be OK, John," Lionel said from the back seat. "Joss is smart; she'll be fine. We'll be there soon."
John looked out the window. They were right, he knew that. He was angry with himself, not them. It was his fault, Joss and the baby were his responsibility, he was supposed to protect them and he had failed. He knew Joss was inquisitive and tenacious; he should have known she would try to find the Wolf child and save him. That was just his Joss. He should have helped her instead of trying to lock her away.
He closed his eyes and focused on his bond with Joss. "Turn left up here, it feels like she's in the heart of Brooklyn."
"Got it," Shaw said and spun the wheel expertly as the car slid around the corner at top speed.
"He's close," Joss told Tibor. "You should stay in here with me. I don't want you getting hurt."
"No, I deserve to die for my sins. It is the only way I can be redeemed." And Tibor left the room despite Joss's pleas. He locked the door behind him.
It had been a long time since John Reese had specifically set out to kill someone, but today he was not going to let any of those people walk out of that apartment alive. The long trip to the Wolf Hunters' home had given him plenty of time to think and he had been thinking some very dark thoughts.
Shaw had barely stopped the car when he was out of it and storming towards the building without waiting for the other two. His face had the penetrating glare of the trained killer and his coat billowed out from him on both sides of his body like Dracula's cape as he strode purposefully down the street. The few people who were on the street scurried to get out his way because it was evident that this man was on a mission. His eyes never wavered from the front door, nor did he hear Shaw and Fusco calling to him to wait.
Shaw and Fusco had to run to catch up with Reese just before he entered the stairwell. He was so focused that he didn't notice the others had joined him.
As they walked down the hallway to the Wolf Hunters apartment, Shaw felt his cold, deadly anger and she looked up at him in surprise. She had not seen him like this before, but she realized this was the Reese that the CIA had created and it gave her chills. The intensity of his stare threatened to burn everyone in his vicinity
Tibor had felt John's approach and was nearly staggered by John's intense, stone-cold anger. Calmly accepting his fate as fair retribution for his sins, Tibor moved to the stand in the middle of the room so that he would be the first thing John saw when he kicked in the door.
The Wolves reached the door to the apartment and John kicked it in with barely a break in his stride. He was in no mood to talk; he was there to hurt people, specifically the people who dared to think they could harm his beloved mate.
To the Wolf Hunters, it looked like the Devil himself had come calling when the door to the apartment splintered to reveal the tall man in the long black coat and the penetrating stare that sliced a person down to their soul. You didn't need to be Wolf to know that this man was here for vengeance.
To Tibor, Reese looked like justice. He looked like the avenging angel that Tibor had been waiting for his entire miserable life. He had waited a long time and the moment of his release was finally here.
Reese's and Tibor's eyes locked for a brief second. Reese recognized the Wolf Child from his mate's description and John's eyes softened for a brief second. Tibor's own eyes flew wide open in disappointment as he realized that John wasn't going kill him as he had hoped. Reese broke eye contact and turned to grab Sandor as he lunged for John with a knife.
Reese didn't even notice when Tibor ran right by him out the door to the hallway, he was too busy snapping Sandor's neck. "That's for touching my mate," he said with quiet intensity as he dropped Sandor's limp body on the floor and turned to grab the next brother.
Shaw dropped Mrs. Schiffer with a perfectly aimed shot to the heart as she took aim at Reese's back. Then Shaw spun and kicked one of the remaining brothers in the groin as he lunged for her.
As Reese and Shaw battled the Wolf Hunters, Fusco looked for Carter.
Joss felt John arrive and heard the fight in the front room. Afraid for Tibor and afraid for John's mental health if he did hurt the child in his lust for revenge, she started pounding on the door to the bedroom, yelling for someone to let her out. Fusco heard her pounding and quickly opened the door for her.
"Where is Tibor?" she demanded.
Fusco shrugged, "I saw him run out the door just a few seconds ago."
Joss looked over at John and saw that he and Shaw had the Wolf Hunters well in hand, so she decided to go after the Wolf child. Joss ran to the front door of the apartment and out into the hallway. She saw the doorway at the end of the hall close. She raced as fast as her ungainly body would allow to the stairwell door with Fusco close behind her.
Once in the stairwell, she heard Tibor running up the stairs over her head. "Tibor! Stop! Wait!," she called as she ran after him. He ignored her and continued racing up the stairs. Joss was confused, why would he go up? Why not do down to the street if he wanted to escape?
She burst out the door on the roof in time to see Tibor leap onto the side and teeter on the edge.
"Tibor! No!" Joss screamed in horror as she suddenly realized why he had run to the roof.
Tibor finally looked over his shoulder at her. "I am sorry but your mate would not punish me, so I must do it myself."
Joss slowly and carefully approached the boy with her hands held out, palms forward and out. "No, you don't have to do this."
Tibor smiled sadly, "Yes I do. Don't worry, I will finally find peace. That's all I want now." Then he spread his arms out, closed his eyes and fell.
Joss lunged for him and managed to grab a handful of fabric. In her desperation to save the Wolf child, her stomach slammed into the railing with great force and pain immediately shot through her. She would have gone over the edge if Fusco had not grabbed her from behind and hauled her back. Tibor slipped from her grasp and fell.
"Tibor!" Joss screamed and then collapsed in a heap on the ground.
Fusco looked down, "Oh my god Joss you're bleeding!"
Joss held her stomach as the pain forced her to double over. "I'm losing the baby!" She wailed.