A/N: Okay, so here's the remedy to that cliffhanger I left you guys on last time! This chapter is shorter than usual but deals with Zoe getting snatched off the street, Zoe being a handful for her kidnapper (because this is Zoe we're talking about here), and then some more of Zoe being a badass. Sounds good, right? Enjoy! :)
Also, thanks as always to all you wonderful readers! Bonus thanks to everyone who reviewed: bulldozed88,ixistargirl89ixi,willdawg992003, and that one Guest. You guys are the best! Anyway, I hope you guys all like the chapter. :)
Also a huge thank you to bulldozed88 for following me on my tumblr; you rock! Hope you don't get annoyed by all the other random stuff I post over there. XD
Chapter 25
"She stood in the storm, and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails. "
I decided that being abducted was definitely one of the worst life experiences I'd had so far.
First I'd been clubbed over the head, beaten, and gagged. Then I'd been tossed into the back of a really smelly van, and was being driven God only knew where, in the middle of the night. To top it off, no one would likely even notice that I was missing, preoccupied as they all were with their own duties pertaining to the mission tonight. No one would know that anything was amiss until it came time for me to join Klaus and play good cop to his bad cop in convincing Davina to ditch Marcel and come over to our side. I briefly contemplated how badly things could go with that little meeting now that I wasn't around to play good cop, but decided that since there wasn't anything I could do about it at the moment, there wasn't much point worrying about it. Either Klaus would convince Davina in his own way, or everyone would end up dead. The odds were pretty much fifty-fifty, which was better than my own situation at the moment.
I struggled against the ropes binding me, but they'd been soaked in some sort of wolfsbane concoction, and the aconite burned against my skin and weakened me more than I would have liked to admit. As it was, all I could do was thrash around weakly and make sad little moans. After a few moments of this, I stopped trying to struggle free, and instead made a conscious effort to relax my body, trying not to panic as my muscles give little spasms from the wolfsbane seeping into my bloodstream from the skin contact with the rope. My heart rate likewise was getting a little unsteady. My thought processes, of course, were already fairly muddled from the whack upside the head, and my concussed brain was not thinking clearly; the aconite poisoning would certainly only make that befuddlement worse the longer it went on.
I sat in the back of that van for what felt like forever, but eventually the vehicle pulled to a stop. The driver put it in park and pulled out the keys, tossing them into the glove box before hopping out of the driver's seat and coming around to open the back of the van.
"Hello, Miss Storme," my abductor said cheerfully. "Thank you for obliging me with your presence this fine evening."
Had my mouth not been taped shut, I would have had several hundred rude things to say in response to that. As it was, I just glared at him and silently seethed.
He saw my glare and laughed uproariously. "Thinking of escaping?" he asked. "Best stop that now," he advised. "I have more wolfsbane set aside just for you, and some nice silver chains to make sure you don't get away anytime soon."
I growled at him, the sound rumbling up from my chest. The effect was somewhat lessened by the tape, which muffled the sound a bit, but even so it was intimidating enough to make the man take a step back before he recovered his composure and smacked me hard across the face.
"Let's stop with that noise, shall we?" He gave me a charming smile. "No point being unfriendly to each other, is there? We'll be spending a lot of quality time together, after all."
Over my dead body. I growled again.
He hit me again, so hard that my head snapped to the side and my teeth rattled. This, of course, only pissed me off more, and I growled a third time. This time the sound of it was so loud it vibrated off the metal walls of the van and echoed around us.
Seeming to decide that smacking me around wasn't good enough, he drew back his fist and punched me in the face. I toppled over backwards and slammed my head against the floor of the van, my vision going pretty wonky for a second as I struggled to recover from the hit.
My abductor took immediate advantage of my being stunned, grabbing my legs and hauling me out of the van in much the same way a person would haul around a worthless sack of potatoes. He carried me across what seemed to be a warehouse and dumped me to the floor next to a pile of silver chains. I flinched away from the silver, and my captor laughed. "You really are part wolf, aren't you?"
No," I said sarcastically. "I'm part chipmunk." Or at least that's what I tried to say. It came out more like "Mrhm. Auhm praghk chiugmyunk" because I was still ridiculously gagged, but the intent to be snarky was there, at least.
My abductor, of course, found my attempts to speak downright hilarious and spent the next several minutes laughing obnoxiously at me. Once done, he wrapped my wrists in silver chains and hooked them to a thick steel ring embedded in the floor. "There we go," he said in satisfaction once he was done and surveying his handiwork. "Nice and secure. Now, just sit tight while I go finish up your travel arrangements. First class flight, of course," he added with a wink.
I managed to flip him off despite the massive amount of burning pain I was in, but he only laughed some more, then left, whistling merrily as he hopped back into the van and drove away. I caught a glimpse of him talking on a cellphone as he went, but then he was gone out of my line of sight again. He paused only to shut the doors of the warehouse behind him, and then the rumble of the van's engine diminished until it was obvious that he was gone.
Well. This really sucks. I twisted my wrists around, trying to loosen the chains even just a little, but the metal just rubbed against my skin more, burning on contact and leaving angry red welts wherever it touched. Shit. I craned my neck around, looking for some means of escape. Nothing looked particularly promising at first, but then my gaze honed in on an innocuous-looking folding chair a short distance away. Obviously placed there so my captor could amuse himself by watching my struggles, it seemed like my best bet of escape, if only I could somehow reach it and break off a piece.
I managed to crawl across the floor until the slack on my chains ran out, which put me almost within arm's reach of the chair. I strained further against my chains, trying to ignore the agonizing pain racing through my body from the silver. Between that and the aconite poisoning, it was a miracle I was even still conscious, much less fighting for escape. But I'm a Storme, and we're nothing if not tenacious. So I reached out for the chair, and after a lot struggling and muffled cursing, I managed to snag it with the very ends of my fingertips, and managed to wiggle it closer bit by bit until I had it close enough to work with. I wasted no time in inspecting it closely and snapping off a piece that I thought would best serve my purposes.
It wasn't easy flipping the thin strip of metal around to wedge it between two links of the chains wrapping around my wrists, but after a while I managed it. I then applied as much pressure as I was able to on the metal, and after a few moments of struggling the silver gave way, the bright links snapping apart and scattering across the warehouse floor.
I scrambled to get the rest of the chains off of me, and once I was free of them I crossed the warehouse as fast my feet could carry me, not wanting to be closer to the silver than I had to be. My next task as carefully unpeeling the tape from my face and spitting out the rag he'd stuffed into my mouth to muffle me. I tossed the rag away, not wanting to think about how it smelled like motor oil and that fact I'd had it in my mouth for what felt like hours. I crouched down as a wave of dizziness swamped me suddenly and I had to take several deep breaths before I felt steady again.
Once I was sure that I wasn't going to pass out, I did a quick self-assessment, which mostly consisted of checking in with my wolf side, which was dazed but functional. I had no doubt that once the wolfsbane and silver poisoning wore off, my wolfself would be more than ready to start tearing out throats, starting with the bastard who had grabbed me.
For now, though, escape was my top priority. So I took a moment to make sure no one else was around, then slipped quietly out a side door. It took me a moment to get my bearings, but a glance up at the sky and the moon gave me a general idea of at least what time it was and roughly where I was, so I set off in the direction of the Quarter. It would be quite a hike on foot, so I hoped a cab might pass by. Given that I was somewhere in the middle of a deserted industrial area that was probably unlikely, but a girl can hope, right?
In any case, I walked off into the night without looking back, my thoughts now turning to my brother and our allies.
A/N: Okay, so it really was a pretty short chapter. But still okay, right? I considered having everyone come charging to her rescue, but Zoe's more the type of girl who can save herself, you know? Not that she won't need rescuing in the future (in fact, I can think of two separate occasions in upcoming chapters where she does need saving) but I think this time it's good for her to save herself. :) Not to mention, I don't know that she's tight enough with the Mikaelsons yet for them to really feel pressured to come save her. Also, I realize that I didn't explicitly state who's behind her kidnapping, but don't worry, it'll come up again in the near future. In the meantime, feel free to guess who's ultimately responsible. ;)
Anyway, the next chapter's going to be tons of fun, with more Ezra and Rebekah moments, including some trouble in the bayou and Ezra getting hurt and having some flashbacks to...well, you'll see. XD
Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a review if you've got a second to spare, I love getting feedback from you guys!