"I'll whistle for you." The fire crackled with the irritating words.
"No way." I barked out. It was an idiotic plan.
Black smoke billowed from the makeshift pyre that'd been made for the disposal of vampire parts. It, as always, smelled sickly sweet in an unnatural way that my pack-brothers and I had grown accustomed to.
Bella leaned against a tree, the garish fabric of the flannel we bought for her singed black from the soot. I'm up above her with a hand cocked on my hip, more than a little annoyed with our conversation.
"Ughhh. We are going to get ambushed again if we don't hurry! Stop man-spreading and let's kick some ass." Bella's voice is the shrillest I've ever heard it, but she had a point.
Only a small one, though.
"First off, downplaying my concern for man-spreading is beyond rude. Second off, man-spreading isn't a thing?" I asked. We are definitely getting off topic.
All went still when a sharp, load crack and a harsh scream reverberates around us. Bella's head shoots up and she vaults over my head in a fraction of a second.
"Drayer." Her barest whisper is all I need before I'm behind her with my clothes shredded. Bait. These bastards were baiting us without a shred of decency.
There wasn't any ransom note or grand scheme that led up to a hostage being tortured out in the open. The fuckers just did it and expected us to show up. And if we didn't show up? The bastard ghost had said it himself: Drayer was running out of time and only Bella and I would show up on time.
The trees blended into themselves as I pushed myself past Bells and towards the horrific cracks of sound. Her tiny hand attempted to grasp my fur in her fingers to stop me, but to no avail. I am just faster. She wanted to get captured and have me play safeguard in the shadows? It was a death wish and both her and I knew it.
"Paul, you idiot." She hissed behind me before I lost her far behind me.
If I survive this, she's going to kill me. The thought zipped through my mind before I bound into the clearing that smelled like blood and pain. The sight that met me made my stomach lurch.
The red-headed leech stood in the center of the field with a bloodied whip in her hand. Her bloodied boot pinned a man's muscular, lacerated back to the earth. He wasn't a big man, but the dark hair and translucent skin told me all I needed to know. The fact that a weak bitch like Victoria could hold Drayer down with a single boot let me know his condition.
A peal of laughter split the air as I leapt towards the whip-yielding leech. I was kicked in the face by something fast and as a result destroyed a tree from the impact.
"Well, you're not the general's daughter." I cracked my eyes open in a squint. The bastard that kicked me stood thirty feet away. He was a muscular man with violet eyes and he sighed in disappointment as he looked me over. A fae. Vamp scars ran all over his face in a horrifying pattern. "John, is this your brat?"
My father stood behind him next to a silent young woman with a sinister smile on her face. My blood chilled.
A gurgling sputter and Drayer's face forced itself off of the ground. "Jack, you son of a bitch. Call your cousin by her name."
Insanity etched into a delightful leer in his eyes, Jack laughed fully. "Family doesn't matter much anymore, Drayer. Grandma here has been showing me that for years while you bastards kept on without me."
"We thought... you were dead." The whip rained down on Drayer's back again. A weak grunt followed.
The young woman laughed once again. "Now, Jack. You make me sound abusive. After all, I made good with my deal after I captured you all those years ago. Your pathetic little mate still lives." Blue eyes focused on me as though I were an inconsequential after-thought. "Perhaps this wolf could gain me a similar slave in Bella. The leech who smelled of her has overstayed his use with the seer and soldier now dead."
Damn. As much as I hated the Cullens, that was messed up. The idea of becoming a hostage so Bella would do this lady's bidding was sick. I struggled up to my paws. Bells would be here any minute, and then that nightmare might actually become a reality.
Running was no longer an option. Fighting back was even more hopeless. Two vamps and two fae versus a half-fae and wolf was the equivalent of a cosmic joke.
The best bet I had was to give Bella enough time to get away. A distraction. So I had to go for the weakest out of this group and hope that Medora would still value me as a hostage.
I began an uneven lurch towards the group when a sudden unbearable pain spread through my spine. I shifted back in a horrific fashion to my human form. I rocked back and forth in a frantic rhythm. A terrible, high whine penetrated the air. Somehow it was coming from my mouth.
Then ice spread everywhere. I'm sorry. An angel's voice, my angel's voice told me.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Bella's POV
His fur slipped through my fingers. "Paul, you idiot." Panic shot through me as the large grey wolf disappeared from my sight. Drayer's screams kept coming for what seemed like an eternity before they stopped. I ran as fast as possible, my lungs burning through my chest.
And it was then that something cold hit me hard. Everything stopped. The world around me became dark and grey. But my body kept moving mechanically, and it was as though I was just along for the ride.
I tried to open my mouth to shout but even that was a futile quest. My mouth twitched a fraction of an itch.
"Keep calm, Bell. This is the only way." My voice spoke at me soothingly. I struggled against the sudden compulsion to slip out of my skin, away from the situation.
A growl ripped through my chest. "You never make anything easy, do you? I'm trying to keep you and Drayer alive."
Images, black and gray still, slid through my mind of Drayer sitting alone in a cell. He was staring at the ceiling, his eyes damaged and his hand tapping the side of his other hand in a rhythmic motion. Plotting. That tick of his hadn't changed for as long as I could remember.
"What does it mean?" I could now move my mouth.
It means that Drayer isn't the one that is leading you here with the screams. Medora has plans for him to die, but only when the General will be there to see. A familiar voice stole my heart. Ben...
"You're possessing me!" I accused.
"I'm taking away your talking privileges again." The statement came out in a smug confidence that only Ben had been capable of when he was alive.
"Talking priv-" My mouth didn't work again. Suddenly his plan became crystal clear to me, as if the possession required too much energy to sustain all operations.
No. The rejection of the idea beat against my brain and rattled. I fought against the invisible restraints shackling me, desperate to stop the pain that my body would bring Paul's.
This is the only way for all of this to end. Ben thought sadly at me. You can hate me all you want, but you'll still be alive. My weapon slid through my palm, and my heart thundered rebelliously.
We stopped our sprint and went into creep mode once it became clear that we were close to the trap. That beautiful grey wolf was growling at a group of people that appeared to be holding Drayer down to the Earth. But the pull that I could always feel when in close approximation to my brother was not there.
An illusion. A powerful illusion that would take a handful of castors to create. When the fuck did Medora get so many castors on her side?
Ben steered my body in a lunging position, my traitorous sword prepared to do what it never should. You should let me push you out of here for this. There's no reason for you to remember this. Another gentle shove on my psyche, trying to take me out of my body.
I didn't so much as budge. I hate you. Ben didn't so much as flinch at the statement.
As long as you live, I don't care. A whisper before my body impossibly flew through the air towards Paul.
The blade slid into beautiful fur and sliced from the beginning of his hip to his shoulder blade. His blood sprayed onto my face along with my panicked tears until I landed on the ground. Hollow. Everything crept along so hollowly like the Earth was no longer real.
A terrible scream shook me out of it.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No amount of internal screaming would make my mouth move, or let me run to Paul to see him.
Instead I looked up eerily at the group with my head cocked to the side. I dropped to my knees and drew my broadsword up to my body.
"We surrender." Ben said.
Paul's unconscious body was dragged by Jack. Ben glared at my cousin as Victoria shackled our wrists with iron cuffs. Our skin sizzled and smoke rose into the air. We didn't scream, biting our lip until it bled. I was glad the black and white vision stopped us from seeing the fiery locks of that bitch.
He was the last friendly face I saw. The day I died. He whispered as we watched Jack. There was no anger in that whisper. Only wistfulness.
I didn't respond. He wasn't the Ben that I once knew. Who cared about the past with Paul so hurt? Ben wouldn't even look down so we could see if the bleeding had stopped.
"Half-breed." Medora's sleek blonde hair glistened in the daylight while her wrists clanged with heavy gold bracelets. Once, before my Grandfather had died, he had told me Medora would only wear jewelry on their anniversary.
She never wanted to make my mother to feel left out since the warrior-born rarely wore jewelry. Stories like these had never failed to astonish me, but Grandfather had wanted someone to talk to. It had pained and tortured him that she had betrayed everyone and everything for her goals.
"So much pain and suffering for nothing." Grandfather's normally monotone voice was choked in emotion. He, like all fae, looked young and strong but his eyes said everything but. Mom and Drayer had told me that he wouldn't be with us much longer.
He was the only fae that I had seen die of a broken heart with a living mate.
"I can't wait for you and your brother to bring my dearest Renée to me. She's caused an awful amount of trouble lately with the raids she's been leading." Medora still gracefully led in front of us without a single glance back.
"I must say, what Jack was telling me about those abilities of yours, you'll make an excellent tool for me for the New Order. To avoid detection when frightened is invaluable..." Medora murmured thoughtfully to herself. I wondered why she was even bothering to pretend as though she was speaking to me. Our march suddenly ceased when the blonde, beautiful woman went motionless.
Frozen eyes that I knew to be jade green, ones that Grandfather had cried out for in his last moments, met mine. A thoughtful smile marred her pale, familiar complexion. "Are you frightened now?"
Ben allowed me to speak. After all, a heartless ghost might not be so great at expressing my emotions. "No." I hadn't felt fear since Paul was injured all those nights ago when Drayer was taken. Now I was just pissed off at Ben and her, unbearably sad over stabbing Paul, and ready for this to be over. One way or the other.
Those glacial eyes assessed me for another moment. "I'll have to change that." She whipped around, clearly uninterested in my existence once again.
Fae and vamps, more than I could count, suddenly appeared from the trees to join us. In this fashion, we continued our march into the dark pits of Medora's dungeons.