Chapter 35: Torture

Winsloe burst into the cell waving a manila envelope. "Devil of a time finding these buggers," he said. "Larry had already filed them in his to-do box. Way too efficient."

"What do you have there?" Buffy asked.

"Surveillance photos of a werewolf I'd like you two to identify."

"Sure," Dawn said. "if we can. But we don't remember all the faces of all the mutts we've come across."

"That's okay. This one doesn't have a face." Winsloe chortled. "Not a human face, I mean. He's a wolf. If you ask me, all wolves look the same, which is why Larry didn't bother asking you two for an ID. But then I thought, maybe that kind of thinking is too race-centered. You two know, like those witnesses who get on the stand and finger the wrong black guy because all black men look the same to them?"

"Uh-huh." The sisters said.

"So, I thought, maybe all wolf faces don't look the same to a wolf. Or to a part-time wolf." He chortled.

"We'll do our best," Buffy said. "But if we've seen this mutt before, we've probably only seen him as a human. A scent would be better."

"Scent." Winsloe snapped his fingers. "Now why didn't I think of that? See? Race-centered again. I think I'm sharp if I can identify the smell of pepperoni pizza." He thumped onto the bed and tossed the envelope beside him. "A team spotted this guy late last night. No, I guess that'd be early this morning. The wee hours anyway. Very bizarre circumstances. Ever since we snatched you two and the old witch, we've had a team trying to find the rest of your group. We could always use another werewolf, and Larry's pretty keen on getting that fire-demon guy. We lost track of them after we grabbed you two."

Winsloe continued. "That's not exactly a secret, though I'd rather you two didn't tell Larry I told you. He's not too pleased about the whole thing, but I'm sure it makes you feel better, knowing your friends got away. So, we've had this team scouting the area, picking up tips, most of them useless. Yesterday Tucker recalled that group and sent a fresh one to replace them. Keeping up morale and all that. The first team was heading back and spent the night in some backwater motel. Next morning, they get up for a pre-dawn start, go outside, and what do you think they see there, on the edge of the woods?"

"A wolf?" Dawn and Buffy said.

"Glad to see you two are paying attention. Yes, it was a wolf. A big fucker of a wolf. Standing right there, watching them. Now either this is the biggest coincidence in the universe or this werewolf had been following them. Searching for the search party."

"Where was this?" Buffy asked.

"Does it matter?"

"All werewolves are territorial," Buffy said. "Technically mutts can't hold territory, but most stick to a familiar piece of ground, like a state, just moving from city to city. If we knew where this took place, it would help to figure out who it might have been."

Winsloe smiled. "And help you two figure out where you are. None of that, Buffy. Now let me tell my story. So, the guards see this wolf and they figure out that it's a werewolf. One grabs a camera and snaps some photos. The other two go for the tranquilizer guns. Before they can unpack them, though, the wolf vanishes. So they gear up and head into the woods. And do you know what? He's right there, like he's waiting. They get close, he runs, then stops and waits. Luring them in. Can you believe that?"

"Werewolves retain human intelligence. It's not that strange." Dawn said.

"Wait," Winsloe said, grinning. "It gets weirder. You know what this wolf does next? He separates them. Takes a commando team, including a former Navy Seal, and figures out how to separate them. Then he starts picking them off. Killing them! Can you believe that?" Winsloe laughed and shook his head. "Man, I wish I'd been there. One werewolf turning those military goons into blithering idiots, wandering around the woods, getting picked off like blonds in a horror flick. The wolf kills two and goes after the third. And what do you think he does?"

"Kills him?" Dawn asked.

"No! That's the topper. He doesn't kill him. He runs him ragged. Like he's trying to exhaust him, like he wants to keep him alive but too weak to fight. Okay, maybe I'm reading too much into this, attributing human motivations to an animal. Anthro—what do they call that?"

"Anthropomorphism," Dawn whispered as she glanced at Buffy who nodded in understanding. The story was leading towards Clay.

"Right. Anthropomorphism. Hey, that's what your boyfriend studies, right, Dawn? Anthropomorphic religions. Boring as hell if you ask me, but people say that about computers, too. Each to his own. Now, where was I?"

"The wolf," Dawn whispered. "Running down the last survivor."

"You don't look so good, Dawn. Maybe you should come over here and lie down. Plenty of room. No? Suit yourself. So, the wolf is running circles around this last guy. Only something goes wrong."

Buffy looked at her sister and knew she didn't want to hear what came next. Everything was pointing to the fact Clay could be dead.

"Somehow that canny fucker screwed up. Miscalculated a turn or a distance maybe. He got too close. The guard fired. Pow! Dead wolf."

"Let—let us see the photos." Dawn said.

Winsloe tossed the envelope at the sisters. As it tumbled to the floor, Dawn scrambled after it, ripping it open and yanking out the contents. Three photos of a wolf. A golden-haired, blue-eyed wolf.

Buffy could hear the whimper snake up her sister's throat.

"Dawn?" Buffy thought.

"You know him?" Winsloe asked.

"Dawn?" Buffy repeated.

"No? Well, you two are tired. Keep them. Get some rest and give it some thought. Xavier's probably waiting for me upstairs. I'll come back in the morning." Winsloe left.

"Dawn?" Buffy repeated a third time.

"Clay," Dawn said as she handed her sister the pictures of Clay in wolf form.

Buffy looked at the pictures and then set them aside as she stood and knelt down beside her sister. She pulled Dawn into an embrace as another whimper crept up from Dawn's chest.

Suddenly Dawn's body convulsed as Buffy released her and stepped away. She watched as her sister's body went through the Change. When it was over Dawn lay there as Buffy knelt back down beside Dawn and ran her hands through her sister's fur, trying to comfort her.

They heard something out in the hall and knew Winsloe was watching. Buffy was torn between trying to break down the door to get at him or staying with her sister. In the end she stayed with Dawn, Dawn needed her in that moment.

Dawn managed to pull her belly off the ground and hauled herself into the narrow crevice between the foot of the bed and the wall, the one place where Winsloe couldn't see her.

Buffy moved and got behind her sister and laid her head down on Dawn's rear flanks and comfortingly petted her sister's fur. Buffy looked at her sister hoping that Winsloe had lied that the last guard hadn't killed Clay. That they just returned with the pictures and made up the story. Eventually she felt Dawn fall asleep and she allowed herself to sleep as well.

When they woke Dawn was once again human, with her head and torso sandwiched between the bed and the wall and her legs sticking out under Buffy's head.

"Dawn?" Buffy thought.

"I'm awake and apparently human again," Dawn replied. "We have to try and catch Winsloe in a lie, so we can be certain about Clay."

"Agreed."

"Open this fucking door now!" a voice shouted. "Let me out of here!"

As Buffy and Dawn moved from Dawn's hiding place, they recognized the voice—Bauer.

"I know you hear me! I know you're out there!"

They moved to the hole in the wall and saw Bauer banging her fists soundlessly against the one-way glass. Buffy and Dawn moved to the bed and surveyed the room. They decided to shower and make themselves presentable then they would find out why Bauer was in the next cell.

Buffy took her shower first and then Dawn took hers. When Dawn emerged from the bathroom, clean and dressed, she and Buffy returned to the hole and peeped through, Bauer lay huddled at the foot of the door, whimpering and scratching the glass.

The sisters sensed someone in the hall and they walked over to their own one-way glass wall.

"Could we please speak to someone?" Dawn asked. Moments later, two guards entered the cell. "Could someone please tell us why Ms. Bauer is next door?"

They looked at each other, as if debating whether to answer. Then one said, "Doctor Matasumi felt it was necessary to confine her. For security reasons."

"We certainly understand that," Buffy said. "But could you tell us why she's in that particular room? There's a hole in the wall joining our cells."

"I believe they are aware of that."

"They?" Dawn asked.

"Doctor Matasumi and Mr. Winsloe."

"Ah." Buffy inhaled softly. "So they are aware they've given Ms. Bauer a cell with access to ours?"

"Mr. Winsloe felt it fulfilled all necessary security requirements."

With as sweet a smile as the sisters could muster, they thanked them for their time and the guards left. They returned to the hole that was not big enough for anyone to squeeze through, just communicate.

"Open this door, you fucking bastards!" Bauer said as she pounded on the glass again. "Open it or I'll rip out your goddamned hearts! I'm the big bad wolf now. I can huff and I can puff and I'll blow you to smithereens."

Buffy stifled a laugh. Then that laugh caught in her throat.

"What?" Dawn asked.

"Just remembering the last fairy tale I dealt with. You know Hansel and Gretel. And it got me to wondering if Little Red Riding Hood was based off some mutt that went after s real life Little Red Riding Hood," Buffy said.

"Hmm," Dawn said. "That's a possibility."

The sisters then examined the photos of Clay for clues as to when and where they were taken and found out they were from the day before. Which meant that part of Winsloe's story had been true.

"Do you recognize him?"

Buffy and Dawn whirled to see Winsloe and his two guards in their cell.

Winsloe smiled. "Werewolf hearing not up to par this morning?"

"Sorry," Buffy said. "We were busy studying these pictures. He looks vaguely familiar, but we're not coming up with a name."

Eyes still riveted on the photos, Dawn asked, "So, how did Xavier like the cognac?"

"Bastard never showed up," Winsloe said. "Probably passed out somewhere sleeping off that Jack Daniels."

"Probably," Buffy said. "Now, about this wolf you want us to ID, like we said last night, a scent would be better. Get us a scent and, if we've met the guy, we'll know it."

"You two are that good?"

Buffy and Dawn smiled. "We're the best," Buffy said. "If you had an article of clothing or—"

Dawn jerked her head up. "I know. The body. You have the body, right? Doctor Matasumi wouldn't leave the body in the woods for anyone to find. Take us to it and we'll give you that ID."

Winsloe pulled out a dining chair and sat down. "Well, that's a problem. The guard was really shaken up after he shot the brute. Hightailed it back here. Larry and Tucker lit into him like you wouldn't believe. Leaving a werewolf corpse in the woods? We didn't hire these guys for their brains, that's for sure. Tucker rounded up a new team yesterday afternoon and sent them out to retrieve the body. Only they couldn't. Guess why."

"It was gone," Buffy said.

Winsloe laughed. "You got it. They found the spot and they found the blood, but no body. Now Larry's furious, thinking the project's in jeopardy because someone found the body. But there's another possibility, isn't there? That the werewolf is still alive. So, I ordered another team to start looking for our mystery immortal. But don't worry."

"About what?" Dawn asked.

Winsloe grinned. "I know what you two are thinking. Especially you, Dawn. Don't put on the tough-chick face for me. You're worried that we'll find him. Am I right?"

"I really don't care—" Dawn said.

"Sure, you do. You're worried that we'll bring this 'mutt' back here and he'll try to hurt you or Buffy, like Lake did. Or, worse yet, that he'll usurp yours and Buffy's position here, that we'll find him a more interesting specimen and dispose of you two. But that won't happen. I won't let that happen, Buffy, Dawn. You two are too important to me. No other werewolf will take your places. I've made sure of that. Before that last team left, I took them aside and promised a hundred-thousand-dollar bounty for the guy who brings me the head. Just the head. I made that clear. I don't want the live werewolf." He stood to leave and took five steps. Ryman smirked at the sisters, and then pulled open the door for Winsloe. Before stepping through, Winsloe snapped his fingers, pulled a smaller envelope from his pocket, and tossed it at their feet.

"Almost forgot. New surveillance photos. Fresh from last night. Seems Tucker was using his brains, sending a new team to find your friends. They found them. For a few hours at least. They've lost track since, but I'll keep you two posted. I know you two are concerned. Seems they're looking for someone."

"Us," Buffy said.

"Oh, I assume that, but now someone else has gone missing. Our team managed to capture some bits of conversation. Someone's jumped ship. Someone important. Problem is, we're having trouble figuring out who it is. Larry's working on it, comparing these new pictures with our old ones. Maybe you two can see who's missing. You two don't have to tell me, though. I wouldn't ask you to rat out your friends."

Winsloe left. Dawn closed her eyes as Buffy held her. It took several minutes before Dawn was ready to look at the photos. When they did, they found pictures of the group conferring and milling about. Buffy and Dawn didn't need to figure out who was missing. One look at Jeremy's expression told them. Clay was gone and coming after them.

Buffy and Dawn spoke telepathically trying to come up with an escape plan. They had to get out. Not eventually, not soon, but now, immediately, before Winsloe tired of this latest game and upped the ante yet again. They knew that the best hope for release lay with Bauer. How they weren't sure.

Bauer settled down later than morning. When Buffy and Dawn was sure she was lucid, they went to the hole and tried to talk to her. She ignored them.

The guards dropped off the sisters' lunch at one. When they opened the door to leave, Dawn snuck a peek into the hallway, there was no one there. While Bauer was lucid and no one was listening in, Buffy and Dawn could broach the subject of escape with her. Listening for telltale noises from the hall, Buffy and Dawn moved their chairs close to the hole, sat, and peered through. Bauer was pacing.

"Feeling any better?" Dawn asked.

"We don't want to make things worse," Buffy said. "But you know they won't let you out of that cell. To them, you've switched sides."

"If you want out, you'll have to get yourself out," Dawn said.

No response. Not so much as an eye flicker in their direction.

"You have to escape," Buffy said.

Bauer wheeled on the sisters. "Escape? To what? Life as a monster?"

"We know it's bad now, but it'll get easier—" Buffy said.

"I don't want it to get easier!" she snarled, striding toward the hole. "I want it gone! That's what I want them to do for me. Get rid of it. Suck this curse from my veins and make me normal again."

"They can't do that," Dawn said softly. "Nobody can do that."

"Bullshit! You two want me to suffer, don't you? You two are enjoying this. 'Sondra got what she deserved.' Ha-ha-ha. Well, I didn't deserve this. You two never said it would be like this. You two tricked me!"

"Tricked you? We warned you not to do it," Buffy said.

"You two didn't tell me everything."

"Oh, well, excuse us," Dawn said. "When you barged in here like a madwoman waving a syringe and ranting about starting an exciting new life, we should have whipped out our handy 'So You Wanna Be a Werewolf' disclaimer form and made you sign on the dotted line."

Bauer grabbed a chair, hurled it at the hole, and then stomped into the bathroom.

A few hours later, Bauer's sanity made another guest appearance. And the sisters were ready.

"How're you doing?" Dawn asked.

Bauer spun to face the sisters. "How the fuck do you think I'm doing?" She inhaled sharply, eyes closing as if in pain. "This isn't me. This body, this personality. It's not me. I don't use this language. I don't throw tantrums. I don't plead for my life. But do you two know what's worse? I'm still here, trapped inside, looking out."

"Your brain is still accepting the transformation. It'll get—" Dawn said.

"Don't tell me it'll get easier."

Dawn looked at Buffy who nodded. They both knew what had to be said. And what had to be said could only come from Dawn. Buffy couldn't tell her tale; she had been comatose the entire time, she hadn't even dreamed about it like Dawn had.

"When I was first bitten, I—" Dawn said.

"Don't."

"I just wanted to say—" Dawn tried again.

"Don't compare yourselves to me. We have nothing in common. If I gave you two that impression before, it was only because I wanted something from the two of you."

"Maybe so, but we have something in common now. I'm—" Dawn said.

Her voice went cold. "You two are nothing. You two are nobodies who became somebodies by accident. Becoming a werewolf was the defining accomplishment in your lives, and you two didn't even take a hand in it. Your money, your youth, your strength, your position, they're all yours only because you two are the only female Pack werewolves."

"We—" Dawn tried again.

"Without that, what are you two? Two no-name part-time journalists whose annual salary wouldn't cover my wardrobe."

Buffy and Dawn tolled their eyes. If Bauer knew the truth, who they really were.

Bauer wheeled around, stomped into the bathroom, and started the shower.

At seven the guards brought the sisters' dinner. When they came in, Buffy and Dawn were lying on the bed telepathically discussing escape plans. After a moment, they noticed the tray-bearing guard lingering at their table, looking at the photos of Clay. He nodded at his partner and nudged his attention to the pictures. "It's him," he mouthed.

"You know him?" Dawn asked. "The wolf in the photos?"

"Tyrone dropped those off," Buffy said, noting the guard's hesitation. "He figured we might be able to ID the guy, but we couldn't. Seems he caused some hoopla at a motel."

"You don't recognize him?" the one by the door asked.

Dawn stifled a half-yawn. "Should we?"

"Isn't this your mate?"

"Clay? No. He'd never leave the Alpha—our leader." Buffy said.

"Then why—" The guard stopped, turned to his partner, and lowered his voice. "Does Matasumi know this?"

"Why?" the other guard said, not bothering to whisper. "It doesn't matter who the werewolf is. If anyone sees him around here again, we kill him. That's the order."

With that little bit of information, they knew Clay was nearby and coming for them. They knew they had to get out that Clay was unprepared for what lay within the compound. Which meant they had to get out now. And they needed Bauer's help.

It was nearly midnight before Bauer was lucid again.

"You still think they're going to let you out, don't you?" Dawn called. "You know there was someone who would have let you out. Who probably wouldn't have let you get thrown in that cell in the first place? Unfortunately, you tore her to pieces."

Bauer inhaled but didn't reply.

"We know you remember," Buffy said. "It's like you said, part of you is still there, a sane part, watching. Do you remember what it was like? Chasing her? Seeing her confusion? Her disbelief? Listening to her plead for her life? You can still picture it, can't you—the look on her face when you tore out her throat." She paused. "Do you remember what she tasted like?"

A clatter from the other cell. Then retching. The sisters waited. Bauer stayed in the bathroom.

"Who's going to let you out, Sondra?" Dawn called. "Who's going to risk becoming your next meal? Who out there gives a damn? Only one person did and now she's in a garbage bag … or several garbage bags."

"Stop it." Bauer's voice was quiet, almost quavering.

"Maybe you plan to escape by yourself. Then what? Where will you go? Back home, snack on mom and dad?" Dawn said.

"Stop it." Stronger, but still shaky.

"That's what'll happen," Buffy said. "You won't be able to end the hunger and the Changes. Eventually you might gain enough control to survive, but at what cost? How many will die first? You'll start killing because you have to, then keep doing it because you can, because after a while you develop a taste for it, the power and the meat. That's what happens to mutts."

The sisters paused before continuing. "Speaking of mutts," Dawn said, "the first one you meet will kill you. Of course, he'll probably rape you first, as it will be more than likely his only chance to screw a female of his own species."

"Shut up."

"We're foretelling your future here, Sondra. Free of charge," Buffy said.

"Only one person can help you avoid all that. The Pack Alpha," Dawn added. "The question is, how do you get his help? Well, if you escape by yourself, you could show up at his doorstep, plead for mercy. He'll be very nice about it. Invite you in, take your coat, show you to the parlor, offer you coffee. Then he'll introduce you to Clayton. And that handsome face you admire will be the last thing you see. That is, if I'm still alive. If I die here. If even Buffy dies here. I really wouldn't recommend you go anywhere near New York State. The hell you're going through now is nothing compared to what Clay will do to you if we die. You see I am Clay's mate and Buffy for all intents and purposes in every way except blood, is his sister. And he will protect us with his life or exact revenge for our deaths."

The bathroom door slammed. "You're trying to scare me."

Buffy laughed. "You know better, Sondra. You met Patrick Lake. You know what mutts are like. You know Clay's reputation. We're offering you a way out. Help us escape and we'll make sure Jeremy helps you."

"Why should I believe you two to keep your word?"

"Because we're Pack wolves and we wouldn't degrade ourselves by lying to a mutt. To us, that's what you are. A useful mutt, but a mutt nonetheless."

Bauer didn't reply. For an hour they stayed silent in their respective cells. Then quietly, her voice barely above a whisper, Bauer agreed. And they went to sleep.