Samhain (Matilda Kavanagh Book 2) (15 page)

“Come on!” I yelled over the cacophony.

I released the power from my hand, letting it strike the ground harmlessly, and grabbed Ronnie’s hand to drag her behind me. We ran for the RV and used it to shield ourselves from the melee. The door was locked with a chain and a padlock.

Ronnie and I looked at each other before gripping the padlock together. In unison, we said, “
Effrego
.”

There was a loud crack when the locking mechanism inside broke. I opened the door and went inside, where I hesitated. I had only expected to find Whelan, but there were half a dozen human teens in the RV. Some were chained to the wall; others were lying on the floor, their eyes glassy and staring at nothing.

“Mattie?” a rough voice whispered.

I saw Whelan chained to a tiny fold-down table between two benches. He was crammed under the table, clutching the pole that held it up. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his face was a sickly white. His usually spiky hair was deflated and hanging limply.

“Whelan,” I gasped as I rushed to him. I gripped his shoulders, convincing myself that he was real. “Dear gods!” I wrapped him in a brief hug.

“How did you know I was here?” he asked as I grabbed his chains and spoke the same incantation to break the lock and free him.

“We’ve been watching Tollis, and your friends came to tell me you were missing,” I said as I helped him stand.

He was unsteady on his feet, but he managed to hold himself up. “Thank you.” He shook his head slowly.

“What the hell happened to these people?” Ronnie asked as she tried to pull up one girl.

“They’re drugged,” Whelan said.

“Drugged?” Ronnie and I said in unison.

“Well, I mean, they were giving them something,” Whelan said, glancing at the prone people. “Could’ve been a potion or something. I smelled a lot of blood though.”

“Gods,” Ronnie whispered. She let go of the girl, who fell backward like an overcooked noodle.

“Ronnie, leave her.” I hated myself for saying it, but there were conscious people we could help.

We moved around the cramped space, breaking open locks and helping people to their feet. We managed to free five people who were conscious enough to walk on their own.

“We’re just going to leave the rest?” Ronnie asked, flinging her arms out as she spun, looking at the four teens who’d refused to help us help them.

“Ronnie, we can’t carry them. Look at them,” I said, pointing at the teens we had freed. “They’re starved and weak. We need to get out of here.” Another explosion erupted outside to underscore my words.

“Frogs!” Ronnie yelled.

“Let’s go,” I said, pushing my way to the door and opening it slowly. I peered around the edge of it, making sure the coast was clear.

As we ran through the trees, we had to keep doubling back to help the teens who were stumbling and falling behind. The sounds of fighting, snapping jaws, and things breaking echoed around us. I felt as if I was in that nightmare where something was chasing me and no matter how far or fast I ran, I could never get away, never reach safety. I desperately wanted to wake up from this nightmare. Gunshots rang out, and I spun to find Ronnie just behind me. Her hands were empty.

“Bats and toads,” I whispered. “
Run
!”

As if driven by the fires of the seven hells, we ran through the trees and clearings, dodging the caravans and cars, the fighting, and the wolves rending flesh from bodies. All the while, gunshots blasted around us.

When I broke through the tree line and stumbled onto the road, I gasped for air as if coming up out of water. Dozens of vehicles were in the road now, and humans used them as shields while they aimed their guns and rifles at the forest. I saw a familiar face just ten feet away. When the girl turned to look at me, her massive mane of brown curls bounced. Her eyes locked on mine, and a slow smile curled over Jane’s lips. Ronnie barreled into me, forcing me to keep going across the street to my car.

I had a small coupe, but somehow we managed to cram eight people inside. Ronnie sat awkwardly in Whelan’s lap, and the other five humans piled on top of each other in the backseat. I had to move my seat so far forward to accommodate them that I was almost hugging the steering wheel. I punched the accelerator and got us the hell away from the warzone.

***

I dropped off the five strange teens at the nearest hospital and instructed them to tell the administrators that they had been held captive by a new werewolf pack that was hiding in a state park. They were to say that they managed to escape when members of P.E.A.C.E. attacked. I told them to leave mine and Ronnie’s names out of their story.

Back in my apartment, Whelan was wrapped up in three blankets on my couch, clutching a steaming mug of hot cocoa. Bu sat in my recliner, staring at his friend, while Laney sat on the floor at Whelan’s feet. Her hands rested on his knees as she looked at him with tears in her eyes.

Ronnie was in the kitchen, helping me cook. According to Whelan, the Weres had been starving the captives until they were delirious with hunger. Once they were willing to eat or drink anything given to them, the Weres fed them a strange potion. After they’d been on the potion for a couple of days, their personalities changed, and they were suddenly very happy to be where they were. Only then were they let out of the RV.

Whelan had only been there for three days, but other captives, the ones who wouldn’t take the cup of potion, had told him what they’d seen. They’d warned him to fight the hunger and said it was better to die than to become the drones the Weres were turning people into.

“What do you think they were feeding them?” Ronnie asked as she stirred the marinara sauce.

I fought to get stiff spaghetti noodles into the boiling water. “I don’t know, but Whelan said that once they took the potion, they would only talk about the beauty of wolves and living with nature and all that.”

“Is that what they think being a Were is all about?”

“I guess.”

“Never mind the blood lust when you’re first
turned
,” Ronnie said with an ugly snort.

“I don’t think you tell people the ugly side of things when you’re brainwashing them to join your cult,” I said, finally getting the noodles fully submerged.

“That’s what you think it is out there?”

“Yep.” I thought about the singing, the empty, smiling faces, and the wide, glassy eyes of the humans milling around the wolves.

“They were going to do that to your friend.”

“I know,” I said, feeling the muscle in my jaw jump as I gritted my teeth.

“What are you going to do?”

“I called Jameson. I’m going to tell him what happened and make him deal with it.”

She nodded. “Good idea.”

Once the noodles were cooked through and the garlic bread was done, I ladled a huge portion of spaghetti and sauce into a bowl and ripped off a hunk of bread, then set it all on a tray. Ronnie poured a glass of milk for me while I grabbed a bottle of healing potion out of the cupboard.

“Whoa,” Whelan said when I set the tray on the coffee table in front of him, “I can’t eat all of that.”

“Eat what you can.” I uncorked the potion bottle. “But you do have to eat, and you need to drink this.” I held out the bottle. I saw him hesitate. A fleeting look of fear crossed his face as he eyed the bottle. I didn’t say anything as I waited for him to get past the fear. He knew I would never hurt him.

Laney took the half-empty cup of hot cocoa from him as Whelan extracted himself from the blankets and let them pool around his lap. With a shaking hand, he took the glass bottle from me. His eyes were sad, but after I nodded, he lifted the bottle to his lips and drank it all. Both Laney and Bu looked a little freaked out. When Whelan lowered the bottle, Laney put her hand on his knee. After a moment, Whelan sighed audibly, letting his eyes fall closed, and the strain in his forehead disappeared.

“Better?” I asked, making Laney and Bu look at me.

“Much.” Whelan nodded. “Thank you.”

I nodded once and pointed at the food on the table. “Eat.” I returned to the kitchen to help Ronnie with the four cups of cocoa, and I grabbed a small bottle of Irish cream. It was a night that called for the hard stuff.

Ronnie handed Laney and Bu their cups before sitting on the floor under the window. I followed her and handed her one of the cups I was carrying. Sitting on the floor beside her, I unscrewed the bottle of Irish cream and poured a generous dollop in each of our cups. After a few moments of blessed silence, except for Whelan’s fork scraping the bowl, Artie padded out of the bedroom. He came to my side and sat on his haunches to observe the three humans.

“So,” I said, breaking the silence, “wanna tell me how you ended up out there?”

Laney and Bu looked at Whelan, clearly wanting to know the same thing.

“I’m not a hundred-percent positive,” Whelan said, setting his fork in his bowl. “The last thing I remember was being at this party. One minute I was there, the next I woke up in that camper.”

“Do you think you were drugged?” Ronnie asked.

Whelan looked at her with those tired eyes that now looked ten years older and nodded slowly. “Me, and a few other people.”

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“Some of those kids that you dropped off at the ER? They were at the party with me.”

“Did any of them remember anything?” Bu asked.

“No.” Whelan shook his head. “Trust me, we all drilled each other, trying to remember something.”

“What about this party?” I asked. “Whose was it?”

Whelan shrugged. “Friend of a friend.”

“Helpful,” I said, earning a glare from Laney. “Save it,” I said to her.

She turned her face away from me. We were in my home. I wasn’t going to get dirty looks from some doe-eyed stranger.

“Why didn’t you have your phone, man?” Bu asked.

“Yeah, why did you leave your phone?” I echoed, realizing I really wanted to know.

“My phone was dead, so I left it home to charge. I didn’t think I’d be drugged and kidnapped and would need it.”

“Guess you won’t make that mistake twice,” Ronnie said into her cup as if she didn’t really want to be heard.

I nudged her with my shoulder, making her snort some of the cocoa. I ignored her muttered curses and returned my attention to Whelan. “So can you tell us anything?”

“It was just creepy. After they were broken and given that thing to drink, someone would come in and take them out.” Whelan looked at me, the fear still deep inside him. He realized how close he’d come to joining those brainwashed people.

“Were the abducted people all humans?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yeah, everyone.”

“Frogs,” I whispered.

“What?” Ronnie whispered back.

“Only humans can be
turned
.”

“I know.”

“Jameson thinks Tollis is kidnapping humans to
turn
them and flood his ranks.”

“Looks like he was right on the money,” she said.

“Yes, it does.”

“You said you called Jameson, right?”

“Yes.”

“Where is he then?”

Before I could answer, there was a knock at the door. Ronnie and I shared a look. I got to my feet and stepped over Artemis to answer the door. Jameson, Kyle, and Spence came in when I held open the door.

I nearly broke my nose running into Spence’s back when he stopped short. I peered around him to see Ronnie staring wide-eyed at the pale Were. Jameson glanced over his shoulder to see where his Third had gone. His eyes met mine, and we shared a smile. I stepped around Spence and led Jameson and Kyle to the kitchen table. I saw the fear and awe on Laney and Bu’s faces and decided it was probably a good idea to keep them separated for the moment.

“My,” Jameson said as he rapped two knuckles on my new sealed-cement countertop. “What a wonderful kitchen.”

“Oh, yeah!” I spun around and touched Jameson’s wide forearm. “Thank you so much. I totally spaced out, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Jameson said with a smile. “Is everything all right? Anything missing or something you need to change?”

“Gods no.” I was trying not to gush, but it was hard. “It’s all pretty much perfect. If there’s anything wrong, I haven’t figured it out yet.”

“Wonderful.”

“But I gotta say, I’m not so sure we’ve got an even trade here.”

“How do you mean?”

“I mean, this probably cost you a few thousand dollars,” I said, gesturing to the small kitchen. With two Weres standing so close, it seemed even smaller. “I just had a ten-minute conversation with Tollis.”

“Mattie,” Kyle said, “you could’ve been killed.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”

“No, he’s right,” Jameson said. “Believe me, it’s a fair trade.”

I stared at each Were in turn, seeing their faces close down as the conversation took a dark turn. They really thought I might’ve had my throat ripped out. I glanced around the kitchen again and touched the cool, smooth counter. Yeah, maybe it was a fair trade, but I didn’t want to think about my too-many brushes with death lately.

“Anywho.” I turned back to the stove and placed a small pot over one of the burners. This called for the hard stuff. I opened a cabinet and pulled down the imported Belgian chocolate powder to make some of the thickest, richest hot chocolate I’d ever made.

When it was done, Jameson and Kyle each accepted a cup of cocoa, but Spence ignored the offer, choosing to stand behind Jameson. I looked from him to Ronnie, still on the floor, and shook my head. I’d never been struck by someone as they so obviously were, but it looked kinda awkward and painful. I sat with the Weres and brought Jameson up to speed on Whelan’s kidnapping and what was happening to the teens at the camp.

“What’s the plan?” I asked. “Do we call the cops?”

Jameson nodded slowly. “We could.”

“But they’ll arrest Jameson,” Kyle said.

“Why? Because he’s the city Pack Leader?”

“Yep.” Kyle nodded before taking a sip of his spiked chocolate.

“That is toad scum,” I said, making Kyle snort.

Jameson shot him a disparaging look. “Be that as it may, it is what it is. We will have to resolve this on our own terms.”