Redemption: Alchemy Series Book #4 (17 page)

"I'll think about it. Give Dark your name and room number when you see him. I'll figure out if we can use you on a run when I do the next schedule."

I went to turn, considering our conversation over when he grabbed my arm.

I looked down at the hand gripping my forearm and back to his face, sending a silent warning with my expression. He smartly snatched his hand back and quickly spoke in explanation. "I just had a couple of more questions."

Maybe it was my annoyance at this wolf, or maybe it was my emotional turmoil about Cormac, but I didn't hear anyone come up behind me. I wasn't aware of the danger looming until I felt the pinch of the needle that sealed my fate.

***

When I came to, my mouth was gagged, my legs were tied and my hands were bound behind my back. A strip of fabric blocked my vision. If that wasn't bad enough, I was cramped in what felt like a box. I couldn't stretch out my legs, and my knees were pressed against my chest as I la
y on my side. The box swayed up and down with the carrier's steps. The slightest draft of air came through a crack, or maybe a hole they'd drilled. It was alarming and comforting at the same time. I wouldn't die from suffocation, but I might be in here a while.

I could hear people, a lot of them. I didn't know how much time had passed
, but maybe we hadn't left the casino yet.

I tried to scream past the gag but it didn't work. So I started to roll from side to side in the little room I had and bang against the box as much as I could.

"Go in there for a minute," I could hear a man's muffled voice say.

I felt the air as soon as the cover was lifted and a pinch immediately followed.

"I told you it wasn't enough. She could've totally screwed us." My head felt fuzzy and nausea threatened. I tried to breathe deeply through my nose. With a gag, throwing up could be deadly. Everything went black.

When I woke again, some unknown time later
, shivering, my blindfold had loosened just enough that I could see partially out of one eye. It would've been pitch black except for the fire burning outside where I lay, in a nylon tent. I saw glimpses of the flames whenever the flap of the entrance opened with a strong gust of wind. A full moon highlighted the snow around the shadow of four huddled bodies.

I didn't need to test the binds on my ankles or wrists to know how tight they were. The rope burned
where it dug into my flesh. I tried to pull magic, but whatever they had shot me up with clung like a lead balloon to my consciousness, making it a fight to even remain awake. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't muster up even a wisp.

"Are you sure this was the best way?" I heard one of them say. It sounded like the wolf that had stopped me in the hallway.

I just wanted to lie there in the drug-induced oblivion, but I had to concentrate.

"It was only a matter of time before she figured out who we
are," another one said.

Who
they were? I knew it was the wolves.

"How? We could have stayed there forever. She might not ever have known," the first wolf replied.

"If she didn't figure it out, the senator would've told her. We're better off with him, anyway. When he attacks, you know he's going to win. The freaks he's got over there? It's going to be a bloodbath. No, delivering her to the senator in exchange for protection was the right thing to do."

"Maybe that was a bluff to get us to do this?" One of the other two finally spoke. "Other than us, there's no one left that was there that night."

"It doesn't matter," the final silhouette said. "Either way we'd be sitting ducks. She would've figured it out. She's weird. She knew I was watching her even though there was absolutely no way she should've. Who knows what shit she can do."

"Yeah, he's right. Once she knew we were the ones that killed her mother, there'd be no turning back."

Even dazed as I was, the anger roiled off me, cutting through the haze that clung to my mind.

"Shit!" A flap opened and I could see the mist starting to gather around me, signaling the magic starting to gather.

"Get the needle, quick!" They scrambled as I focused on the anger I felt, using the adrenaline to help clear my thoughts. These were the people that robbed me of a mother. Now they were packaging me up and handing me over to the senator?

But before I could do anything, the pinch of the needle and the heaviness of the drugs seized my revenge from me.

"Did you smell the anger coming off of her?"

Shit, I thought as I faded. That's how they'd known I was coming around. They'd smelled it. Where was a ripper when you needed
one?

"Give her another
, just in case."

I felt another pinch and wondered if I'd ever wake up.

***

I heard shuffling noises near my head.

"If we keep drugging her, we might kill her."

Rough hands turned me on my side.

"We're only doing what the senator asked."

"But what about the rumor? You know…the
rumor.
"

"We're dead either way
, if we don't get her to him. Does it matter how we go?"

More feet moved near my head. I felt a tug on my scalp as a foot stepped on my hair.

"And we can't get past the check points. We don't have a choice."

I wanted to open my eyes but I couldn't get them to lift. I couldn't get anything to move, my limbs felt like they weighed a hundred pounds each and my tongue was swollen in my mouth from dehydration. The nausea roiled through me from the drugs and I started violently dry heaving before they stole my consciousness again.

Crazy drug induced nightmares filled my mind with screaming, crying and blood spraying everywhere. Limbs flew, leaving puddles of red in their wake. I dreamt of the rippers and they were making screeching noises that pierced my eardrums; then everything went silent.

I awoke to pain ripping across my face. I thought it was going to be them, the wolves who'd abducted me, but it was Cormac, a piece of duct tape in his hand.

I tried to speak but my mouth was painfully dry and he held a water bottle to my lips for a moment before he reached behind me to cut the binds. I squinted past the light and tried to focus clearly beyond a few feet in front of me.

"What..." I didn't know what to say as I looked around. There was blood everywhere, like in my nightmare. Bodies, or pieces of them anyway, strewn across the ground. An arm lay not two feet
away from my head inside the tent and I felt myself start to shake from shock.

It wasn't
like
my nightmare. It was my nightmare
exactly
.

I could see through the torn tent flaps to where Buzz and Dark looked to be examining pieces of carcasses scattered in the snow. They walked from piece to piece in the stained snow that was various shades of blood red to pink. They both turned and nodded at me as they continued about the area.

Cormac went around to my feet as I pulled my free wrists in front of me and rubbed them. I looked down to where he was trying to cut away blood-encrusted rope from my ankles. It was my blood this time, caked into where the rope dug into my skin.

Cormac looked behind him to where Dark and Dodd were a good distance away, then back to me. "Do you remember any of it?" His voice was soft, not like he was particularly looking to keep the question quiet but wasn't looking to broadcast it either.

"Just remnants." And that was enough.

My hands shook as I tried to raise the water bottle he'd left by my side to my mouth.

He came around and steadied my hand. "Do you remember how you did it?"

"I don't think I did."

I let him take the bottle when I would have chugged it.

"They didn't do it for food. The bodies are torn apart but all the torsos and heads are there." He kneeled by my side. "They didn't do this on their own." His eyes were saying more and I didn't like any of it.

"I was knocked out. How could I have ordered it?"

I started shaking in earnest then and made a futile attempt to get to my feet but I could barely get to my knees.

"How long was I out for?"

"Three days." He reached down and picked me up.

"I'm filthy," I said, embarrassed that he was seeing me, let alone touching me.

He didn't let go but held me closer to him.

"Did they feed you or give you water at all?"

I shook my head. "I don't think so."

"They could've killed you." There was constrained rage in his voice.

"How did you find me?" I rested my head on his shoulder, exhausted in spite of not being awake for days.

"We didn't. The rippers found us and led us here."

We walked out of the tent, me in Cormac's arms. I tried to look at Buzz and Dark, but I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open in the glaring light.

"Did you ID them?" he asked as he walked toward the truck that was waiting close by.

"Yeah, what should we do with the bodies?" Buzz asked.

"Leave them for the vultures to pick at their bones. Whatever doesn’t get eaten can
lie here rotting. Let's go."

He climbed in to the backseat, me still in tow. He reached for a thick blanket on the seat next to us and tucked it in around me.

I fell asleep before Buzz and Dark even got back in the truck.

***

"There you are."

I was surrounded by warmth as a towel ran up and down my arm. Opening my eyes, I saw Cormac lean over me as I reclined in a bath of hot water. An empty IV bag hung in the corner.

"Trying to rehydrate you while you were sleeping. The drugs are still working out of your system. You were pretty pumped up with them so it might take a while to feel normal." His hand dropped the towel in the water again.

"Did anyone see me?" It wasn't vanity that concerned me, I'd spent months asserting myself over a crowd that didn't take to authority. I didn't want them to see me looking weak.

"I brought you in through a back entrance while Dark and Dodd created a diversion at the front."

His eyes roved over my body and instead of being uncomfortable or pushing him away, I met his eyes with a look of my own.

One hand slipped behind my head as he lowered his lips to mine. When I thought it would go further, he pulled back. 

"What do you remember?"

I leaned my head back on the rim of the tub. I replayed all the memories up until they showed up.

His hand ran over my head, pushing the hair out of my face while he waited patiently for me to finish.

"I thought it was a dream. I heard the screaming and the crying but I didn't think it was real."

"Do you remember trying to call the rippers to you?"

"I told you, I don't think I did. I was out of my mind with the drugs."

"Cormac?" It was Dodd's voice from the living room.

"I'll be right there. You okay?" he asked as he stood from his squatting position by the bath.

"Yes."

"I'll be back in a few minutes."

I watched as he headed toward the door and the memories replayed in my mind.

"Cormac?"

He turned and paused, one foot out of the bathroom.

"We need to call a castle meeting. It's coming. They need to know."

His hand gripped the door and his face lost all the tenderness that was there a moment ago.

"I agree. They do."

Chapter Fourteen

Just a Small Affair

The meeting signs had been posted for that night, at my insistence. Cormac had argued that I should give myself another day to get on my feet but I couldn't. Now that I knew it was happening, and probably sooner than I had expected, I just needed to tell them. As if until I spoke the words out loud, and to everyone, they would chew away at what was left of my sanity.

The senator is coming.
Everyone had been waiting for it. It wouldn't be a surprise but I still needed to say it for everyone to hear.

I walked with purpose and a heavy step as I entered the great hall. All heads turned to me and it looked like every single person in residence had shown, crammed into the room and overflowing into the nearby hallways. They knew. Maybe they weren't sure, but they suspected. I guess
, on some level, we'd all been waiting for this moment.

Without thought, I scanned the room for Cormac. He stood next to the small platform I'd asked him to erect. Being short, I wanted to make sure I could see everyone's face
s, and they could see mine when I told them. I wanted to be able to look them in the eye. They deserved that.