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Jaz fought to open her eyes, battling the drugs in her system. Her mind wandered around, searching for a timeline and how she got here, wherever here was. Her face hurt. Her body hurt. All that kept her from falling asleep again.
Sleep or unconscious? Pay attention!
Why had she been drugged?
She started to drift off
She worked at a bar.
Someone there must have hit her with a needle.
No. That didn’t sound right. Little by little, the pieces of her current life dropped into place. Dangerous jackals had drugged Thea, not her.
Jaz still had no idea how she’d ended up in pain on a cold hard surface.
She reached out telepathically to her wolf. Tarski, need energy.
The words she’d sent sounded slurred in her mind.
Her wolf didn’t answer.
Not good. She dragged herself a little closer to consciousness and called to her wolf again. By the third time, she struggled to not panic. She’d have plenty of time for that later if she ran out of options.
Finally, a half moan, half growl replied in her mind. Her wolf couldn’t send energy if she fought the drugs, too. Jaz curled her fingers slowly into a fist and clenched her teeth, determined to push free of this semi-comatose state.
Not working.
Frustration built until she screamed in her mind, threatening to kill everyone who had done this to her and Tarski.
One eyelid quivered open.
Ha. Not defeated yet. She laughed, even if it had only been in her head.
That eyelid dropped shut. Dammit.
Jaz opened her fist and felt the surface under her face. Rough like plywood. She sniffed. Human and shifter smells. Stuffy, closed up smell, too. Definitely inside some strange place.
She needed her wolf’s energy to break through this mental wall and figure out what was going on.
She silently asked, Do you have any power, Tarski?
Her wolf’s reply barely reached her. A little. You take all. I sleep.
Then her wolf’s presence dropped away so quickly Jaz sucked in a breath. She couldn’t remember being without Tarski after all these years. Her core felt empty.
Had the drugs damaged her wolf permanently?
She refused to even consider the possibility.
Jaz would not waste what her wolf had gifted her. Once she found a way to break free of whatever imprisonment they were in, she’d find a way to save her and Tarski both.
Slowly, a fresh stream of energy trickled into her lethargic arms and mind. She opened both eyes this time and stared at the dark floor.
Please don’t let us be trapped in an underground prison, she silently begged. SCIS used those for the worst shifter criminals. Killing Kaiser would place her high on that list.
She breathed in and out slowly to calm her racing heart as her memory began filling in holes. She’d been in her apartment above the old building with Adrian.
He’d left quickly in his SUV and promised to come back.
Her heart paused there. Where was he? Had the same people captured him?
He wouldn’t find her.
Would he think she took off and never called? He’d be hurt. She had no doubt that something strong had happened between them. He’d felt it too. She didn’t want him to think she’d turned her back on him.
Her eyelids drifted shut again.
But her mind refused to sleep. She recalled stepping outside and getting hit with four powerful tranq darts
That could have been SCIS.
Fear and anger fueled her muscles. She would not allow Tarski to be driven mad like Red had been. Not if she had a breath in her body.
Jaz opened her eyes again.
Her greatest fear had jumpstarted the adrenaline in her body. She could feel that fight or flight adrenal secretion burning off some of the drugs.
That made her nauseous, but it also helped to clear her head.
No time to waste.
Moving her hands to each side of her chest, she forced herself up on trembling arms and stopped at the distinctive clanging of chain. She wore a titanium collar. Cold links of the same metal chained her to somewhere behind her back.
Moving as quietly as she could, she got to her knees, then eased around and sat back on her butt. She leaned against the chilly metal surface at her back, jangling the chain as she did.
She gritted her teeth. How could she move without making a sound?
Listening, she let out a breath when no guard came running.
Her eyes adjusted as she swept a look around her.
Three other women, each an unconscious female shifter. In the dark, they appeared as boneless blobs like she’d been.
Most normal shifters had no unusual energy like hers, which explained why they were still out cold.
Crap. That would be no help.
A wall of titanium bars ran down the center with doors to access the two women across from her.
Glancing up, Jaz estimated the top of the room at nine feet. A pair of doors closed off the right end of this rectangular box room from where she sat.
How long had the four of them been here?
How long would it be until someone showed up?
She got busy searching for any information that could answer her question of who had kidnapped her. If it had been the Blood King, she would probably know by now. That meant she had a chance to escape profiteers grabbing female shifters.
This didn’t remind her of SCIS. They would have put her in a locked area and started interrogating her by now.
What did she have in common with the other women?
The woman on her left had a stocky build, short purple hair, tatted sleeves, pale skin, and she smelled of wolf. Probably two in here since Jaz had only scented one different type of shifter. Some sort of big cat.
The wolf shifter’s shorts and cotton top had been ripped. Deep claw marks flawed her pale skin. The titanium glittering from one wound prevented her from healing. That would scar. She must have hurt her captor. Her chest lifted and dropped in the quiet rhythm of someone unconscious. She slept curled up on her side with the chain connected to her collar running between her and the vertical wall behind them.
Where did the chain go?
Leaning over, Jaz followed the silvery links to where they dropped down a narrow hole behind the woman.
She reached around to the end of her chain also snaking into a hole and pulled.
Didn’t move. Anchored tight to something beneath them.
Returning to her roommates, she glanced across from her cage where a small woman in a long dark skirt and white long-sleeved top, also ripped up, had sprawled out at the left end. She could be a child playing dress up, who fell asleep, but on Jaz’s next inhale she decided that one was the cat shifter. She wore a cap of curls that might be brown.
Jaz sensed a pull on her attention across from her.
She turned to face the third woman who was very much awake. When had that happened?
No scent.
What the hell?
Even humans had a scent.
Seconds ago, this female had been lying down, appearing unconscious like the other two. Since then, she’d sat up and pulled her knees to her chest without making a sound.
Not possible with Jaz’s shifter hearing.
The woman gave her a sly smile as if replying to her thoughts. Drugs were making Jaz a nutcase.
That woman’s smile widened.
Okay, that was just ... not right.
Smart ass, no-scent female’s hands were hooked over her knees. Her wrists had titanium cuffs. In fact, the cuffs were chained to her collar. Any move should have made noise.
Her tattered pants could be due to rough kidnap handling, but something told Jaz that was the normal state of the woman’s jeans. Black hair fell to her chest like an obsidian river flowing across her shoulders. Her skin might be white or a golden tan color. Hard to tell in this darkness.
Jaz’s wolf had excellent vision at night, but her ability to see so clearly in human form with zero available light surprised even her.
The woman across from her sat calmly observing.
Jaz kept her heartbeat steady when it wanted to take off like a horse running for the barn at dinner. She tried to pull her gaze away, but something forced her vision to remain locked on that woman. In the next moment, the woman’s eyes became a bright silver color.
Oh, hell. Her eyes glowed and she had no identifiable scent.
Was she a Power Baron?
The woman snorted. “Hardly.”
Had Jaz said those words out loud? No, she hadn’t. Not wanting to alert the guards, she licked her dried lips and quietly asked, “Who are you?”
“I’m like you in many ways.”
“You mean kidnapped?” Jaz snapped, not in any mood for weird shit, which was saying something coming from a shifter. Jaz ran her hand through her filthy hair and paused. She pulled her hand back in sight.
No cuffs. The other two shifters had no cuffs either, only this strange woman.
Wait. A. Minute. Jaz’s arms shed a soft glow.
Leaning forward, she whispered, “What are you, dammit?”
Smiling insolently, the woman said, “What would you do with that information if you knew it?”
“Argh!” Jaz sat back. “It might help us figure out how to escape unless you want to stay.”
The woman popped off, “But I do.”
Clamping a hand on her forehead, Jaz muttered, “Just my luck to be imprisoned with someone who doesn’t want to escape.”
“You must be here for a reason, too,” the woman said.
Was Jaz here because she’d been hunting Daisy? She lowered her hand and gave the psycho ward escapee a long look.
“That’s not nice.” The woman didn’t appear insulted though.
Besides, Jaz had thought those words. “What’s your name?”
“Percee.”
“I can’t scent you and I’m a wolf shifter.”
“I know that.”
“Which?” Jaz asked. “That I’m a shifter or that I can’t scent you?”
“Both.”
For once, Jaz was glad Tarski didn’t have to go through this. Her logical wolf would probably lose it when Tarski never lost her patience.
Once again, Jaz asked, “Seriously. What are you?”
The woman waved off the question and her damned chain didn’t make any noise. Percee said, “Answering that properly would require too much time. Besides, I’ve got enough to save who don’t have your benefits. You’ll figure your way through this.”
Benefits? Where had this woman come up with that? Jaz frowned. She decided to take Tarski’s tact in a situation like this. “It sounds like you’re better informed than me—”
“Took you this long to figure that out?”
Damn woman. “Look, Miss Freaking Know It All. Do you have any idea how often the guards come by?”
“I know exactly when they’ll return. I’ll make sure to alert you since you seem to be having a tough time adjusting. Is that a normal flaw or did you learn it on your own?”
Jaz just stared at her. “Are you off your meds?”
Percee waited a second, then burst out laughing.
“I don’t care what you think,” Jaz grumbled.
“Lie.”
Well, hell, now Jaz couldn’t get a lie past some non-shifter stranger?
“Not past me,” Percee boasted, once again replying to Jaz’s thought. Tapping her cheek, Percee said, “I’ll give you something fun to think about. If you knew what you are, you would know what I am.”
Jaz wouldn’t even address that. What kind of bad luck did a person need to end up with a certifiable supernatural?
“That’s uncalled for,” Percee criticized. “I haven’t called you a halfwit.”
“Halfwit? What the hell is that?” Jaz demanded then realized what had happened again. “Okay, that’s enough. Are you reading my mind?”
Percee stared down as if focusing on something. She looked up and snapped her fingers. “Not halfwit. Idiot. Sorry, I got that one wrong the first time.”
Fisting her hands, Jaz lowered her voice to a lethal tone. “First, I’m not an idiot. Second, answer the damned question. Are your reading my thoughts?”
“No.”
Jaz pulled on her senses. Percee had not lied.
Percee added, “I’m only listening to your really loud thoughts. You should tone that down some.”
Shaking her head at all of this, Jaz said, “I give up. I’m here in some time warp. Do you know where we are?”
“No time warp. You’re still in current day in the human world. Our actual location doesn’t matter.”
“It does to me,” Jaz said and managed to do it without yelling. If her head didn’t already hurt so badly, she’d bang it against the wall.
For arguing about their location being important to Jaz, she got a frown from Percee, who then criticized her. “It will change soon. Your generation lacks patience.”
Even in this darkness, Jaz didn’t see a big age difference between her and this woman, who couldn’t be thirty yet.
“Thanks for the compliment.” Percee lifted an eyebrow at her, grin stuck in place.
Did this woman enjoy being captured?
Percee shrugged. “Shit happens, especially when it’s part of the plan.”
Jaz remained quiet rather than be criticized again or think something the nosy one across from her would hear.
Percee sighed. “Okay, no drama. We are being held in a temporary place while our captors make plans to hand us over to the Blood King once the price is high enough.”
“You know he exists?” Jaz whispered. The people who had told her about him avoided even saying his name, referencing him only as the wolf king.
“Well, duh. I wouldn’t be here if the Blood King didn’t exist.”
Laugher bubbled up Jaz’s throat, an insane sound.
Percee asked, “What’s so funny?”
Staring at the enigma driving her nuts, Jaz explained, “Just to be clear, I find nothing humorous about this situation. It’s more irony than anything. I’ve met only a few people who believe he’s real, but no one since I reached the Southeast. I’ve been hunting the Blood King for weeks.”
“Well, hot damn. Look how things worked out,” Percee said, slapping her knee.
“Forgive me if I’m having a hard time celebrating right now,” Jaz muttered. Her head ached and she’d kill for a glass of water.
Percee observed her like a new discovery in the world of bugs for a few minutes. This time, her words sounded more like they came from a sage advisor and not a teacher admonishing a child. “Your hunt is near its end, but once he gives you what you need, you must escape.”
If every part of her didn’t hurt so much, she’d laugh. “You think I should escape? Careful, Percee, or you’ll end up with a nickname like Captain Obvious.”
Tapping one finger on her other hand, Percee wrinkled her forehead in a thoughtful way. “Nope. He’s boring. I’ll keep Percee.”
At a loss for how to talk to her, Jaz returned to an earlier question now that they seemed to be conversing. “Are you a shifter?”
“Yes.” Percee’s finger stayed busy tapping as if she needed to keep some part of her body moving.
She offered no additional explanation.
“What kind of shifter?”
The woman cocked her head in an odd movement, one that didn’t remind Jaz of most animals. “What I shift into is not important.” Her tone amped up with authority. “Listen to me. When you escape, and you will, you must find your mate.”
“Mate?” Jaz asked, incredulous at the topic. “Yep, that’s on the top of my list right now.”
All appearance of Percee being relaxed and joking vanished. Not missing a beat, the woman’s voice gained power until Jaz felt the words vibrate her body.
“Listen carefully. You’re special. You belong to only one mate. Get out of here and stay free. Don’t go racing into dangerous places alone. You have a destiny. Find him. He’ll eventually find you, but with no one to help him, it could take a while. Before you ask me how, because you’re more persistent than a talking doll stuck on replay, your energy will recognize his.”
This bizarre conversation reminded Jaz of Adrian. He had a damaged wolf he might never heal, and she had every law enforcement and bounty hunter after her.
Neither of them had any hope of mating with the lives they had.
She told her annoying new friend, “I appreciate your concern over my love life, but I’ve got bigger problems right now. What can you tell me about the group who caught us and if you have any idea of how I can escape before I’m handed to the Blood King?”
Percee dropped her head to her hands and muttered something harsh. Then she lifted her head and tilted it back to look up. “I can’t believe I’m stuck dealing with this crap. I am not cut out for drama. Oh well, what the hell? I tried.”
Jaz slapped a hand over her eyes, grumbling, “What did I do in a past lifetime to deserve this?”
This time when Percee spoke, her voice sounded as if she sat right next to Jaz’s shoulder. “I didn’t ask to be here and I’m not talking about being captured. I’m stuck with my destiny, just as you are. I need to know more about you to be sure, but my senses are generally spot freaking on. I haven’t run into one like you for a long, long time. After today, I’d just as soon not run into another one for a long time. You can blow off what I say or heed my words and make the right decision. If you do find your mate, and he turns out to be a shifter unlike any others, come back for me if I don’t leave before you. If not, stay away. That’s why I’m not telling you any more about me. The less everyone knows about me until I’m free, the better. The guards are coming. Shut the hell up and pretend to be unconscious. Do it now.”
Shocked, Jaz dropped her hand and looked to her left. No one was in the cage with her.
She cut her eyes across the room where Percee had scooted to the back wall of her cage with her head down. She lifted her eyes one more time and Jaz frowned at the odd silver eyes right before the glow died.
Racket banging around outside the double doors at the end of their room stole Jaz’s attention.
Just before the guards appeared, the woman’s voice hissed in her head. Play possum! Use what I gave you later.
Jaz dropped her body to the floor as she’d been originally before she came awake.
What had Percee given her?
Peeking through her lashes, she kept her breath steady as the rear doors opened and two pairs of boots walked down the center. The boots stopped at her feet.
He kicked her.
She kept her teeth clenched against the pain.
She’d love to shift and take them both down, but that would never happen while she wore this collar.
He walked to the corner on the other side of the woman on her left and plopped down with a mobile phone.
The rear doors closed with the distinct sound of being locked on the outside.
Jaz kept very still.
The diesel engine revved. They were moving the truck. That meant she was on the way to the Blood King.
She needed a plan fast and had only one friend. Hey, Percee. Do you hear me? Percee?
