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Now
For a brief, rage-filled second, Silver genuinely considered finding Adam and pulling both of them out. To hell with being a quitter; if there was one thing she despised more than being weak was being lied to and manipulated.
But she knew Adam would never abandon the children, not after he promised their parents he’d do everything in his power to get them back. And she refused to leave him behind—again—which left her simmering in anger.
Damn that hybrid and his good heart.
And just like that, Peyton’s words from earlier suddenly came back to her.
‘Nice to know you’re not as heartless as some claim. Definitely something to keep in mind.’
That sneaky devil had been trying to warn her and implore her to be humane.
Silver swallowed the growl she was dying to let loose, allowing herself a fleeting moment of hesitation before she once again pushed her feelings down.
It was fine. These kids had been raised far away from this place their whole lives. They weren’t dangerous, not to her.
As gently as she could under the circumstances, Silver reached out with her power to the child’s fragile mind and was instantly hit with the strength of Denise’s nightmare. It felt like she was being roughly jostled around, her whole body shaking uncontrollably. It also made her lose her balance for a second, creating the impression that the earth might swallow her up if she didn’t steady herself.
The girl’s gripping terror spread through Silver as if it were her own, but after a moment, she detached from it. She concentrated on projecting a wave of calm that encouraged the dream to come to a peaceful end, and sure enough, the sobs eventually quieted. The little girl blinked as she slowly awoke and sat up, her eyes roaming around her cell in disorientation.
After checking that nobody was nearby, Silver dropped the perception filter and approached the little window at the door. She tried to keep her voice soft as she called out, “Denise?”
The child jumped, and her gaze fell on Silver’s face. Seeing the latter’s eyes startled her so much that she gasped and crawled back, not stopping until she hit the wall.
“Don’t be afraid,” Silver whispered, using a touch of her magic to reinforce the message. “Your parents sent me. I’m here to take you home.”
The little girl was so anxious that Silver had no choice but to increase her magic. Once it started taking effect, Denise stared at her with a mixture of hesitation and hope.
“What about my brother and sister?” she asked in a small voice. “I saw Fa—uh, Lord Henry’s men throw them in other rooms.”
Silver’s her jaw clenched with renewed frustration. Another truth the werewolves had withheld from her: these weren’t some random second gen fledglings. They were Lord Henry’s direct children.
Once the implications of this revelation hit her, her heart twisted with empathy for Alice and Kiera, softening her anger.
But now wasn’t the time to dwell on any of that.
“I’m getting them out too,” she told Denise. “Do you know which cells they’re being kept in?”
“Helen is in one of the middle cells, and Omar is on the other end of the hall.”
The whole time they were talking, Silver was directing her magic toward releasing the lock on the door. Just a little bit more and then—
Click!
She froze, looking around the hallways and listening for the sound of footsteps. When none came, she proceeded to remove the lock and beckoned the child to hurry. Denise approached Silver with fascination, staring intently at her pearl eyes. But she had the good sense not to ask questions and simply pointed down the dungeon hallway.
“This way.”
With the fledgling at Silver’s side, it didn’t take much to convince the other two children to trust her. Soon enough, the three of them stood outside of their cells, staring at her expectantly.
“You’re the angel from the legends, aren’t you?” Omar asked, a hint of wonder coloring his face. “The one who helps people like us?”
The direction of their thoughts was startling, the comparison so inaccurate, it was unnerving.
“I’m not an angel,” she stressed. “I’m here because your parents asked me to bring you back.”
“But you do save people in the supernatural world, don’t you?” Helen pressed, and she seemed even more interested in the answer than her brother. “You work with Chief Levi and Chief Quinn, right?”
“Look, right now, I need you to focus on getting out of here, alright?”
Thankfully, they nodded without protest.
Silver did a quick self-check and found that she still had a good supply of energy left. It would have been enough, had the need to cloak three more people not arisen. Now, she had to act even faster than she’d planned.
She took her weapon out of its harness and brandished it diagonally in front of her. “Alright, everyone get close,” she said in a rush, putting two children on one side and one on the other. “Grab onto me and don’t let go. Not my arms, I need those. Now, stay close together, and don’t touch anything or anyone, understood?”
The siblings took no issue obeying. They flinched when she extended the signature cloak to them and covered the four of them with a perception filter, but they didn’t let go or falter in their steps. The three of them had clearly been forced to grow up too fast. For a fleeting moment, Silver saw a mental image of Reese acting the way they were, but the illusion didn’t linger. These kids were much more sensible.
As luck would have it, they didn’t come across anyone through the dungeon hallways. But as they neared the entrance, a werewolf suddenly appeared in the doorway.
Something about him seemed familiar, but Silver didn’t pause to think about it before she sent a low wave of mind control his way, convincing him that he was starving and needed to get a sandwich right now. The werewolf turned and walked back the way he came. Silver silently followed after him, with the children clinging to various pieces of her clothing.
Navigating out of the castle was trickier than infiltrating it, and not just because she was dragging three kids with her. As they trekked through the halls, Silver had to dodge people left and right. Human servants who worked during the day were slowly waking up and making their way down for breakfast. Soon, it would be too crowded to avoid touching anyone.
Where the hell was Adam?
Silver and the children were now plastered to the wall to avoid doors or corridors where they couldn’t see who was coming. More and more people started filling the hallways, including a handful of werewolves.
“Do you smell that?” one werewolf asked her companion, her gaze locked on the spot where Silver and the children were standing frozen.
The companion sniffed the air and then his gaze followed hers. “Yeah, that’s weird.”
Silver’s strength was waning too fast. She couldn’t afford to send another wave of mind control without dropping the perception filter or the cloak.
The children held onto her tighter when the werewolves slowly approached. She could feel them holding their breath, just like she was doing.
Any second now.
A sheen of sweat dripped down the side of her face, and she gripped her weapon tightly, bracing herself to strike should they get too close.
She didn’t have to, though, because suddenly, an explosion shook the whole manner. Though it sounded closer than she expected, it wasn’t powerful enough to cause any destruction where they stood.
“What the hell?” the first werewolf said as the two took off running.
Everyone within hearing distance rushed in the direction of the blast. Mayhem erupted, and people started running in all directions. Silver took the opportunity to drop the perception filter and secure her weapon back in its harness.
“Run,” she ordered the children before slipping out of their grasps and taking off as fast as she could. She didn’t dare take off the cloak from their signatures, though, and was relieved when the children immediately followed after her.
As she ran, her breathing grew shallow, her movements almost slower than the children’s.
Just a little more and she’d reach the kitchen.
But before she could round the next hallway, she slammed into someone, and all she saw was orange and then a bright purple. The force of the impact made her stumble back and nearly fall, but strong hands grabbed her and steadied her.
“Adam?” she gasped.
“Don’t go that way,” he rushed to say and then turned to the kids. “Who’s ready to go home?”
“The kitchen—” Silver started protesting.
“I blew up the oven.”
“You what?”
“There’s no time. We have to go, now. Keep your cloak on.”
She’d barely opened her mouth to argue when he grabbed one kid in each arm, shifted to his hybrid form, and sped off in the opposite direction. She was left alone with Denise.
“Come on!” the fledgling urged, clutching Silver’s hand and pulling her after the others.
Silver’s vision swam, and her heart felt like it might burst out of her chest, but she forced her feet forward. She couldn’t afford to pass out now, not when their window of opportunity was closing fast. The guards were distracted by the explosion, but it was only a matter of time before someone rushed back out. And besides, the wall they needed to jump over was close.
She could do this.
After what seemed like an eternity, she and Denise arrived at the property wall, where Adam had already climbed over with Omar and was just returning for Helen.
“Adam,” Silver was barely able to gasp.
But he heard her, his face registering concern when he saw her panting and swaying on her feet. His expression then morphed into shock when her magic slipped out of her grasp, and the children’s signature came to light.
To his credit, he barely glanced at the girls before he carried them both, making each one hang from one side of his body.
“Hold on,” he said, before he jumped as high as he could and climbed the rest of the way up.
Silver wasn’t sure who he was talking to, but she didn’t care anymore. Her legs buckled, and she fell to her knees, her vision going black around the edges.
She’d done it. It didn’t matter what happened to her now; the kids would be back with their parents soon, and Levi would help her friends. They’d be safe.
Before she could succumb to exhaustion, Adam’s face suddenly appeared in her line of sight. Her vision was hazy and darkening around the edges, but she heard his voice clear as day.
“Climb on my back.”
Silver had no energy to move. She could barely muster up enough breath to answer him, much less stand. How did he expect her to hang on tightly enough to keep from slipping?
He lifted her up and twisted around so that she was at his back. “Come on, Silver. I’m not leaving without you. You can do it, just hold on to me.”
Something in his words—or maybe his tone?—spurred her on. As soon as he secured her on his back, she somehow found the strength to wrap her limbs around him and cling as hard as she could, which was just enough to keep her in place. He then brought one arm back to hold her around the waist.
Adam had a harder time climbing with her weight than he did with the children, since he was doing it with one arm. His hand slipped halfway up, but he let go of Silver and caught himself before they could fall. Once they reached the top, he didn’t hesitate to flip her around.
“Sorry about this,” he suddenly said.
Silver was confused for a moment, until her reached behind her back and removed her weapon from its strap, which he then handed to her. Before she knew it, he lifted her up bridal style in his arms and jumped. She wanted to complain, but all she could do was swallow a curse word and position her weapon securely, one side on her shoulder and the other clutched between her knees.
“Guys, I’m gonna need you to run as fast as you can, okay?” Adam told the kids. “Think about your parents and uncle Peyton. They’re all waiting for you. Alright?”
They ran at full speed. Adam stayed at the front so they’d be following his lead, but he kept a slow enough pace to match their own and avoid losing sight of them.
Everything in Silver’s line of vision blurred, and her eyes closed of their own accord. She was so tired, she just wanted to sleep.
“You were supposed to mess with the lawnmowers, not blow up the kitchen,” she mumbled, mostly trying to force herself to stay conscious.
“Keep that in mind so you can yell at me later,” Adam panted in response.
“Hate being carried like this.”
“Would you rather I put you over my shoulder?”
There was a smile in his voice that she would have loved to wipe off his face, had she had any strength left. But all that came out was a moan.
Just a little more. She could hold on a little bit longer.
Also, if she was being completely honest with herself, she didn’t totally hate this position. It was actually kind of... nice. For the first time in a very long time, she felt safe. At least, safe enough to allow herself to pass out for a bit.
She became alert again when she heard Kiera and Alice yelling their children’s names, followed closely by Theresa calling hers. However long she had passed out was enough to rejuvenate her a little. She was able to push against Adam’s chest until he let her stand on her own feet, though he still put her arm around his shoulder and helped support her weight.
“What happened?!” Reese was frantically asking.
“She’ll be okay,” Adam told her. “She just drained her magic.”
“Oh my God!”
“I’m fine,” Silver muttered. “I just need a bit of sleep. Put me in the car.”
“Wait!” That last voice belonged to Kiera, who broke away from Omar and Thomas to run to Silver’s side, grasping the latter’s hand in both of hers.
“Thank you,” she said in a shaky voice, tears streaming down her face. “You saved my family. For that, I owe you everything.”
Silver stared at the werewolf through half-closed lids. She wanted to chew the woman out for lying to her, but she didn’t have the strength. She was also annoyed to feel a twinge of jealousy when Kiera called her pack ‘family’, but that was a sentiment she promptly shoved down.
Yet, even without that, Kiera’s words made her uncomfortable. She never could get used to people’s gratitude whenever she successfully completed a mission.
Good thing she had an excuse to dodge it.
“Pregnant when you ran away?” she questioned.
Kiera smiled sadly, though not without remorse. She glanced back at her pack, who were all in various emotional states as they hugged each other and cried.
“Alice and I got the idea to run away after he turned us,” Kiera told Silver. “The kids weren’t even two yet. We couldn’t let them grow up with him as a father.”
“You could have told me.”
“I wasn’t sure you would have agreed.”
Silver had no response to that. It was true; she never accepted vampire clients unless they’d been turned against their will.
To be fair, she’d never had a mission involving children vampires, but she couldn’t say for sure what she would have done had she known the truth ahead of time. Silver’s dislike and wariness of mini-vampires didn’t run as deep as her hatred for their parent species, but it was there. Omar, Helen and Denise might have grown up differently from elites, without any of their father’s supremacist beliefs, but they were still fledglings.
Perhaps the deception was justified, though that didn’t erase the sting of being lied to.
“It’s done now,” she said after a pause. “Time to hold up your end of the bargain.”
Kiera nodded. “We set up a meeting with Chief Quinn. You can follow us there.”
“You’re coming to the sanctuary?” Adam asked.
“It’s our safest bet. We can’t go back anymore.”
As the pack filed into their van, Silver opted to climb into the backseat of her and Adam’s car. She placed her weapon on the floor then lay back on the seat, letting Adam and Reese’s voices act as a lullaby that soothed her to sleep.
