Chapter 55
“I’m sorry, Luna,” I mouthed the words, then started to tear open my arm. Suddenly, I felt her breathing slow down. I turned and looked at her back. The bleeding had almost stopped and the wound was closing right in front of my eyes.
She sat up and transformed as soon as she had gathered enough strength. Her smile looked weak as she reached to hug me. “Thank you, Gen,” she whispered, tears streamed down her face. “You saved my life, even after I was so ugly to you before.”
When she pulled back, I saw the tenderness in her big brown eyes and was thankful I didn’t have to turn her. “I already forgot about it.” I smiled warmly. “You’re my best friend, Luna.”
After I stood up, I pulled her to her feet. “Let’s get back. I’m sure the guys are waiting for us.”
Joseph was waiting at the tunnel entrance. He had transformed and was squatting next to the wall, chewing his thumb nail nervously, when we got back.
“Where’s William?” I asked earnestly.
Joseph averted my eyes. “He’s uh…he’s down there,” Joseph said, and pointed at one of the tunnel’s entrances.
I didn’t like the look on his face, so I started to take off, but he reached out and grabbed my hand, pulling me back.
“Wait, Gen! I need to tell you something first,” he said, then raked back his hair, and started pacing. “Look, I don’t know of an easy way to say this, so I’m just going to say it.” he stopped and faced me. “I got back first, so I decided to follow William’s tunnel. I figured you two girls together would be fine.”
Luna and I quickly glanced at each other before looking back at Joseph.
“Gen, there’s no easy way to tell you so I’m just going to be blunt.” He paused and took a deep breath. “William is with Zane. I’m not sure what they’re doing, but it didn’t look to me like they were enemies.”
I felt a huge knot form in my throat when I tried to swallow, but I quickly pushed my feelings away. “Did you see my mom or my aunt?”
“No.” Joseph shook his head. “Only William and Zane.”
“What about lycan? Did you run across any?” I asked Joseph.
“No…I mean, I could smell they had been there, but I didn’t actually see any.”
“That’s weird. Luna and I were jumped by a dozen or more of them. Why would they be down that tunnel if Zane is down this one?”
Joseph’s eyes got huge. “What? Why didn’t you scream or something?” he asked frantically.
“There wasn’t time. They were on us before we knew it. But, we took care of them, didn’t we Luna?” I peered at Luna and smiled secretively.
“That’s right. You should have seen Gen. She was totally awesome,” Luna said, putting her arm around my shoulder.
“Come on, let’s go back to where Luna and I were. There’s a reason lycan were there.”
I lead the way after Luna and Joseph transformed back to wolves. When we got to the mouth of the other tunnels, Luna spoke to me in my mind.
The lycan scent is heaviest in the tunnel on the far right.
“Remember. No matter what happens, if we find my mom, I want you guys to take her and get out,” I said, as we started down the new tunnel.
The tunnel turned slightly toward the right and I swear I felt like we were headed in a big circle. As it turned a little more, I saw a light flickering in the distance. There also appeared to be a ladder leaned up against the wall.
We stopped just before the ladder. My heart fluttered nervously. “Something tells me I need to see what’s up there.” I paused, as they both transformed.
“Let me go,” Joseph said. He was trying to be our protector, so I decided to appease him.
He disappeared through the hatch at the top of the ladder, but came back a couple minutes later. “It looks like someone’s basement.”
“Maybe these tunnels were built as an escape route,” I said incredulously. “Let’s go back to where you saw William and Zane. I’ll make them tell me where mom and Aunt Bev are. Then I’ll kill them both.”
I bolted without even waiting for them to transform. I was tired of playing Zane’s stupid games. If he wanted a fight then he would get his wish. And when I finished with him, I would deal with William. If he was lying to me again, I would kill him with my bare hands.
Luna and Joseph hadn’t yet caught up when I entered the same tunnel William had gone in. I stopped for a second and closed my eyes to calm my heart so William couldn’t warn Zane I was coming.
I smelled him long before I saw him, but something wasn’t right. William’s heart was racing, and his heart never raced. Well…except for when he turned me. Even though we hadn’t had sex, he said blood drinking was just as intimate especially if it was with someone you truly loved.
A nervous pit deep in my stomach told me he was in trouble. It would serve him right for trusting a monster like Zane and lying to me.
I stopped just before the tunnel’s end and peeked around the corner, spotting a small waterfall coming from a pipe up by the ceiling. Waterfall? Maybe this is what my mom was trying to show me all along. It flowed into a pool that ran under the wall. I scanned the room and gasped when I saw William hanging upside down next to a fire pit in the center of the room. He was chained by his ankles to a tall iron A-frame. It appeared to be some kind of system for skinning large animals, like bear or moose.
“William,” I called out quietly. He didn’t move. “William,” I called out a little louder. I was afraid he couldn’t hear me over the noise of the waterfall, but then his fingers on his right hand twitched. “I’m here.”
One side of the room had been fixed up with make-shift bedding, chairs, book-lined shelves, and other home-like comforts. Across from that area I spotted a doorway. I quickly got the feeling that behind there was where he was hiding my mom and aunt, which meant I would have to deal with him before I could get to them. Although, dealing with Zane might prove to be kinda hard considering he was nowhere in sight.
I was about to go back and look for Luna and Joseph when I heard a noise in the room and moved back to the edge of the tunnel. I caught a glimpse of Bev escorted by lycan. I wonder where my mom is.
I threw a small pebble at her feet and she glanced my way. We locked eyes briefly just before they went back out the door. She had a weird look on her face and I wasn’t exactly sure why, unless maybe she was shocked that I was able to find the tunnels. Hopefully, they were keeping her and my mom together, and she’d tell her I was coming.
Zane suddenly pushed through the same door Bev and the two lycan had just gone out. He started pacing the floor and saying something I couldn’t quite hear over the water noise. I leaned a little closer and part of the tunnel wall gave way under my hand, sending rocks sliding out onto the floor.