Then my eyes fell upon something far more shocking. Three large, square, steel buildings with wide tinted windows—signature architecture of the IBSI—loomed behind us.
The sight sent my head into a tailspin. What? Where are we? Grace and Heath looked equally bewildered. We looked at each other, wide-eyed and nervous.
“What is this place?” I whispered.
Heath shook his head darkly, before breathing, “Wherever we are, we need to stay hid—”
“Intruders!” a male voice boomed through the enclosure.
We spun in its direction to see five men in IBSI uniforms racing toward us through the trees, a mutant on a leash pounding in front of them.
“Run!” Heath roared, and although we had no idea where to run to, being trapped in this enclosure surrounded by electric fences, we scrambled toward the other side of the fence. I was still so weak, I fell behind and it killed me when the other two slowed down to keep me with them.
Running was futile, of course. We made it about eight feet before the hunters released the mutant and it came hurtling after us. Attempting to withdraw my gun while quickening my pace to a speed my body simply couldn’t handle, I lost my footing and fell, dropping the weapon. A sharp pain shot through my ankle. I was sure I had just sprained it. I crashed to the ground, expecting to be engulfed in flames any second as the mutant arrived next to me, blocking me off from Grace and Heath, who’d tried to rush back for me.
But instead, letting out another bloodcurdling screech, it decided to go after Grace and Heath instead—perhaps seeing its battle with me was already won. The hunters seemed to share the same thinking as they too averted their attention to Grace and Heath—but not before collecting my gun.
Using what little strength I had left in my arms, I pulled myself across the ground toward a nearby tree. I gazed helplessly toward the mutant circling Grace and Heath. Heath exhaled a burst of fire, even as Grace made it spread and swirl around the mutant, but it simply shot upward in retreat before unleashing a plume of its own flames down on them.
I craned my neck in anxiety as they backed away behind a thicket and… I didn’t have a chance to see what happened next.
With a dull thud, something dropped down from the tree I was backed up against. Before I could look up, a thick, steely arm snaked around my waist and hauled me upward. My feet left the ground. Something, someone with incredible strength and speed was swinging me up the tree.
Craning my neck even as my stomach lurched at the sheer height I suddenly found myself at, I realized I was staring up at… that man. The werewolf we had freed.
Crap. He was climbing the tree with the power of a single arm while the other kept me bound tightly against him… suffocatingly tight. But at the speed he was traveling, he couldn’t grip me tight enough to make me feel secure.
A round of shouts came from beneath us. I was too afraid to look down now, but as gunshots fired, it was clear they had spotted me escaping. We’d reached the top of the tree by now, and with a leap that made my blood run cold, the wolf man lurched toward a neighboring treetop. And then he jumped again, and again, and again, like a wolf incarnation of Tarzan, from branch to branch, tree to tree, until we had reached the trees that stood outside the boundary.
He paused to catch his breath, but he did not stop here. My heart felt like it was going to give way as he continued to create distance between us and the hunters. Only when the screeching and shouts faded did he swing to lower branches before eventually landing on the ground with stunning grace, as though he were born to climb trees.
The dense wood had become so eerily quiet I could practically hear the blood pounding in my ears. Still gripping me firmly, he lowered me to the ground before standing over me. His cool eyes bored down into mine, his lips parted slightly as he breathed.
There were a hundred questions I could have asked in that moment, but the first one that came to my lips was:
“Why did you do that?”
He furrowed his thick brows, head cocking slightly to one side. He scrutinized me as though he found my question curious. “You helped me,” he replied in a low voice. “Now… I have helped you.”
Grace
As Heath and I backed toward the bushes, the mutant continued to circle us.
Oh, God. Where is Victoria?
“More are coming,” Heath grunted.
A thick iron gate at the base of one of the buildings slid open, and out flew three more mutants. Their screeches stung my ears as they lurched forward.
Heath let out another storm of fire, which I did my best to spread around us as a shield, but of course, these were creatures of fire themselves. Although the blaze was uncomfortable against their skin, they seemed to have a high tolerance for it. The wall of fire that Heath and I were making—Benedict’s wiggling eyebrows couldn’t help but make an appearance in my mind—was more of an annoyance to them than any real kind of threat.
“Come,” Heath whispered, his hand closing around mine. I wanted to kick myself for feeling butterflies in my stomach at his touch, even at a time like this. “We need to find Victoria, and then we need to get to that gate.”
As the mutants were close to forming a full circle around us, we ducked down and darted for the nearest tree, next to where we had last seen Victoria. But she was nowhere in sight now. I scanned the compound in panic, my eyes falling on the group of hunters who had been overseeing the mutants. Strangely, they were all gathered near the border of the fence, firing their guns at the treetops. Huh? Where is Victoria? Why are they shooting at the trees?
Heath and I worked to build up another shield of fire around us as the mutants closed in again. They were getting more and more resistant, more and more daring in the face of it. And Heath was not a full dragon. He did not have the same stamina as his father when it came to unleashing fire.
I continued to cast my eyes desperately about the clearing, hoping that I’d somehow missed her. But she was gone.
“They must have taken her inside already,” I whispered. That was the only thing that could’ve happened.
The blaze enshrouding us made Heath’s eyes glimmer with fire as he looked at me. He clenched his jaw, then glanced toward the buildings. “If they’ve taken her in there, we need to return and get help,” he said. “Two of us won’t be enough to retrieve her.”
Tears of fear heated the corners of my eyes at the thought of abandoning Victoria. But Heath was right. We couldn’t take these hunters on alone. We had to get help.
Some of the hunters had already stopped shooting and were turning from their distraction to face us. If we were going to make a run for the gate, it was now or never. I was sure that they would start firing at us next given that the mutants hadn’t managed to gain control of us yet.
“Now!” Heath hissed. His hand still firmly clasped around mine, he pulled me across the clearing. Discarding our ring of fire to focus all of our attention on running, we found ourselves dodging bullets. But there were too many hunters shooting for us to dodge them all.
A sharp pain seared through the back of my shoulder.
Before my brain could fully register what had just happened, an overwhelming nausea gripped me. It felt like somebody had strapped lead to my feet. I could no longer keep up with Heath. I stumbled, tripping over a rock and falling to the ground.
“Grace!” Heath shouted, rushing to my side. His large hand gripped my upper arm. He tugged me upright while gazing around wildly at the hunters and mutants closing in on us.
With a deep roar that was worthy of any dragon, Heath billowed more fire. Then his right hand slipped behind my shoulder and I felt another biting pain. As he withdrew his hand, he was holding some kind of dart. A dart whose tip was coated with blood. My blood. They shot that into me. A drugged dart? At least that meant they had not intended to kill me… yet.
Hurling the dart aside, Heath slid his arms around my body and with a strong thrust of his legs, he hurtled us the remaining feet toward the portal. Holdi
ng me firmly against his chest, he pushed us both off the edge, sending us spiraling into a freefall through the ocean of stars.
Even as we fell, and the drug flowing through my veins made me feel close to losing consciousness, all I could think about was my cousin. She’s just a human.
Be okay, Victoria. Please be okay.
Victoria
Before I could ask another question of my strange, wild rescuer, he said, “We should continue.”
“No, wait,” I said, gazing up at him desperately. “My cousin and my friend are back there. Heck, my whole family’s back that way!”
He’d looked like he was about to stoop down and haul me over his shoulder, but now he paused. “Family?” he murmured.
“Yes, and where am I?” That should’ve been the first question I asked.
“The Woodlands,” he replied.
The Woodlands. Realm of the werewolves. Well, at least that explained his appearance. But… the hunters?
“What are those hunters doing here? They’ve set up, like, a base?” I could hardly believe the words even as I spoke them.
The man’s face turned somber. He swallowed hard, then nodded.
“How is this possible?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I do not know.”
“Well, where did you come from? What were you doing in that cage?”
At this, he turned his back on me and I could’ve sworn that his breath hitched. His shoulders heaved as he took in a deep, steady breath. “These men with their monsters and steel stormed our halls.”
Our halls?
“They captured my father, the ruler of the Blackhall tribe, along with my whole family. They…” He paused, his voice shaking slightly. “They slaughtered my father, my mother, and all my brothers and sisters.”
Oh, my.
“As for me… I’m not sure what they were going to do with me.” Finally, he twisted around to face me and now I could see why he’d turned in the first place. His eyes were shining with tears. He appeared to be far more out of breath now than when he had been swinging with me through those trees for God knew how many miles.
He brushed his eyes roughly with the back of his hand before clearing his throat. He shook his head, an attempt to regain composure.
My heart couldn’t help but go out to him on witnessing his pain. I guessed that it could not have happened that long ago. I wondered if I might’ve even been the first person he’d spoken to about it.
I couldn’t imagine losing my parents like that. Just thinking about it knocked the breath out of me.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, remembering that I didn’t even know my rescuer’s name. “What is your name?” I asked.
“Bastien,” he replied, his voice hoarse. “Bastien Blackhall.”
“My name is Victoria. Victoria Vaughn.”
Apparently both of our parents had a fondness for alliteration.
A span of silence followed. My mind continued to spin. Could this be the hunters’ way of fighting back? Invading other realms and punishing even those supernaturals who were entirely innocent, many of whom had probably never even set foot on Earth? Tit for tat? I wondered if there were any other bases here, and how many other innocent werewolves’ lives they might’ve affected.
“So you’re, uh, just as new to all of this as I am, then?” I asked.
He nodded. “I do not know when they first entered The Woodlands, or how they marked our territory so quickly. They arrived at our lair in the dead of night. We had no warning. All of us, completely unprepared.” His voice dropped to a growl. Hot anger burned in his eyes. “Cowards.”
“Where is your lair?” I asked.
He cast his head over his shoulder and murmured, “Northward.”
Like that meant anything to me.
“I see,” I said, my mind whizzing as I tried to figure out what the heck I was supposed to do now. My stomach felt tight with worry about what they were going to do to Heath and Grace.
“I need to go back and help my cousin and friend,” I blurted, even as I felt another sharp twinge in my ankle.
Doubt shrouded Bastien’s face before he spoke the truth I was trying to ignore. “You will not stand a chance, Lady Vaughn. We have alerted them now, and they will have that entire yard filled with their beasts on guard.”
“But—” I stammered. “But what else am I supposed to do?” My voice was on the point of breaking and it was everything I could do to stop myself from crying.
“I would suggest that you come with me,” he said. “At least, for now.”
I ran my tongue nervously over my lower lip. “Where to?”
“A secret hideout that my pack established for emergencies such as these. All those who survived the raid”—he swallowed hard again—“and I hope that some survived, will have retreated there, and will likely still be there.” His eyes fell on my ankle, which I realized had swollen up and gone bright red. “It is up to you,” he said, meeting my gaze again. “I could leave you in these woods… but I would prefer not to do that.”
Yeah… I would prefer if you didn’t do that, too.
“All right,” I said, taking a deep breath and trying to block out thoughts of what might be happening to my cousin and friend back in that base. They would recognize Grace and Heath as members of TSL from their uniforms, but if anything that would only make them more likely to mete out revenge on them for trespassing, even though we were a government-recognized organization just as they were. They hated our guts. Every single one of us. “I’ll come with you.”
Grace
By some mercy, I was still conscious by the time we reached the other end. Aching, but conscious. Heath made a concerted effort to land first, and his body balled around mine, protecting my limp one as we made contact with the jungle ground. He gathered me in his arms and stood with me, both of us looking around the jungle. The smoke had all but gone now, but I feared that we were about to meet with more hunters and mutants on this side. After all, they had been the reason we had leapt through the portal to begin with.
I caught sight of Corrine and Arwen, standing behind a cluster of trees.
“Hey!” Heath called.
They whirled around and gaped. “You’re back!” Corrine gushed, racing to us with Arwen. “Arwen and I just finished securing the area with Brock, Mona and Ibrahim. We managed to drive out the mutants—thankfully there were only a few—and put up a temporary barrier extending from this portal to Nightshade… What happened to you? Wh-Where is Vicky?”
I exchanged a pained glance with Heath. Before either of us could answer, the rest of the League came rushing into the clearing. My mother reached me, her turquoise eyes wide and petrified. My father took me from Heath’s arms.
“Grace!” my mother breathed, her eyes roaming the length of me. She gasped as she spotted the wound in my shoulder. I hadn’t even seen it myself yet. “Corrine,” she called.
My mother showed the witch my injury. “What happened to you?” Corrine asked again.
My heart tore as Xavier and Vivienne approached. “Where is Victoria?” they and several others asked at once. “Tell us what happened!”
“We leapt through that portal,” I began, though I was finding it hard to form a sentence. My words slurred into one another.
Thankfully Heath—who had been preoccupied by a strong embrace from his father Jeriad—took over.
“As Grace said, we had to leap through the portal. We found hunters on the other side. They’ve established a base. A gated compound with buildings, mutants, everything.”
Everyone’s jaw dropped, stunned speechless. I was still grappling with the concept myself.
“Grace and I managed to fend off the mutants, but we got separated from Vicky,” Heath went on. “As we raced back to the portal, they shot Grace with some kind of drugged dart.”
“And they took Victoria?” Vivienne breathed, her face paler than my knuckles.
“We did not see them take her,” Heath replied, ??
?but they must have taken her inside. She hurt her ankle while running and we got separated by one of the mutants. By the time we could look for her again, she was nowhere to be seen.”
“What realm is on the other side?” my grandfather Derek asked, eyeing my shoulder with concern, which Corrine was beginning to treat with the assistance of Arwen.
“No idea,” Heath replied. “We just arrived in a compound surrounded by trees. There was no way we could have guessed in such a short amount of time.”
“Right,” my grandfather said, gritting his teeth. He took Vivienne’s hand and squeezed it, then gripped Xavier’s shoulder. “We are going to return and retrieve her from those bastards.” His eyes traversed our group. “We have enough people with us.”
We didn’t have all members of the League present, but we did have a fair number. Aside from Victoria’s parents, there were my parents and grandparents, my great-grandfather Aiden and his wife Kailyn, Rose and Caleb, as well as five witches: Corrine, Ibrahim, Arwen, Mona and Brock. We also had Kiev, Micah and Jeriad… and, of course, Heath. Then there was Kyle, whom I guessed was still in the chopper.
My grandfather voiced aloud my thoughts a moment later. “Kyle will remain in the helicopter while the rest of us go through. But first, let us return to the aircraft to stock up on weapons.” His focus fell on me. “You, Grace, must stay with Kyle until you feel fully recovered.”
I wasn’t sure what Corrine and Arwen were doing, but I realized that the pain had all but gone. My dizziness was also clearing.
“Wait,” I said, wrapping my arms around my father’s neck for support. “Let me try to stand up.”
My father lowered my feet to the ground. I felt much steadier than before. I dared reach a hand behind my shoulder and I felt smooth skin. I realized that I also no longer felt so dizzy.
“The bleeding has stopped,” Corrine said. “But I think you should return to The Shade all the same. We don’t know what drug they injected into you.”