The Dragon's Mate, page 11
His mate was a warrior. And nothing was going to stand in his way. “We’re going to have to storm the council.”
“I wouldn’t recommend that,” Kael muttered. “They’ve made some changes around there. Things that… you’re not aware of.” He spoke vaguely.
Kael kept allowing the council to make changes for the worse. He’d been allowing things to happen, even though he was trying to make changes. It seemed Kael might be playing both sides.
Conley was frustrated and impatient. “Do you have one of the black boxes on the roof? Is that what you mean?” Conley huffed.
Conley pointed to Kai’s computer. His brother was already on the same train of thought. They had looked at the roof a few times and hadn’t seen the device. Kai kept the phone on speaker and set it to the side as he pulled the satellite image of the building up on the screen. The device they had seen before wasn’t there.
“It’s not on the roof. The device is in a secure location.”
“Where?”
“Calm down,” Kirin urged.
He shook his head. “Not until we take down Gideon and save Nyx. Until then, I plan to stay fired up.” Steam spilled from his nostrils. The smell of ash filled the room. His dragon was really close to exploding, and if that happened, the building would go down in a flash of ash.
Kai pinched the bridge of his nose. “Literally, I see. Okay, then go someplace fire retardant. I can’t have you burning down my building.”
Alida walked over and placed her hand on Conley’s. “We will get her.”
The young girl’s words settled his dragon marginally enough to stop the steam from coming out his nose.
“Let me make arrangements. I’ll call as soon as I buy my ticket,” Kael announced.
Alida stepped toward the phone. “Just send me a picture. A selfie. Take one. I’ll go.”
Kirin eyed the young girl before Talia reached out and laid a bare hand on Alida’s shoulder. Talia’s eyes glazed over like Alida’s had earlier. A few seconds later, she blinked a couple of times, clearing the haze from her eyes. “She’s rested enough to make the trip there and back.”
Kirin grabbed the young girl’s hand. “All of us. Like I’d let my girls go anywhere without me.” He shook his head. “Not happening, love. And my little blossom.” He grinned at Alida.
She smiled back. “Okay.”
“Send us a picture.”
Kai hung up, and everyone waited. A few seconds later, a picture showed up on Kai’s phone. He showed Alida the picture of Kael hanging out by the pool of a resort.
She took a deep breath and nodded. “Ready.” She held out her hands to Talia and Kirin, then they disappeared in a flash.
“I’m never going to get used to that,” Conley grumbled.
“Did anyone notice he wouldn’t tell us exactly where they have the device to kill shifters’ powers?”
Kai nodded. “Do you think the device you’ve built can counter that device?”
Lucy paced the small area. “I’m not sure. It worked on the one we have at the lab after we rebuilt it. What happens if the device at the council is different?”
Conley couldn’t put his brothers and future sister-in-laws in any more danger. “I’ll go by myself.”
Kai rolled his eyes. “Stop being so overdramatic. We’re brothers, and we stick together. We lose each other when we start to fight on our own. In the last few years, we haven’t been working together, and it’s gotten us nowhere.”
“You have a mate now.”
Lucy huffed where she stood to the side. “Really, I’m right here, and I can make my own decisions. I agree with my mate. We’re family, and family sticks together. We don’t let one family member run into a burning building alone. We go in as a family and come out as a family, even if that means you end up turning your best friend into a penguin.”
Conley smiled and pulled Lucy into his arms. “For a human… I really like you.”
“For a dragon, you’re not too bad yourself.”
A flash of light lit up the back room. Four bodies appeared. Kirin and Talia stood to the side, used to traveling between different areas. Kael hunched over, ran to the garbage, and lost his lunch.
Everyone in the room groaned as he puked. Conley had felt the same way the first time Alida had sent him somewhere. Now he was used to the travel and had learned to take deep breaths as he flashed between areas.
Kael stumbled over to the chair and sat down. “I’m never doing that again.”
Alida giggled.
Conley grabbed the other chair and sat down. “Why does the council want Nyx?”
“Like I’ve told you before, Gideon is harnessing powers. I haven’t been able to prove it yet, but he’s behind it.”
“And what’s his end game?”
Kael’s eyes shifted to Alida. “He wants to create another super shifter. You guys made it hard for him to get his hands on her, so he figured it would be easier to make his own.”
“Then who is the dark man?”
Kael shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Conley picked up a mug and whipped it across the room. The glass shattered and fell to the ground. It did nothing to help cool his dragon down. Steam rolled from his nose.
“Settle down, Conley. I promise we’ll get her back,” Kai said.
No matter what, he would get her back, even if that meant burning down half of the council building. The only thing stopping him was the device that could stop his shifter strength.
Conley paced back and forth as Kai asked more questions. They were pointing to an image on the screen, and all Conley could think about was his mate’s plea in his mind after she went missing.
16
Nyx
When the door opened, a light shined into the dark prison. Nyx studied the massive room around her. More than just Arrow and his brothers filled the cells. Women, kids, and men lined the walls as far as she could see.
Gideon glided across the ground and stood in front of her cell. Nyx used the bars to pull herself up off the ground. If she could touch him and project his desire, all the shifters would see. It wasn’t the best-laid plan, but she had to work with what she had. At the moment, that was touching Gideon.
Nyx sucked in her breath and gripped the bars of her cell. The punctures in her shoulders ached. Her powers didn’t make her heal faster like shifters could. Hell, she had an issue if her powers were drained—it would take even longer to heal.
Finally she stood. The throbbing in her ankle wasn’t decreasing. With each minute she didn’t treat it, her ankle hurt worse. Biting the inside of her cheek to stop herself from screaming, she hobbled over to face Gideon.
The warlock crossed his arms. There was no emotion in his features. Testing her boundaries, she tried to reach out to his mind, but it was sealed like a waterproof box. It wasn’t often she found someone who could block her ability to read their thoughts.
She needed to touch him. If she brushed against his skin, he wouldn’t be able to stop her from reading his true desire.
“Your little tricks won’t work on me,” Gideon ground out.
Nyx propped herself up against the cell door. “I heard you knew my mother,” she said as she stared Gideon down. She waited for some type of emotion to cross his face. It didn’t happen—no hatred, no love, it was like he had no clue what she was talking about. If Arrow had been correct about Gideon helping her mother in the past, something should’ve crossed his face.
Conley had shown her images of Gideon years back, but his eyes hadn’t been black in the photo, like they were now. They had been light gray. His face hadn’t been as pale as it was now either. She wondered what his body looked like under the long robe. In all the articles she’d read about Gideon, he’d had on those long robes. The pictures Conley had showed her were different. Gideon had almost looked carefree in jeans and a T-shirt, playing with the younger generation.
If she could touch him, everything might come to an end. She reached through the cell bars, and when she was within inches, an invisible hand wrapped around her neck, pushing her back.
Gideon’s eyes flashed red. “That wasn’t a good move, Nyx. Now it’s time we take you to the lab.”
The council wasn’t supposed to have a lab anymore. Lucy had told Nyx they’d been informed that it was shut down after they uncovered what was going on at Lifelong Labs. She wasn’t surprised the council had lied. Too many lies.
Arrow rushed to the edge of his cell and pressed his hands to the bars, trying to bend them. “What happened to you, Gideon? This is Addilyn’s daughter. You promised to protect her family, and now you’re taking her powers?”
“It’s for the greater good.” He waved his arm, sending Arrow across his cell. The shifter went to stand and charge again, but like Nyx, an invisible force stopped him from moving forward. His brothers rushed to his side but couldn’t do anything to help him. After a few seconds, Arrow dropped to the ground, gasping for air.
The dark man was near. He had to be the one using his powers to keep her at bay. Something had flickered in Gideon’s eyes when Arrow had mentioned Addilyn’s name, but his eyes had gone back to black as fast as they’d flashed gray. Nyx’s arm was still outstretched through the bars, but she couldn’t move.
Gideon motioned to a tall blond woman dressed in leather pants and a tight black tank top. It was the same woman Nyx had seen when she’d touched the dragon. Nyx glanced down at the woman’s feet and noticed a silver bracelet similar to the one in the blonde’s hand. Nyx tried to pull her arm back, but she couldn’t move. The force around her held her in place.
She couldn’t stop them from placing the device around her wrist. “The bracelet stops you from using your powers,” Gideon snarled as he opened the door to her cell. “Bring her,” he barked.
The woman stepped in and wrapped an arm around Nyx’s shoulders, giving Nyx someone to lean on. When Nyx tried to step back, the dragon woman tightened her hold. With her powers gone, Nyx felt a loss in her soul. Growing up, she’d wished she never had her abilities. Now, without them, she missed her extra sense. The woman held Nyx tighter when she stumbled.
Even without her powers, she could feel the anger rolling off the woman. She didn’t want to be doing Gideon’s dirty work, but something kept her from turning on him.
“Why are you doing this?” Nyx whispered.
Instead of answering, the woman kept walking with Nyx at her side. Nyx needed to figure out a way to run. Well, hobble. Her ankle hurt worse with each step. She was pretty sure it was a bad sprain. When she’d been in her cell, she’d felt for a broken bone. Luckily, no bones were poking through her skin.
The white walls and ceiling and floor reminded her of a hospital. With each step, she was getting closer to being another one of the council’s experiments. What will they do with my powers?
Gideon glided along in front of them. Nyx looked for any sign of a way out. The long corridor didn’t have any exit signs or signage at all.
“There’s no place to run,” the woman said.
Nyx wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
Gideon pushed a pair of double doors open. Nyx’s feet stopped moving, but the woman kept pushing her in until they were in the center of the room. Nyx used her good foot to stomp down on the dragon’s foot. It caught the woman by surprise, and she released Nyx’s shoulders.
Nyx ran toward a table full of serial killer knives. Her fingers brushed against the metal of a hacksaw before something yanked her hair so hard her head snapped back. Nyx lost her balance and fell to the ground. She tried to break her fall with her hands but wasn’t quick enough. Pain shot through her tailbone as she hit the hard floor. The wind whooshed out of her lungs. Nyx fought through the pain and stood back up.
Gideon snarled and pressed a button on a device in his hand. Nyx screamed as the first wave of electricity ran through her body. He didn’t let up. The waves kept hitting her, one after another. Every bone in her body felt like it was going to break. She had never experienced so much pain in her life.
Nyx lay on the ground, trying to catch her breath as the last shock went through her, but she didn’t have time to register that she was going to be okay. Gideon grabbed her long black ponytail and dragged her across the ground. With a flip of his wrist, she was in a chair, and clamps came down around her wrists.
“Hey, let me go.”
Gideon shook his head and turned to a table of long syringes.
Nyx cleared her throat. “Shouldn’t a medical professional be doing this?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he picked up a syringe with the biggest needle Nyx had ever seen in her life.
Nyx glanced at the woman who had been a dragon not too long ago. She was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed and glaring at Gideon, not Nyx. “I saw your desires.”
The woman shrugged. “It’s not a secret. I want reve…” She didn’t even get the words out before she dropped to the ground and screamed in pain, the same pain Nyx had just gone through.
Chills ran down Nyx’s spine remembering the pain she had experienced.
The woman’s body shook like she was having a seizure. When it finally stopped, she lay on the ground, not moving, her eyelids tightly pressed together. The only way Nyx knew the woman was still alive was because her chest kept going up and down.
Nyx took stock of the rest of the room. She saw an X-ray table. At least she was strapped to a chair and not an operating table. Nyx looked over at the table with the syringes and eyed the very large array of knives, saws, and a couple of devices that she didn’t want to know what they were. When picturing a serial killer hideout, that was the image that came to mind. Large hooks covered every square inch of the far wall. They were similar to ones she might see in a meat market. She wasn’t sure how they worked in a surgery. Along the opposite wall was what looked like a mirror, but Nyx knew it wasn’t. Someone stood on the other side—the dark man.
Gideon held a giant needle in his hands. Needles were the reason Nyx had never gotten a butterfly tattoo behind her ear. They made her want to throw up, and those were the small needles that weren’t even supposed to hurt when they went through her skin. Ha. Lies, the nurse always said it would be a little prick, but it never was. It hurt like hell each time they stuck her.
She needed to delay Gideon from sticking the needle in her arm. “So Arrow told me you know my mom, Addilyn.” She watched as his eyes flashed gray for a second. Then he shook his head, and they were black again. If she could get the stupid cuff off, she could project an image of her mom.
No matter how much she tried to move, she was locked in place. Gideon slowly pressed the needle to her skin. Her body went ice-cold, and her vision faded. If she’d had a choice, she would rather have been in the grasp of the woman dragon flying over a building than have Gideon sticking a needle in her arm.
“We just need your DNA,” he grumbled.
Nyx narrowed her eyes. “Then swab my cheek.” Nyx opened her mouth wide. They could take all the DNA they wanted, just as long as it was from her mouth and not her arm.
Gideon ignored her and pressed the needle in harder. She let out a scream as he continued to press it deeper. He wasn’t going after a vein. He wanted something else. Tears streamed down her face as he continued to press the needle into her arm. It stopped for a second as he reached her bone, but he did something she didn’t know was possible. He forced the needle in farther, piercing her bone.
Nothing had ever hurt so bad. She gave up trying to fight the black edges in her vision. Nyx passed out for a second. Ammonia filled her nostril, and Nyx’s eyes flew open—smelling salts. She’d heard stories about the awful smell in the past but never experienced it until that moment. The smell was almost as much torture as the needle in her arm.
“Can’t have you falling asleep,” Gideon said.
Nyx glanced down at her arm. The needle still stuck out. The sight alone almost sent her over the edge.
Then Gideon stopped, let go of the needle, and stepped away. His eyes flashed to the mirror for a second before he turned and left the room. He didn’t say a word as he walked out, leaving the syringe dangling from her arm.
Nyx looked at the woman on the floor. “Help me!”
Very slowly, the woman stood up, walked over, and pulled the syringe from her arm. Nyx’s vision wavered in and out. She felt like she was going to lose her breakfast. Blood and something white filled the syringe. Nyx wondered if it was bone marrow. Her blood continued to drip out of the large hole in her arm.
“Loosen the cuff restricting my powers.”
The woman looked at the cuff and back to the windows.
“Please, I will do anything in my power to help you. I know you want revenge on someone. Is it Gideon?”
“No.”
“The dark man?”
She nodded and flicked a switch on Nyx’s bracelet. It didn’t release the clasp, but Nyx felt her powers come back. Conley had mentioned that after they mated, she would get some of his skills. She wondered if super strength would’ve been one.
The dragon woman walked back to the door and peeked around the corner. “You don’t have much time.”
“Help me get out.”
“I can’t. I don’t have the ability to unlock those.” She pointed to the cuffs around her wrists.
Nyx pulled back as hard as she could. When she was younger, she had been able to dislocate her thumb all the time. It was time to do her trick and see if she could get out of the cuffs.
Biting the side of her cheek to keep from yelling, she tucked her thumbs into her fists and squeezed down. Her thumbs popped, and she slowly pulled back, releasing her arms from the restraints. With a quick pop, she was able to get them both back into place. They would ache for a few days. Nyx figured her whole body was going to hurt for a while.
She hobbled over to the torture table and grabbed a couple of knives and a saw. If she had the chance, she planned to saw Gideon’s head off. She had seen enough creepy people’s desires over the years to make someone pay, and he needed to pay for locking all the people up downstairs, coming after the ones she loved, and most of all, stabbing her with the needle.
