Seizing Darkness (Fur, Fangs, and Fairies) (18 page)

“You’re strong,
Jenna. You will get through this. I’m glad and honored to call you my friend.” I meant it too. I guess I’d just answered my own question. It is worth caring about people. Even though there might be pain involved.

“Thanks. So what would I need to do?” She pulled herself together, sitting up straighter.

“If we have to go as far as bringing you in, I’ll need you to play along. I won’t actually be doing anything to you. You’ll have to be convincing though if we have to take it that far. Do you think that you can do that?” I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to go that far.

“Yes. I can do that,” Jenna looked me in the eyes with fierce determination.

“I think he’ll talk as soon as he believes that we are willing to harm you.”

“All right.” Jenna took a deep breath and stood. I followed suit. “I can do this.” She sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than me.

I smelled a familiar scent. “Jenna, I’ll meet you in the kitchen,” I said with a smile.

Jenna gave me a confused look
, but headed in. As soon as the door closed, I turned to the tree that I was standing near and looked up.

“Azumi. It has been a while, old friend,” I said to the Asian woman sitting in the tree.

Her voice had always been soft, much like the sound of the snake that she was. “You shouldn’t stay out of contact that long, Natalya. We were worried,” she said, hopping down. She handed me a vial marked with a V and one marked with an A.

“I didn’t intend to. When I have a moment
, I will explain everything. Thank you for bringing me this so quickly.”

“You are most welcome. I need to leave now, but stay safe.” She disappeared back into the trees that surrounded this house. She’d always been good at that. After I was sure that
Azumi was gone, I went back into the house. The others were there waiting for me.

“So here’s the plan. Dek, you and I’ll head over and set everything up. The rest of you can come over when Dante wakes. It shouldn’t take long to get what we want out of them.” I sounded more sure than I was, but they didn’t need to know that.

“So this will work on the vampires as well?” Val was curious.

“I’ve had success with it in the past.” I really didn’t want to have to rehash the times I’d done this before. It was never pleasant and I was already calm and relaxed.

“So what’s all this stuff for?” Radek pointed to the pile on the table.

“You’ll see.” I grabbed some gloves and the tub of DMSO. Then I pulled the vial marked with a V from the pocket I had placed it in. This got a few raised eyebrows, but no one said anything. We all liked our little secrets and I didn’t want to tell them where I had gotten it.

Radek gave me a wary look. “What exactly do you plan on doing with that?”

“You’ll see. Come here, Jenna.”

Jenna came over cautiously. I put on the gloves and opened the DMSO.

“This will hurt, a lot, but it won’t harm you,” I promised. “Give me your arm.”

Jenna complied. I rubbed a small amount of the DMSO on her forearm. Then before I could really think about what I was doing, I added a drop of the venom that Azumi had given me. The reaction was instantaneous.

“Holy shit that burns! It hurts to breathe,” Jenna wheezed as she pulled away.

“It will fade in a minute. I gave you a very small dose. You won’t even need the anti-venom. This way you know what you are supposed to be feeling if I need you to play along,” I said. I grabbed her arm again and cleaned it with a cloth. Then I took off the gloves carefully so I wouldn’t get anything on myself.

“Damn, Nat. If that’s what you do to your friends, I would hate to be your enemy. Why would we need anti-venom anyway?” Radek sounded a little awed.

“This is venom from a wereviper,” I mumbled, hoping no one would question it. “Come on Dek; it’s time to go.” I grabbed the rest of the items, threw them in a bag, and slung my backpack over my shoulder.

“Let’s get this over with then,” he said, giving me a look that made me sure that I would be questioned at some point.

We were out the door and on our way with no more conversation. I could feel the tension coming off him. I stayed as calm as possible. The meditating helped calm me and it also made me more aware of those around me. I could feel and almost taste his emotions.

“How can you be so calm?” he asked through his clenched jaw.

“It’s easy when you practice. That’s what I was doing when I was meditating. I’ll teach you when we have time.”

“You’ll teach me?” he was breathing a little deeper and the tension was gradually leaving him.

“Sure. It’s almost as good as sleeping when you have to go long periods without.”

“So how many times have you done something like this?”

“Too many to count,” I replied with a sigh. “I did a lot of it during the end of the vampire-shifter wars. That’s how I know it works well on vampires.”

“That was one of the wars that’ll be hard to forget. The human wars over the years weren’t very pleasant either. I was at the battle of Gettysburg. But even the death camps of World War Two were nothing compared to some of the things I saw during the Fae Wars.” His face grim. A shudder ran through his body. I knew what he was thinking about. I had seen enough shifter, fae and vampire battles to last a life span – or five.

“We’ve both seen too much, done too much,” I whispered. My shoulders felt heavy from the weight of it all. “Will it ever end? Humans fighting, supernatural creatures fighting. When will it end?” I asked, not really expecting an answer.

“I don’t know, Nat,” Radek said quietly. After a pause he asked what I knew he had been wanting to. “How did you obtain the wereviper venom?”

“I contacted a friend and she delivered it,” I said simply. “Some secrets I need to keep, Dek. You will just have to live without knowing.”

“Fair enough. Keep your secrets.”

We rode in silence for a while and soon arrived back at Madon’s. All was quiet this time.

“Come on, let’s get this over with. I really hate this part of my responsibility,” Radek said. “It never gets easier.”

“I know.” Once we left the car, there was no room for emotion. That was considered a weakness in this crowd. We couldn’t appear weak. We walked up to the door – for once there was no bantering going on between us. I could feel him pull his emotions inward, putting up the emotional wall. I did the same.

Madon answered the door. “You two came back alone?”

“We need to set some things up first. Do you have an outbuilding of some sort?” I asked.

Madon’s deep green eyes studied me before he answered. “Yes, there’s a barn out back. We use it for our gatherings and challenges.”

“Good, that’ll work.” I glanced at Radek. “Will you get my bag from the car?” Then I turned my attention to Madon. “Show me the barn.”

Neither man questioned me. They just did as I asked for once. I followed Madon around the house and into the large old barn. There were tiered benches for seating and a large arena. At one
end there were two areas blocked off from view. This would work well. I just needed something to tie the prisoners to.

 
Madon gave me the answer to my dilemma. “Gregory will be bringing two vamps. There are chains that come down from the roof so we can secure the prisoners. Do you need anything else?” His voice was emotionless. He wasn’t looking forward to this either. I was glad I wasn’t in his position right now.

“That should be it for now. Jenna will be in the house with Dante unless we need her. I’m hoping that it doesn’t go that far.” I saw relief in his eyes.

Radek joined us and set down the bag. Madon looked at the bag like it was poison. It was, but he didn’t know that. He really didn’t need to be here for this part. I took pity on my friend. “If you want to help you can, but it might be best if you leave this to us.”

“Although I’m curious, I’ll wait for later. You’re right; it will be best if I stay as far from this part as possible.” Madon looked at me with a pained expression. I wished there was something I could do to help him.

“Thanks. I will need whoever is present to wear gloves. I don’t want this stuff to get on anyone that it isn’t meant for.”

His dark eyebrows raised. “All right. It will only be the two guards and myself.” Madon left on that note.

Radek looked to me for direction. “First I need you to cut cloth into long lengths, about three inches wide and two feet long. We need to get the chains secured. Then put some gloves on. You’ll not want to get this on your hands. Especially the DMSO; it is a carrier agent. That’s why it’s so important to the mix. It will allow the venom into the bloodstream. Like you witnessed when I put some on Jenna, it will not be pleasant. That was only a drop. If you have a cut, do not get any of this in it. While it probably won’t kill you, it will hurt a whole lot.” I emphasized the last part. I started putting out the supplies on the tray.

“What exactly are we doing with this stuff?” Radek asked as he started in on the cloth.

“They will be restrained with those,” I said, nodding to the strips he was making. “I will apply diluted venom to their major arteries and wrap them. It will bring their mental defenses down a bit. The undiluted venom is for if they don’t talk the first time. This particular type of venom will cause all the muscles to contract in the body. It could kill them, but I will keep the doses to those that are survivable. If they talk, we give them the anti-venom. It will stop soon after that.”

I thought of Azumi, who was the one that had come up with this particular torture technique. I wondered what she was doing in the area. I also wondered where the others were. It looked like most everyone was still alive and kicking.

“You are scary sometimes, you know that?” Radek said, looking at me with a mixture of awe and fear.

“I scare myself,” I murmured. I knew he was trying to joke about it. But the truth was that I could be scary. Not that many people, human or otherwise, knew how to cause as much pain as I was capable of.

“I didn’t mean anything by that, you know. It’s a good thing you know how to do things like this. This is better than what I would have to do. You’re trying to do a good thing here. Don’t forget that.” His voice got deeper with his emotion.

“It’s a good thing even though I’m hurting someone? You have a real twisted sense of logic, Dek,” I told him as I worked at measuring the right amounts venom, water and DMSO. The concentration had to be exact. If there was too much venom, it could kill the wolf.

“You said it yourself. We have seen so much and done so much. What you’re doing is helping a friend. The fact that it bothers you at all is a good thing. You still have a conscience. That’s saying a lot. Remember, they put themselves in this situation in the first place. What choice do we have? By doing this you may be saving more lives.”

We pulled down the chains hanging from the roof. Madon came in just as we were setting up the tray of supplies where it couldn’t be knocked over.

“Everyone just arrived,” he said grimly.

“Go ahead and bring them in. Make sure everyone that enters here is wearing these gloves,” I said, tossing him the box after pulling out another set for myself and one for Radek.

Madon left with the gloves. I took out five syringes and began filling them with the anti-venom so they would be available when needed.

I handed a pair of gloves to Radek and said, “Put these on. Try not to get any of the stuff on you. Remember, it will hurt like hell if it gets into your blood stream. Wash it off immediately. If you get it in your eyes or anything like that, tell me immediately. I’ll give you anti-venom. I have
enough that it shouldn’t be a problem. If you hold them, I can secure the restraints.” I rolled my shoulders to get the tension out of them.

“That works for me. What else do you want me to do?” Radek asked. We could hear people approaching.

“You ask the questions. I’ll take care of the pain,” I said, looking into his golden brown eyes.

For a second he let the mask fall and gave me that sexy smile of his.

“Works for me. Here they come.” His stone cold mask was back in place.

Chapter Sixteen

Madon
walked in with Tain in front of him, escorted by Trent and Jake. They handed him over to Radek, who held him while I tied his wrists and ankles using the venom-soaked strips of cloth. Tain instantly started to stiffen as the venom hit his bloodstream. The chains were attached to the cloth that secured his wrists, then pulled tight so he was hanging by his hands. Next, we repeated the process with the vampires that Gregory and his people brought in.

No one dared say a word as we proceeded. The only sounds were the hard breathing of the prisoners. The pain was starting to affect them. I noticed Val wasn’t there. He must have been in the house. Dante was near; I could almost hear his thoughts
, but was learning to block them out.

With a deep breath
, I let my other half take over. My inner predator was able to handle this kind of thing far more effectively than my human part. It was a little scary how easy it was to slip into my assassin persona. It was a place where no emotions existed, just death.

Radek started on Tain first. “So wolf, do you want to talk yet?” he asked. “We can stop this now or we can continue. Your choice.”

“This is nothing,” Tain said, and he spat at Radek.

Radek nodded at me. Without thinking, I stepped forward and ran a gloved hand along Tain’s throat. “So you want to go this route? I guarantee that this will not kill you, but you will wish for death before I am done with you,” I whispered sadistically. I laughed as his eyes got big and his features turned pasty white. Then I took pleasure in delivering an undiluted dose of the mixture to his neck along the jugular vein on the left side. His body went into spasms.

“Are you going to talk?” Radek’s bored voice joined my delivering of pain. “We could always start in on your daughter and see how long she lasts.”

“Never,” Tain said through his clenched jaw.

“You must not know who you’re dealing with. Let me introduce myself, little wolf pup.” I leaned in and whispered in his ear like a lover, “Some would call me Skugga.”

I felt him stiffen as he recognized the name I went by in the assassin world. I gave him a larger dose. He cried out again as the venom took control of his body. I heard some of the smaller bones starting to break under the intense pressure. “That’s the sound of your bones beginning to break under the strain of the muscles. It will continue to get worse.”

“Stop, stop! I’ll talk just make it stop,” he screamed out. “Don’t eat me.”

“Damn. I was just beginning to have fun. Start talking then,” I gave a disappointed sigh as I stuck a syringe full of anti-venom in his leg. It was a painful way to administer the anti-venom. I stepped back as the pain and spasms lessened. I motioned to Radek to start questioning him.

“So speak up or she’ll start all over again.” Radek didn’t even flinch when he met my gaze. He looked damn good to my other half. She wanted to have a little fun with him. I reined her in so that I could concentrate on the job at hand.

“I know who’s involved
, but I don’t know where they are. I only set up the meetings and gave them people.” Tain’s voice was rough with the pain that still lingered. He kept looking at me like I was going to eat him or something. So I may have had the reputation, but I swear it was false.

“Start naming names.
” Radek sounded bored.

Tain started rattling off names. One of Madon’s men was writing them down as he spoke. I was ready to move on to my next victim. I didn’t realize I was tapping my foot impatiently until Radek glanced at me in concern. I stopped and shrugged at him.

He shook his head at me in amusement. Luckily it was a short list of names. Radek spoke when he was done. “Tain, this is your last chance. If there’s anything that you would like to change about your story, do so now. Otherwise, if we find out that you have lied at all, I’m sure Natalya here will think of something to do with you. Do I make myself clear?”

I guess he’d picked up on Tain’s terror of me. I knew I might have to explain that later. In the state I was in now though I didn’t really care. My emotions were completely shut down.

“Yes,” Tain panted out. I figured the pain would last a few more hours.

Now it was time for my favorite type of target: vampire. The one closest to me was shaking in fear. I think he might have heard me tell Tain who I was. I was debating whether or not I wanted to kill him when Radek spoke.

“Either one of you want to come clean?”

I felt mild disappointment that he was giving them a chance; vampires were fun to torture.

“I’ll tell you anything I know.” The one speaking didn’t smell as old as the other vampire. I would’ve put his age at less than a century. “Just don’t let her near me. Whatever you did to me hurts.” Vampires always thought they were invincible until I got a go at them.

“Talk first. Then we’ll make it stop.”

This vampire was obviously only a lackey. He wasn’t able to give us much information. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t telling the truth. He did tell us everything he knew. I didn’t cause him any more pain. But I also didn’t remove the restraints or give him anti-venom. He hadn’t enough in his system to warrant it, and I wasn’t overly fond of vampires.

Now it was the last vampire’s turn. I was hoping I could have a little fun with this one.

“So have you decided to talk or do we have to continue?” Radek stood and watched the vampire for a minute. When it became obvious that he wasn’t going to say a thing, Radek nodded to me.

I approached the vampire and put one hand on his head, running my fingers through his blond hair and pulling it down to my level. I wanted to make this one hurt. His eyes were red with his anger and defiance. I placed the mixture just below his eye. A blood curdling scream echoed through the building as the vamp jerked his head from my grasp. It made my ears ring for a second. I stepped away from the thrashing vampire.

“Okay, I’ll talk, I’ll talk,” he screamed. He started to curse in several languages. He was too easy. I’d been hoping for a challenge.

“Start talking, then it’ll end.” I sighed and grabbed another syringe of anti-venom, tapping it against my leg.

“I know where they are.” His voice was high pitched with agony.

I grabbed his head and jerked it down to my level to look in his eyes. “Keep talking.”

He went on to describe the house that they were staying at. I administered the anti-venom. Silence permeated the barn as they were each released from their ties and cleaned up. Then they were led away, back to where they were being held.

Soon Radek and I were the only ones left. I took a few deep breaths to take down the walls and let my emotions back in. I couldn’t look at Radek. I wasn’t sure how he was going to react to what I’d done and how I’d acted. I just began to clean everything up.

My head snapped in his direction when I heard him cry out, “Crap that shit burns.”

“What?”

“I got a freaking splinter. You were not freaking kidding! This stuff hurts like hell.” He was breathing hard. He fell to the ground as his muscles started to contract. He must have gotten an undiluted dose.

I quickly grabbed one of the syringes. He was moving around too much for me to stick him with it. “Will you hold still for a second so I can give you this?”

“It feels like my body is being torn apart.” His voice was strained from the pain.

I finally gave up being gentle and jumped on him. Once he was pinned beneath me I was able to stick him with the needle. I sat on him, pinning his hands above his head, so he couldn’t hurt himself while I waited for it to take effect. His breathing was erratic.

I looked down at him from where I was sitting on his chest with my hands on his wrists, holding them to the ground. As his breathing slowed he looked up at me. The heat flashed through my body as I realized how I was sitting on him. I caught myself leaning down toward him when Dante and Jenna walked in, saving me.

Even though he should have known better from reading my thoughts, Dante still had to tease me. “Are we interrupting?”
 

I jumped off Radek and turned to Dante and Jenna, blushing. “Not like you didn’t know. He got venom in a cut. So just shut up.”

Dante laughed.
I think Radek might’ve heard your other name. I’m surprised you used it. You know that it’s going to get out now, don’t you?

You know just as well as I do that I was letting my other half do all the work. What will happen will happen. I’m sure it would’ve come out eventually anyway. By the way, this sharing thoughts thing is so old now. When did Val say this would wear off?

A couple of weeks. I think
. He smirked at me.

Great. A couple of weeks.

“Will you two knock it off? You’re giving me a headache.” Radek got up off the ground. “Damn Natalya, that stuff sucks.” He brushed himself off.

“I told you to be careful with it,” I aimed back at him. I quickly gathered everything up. The big garbage bag of rags was still sitting where Radek had dropped it.

“We should keep that stuff until everything is verified. I don’t want to have to remake everything,” I said.

“I’m not touching that stuff again.” Radek backed away from it.

“That stuff can’t hurt you for at least a half hour. I just injected the anti-venom. So it would be safer for you than anyone else.”

“Are you serious? Why didn’t you just give it to me before in case something happened?”

“I figured you were smart enough to follow instructions and wear gloves.” I glared at him.

Val chose that moment to walk in. “Are you two arguing again?”

“You should have seen them when we walked in.” Dante was smiling.

“Will you shut up, Dante?” Radek was still having trouble breathing. That would explain his foul mood
, but not mine.

“If you will all knock it off, we have work to do. Dante, you and Jenna go to Gregory’s. I want you checking into that house.”

“Radek, Natalya, if you two can stop squabbling and keep your hands off each other, I’d like you to check the list. You should know most of the beings on it. Our usual suspects weren’t listed, of course. I’m sure one of them is somehow involved. We know that Andrei was in the area. We need to find out how he got here without any of us knowing about it. Any questions?”

“I know how he found out about Nat and so does she. That’s if she thinks hard.” Dante was looking at me, waiting for me to remember.

“Holy shit, you’re right. I remember now. Louis was visiting Andrei just before I left to come here. He’s the one that asked Andrei to send me to assassinate you, Val.” The memory flashed to the forefront of my mind. Everyone turned to look at me. I only knew it was Louis because I had seen him in Dante’s memories. At least some good had come from us sharing memories.

“Well that would explain a lot,” Val said calmly. “That doesn’t change much other than giving us the ability to take him down. I’ll get the paperwork for that out of the way. You four have your orders. I’ll make sure you have the backing to do whatever is needed.”

Val gave Radek a hard look when it looked like he would argue. He closed his mouth and sighed, “Fine. Come on, Nat.”

I took off my gloves and followed him to the house. He was walking ahead of me and I couldn’t help but admire the view. I could see the slight stiffness from the venom. He still stalked like a predator. Damn he was sexy. I was a little disappointed when we got to the house. He held the door for me. I inhaled deeply as I brushed past him.

Madon was waiting for us when we walked in. He wasn’t bad-looking either. He was just a hair shorter than Radek with a muscular build. He was someone that every woman would stop and take notice of. Plus he had that whole alpha wolf thing going for him. When I glanced into his normally green eyes I saw the yellow of his wolf, and I realized how close he was to shifting. I wasn’t concerned though. Even without Radek, I could probably hold my own against him, but I doubted he would attack me.

“Well that was very educational,” Madon said. He was leaning against the kitchen counter.

“It was, wasn’t it?” Radek glanced at me.

I was curious if he’d heard my use of my assassin name, but I didn’t want to bring it up.

“So what’s the plan now?” Madon asked, looking between Radek and me.

I’d dodged the bullet for now.

“We verify what they told us, then go take out the bad guys,” Radek replied.

Madon started pacing the kitchen. “When do I get to carry out my execution? Plus now I have to open the pack up for challenges. That leaves my position open as well. Whoever is behind this has to be stopped. I suspect that there are more wolves in my pack involved that weren’t named. I don’t like how this is turning out. I need to put an end to this as soon as possible.”

“We know, and plan on it. Have your people come up with any connections yet?” Radek was trying to calm Madon’s wolf.

I just stayed out of it because even though I could possibly take Madon, Radek was a whole different story. There was no way I would get between an alpha werewolf and a male weretiger. They were just too tense.

“Yes, we were able to link someone on the list to the house that the vampire said they are using as their base of operations.” Madon stopped pacing.