Page 6 of Witches Be Damned

“Little Wolf,” Raze rasped, extending his hand.

I didn’t look at him. Didn’t give Styx the satisfaction of showing weakness. I stared him down, a woman determined to kill him as soon I got the chance.

“I … I…” It took a few tries to form the words on my tongue and get them out with my neurons on fire. “I can get instant answers…” The pain. The heat. “If you take these off.” The weight of my arms was impossible to lift more than an inch from the bench, my bracelet clunking loudly on the surface.

The translation came through my bracelet, and Styx considered it. “Absolutely not.”

I went through round twenty of agony before I formed my next sentence. “If you kill my mate…” I panted and had a breather. “I will die with him, and so will you, unless you give me what I need to help you.” I took in some air and swallowed the fire.

Styx hissed at me. Then the words I dreaded hearing fell with lethal certainty. “Kill them both. We have no more use for them.”

CHAPTER 3 - TOR

“The warden said what?” I tugged at my hair. “Say it again.”

My mind went on the fritz at the fresh orders Serena delivered. Every hour that Supergal was missing decreased her chance of survival, and I went a little madder, unable to focus, breathe, eat, or function.

“He denied our request to rescue Astra.” Serena repeated the words as gently as she could. “He wants us to retrieve every last prisoner and lock them up before they escape or harm innocent humans.”

My scalp stung from where my fingers wrenched too hard. “We gave the warden intel on Supergal’s location.”

Serena set her hands on my shoulders and squeezed. “He said the evidence was circumstantial, and he won’t waste resources on that.”

Circumstantial, my ass.

He didn’t want her back. He wanted us all dead, and almost succeeded with Pascal, with Astra on her way, and any one of us next. There was no other way to look at this.

“What are we going to do?” I covered my eyes, losing my shit.

My leader’s palms fell from my shoulders.

Knoxe threw an arm over me, but I couldn’t stand it and shook it off.

Serena went on, reciting what she was told like a soldier who lost all hope and just gave in, following orders. “The warden believes catching the deserters is the more pressing situation.”

“Fuck.” Something in my mind snapped, and I went into full meltdown mode, my body shaking, lungs locking, vision spinning, knees losing juice, and stumbling sideways.

“Tor? Are you okay?” Serena caught my arms, steadying me.

I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, the pounding in my chest so hard it threatened to tip me over. Pain splitting across my ribs threatened to break me in two. This was what dying felt like.

“Tor, listen to me.” She forced me over to the wall, pushing my shoulders, causing me to slide down it. “Breathe for me. One, two, three, four.”

I did as best as I could despite the agony in my chest from panic and the idea of losing Supergal. She was the best thing in my world besides my family, and I couldn’t contemplate a future without her. We had to find a way to get her back, even if it meant disobeying orders. I’d rather spend a month in The Hole if she lived.

“This is bullshit!” Loco’s face reddened and he twitched. “One minute, the warden needs all the resources he can get to round up all the deserters. The next minute, he leaves my fucking daughter to God knows what horror at the hands of the vampires!”

Knoxe went to calm him down.

Thank Mads that Pascal wasn’t here to witness this argument when it set him on edge. Our buddy was still holed up in the medical bay where they patched up his wounds. A knife went through me that the vamps almost took my buddy from me... and from our girl.

“Let’s regroup, team,” Serena cut through breakdowns and outbursts.

“Regroup?” Loco was going out of his mind with panic too.

His task to extract intel from the captive deserters failed miserably because he couldn’t concentrate on anything but saving his daughter. His mood lifted when we told him the good news about tracking down Astra. He and Serena promised to ask no questions in exchange for the information.

Now, he clutched the neckline of the white shirt beneath his orange jumpsuit and gasped as if he couldn’t catch his breath. Shit, Dad looked like he went into cardiac arrest.

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