Page 31 of Under a Wicked Moon
Her luminous eyes searched his as a small smile crested her lips. “If you find out why the vampires helped us, let me know.”
“Come on.” Flynn grinned in an attempt to charm her. “Let’s go see what kind of food I can hook you up with on board.”
Vivi followed Flynn up the plane’s stairs onto Roman’s jet. Arguably the craft was all of theirs, since they’d pooled funds to buy it a few years ago. It wasn’t England’s or the Crown’s. It was theirs, but the master pilot was Roman. He loved the plane on a level that was almost disturbing but, in a way, Ky understood. They were allowed so little happiness in their lives. If a plane did it for Roman, then so be it.
Vivi paused at the top to find him.
Ky waved.
Flynn said to her before they boarded the jet, “It’s brother stuff. They’ll be here in a few.” He yelled down. “I got her, Ky. No worries.”
Ky called out, “It’s what she might do to you that concerns me.”
She gave him a subtle nod as if to sayyou better get your ass up here as soon as possiblebefore she disappeared inside the plane.
Ky shut the office door behind him, preparing for Roman’s lecture on going renegade. With arms crossed, he waited. Something about the cold, sparse room sent his mind spiraling into a flashback of the prison.He’d freed himself from the torture table finally. Helped that they left him alone for periods of time, thinking him too drugged to care. He dove for the remote on the side table. Got to get this fucking collar off. His body twitched with electricity from a taser as his fingers wrapped the small rectangular box. Just needed to figure outwhich button… Direct dart strike to his side. The world went woozy as he jabbed at buttons. He felt the collar unlock and the world went dark.
Ky pushed the memory into the back of his mind.
Roman massaged his neck and glanced upward but didn’t start into him.
“I know I should’ve told you where I was going,” Ky began. “In my defense, I was ordered not to. Was told it had to be a secret solo mission.”
Roman’s eyebrows squished together. He rubbed one of them. “I’m sure you regretted going it alone about an hour in. But I also know the curse would’ve hurt you if you did otherwise. Sit. You look like a gentle breeze would knock you over, and you just zoned out on me for a few seconds. I get that your head’s messed up, but it’s hard seeing you like this.” He pointed at a chair. “Seriously. Please, sit.” Once Ky complied, Roman fisted his hands and paced.
“If you’re not going to yell at me, what’s wrong?”
“How’s your arm?” Roman asked.
Ky rotated it. “Healing. Hurts. We’ve all been shot before. Nothing new. What happened while I was gone?”
“This is complicated, Ky. So complicated.” He shook his head as he paced. Abruptly, he stopped. “Vivi shouldn’t come with us. I entirely understand ethically why we can’t leave her, since she’s alone. If we’re smart, we ask her to go her own way from here. I don’t want—”
“I’m not leaving her. We’re too close to the border. She could get caught again.”
“True.” Roman pinched his nose. “Tell me the honest truth. How long was she in there?”
“A few years. Two, I think.”
“Two years? That’s a long time.” He stared at the floor and kicked at imaginary dirt. “She’s a risk. A big risk.” Roman’s lipsthinned. He paused and glanced up. “They found one of Galen Sigge’s notebooks at one of the incarceration sites, a different one from the place you were in. We were lured there with intel that you were there. Then they tried to kill us with a bomb when we arrived. I don’t understand why they would capture you and do things to you but turn around and try to kill Flynn and me.”
“Mad Sigge?” Ky’s mind churned circles. The Swede had perfected brainwashing techniques on humans, Winter-Soldier style, with use of trigger words to turn the captive into a programmed warrior. Someone was now using his techniques on lycans? Did it work? “We eliminated him decades ago. In the seventies.”
“Did we? We thought we did. Vivi has probably not been kept around this long in as good a condition as she’s in for nothing. Something had to have been done to make her behave beyond a collar. Is her memory intact?”
Ky shook his head. “Neither is mine, but I remember someone tried to do something to mentally control me, not that it worked. I blamed it on our curse. We’re allowed to be controlled by only one person.”
“Why do you think they wanted you, then?”
“I think they did experiments to find weaknesses, but primarily it’s a breeding program.” His stomach cramped, and he felt unsure what might’ve happened, what he couldn’t remember.
Roman flinched. “Thought so. You’re sure you didn’t…”
“Pretty sure. I don’t perform on command, even if she is…well, all that.” He waited for Roman to agree she was exceptional, but he didn’t. Now Ky felt twitchy, and his muscles tensed to fight.
“We have to believe she’s been programmed. To do what, who knows? But she’s a big risk. Maybe she’s programmed to kill us at the right time. Or maybe she’s using us to get near another target like Mom or the monarch. Maybe she’s programmed to seduce you, since they realized simply being locked in a cellon full-moon night wasn’t going to work, so they’re trying a different tactic?”
“That’s twisted. She was a prisoner like me.”
