Page 14 of Captive Hybrid

Chapter Seven

Mordecai

I swear for the fourth time, trying to drive an old minivan while I fight the spell that Vira Slade cast on the vehicles. The damn thing thinks it wants to drive back to Wolf Grove, sometimes trying to turn around of its own accord.

‘It will wear off,’ Jana says from the back again.

Vale glances at her. ‘We do appreciate it, really. Mordecai’s just… not used to spells.’

I jerk the wheel to straighten the car. ‘I can hear you, you know.’ The witch spelled a convey of vehicles donated by Jana’s coven to drive out to us so that we can get to our Noah’s pack. It really was kind of her, but this stupid van still thinks it’s in control half the time.

Vale smiles sheepishly.

I can see the tired lines around his eyes and mouth. We haven’t stopped yet. The explosion was two days ago, and it’s been a long forty-eight hours. I won’t let us stop until we reach the Half Moon Motel about an hour’s drive from here. It’s run by an old friend of my father’s.

Divina and Jana have been staring each other down the whole time, and it’s exhausting to hear their biting little taunts. Jaken and Vale have been attempting to buffer the women, to little success. The only damn good thing to happen—apart from the possessed vehicles—has been the little success with Divina’s spell on the bond.

I spoke to Zenna! Only for a moment, but still. It was enough to get a little from her. Underground. I’m going to need a lot more information than that for when I go get her. Jaken tentatively advised we listen to her warning. And was quickly silenced by my returning growl. He hasn’t given his opinion since.

‘Mordecai, I’m hungry,’ Jana whines. ‘Are we there yet?’

Vale glances back at her with sympathy. Vira included a few supplies, but we’ve already gone through them.

‘Soon,’ I tell her. I wonder if she had been an irritatingly impatient child. Zenna has spent five years with this woman. There’s much I want to ask her about my mate, but now isn’t the time. My first priority is to make sure no one’s been tailing us, and we all get to the motel safely and rest up before the final leg of our journey.

Once my people are safe, then I’m going after Zenna.

I have so much to make up for.

I can’t imagine what she’s going through right now. She said she was okay, but what condition is she being held in? Why did she have to go, silencing the communication? I’ve tried to push through again and again, but it’s like shouting at a wall. She can’t talk right now, Divina says that’s what that means, which concerns me deeply.

Vale gives me a nudge. ‘Focus,’ he says, voice low.

He knows I need help to concentrate on what’s in front of me. I have the unfortunate tendency to think several steps ahead of me. As a leader, it can be useful, but when I need my head in the game, it gets me all distracted. I give him a short, grateful nod.

I’m all too aware that I haven’t slept in two days. The witches are a wreck. I’m pretty sure the only reason Jaken and Jana are still awake is because of the bickering. Divina seems drained, but not falling asleep.

It’s only thanks to my werewolf healing that I’ve managed to stay awake this long, let alone able to drive reasonably safely. The car gives a little jerk, as though trying to see if I’m paying attention, too. I jerk it back into place with a firm hand. Little monster.

Stars glitter above, and if I weren’t behind the wheel, I would lean back and stare out the windows. It will be a full moon soon, when I will be at my strongest. The best time to go and get Zenna.

Soft clouds swim lazily through the sky, partially covering the soft, faintly glowing ball of the near-full sphere of the moon. I meant what I told Zenna as we’d approached Wolf Grove. Every day for five years, when I look up at the icy-white glow of the moon, I would think of her soft hair, her smile. She had told me, much to my surprise, that she had thought the same of my own silver eyes.

Now, she’s underground. She can’t see the moon at all. That must be suffocating.

As though sensing my unease, Divina shuffles closer. ‘We’ll try her again when we arrive. Zenna will be able to talk back at some point.’

I give a grateful nod.

‘If we can talk to her long enough, I might be able to unleash her faerie powers. That will help her, especially if she’s underground.’ Divina’s gaze is surprisingly soft in my rear-view mirror. Is it sisterly affection for another witch?

‘You’re not fae,’ Jana, another ‘sister’ witch snaps. ‘You can’t help her.’

Divina gives her a dark look.

Perhaps not sisterly affection. I train my gaze ahead, eagerly searching for the light-up neon blue of the motel’s sign. My father’s friend, Sarren, is a wolf, too. He will be saddened to hear of Walcott’s passing.

After a while, the light shines, and I exhale in relief as bone-deep exhaustion gnaws at me. As I park the car, the rest of the convoy behind me doing the same, I glance back.

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