Raising Innocence: A Rylee Adamson Novel(42)

The doctor shook her head. “That is not good enough. We have to proceed with the proper procedures and the proper paperwork. This is . . .” their voices trailed off as Agent Valley herded her away from me, Pamela, and Alex, who sat with his chin on Pamela’s knee.
“Pamela, as much as I appreciated your help, this isn’t safe for you. The doctor is right about that,” I said, slumping into a chair beside her.
“You’re going to make me go with her?” She asked, her voice quavering.
“No, I’m not. You have to make up your own mind and I think you’re old enough. But my life isn’t safe. What you saw just now, that sort of shit happens all the time. You could die if you stay with me.” I couldn’t pull any punches here, she had to know the truth before she made a decision to stay or not.
Her blue eyes went thoughtful for a moment before she answered. “But you save kids, right? Kids like me?”
I nodded. “Whenever I can.”
She bowed her head, her face curtained by her raggedy blond hair. After a moment, she lifted her head; her blue eyes were clear, looking far older than her fourteen years.
“I want to help you,” she said. “You need someone like me, someone who can do magic. I want to be her replacement.”
Couldn’t argue with that. But there was one thing bothering me. “You don’t act much like the teenagers I know.”
She pulled her bottom lip into her mouth with her teeth, sucking at it before speaking. “My parents kept me locked up from a pretty young age, as soon as I was able to . . . do things.”
I closed my eyes and tried not to think about how shitty her childhood had been. We had a case to solve, kids to bring home, and then I could go after Berget. And hopefully somewhere in all of that, I could give Pamela some semblance of a life.
*-*-*-*
The cell stunk like fear, piss and vomit, none of it his own; they assailed his now sensitive nose, making him breathe shallowly. The coolness of the lower cells didn’t bother him, but the fact that directly across from him sat Milly, did.
Next to his cell stood two shape shifters, one a werewolf like him, and the other—he drew in a deep breath—smelled like a mountain lion he’d caught wind of once.
The cat shifter had tried talking to him, but had given up when O’Shea hadn’t been able to answer with anything but snarls and a lunge at the cage. Milly glared at him from across the way. Still, he could do nothing without her explicit command and she hadn’t said anything since she’d said, “Kill Alex.”
Seeing Rylee had put him into a tailspin, her tri-coloured eyes staring up at him, and all he’d been able to say was, “I’m here to kill Alex.” Rylee would kill him. She promised him once that if he hurt Alex, she would. And Rylee was, if nothing else, the kind of girl who followed up on her word. Milly had planned this well.
Milly stared hard at him, her lips moving softly as she whispered a command, her eyes flicking to the werewolf. “Kill him.”
Without hesitation, O’Shea reached out and snagged the werewolf by the neck through the bars, snapping it with a sharp twist. The cat shifter whirled around and Milly hit him in the back with a spell.
Two more quick incantations and both cell doors were open. Milly flicked her wrist, slamming the cat shifter into the far wall, where he slid down into a crumpled pile.
“Is he dead?”
O’Shea listened, heard the heartbeat steady on the cat shifter. Milly hadn’t commanded him to tell the truth.
“Yes.”
“Then let’s go. We have work to do.”#p#分页标题#e#
Unable to fight her, O’Shea followed in Milly’s wake.
*-*-*-*
Within five minutes, the sounds of fighting and the feel of heavy-duty magic floated up to us from the lower cells. Fuck it all to hell and back. Pamela stood, and I put a hand on her shoulder. “No, we wait here.” I knew that if I went down to the cells, she’d be right behind me. I couldn’t risk her. Not even for O’Shea.
A full minute passed and then another. and finally, Will stumbled up, his head bleeding from a gash. “They’re gone.”
I nodded, totally unsurprised. There was no real way to keep Milly from using her magic unless I was right there, holding onto her. Officers ran to the lower levels, but I knew they were too late; it had been too late when they put Milly in a cell and expected her to stay there. The humans always took the longest to learn.
Without a doubt, Milly had O’Shea enthralled, of that much I was certain. There was no way he’d have done what he did, not even as a werewolf. His drive to protect others, to do the right thing, would have only intensified as the wolf in him grew. If we’d only been able to get that fucking torc off him.