Not yet.
Janus led her into absolute blackness which seemed to suck the light from the lantern in his hand. It was like being wrapped in cotton, the sound diminished and all Sherrie’s senses dulled.
“I have one of your companions imprisoned here. You demonstrate to me how you took his essence, and I’ll trust you’re really on my side.”
“I don’t know what I did,” she protested. “It just sorta happened!”
“Then you’re going to have to figure out how like I did. It’s not easy to keep the lines open between myself and a dozen different shifters, but I’ve got it down to an art now.” He laughed. “It’s kind of like having intravenous tubes from several sources all feeding me what I need, what I’ve come to crave.” A soul-sucking vampire. So glad I found you, bro. Now what am I going to do to stop you?
Her pulse, which had slowed during their cozy chat over tea, was racing again. He was taking her to John, but how was she going to set him free? She’d have to use her wits, which appeared to have fled her at the moment. She couldn’t even think straight, she was so afraid.
Suddenly, Janus stopped and held out an arm to hold her back. Sherrie gasped as she realized if she’d taken another few steps forward she would’ve fallen into a gaping hole in the ground. The chasm yawned like an open manhole in the street, only somewhat wider in circumference.
“He’s down there. Unharmed for now. But he can’t be allowed to live. He’s seen my face.” Janus turned toward her.
In the harsh light of the lantern casting its eerie shadows, his average features turned into a Halloween mask. “You’ve got to drain him dry.”
John raised his pounding head from the ground to focus on beams of light floating above the black pit in which he was imprisoned. Approaching footsteps resounded in the rocky cavern and the steady murmur of a male voice echoed off the walls—Janus. The man John knew as Evan Blake.
He’d known Blake his entire life, had gone to school with the quiet boy and exchanged absent-minded hellos with the equally quiet adult. The grandson of Steve and Amanda Blake, both now deceased, Evan was a teller at the local branch where John did his banking.
Evan was a half-shifter without the ability to tap his animal side, if he even had one. He lived with the pack in Browning, but only on the periphery of the group. John had occasionally thought it must be lonely for Evan, being an outsider. Once or twice over the years, he’d made an effort to invite the guy to a poker party or on a fishing trip, but Blake had never accepted his offers. Now it appeared Evan had latent powers none of them had ever guessed he possessed, and the pack was going to pay for real or imagined slights.
John held his breath and listened as a feminine voice answered Blake. It was Sherrie. The echoes made it difficult to hear the words, but it sounded like she was telling him she couldn’t do something he wanted her to do. John’s pulse pounded in his ears and the urgent need to protect Sherrie superseded all other thoughts. He was frantic and frustrated by his inability to do anything to help her as the argument escalated.
“I don’t believe you.” Blake’s voice suddenly came from above and light shone down into John’s eyes, blinding him after the hours in darkness. “I think you do know how to tap him, and if you’re really sincere about teaming with me, you need to prove it.” Without warning, something—a body—blocked the light and fell into the pit. Sherrie tumbled toward John in a crazy, impossible slow motion. Blake must be controlling her fall with his powers. She floated like an oversized feather, arms and legs knocking against the narrow, rocky walls. John barely had time to put his arms up to catch her before she landed on him heavily, knocking them both to the ground.
Far above, Blake leaned over the opening to the shaft and called down, “I’ll give you a few hours to think about it. It’s not a hard choice. I’m offering you everything. All you have to do is accept my offer and give me a token of good faith.”
John gripped Sherrie’s body tightly as the light disappeared and their captor’s footsteps retreated. He breathed in the scent of her hair, felt her warmth in his arms and her weight pinning him to the ground.
“Are you all right?”
“No. Are you?”
John sat up, releasing her so she could catch her breath. He heard her turn toward him although he couldn’t see her shape in the total darkness even with his keen vision.
“Did he hurt you?” Her fingers touched his face, felt it as a blind person would, then her hands trailed down his neck and over his chest and arms.