Ch. 144: Luna Rising

CHAPTER 144:
Rachel~
“Sophie,” I say the name with charged disgust I can’t hide. “You couldn’t just leave and go find something else to do, huh? You had to stick around and try to take what’s mine.”
“Yours?!” She screeches. “You mean what you stole from me! I’m supposed to be Luna. Me! I lost my mom and then my dad, and what? You just waltz along and get what’s mine? NEVER.”
“So what? Trying to hurt me before by hiring Max wasn’t enough? Now you have to get some more help to do what you can’t handle? Typical Sophie. Can’t do a dann thing by yourself. You have to wave daddy’s money around to get anything done. Pathetic,” I sneer.
She sputters unintelligible words. I’m getting under her skin.
“Enough,” Vance’s mom says, her voice cutting through everything. “You can play around when we’re done with our deal.”
Sophie bares her teeth at me then turns. At the same time the door down to the dungeon opens again. Who could possibly be joining in on this nonsense?
There’s two sets of steps and they get closer, my mind whirling trying to make this make any sense at all.
“Right on time as always Ros,” Ms. Arnhem says, coming out from the shadows.
I hear Ally gasp and I feel like letting one out of me too. What the h*ll is Ms. Arnhem doing here? And who is that-
My jaw involuntarily opens at the sight. My heart starts racing, and everything suddenly feels too much. It’s all too loud, too dark, too bright, too much.
“Hey Rach,” Paul says from her side. “I believe you’ve met my aunt, Rosalind Arnhem.”
Everything I know about the supernatural world, about my world, shatters.
My mind flashes back to Piso High, where Paul would corner me, stalk me. I thought about the strange phone calls and the suicide note. My vision blurs as my heart thunders in panic. There’s pain in my chest and I’m starting to hyperventilate.
“Oh, Rach, darling,” he drawls, getting closer to my cell. “It’s so nice to see how excited you are to see me again.”
A deep growl rips through the space but all he does is laugh.
“Oh! I had heard you reeled in… a puppy. How cute,” he says in a condescending tone. “Too bad you can’t keep him.”
My stomach drops. What exactly are these people all doing together? What do they want from each other?
“Let’s talk figures upstairs and come back,” Vance’s mom says, her arms crossed.
Paul nods and follows Sophie and Ms. Arnhem out and up the stairs.
“Rach, are you okay? Who was that?” Jake asks, suddenly up and reaching as close as he can towards me.
“Yeah,” I say shakily. “That’s - that’s Paul. My stalker from Piso.”
Ally and I look at each other for a moment. While I told Jake about a guy that had given me problems, I had downplayed them a bit at the time because I didn’t want him to worry or to go after the dude and kill him. I was regretting that now.
“It’s going to be alright, Killer,” Jake said then, smiling at me slightly.
How? I wanted to ask.
“Backup is already on the way. We just need to stall this and see how much we can do before things get any worse,” Nick’s logical mind whirling as he says this. “I know these cells block certain things but not all things. Ally, get into a meditative sleep state and try to reach Kyle. Luna, can you feel something still in the bond?” he moves on.
I nod my head.
“Try to amplify Jake through it. I know it’s not how you do it, but see if you can work that out. Amber - do you know anything about any of these folks?” Nick continues.
“I know I’ve seen the older woman who held Rachel by the knife. She visited Callum at least a few times. I don’t know her really though,” Amber responded.
“Hold on,” Jake raised a hand. “Someone else is down here.”
We all turn to face the direction Jake is walking to.
“Who is there?” he asks.
“I’m sorry,” a broken voice sounds. It’s a familiar voice but it doesn’t sound quite right.
Ally gasps when she puts it together. “Simon?!”
Simon coughs and slowly crawls into view. He’s in a cell down the hall but there’s a sliver of light that illuminates his frame now that he’s moved.
I can tell it’s him but it’s like he’s aged a hundred years. Not to mention the deep gashes and scars across his face, his right eye swollen shut from some beating.
“I’m sorry Ally,” he croaks, his voice raw and raspy.
“Uh, who is Simon?” Evan asks, looking over at him unimpressed.
“A friend from Pacific. We haven’t seen him in a few weeks,” I explained on Ally’s behalf, who was currently without words.
“What-?” Ally starts to ask.
“It’s my fault, I’m sorry,” he says, a sob choking out whatever else he was going to say.
Nick growls, “Explain yourself.”
It takes a moment before he collects himself enough to be understood.
“It’s my f- fault,” he blubbers. “They took my parents- and I - I helped them. I should’ve known better.. known they wouldn’t honor their promise. They wanted one of you - and I couldn’t give them you - so I gave them Kyle.”
Ally and I gasped at the same time.
“What do you mean, Simon?” I asked, prompting him to further explain.
“They killed my dad anyway after that, and just kept torturing my mom… And when Kyle didn’t give in, didn’t use his dreams like they wanted - they beat her. I tried. I tried to get them both out. But they caught me and - I couldn’t. And when he still didn’t give in, they took her legs. They still let her live, to control me. To spy on you and Rachel, and to tell them everything I heard and saw. I knew what you were, Al. They told me and had me watch for things…” he went on.
Nick was losing his sht in the cell across the walkway, with Jake pushing him back with one hand. If they could shift in there he would’ve shifted already and killed Simon, I know it.
“Please tell him I’m sorry. I didn’t know what they did to his grandma until it was too late,” he choked another sob back.
“Weak,” Nick seethed from his cell.
Ally’s head whipped to him, her eyes angry. Nick bared his teeth but stayed silent.
“Simon,” I said, trying to come up with a plan. “Can you help us get out of here? What do you know?”
He sat up a bit and thought for a moment before sharing everything he knew about the cells and the agreements Ms. Arnhem, Vance’s mom, Sophie, and Paul had. As we theorized aloud a few ideas, something clicked with me.
“Ally?” I asked, prompting her to look at me. “Can you tell Kyle to turn himself in at the front door when you connect to him?”
Everyone talked over each other, with questions and distaste for my idea.
“Look, as awful as it is - I know Paul. And we,” I looked over pointedly at Jake, “know Sophie. So let’s play along, pretend to give them what they want.”
“But Rosalind and the Succubus aren’t going to just let them-” Nick contradicts me.
I hold a hand up. “Yes, that’s why Simon and Elise are going to distract them.”
Jake looked at me then, a brow raised with interest. “What’s the plan, Killer?”

Elise~
“I would just like to say one more time that I don’t like this plan,” I whisper to Kyle as we creep towards the invisible barrier.
“Darling El, if it was someone else going in my place you would applaud the plan. You just don’t like that it’s me doing it,” he says with a knowing grin.
His bright red hair peeking out from under his black knit beanie, the metal on his black boots shining in the sunlight. My chock-full of contradictions mate. The image made me smile even as I was trying to frown. He noticed and increased the intensity of his look.
“El, I trust you, and I trust my friends,” he said, pulling me close. I breathed in his scent deeply, its calming effect rushing through me like cool water on a hot day. “Plus, it’s going to be super hot when you bust in and save me later.”
I laughed aloud at that. If you met me before, you’d describe me as a serious and dry person. But with Kyle, I laughed all the time. I was as addicted to him as I was to the way he made me laugh so easily.
“Fine, but I’m taking this out on you later,” I replied, giving him my best sultry voice.
He grinned broadly, “I’m counting on it.”
Then he stepped through the invisible barrier, and I took a long slow breath to steady my wolf and pause the urge to chase after him.
Just a few minutes, just a few minutes…
I watched my smart watch closely until finally, it was time.
I entered cautiously and made my way to my position. I looked at my smartwatch again and waited, my hearing reaching for any sign of Kyle or trouble - but there was nothing. Not even the usual chitterings of the forest. This place sure was strange.
I paced on the balls of my feet for what felt like forever and a half. I am an action taker, not a wait-and-watch lady. And this was testing the limits of my patience - not to mention my wolf’s patience.
I knew Kyle wasn’t in pain or fear, I wasn’t getting that through the bond. Just anxiety.
I think about mashing my face into a tree to get rid of some of this building urges to act. I’m seriously about to do it when I look again, and finally - it’s time.