Ch. 145: Dove

CHAPTER 145:
Jake~
As much as I think this could work, Aamon is absolutely livid that Rachel is about to be out of sight. Things have been working as she planned so far. Simon screaming down here brought Rosalind down as thought. I have to give it to the guy - he played ‘seizure guy’ very well. Then in the middle of things there was some shouting up top. Likely from the fire Elise set. Which meant that Kyle was pretending to surrender himself and if Rachel was right, Paul wouldn’t be able to fight the urge to have groveling at his feet.
Which left Sophie. She was right outside my cell, watching Rosalind move Paul around in this cell, trying spells to stop him from freaking out, not realizing Ally had thrown him something he now had in his cheek like a squirrel that would ward off unwanted magic.
“They’re kind of a mess, aren’t they?” I say beside her. “I would have expected more from a Luna in training…”
She turned to face me with a look of defiance. “Desperate times…”
I try to picture her as Rachel and give her my best sly smile - a look I’m hoping conveys ‘I’m into you.’
Aamon settles far away in my mind, disgusted by what I’m doing.
She looks at me for a long time, trying to discern how truthful I’m being and I continue to pretend to see Rachel in front of me to keep from breaking character.
“I assume you’ve got a plan? Something to take what you need and ditch these rejects?” I ask, trying to feed her ego and show her that I think she’s a step ahead.
“Maybe,” she says looking at me, her gaze turning lustful.
I keep my face still, forcing myself not to react to the literal heebeegeebees that look is actually giving me. Like a snake slithering over my leg in my sleep. Just - ew.
“I knew it,” I grin openly. “Cunning as always.”
Her eyes get darker then. Her wolf is now at full attention.
“I was waiting for you to make your move. Screw cat-and-mouse. We’re cat and cat, aren’t we?” I say, dropping my voice lower.
Her eyes blaze then. I’ve hooked her.
“I’m very interested to see what you’ve got planned for these lower things,” I say with my brow raised, gesturing to everyone else in the dungeon. “Just let me know how I can help.”
She’s very pleased now.
Sophie opens and closes her mouth, stopping herself from saying something. I can hear Simon continuing his charade and Rosalind cursing loudly, frustrated her spells aren’t doing anything.
I hold her gaze through it all. Giving her what she wanted this whole time - my full and undivided attention.
“I’ve got something I’m going to slip them,” she says, her hand touching mine on the bar between us.
I contemplate snapping her neck with her being so close. But I know this would blow our shot.
“Sly girl,” I say.
My words give her shivers. She’s still hooked.
“Then I’ll come get you out - we’ll leave them behind to stay,” she says excitedly, her mind spinning.
“Can’t wait, my clever girl,” I say, keeping my voice low.
I see her shiver in delight again.
“But,” I say and stop.
“What is it?” she says, her eyes searching mine.
“How am I going to ditch them,” I move my eyes to indicate Nick and Evan, “after all the chaos?”
I see her mind working.
“Could you move me first? To my own cell? So when it’s time, we can take off - not have to worry about them fighting back?” I suggest darkly.
She nods and I rub my thumb on her hand then, lightly and casually like we’ve done this a hundred times. Her eyes flicker back and forth and she nods again more vigorously.
I see it has the desired effect when her eyes flicker between Sophie’s and her wolf’s. They are both very pleased that I think they’re oh so smart.
“Oh, maybe upstairs?” she says excitedly.
“Closer to the door?” I add like I’m finishing her thought.
Rosalind screams another curse then and I nod to Sophie as I take a step back. Simon watches my gesture and then calms down. Good timing. We didn’t know if she might just try to kill him. Nick thought we should take the chance though - there was some reason they hadn’t just killed him already.
Rosalind and Sophie go back up to likely deal with the fire up there and Kyle.
They’re at the open door when Rachel screams bloody murder.
I knew it was coming but my hair still stands on all ends. She’s fine. But Paul doesn’t know that.
And she knew that he would come busting down here if he heard her scream. This part might be harder for me than pretending to be into Sophie.

Rachel~
Paul is there a minute later. I hold my wrist limply in my hand and crouch over, rocking away the pain when he arrives at the cell door.
“Dove, what happened?” he asks, the creepy old nickname he used for me repulsing me.
I look up at him with tears in my eyes and lift up my limp wrist. I likely broke it. I had just meant to hurt myself but I think I did too well.
“Dove!” he exclaims and fiddles with his pocket until the key is in his hand. He looks around and grabs a cuff.
My heart sinks. I thought for a minute we would get out the easy way. He would open this and let me out and I would kick his aas and let everyone out so we could take them all down. But no, it’s the long version. He throws the cuffs through the bars.
“Put them on Dove, then I can come help you,” he says, begging.
I nod and sniffle while I put them on. Hating the clicking. I keep them loose and hope he doesn’t notice. Maybe that way I can get a little magic out?
He opens the cell door and comes in to lean down.
“What happened, Dove?” he asks with concern.
I shake my head like I am afraid to tell him.
“Here, hold on, I’ll fix you up,” he says, lifting my hands, trying to get me to stand.
He leads me out of the cell and I feel a flicker of magic available to me. He waves a hand over my likely broken wrist and says some incantation I’m unfamiliar with. Slowly the pain subsides.
“Tell me now, Dove. What happened?” his voice rising.
“She could hurt me again,” I blubber out, hating the way I sound so scared.
But that’s what he always liked about me. My fear. He liked to be the one to scare me though. And I knew when it came to someone else scaring me - he wouldn’t stand for it.
His grip on my tightened and I hissed. He of course didn’t flinch at the pain he himself was causing. It was always about not allowing other people to be near me or to touch me.
I went on then, “She said she’ll kill Meg and my mom but not before she breaks me.”
His eyes flared and his grip got even tighter. There was definitely going to be bruising.
“Who?” he asked me, in a hiss.
“Sophie,” I say meekly. “Please don’t tell her I told you! She says it would only be worse next time if I told anyone.”
“Come with me Dove, I’ll take care of this. No one will put a finger on you again. And your family is fine. They’re coming with us,” he said, leading me out of the walkway.
I use a bit of magic to push his keys toward Ally. The fact that they could make a sound any second had me terrified, but via luck or a blessing by the many Goddesses and a certain Archangel friend of mine, the keys made it out of his pocket and over to Ally’s cell by the time I was pulled out of view.
Now for this sucker to show me where the h*ll they’re keeping my family.

Kyle~
“So am I going to the dungeon or what?” I ask cavalierly.
“I don’t know what you think you’re up to, but we have all the leverage here, little lower Fae,” this older lady explains.
“Well then, what am I doing here?” I ask her seriously.
She crosses her arms and glares at me. “I’m waiting for you to explain precisely that.”
I throw my arms in the air in exasperation.
“Try to rescue your friends these days with a simple hostage exchange, and this is what I get?!” I start making a scene.
“Hostage exchanges are usually for people who are more valuable. Not less,” Ms. Arnhem wryly says coming up the stairs.
Rachel screams then and I flinch.
A dude I don’t recognize rushes down there.
“I’m hurt. I thought I was plenty valuable,” I say sarcastically.
“You need to leave, freak,” a snotty girl says.
Sophie, I think her name is.
“Goddess, you all are a mess, aren’t you? I mean is there even a leader here? Everyone seems very confused. I haven’t seen this much disorganization since the last episode I caught of Hoarders,” I say with sass.
Sophie growls at me and bares her teeth. But I don’t even flinch.
“Just go lock him up,” Ms. Arnhem says to Sophie.
She flashes her teeth, “Do I look like your servant? Do it yourself.”
She sucks in air and then grabs my gruffly by the arm. She leads me back down to the place I still have nightmares about when I let my mind wander. Down the stairs we went.
We hit the bottom of the steps when something fast as hll rushes at her and knocks her out without her even seeing. I flinch from the sudden attack, then smile to see Evan grinning at me.
“How’s it going up there?” he chuckles.
“It’s a mess. Now talk to me, is everyone out?” I ask.
I then see Ally and Amber poke their heads from around the corner, soon followed by Nick and Jake.
“Where’s Rachel?” I ask Jake.
“With Paul,” he says through his teeth.
I raise my eyebrows but don’t ask. Clearly he’s someone we don’t like.
“Alright, what’s the game plan now? I’m thinking this is all a little different than Ally shared,” I prompted.
“Rachel is working on finding her sister and her mom. I’m going to follow the bond and be ready for when she makes her move. Ev - I linked Elise. She’s by the entrance ready to go on our mark. I made her a temporary pack member so you should be able to link her. Take Amber and Kyle up with you. You’re going to take those asholes on upstairs. I’ll take Ally and Nick to help Rachel. Wait at the top and I’ll tell you when to make your move,” Jake orders calmly, his Alpha blood taking care of things.
“You heard the man,” I look at Evan and Amber follows him back up the stairs.
“And Simon?” Ally asks Jake as we head out.
I stop. “Wait, Simon is here?” I ask Ally. “Our Simon?”
“Long story, but yes - I’ll explain later,” she replies with a pained look.
I almost ask more but I know Evan and Amber are waiting, so the questions will have to wait.