Chapter Thirty Seven

*Ariya*


“Ari!” A voice shouted in my mind.
My eyes went wide, “Keo?!”
“Ari! I’m so glad we finally reached you! What’s going on?! Are you ok? We’ve been trying to reach you for days now!”
I laughed, “I’m managing, Keo. I’m ok. Don’t worry so much.”
“Ari, you’re a hostage now. They’re going to torture you…”
My face fell, “I know, Keo. Boss told me what each day was going to be like. I’ve been unconscious since that night. I just barely woke up today. Boss and I talked for a while and then I pissed him off…”
Keo growled, “Did he hurt you?!”
“Yeah, I became his personal punching bag for a bit. Keo, you just said it yourself, they’re going to torture me. I’m going to be getting hurt…a lot…”
“We have to get you out of there, Ari.”
“You can’t. Not yet, Keo. I need to get my memories back first.”
“Ari, you can get those back here. You don’t need to be there getting tortured to get them back.”
“Keo, if I leave here now, they’re going to chase us. They won’t stop until they catch us. I can’t be trying to remember everything at the same time as trying to fight off attacks. I need to be able to control myself and control my abilities. I just got them. I didn’t get them until just a few days ago. I have no idea how any of this works.”
“But…”
“It’s going to be ok, Keo. I know you’re here. You can talk to me some days and help me through the mental part of it.”
“I can also help with the physical part, Ari.”
“What? How?” I asked, confused.
“Because we used to switch all the time when we were kids. I don’t know if you remember, but we used to pretend to be one another all the time. The only one who was never fooled was Ivan. But everyone else was. No one could tell that we switched.”
“Keo, we just pretended to switch though right? We didn’t actually switch.”
“True, but for some reason, I feel like we can actually switch places. Ari, I’ve never been able to contact anyone through their mind. Drake tried teaching me but I could never do it. But with you, I can. I feel like if we continue working on connecting through our mind then we might be able to see each other as if we were face to face too. Caleb said you both did it once. If we can do that, we should be able to train as well.”
My mind was racing as I processed what Keo had told me, “It’s worth a shot. If it means I can get in control a lot faster then I might not have to stay here as long.”
“We’ll have to work on it, it’s probably not going to happen quickly. But we can work on it. It will drain you a bit mentally, though…”
“It’s ok. It will probably help me sleep better. I’m kinda chained up right now.”
“Chained up? You’re not sitting in a chair like I was?”
“No. I don’t think they realized you were who you were. I think Boss thinks that you are dead. So he probably just thought you might be another wolf or something. But they know I turned. So they plan on torturing me each day. Well, almost every day. So right now I’m basically attached to a table with my hands above my head chained up and my feet are chained at the bottom. There’s a chain around my waist probably to keep me in place. You know, 5 star comfort over here.”
Keo growled, “This isn’t right, Ari.”
“I know, but it is what it is. I’m either going to live through this or I won’t. One of the two.”
“That’s not funny.”
“I know but it’s the only thing that’s getting me through this. Are you guys ok? Did you make it out alright?”
“About that…” Keo hesitated, “Caleb met up with me quickly but apparently they had Shadows in waiting. There were 17 of them, Ari. They messed Caleb and I up pretty bad at first. We’re ok though. Drake got to us in time. But all the Shadows that came after us are dead…”
I whistled in my head, “Wow. That’s almost all the Shadows that I think Boss employed. I’m sure there’s a few more and I’m sure he’ll get more. But he was probably angry as hell that you guys got away and killed them all.”
“You’re not mad?”
“They attacked you, Keo. Why would I be mad about you guys defending yourselves?”
“You didn’t want to kill everyone that was there back when we were both there.”
“That’s because there are innocent people here, Keo. Mya and Link aren’t against us. It looked like it for sure during that, but that was because Boss was suspicious. They wouldn’t have done what they did otherwise.”
“Who is Mya and Link?”
“They were on my team when I turned. Mya was the girl that cut her hand open and Link is the one that cut my shirt open.”
Keo growled, “That looked real enough to me.”
“That was the point, Keo. Boss wouldn’t be suspicious if they did things like that. Granted it only mostly worked. He’s still skeptical. But he hasn’t done anything to them yet.”
“That you know of.”
I growled this time, “I hope they’re ok.”
“Are they going to help get you out?”
“No. They’re informants for us for right now. I don’t think Boss is going to let them near me though. So I’m not sure how useful they’ll be in getting any information to me right now. But if we need them, they’ll be there.”
“Were they the only 2 you were worried about?”
“Well, they were the 2 that were in the room. But I was worried about Justin. Then there’s Ivan…”
“Who the hell is Justin?”
I shifted, uneasily. Keo was going to be so mad, “He’s the one that cuffed me, held me in place while they hurt me, and then I bit him…”
“Ariya, are you kidding me?!”
Yup…he was pissed. “Keo…”
“No! Absolutely not! Why the hell are you worried about him? That guy deserved to be bit after what he let them do to you! He’s probably dead anyway.”
“He’s not. I took a lot of blood from him, but not enough to kill him. Mya was able to save him in time. It’s a good thing I did too. If he had been coherent he probably would have been one to track you down. He’s a tracker, Keo. A really good one too. I’m pretty sure he was there the night of the attack…”
“He was. I remember him running off with your Boss after everything…”
My heart broke, “Keo, he’s helping me through this.”
“Helping you through this, how?”
“He’s the one that put my bones back into place, and emotionally so far he’s helped me out a lot.”
Keo growled, “You like him, don’t you? How close are you 2?”
“He was the one that trained me when I first got here. I was the only trainee he had. We weren’t super close but we were closer. We were a team here before I got my own team and moved up. He moved up when I did and ended up in charge of the trackers.”
“I don’t approve.”
I laughed, “I have to get approval from you first?”
“Uh yeah, duh. You’re my sister. My TWIN sister. Of course I have to approve.”
“So does this work the other way then too?”
“Absolutely…but seriously, Ari…”
“What’s wrong, Keo?”
“I shouldn’t say…”
“You already started, so just tell me.”
“It was supposed to be you and Ivan…”
I heard footsteps getting closer and the fear started to set in. “Keo, I gotta go. Try to contact me tomorrow night. Don’t panic if you don’t get hold of me. Just try every night. I’ll be ok. I gotta go. They’re coming. Block this conversation please. Boss can tell if I’m lying. He has a serum.”
I could feel the conversation getting locked, Drake must have wiggled his way in through the link Keo had made. Right when the conversation got locked the door clicked open. Drake and Keo severed the connection. Boss walked in, eyeing me suspiciously.
“Who were you talking to?”