Fought to keep my eyes open.
Heard Connor roar—
Another pop.
Then everything went black again.
When I woke up, I was lying in a large metal cage in what looked to be a basement. A narrow window high in the cement-block wall allowed in a sprinkling of sunlight. The bars rattled. I rolled over and felt a sense of relief to see that Connor was in the cage with me—testing the strength of our prison. It was tall enough that we could stand up in it, but the door was only half as high. I couldn't figure out how it was secured, but it looked as though it slid up. I imagined Mason and his crew rolling us, unconscious, inside. I got to my feet, wrapped my hands around the bars, and shook the cage. It was sturdy.
Connor hit the bars with the flat of his hand. "It's no use."
He sank down in the corner and draped his hands over his drawn-up knees. He'd obviously woken up before me and checked things out. I slowly looked around. "Any idea what time it is?" I asked.
"No, they took my watch. Probably a strategy Mason learned in Taking Prisoners One-oh-one."
I spied cameras in the corners.
"And yeah, they're watching us," Connor said, not bothering to disguise his disgust.
I swallowed hard and fought to sound brave. "Talk about invasion of privacy."
"I have a feeling our privacy is going to be violated worse than that."
I thought about sitting beside him, but I was too restless so I paced. "Do you think they can hear us?"
"Not if we talk really quietly."
"I'm really mad at myself," I said through clenched teeth, frustrated. "You warned me to always expect the attack, and I was walking along not paying any atten—"
"Brittany, there's no way we could have anticipated this. You prepare, but in the end—surprise attack always trumps prepared."
I wanted to smile at his attempt to make me feel better. But I knew the truth. I'd been wallowing in my own troubles too much.
"What was it like when they caught you before?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Mason making threats, crowing about how he'd gotten the drop on us. We were in a cave. Who would have thought he'd find us there? The terrain was too rough for a vehicle so they were walking us." He glanced around. "I guess this was supposed to be our final destination."
"Did he do anything?"
"Kept asking us how we shifted. We told him we had no idea what he was talking about." He stared at one of the cameras. "But he just didn't want to listen."
A door opened, the screech of its squeaking hinges indicating that it was heavy. Mason strode in with Ethan, another lab geek we'd met earlier in the summer, and Tyler, flanking him like idiots who tagged along after the school bully. But behind them were Johnson and his twin, sporting guns. Mason must really fear what Shifters were capable of.
"Good. Sleeping Beauty and her Prince Charming are awake," Mason said, as he and his entourage came to a stop a few feet from the cage. I figured he'd had his eyes glued to a monitor waiting for some sign of activity.
Connor slowly unfurled his body and stood up in the way of a predator that doesn't fear its prey. "Release us, Mason, and we'll let you live."
Mason laughed darkly. "That sounds like a line from a bad movie."
"You must think it's possible that I can take you out or you wouldn't have Dumb and Dumber there with you holding guns."
"What I know is possible is this: Werewolves do exist. Earlier this summer, we caught Lucas when he was a wolf."
"Yeah," Connor said, mockingly. "I remember you mentioning something about that when you captured me before."
Mason had indeed caught Lucas in wolf form, but he'd never seen him shift in or out of it, so all he had was his belief.
"His fur looked just like Lucas's hair," Mason said, frustrated anger giving a hard edge to his voice.
"Wolves come in all shades. Check out Wikipedia or Google. They're black, brown, red, gray, white. And some are a combination of all colors. Wolves have been mixing things up for generations. I bet we could even find one that has fur that matches your hair. Let's go take a hike, see what we can find."
"Very funny. I know what I know. Your blood proves it."
"What my blood proves is that someone was careless, mixing samples or something. Or maybe you're just seeing what you want to see."
"Right. Whatever you say." Mason reached back and snapped his fingers. Ethan dropped to the floor like a submissive wolf, opened a case he'd been carrying, and handed Mason a long-handled swab. Mason held it toward Connor. "Need you to swab your mouth. Be sure you get a lot of saliva."
Connor gave him a feral-looking grin and invitingly stepped back. "Come in and swab it yourself."
Mason made a motion with his hand. "Wilson."
Johnson's twin stepped forward and leveled a mean-looking gun on me. My heart hammered my ribs so hard that I was surprised they didn't crack. I angled up my chin in defiance and glared at Mason. "You have totally lost it."
But his attention was focused on Connor. He raised his finger like a teacher making a point. "That, my friend, is not a tranq gun. It's the bullet-holding kind."
"It doesn't matter," I said to Connor, knowing the first time we gave in they'd start making other demands. Surely Mason was bluffing.
With a growl, Connor reached through the bars and snatched the swab from Mason. He twirled it around his mouth and tossed it out. Ethan leaped for it, but he didn't have a Shifter's finely honed reflexes. He scooped it up from the floor.
"Will it be okay?" Mason asked.
"Should be. Just a little dirty." He dropped it into a clear vial.
"Now we want some more blood." Mason tapped the inside of his elbow. "The good stuff."
"Connor—" I began.
"It's just blood." Never taking his eyes from Mason, he shoved up the sleeve of his sweatshirt and pushed his arm between the bars. I figured Connor was imagining how Mason would taste when he finally got his teeth into him. Ethan must have been smart enough to read the murder in Connor's eyes, because he hung back until Mason barked orders at him.
I briefly wondered why Mason hadn't taken any specimens of what he needed while we were unconscious, but then I realized he was striving to make a point here—showing us exactly who was in charge.