Moonlight's Ambassador (Aileen Travers Book 3)(83)

Still, I couldn't let her give up hope. I’d been in bad situations before, and I knew that you had to stay in the right frame of mind. You never knew when the slimmest of chances to escape might come along. You had to be ready to take advantage, and that meant keeping your wits about you and staying determined.

"I thought the military trained you guys for situations like this," she said with a baleful look.

"They mostly teach how to evade capture, or techniques to hold up under interrogation. Either way, I never went to the SERE course so I'm fresh out of ideas." SERE stood for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape. It was the course the military sent its badasses to and involved a no-holds-barred training regimen designed to prepare soldiers for the possibility of capture. The program was pretty brutal from what I'd heard, so I'd never volunteered to attend. There were just some things in life I never wanted to survive. That was one of them. "Somehow, I don't think name, rank and social security number is going to help us right now."

That got me a sound of grim amusement from Caroline. It felt like a win, even as worry grew inside at her state. She was pale and sweat gleamed on her forehead as the ball she'd huddled into tightened.

"Do you know why they're doing this?" I asked.

She opened her eyes and looked at me. "No, but I know they've been planning this for a long time. They're the descendants you asked me to track down."

"I figured that part out," I said. "I mean, they should be on our side. Not working to kill us."

She shrugged. "You know as much as I do."

There was a creak as the door in front of me opened and the dim rays of the morning sun filtered through. I blinked against the bright light, feeling that familiar lassitude invade my limbs. Thanks to the blood bath Liam had forced on me, I wasn't in any danger of falling asleep. Yet.

A familiar face peered in disgust at me from the door. Lisa looked pissed to see me awake and hanging from the ceiling. "You've got to be fucking kidding me," she spat.

She stalked into the shack, her gaze going from me to Caroline. A growl came from Caroline's cage and my friend was suddenly crouched, her body poised to spring at Lisa.

"Shut it, kujo," Lisa snarled.

"My, my, I had no idea you were so involved in this," I said, turning her attention to me. That was a lie. An inkling had begun forming when I’d seen her photo on Theo's wall. There were also the bodies in the alley. Theo was human. There was no way he could have done that to Catherine and the other. That left Lisa. I suppose it was possible there was another werewolf involved in this, but I doubted it. Often the simplest explanation fit.

Her glare turned my way, and she paced closer to me. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

"What is Brax going to do when he realizes your role in all this?" I asked.

"He'll rip her spine out," Caroline said before Lisa could, her voice close to a growl. "He dislikes traitors."

"And you working to frame Caroline could be constituted as betrayal," I said as if just realizing the truth.

"That's not what happened," Lisa said.

"I don't think Brax is going to believe that. Do you, Caroline?" I said.

The amused noise Caroline made sounded odd coming from a throat half transformed to that of a wolf. It was a thing out of nightmares, your darkest fears given voice. "Not a chance in hell."

"Ah, well, it's been nice knowing you," I told Lisa with fake sympathy.

"There's no way he's going to find out," Lisa said, her voice defensive. I kept my inner smile to myself, seeing the chink in her walls.

"Isn't he, though?" I asked. "He's a very bright man. I'm sure your photo on Theo's descendant wall is going to be a very big clue, and when Nathan wakes up to identify Theo as his attacker, that'll be another glaring arrow pointing right at you."

"Your enforcer friend is dead," she snarled.

I kept my worry to myself, not letting her see how her words affected me. I prayed he survived. As many personal issues as I had with the vampires, I wouldn't wish most of them harm. Nathan, especially. He'd grown on me over the past few days—kind of like fungus.

"Are you sure?" I asked, sowing the seeds of doubt. "Do you really think your human could kill a vampire? We're pretty hardy, you know. Hell, I've survived a hole in the stomach and kept going, and he's way older than me. It'd take a lot to put him down."

Her mouth tightened, letting me know I'd scored. Good. Let her think on that. I wasn't bluffing either. I had no idea how much a vampire of Nathan's age could take, but I was banking that Theo's little magic charm didn't have enough juice to kill him.

Before she could respond, Theo appeared behind her. "What are you doing here?"

She whirled. "You! What is this?"

She waved at Caroline and me. Theo's face tightened as his eyes went to the two of us. He strode in, grabbing his sister's arm and yanking her out.

"We talked about this. You're supposed to keep your distance and let me know if the wolves make any suspicious moves."

"That was before you kidnapped the vampire's bitch. They're involved now and Brax is beginning to ask questions." She lowered her voice. "Dangerous questions."