Lisa was still unconscious against her tree. I scanned the clearing as far as I could with my limited mobility, my gaze coming to a stop as a pair of bare feet came into view.
I released the unconscious breath I'd been holding at the sight of Caroline slumped, boneless against the ground. Unlike me she wasn't tied face-down, her arms held immobile by stakes in the ground. She lay on her side, her face slack in sleep, the pinched, tight look from earlier gone as she rested, blissfully unaware of our current predicament. Looking closer, I could just glimpse something barely visible around her neck—a collar with a silver chain attached to it running from a loop in the front to wrap around the base of a tree. It was thinner than the chain he'd used on Lisa, probably so it could snap when the demon wolf made her appearance.
I dropped my face back into the dirt, trying to ignore the discomfort in my body. This wasn't good. Nobody knew where we were, and given where I estimated the sun to be, I figured it was already late afternoon. There were four to five hours until the sun set.
I tugged on my arms again, testing the strength of my bindings. My right arm didn't budge, but the left had some give in it that hadn't been there before. I turned my head, trying to get a better look at that arm, rotating the wrist so I could see it better. It looked like Lisa had undone one of the loops.
Perhaps if I could loosen it just a little more, I could slip free. My wrist twisted and jerked as I tried to fight loose, my heart leaping every time there was the slightest give. It wasn't much. Soon the skin around my wrist turned bright red as the rope and chain bit into my skin, abrading it until blood oozed from the marks.
The afternoon slid by as I struggled to free myself, each moment ticking by with an inevitable finality. When I couldn't summon the strength to continue, I rested for a moment, my eyes sliding shut as the sun sapped more and more of my strength.
Forget the fact that I was tied down. Given my current state, I wasn't sure I could make it more than a few steps once I did manage to free myself. The sun felt more taxing than it had just a few days ago. Could be because it was at its strongest and most intense, or maybe it was the fact that I'd been lying out here exposed for an indeterminate length of time. Maybe I was just weaker despite the top me up from Liam and Thomas. Torture tended to do that to a person. If I survived, I'd have to ask Liam.
I gritted my teeth, tugging and pulling on my arm as my hand slipped an inch, and then two out of the loop. The skin at my wrists tore further, the blood making the task a bit easier. With one last final wrench, I pulled my hand free before collapsing face first back into the dirt, the last of my energy sapped.
My eyes drifted shut as I promised myself a break. Just a minute, and then I'd go back to working myself free. My body relaxed into the earth's cool embrace as I drifted, half aware of the sun blazing down on me and half dreaming.
I was on a rocky beach, the shoreline a mass of rugged cliffs behind me, and the water a dark, stormy gray before me. This weird half-existence tugged at my focus, and for a moment I felt myself slipping back into my body, the sun an insidious thing above me.
"Aileen." Liam's deep voice pulled me back into the dream. I looked over to find his gaze steady on me, his hair a mess as if he'd been running his hands through it, and his clothes in a state of disarray. Normally, he was well dressed, his outward appearance another facet of the cool confidence and seductive vampire that was Liam. At the moment, his shirt and pants looked like he'd been wearing them for days, wrinkled and mussed. His skin was sallow, the skin under his eyes bruised and delicate-looking.
"Liam," I said in surprise, not sure if I was dreaming or if the link had finally started working.
"Where are you?" he asked, his voice urgent.
I blinked, looking around the rocky beach I found myself on while hoping it was all real.
"I don't know." The skin over his skull drew tight. "There are trees around us."
Liam's head turned as if he was listening to something I couldn't hear. For a moment, I thought I heard voices and then the murmur faded.
"I need more information," he said. "Can you tell us anything?"
"Can't you track me? I thought that was what the mark is for." I fought despair. There wasn't a lot more to tell.
"I've been trying, but someone has been hiding you from us." Frustration was a live thing in his voice. "I don't know what's changed, but this is the first time I've gotten close to you. Even now the connection is tenuous."
Maybe because I got my hand free?
"I don't know where I am, but I can tell you who is responsible for my current circumstances," I said. If I didn't make it out of here, perhaps I could still make sure Theo paid for this. I'd prefer to live, but in the absence of that I would settle for vengeance from the grave.
"Good. Nathan said he never saw his attacker."
"He's alive?" I asked. I hadn't dare hope that Theo had been wrong about killing the enforcer.
"Barely. Whatever was used on him would have killed him if I hadn't felt him fading and been close."
I felt relief. Last thing I wanted was to have the enforcer's death on my head. "It’s Theo. He's the one who did this to us."
Liam looked shocked and vaguely disbelieving. "That's not possible. He's dead."
I shook my head already anticipating his denial. "No, Pierce is the one who is dead. I'm sure once the DNA results come back they’ll confirm that."
His brow furrowed. He looked like he was considering the ramifications of what I'd revealed.
"Liam, Caroline is here." The carefulness of my tone must have warned him because he focused on me with a guarded expression on his face. "The full moon is tonight."
Understanding dawned as well as fury.
"He's planning to use her wolf to kill me," I said, struggling to keep my voice even. Freaking out wouldn't help matters. I needed to remain calm if I had any hope of getting out of here alive.
"Something is blocking Brax's connection to her," Liam said. "He hasn't been able to get an idea of her location either."
"Lisa's here too," I said, not sure if that would help or not. At this point, I figured the more information they had the better. You never know when a single piece might come in handy.
"The woman Caroline attacked?" Liam sounded surprised.
"Apparently Theo and she are siblings." I bared my teeth in a feral smile. "She tried to help me get loose, but he knocked her unconscious."
Despite my best intentions, the beach landscape was wavering as fatigue set in. I didn't know how long I could remain here.