“Aus,” I warned. “What are you not telling me?” He was probably my closest friend on the team, as we shared a private love for first person shooter games and had spent countless hours hanging out. I knew when he was hiding something, and his tense shoulders and tight lips were screaming that he was hiding a big something.
“Nothing,” he snapped. “She’s just a sore loser. Let’s go find the others. I’m sure she’ll catch up once she’s done having a cry.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, but he wasn’t paying attention anymore, already striding across the field to where we had left Caleb protecting our base. If only I hadn’t needed to take that damn phone call. Something had obviously happened with Kit, but I could only hope it was just Austin being his usual charming self.
No matter how often we tried to talk to him about his attitude towards our beautiful new houseguest, he continued to treat her like a piece of gum he had scraped from his boot. For a short time after we’d rescued the two of them from Blood Moon, it really seemed like he had gotten over his ridiculous hang ups, but then all of a sudden he was back to being an antagonistic jerk to her.
Worse even.
The only time I had seen him willingly in the same room as her over the last two months was when he was obligated to either coach her in target practice or attend classes. Not that I was complaining. I had been quietly crushing on Kit in a big way ever since the boys had brought her back to our house after her attempted kidnapping. That night, when Caleb had returned with her unconscious from the tranquilizer, it had been like seeing a ghost.
For months before arriving at Cascade Falls, I had been having these incredibly real dreams of a gorgeous red-haired girl, and there she was. In the flesh. On our couch. I swore my heart had actually stopped beating for a second while I’d just stared at her in shock, until Caleb snapped me out of it.
“Hey, pussycat!” Cole yelled out as we came within sight of them. I stifled a laugh at his nickname for Austin, whose callsign within Omega was Bengal. “How the fuck did you get that flag?”
“What sort of question is that? It’s the objective of this game, isn’t it?” Austin replied with the same evasive tone he had used with me. Something was definitely going on with him.
“Yes, we know that. But how did you get it? We know where Vixen had it hidden, and I doubt she gave it up willingly to you.” Cole was glowering at Austin with a dangerous look in his eyes, which made me tense up, even though it wasn’t aimed at me. Our team’s second in command was not someone you ever wanted pissed off at you.
“Where is she anyway?” River asked as he and Caleb approached, both covered in multiple splotches of colorful paint.
“Fuck, what is with all these questions? I won. End of story. Christina is probably just licking her wounded pride and will meet us back at the reception hut.” Austin threw the flag to his brother then stalked back towards the hut.
“Guys…” I started, frowning after my friend’s retreating form. “He’s hiding something.”
“Agreed,” Caleb murmured. “What did you mean about the flag, Cole?”
Cole made an angry noise in his throat, like the dragon of his callsign. “It was tucked into her bra. Alpha, remember what she said about her bad feeling?”
“I do.” River glowered. “Cole, you and Caleb head back to our base and find her. Wes, you and I are going to find out what Austin is hiding… and how he got that fucking flag out of her bra.”
3
KIT
“Hello?” My voice croaked into the darkness, husky from disuse, and the sound echoed back to me hauntingly. “Is anyone in here?” My head was pounding and fuzzy, and the concrete in front of my face was spinning. My stomach clenched hard, and I groaned, clutching at it and trying to hold back the bile rising in my throat. It was the same sick feeling I used to have as a child when we hadn’t eaten in days.
How long have I been out?
Shaking my head a little to try and clear it, I pushed myself up to sitting and looked around. If it hadn’t been for the thin strips of light from the tiny, barred window, I would have thought I'd lost my eyesight. It was that dark. Fear spiked within me, and I took several deliberate breaths to control it.
“Hello?” I called out again in a slightly stronger voice, but still no one responded.
Where the hell was I? The last thing I remembered was being at the paintball park with the guys, and then Caleb and I making out… no wait, Austin and I were making out… and then what happened?
I rubbed my pounding forehead as I racked my brain for what had happened after that, but all I was coming up with were disjointed slivers of memories. Sergei's sweaty, leering face, and then the jolt and thump of a drive in someone's trunk, and then nothing until waking up in the dark.
I hesitantly hauled myself to my feet and blindly felt my way around the room, ascertaining that I was definitely in there alone. The walls were solid, made of huge stone blocks, which held a dampness that suggested I was underground. The little window was set high enough in the wall that I couldn’t see out, but it didn’t seem to lead outside. Most likely just an air vent rather than a window.
Fucking hell, I knew something bad was going to happen. Stupid me for thinking that bad thing was making out with goddamn Austin.
That was something I needed to deal with, if I ever got home. I couldn't believe he’d gone that far just to win a stupid game. No, I didn’t believe that for a second. There was definitely something more going on, and I was almost positive that he was feeling something more for me than just the contempt he layered on so thick. He had to be. God knows I am. It wasn’t really going to be an issue though, until I could get myself free.
Leaning my forehead against the door, I pressed my eye against the hinges, trying to get some clue as to where I might be. Of course, all I could see was a blank concrete wall directly opposite my door. Shit. How the hell am I getting myself out of this mess?
I should never have ignored that foreboding feeling. Everything in me had been screaming a warning that something bad was coming, but I had chalked it up to paranoia. Ever since Dupree’d had her goons try to kidnap me, beaten my best friend half to death, then revealed that I had the power to restore magic to all the dormant supernatural creatures of this world… oh, and also that I might be a fucking immortal… I had been a bit on edge.