Vivian Arend - Moon Shine

Amy pressed her hands to Laney’s upper arms and offered as much calming reassurance she could. “You did the right thing coming here. I’ll take care of you and Dexter.”

Laney shook her head. “No. Nothing is right. I’m so sorry.”

Something blurred at the edge of Amy’s vision a second before a sharp pain bloomed on the side of her head. Darkness rolled in as her legs gave out.

Coming back to consciousness hurt. Amy rolled onto her hands and knees, bracing herself against the nausea that struck. Complete blackness surrounded her, a low hissing noise the only clue she had to her location.

That, and the familiar scent of the Moonshine Inn.

During the year she’d been tracking Evan, she’d done all sorts of interesting research. Sneaking into the hotel and finding its hidden passageways had become one of her favourite pastimes. There was something fun about avoiding security cameras and casual patrols.

That meant even in the dark she wasn’t totally lost. She was, however, in trouble. The room Mike had trapped her in was one of the least accessible in the entire building.

Amy patted her pockets to see if she’d been lucky enough to be left with her cell phone, or anything she could use to alert Evan.

Nothing. They had left her with nothing but the clothes on her back.

She took a long breath to calm herself. Evan would come. In the meantime, she knew how to escape the room, and it didn’t involve the door.

She did try the door first though, just to be sure. Her fingers slipped over the cold metal of the latch. It was firmly locked, the barrier itself hard and impenetrable.

Moving carefully in the absolute darkness, Amy orientated herself. The room held shelving, once filled with supplies, now mostly empty. The shelves made a dandy ladder to the roof. She pushed blindly on the ceiling tiles until one moved, then she stood on the top shelf and reached into the darkness to find a solid surface.

It was a good thing she wasn’t any bigger. She could shift and change her size slightly, but for the moment she preferred to stay in her human form. Amy crawled up and sideways, inching forward toward a second room where she should be able to escape into the hallway.

It didn’t take long before she had both feet on the ground, the light switch turned on. The second room held part of the mechanical system, and she moved quickly to the electrical box.

Damn. Original wiring. For what she planned, she needed a room that had been renovated recently.

Amy stood with her ear against the door, waiting silently. When two minutes passed with no footsteps or voices, she edged into the passageway and stepped forward.

In the bowels of the hotel, there were a million doors and pathways. From her earlier explorations, she knew which ones to follow, heading directly to where she should find computer access.

She didn’t bother to turn on the lights in the room this time. Just left the door partially open, the hallway lighting giving her enough illumination as she spotted a control panel. She pocketed the keys hanging beside the box, jerked open the door and brought up the security system.

Damn again.

Someone had turned off the master control. Amy pulled the cover off the wall, going for the wiring, but it was too late. Noise rose behind her, and she barely had time to turn before she was struck, smacking into the concrete floor hard.

“I figured you wouldn’t stay put for very long.” Unfamiliar voice, familiar attitude.

Amy turned, preparing to fight. At least until she spotted Dexter trapped in the stranger’s arms. “Don’t hurt him.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” The stranger patted the boy’s head. Dexter squirmed, swinging his fists in a futile attempt to hit the man who held him around the waist. “Stop squirming, you little beast.”

“I’m glad you’re not my dad. I hate you.”

So this was Mike. “Let Dexter go,” Amy proposed. “You have a beef with me, we can deal with it all by ourselves.”

She put as much suggestion into the words as possible.

Mike laughed, the noise nasty and dark. “You can’t order me around. I’m strong enough, and I got people on my side supporting me. It’s time for a shakeup in Whitehorse, and I plan to be the one standing at the end of it.”

Amy got to her feet and brushed off her hands, not at all surprised to see Toby and Lance in the group.

She glared at Lance. “I should have ripped your throat out.”

“Maybe you should have. Too late. We’ve had enough of you, and of Evan, and it’s time for a change.” Lance stepped closer to sneer down at her. “You shouldn’t have felt so cocky the other day.”

Amy lifted her knee and caught him between the legs, hard enough he fell to the floor, hands clutching his crotch. “Who’s feeling cocky now?”

“Enough,” Mike ordered. “Take her and the kid, and tie her up in the room we prepared. We only need one more thing, and we’re done.”

“Kidnapping me and Dexter is a declaration of war.” Amy struggled in the grip of four wolves, all of whom seemed wary of getting within knee range.

Mike grinned harder. “That’s exactly what this is. And before the day is over, the war will be over. Whitehorse will have a new Alpha. Me.”

In spite of the hands holding her, she was ready to fight as they were dragged down the hallway. Then Dexter whimpered softly, and the plan changed in a split second. “Hey, Dex. Chin up, buddy, we’re going to be okay.”

“Depends on your definition of okay ,” Toby joked, a ripple of laughter carrying through the group.

“Give me one minute with you by myself,” Amy offered. “One minute, and you’ll be joking through a set of dentures.”

How could anyone threaten a child? She didn’t care so much about herself, but she could sense Dexter’s terror, and that pissed her off more than the attempt to take over Whitehorse.

They were brought into a room off the mechanical side of the hotel. “This is where I work,” Toby bragged. “I know all the tricks how to make things work. The part that will impress you is that means I know how to make things break. And burn. And explode.”

While he gloated, the others duct-taped her wrists to a chair, her ankles to the sturdy metal legs. “If you start running now, you might make it to the Alaska border before Evan catches you.”

Toby shook his head as he reached for her, twisting his fingers in her hair to hold her still while he pressed a piece of duct tape over her mouth. “Evan? He’s not going to run any direction except straight to you. Which is exactly what Mike wants. So you may as well stop with the threats and think about how much this is going to hurt.”

She should have tried harder to bite him.

A moment later they were alone. She was secured to the chair, unable to speak or get herself free. A few feet away, Dexter was curled up in another chair, his back toward her as he cried softly.

Her only option was nonverbal. Even as she twisted at the bounds around her wrists, she reached out and comforted the boy, filling the room with as much peace as possible. Slowly his crying turned to sniffles, and he faced her, dashing tears from his eyes and lifting his chin.

“I’m sorry I was so scared.” He crawled into her lap, touching the tape over her mouth. “I need to take this off, right?”

Amy nodded.

Dexter carefully peeled back the tape. Amy felt as if she’d been given some kind of horrifying facial. “That’s much better. Thank you for helping me.”

“Are they going to burn us up?” Dexter whispered, terror in his voice.

“They think they’re going to, but they’re not very smart.” Amy tilted her head toward her hands. “They should have tied you up too. You’re a very good ally in a tough situation.”