Home > Undercover Wolf(9)

Undercover Wolf(9)
Author: Paige Tyler

   Adriana chewed on her lip as she considered that, then nodded. Sawyer wasn’t sure she believed him, but at least she sat down beside Harley again.

   “How long have you been able to do this thing with the electricity?” Sawyer asked, taking his own seat again.

   She didn’t answer right away, and when she finally spoke, her voice was soft. “It started when I was fourteen. At first, it was only little sparks when I got excited. Like when you walk across the carpet and touch a doorknob. It was a joke with my family at first, but it got progressively stronger as I got older. If I got scared, nervous, or something startled me, the electricity would come out. My family helped me hide it as much as they could, and over time, I got better at controlling it. But I still messed up and hurt people I never wanted to hurt. That was when I realized I couldn’t stay with my family anymore. I left my home in Taxco, thinking I could disappear in a place as big and crowded as Mexico City, and for more than two years, it seemed to work. Then it didn’t.”

   “What happened?” Sawyer asked.

   “A woman showed up at my apartment claiming that a man in Europe wanted to hire me.” Adriana looked down at her hands clasped in her lap. “I immediately knew there was something wrong because I never applied for a job in Europe. She said the man was aware of my special abilities and would pay me an insane amount of money if I worked for him. When I said I didn’t want the job or to use my abilities, she took out a phone and told whoever she called that I was resistant and she needed help. I freaked out and ran.”

   Sawyer heard the girl’s heart beating a mile a minute and knew she was reliving that moment. He was all too familiar with the adrenaline surge that came with memories like that when the fear and anxiety made it feel like you were right back in the thick of it.

   Adriana took a deep breath, a frown creasing her forehead. “I thought for sure I’d escaped, but a man caught up with me before I got more than a couple blocks from my place. He just kind of showed up out of nowhere right in front of me. I tried to fight, but another guy came to help and they both dragged me toward a van. I was more terrified than I’ve ever been in my life and I completely lost it. The electricity inside me kept building until I thought it might tear me apart. When I zapped the men, the flare of light was so bright it blinded me and I collapsed.”

   “What’s the next thing you remember?” Harley asked.

   The girl lifted her head to look at them. “Waking up in a dingy room. I didn’t know where I was or how long I was out of it. My head was spinning so much I could barely stand up. At first, I thought I’d hurt myself from channeling all that power, but the man guarding my cell told me they’d drugged me. He said that since I hadn’t wanted to do it the easy way, they would do it the hard way.”

   “How long were you held there?” Sawyer prompted when she paused, lost in thought again.

   She shrugged. “Maybe a day. They drugged me regularly and everything was sort of a blur after that. I vaguely remember riding in a few trucks, but there were some long plane rides, too, and an endless procession of dark holding rooms. A week ago, they brought me to the club where you found me last night. I didn’t even know I was in Paris until Tessa mentioned it this morning.”

   “How did you meet Kristoff?” Harley asked.

   Adriana’s lips curved, her dark eyes dancing a little with happiness. “On the plane from Mexico City. He was amazing. He made sure the guards gave me something to eat and drink and even got them to leave me alone so I could wash up in privacy. I don’t think I would have made it without Kristoff. He was like my guardian angel.”

   Sawyer hoped for her sake they could rescue her boyfriend along with all the other captives. “What about the other prisoners? Were they with you from the beginning like Kristoff, or were they here in Paris when you arrived? Did you get a chance to talk to any of them and learn why they’d been kidnapped?”

   “We picked up two of them on one of the stops between flights,” she said slowly, as if she was trying to remember. “The rest were already here. They were kidnapped because they’re all like me.”

   Sawyer froze along with Harley and everyone else in the room. It was Jake who finally shook off the shock first and asked the question that was on the tip of Sawyer’s tongue.

   “You mean all the other captives can control electricity like you?” the alpha werewolf asked hesitantly, like he was trying to work through the implications of what she’d told them.

   Adriana shook her head. “No, they aren’t like me in that way. None of them can control electricity. But they all have special abilities. One girl could hear what a person was thinking if she touched them. Another one could start fires with her mind. An older man from Serbia not much bigger than I am was so strong he could bend the metal bars of his cell. Well, he could if he wasn’t drugged. The guards took him and the mind reader away earlier in the week. Most of the other captives wouldn’t talk about what they could do because they were too scared someone would use the information against them, but I’m certain every one of them was special in some way.”

   “Do you know where they took the strong man and the mind reader or what they did with them?” Harley asked, concern etched on her face.

   Sawyer didn’t have to try that hard to know what Harley was thinking. Like him, she was probably worried whoever had kidnapped them had killed them.

   “I’m not sure where they took them,” Adriana said. “I overheard the guards talking about a lot of different cities, but I’m not sure if that was where they were heading or where they’d come from. But I heard enough to know they were planning to sell the people. They mentioned an auction where rich people go to buy oddities.”

   Sawyer thought he was ready for anything, but he’d been wrong. Bloody hell. There was someone out there collecting supernaturals and putting them up for auction. He suddenly wondered if any of the people they’d kidnapped had been a werewolf. What would a collector of human oddities pay for a werewolf? It was too insane to even think about.

   “The guards told me that I’d end up on the auction block, too, if I didn’t fall in line and take the job the woman had offered me,” Adriana added. “The way they said it made it obvious the auction wasn’t a place I wanted to be.”

   “Adriana, you said you overheard the guards talking a lot, right?” Harley asked.

   The girl nodded.

   “Would you be willing to sit down with Tessa and our other intel analysts to go over what you remember from your captivity? It’s possible you know more about what they’re up to than you realize.”

   “Of course,” Adriana said. “I’ll talk to anyone you need me to for as long as you need me to. But only if you promise I can go with you when you rescue the other captives, so I can help get Kristoff back.”

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