The Chase

31 Luca

I could feel Evie was nearby. We were close. The house was still and quiet, like a tomb as we walked the corridors in a tight formation. Everyone was on edge, ready for danger or enemies to appear at any moment.

"Somethings wrong, we should have encountered someone else by now." Sky said as we rounded another corner of the labyrinthian hallway. Brydel made a noise of affirmation.

"Agreed, stay alert everyone." This hall led to locked double doors, uncaring if we made noise in this empty house Ash blew the doors open with a flick of her hands. The wood splintering away from us.

"Evie." Her scent, and Sarah's stronger in this wing of the sprawling home. They were nearby. Theirs were the freshest scents anywhere we had been. We passed a large floor to ceiling window overlooking the gardens outside. The Treaty swat team had already arrived, barely ten minutes had passed from when we sounded the alarm. They were quick. This estate was already surrounded. Though what did that matter when someone could steal Evie from my arms in the blink of an eye.

I was suddenly overcome by pain, agony and fear from Evie. Despair. I recovered myself and stormed ahead, I am certain someone said something, tried to stop me. I kicked open a set of heavy wooden doors, finally finding Evie. With Sarah trying to carve my mark from her neck while dousing it with wolfsbane as she worked.

Evie was sitting perfectly still, not screaming even though her mouth was free. Industrial weighted nipple clamps pulling her breasts downward, a vibrator strapped to her thigh. It was a nightmare. Tears streaming down Evie's cheeks. I could feel it, she was feeling all of this. Silently enduring a slow attack from someone days ago she had trusted and loved.

Ash and Brydel came in behind me. Sarah barely reacted to everyone piling in. "I have to get her ready." She said as she kept working. Ash whipped a hand forward and Sara went flying to the wall. Pressed flat against the wall, bloody scaple falling to the floor. Brydel went to the leash, and said some words I didn't know, before telling Evie to stop whatever Sarah said to do. I was there, undoing all the blindings on her, trying to gently unclip the clamps, just wanting to get her free. Away from everything.

Ash materialized a well stocked first aid kit. Brydel doing what he could to staunch the bleeding and dress the wound on her throat. "Ash, she needs Auris and Delia!" He hollered at her.

She nodded looking at me. "What do you want to do with her?" Ash asked me, glaring towards Sarah, true hate in her eyes.

"I wont die. Rocket made sure I would turn, I get to live forever." Sarah said with far too much perk for someone willing to die and turn into a vampire. Brydel had finished dressing Evie's wound, he had done what he could. He went and looked at Sarah more closely.

"She's already dead, the vampires melted out almost everything that she was in her mind." Brydel leaned a hair closer to her.

Turning back to look at everyone, fresh horror on his face. "She's not a cat anymore either." It was Ash who blanched the hardest at his announcement. It was true. Any scent of cat in this room, was old. Weeks stale.

I grabbed Evie, as she slumped forward, Ash handing me the leash. It felt awful to hold. I could feel it, holding down everything she was, whispering directly into my head how I could use her magic to my benefit in this room, that I could punish, torture. Control. I could have everything I ever wanted.

She could never run away again.

A rustling whisper on the wind as I ran with Evie. Holding the leash to get her away. Telling them just to deal with it. I heard a loud snap, before the hum of Ash using her magic filled the air. Then they were there, holding me close. Taking Evie and I back to the cabin on Blue Willow.

The moment we materialized in the room, Sky went to the one closet and pulled out a robe, helping Evie cover up as I set her down just long enough to get the robe on. Holding her close, her hand holding a pressure bandage on her neck. She was in pain, shock setting in now that everything had stopped. "Delia is on her way. With Auris." It was eerie how they so often appeared right after being summoned, a polite knock on the door was all the warning before Delia and Auris walked in, Both wearing red silk robes and not much else.

"Oh that's a problem." Delia said, before she tried to cover her mouth like she could take the words back from the air. Looking at the silver band around Evie's throat. "It doesn't release?" Ash shook her head. Delia swore, under her breath, and very creatively. Brydel's influence evident in his mate.

Evie had been quiet and still the entire time. "Take it off?" She went to reach for the silver band, before snatching her hand away. "It hates me, it wants to hurt me." She looked around the room. At people she now knew could do the impossible. Needing their help.

"We can't yet." Brydel answered. His voice sad. "I was collared once, you are right. It does hate you, it does want to harm ye." He said, plainly. Stating facts. Calming Evie somehow with his blunt words.

Delia and Auris had already approached Evie, I watched and felt their magic work on her to heal the wound Sarah had started. Delia pulled back the bandage Brydel had applied and it was like it had never happened. Physically at least.

There was a drawn out silence, Delia finally broke it. "We need to plan some things. We can't get Evie free right now. Thankfully, there doesn't seem to be a remote link to the leash. I don't think the vampires were able to do all they planned. We were too quick."

"Not quick enough, we weren't mobile enough." Sky muttered, low. I don't think I was supposed to hear him.

"Dragons are going to watch your home tonight. A magical cricket wont get through!" Ash said. A bit too exuberant. Before she reigned it all back in. "Sorry, Evie has to spend at least one night in the collar." Ash came over to Evie, "May I touch the leash? It'll make it easier for me to read the spell on it so we can figure out how to undo it." She said. I could smell worry in the air. Evie just looked broken as she nodded. I saw her wince as Ash held it for a brief moment. "It was made specifically for you," I felt the spike of anxiety from everyone.

"You're certain?" Auris asked. Ash only nodded.

"We need to call Raven and get the books out, and the gnomes in Fae." Delia said. Before gathering everyone up and bustling them out the door. "We're going to need to research some things, Evie needs time to recover, and rest. Take care of her, and take care of you." Delia pushed Auris, who was the last to listen to her instructions, out the door. "We're adding extra spells of protection around this cabin. I added the spells location on the map, you two, and me have access to the exact shape. As long as you stay inside the spell, no outside magic can enter, and none can leave. We hadn't needed to block Rippers before."

Delia must have noticed the blank look on my face, Evie hadn't reacted, she was still making herself small beside me. Curled up to me, yet barely with me. "Magic that hasn't been seen in eons. Rippers were exterminated before Auris had been born because of the destruction they caused. They can destabilize entire universes." She looked sad, viscerally sad, she was an empath, she must also be experiencing the storm that is Evie's heart. With a final nod, Delia left and I was alone, with Evie. After once again being told we were perfectly safe. In the same breath we were told of new monsters living in dark places. 

**Hii, I took some time to reread and edit Evie's story so far, no major changes made, nothing new added. But I realised I started with Luca's alpha/brother being named Elijah, and somewhere along the way he switched to being a Michael sometimes. He is now Elijah in every chapter. Lark is mated to Elijah. Sorry for any confusion my editing slip might have caused friends.**