Bite Me

Chapter 6

Aliyah

“A human heart?” I gasped unbelieving. “Can we tell if it’s a shifter?”

“The bloods have confirmed it is a shifter,” our pathologist advised, “We don’t know its origin without having the rest of the body. Do you have it available?”

“No, this was sent on its own,” I muttered, still pondering who would have sent it. ‘Could this be my mother’s heart?’ I worried my bottom lip. “Do we have any vials of my mothers’ blood to see if it matches?”

The pathologist snapped their head to look at me with wide eyes, “Your mother?”

“Yeah,” I nodded, “I just need to know its not her.”

“I believe we have a small vial left,” he pondered, “I’ll test right away and let you know.”

Nodding in thanks, I made my way out the door, my mind felt like it was on overdrive, and I once again wondered if I should reach out to Carter and ask for his help in tracking my mother or even the origin of the heart. ‘Could he use his powers to see who sent the heart?’ I wondered.

Walking outside, I immediately spotted my mate in all his glory. His sweaty torso glistened in the sun as he trained with the warriors.

‘I want to lick him,” my wolf muttered lustfully.

“Oh my god, no. We are not in heat,” I linked her back, “Calm down.”

“Heat or not, our mate is fine,” she continued, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.

I’d come to accept over the years since it was discovered I was part shifter, her complete abandon where it comes to our mate and to just let her enjoy her little fantasies; and sometimes, we’d get to replay them in the bedroom. This thought made me smile secretively and I had to shake the image from my mind. ‘This is so not the right place for this,’ I giggled.

“Luna?” A masculine voice called out. Turning around, I was happy to see Blaze coming towards me, “Luna, Ralph is here to see you.”

“Oh, thanks, Blaze,” I clasped his arm appreciatively, “But I did tell you to stop calling me Luna.”

“Time and place, Ally,” he swept his head around all the people milling past us with a pointed look and deflated a little.

“Yeah, yeah,” I pouted, “Where is he?”

*

Opening my office door, I smiled seeing my best friend lounged haphazardly on the two-seater, his eyes closed gently as though he didn’t have a single worry in the world. He still looked like the same old Ralph, just with more facial hair.

“Take a photo, it will last longer,” he murmured, breaking my concentration.

Taking the shoe from my foot, I threw it at him for being a cheeky sod, and watched as he calmly as ever, lifted his hand to halt its movement towards him and fell to the ground.

“Too slow,” he smirked at me, “Someone’s getting old.”

Growling, I charged towards him, but he effortlessly dodged me. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen. His speed surpassed any vampire I’d seen and yet it seemed as though he moved in slow motion.

“Oh my god, Ralph,” I looked him up and down in surprise, “You’ve ascended!”

His smile was all the confirmation I needed before lunging towards him and gripping him in a tight hug.

“When?” I asked, still gobsmacked, “Why didn’t you tell me, I would have been there.” I smacked his arm in semi-annoyance, but mostly impressed, “You could have died.”

“Last week,” he indicated for us to sit on the couch to discuss further, “It was Carter’s idea actually. He thought you could use my new-found abilities.”

“Ugh, Carter,” I pouted, “Sometimes I really just can’t get a solid read on him. He doesn’t always have your best interest at heart, you know.”

“Yeah, but he always has yours,” Ralph pat my knee, “He and I have that, at least, in common.”

Sighing loudly, I look him over again, “Well, aren’t you going to show me your new skills?”

Rolling his eyes, he stood, “What do you want to see?”

“Everything.” I smirked back at him, “I want to see everything.”

***

Kiara

The clank of the lock as it unbolted made me pause in shock. I must have tried at least 40 keys already and was beginning to feel deflated when finally, I was given this shining piece of hope.

Looking up at Ryka, our eyes connected and briefly in shock, before we jumped into action. Grabbing my backpack, I grabbed on to one of the bars and swung the door open. The relief we felt was almost tangible as I watched Ryka approach me; this was actually going to happen, we were finally free.

“Kiara,” Lorenzo’s voice called from the top of the stairs making me jump. The relief I previously felt suddenly changed to panic. ‘Will I have to kill him? If we get caught, he’ll never let me visit again.’ I worried my lip between my teeth. “Kiara, it’s time to go. I gave you an extra 5 minutes, so don’t bust my balls.”

“Answer him,” Ryka whispered sternly to me.

“Ok, coming,” my voice sounded too chipper even to my own ears. I just prayed he didn’t notice.

Ryka’s movements were slow, yet determined as he hobbled weakly in the opposite direction of Lorenzo and I couldn’t stop the frown that formed on my face. ‘Where on earth is he going? He’s taking us to a dead end and we’ll be caught for sure.’ Grabbing his arm, I pulled for him to follow me, but he just shook his head and nodded in the direction he was headed.

Risking it, I whispered, “We need to go this way.”

But he continued to ignore me and continued ahead.

“Come on, Kiara, you have to leave,” Lorenzo’s voice sounded again, “They’ll kill me if anyone finds out I let you in.”

Guilt crept up my spine at his words. If we made it out of here alive, he surely wouldn’t.

“Just a minute,” I called back hurriedly, wishing I could’ve given Ryka more blood to hurry him along.

I could hear Lorenzo’s footsteps as he descended the stairs, “Sorry, but you need to come now.” His voice was a mixture of anxiety and suspicion. ‘He knew something was up and we needed to move, fast.’

There was no point whispering now or saving Ryka’s dignity. Lifting Ryka’s arm and ducking under it, I wrapped my arm around his back and took as much of his weight as possible, “Where are we headed?”

“Second cell on the right,” Ryka puffed.

“Kiara?” Lorenzo’s torch shone in our direction, and I knew we’d run out of time, “Kiara! What-?”

“There’s not enough time,” I whispered worried, “What do we do now?”

“Kill him.” Ryka replied gruffly and I felt a chill down my back.

‘I know I couldn’t kill him. He’d been the only one I could trust to let me visit Ryka. Debating only a moment, I knew what I had to do and stepped into the shadows.’

“Kiara, I know you’re there. Kiar- hey, what are you doing out of your cell? I-” the thud as his body hit the floor echoed through the dungeon and I outwardly cringed.

“Good work. Let’s go , we-” Ryka began before frowning as I bent down shrugging Lorenzo’s limp body over my shoulder. “What are you doing, we-”

“Can’t leave him here. They’ll kill him, Ryka. He needs to come with us.” My eyes pleaded for him to understand, but I was resolved. I wasn’t leaving him behind.

“The tunnels just over there,” Ryka nodded towards the end cell on the right.

I breathed a sigh of relief, grunting as I adjusted my hold on Lorenzo. “Lead the way.”

*

Gobsmacked, I watched as Ryka lifted the hessian bed effortlessly. It appeared as all the others did, as though it was bolted into the concrete, but I was wrong. Holes had been created in the concrete slightly bigger than the bolts for them to slot in and out as needed. Lifting the hatch, he indicated for me to hand over Lorenzo and go down.

“No, no, its ok, you go first just incase,” I quickly covered. I felt uneasy leaving Lorenzo with Ryka all of a sudden incase he left him behind or killed him.

“I won’t hurt your friend,” Ryka stated as he stared at me, “I wouldn’t do that to you.”

My stomach turned in guilt at thinking so poorly of him and nodded once, shuffling closer to lean Lorenzo on Ryka’s shoulder.

“Are you sure you’re okay to support his weight?” I worried my lip between my teeth.

Ryka’s face was unreadable, but his firm tone left little to the imagination, “You’re wasting time.” He responded as though talking to a petulant child. “I will lower him down to you before I come down.” Ryka informed me, but I still couldn’t help but worry while Ryka was still weak. “I’m ok to lower him down. I wouldn’t have been able to support him weight to catch him, that’s why you’re going first, Kiara.”

‘Oh my god, Kiara, you’re such an i***t. Of course, that’s why he told me to go down first. Clearly these years of abuse have made me incredibly untrusting.’

Sliding down through the hatch, the darkness enveloped me, and I wondered how I would even see Lorenzo being lowered down to me, but I needn’t worry. The moment my feet touched the ground, lantern type lights lit the path down through the tunnel. ‘They’d thought of everything,’ I shook my head in amazement.

“Ready,” I called up to Ryka and I could hear the shuffling sound of feet scraping along the ground getting closer to the tunnel entrance.

Ryka inhaled deeply, clearly gathering his strength and as the air whooshed out, I heard his grunt as I began to see Lorenzo’s feet coming towards me.

Bracing myself incase Lorenzo slipped through his fingers, I watched Lorenzo’s still limp body being lowered towards me.

“I’m going to let go,” Ryka’s voice called out and I felt the nerves start to get the better of me, “Let the legs fall and grab when his hips reach your shoulder level. Brace yourself for the weight.”

‘Oh god, I’m going to drop him. I should have lowered him instead.’ I berated myself.

“Kiara, are you ready?” Ryka’s voice commanded my attention.

“Yep. Yes, I’m ready,” blowing out the breath I didn’t realise I was holding, I slipped my foot out behind me for a stronger base, hoping I didn’t f**k this up.

“I’m letting go… now,” he informed me, and I watched intently as his body began to slump over from the gravity. Concentrating on aiming for the hips, I felt myself bouncing in preparation as his feet flew by my face. Counting to three, I grabbed for his hips and felt the heavy thump of his chest hitting my shoulder. It finally made sense why I both had to wait for the hips and brace for the weight, he felt like his body was filled with lead and I stood shell shocked for a moment.

A metallic scaping sound caught my attention above as the dim light from the dungeon was soon masked by the repositioning of the bed.

“Oh, hold on a sec, I’ll catch you,” I rushed to move Lorenzo to an open area.

Turning around, I spot the outline of Ryka slowly lowering himself by bracing his hands and feet outstretched to each side of the hole. Once he was at a safe distance, he let go to land in front of me.

“Right, let’s get out of here,” Ryka’s voice reminded me we still weren’t out of the dark yet. It was going to be a long night ahead.