Changeling (Completed)

Day Fifteen

Day Fifteen - Fifteen Days Left

"Benjamin! Benjie, Benjie, Ben- Ah!" I scream as a hand grabs me and drags me against a solid body.

"What? For the love of all that is holy, what?" Benjamin groans in my ear.

I peek around him at his empty bed, "no hot lady, Benjamin?" I cluck my tongue. "You are losing your touch, my friend."

"Or I live in fear that as soon as your isolation is up that you would be crashing in here at..." he looks at the clock, "four-thirty in the morning." He almost sobs.

"Aw, poor Benjie. No funtimes for you."

"What do you want, Innie?"

"Where is Ronson keeping Nate?"

"Oh, hell no. No. Absolutely not. No way."

"Benjamin," I take his face between my hands, "he killed me, Benjamin. I burned down some houses in the southern pack and Nate is from that pack. Their alpha is after me. Shana is still trying to kill me. I need to speak to him. Now."

"One question," he says.

"Shoot," I let go of his face.

"Are you sleeping with the alpha?"

"Yes."

"Are you his mate?"

"That's two questions."

"Innie."

"Sort of?"

"OK," he takes a deep breath and wipes his hands on his pants. "OK. Nate, right. He's in the dungeon." He brushes past me and starts to walk down the hallway. "Shut the, ah, the door?"

I close his door and follow him. We walk downstairs and I ask him, "how did you know?"

"Little things. Scent, obviously. The way you look at him, the way he stares at you. He's been happier than I have ever seen him since you started sleeping with him. The way Shana sulks around like someone took her best friend."

"She knows."

He nodded, looking upset, "you're right," he said softly. He eyed me, "sure you're not here for revenge?" We reached the door to the basement/dungeon.

"You never asked me if I was here for revenge," I tell him, before stepping around him and opening the door.

Nate is imprisoned in a dank, nearly pitch-black cell, far, far worse than the one I woke up in. Actually, now that I'm down here I realize that the cell I was in is some sort of medical facility... for inmates. Nice.

Nate is not so lucky. He is a floor down below where I was, with no light but the bare bulb in the hallway. Benjamin fiddles with the chain until another bulb weakly flickers to life. This place is straight from a horror film.

Nate is beaten raw until his face is almost unrecognizable. I creep closer and see his hands lying limp at his sides where he's slumped to the floor. He's not chained, but I doubt he can move, regardless.

"Hello cousin," I purr. I can feel Benjamin shift uncomfortably behind me.

Nate's head lifts, he blinks blearily at me, the light behind me no doubt burning his retinas. "Fuck," he sighs. His head flops down again.

I open the cell and walk in, ignoring Benjamin's warning. I need to know why Nate looks like hell when he and Damien were both equally involved in beating me. Did Ronson love Shana too much to punish her brother? The thought leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Ask him.

Wolfie is suspicious, too, hmm.

"Nate," I say softly. I crouch down next to him and his nostrils flare a little.