Unleash The Moon (The Preternaturals Book 6) (7 page)

He rounded on her and growled. “WHAT?” That
dangerous glow was in his eyes again.

“
I-I’m
Sydney.”

“
No,” he said
with a nasty sneer, “You are 5857
B
. And you’d better get used to
it.”

She couldn’t believe she’d been attracted to him
just minutes ago. More than just threatening and intimidating, out
here where he could talk to her, he was just plain unpleasant.

“
Well, sorry,”
she mumbled. “I just thought we didn’t have to hate each
other.”
Because I was hoping
maybe then you wouldn’t go psychotic on me later.

Sydney took several steps back as he moved into her
space.

“
Let me be the
one to educate you about things here. We are not going to be
allies. You will
never
speak to me again. And if
you have any sense in that stupid blonde head of yours, you won’t
attempt to call attention to yourself with any of the others,
either. You are an abomination. We smell your weakness, and
everyone in this yard wants to rip you apart to undo the mistake
your idiotic parents made. Stay the fuck away from all of us or
learn the consequences of being what you are.”

Sydney was stunned into silence. It wasn’t as if she
thought they were going to cuddle on the couch for movie night or
anything, but she also hadn’t expected such acidic words from
someone who didn’t even know her.

“
GO!” he
growled, pointing to the far end of the yard.

***

Noah watched Sydney scurry away from the other
prisoners. Good. Now if she could do that for just one more night
because two nights from now, he was busting them out. She hadn’t
recognized him. But of course, she wouldn’t. Her sense of smell
wasn’t as developed as his. And he’d changed so much from when they
were kids. Then again, she had, too. She’d transformed from a child
into a woman, and the looks a few of the others gave her as she
passed, left no doubt.

He growled. He’d never get out of here with her. And
he’d chew his own arm off before he left without her.

If he hadn’t been sure before, he was sure now.
Sydney was his true mate.

Just before he’d been kidnapped, Noah had asked his
dad about mates. The words Cole had spoken would never leave him:
“You can take anyone you want for a mate, but a true mate is
determined by blood and destiny. She’s out there somewhere. You’ll
be happier if you listen to the instinct and don’t try to mark
anyone but her.”

It was a heavy conversation for an
eight year old, but he’d taken it to heart.

He’d asked why his mom was a demon and not a
werewolf like them. It had seemed strange, even though Noah had
always thought it was the coolest thing in the world. Jane had
become a demon when she’d died giving birth to him and had been
stuck up in Heaven before the preternaturals had severed the link
between that place and earth.

She’d had screens in her room in Heaven that allowed
her to see what was happening with her family. She’d watched his
father fall apart from losing her while Noah had been taken in by a
panther therian and a witch. She’d begged to be returned to make
things right. The catch was that she had to become a demon to do
it. The mating bond with his father had been true, though, and
they’d remained connected in the change, upgrading Noah’s dad to an
immortal in the process.

But before all that, his mom had started out human
with a quirk. No one knew exactly how it had come to be, but she
had some vampire blood in her veins. Since the first vampire had
been created by an incubus and a werewolf, that blood made it
possible for his mom to be Cole’s true mate. His dad hadn’t
believed in true mates until he’d met her. After that, the
overwhelming compulsion that overrode every other thought in his
brain had been to protect her.

It was the same way Noah had always felt about
Sydney. Even as a pup he’d never wanted to let her out of his
sight, in case she needed him.

His mother had just enough blood
that matched with werewolves to make being the alpha’s true mate
possible, but it wasn’t as if werewolves were routinely taking
mates with vampire blood. Still, Noah was as sure as his father had
been. Sydney was his. And he
had
to get her out of here in
one piece or he’d never recover from it.

Noah began his nightly run around the perimeter of
the exercise yard. He couldn’t afford to break routine when he was
so close. They couldn’t suspect anything or he’d lose the element
of surprise and his only shot at getting out. In two nights he’d be
strong enough, but he’d still have to do everything right. There
was no margin for error. Especially not now.

As much as he’d wanted his freedom
and to try to find his parents and pack, Noah had always accepted
there was a chance he’d fail and either die or be punished severely
for the infraction. It was an acceptable possibility a few nights
ago, but not with Sydney in the mix. There was no scenario for
defeat now.

He glanced her way every now and then when the
progress in his perimeter lap wouldn’t make it obvious he was
watching her. She was doing as he’d suggested, staying far from
everyone. Good. What he’d told her was true, except the parts about
him wanting her away from him.

The others would smell and sense her weakness. It
could initiate the predatory response. Why would the idiots running
this place let her mix with the others? Unless that was their
hope.

He’d initially been relieved they hadn’t yet marked
her with one of their terrible tattoos. But if they hadn’t, it
could only mean one thing. They didn’t intend for her to live long
enough to waste the ink.

Chapter Four

Noah sat in the corner of his cell trying to ignore
Sydney on the other side and running the plan for the following
night in his head. It was hardest for him to ignore her when she
slept. He didn’t have to worry about her discovering things that
could put her in danger. It was only the cameras he had to be
concerned with. And sometimes they seemed barely real. It was
harder to have the self control not to look at her when only hidden
electronic eyes watched.

Noah felt the surge of power building for his birth
moon, and for the first time he felt certain he could do this. It
wasn’t a pipe dream or a vain hope to keep him going.

If he could get her to go with him, he knew he could
get them out of the building. The people in charge had gotten slack
with the security, putting too much faith in how they had beaten
the prisoners down over time. And they trusted too much in the
canned raspberry-scented calm they sent in through the vents before
they let them out for exercise each night.

The cells were secure. Noah had checked. Nobody was
getting out of those. But during one of the brief windows when they
were allowed outside them…

The powers that be had already slacked on the number
of guards. They never needed them, so why keep them all on the
payroll? Occasional fights broke out in the yard on full moons, so
there would be higher security, but that still just meant one or
two more guards.

There was a service elevator he’d glimpsed many
times, and once five months ago, he’d had the rarest opportunity to
go check it out when the only guard that day had gotten sick. The
security in the elevator had major holes. He’d always been good
with tech. He got that from his dad. He’d watched and absorbed all
the ways the tech around him worked while he was still just a pup
and not even in a human form yet. He was convinced he’d developed a
photographic memory during his time in wolf form. It was a skill
that served him well now.

As soon as he’d shifted to human for the first time,
he’d started taking machines and computers apart and putting them
back together using all the schematics his brain had been
processing nearly from birth. The adults in the pack had been
amazed, but machines had an internal logic if you listened to them
and learned their language. He’d learned how to find bugs and holes
in programs and fix them or exploit them from the moment he’d been
gifted with opposable thumbs. Part of it might have been a native
intelligence or something genetic from his father, but part of it
had been the very nature of his earliest years.

From the moment Noah was born
until the first time he shifted, he’d had nothing much to do but
watch and absorb and wait. And now, inside this building for so
many years waiting for his birth moon—the next time he would have
the power to
act—
he’d once again had nothing
to do but watch and learn and absorb and wait.

When he’d seen the problems with the computer in the
service elevator, he prayed no one else knew about it. He doubted
they did. They’d gotten too confident. Noah had quickly returned to
his cell with the others after that to think about what he’d seen.
He couldn’t be sure what was outside the building but the idea of
getting out of it ceased being an impossible dream after that.

Sydney stirred in her corner. He sensed the lab
technician before he saw her. The glass door of the cell whooshed
open and the woman moved into the room. Noah felt his muscles go
rigid while his internal dialogue insisted that he had to remain
cool and calm. He had to keep it together. He couldn’t react. For
Sydney’s sake. Whatever they did, he couldn’t react. If he reacted,
they’d suspect something. It would risk her.

But the woman in the lab coat just wanted to chat.
And he knew this one vaguely. Kristen. She was one of the less evil
people in the facility. He hoped he was right about her.

Noah could hear their conversation through the
glass, though it was muffled.

Kristen studied her clipboard. “We got the test
results from the lab,” she said.

“Oh?” Sydney said. She glanced his
way then quickly away from him and back to the lab tech.

“You’ve stopped aging. We
double-checked to make sure your aging hadn’t just slowed, but no,
you’ve stopped completely. Around six or seven years ago. Do you
understand what this means?”

It meant they could keep her alive and keep her for
centuries if they decided to. Though, the lack of tattoo had
pointed to not letting her live long, maybe they’d change their
mind on that score now that they knew she was conditionally
immortal.

“It doesn’t mean anything,” Sydney
said. “I’m not a
real
vampire. I’m too weak to survive for hundreds or
thousands of years. It doesn’t matter how my cells are aging or not
aging.”

“That sounds like denial to me,”
Kristen said. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Don’t do it, Sydney. Don’t
trust her.
This particular woman might
not herself be the queen of evil, but she reported to someone who
likely was. Noah held his breath, hoping Sydney wouldn’t let them
inside her thoughts.

As if he’d somehow managed to communicate that
warning to her—or she was just smart—Sydney shook her head.

“
No, that’s
okay. I’m just not as optimistic about it as you seem to
be.”

Kristen looked like she would argue, but two more
lab techs were moving down the hallway toward Sydney’s cell. The
door whooshed open again, and they tossed a badly beaten and
bleeding human into the room.

Kristen seemed startled when the blood splattered
her white shoes. “We observed you last night and noted that perhaps
you might need to drink from a living source given your history. We
know vampires can’t stay as strong with bagged blood. Ordinarily we
prefer that for our own safety, but you’ve been determined to be an
exception to that rule.”

Keep it together, Noah. Stay
calm. Don’t react.
If he’d had any
doubts that they now planned to keep her alive as long as possible,
in the name of “science”, those doubts had vanished. With her test
results, they found her even more intriguing, which could only mean
bad things.

The man groaned from the middle of the cell.

“
Well,” Kristen
said, “I-I’ll just leave you alone with your meal. We’ll talk again
in a few days, I’m sure.” She patted Sydney awkwardly on the arm
and then strode briskly out of the cell, sparing a glance at Noah
while he tried to stay blank of discernible
emotion.

“Don’t worry, we weakened him so
he can’t harm you,” one of the technicians said. Then both of them
followed Kristen out of the cell, leaving Sydney alone with her
beaten bloody dinner.

The man groaned again from the ground. “Syd?”

The bastard knew her? How could he know her?

“Jacob! Oh my God!” Sydney said.
She approached him tentatively.

“Syd, I’m sorry. I’m so so
sorry.”

At first her face held sympathy and worry, perhaps
curiosity over how this man she knew had come to be this way, but
that initial instinct was replaced quickly with revulsion and a
side of Sydney Noah hadn’t yet seen.

“Oh, I bet you’re sorry,
now
. Now that
your own plots and schemes have come back to bite you. You betrayed
me! You sold me to them for a piece of paper with an address on it.
What was the problem? Parents not home?”

“T-there was nothing there. It was
a factory. They just wanted you, and they thought they’d take me as
unpaid labor. They never knew anything about my family. Or if they
did, they never planned to tell me.”