48. The Rescue Mission

Chapter forty-eight

The Rescue Mission

*AURELIA*

W e left the highway long ago, and now Nox is leading me through a narrow path in a forest. Having a one-track vehicle truly comes to our advantage now. I have been in contact with Eric and Arden who have to take a detour due to the traffic. How Night and his men managed to drive the van to their hideout so fast is beyond my understanding, but I guess that asshole is always prepared and definitely had a shortcut. Maybe a private road that isn't on the map.

You are amazing, Nox, I link my beta. When did you learn how to read maps so well?

I learned it from Beta Vincent, he says. He said as a beta I need to polish my strategic skills, and map reading is an absolute basic I have to know.

I need to thank him later.

Me too, he says. Careful, we will cross a street soon. The path could become rocky afterwards.

Make sure to hold on tight, I say grimly. No rocky path will stop me.

He wasn't lying. In front of us I can see the path opening up, making me dash across a road and then into another forest path that leads us further up. There are roots and rocks everywhere, but I don't stop, just grit my teeth and hope that the wheels will not rip.

Something tells me we shouldn't tell that to your dad, Nox pants. Goddess, Aurelia, you are crazy!

He will need to get used to it because I'm so going to pick up motocross once we are back home. How close?

Very! We should see a building soon!

The forest gets thicker before suddenly opening up, again. There is the brick wall of a house in front of us. The van is parked right next to it. I slam the breaks, halting the motorbike so abruptly that Nox and I get tossed off it. "Are you hurt?" I blurt out.

"No, don't worry! Just get inside! What's the plan?"

"Kill everyone," I say.

"Got you. I will try to find another entrance and take that one." He scrambles to his feet and dashes around the house while I approach the front door, letting Maxima come forward and kick it open. The motorbike was so loud that they had to hear us coming anyway. There is no point in being stealthy now. Our best chance is to be fast.

Maxima?

Ready, she growls.

She comes forward just enough for us to merge our personalities and feed off each other's strengths before I dash into the house. There is a large corridor ahead of me and a vastly empty living room, including several empty bedrooms.

With Maxima's sharp senses I can take up Tori's scent, though, along with a whole plethora of other scents coming from downstairs. They probably either have a dungeon there or a basement to lock their victims in. It's still so shocking how well-prepared that asshole is.

I hurry down the staircase, taking a couple of stairs at once, and follow the voices ahead of me. To my surprise, no one is around, not one single guard or man. What's going on? Why is it so empty here?

Ahead of us! Maxima growls.

The door to the room is open. I take a swift look to judge the situation, seeing how Coralie and Tori are cowering at an end of the room, their bodies draped over two other girls. There is one man with a gun, a loud noise, and a bullet being shot across the room and hitting Coralie's shoulder. She screams in pain but doesn't leave her position.

"Fuck!" the guy curses before pointing his gun at the girls again.

Coward! I feel anger filling me as I unleash my gift and freeze time for a couple of seconds. Enough for me to run into the room and kick the gun out of the guy's hands. He blinks as the time starts rolling again.

"What—" he mutters.

"Tori, take the gun!" I yell.

Tori's eyes widen when she sees me, but she dashes forward to grab the gun while I turn to face the pathetic shitty coward who threatened four defenseless people. He lunges at me. I dodge his attack, letting Maxima come forward now. With the strength of an alpha wolf, she kicks the asshole against the wall, her fingers grabbing his arm and breaking it as if it was just a twig.

He screams in pain. "This will teach you how to treat others," I snarl.

"You fucking whore, you will pay for this. You all will," he hisses, his body starting to tremble as he begins to shift.

I let Maxima's claws come out and slice this pathetic lowlife's throat before he can finish his shift. "I believe not," I mutter, while he drops to the ground motionlessly.

"Aurelia!" Nox calls out while he runs into the room. "There is no one—" he pauses, eyeing the dead guy. "Guess I missed the fun."

"Auri!" Tori exclaims, dashing forward and wrapping her arms around me.

"It's okay," I say. "You are safe."

"You came!"

"Of course, there is no way I would let anyone hurt you," I reassure her.

My gaze wanders through the room. "How are you three?" I ask the other girls.

"I'm fine," Léna says. "But Coralie is hurt." She turns to the woman. "You saved me again."

"Oh fuck," I mutter, gently nudging Tori to let me go so that I can see how severely wounded Coralie is. "The bullet hit you, didn't it?" I ask.

"It's okay," Coralie says. "Just my shoulder. The bullet went straight through, fortunately."

"Help is on its way," I say. "Wait, let me remove the silver collars from you girls."

I start with Coralie so that she can begin healing, before I turn to Nox. He has been very quiet so far. He just keeps staring at us, his eyes wide and an expression of surprise on his face. Tori and I exchange a gaze, watching him as he steps closer to the young woman who is still cowering in the corner.

"Hello," Nox says, carefully getting down on his knees in front of the girl. "You are Meg, aren't you?"

"I am Meg," she mutters. "I am Meg Rose Acorn." And then again. "I am Meg."

"Can I remove this from you?" he asks gently, pointing at her collar.

"Make it go away," she whispers. "Before he returns."

Very carefully and slowly, so as not to scare her, Nox removes the collar from her neck. "Can't be," Tori whispers towards me.

Sudden noises erupt from outside and on the first floor, making Meg flinch and retreat into her corner. "No," Nox says gently. "That's not them. It's friends, good people. We have been looking everywhere for you."

"For me," Meg mutters.

"You saved Opal, didn't you? Annette?" Nox says quietly.

"She is alive!" Meg blurts out.

"Alive and well, and we were able to find you because of her," Nox says.

"She is alive," Meg repeats.

One by one the other teams start to trickle in. Arden is one of the first, and when he sees the girls, Meg in particular, it's like all strength leaves him. He drops to his knees. "We weren't too late," he says. "We weren't too late!"

"No, this time we came in time," I reassure him, hugging him from behind.

"Léna, you are safe too," Arden says. "I am so glad. And you too, Coralie."

"Actually, Coralie protected me all this time," Léna says to my surprise.

"Yeah listen," Coralie says. "I know I have been shit to you, Arden. Let me apologize to you and your mate. Truth is, I hit on you because you were an alpha, but then I realized I really fell for you. I didn't expect it, so I turned into a vicious psycho and tried to trap you."

Léna stares at her. "You really have a sense of timing, don't you?" she asks in disbelief.

"What!? I promised I would be honest if we get out of this alive," Coralie says. "And I decided now is the best moment. Who knows if I will ever see them again, or might chicken out."

It's terrible timing, but I kind of get her, and I appreciate what she just said. Arden needs closure. "Thank you for being honest," I say. "What's in the past is in the past."

I take a step back from the scene to give Arden the opportunity to talk to Coralie and get the closure he deserves. I'm glad she didn't just toy with him. No one deserves to be treated that way. Meanwhile, I seek out Tori and carefully approach Nox and Meg. Eric has made sure the others stay away so as not to scare her with too many people surrounding her, but she has met Tori and me now, so I hope it won't be too much if we are around.

Also, I don't know what Night did to her, so maybe having a female around will help.

"Meg," Tori says, getting down on her knees. "It's nice to meet you officially."

"You are a gemstone," Meg mutters.

"No," Tori says with a smile. "I am Tori. Just Tori, a normal girl."

"I am Meg," Meg says quietly. "Can I stop being Azurite?"

"No one will call you that, again," Nox reassures her.

Meg buries her head in her hands. "There are so many noises and smells," she mutters.

"The silver," I explain carefully. "It suppressed who you are. You know what you are, don't you?"

She nods.

"The silver is gone now, so your senses are getting stronger. I promise it will tone down. It's just the shock."

Meg gazes at me. She looks tired and like she went through hell. I am not sure how long it will take her to heal. I just know we need to get her out of here and away from this Goddess-forsaken place.

"Tori!" A loud voice echoes through the hallway, and Lion runs into the room.

Tori blinks and stands up, wiping the dust off her clothes, before approaching her mate. She doesn't need to walk far because Lion dashes forward and pulls her into his arms. "You are safe," he blurts out, grabbing her face and kissing her. Tori clings to him, melting into his arms.

"See, he can do grand gestures." I chuckle.

"He is a good guy," Nox says with a smile. He turns to Meg again. "Do you want to leave, Meg? How about we bring you somewhere safe?"

"Can I see Op… I mean Annette, again?" she asks nervously.

"Yes, of course."

She nods. "Okay."

I watch Nox as he helps her up, careful not to touch her more than necessary. While I watch them, though, something else dawns on me, something I found weird the moment we set foot into this building.

I make sure to hurry to Eric and Arden, who are standing with Coralie and Léna, getting their firsthand information on what happened. "Where is Night?" I ask them. "And the second guy?"

The others look at me. "They… left," Coralie mutters. "They brought Tori, then left that guy Sky with us. Then, they disappeared."

I look at Arden and Eric. "Isn't that weird?" I say. "Something feels off."