Page 28 of Alan

10

Emelie

What the hell was going on? It seemed like all I had were more questions. Not once yet had anyone given me an answer—at least, not one that helped me understand what was going on all around me, who these people were.

I watched Alan from the corner of my eye as he folded his hands on the surface of the table. The table which had just magically appeared out of nowhere. I would never get used to it, no matter how many times one of them pulled something out of thin air.

He was impressive, at least physically. His entire family was. Tall, broad-shouldered, thick with muscle from head to toe. What were they, a bunch of bodybuilders or fitness models?

Oh, yes. A bunch of fitness models who lived together in a secret commune in the mountains. That made a ton of sense.

Something told me the truth made no more sense than that did.

“Are you certain she should be seated on that side of the table?” Electra nodded to Keira. “She belongs here, with us.”

“She belongs with me,” Tamhas snarled.

He was a fiery one, that Tamhas. No wonder the two of them had hit it off so well. I leaned in to see past Alan and noticed Keira trying to quiet Tamhas down. He shut his mouth but didn’t look any happier.

“Where Keira seats herself at this time is the least of our concerns,” Alan announced. I had to give him credit, the witches didn’t seem to intimidate him at all. If anything, they quieted down when he spoke just the way they did for Selene, and he didn’t have powers like hers.

I winced at the thought. For all I knew, he did have those powers. Maybe that was why Keira wouldn’t tell me anything about them.

“What is it you feel our coven has done to you?” Selene asked.

She got right down to it, didn’t she?

I looked at Alan.

Everyone did.

He clenched his teeth so hard, I wondered how they didn’t shatter. “You surely must have heard of the incident our clan experienced months ago.”

Selene shook her head. “Remember, when our connection broke, we lost the ability to maintain knowledge of your doings.”

He let out a laugh that sounded more like a bark. “How am I to believe that? You were the only connection we had to the rest of the world at that time, before humans and others began infiltrating our clan.”

Again with the word human. Damn it, were any of these people like me? I shrank away from him, but that ended up moving me closer to a girl with red hair who looked a lot like him. I wondered if they were brother and sister.

I was surrounded by them. Whoever they were. Whatever they were.

Selene looked both ways, up and down her side of the table.

The witches shrugged, shook their heads. If they were acting, they were very skilled at it. Even I believed they had nothing to do with whatever Alan was talking about.

“All right, then,” Alan growled. “If that is the game you wish to play, so be it. We were kidnapped by a group of so-called doctors and their mercenaries in order for tests to be performed upon us. How could you have missed the fact that helicopters landed not far from here? Did you not hear the gunfire?”

Selene’s eyes went wide. “I had no idea. We are rather far beneath the ground here, and well into the cave. As you know, seeing as how you entered through the same tunnel we use.”

“You mean to tell us you had no knowledge whatsoever?” he asked.

“That is precisely what I mean. What reason would we have to bring your presence to the attention of outsiders? We have no contact with that world. We need nothing from them.”

I could attest to that, and I had only been with them for less than a day. Anything they needed, they could create for themselves. What a life.

“We rarely ever venture from the cave,” Iris spat. She had a massive chip on her shoulder.

“And why is that?” the girl next to me asked.

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