Page 11 of Rise of the Witch
Digging my nails into his tattooed skin, I relished the feel of him shuddering beneath my fingertips, until his gaze lifted to meet mine, and I almost shoved him away with what I saw. Asa’s pale blue eyes were hooded and unfocused as he looked at me, not with fear but with an almost dreamy, blissful expression.
Is he...findingpleasurein this?
Unsure how to proceed, I turned to where Tan stood across the table but found his gaze fixed on Asa’s face, a sly smile creeping over his features. Moving with the grace of a cat, he circled the table and slid onto the bench behind the other man so he could whisper in his ear. “Do you like this, Acey? Do you like Vasi taking control…?”
What the…
“What thefuckare you doing, Tan?!” Nox slammed his large hand down on the surface of the table, the reverberation startling Asa out of whatever trance he’d been under as I released him with a start. “Don’t encourage her to use her witch tricks on him.”
“I...I didn’t do anything to him...yet,” I stuttered, still processing the unexpected situation I found myself in.
“Oh, but I think you did,” Tan winked at me over Asa’s shoulder before dutifully rising and returning to his side of the table.
An awkward silence followed where Asa avoided my gaze by propping his elbows on the table and dropping his head into his hands with a slow exhale. Nox glowered, Tan chuckled, and a glance at Anthia told me she was also in on the joke, a knowing smile twitching her lips.
Now I don’t even remember what I was asking him!
“We are trained to identify shifters,” Asa suddenly mumbled into his hands, surprising me by continuing to freely offer up information. “So we can tranquilize and tag them.”
“WHAT?!”Anthia screeched at the exact moment Nox threw his hands in the air with a loud expletive. Before I could stop her, my friend had shifted into her swan form, flying across the table only to shift back as she descended on Asa, human hands reaching for his throat.
“No, ‘Thia!” I shouted, blocking her attack by throwing myself protectively in front of the shocked man. “Let him speak.” My friend landed heavily on the table, scattering plates and huffing indignantly as she climbed back down to the bench beside Tan.
Asa licked his lips, gaze warily darting between Anthia and me as he clarified, “It’s part of our routine patrols. To start, we were simply tasked with surveying the various animal populations from afar, which turned into tagging to better monitor their movements. The way we implement the tracking device requires the animal to be tranquilized, but we didn’t know these animals were shifters at first, or that shifters even existed.”
He paused and chewed his bottom lip for a moment, glancing at Tan as if asking for permission. Receiving a nod of encouragement, Asa continued, “But then, something unexpected happened. One of the men on our team was in the middle of tagging what we all thought was just a Eurasian brown bear when the bear began to shift back into human form while unconscious. A bunch of us were there to see it; otherwise, I don’t know if we would have believed him...” His blue eyes darkened as he trailed off, and his expression told me what came next was unpleasant.
Tan gently took over, “Our teammate was pissed, to say the least, and when we returned to base, he immediately went to confront our superiors about the lack of transparency. We...um...never saw him again. Of course, we were told he was reassigned, but…”
“And this is exactly why you don’t go around talking about this shit with random crazies in the woods!” Nox barked from where he now leaned against the wall across the cabin. “You know we’ll be extensively questioned when we get back to base, right? They’re going to find out that…”
“We aren’t getting back to base, you stubborn asshat!” Tan snapped, spinning to face Nox, uncharacteristic anger flashing in his hazel eyes. “Besides the fact thatsomethingis keeping us out here, we were clearly sent into the woods by our superiors to die!”
A heavy silence descended on the room, and I watched as a wave of emotions swept over Nox’s face, starting with anger and disbelief and ending with what almost looked like despair.
This news is affecting Nox the most for some reason...
Before I could analyze his reaction, Tan continued, his tone softer, “Ace pointed it out to me,lan.When have weeverbeen sent out alone—just the three of us—with suchvaguedirectives? And these ‘new’ phones and equipment we were given, specifically forthismission? How convenient that they stopped working once we were in uncharted territory.” He pulled a satellite phone from his pocket, waving it in Nox’s direction before roughly tossing it on the table. “We weren’t supposed to make it back...and it’s probably better that we didn’t.”
Nox solemnly nodded, displaying a level of consideration and control I hadn’t witnessed from him since they arrived. “I hadn’t even thought about it that way. Do you think it has anything to do with…” he abruptly quieted, dark brown eyes widening slightly as his gaze snapped to Asa.
Tan sharply inhaled, glaring at Nox before looking to Asa with deep concern. I followed his gaze and saw that Asa looked stricken, his fair skin paling as he swallowed hard. “Excuse me, I need some air,” he said, rising and running a shaky hand through his mop of curly hair before stiffly walking to the door and disappearing to the porch beyond.
“You are a real fucking piece of work, Nox,” Tan grumbled but noticeably didn’t follow Asa outside.
We sat in uncomfortable silence a moment until Anthia spoke, clearly still processing the information we’d received. “Am I…tagged?”she rasped, pure devastation coloring her expression as she ran her hands over her body as if she could find evidence of this violation.
Tan sadly shook his head. “There’s no way to tell unless we were to check the computers back at base. We inject the device straight into the brain, underneath where a human’s hair would be, so unless you knew what you were looking for immediately after it happened…”
Anthia abruptly rose and glanced questioningly at me, checking that I would be all right alone with the men. I nodded in reply, then grimly watched as my friend walked to the open window and shifted before flying off, taking her palpable anguish with her into the night.
Chapter 10
Vasilisa
Ilay awake for hours that night staring at the vaulted ceiling above my stove’s sleeping area, replaying Asa’s confession over and over in my mind.
“We are trained to tranquilize and tag shifters.”
