Where the Hell am I?
That was the first question that ran through Emily's psyche when she was aroused.
The last thing before that was the darkness she suddenly fell into in the pub.
While still blinking and not being completely conscious, she also recognized a throbbing pain in her forehead.
Flashback
'But... do you know what Mental chains are?'
End of flashback
The second question was curved in her sub-conscience and was the last thing she heard before the complete darkness.
"Holy shit!", she leaped from the footing where she was left to lie.
In front of her was a shattered, rusty mirror and she began manically touching her face and neck, just to find a big, transparent red bruise on her key bone.
They chained her. In which century did those wolves live?
Mental chains weren't a trend ever since it became common knowledge they could drive someone mad.
They were used as means of punishment when the wolves disobeyed their alpha or when they wanted to keep prisoners. But she never met with those before. Until now.
"No, this can't be. This can't be.", she was panicking.
She turned around once more and took a stare at her surroundings. That's where the real terror hit the spot.
'This is ...no. This ...NO.", she was murmuring, fully petrified.
She was left off in some old, dirty room, probably somewhere in some abandoned hangar or warehouse. Everything was dusty, stinky, deserted, and full of corrosion.
Running full speed on the door didn't work out, since she was too weak and the door was too strong.
She bounced back and fell on the dusty floor, barely looking from the cloud of dust she caused around herself.
Flashes of her, Michael, and Malcolm in the warehouse dungeon were sliding through her mind with every heartbeat and, as her heart beating was growing, so did the flashes of torture they underwent before joining The Circle.
Screams, blood, shallowness. Emptiness.
Everything Greta and her Ultimate Justice soldiers loved.
"No.", she spoke decidedly, her eyes completely changing into purple.
She hit the door once.
Once more.
And once more.
The last time was a full-strength hit and, luckily, it was successful; she threw herself out through the old, heavy wooden door and fell to the ground on the other side, as pieces of wood were falling all over her.
She proceeded with breathing heavily, feeling finally alleviated.
Her breathing was so hard that she caused another round of dust to hit her eyes and her to cough. While coughing, she eyed the ambient once more; yes, it was some nightmare warehouse where they left her to root until God knows when.
She quickly snatched her pocket just to, luckily, find a cellphone still in her disposition and with some low battery life, but enough to make a phone call. Which she gave up on a second after, since there was no reception in whatever hole she was put into.
'Welcome to Silvermoon, Emily.', she mumbled to herself sarcastically, not very happy about the situation.
No one succeeded in frightening her like this before the wolves. She knew this wasn't the end, since she wasn't able to leave their territory because of the chains. Teddy did the worst possible thing he could do to her, hitting the soft spot from the start. But now she was at least sure they won't put her on Ultimate Justice trial until further; since Chaining meant something like marking the territory.
Usual puppy stuff, she thought to herself.
While stepping out of the warehouse, where she didn't want to spend another more minute reviving her worst nightmares, she found a big hollow in front of her. Somewhere in the distance, it was some lame, wooden gate, just to separate the territory.
Since the feeling of danger started crawling deliberately on her skin, she decided it was time to do what she was best at - run once again.
Behind the gate, some lights and houses were to be seen. It was safety, she could feel it.
Already her strength was coming back and knowing the wolves will sense her activity, her rapid speed left only wind behind her feet, causing the dust storm in the old warehouse.
But not for long, cause she saw something galloping after her.
Something very unnerving, unfamiliar, and ready to assassinate her. It looked like a woman from the horror movie she watched while in Germany and it wailed creepy, sounding very, very angry.
The more Emily stepped on it, the more it rushed to track her.
Luckily, Emily saw some branches in front of her, strong enough to handle her leaping the gate, leaving the space between her and the creepy, wailing woman behind her. She presumed that the woman in black can't pass that gate, it was sealed with some strong magic Emily could sense from the distance.
She clasped the strongest branch she could see, stabbed it into the ground, and hopped to throw herself over the entrance, which was luckily successful.
Again, for the third time this night, she fell to the ground, covering herself in dust, but the bigger problem was that the creepy lady passed the fence.
"Holy crap. Why are you so obsessive?", she shouted, looking at the creature eyes wide open, knowing her current magic state is hard enough to fight anything bigger than the cat. The lady screamed, revealing ugly, rotten teeth. 'Do you ever wash your teeth?', she grabbed the branch shouting in contempt, ready for whatever it was coming.
'What the Hell are you doing here?!', the angry familiar voice Emily recognized from before yelled.
She saw two young men jumping in front of her from nowhere, which made the rotten lady finally back down. 'Who were you running after? Behind the gate, before I kill you!', Teddy shouted angrily at her, which made her back off, but she disobeyed him screaming loud enough to make them all cover their ears and crouch in uneasiness.
Which just pissed Teddy even more, while Raul stood in front of Emily, protecting her.
"Didn't I say BEHIND THE GATE?", he was enraged. "NOW!", then he started walking towards her with a dangerous light in his eyes and made her disappear for a second out of fear.
Looking through the gate as if he wasn't sure if the woman will come back, he exhaled heavily and came back to Emily.
'Are you seriously not going to tell me who the Hell is Samara from the Hollow?', Emily threw away the lifesaving branch and looked at him.
'A banshee. And you were lucky to encounter just one of them.', he told her in disinterest, passing her and Raul, without even looking at them.
'You left the bunch of zillion years old ladies with ugly teeth to babysit me? How well did you think that will end??', she yelled at him in distress. If the banshee got to her, she'd be transformed into God knows what since she was only half-human.
'Well, we thought you won't pass those barrier spells, which you did, little witch.', his eyebrows narrowed, as he turned to call them, already walking forward. 'And you're coming with us. C'mon, we have a lot to talk about.'
'What?', she yelled behind him bewildered, coming after Raul.
'But you must admit, those girls have bad teeth.', Raul started cracking up, punching Teddy's shoulder.
'Knock it off, Raul now is not the time for jokes.', he wasn't in the mood.
'But, they have bad teeth.', he was still laughing.
Teddy smiled for a second, probably admitting that Raul was right, and quickly went back into a serious mood.
Raul was probably his beta, Emily could tell by the way they hung up on each other; but his strict eyes searched for her face soon enough, stopping her thoughts. 'C'mon, witch, are you coming or shall I carry you?'
'I am fully capable of walking on my own, thank you.', she came after them unwillingly.
* * *
'What? No handcuffs, tying up to the chair, hanging from the wall, nothing?', Emily asked when they entered some library Teddy had keys off. 'What kind of custody is that? I'm disappointed.', she added, looking around the library, secretly fascinated.
'We're not here to revive your sexual fantasies, witch.', Teddy told her, sounding very abrupt.
Soon after, she saw Raul locking the door, with her bag in his hands. He threw it to her, catching her by surprise.
Emily looked at the wolves and realized there is something more to this, more than just captivating her because of some misgiving. They didn't know her secret, that's for sure, but something was off.
'Besides, we chained you.', Raul was cheerful. 'Not that I need handcuffs to make you die if you leave Silvermoor.'
She laughed. How stupid these puppies were on a scale of 1-10?
'Okay, so why chaining me? Why not ...just send me to Ultimate Justice court?', she already made herself comfortable on the sofa in front of them.
'Oh, who told you we won't send you as soon as we're done with you?', Teddy eyed her, holding still, with arms behind his back. His tattoos were off to be seen and Emily was sincerely intrigued by them. She secretly inspected them because she was convinced they all had some meaning.
'I was just wondering. Why am I a keeper? Your job is to protect, to serve the Court.', she looked back at him, gazing at his, also blue, but very dangerous eyes.
'Cut the crap, witch.', he sounded very, very intense and anxious, still standing in from of her.'Tell me why do you have a fake ID, why are you glamoured and what the Hell were you doing in wolf pub? Spying?', he came two steps forward to her. 'You do realize I will kill you if you don't start speaking? No one knows you're here beside us, I'm the alpha and I don't give a damn about the Ultimate Justice.', he leaned to her soon after, with the at in his eyes.
That made her feel relieved.
Finally, someone can agree on this one.
'So you just expect me to spill my childhood photo albums in front of you so you could just send me there anyway? No, thanks, I'll pass.', she was beginning to be afraid because not only that Ivan could get hurt and dead If Teddy do her any harm, but if they really send her to the Hunters, everything The Circle did will be lost. Everything they have done to protect themselves and the world.
'Tell me the truth, which, one last time.', his tension was accumulating.
She stood up, and walked towards him, with pretty much-wet eyes. She felt like the girl she was 12 years ago when the Circle broke up around the world. She was still that same petrified girl with swollen eyes, asking why her. And she currently loathed it.
'No.', she denied him once again, looking into his eyes.
Teddy's eyes began gleaming and he roared, showing his teeth. Seconds after, he threw her to the sofa again and leaned against her, very angered.
'Tell me the truth.', his growl was intimidating.
He was ready to beat her up which could only make a problem at Andrea's house.
'Teddy, for Christ's sake, NO.', Raul grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him away. 'She's human, you can't.'
'She's not, I can smell her, she feeds.', Teddy replayed angered, still furious, with teeth out and glowing eyes.
'My real name is Emily.', she said, standing up, frozen and with wet cheeks. That grabbed the boys' attention. 'Tell me why you captured me instead of throwing me in front of the council. No pack would do this to a witch.', she carefully came two-three steps forward to the still enraged alpha, held by his friend. Raul looked at her stepping as the biggest act of courage he has recently seen, which somehow startled her.
Teddy looked for a second at her, then his eyes turned back to normal ocean blue color.
'Okay.', he settled down a little bit, breaking from Rauls's hand. 'Let's talk.'