Disclaimer:
~Big thanks to Enemyoffun for making this universe to play in, and to all my beta readers for helping me hammer out some of the details in this chapter. Also, a big thanks to djkauf, who's edits are always awesome.
Author's Note: I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Please comment on this, I enjoy reading your comments and learning from them immensely. Here's chapter 23 where some of the excitement decides to make a reappearance.

Chapter 23

November 20, 2011
This Sunday seemed to be just as busy in the comic shop as yesterday. A few different people from the university came in this time, but quite a few regulars as well. Then again, I knew what that was all about. One of the clubs at Ravencrest University, either related to English or Computers, maybe both, decided to throw their own mini comic book convention, to serve as a stress reliever for the students in the march toward finals. They also opened it to anyone in town who wanted to come. So, it was not that big of a surprise that the shop was doing some good business today.

I thought about going. So had Alex. I think she liked the idea of it being a date for us. Another good thing about it, we could reuse our Halloween costumes. The winner of the mini-con's costume contest would win a set of the entire line of three of the New 52 Relaunch comic series. My boss agreed to be one of the judges for the contest.

After finishing up a business transaction with one of the college students, who unsuccessfully tried to get me to go on a date with him, Cindy Harper walked up to the register.

"Miss Harper," I started, "what can I do for you?"

"Oh, just here to pick up a few things," she smiled her toothy grin at me, while placing the shopping basket on the counter.

"A few things?" I replied, with a raised eyebrow.

"What can I say?" she shrugged. "I want to win the costume contest."

"Really?"

"Yup. I know someone who would love having the prize offered."

"How very altruistic of you."

"Thanks."

"But, I don't think you'd win the costume contest with some of the gossip that I've been hearing all day long."

She simply flashed me her smile and calmly replied, "Challenge accepted."

I shook my head and replied, "Good luck to you, Miss Harper."

I handed her purchase to her, which she gladly accepted, and headed out the door. Behind her, Tracy Locke appeared.

"Well, this is certainly a surprise. Looking for inspiration about the costume contest as well, Miss Locke?"

"A bit," she replied. "Also, I have a bit of news from my uncle."

That piqued my interest. "So soon after I talked to you? What's this about?"

She shrugged. "My uncle is trying to get in front of this, before you can do anything. He doesn't like the idea of an outsider knowing Locke family secrets."

I giggled at that. "Well, that's too bad. I am prepared to use that information, should your father not grant me a meeting."

"I had a feeling you would say that," she replied, with a smirk.

For some reason, that worried me a little. "Oh?" I replied.

"Now that's my little secret."

"Two can play at that game,” I replied, recalling some knowledge from the information that I earlier picked up from the Locke family tree.

I leaned over and motioned for her to come closer. She did and I whispered in her ear, "I know what you did to Damien Cross."

She pulled back a little and replied quietly, "Let's just keep that one between us, okay?"

I nodded and then said quietly, "I don't mess around."

It was low enough for only the two of us to hear. That statement was definitely true enough now, as I was sick and tired of all the politicking being done, just so Tobias Locke could maintain his hold on the Were families.

She sighed deeply, clearly frustrated that I wasn't backing down to the only daughter in the Locke clan.

"Fine," she replied calmly, "I'll tell you the message my uncle told me to give you when you get off."

"As you wish."

I rang her purchase up, the next issues of the comics she bought yesterday. After that, she left the store, thanking me for my service.

"What was that all about?" Mr. Larson asked, walking over.

"Just a little posturing by the Wolves," I answered.

"You can expect that, with all the cage rattling you're doing."

I giggled. "Yep."

A few minutes later, I heard a loud shout from outside. It kind of sounded like Tracy to me. Mr. Larson was looking over at me when turned I looked at him, and he quickly nodded for me to go find out what it was.

I quickly dashed out the door and looked around for where the screams came from. I took a deep sniff in the air, as I also tried to home in on her scent. I found it quickly, turning from the direction it came from and bolted up the road. Following the scent I turned up a nearby alley, and saw Tracy fighting against a couple of the goons that had been following me around.

"Hey!" I shouted. "It's me you're after, so leave her alone!"

That got their attention, as they whirled towards me. Tracy also looked towards me, but all that did was to give the opportunity for one of them stick Tracy with something. She seemed to go down quickly. The goon gently set her down on the ground, and they came after me.

'Damn it!' I thought to myself. 'I definitely didn't want her involved in this mess of mine.'

I was about ready to fight when suddenly, I felt something prick my neck.

"Time for you to sleep," a voice said from behind me, the 's' sound sounding longer than usual for some reason.

A few moments later, I was enveloped by darkness. As I lost consciousness, I could only think about that botched rescue attempt.

When I came to I found myself bound up and strapped to a chair. My hands were tied behind my back and the back of the chair and each leg tied to a separate leg of the chair. I could feel a chair behind me with my hands. Looking back, I could see Tracy wrapped up behind me as well. Although, she still looked out of it.

I felt lethargic for some reason, and could barely move my head as I looked around the dark room. The only light came from a couple of the very high windows, and even then, not much light came in. There seemed to be a couple of lamps nearby to provide some kind of illumination, although they were still dark. Other than that, a few walls looked out of place, as they seemed to be disconnected.

I got the feeling that we could be in some kind of warehouse. Or some other abandoned building in town. That's if we were still in Ravencrest at all. I don't know how long I was out for. For all I knew we could be in New York City by now. I tried not to think about that. One step at a time.

I heard a groan behind me, and I whipped my head around as fast as I could.

"Tracy,” I whispered. "Tracy!"

"Uhh... please Constance, five more minutes."

"Who's Constance?" I asked.

Tracy shook her head and looked as if some of the fog was clearing from here.

"Wha...? Where are we?" she asked.

"I don't know. But, I think that whoever attacked you, did it to get at me."

"Get at you?" she replied confused. "What did you do to them? Give them a bad deal on their comics or something?"

"Very funny," I replied sarcastically, not really in the mood for humor.

"What do they want with you?"

"I think they want the Lorekeeper's ring for some reason. Fits in with what these goons kept demanding from me earlier."

"But, why would they want that? I mean, it's just some symbolic piece of jewelry."

"I don't think so. They have more than proven they are willing to go to great lengths to get it," I said, not wanting to give anything that I knew about the bracelet away. Just in case they had video cameras and microphones in the room.

"All this for some shiny rock and band of metal? You're right, they must think it's more than some ring."

A deep voice emanated from the shadows, "Oh, young Wolves, it's much more than that."

It sounded like the same voice that I heard before I got stung by something earlier. Long "s" sounds and everything.

"Show yourself," I called out to the shadows.

A tall, lean, muscular man walked out from the shadows and into the light. Standing on Tracy's and my sides, he definitely didn't have an appearance like those thugs with whom I've had countless run-ins with, not quite anyway. Maybe he was their boss?

"I see I've managed to catch two pitiful puppies into my trap. Hopefully, one of you will tell me what I want to know, or give me what I want before I decide to make a meal out of you."

"Calling us puppies? If I were untied you'd be on the floor by now!" Tracy fired off.

The guy just smiled, evilly and knowingly. Suddenly, his form melted away and his clothes fell to the ground in a heap. Emerging from his clothes, a very large snake slithered out and around the chair. It reminded me of a boa constrictor or an anaconda. Suddenly, he reared up and a part of him flared out. Now he looked like a giant cobra.

The cobra made like it was going to attack the two of us, but always stopped just short from burying its fangs into our skin. He then slithered back into the shadows. A few moments later, the man walked out again wearing a large trench coat.

"As you can see, I have no problem in attacking either of you. And making your 'questioning' as painful as can be."

He walked around the two of us before saying, "I'll leave you alone to think about what you would like to say when we return."

I could hear his footsteps walk away from us and Tracy looked at me and said, "So, got any good ideas of getting out of here?"

After some time we still sat there thinking in the gloom. Tracy and I both tried to change into our wolf forms to try to slip out, but for some reason it didn't work. I also tried to change into my raven form, but quickly met with the same results. We both were clueless to what was causing us not to turn into our animal forms.

Tracy just seemed to grow more frustrated and angry with that, and kept muttering to herself, "C'mon! C'mon!" I think she just kept wanting to try to change into her wolf form, and each failure kept ratcheting up her frustration.

While it seemed that changing into an animal was currently out of the picture, the bleed-over abilities remained largely intact. I could still see, hear, and smell way above the average human.

I strained to hear, as I could hear some muffled voices farther in the room.

"What do you mean, you brought two wolves? You were only supposed to bring the one!” another person's voice rang out. They grunted "Ugh!" in frustration a moment later.

"How was I supposed to know which Wolf would have what you wanted? You have two now. The other one could be useful leverage with her family."

"The Lockes?" they scoffed. "I wouldn't be surprised if they started battering down the door any minute now. We're going to need to move them, and soon."

"As you wish. I'll have my men look for a secondary site to set up a base."

"Do it quickly. In the meantime, I guess I had better start getting some information out of the two."

I sat up straighter when I heard that, and whispered to Tracy, "Stop. We will have company soon!"

She stopped, but her frustration was still visible.

"Well, well, well," the other person's, a man, voice said from the darkness, much clearer than before. "Two little puppies caught by my snake. I only wanted one, but two could work."

I could hear Tracy growl at being called a puppy. That clearly got under her skin, very deep by the sound of that growl. "Try saying that if I wasn't tied up!” she shouted at the taunter.

I tried to keep it cool, since I could use any scrap of information to get us out of here.

"Aww...," the man mocked, "is the puppy mad about being on my leash?"

Tracy growled again and shouted at her, "Do you have a death wish or something? Because I will tear your pathetic little head off!"

The man laughed and replied, "Oh little girlie, you have no idea what you would be dealing with."

After he said that, he laid a hard one right into Tracy's jaw. I could definitely hear the bone break, from the sound of it, her jaw most likely just became dislocated. I looked at her limp body, stunned. If he could do that with one blow, he definitely wasn't human.

"Now, that's better. Some peace and quiet at last. She definitely was getting on my nerves."

This time, I growled at him. No one hurts my friends and gets away with it. "You bastard. That was DAMN low of you!"

"Low, yes. Necessary, however. And definitely gratifying. Anyway, I think you might be the one we want to deal with."

"And why would you think that?"

"Well, you're wearing a most interesting piece of jewelry."

"What?"I feinted, trying to sound like I didn't know what she meant. "My charm bracelet? I've had this for years, a childhood gift from my mother."

"Oh, no you haven't," he answered. "That very gemstone, that emerald, belonged to a ring. A very special ring. I think you might know it as the one that marked the Lorekeeper for the Were Families in this quaint little town."

How did he know that? I haven't seen him around town. And he sure didn't look familiar in the slightest. I couldn't see any family resemblance to any of the families that I met.

"You see," he continued, "I've been after that ring for a very, very long time. I've been hunting for it on and off through the years. Now, when I heard about this lone Wolf stirring things up in Ravencrest with the Weres, I just had to find out. It looks like you found what I've been looking for all this time, and now I'm going to take it."

"Why? It's just another charm bracelet. Nothing special about it." I fired back, trying to keep my bluff up as long as possible.

"Oh, but it does, young Wolf."

"You see," he explained, apparently loving the sound of his own voice, "The Were make for a most unique subspecies of the human race, among others of the Unseen. They have the ability to turn into animals, have various traits bleed over into their human forms, and then, as the unconscious and young Miss Locke knows, there's the Beast form."

"Beast form?" I asked. That would the first time I heard of that, or at least in those terms. Tracy probably knew full well what he meant. Probably had something to do with a certain Cougar I heard about.

"Oh yes, the perfect blending of human and animal. Something that can be harnessed and utilized."

"What are you talking about? What makes you think we can be harnessed?"

"Everything can, it just takes time and effort," he calmly replied, emerging from the shadows.

The man looked like he had been around for a while, and looked like he had seen many things. Bushy salt and pepper hair with a matching beard, a well-kept physique, and very dark, very hard eyes.

"Now, Miss Vance," he said, walking straight up to me and looking me in the eye, "I want you to tell me everything you know about the Lorekeeper's power and the ring."

"And if I don't?"

"Then, I'm afraid I'll have to call my snake friend and let him know that he can play around with you,” he answered, seeming to care less if we were tortured anyway.

"If it's me you want," I continued, "then why not let her go?"

I looked around at Tracy's limp and helpless form, as best as I could. I thought that I had to get her out of here, and quickly.

"I can't do that either, I'm afraid. She could lead all sorts of people back here to rescue you. And we wouldn't want that, now do we?"

He whistled sharply, and I could see the Snake emerge from the shadows, looking very smug. Along with him, a young woman came into view, wheeling a small cart with a variety of things on it. I recognized a laptop computer, but the medical-looking equipment threw me for a loop. What was her purpose here and why the equipment?

The young woman glanced over at the two of us, appearing nervous, like she didn't want to be here at all. She looked like a shy young woman, with red hair and a wearing pair of glasses. After she put her cart near the two of us, she hesitantly looked up at the bearded boss. He nodded sharply, and she rolled up my sleeve and began cleaning an area in the elbow.

"My associate, Miss Anderson, is here at the request of our employer," the man continued.

The young woman looked up at us again, with a look that told us that she was sorry for what she was doing. She probably didn't agree with what was happening to us, and probably didn't want to be around these goons any more than we did.

"She has her own tasks to perform for them," the man-in-charge continued. "After she's done, then my good friend, Mr. Bellock, will help me extract the information I desire from you."

The snake smiled at me, displaying his teeth and showing us both sets of his incisors elongated like a snake's fangs. That creepy smile gave me the impression that he took great pleasure in dishing out pain to anyone. I gulped as I could only imagine what kind of damage he would inflict.

I gasped, as Miss Anderson punctured a needle into my arm unexpectedly, and began to extract some of my blood.

"Now," the man with his insidious attitude continued, "as I despise unnecessary bloodshed, shall we begin?"

-------------------------------

Some time later, and after a severe bruising, the Cobra stopped dishing out his brand of punishment at me. He held back, making threats while trying to get me to cave in, while Miss Anderson performed her task. I didn't cave in to those smug bastards. That’s when they decided on a more direct approach after Miss Anderson removed her needle from my arm.

I managed to hold up well under their abusive torture. I could still smell the alcohol from the bottle they drank out of, then broke to stab me with. The man-in-charge, however, just kept asking me about the bracelet: what its powers were, how to remove it, how I found it, and other things. I'm glad that I didn't tell him anything. Although, it definitely got harder not to talk as the torture wore on. Eventually, the smug bastard holding Bellock's leash reeled him back in. I definitely had thought that they would just keep going until I was dead.

Bellock had even attempted to forcibly remove the bracelet from my wrist. He couldn't get it off me though. As soon as his hand touched it, the bracelet gave his hand a severe burn. I looked happy that he got hurt, but all that did was earn me a swift punch in the face. He talked with the man-in-charge about getting something to cut my arm off, and giving him the bracelet that way. That man agreed if I didn't give it up willingly.

The confusing part of the ordeal was the young woman extracting my blood. What does their employer want with that? My blood shouldn't be that much different than any other person's blood. Definitely something to think about later.

They then decided to leave me alone for a while, probably because they were so tired, or to pick up a hacksaw they mentioned during their interrogation, and go another way at removing my bracelet. Bits and pieces of their handiwork lay on the ground all around us, and I sat there, with Tracy still knocked cold from that earlier blow.
As I assessed the damage, I realized Bellock had decided to use me as a punching bag. It felt like I was bruised in more places than I knew I had. Deep cuts, bruises, and even a few burns when they decided to rub a hot poker over my skin. All that just made me realize that they would do anything to accomplish their goals. And that just made my blood boil. I think if Tracy had her way, heads would roll, and I would have absolutely no qualms about joining her.

I tested the bonds around my arms and ankles again. They felt a little looser, probably from all the squirming and struggling that we did during their torturous interrogation. My face shifted to one of struggling determination as I tried to loosen the ropes around my wrists again. While they did give a little, it would take something extra to get rid of them.

I looked around at the silvery metallic table where they had placed some of their instruments of pain and agony. The broken bottle, the hot poker, even a leather belt. Scattered on the ground, there were a few pieces of broken glass from the bottle.

Wait a sec! The bottle!

I quickly hopped up and managed to scoot the chairs a few inches closer to the table. I rapidly repeated the process over and over again, until our chairs knocked into the table. I just hope nobody was paying the two of us too much attention.

I slammed my shoulder into the table at an odd angle, and got the bottle to move towards me. A few more slams and the bottle fell into the gap between the chairs, and landed on the ground with an echoing thud.

"Damn!"

The bottle fell to the ground with a loud clang. However, I managed not to break it even more.

I tried my best to push us over onto our side. It worked, although Tracy would probably be feeling that one when she woke up.

With a little maneuvering, I managed to feel the broken bottle with my hands. I quickly began using one of the sharp edges and worked at my bonds around my wrists. After a long time sawing with a glass bottle they finally snapped.

I rubbed my raw wrists and quickly untied the rest of them, and Tracy's as well. I tried bringing her around, but she still just hung there limp.

I sighed deeply and got to my feet. It was time to make them pay.

"Tracy," I said, to her hoping that she could hear me, "hold on. I'll be back for you as soon as I can."

I dashed off down the corridor, and slowed as I drew closer to where I could begin to hear some voices.

There was another woman's voice talking to Bellock and the other guy who thought he was all that and a bag of chips.

"I wish you would quit playing with your food like some kitten, Cameron," the woman said.

"I wasn't," our questioner rebutted. "I was trying to get the information you wanted out of them. At least your girl did her job."

"Yes, she did. She's on her way to my lab to analyze the blood."

"Good," Cameron replied. "You little errand girl was in the way. Why do you want her blood anyway?"

"You don't need to know that," she replied.

"Oh, I think I do."

"Look, you know that I'm paying you a lot of money to get this job done. I don't need you questioning my decisions and motives, especially now."

Cameron grumbled some, which sounded a bit like a big cat growling.

"Oh, knock it off, you puny lion. You're not fooling anyone."

"Don't you DARE call me puny!" Cameron fired back sharply.

"Then why don't you act like a king of the jungle, instead of some tame house cat!"

He growled again, and then yelled at Bellock. "You have the hacksaw yet?"

"Oh, yes. I just got done sharpening it," he replied in an oily tone that made my skin crawl.

"Then, let's go get that bracelet already."

I heard their footsteps come this way, and I quickly turned around to hide behind some big metal containers I had passed.

I looked around and managed to find something to help me scamper up the wall just in nick of time. I saw Bellock and Cameron make their way to where they had been holding us, and in short order heard Cameron yell out.

"How did she escape? Find her now!"

"At least the other one is still out cold," Bellock observed.

"She could be useful. Make sure she's still tied up and then go find that troublesome little wolf!"

"I think I definitely pissed them off," I muttered to myself.

Hopefully, I could think up a plan and quickly. I knew this hiding spot wouldn't last forever. In any case, I was through jimmy-jacking around with these guys.