Girl Gone Rogue (The Shadow Hunters #2)

41. Into The Unknown

One by one, each Enforcer grabbed hold of the rungs of the ladder, hauling themselves up effortlessly.

I was one of the last ones out.

The other Enforcers were busy taking in the remnants of the Blue Cave Pack with surprise.

Not much had changed from the last time Kian and I entered.

It still felt cold and empty.

And eerie.

"This place..." Jude began, "...feels off."

He wasn't wrong. There was a strange air here.

This place literally had converted into a nesting place for the poisoned changelings, whom, no doubt used the tunnels too, to go back and forth from the mountains. Now that we knew for sure that the tunnels connected to the caverns beneath the mountain, it was no surprise to discover why there had been more sightings of the wolves in the mountains. They had a direct link to the mountains through the tunnels and no one seemed to know anything until Kian had pointed the detail out when we had been in the Alpha's cabin, tucked away in the mountains.

"Exercise caution everyone, who knows when the damn poisoned changelings will attack." Jude warned.

Everyone seemed to stiffen at his taciturn words, but it was a warning well heeded.

Kian led the path to the Bennett's old Pack House.

The place gave me chills.

Jude instructed a handful of the Enforcers to do rounds around the exterior of the house and sent another handful to investigate inside.

"Can you smell that?" Alexei asked when we stepped foot into the house.

Jude was the only one who nodded.

Kian led us to the diamond shaped window we stumbled across from our first visit to the Pack House. The garden was still as picturesque as I imagined. Kian pressed his fingertips across the glass, adding pressure. The door easily swung open and with it, the scent of lemons burst across our noses.

"Nightshade." Both Jude and Alexei whispered.

Kian stepped into the garden space first. We followed behind, wary.

I didn't know how nightshade looked but Jude took a few seconds to scope out the garden. When he found the nightshade, he crouched low and fished out a glove from his pocket. He slipped the leather material on and held the green stem between his fingers as he examined it intently.

The plant didn't look all that spectacular.

It looked like any other plant, but its leaves were formed in a way that it resembled the shape of a plump star and sitting in the middle of it was a shiny, black bulb. It looked like a blueberry, only slightly bigger.

"It doesn't look like much." Kian said, voicing my own thoughts.

"Part of its charm, you could say. Deceptive but deadly." Jude dug his hands into the dirt from where it shot out of. He began scooping dirt away from the roots before he pulled the plant out, laying it at his feet. Dirt sprinkled across his boots, but he didn't seem to mind. He was more concerned on plucking the next nightshade. Alexei, Kian, and I began to follow his lead, uprooting the nightshade until our gloves smelt like lemons.

When we managed to gather an armful of it, Kian hauled the weight of it into his arms. "I have it."

"What do we do with the rest of it?" I asked. It didn't sit right with me that a plant this lethal should be left in a place like this, abandoned.