Broken Trust (Broken Book 3)

2: Helpful Hunters

"Whoa! Talons!"

"Malia, move. I can't control it!"

Stiles pulled Malia away from Isabel as her wings extended, the effect of the combined cattle prods hitting her.

"I freaking hate electricity," Isabel muttered.

And for good reason. She'd spent days in a Chasseur warehouse being electrocuted over the Eye of Odin, a powerful Valkyrie artifact that would allow a Dark Valkyrie to return to being a Pure and turned out to be more powerful than anyone thought. It was currently hidden deep within the Hale Vault, although Stiles had no idea where this secret vault was. Or why the Hales had a secret vault to begin with. It took Isabel several minutes to regain control of herself and she returned to her human form.

"You good?" Stiles asked, crouching next to her. Her talons had retracted although her eyes were still glowing.

Isabel nodded. "I say we go with Malia's plan. We jump the next people through that door, get Scott and the others, and get the hell out of here."

~~~

"You have me!" Scott said as Lydia was shackled to a chair next to him. "You don't need the others. Let them go."

Araya ignored him. Severo dragged Kira over to the voltage box. "Let me explain what is about to happen," he said. "This one, the fox, has an immunity to electricity. So she's going to turn the dial on the Alpha. If she refuses, I turn the dial on the Banshee."

Scott heard Lydia's heart rate increase.

Kira shook her head, looking horrified. "No!" she cried. "I'm not doing this!"

"Are you sure? One of your friends has the ability to heal," Araya said. "The other, not so much. Choose wisely."

"What are you doing?" Scott asked. "Is this a game to you?"

"This is a test, lobito," Araya said. "Let's see if you pass. We're going to ask some questions. You answer correctly, nobody gets hurt. Answer incorrectly." Araya shrugged. Kira looked horrified.

"Kira." The kitsune looked at Scott. "It's okay. I can handle it." Kira didn't look convinced. "It's okay."

"We don't know where Derek is. We want to find him as well. You and his mate know who took him."

"Would we be here if we knew who took him?"

"That doesn't sound like an answer to me."

"We don't know," Lydia said. "We came here because you shot Isabel. We thought you took him."

"Kira, turn the dial." Kira's eyes widened and she shook her head. "Should I turn the dial on Lydia instead?"

"No!" Scott cried. "Do it, Kira. It's okay."

Kira took a ragged breath and nodded.

"Let's start at one."

~~~

Isabel had broken a mirror and had turned the shard into a tool to try to jimmy the latch. She was currently pressed against the door with her ear against it. Stiles was pacing and Malia was sitting cross-legged on the floor. She had her eyes closed trying to focus her hearing. While Scott had taught her to control her shifts to the point that she could transition smoothly between human and coyote, she still hadn't mastered her other abilities. Scott was teaching her how to focus her hearing to listen in. Derek was teaching her how to use scent to track. Peter was teaching her how to use both of these to focus on a scene to find out what happened at a certain location. Malia sighed.