Roe looked at Shane and Adrian and asked them, "How are you two doing?"
"I think I would've preferred being with PBI than with these guys." Adrian replied dryly, while Shane just sat there staring at the floor.
"You and me both." Roe commented. "So, what happened after they took y'all out of the motel room?"
Adrian paused as the truck started up and began moving, then he said "After the PBI men escorted us out, they started walking us over toward the vans that were out there. These other guys pulled up as we were about to be put in the van, and the PBI men paused to look who was coming into the lot. The first one out was that guy that put you into the truck."
"He told Special Agent Maitland that his name was Savage."
Shane's head popped up at that. "Savage?"
"That's what he said, and that he was working for a Major Marsden."
When Shane was silent, Adrian asked him "Do you know him?"
Shane was silent a little longer, then slowly said "I think I've heard of him."
"Well," Roe demanded, "what have you heard?"
Shane looked at her with a slightly worried expression on his face. "If he's who I think he is we may be in trouble." he said then went silent.
"Shane, spit it out already. I'd like to know what we're getting ourselves into before we actually get there."
Shane looked slightly ashamed, and said "Well, from the rumors I heard while I was away, looking for my mate, Savage is a mercenary who works for the highest bidder. He usually works as a supernatural creature hunter. If he's working for a Major, then the Major isn't who he says he is, or he's operating outside of the military."
Roe and Adrian looked at each other. "Or, he is with the military, and they want plausible deniability, so they're using mercenaries instead of soldiers." Adrian suggested.
Shane sat there silent, looking stunned.
"That would be really bad." Roe said.
"Yes, it would be."
"That's not possible." Shane finally found his voice. "Is it?"
Adrian and Roe looked at each other, then at Shane. "I'm not sure." Roe said. "It sounds logical, at least from a military standpoint. Use expendable people to do something they don't want the public to know about."
Adrian nodded. "Sadly enough, it does sound like something the military would do."
"Oh, well. There's no point in worrying about it right now. There's nothing we can do from in here, anyway." Roe said.
Adrian snapped his head around toward Roe. "Do you still have your phone?"
"No, Special Agent Maitland took it."
"So, as of right now, we've been taken by some unknown military or mercenary group, are being taken to who knows where, and no one knows who has us or where they're taking us. Does that about cover it?" Shane asked angrily.
"Do you think they can hear us?" Roe asked. "Have either of you heard them say anything since we've been in here?"
Adrian and Shane looked at each other, confused. Shane shook his head, and Adrian said "I haven't heard anything from up front. Why?"
"I'm wondering how much to say." Roe replied cryptically.
"I doubt they can hear us. From what I saw of this truck, there's a gap between the cab and cargo area. So, unless they have it rigged for sound, you're free to talk. Now talk." Shane snapped.
"Before y'all were taken out of the hotel, I got a text off to Joe, letting him know about Special Agent Maitland arresting us."
"What good's that gonna do?" Shane snapped.
Adrian angrily opened his mouth to speak, but Roe held up a finger asking him to wait a minute. "Before Savage took me, I told Special Agent Maitland to contact Joe, and that Joe would help him figure out what happened back there."
"What do you mean, figure out what happened?" Adrian quickly asked before Shane could start arguing again.
"He didn't know anything about these guys. He was totally surprised when we walked out the door, and they had his men surrounded. Savage gave him some sort of paperwork, supposedly turning us over to him, but Agent Maitland didn't have a chance to look at it before Savage was pulling me toward the stairs, and away from him. I practically ran back over to him to tell him to contact Joe, before Savage could hear me. Maitland was still standing there watching when I got in the truck."
"Okay, but what makes you think he wasn't just surprised at the timing? Maybe he had plans to turn us over all along, but wasn't expecting it to happen there." Shane asked suspiciously.
"The way he was acting." Roe said, thinking about it. "He was shocked when he saw them. Then he was mad about it, and asked Savage under whose authority Savage was taking us. It sounded like he was blindsided by the whole thing. Not to mention, if they were in cahoots with each other, Maitland's men wouldn't have been surrounded by Savage's men."
"You have a point." Adrian said thoughtfully. "Hopefully Maitland takes your advice and talks to A-" Roe's hiss stopped him mid word. "Rogers." He coughed out.
Roe nodded. "I hope so too."
"How's he supposed to find Rogers? Did you tell him who he was?" Shane snapped. "It won't help us at all if he can't find him."
"I didn't tell him that about Joe-" Shane scoffed. "but," Roe continued unfazed, "I told him that Joe owned Blood Moon Rising. So, Maitland should be able to find him from that."
"What name did u give him?" Adrian asked curiously.
"The same one I gave y'all to begin with. Joe knows me by both." Roe shrugged. "He'll know Maitland's talking about us, between my name and the text I sent him."
"So, we're counting on a barkeep, and a PBI agent finding each other, and then figuring out who took us and where." Shane asked dismissively, then shook his head. "Just face it, we're on our own. No one's going to help us. We've got to figure out a way out of this for ourselves."
"How exactly do you plan on doing that?" Adrian asked drolly.
"We're going to break out of here when the truck stops." Shane proclaimed proudly.
Roe started at him in disbelief. Are you stupid? She thought. If you have your way, you'll get us all killed.
Adrian snarled at him. "We're both in silver chains. She's" He gestured at Roe "basically human. I'm sure they have weapons specifically for use against us like PBI did. How, pray tell, are we going to escape without one of us being killed?"
"But we can fight." Shane exclaimed.
"So can they." Roe retaliated. "Do you really think that they took us without knowing what y'all were? I find it extremely hard to believe that they have no idea what they put in the back of this truck. Were the silver chains already in here?"
"Yes." Shane grudgingly answered when he noticed Adrian wasn't going to.
"So, based on that, and the fact that Savage gave Maitland some sort of paperwork concerning us, I'd say they definitely know what you two are." She paused. "However, I'm not sure if they have any idea what I am, considering Savage said he wasn't going to chain me, since I couldn't do anything."
"I'm assuming neither group know what you are, since they were both so dismissive of you." Adrian commented.
"The only problem with that theory," Shane snarled, "is why did they both want her, if they don't know what she is?"
"Maitland told me he wanted me as a witness in your trial, and that he was arresting me too to make sure I didn't disappear before it happened."
"Why would you disappear?" Adrian asked.
"I'm not sure." Roe paused. "I overheard a conversation about one of the PBI officers being suspected of coercing women into having sex in front of the rest of the team, when they went to arrest other supernaturals. And that no one had done anything about it yet because they didn't have any evidence, and the women disappeared shortly thereafter." I don't feel like trying to explain my run in with Reynolds to them right now. It's probably not connected, so why should I tell them and confuse the issue more?
"So there have been human disappearances, too?" Adrian asked.
"I guess so, at least that's what it sounded like."
"What exactly was said about the women?" Adrian asked.
"It was a conversation between Agent Maitland, and an Officer Pierce. Pierce is a medic, and he was bandaging my arm. He said that he'd been on missions with Officer Reynolds where Reynolds slept with a woman they had rescued from a supernatural, right in front of the rest of the team. Pierce said one of the women had asked him if she needed to pay him for rescuing her like she'd paid Reynolds."
"He did what?" Adrian exclaimed as Shane asked "Seriously?"
"Yeah, and the way they were talking about it, it happened more than once and the women had to be human. I can't imagine a supernatural woman agreeing to sleep with him for rescuing her." Roe said, shaking her head.
Shane opened his mouth, closed it, then said "I can't imagine a female wolf not killing him for suggesting it."
"I can't see a female vampire readily agreeing, either. At least not without a huge fight." He paused. "What kind of supernatural was this Reynolds fellow, anyway?"
"I'm not sure." Roe replied. "I couldn't tell what anyone there was, could you?"
Shane and Adrian looked at each other, then back at Roe. "I thought they were bluffing when that Maitland guy said that." Shane finally said.
"I couldn't tell what any of them were. The PBI guys, or the military ones."
"I wondered if they had a witch put some sort of cloaking spell on them. I don't have many spells memorized because I couldn't do them yet." She shrugged. "There was no point."
"So, even if you got your power boost, there's nothing you can do because you don't know the spells." Shane stated sounding discouraged.
"Well, not necessarily." Roe said slowly. "I do have my grimoire with me. So, it would just be a matter of looking up the spell I wanted, and casting it."
"How do you have your grimoire with you? You're not carrying anything." Adrian asked, skeptically.
"What's a grimoire?" Shane asked.
"A grimoire is a witch's spell book." Adrian supplied.
"There's no way you've got a book on you." Shane snapped in disbelief. "You didn't even bring anything with you from your car, much less from the motel room."
"My grimoire isn't a normal book, like most are. It's hard to explain here, but I really do have it with me."
"But-" Shane started arguing again.
"Fine." Roe said, throwing her hands up in the air. "It's a spell, okay. It's here, not in it's original form, but it is here. I can cast a spell to make it an actual book. Is that enough explanation for now?"
Shane pouted. "I guess so."
"Hmm." Adrian looked thoughtful. "If we could get you into your full powers, and using the grimoire, could we escape on our own?"
"More than likely, yes." Roe paused, and shook her head. "But you don't understand what it'll take to get me into my full powers. I don't know if you'll still want to when you find out."
"Why wouldn't we?" Shane demanded. "It's our ticket out of whatever they've got planned for us."
"It's not that simple." Roe tried to discourage him from counting on her powers being the way out.
"Why not?" Shane pressed.
"It's-" Roe paused as they felt the truck slowing down then stopping.
"I think we're out of time." Adrian interjected.
Roe looked gratefully at Adrian. Before they had a chance to say anything else to each other, a couple of the military men opened the doors.
Savage stepped up to the open doors, and motioning to Roe, said "Come over here, and get out of the truck."
Roe looked at Shane and Adrian, shrugged, then stood up and walked to the back of the truck. As soon as she stepped down, one of the military men grabbed her arm and pulled her off to the side of the truck. Roe quickly looked around. This looks like an abandoned hospital or something. They were parked right in front of a large brick building. It was surrounded by unkempt grounds, as far as she could see in the dark. It's as if they haven't had a groundskeeper in years. Upon noticing the fence on the other side of the vehicles, Roe thought I wonder if that fence goes all the way around this building. If it does, was it a hospital or a prison? Maybe a mental institution.
Roe's attention was jerked back to Savage when she heard him speak. "Now, as for you two." He said, looking into the back of the truck. "We've got a little surprise for you." He smiled an evil looking smile at them, as he drew his gun.
"NO!" Roe shouted. She could hear Shane and Adrian struggling against their chains inside the truck. She started toward Savage, but one of his men grabbed her arm to stop her.
Savage barely spared her a glance as he gave his man with her an order. "Hold on to her." He then turned back to the truck, and without any hesitation shot into it.
Roe couldn't see whether he'd shot both of the men in the truck, or not. I think that's Adrian I hear hissing, so I guess he shot Shane. Why would he only shoot Shane? Why would he shoot either one of them? What's going on here? As Roe stood there dumbfounded and trying to figure out what was going on, Savage traded guns with another one of the military guys. She screamed again as Savage took aim into the back of the truck and fired the gun a few more times.
"All right, boys. Get them out and take them to Room 213. I'll deal with her." Savage said, walking around the truck toward where Roe and her guard stood.
"Deal with me?" Roe asked a bit hysterically. "Are you going to shoot me too?"
"Yes, yes I am." Savage said as he accepted yet another gun from another man. He pointed the gun at Roe and pulled the trigger.
Roe looked down and saw a tranquilizer dart sticking out of her thigh. It was the last thing she saw before the world went dark around her.