Chapter 11 Imprisonment 

Watching the video remote feed from the drones, Dr. Aliza Abbott and General Forrester, the leaders of the Human Purity Movement both scowled. Their Fae ally had followed Galen Morganason to this location and disabled the wards placed around this place to make it invisible to satellites and planes. The farm had appeared as trees during the sunset pass then as fields and buildings after dawn.

"Damn, if they can hide a farm like this..." Forrester muttered angrily, "Imagine what we don't know about that could be hidden in our country."

Aliza ignored him and tapped the communication microphone. "Liam, is she there?"

The wind howled from the speaker as he answered, "No, Dr. Abbott. Your spy Donavon's memories showed she spoke to him yesterday, but she isn't here now." Liam paused then said, "Hold on, they found three more in their human forms in the cellar of the house."

Aliza watched the drone feeds, scanning all the screens looking for any sign that her late lover's wife had fled into the storm.

"It's not her. There's a teenage shewolf and two younger males in human form." He was silent for a moment then cursed in an ancient language that Aliza still hadn't figured out. "She was here when the attack came, but the shewolf told her to flee before she was darted. I'm sorry, Aliza, she's gone."

"Find her, Liam. Send the ones who have their human skins to the C.D. Facility," Aliza demanded as she glared at the screens.

"What about the ones who are wolves or beasts?" Liam asked.

"Kill them," Forrester ordered, he clicked the microphone off and glanced at Aliza. "Are you certain we need them alive?"

"We need to figure out what Strawford did to them and how they overcame it when so many others did not," Aliza snapped at him then accused, "You were a fool to let him go so far."

"It wasn't supposed to be like that. A few were supposed to go feral while the rest were too sedated from the A.S.H. to stop them," Forrester retorted. "I don't trust these Fae."

Aliza rolled her eyes and announced, "You sound like my father. Look, Jim, we use the Fae to get what we want, the wolves and vampires under control and the genome-contaminated, non-infected humans contained. Think about the long game. Kill them all and let god sort it out won't work. It never worked." She turned and walked out then paused at the door. "We need Quinn Phillips and the Monarch's bastard to weaken him in the media. He's still a hero to many, so we've got to control the narrative. Have your men find Mrs. Phillips and put the survivors on a plane out of Peterson Airforce Base today. I want them all in South Carolina for study by dinner time."

VvvvvV

Chelsey Thomson woke up slowly with no idea of what time it was. She was in a cell of some kind, like some mental ward she had seen on tv. Her wrists hurt as she sat up. She rubbed them, looking at the marks left by handcuffs. Her clothes had been changed into white scrubs and there was a bandaid on her arm like her blood had been drawn. She ached like she had been lying down for a long time. A camera in the corner watched her so she flipped it her middle finger.

"This is illegal imprisonment. You have no right to hold me or my packmates." Her voice echoed loudly off the walls as she demanded, "Where are the others?"

A slot opened in the bottom of the door and a tray slid in. She leapt at the door and stuck her hand through the slot only to be tasered. Lying there twitching, with her face in mashed potatoes, she hissed curses through clenched teeth as they forced her arm back through and shut the slot. Panting for a long time, she was finally able to get up. Scraping the mashed potatoes off her face and out of her hair she went over to stand below the camera. When it looked down at her, she waved her middle finger at them.

"My name is Chelsey Thompson. I am seventeen years old, and I am a citizen. It is a violation of the Constitution to hold me without charges or an attorney. I want to see my packmates and I want a lawyer from the Werewolf Monarchy." Then she jumped up and caught the mounting bar for the camera and smeared the mashed potatoes on the lens cover.

Dropping back down, she picked up her meal and went to sit on the bed. She could barely feel her wolf and wondered what they had injected her with. Even though she was starving, she only ate a single bite of each thing, waiting between bites to see if any of it made her feel strange. While she waited, she rinsed her hair in the sink and washed her face, drying them on her smock.

Taking an hour or more to eat her meal, she didn't taste or feel any kind of toxin or drug. As she became more bored, she began to do her yoga and then her pilates routines, humming music from before the night that changed the world and especially her world. While she was planking and humming a song, her mind flashed back to the afternoon before the Revelation Night.

Her mother rushed into her room, locked the door, then opened the window, knocking out the screen. Chelsey was horrified as she pulled out her earbuds because her mother was covered in blood.

"You have to go! Get to the restaurant and hide in the freezer!"

"Mom?" Chelsey asked tremulously, frozen by the smell of her brothers' blood and the violent pounding on the door.

Teresa dragged her off the bed and forced her out the window. "I love you, baby girl. Get to the freezer and lock everyone in until help comes. Go... Go!" She shouted as she shoved her to the window. The door burst inward in two pieces.

Staring at her father, Chelsey froze. He looked crazed. His eyes were wide open and had turned cloudy like a zombie. He growled from a mouth full of fangs and clenched clawed hands like he was shifting in slow motion. When he glanced toward them, Teresa shoved her daughter to safety then attacked her mate.

"Run, Chelsey!"

Lying in the snow, Chelsey stood up as her mother continued to scream at her to run then she was screaming for another more horrible reason. Chelsey ran to the porch, intending to help her mom, but hesitated, looking in the big bay window. Her brothers were dead in the living room, partially shifted and torn to pieces. Around her she could hear the howls of hunting wolves and a few vampire shrieks above the roaring wind of the blizzard. The air smelled strangely sweet. Terrified, Chelsey shifted and ran.

Blinking back the daydream horror, she collapsed from her plank position, panting. Her arms trembled from the exertion. It had felt so real, like she was there again. She moved to sitting cross-legged and began to meditate as her therapist Becky taught her. She saved Becky and her unborn baby on the Revelation Night and afterward, Becky saved her from grief.

There was a slight hum and the wall slid down revealing a floor to ceiling mirror. She cracked her eye open then muttered, "Cowards."

She focused on strengthening and reviving her wolf. As she finished counting and breathing, a voice came from the speaker on the mashed potato smeared camera.

"Stand and face the wall behind the bed. Put your palms on the wall."

Her head jerked up and she bared her teeth at the mirror. "Where are my packmates?"

The voice repeated the same command.

She stood and went to the mirror, slapping her palm on the reflective surface. "Do you work for that Aliza Abbott biyatch or some cowardly government group who didn't stop the Revelation Night?" Her flat hand curled into a fist, and she began to pound on the glass with each word. "Because of you! Two. Million. Died!"

"Face the wall above the bed and place your hands on it or you will be tasered again," the voice warned.

"Screw you! I am a citizen! I have rights! You can't hold me without charges or an attorney. I want a lawyer!" Chelsey yelled, kicking the mirror with all her strength.

"Animals don't get lawyers. Last warning, Miss Thompson."

Shaking, Chelsey realized she wasn't going to get out of this place alive. She curled her fists the way Ryan and Corey taught her and began punching the same point on the glass, punctuating each sentence. "You tell Aliza... I know what she did! I know how she did it! She sprayed the Elm Street Weapon... Into the blizzard with planes!"

The tempered glass of the mirror vibrated with the force of her blows, cracks appearing like a spider's web, but it didn't break. "Tell that Hitler-heifer... We won't... Let her... Do it again!"

A hand reached through the glass and grabbed her wrist. She jerked and pulled trying to free herself from the iron grip as the mirror rippled. A gorgeous male with sun-kissed brown hair and gold-ringed hazel eyes stepped through the surface as it rippled like water. He was both beautiful and terrifying. Chelsey lunged forward suddenly and punched him as hard as she could. His head jerked but when he looked back at her, his eyes were solid black before fading to hazel.

"Oh Goddess." She gasped as she froze.

"Your gods and goddesses can't save you now." He chuckled malevolently.

"Lemme go... Let me go!"

Panic-struggling, she tried to free herself. Pulling and retching her arm as he dragged her toward the open door. In the hall, she saw only gray doors in white walls. Planting her bare feet on the floor, she uselessly tried to stop him from taking her toward the elevator.

"No... No!"

He jerked her forward as her weakened wolf howled at her to flee this creature. He stood calmly holding her wrist as he pushed the button. "Enough, she-wolf."

The classical music from an unseen speaker seemed freakishly out of place as the doors closed. Chelsey sank to her knees whimpering in fear, then she bit his hand as hard as she could. Shaking her head like a wolf until drops of black blood dripped from the torn skin and made her gag. With an annoyed look, he backhanded her into the corner.

"Such bad manners... I'm Liam." He smiled at her in a terrifying way. With a wave of his hand, the black blood drops vanished, and his skin healed itself.

Clutching her cheek, Chelsey struggled not to cry as she accused, "I... I know what you are. You're a blessed Demonus Fae."

"What would make you accuse someone you just met of being such a terrible thing?"

The elevator stopped and the doors opened. Pressing her back against the wall, she slid up to standing. She swallowed the blood pooling in her mouth before she murmured, "Mrs. Phillips showed me a book about your kind. It told me what to look for. Blessed Demonus look like Angelus Fae, but they aren't. It is an illusion because they stole the light of an Angelus who was cursed and must bear the Demonus' darkness. They feed on fear and lust, but their favorite food is the energy of a soul freely given."

"Clever girl, you've learned much after you went back to the Quarantine Zone." He reached for her slowly as she cringed away from him. He seized her by the back of the neck and stared into her eyes. "Did you learn how to change my status?"

Trembling, Chelsey looked him in the eyes then bravely stated, "A blessed one must voluntarily surrender their blessing to free the cursed one or accidentally strike the cursed one, in which case the darkness will be exchanged for the light. Balance must be maintained."

"I see you're not just a pretty face and desirable body."

"Go to hell," she hissed vehemently.

"Oh, if only I could, little wolf." Liam dragged her out of the elevator while she was horrified at his wistful response.

Chelsey started to struggle again as the blessed Demonus compelled her into a room. He pressed her against the wall. The wall was another one-way mirror. On the other side, she saw two Ravers she knew. They were growling and snapping at each other. There were several dead Ravers in the room.

"Ryan... Corey," she murmured in horror. "What have you done to them?" Her breath fogged the cool glass.

In a bored voice, Liam revealed, "Imagine our surprise when they didn't kill each other after we exposed them to the Elm Street Weapon, we call it something else of course..."

"Dust of Rage," Chelsey interrupted, "Made from some kind of extinct elm."

"Very good... Yes, we exposed them to the Dust of Rage, but they resisted the madness. They become violent each time, but they refuse to attack each other. We want to know why. Do you have a theory, Miss Thompson?"

"I don't know," Chelsey answered honestly. "Maybe because they are packmates. Mrs. Phillips noted that Raver packmates often fought or hunted together and protected each other."

"Hmmm, interesting but perhaps not. During the initial exposure members of the same pack attacked each other. We need to know how and why some resist. To learn how they will react when presented with a new challenge." He drew her back from the glass. "I want to see what they will do to you. The stories of what Ravers do to females before they eat them is positively horrible."

Staring at Ryan, she answered bravely, "He won't hurt me, we're mates."

"We shall see. But first, I have an additional little experiment of my own. Perhaps they won't attack you, but will you attack them?" He asked then he forced a mask over her face.

Chelsey screamed into it as the sickly-sweet scent of the snow on the Revelation Night hit her. Pushing uselessly against his arm, she tried not to inhale, but finally the desperate need for air won. Gasping and choking, her struggles became weaker as she felt violent urges taking over. The world began to turn red. Her body shook as she started to shift painfully slowly. Liam pulled the mask away and looked at the canister attached to the mask.

"How interesting. Females require twenty times the concentration of males before they shift. Now, let's see if you can survive your mates." He dragged her by the back of her neck out into the hall and to the door of Corey and Ryan's cell. Opening it, he tossed her on the floor, "Hey, mongrels, fresh meat."

The door shut before she could scramble out of it. Gagging and choking, she held out her hands to the growling Ravers. "Stay back, he dosed me with the Elm stuff."

On her knees, her body shook violently as fur began to sprout on her skin. She screamed as she shifted slowly into her fighting form, feeling her body changing. She prayed she wouldn't attack them and hoped Ryan and Corey wouldn't attack her then she lost herself and her wolf to blinding rage, hunger, and lust.