Chapter 105 The Blackout

Chapter 105 The Blackout
The victory lasted exactly one hour.

We got the supplies into the infirmary, now relocated to the main library since the East Wing was ash. I watched as Dr. Vance, looking haggard and gray, wept with relief when he opened the crates of morphine and antibiotics.

"This saves them," Vance whispered, loading a syringe. "Thank you, Alpha. This saves them."

The mood in the house lifted. Wolves were eating. The wounded were being treated. We had beaten the blockade.

Abel and I retreated to the kitchen. We hadn't eaten all day. We sat on the floor, leaning against the island, sharing a tin of peaches and a loaf of stale bread. It was the best meal I had ever tasted.

"We bought time," Abel said, wiping juice from his chin. "Two weeks. We can plan a counter-strike."

"We need to get a message to the Council," I said, passing him the bread. "If we can prove the explosion was an accident..."

Click.

The sound was loud in the quiet kitchen.

Then, the hum died.

The low, constant vibration of the refrigerator stopped. The lights on the microwave winked out. The emergency track lighting in the hallway flickered and died.

Total darkness slammed into the house.

"The generator," Abel said, standing up instantly. "It ran out of fuel."

"We have reserves," I said, scrambling up. "Oliver said the tanks were half full."

"They were," Abel said, his voice tight. "Which means they didn't run out. They were cut."

A scream echoed from the library.

"The ventilators!"

We ran. We sprinted through the dark hallways, guided only by the pale moonlight filtering through the windows.

We burst into the library. It was chaos.

The makeshift infirmary was pitch black. Nurses were shouting for flashlights.

"Get the manual pumps!" Dr. Vance was screaming. "Bag them! We’re losing pressure!"

I saw the silhouette of a young wolf on a cot, one of the burn victims from the explosion. His chest wasn't moving. The machine that had been breathing for him was silent.

"Lights!" Abel roared. "Someone get a light!"

A guard clicked on a tactical flashlight. The beam cut through the dark, illuminating the horror. Three wolves were on ventilators. All three were turning blue.

Nurses were scrambling to attach manual resuscitation bags, pumping them rhythmically by hand to force air into the wolves' damaged lungs.

"It’s not just the lights," Vance cried, looking up at Abel, his face a mask of terror. "The suction pumps. The monitors. The refrigeration for the antibiotics we just bought. Without power, Alpha, we lose the medicine in six hours. We lose the critical patients in one."

Abel stood frozen. He looked at the chaos. He looked at the machines that had been rendered useless.

His pocket vibrated.

He didn't need to look. He knew who it was.

He pulled the burner phone from his pocket, the one we had used to call the broker.

He put it on speaker.

"You are persistent, Abel," Kane’s voice was smooth, clear, and utterly devoid of mercy. "Buying supplies on the black market? Clever. But you forgot something."

"Turn it back on," Abel snarled. "You cut the fuel line to the generator. There are dying men in here, Kane."

"I know," Kane said. "I can hear the panic from here. Technology is such a crutch, isn't it?"

"What do you want?"

"You know what I want," Kane said. "The deadline stands. But I’m feeling impatient. So, I’m accelerating the timeline."

I moved closer to the phone, my heart hammering against my ribs.

"Evelyn," Kane said, sensing my presence. "Hello, my love. I imagine it’s dark in there. Scary. Remind you of the basement?"

I suppressed a shiver. "You’re killing them, Kane."

"No, Evelyn," he corrected. "You are. Every minute you stay in that house, you are choosing to let them die. You are the blockage in the pipe. Remove yourself, and the resources flow."

"If I come out..." I whispered.

"No!" Abel roared.

"If you come out," Kane continued, ignoring him, "my engineers will restore the main power grid within five minutes. The ventilators turn back on. The medicine stays cold. The wolves live."

He paused.

"Or, you can stay. And you can watch them suffocate in the dark. It’s your choice, Evelyn. It’s always been your choice."

The line went dead.

Silence returned to the library, broken only by the desperate whoosh-whoosh of the manual air pumps.

I looked at the young wolf on the cot. He was eighteen. His lungs were scorched because he had stood guard at my door.

I looked at Abel. He was staring at the phone, his hand trembling with rage.

"We can fix the line," Abel said, but he sounded desperate. "We can splice the cable. Oliver, get the toolkit."

"It will take hours," Oliver whispered. "We don't have hours."

The bond surged. I felt Abel’s agony. He was torn in half. He loved me. He would burn the world for me. But he was an Alpha. He could not watch his pack die.

The conflict was tearing his soul apart.

I realized then that Kane had won. He hadn't used soldiers. He hadn't used magic. He had used the one thing Abel couldn't fight: his own conscience.

I reached out and took Abel’s hand. His fingers were ice cold.

"Abel," I said softly.

He looked at me. "Don't."

"Look at them," I pointed to the wolves on the cots. "We can't win this way. Not today."

"I am not giving you to him," Abel vowed, grabbing my shoulders. "I will not let him put you back in a cage."

"He won't put me in a cage," I said, a strange calm settling over me. The lake in my mind was still. Glassy. "Because this time, I’m not going as a victim."

I pulled away from him.

"I’m going as the distraction."

"What does that mean?" Abel demanded.

"Fix the generator," I ordered Oliver. "You have ten minutes."

I turned and walked toward the front doors.

"Evelyn!" Abel shouted, lunging for me.

But I was already pushing the heavy doors open.

I stepped out onto the porch.

The sudden glare of floodlights blinded me. The police barricade was fifty yards away. The news crews were there. The drones were buzzing overhead like angry hornets.

I didn't cower. I didn't hide my face.

I raised my hands high above my head, letting the sleeves of my sweater fall back to reveal the bruises on my arms.

"I’m here!" I screamed, my voice carrying over the crowd, amplified by the sudden silence.

I looked directly into the camera of the nearest drone.

"You want me?" I challenged, my violet eyes flaring with magic, bright enough to be seen on every screen in the country.

"Come and get me."