Chapter 71 The Silver Shackles
Aria POV
The darkness in the warehouse was absolute for only a few seconds before the beams of several high-powered flashlights started cutting through the dust, and I tried to use the confusion to scramble toward the side exit, but my boots slipped on something slick and cold on the floor. I heard the sound of Jess shouting for his men to hold their positions, but his voice was suddenly drowned out by the roar of several heavy motorcycles bursting through the weak wooden slats of the loading bay doors. I felt a rough hand grab the collar of my jacket and jerk me backward so hard that my heels left the ground, and before I could even scream, I was slammed against a rusted support beam with enough force to knock the air out of my lungs.
"You’ve caused a lot of trouble for a girl who was supposed to be nothing more than a delivery driver for a bunch of overgrown dogs, Aria, and I think it’s time we put an end to this little game of hide and seek you’ve been playing," a voice growled directly into my ear, and as the light of a nearby bike caught his face, the sight of Darius made my blood turn to ice.
He didn't look like the polished executives at the Syndicate or even the calculated traitor that Jess had become, because he looked like a man who enjoyed the mess he was making, and he didn't hesitate to twist my arm behind my back until I felt the bone groan. I looked over and saw Jess standing a few feet away with his gun drawn, but he wasn't pointing it at Darius, and instead he was watching the Iron Fang riders circle us like they were waiting for a signal to start tearing the place apart.
"I thought you and the Syndicate were partners, Jess, but it looks like you’ve been demoted to the guy who stands around and watches while the real professionals handle the messy parts," Darius said, and he let out a short, mocking laugh as he pulled a pair of heavy, dull-grey shackles from a pouch on his belt.
"The Syndicate wants her delivered in one piece so they can finish the interrogation, so don't get too carried away with your revenge fantasies, Darius, or you won't get paid for the extra work you’ve put in tonight," Jess replied, though he didn't move any closer to help me, and he actually took a step back as Darius forced my wrists together.
The moment the metal touched my skin, a sharp, searing pain shot up my arms that felt like a thousand needles were being driven into my nerves, and I let out a choked cry because I had never felt anything like it before. It wasn't just cold steel, because the surface of the shackles had a strange, shimmering texture that seemed to eat into my skin, and the smell of ozone filled the air as the metal began to hum with a low, vibrating frequency.
"What is this? Why does it burn like this?" I managed to gasp out, and I tried to pull away from the contact, but the more I struggled, the tighter the locks seemed to clamp down on my wrists.
"It’s a special little gift from our friends in the Silverfang pack, and they call it silver-laced steel, which is designed to keep a wolf from shifting, but on a human like you, it just reacts with the salt in your skin and makes every second feel like a lifetime of agony," Darius explained, and he gave the chain a sharp tug that brought me to my knees on the cold concrete. "We can't have you trying to run away again or reaching for that little coin you’ve been hiding, so you’re going to sit there and be a good little hostage while we negotiate the final terms of Grayson’s surrender."
"Grayson isn't going to surrender just because you have me, and he’s probably already halfway here with the rest of the pack," I lied, trying to sound a lot more confident than I felt while the silver in the metal continued to send jolts of pain through my body.
"Grayson is currently bleeding out in a ditch somewhere near the clubhouse, or he’s too busy trying to keep his sister from being executed to worry about a baker who got caught in a warehouse," Darius said, and he leaned down so his face was just inches from mine, his breath smelling of stale coffee and tobacco. "You really think you’re that important to him? You’re a liability, Aria, and the only reason you’re still breathing is because we haven't decided which part of you is worth more to the Harts as a warning."
"You're working with the people who poisoned the children, Darius, so don't talk to me about importance or loyalty when you're just a parasite living off the Syndicate's scraps," I spat at him, and for a second, I thought he was going to hit me, but he just smiled and tightened the chain until my hands went numb.
"I don't care about the children, and I don't care about the Harts, because I only care about the fact that tomorrow morning, the Nightfangs won't exist and I’ll be the one sitting in that clubhouse," he told me, and then he turned to one of his riders and told them to bring the van around to the side entrance.
I looked at Jess one last time, hoping to see even a tiny bit of regret in his eyes, but he was already busy talking to someone on his headset and ignoring the fact that I was being treated like a piece of livestock. The pain from the silver-laced shackles was starting to make my vision blur around the edges, and as Darius hauled me up and started dragging me toward the waiting van, the sound of the ocean outside the warehouse seemed to grow louder and more oppressive.
They threw me into the back of the van and slammed the doors shut, leaving me in total darkness again, but this time I was bound by metal that felt like it was trying to fuse with my bones. I slumped against the wall of the vehicle and tried to focus on the sound of the engine, but the vibration only made the shackles hum louder, and I realized that I was headed toward a place that Grayson might never be able to find.
The van lurched forward and began to pick up speed, and as we turned a sharp corner that sent me sliding across the floor, the sound of a heavy explosion echoed from somewhere back toward the center of the city.