Chapter 196
Kara
We found Anna and Sol exactly where I'd left them, huddled in the corner of their cell as the walls cracked and water poured from burst pipes overhead. Anna's face was swollen from fresh bruising, and Sol's chest wound had reopened, fresh blood seeping through the makeshift bandage someone had clearly applied in a hurry.
"Kara!" Anna's voice broke on my name. "You came back. You actually came back."
"I told you I would." My voice was steadier than I felt as Blake set me down carefully, keeping one arm around my waist. The serpents on my arm stirred, and I saw both women's eyes widen as they caught sight of the gold, silver, and white scales.
"You found them," Sol breathed, her gaze fixed on the white serpent. "The souls in the tanks. You actually freed them."
"Not freed yet," I corrected, my hand instinctively protective over the coiled forms. "But we will. I swear it."
Dmitri and the other man—Jasper, I caught from Blake's muttered introduction—moved to help Anna and Sol. Dmitri's hands were surprisingly gentle as he examined Anna's leg, his weathered face grim.
"Compound fracture, just like you said," he murmured, and there was something in his eyes when he looked at me that made my chest ache. Pride, maybe. Or recognition. "You've got good instincts, girl."
"Later," Asher repeated, but his tone was softer as he watched me refuse to move until both women were being supported. "Anna, Sol—we're taking you with us. But you need to trust us and move fast. Can you do that?"
Anna nodded, tears streaming down her face. "Anything. Just... please don't leave us here."
"We don't leave people behind," Cole said quietly, and the look he gave me was full of a tenderness that made my wolf purr despite our desperate circumstances. "That's what our Luna taught us."
The building screamed as another support beam gave way. We had minutes, maybe less.
"Fourth level," I said suddenly, remembering Viktor's dying words and the layout Anna had described during those brief moments when she'd helped me. "My parents' bodies. Diana's people are occupying them—Leo and Elena. We need to get there before—"
"Before Diana realizes we're going for the serpents and destroys the original bodies out of spite," Dmitri finished, his voice hollow. Through the bond, I felt Blake's confusion spike—he hadn't known about this part of Diana's plan. "Smart thinking, Kara. But we need to move now."
Asher was already adjusting our formation, his tactical mind working at lightning speed despite the chaos. "Blake, you've got Kara. Cole, take Scarlett. Dmitri and Jasper, support Anna and Sol. I'll clear the path and deal with any resistance."
"The fourth level's on the opposite side of this floor," Anna gasped out, her face white with pain as Jasper carefully lifted her. "Through the dining hall and down the eastern stairwell. But the wards—"
"Are failing," I interrupted, feeling the truth of it through the destabilizing magic that made my skin crawl. "Diana's rage is tearing them apart from the inside. We can use that."
Blake's arms came around me, lifting me against his chest with a care that contradicted the violence humming through his muscles. "Hold on tight, baby," he murmured against my hair. "And if I tell you to close your eyes, you do it. Some things you don't need to see."
I wanted to argue, to insist I could handle whatever horrors we encountered. But the protective fury radiating from all three of my Alphas told me this wasn't the time. They'd found me alive when they'd feared the worst. They weren't going to risk my safety or sanity if they could help it.
We moved through Diana's lair like a pack of wolves fleeing a forest fire—fast, coordinated, driven by survival instinct and the bond that connected us all. The dining room we passed through was obscenely elegant, untouched by the destruction ravaging the rest of the complex. Crystal chandeliers still sparkled overhead, and the long table was set with fine china as if Diana had been expecting dinner guests.
But the walls told a different story. Portrait after portrait of beautiful women, all with the same vacant expression in their painted eyes. Victims, I realized with a chill. Every single one a body Diana had stolen, a life she'd ended to extend her own.
"Don't look," Cole said softly, but I'd already seen. Already understood the scope of Diana's crimes, the decades—maybe centuries—of death she'd accumulated in her quest for immortality.
The eastern stairwell was narrow and treacherous, the steps slick with water and debris. Asher led the way in his half-form, using his superior strength to clear fallen beams and wreckage. Behind us, I could hear Anna's muffled sobs of pain and Sol's determined breathing as they pushed through their injuries.
We were a strange procession—three Alphas, one pregnant Luna, two rescued prisoners, an old man I didn't know, and a journalist. But we moved as one, united by desperation and determination.
The fourth level's monitoring suite was exactly where Anna had described it. Through the reinforced glass windows, I could see two figures—a man and a woman—frantically trying to access a computer terminal. The man had my father's face, Connor's familiar features twisted with an expression of cold calculation that had never belonged to the warm, gentle man I remembered. The woman wore my mother's body like an ill-fitting suit, Celeste's delicate features hardened by the consciousness of someone who'd clearly never smiled with genuine joy.
"Leo and Elena," I breathed, and the serpents on my arm went wild. The silver one—Connor's consciousness trapped in scaled form—lunged toward the window with such force I nearly dropped him. The white serpent, my mother, began to emit a high-pitched keening that made everyone in our group wince.
"They can sense their original bodies," Dmitri said, his voice thick with emotion. "After ten years in those snake forms, they know. They want to go home."
Blake's arms tightened around me as I felt his rage spike through our bond. "If we didn't need those bodies intact," he growled, "I'd tear them apart right now."
"You're not the only one," Asher replied grimly. But his Alpha discipline held as he used his shoulder to force open the door, the failing wards offering little resistance.
Leo and Elena spun toward us, their eyes widening in recognition and fear. In that moment, seeing my parents' faces twisted with someone else's terror and malice, I understood viscerally what Diana had done to Connor and Celeste. She hadn't just killed them—she'd stolen their bodies, their identities, left them as helpless observers in snake form while strangers wore their skin.