?


    Enzo''s hand gripped the doorknob, and with a resigned sigh, he swung the door open. Standing there was none other than Luke, his expression a mix of urgency and difort, as if he also wished that he were anywhere but here.


    The emotional and intimate energy between Enzo and me dissipated instantly, reced by a heavy tension that made the room feel smaller. It wasn''t like Luke to visit in the middle of the night, which only meant one thing: something had happened.


    "Luke, what''s going on?" Enzo asked, his brow furrowing as he took in our friend''s troubled expression.


    "It''s the burr," Luke began, almost stumbling over the words. "He''s gone. Escaped."


    "What?" Enzo''s voice was a mix of disbelief and anger, mirroring my own feelings. "How the hell did that happen?"


    Luke scratched his head, visibly uneasy. "We had one of the guys from the pack on guard duty. He... fell asleep. When he woke up, the door was wide open, and the burr was gone."


    I couldn''t keep quiet any longer. "Are you kidding me? How could we let that happen? We''re not amateurs; we''re supposed to be security for all of Mountainview!"


    "I know, Nina. I know. It''s a screw-up, a major one," Luke admitted, his eyes downcast.


    "Major is an understatement," Enzo seethed, clenching his fists. "What about the spell? Your girlfriend, Mariah, ced a spell on HQ to prevent anyone from opening a portal within the building, right?"


    I was grateful Enzo brought it up. Mariah was a talented witch, and had been a distant ally of our pack since Luke had started dating her right before our wedding. "Exactly. With Mariah''s spell, our HQ should be like a fortress. No one should be able to just portal out."


    Luke nodded, looking just as perplexed as we were. "The spell is still intact. Mariah checked it herself. Which means the burr couldn''t have portaled out from inside the tunnels."


    "Then he could''ve left the building and opened a portal somewhere else," I mused. "Assuming he''s from the werewolf realm, and not a local here in Mountainview."


    "That''s the part that''s bothering me," Luke said, his forehead creasing even more. "If he''s from Mountainview, that''s one thing. But if he''s from the werewolf realm, we''re talking about an entirely different kind of problem."


    "Have you patrolled the town?" Enzo''s voice wasced with barely contained irritation. "If he''s from here, then he''s still here."


    Luke shook his head, his eyes meeting Enzo''s. "We''ve been all over, Enzo. If he was anywhere in Mountainview, we would''ve found him. He''s just-gone. Vanished."


    A heavy silence settled over the room, each of us absorbing the weight of the situation. I felt a growing unease in the pit of my stomach, as if we were on the brink of something far more sinister than we could imagine.


    "So you''re telling me that we have an unknown, potentially dangerous individual atrge, and we have no clue where he''s from, who sent him, where he is, or what he wants?" Enzo''s voice rose with each word, his frustration echoing through the room.


    "That''s exactly what I''m saying." Luke replied, his tone just as grim.


    After quickly getting ready, we made our way to the campus.


    "You know," Enzo said as we climbed out of the truck, "you don''t have toe, Nina."


    I swallowed. Those tunnels were filled with horrible memories, but this was important. I needed to face my fears


    to go down there and see what happened.


    "I''m fine," I lied, although I couldn''t deny the fact that my nails were digging into Enzo''s arm as we descended into the tunnels.


    Each step seemed to echo in the dimly lit tunnels that snaked below the hockey arena. Enzo walked beside me, his posture rigid, the muscle in his jaw twitching with palpable frustration. Luke had already briefed us on what to expect, but seeing it-actually standing before that eerily open door-was another story altogether.


    Enzo stepped into the room first, his eyes scanning every inch of the space as if expecting the intruder to materialize out of thin air. "Unbelievable," he muttered, the word heavy with disbelief and anger.


    "Unbelievable indeed," I said, joining him inside the empty room. "No signs of forced entry or exit. It''s like he just calmly unlocked the door and left."


    "Or like someone let him out," Enzo said, his eyes meeting mine with a prating gaze.


    I looked around the room again, my eyes lingering on the barren walls, the undisturbed dust on the floor. "Do you really think someone from the pack would do that?"


    Enzo''s eyes widened slightly as he looked at me. "Not from the pack, no. But, Nina, who else do we know who had ess to these tunnels at one point?"


    As Enzo spoke, I could feel my heart stop.


    "Edward,"


    Enzo slowly nodded. A quivering sob shook my body, but I managed to choke it down, averting my gaze to the floor. "No," I murmured, shaking my head. "No, I don''t want to assume that."


    He moved closer to him, his hands gently touching my face, forcing me to look at him.


    "Hey," he said softly, his eyes locked onto mine. "We don''t need to assume anything, okay? But it should be considered as a possibility."


    "What will we do if it is him?" I asked, my voice shaking. "What if Edward really is back, and he has... ns?" "Then we''ll deal with him," Enzo said. His eyes seemed to darken for a moment, and I could see a hint of revenge in their brown depths, a ghost of something that I knew he had been trying to quell for months. "Trust me, Nina. We''ll deal with him."


    "I hope you''re right," I whispered.


    Enzo''s eyes held mine, and for a moment, I felt myself strengthen against the memories of Edward. But that strength only came for a second, because all of a sudden, the walls felt like they were closing in on me.


    "I need to get out of here," I whispered, tears welling up in my eyes. The room that Edward kept me in down here wasn''t anywhere near this one, and yet I felt like I was back there again, locked in with no way out, banging on the door, where no one could hear my screams.


    "Nina?" Enzo''s voice pulled me back to reality, and I met his concerned gaze once more.


    "I just... I need to go," I reasserted.


    "Of course," Enzo murmured with a nod. "We''ve seen all we need to see for tonight. Let''s go home."


    He pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead before wrapping his arm around my shoulders and leading me out, away from the room, away from the tunnels. With each step closer to the surface, I felt a small weight lift off of my chest.


    But that weight lingered long after we left that night. Until this burr was found, until his potential connections with Edward or the Crescents were either confirmed or debunked, I knew that I wouldn''t be able to breathe easily.Belongs to N?velDrama.Org - All rights reserved.


    And that night, after I shakily crawled into bed, I dreamed about the flickering lights of the tunnels and an all-too- familiar face waiting for me at the end.