"Shift, brother. We have work to do."
Easily changing into his wolf form, he saw the white light of his brother's change behind him.
This must feel normal to you after spending a year like this. Gabriel said.
Nothing feels normal and never will again if I don't get Faith back immediately.
Damn, I never want to be mated. I'll take the single life, thank you.
Theo paused. This wasn't the time for this type of discussion but damn. You're a liar but I'm going to let you get away with that, for now. How much should he tell Gabriel? This appears to be a re-do of the test Dad put me through when I was twelve. I hated it then, and I hate it now.
Theo put his nose to the ground. This was one of their father's tests, which meant there was a solution. They just had to find the exit.
He sent you to a fucked-up funhouse? Hell, he left me in the woods to starve for a week. I had to hunt and I couldn't even shift yet. First time I ever killed anything.
It took me hours to get out. I was terrified of the darkness and things reached out to grab me the whole time. Finally, after the panic, I was able to ignore the creatures and get myself to the exit.
Ironically, this probably helped you.
How do you figure? Theo could only assume Gabriel was losing touch with reality.
You had to fight your fear and beat back monsters that wanted to attack you. For over a year now, you've had a demon growing inside of you and yet you have for all intents and purposes you beat it back so it couldn't control it. Even if that meant staying a wolf for most of the time. I love Faith, she's my sister now, but it wasn't two days she had that thing living in her before she sprouted wings and took off for the skies.
Theo growled. While he appreciated the compliment, he wasn't going to hear one bad word said about his mate. Gabriel backed off two feet and dropped his head in a sign of submission.
I meant nothing disrespectful towards Faith. Why should she know how to do it? She never had to go to a funhouse to prove herself worthy of love.
That was true and the discussion of Faith made him focus on the task at hand. In the back of his head, he became aware of a change in the scent of the air. Somewhere, there was cool air blowing. That meant there had to be a vent and where there was a vent, there was a way out--he hoped.
Closing his eyes, he sniffed, a long hard breath and was rewarded with clarity. Above them. The way out was on the ceiling. Lifting his head, he saw Gabriel follow his gaze. They had to get that vent open. Theo took a running jump and whacked the air opening with his tail. It moved slightly. Gabriel followed suit and after three attempts, they knocked it slightly loose.
With as much lift as he could muster, he leapt at the vent and pulled it off. Growling, he threw it across the floor feeling satisfied when it made a large screeching nose as it scratched across the wood floors.
Gabriel shifted back into his human form. Theo shook his head. What was Gabriel doing? You could only shift so many times before you simply collapsed from exhaustion. They needed him tough.
"Here." Gabriel leapt up and pulled himself into the vent. Leaning down with his feet still above in the ventilation tube. "Jump, I'll pull you in."
Theo did as his brother instructed and Gabriel yanked him inside of the vent. It was hot and stuffy but the cool air moved between them being blown from some air conditioning unit in the building.
"You know he's watching us." Gabriel didn't sound at all concerned about this; it was if he noted the color of the grass or the temperature of the day. "I've never accepted all of the fate stuff you all take at face value but okay, let's say that I've seen enough to not doubt all of it either."
Okay, Gabriel, we're in an air conditioning tube. Is this the time to talk about this?
"I'm trying to explain." Gabriel shook his dark hair out of his eyes. "If there is any shifting to do, let me do it. It's much more important that you be one hundred percent. Obviously, this is going to be your fight. If you don't kill Kendrick Kane today, I'll get him another day." Gabriel paused and shrugged. "Or not."
There were aspects to his older brother he would never understand, and glad not to. Most of the time Gabriel was the biggest hothead in the pack and yet here he was speaking about fate and the potential that they wouldn't kill their dad like it was no big deal.
Not sure what to say, Theo decided that in this case less was more. Thank you for being here.
"Uh-huh. Let's move."
Theo led the way and Gabriel followed him. Eventually, as the duct dipped, Theo caught a scent he recognized. It was his father. There was no trace of Faith but if she was still in her demon form, there would be no scent to distinguish her. Somehow he could guess that where his father was, his mate would be too.
Another sniff made alarm bells go off in his head. He swung around to look at his brother, who had just caught the scent. In his human form, Gabriel's eyes went wolf with anger.
Rex?
"I scent him too."
"Do you think he's here of his own volition?"
"Only one way to find out." Gabriel shifted fast and banged at the vent by his feet, pushing it open. Theo had a moment to raise his eyebrows at the fast, uncouth manner that Gabriel performed the task before following him down in the room.
Landing easily on four feet, he swung around to take in the scene. His father stood, surrounded by his newly made, unwell wolves who would all be dead within weeks. Faith's friend had once stood like this and silently he promised himself that whatever happened he'd fulfill Faith's desire to achieve retribution for her pseudo-brother's life.
A troop of demons lined the ceiling watching him closely. Just days earlier, the sight of the demons would have played havoc with his mind but now he knew what they wanted and it was no longer a concern. He would free them or die trying.
Gabriel growled and crouched down until the front half of his body was lower to the ground than his back. Showing his teeth, he backed up until he stood right next to Theo. It's just Dad and the demon monsters. No sign of Rex.
Ah, and the fifty or so made wolves surrounding them. If Gabriel didn't consider them a problem then he really did have a heightened sense of his own superiority.
Swinging his head from side to side as he searched the room, he growled again. What wolves? I can't see them or scent them.
Damn. It was like the woods all over again. His demon parts were letting him see things the others couldn't. All right, at least this time he knew he wasn't nuts. You're going to have to take my word that they are here and they are dangerous. I'm counting around fifty and they're spread out all over the room.
Gabriel's wolf mouth grinned at Theo. Did you ever see the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?
"So my two sons are here, completing the trio I've longed for." Behind Kendrick, who Theo had to admit looked so much like Tristan it was startling, a door opened and two of the demons brought out Rex, beaten and tied to a chair. One of his youngest brother's eyes was swollen shut, and his jaw was clearly broken. Gabriel hissed in a breath and Theo snarled. They'd obviously done something to prevent him from shifting or those wounds would have healed immediately.
Gabriel called the shift onto himself and Theo watched as he regained his human form. Quickly, he assessed the situation. One brother was broken, but not dead, the other one quasi-insane in his desire for this fight, as well as fifty wolves, invisible to everyone else, and a line of demons along the ceiling. No matter how good he was at fighting in his canine form, perhaps it would take his human ingenuity to get out this situation, get the book, and rescue Faith.