July 24, 2005 – 12:30 (Montreal Time)
Leaving his mother's apartment after Sunday's brunch, Frank drove to Liam's to pick him up, along with his mate, and headed to the airport. Starting a 2-week vacation, he was on his way to Winnipeg to meet with Coralis there. Liam wanted to visit his cousin who lived in a nearby pack, so they arranged to travel together, as Coralis insisted on having someone to travel with him, and to meet Dean, his cousin, in a shifter bar while waiting for Blue.
Coralis had to be in Winnipeg for the entire day, for a debriefing on a joint mission between the CMMA and the Shadow Elementals. She heard her phone vibrating and tried to look discretely at it.
'We arrived at his cousin. We're stretching up a little from the flight and car ride, and we'll go to the bar Dean talked to us about. I love you, see you soon.'
"They made it in one piece?" said Sebastian.
"Yeah, I can breathe now."
Frank, Liam, Sarah and Dean arrived at the shifter bar in the early evening. They were almost done with their first beer when the power went out.
"Stay calm everyone, we'll turn on the generator in a few minutes," said the bar manager above the murmurs before gas bombs were thrown.
Meanwhile, Coralis felt a headache growing but didn't think much of it. She tried to push through it, but it persisted. Her brain felt foggy. Attributing it her to brain being tired from the meeting, she got up, excused herself and walked outside to get some fresh air. The elders agreed to pause the meeting, and Sebastian followed her outside with Emery.
Soon after she walked outside, Frank woke up in a cell with other humans, between cells holding many werewolves. He saw Liam and Sarah two cells down toward the cell block door, and Dean in the cell to his other side. The other humans in his cell were still unconscious.
"FRANK! YOU'RE AWAKE!" said Liam, watching Frank slowly sitting up with his right hand on his forehead.
"Where are we? What happened?"
"I don't know where we are exactly, but we seem to have landed in some lab run by people conducting questionable experiments," said Liam.
"You're serious?"
"That's what I've been told. You see the wolves sleeping in cells across the hall? They are failed experiments. Am I missing anything?" said Liam to the other werewolves.
"Those of us who have been here for a few weeks have been injected a few times with something to make us go feral, but it'd subsided after a few minutes. Each time, it lasted longer. I am not sure what they have injected into those across the hall, but they've been comatose for a few days," said a werewolf in the cell between Frank and Liam.
The people in the last cell down the hall are humans who've been injected with one of the experiments. I think they tried to turn them into a werewolf-vampire hybrid, or something like that, but it didn't work and they're recovering from it. You're human, you shouldn't be awake already," said another wolf, leaning against the wall in Dean's cell.
"He's mated to a mage, it's probably why. These guys have no idea with whom they just messed with. If he woke up, she'll know," said Liam, sitting in the middle of his cell.
"Elementals don't care about us," said a werewolf near Liam.
"Mine does," said Frank.
"Frank, I know you don't have a mind-link with her, but if you're awake and the other humans in your cells aren't, it means there is a way for Blue to find us through your bond," said Liam.
"That was the idea when I agreed to an elemental binding with her. We knew that something like this could happen, although it seems I'm not here because of her."
"Blue, as in Blue Thunder?" said the wolf who first talked to them after he woke up.
"Yes, Blue Thunder is my mate."
"Then, there's hope," said the werewolf against the wall in Dean's cell. "I've heard of her."
"If she's still in a meeting, she probably doesn't know I'm missing yet. I don't know how she felt the gas, she might be immune to it. How can I use my end of our bond to send a clear signal to her?" said Frank, slowly getting up.
"Shard pain usually does it," said the werewolf who first talked to them. "I'm Aaron, by the way."
"Like, you dislocate my shoulder through the bar and put it back? Would that work?"
"Holy Goddess, it should, yes, but I'd like to keep my head on my shoulders when she gets here."
"I'm Tanner, Alpha Tanner. My pack is based in Alberta," said the werewolf in Dean's cell who spoke to them. "From what I see looking at your upper back, you haven't completed your bond, and you're human, so I don't know, but if your mate is indeed Blue Thunder and you're awake when the other humans aren't, then it might work."
"Then we'll try that and when she comes, I'll explain to her before she kills Aaron."
"The bars are made of silver, I can do it to help us all, but it'll be tricky to do so without touching them," said Aaron.
Frank removed his shirt and handed it to Aaron.
"Would it help if you grab the bar with a shirt in between?"
"You know what, babe?" said Liam, passing his arm around Sarah's shoulders and holding her to his chest. "I am not going to sweat one bit over our situation and neither should you. Same for you, cous. If Frank gets Blue's attention through shard pain, and I'm sure he will succeed, we'll quickly have a pissed-off Blue Thunder barging in. We'll be sleeping at home tonight."
"They might take you to the experiment room before she gets to us," said the wolf next to him.
"And so? Dude, why do you think our useless Alpha King sees her as a threat? It's certainly not because she means harm to us. Trust me, whatever they do to us, she'll reverse it," said Liam, watching Frank passing his right arm through the bar.
"It was at your pack she killed the former panther's lead, right?" said Sarah.
"Yeah, they took the wrong human. Like I said, we'll be sleeping at home tonight."
Meanwhile, Coralis's headache subsided, and she was about to go back inside when she felt a sharp pain in her chest and it persisted. She closed her eyes and reached out to Sonylla.
"What's going on?"
"Nothing at the moment, why?"
Confused, she brought her left hand to her chest and closed her eyes again, wondering why she felt intense pain close to her heart.
"Are you okay?" said Sebastian, looking at her worried.
Then, she knew. She grabbed her stick and focused on her bond to Frank, on where the small imprint of her soul within him was.
And she took off, seeing red as the sky darkened.