Zev takes the helicopter straight toward the ocean. I can't help myself, I have to look back because I can't believe it's real. Through the tinted windows, five more armored trucks slam to a halt after the first one, and mercs in black riot gear jump out and point their weapons toward us. Tracer fire streams past us, brutal strips of light with the power to rip anything in their path apart.

Zev tilts the helicopter slightly and tracer fire rips along the window beside me, an explosion of light. A starburst of cracks streams out from their impact.

Terror swallows me. It's too real. Too overwhelming.

Darius grabs my hand, and in my headset, I hear him say something about the helicopter being bulletproof.

"Go faster," I scream as more tracer fire streams past us. I turn to Darius, frantic. "Don't those bullets ever stop?" It's like I am trapped in a real-life version of a Netflix action film. I fucking hate it. I don't want to die. Then I realize, after last night, maybe I can't and it freaks me out. I have no idea what I am, why I have a werewolf protector, or who the person my adopted mom really is. 

There are still way too many things I don't know. And I don't even know if I want to know. My life was better when I didn't know anything and I thought my biggest problem was my overprotective mom. Now, I know why, or part of why, anyway. I'm stolen goods. I don't have a real mom or dad. I'm a product.

Zev takes us higher and at last, the tracer fire can't reach us anymore. Far below and behind us, the mercs and their trucks look like toys. They regroup and stream around the car and the shanty, presumably to look for a lead. I lean back in my seat. I have seen enough.

I turn to Darius, feeling torn between crying and laughing hysterically. I'm all over the place. Yesterday, I was just a girl thinking about losing her virginity, now I am on the run and everything I thought was real is a lie. 

"Is this my life now?" I ask him.

He looks at me, gentle. "You're with us now. If we can't keep you safe, no one can." His arm comes around me and I feel his familiar warmth. My once-best friend, now a werewolf way older than eighteen years. I want to pull away from him, but I'm so scared I'm shaking. He holds me and kisses my brow. 

I try not to think of all the shit that's happened since we had our celebratory dinner. In the shelter of his arms, my adrenaline runs out and exhaustion captures me. That's when I remember.

"Max!" I cry pulling away from Darius. "We need to get Max. I can't leave him behind."

Darius's grip tightens as he pulls me back, but he doesn't say anything. I look up. "Darius. Please."

"I'll get him for you," he says at last, "once you are safe in Zev's place."

"You will?" I ask without hiding my tremor of shame. I can't believe I forgot Max for so long. I love him. He's practically the center of my universe. And now he's all alone. He's probably scared and hungry. Or, maybe not hungry I shudder as I remember the blood and guts Darius left everywhere.

"Yes," Darius says, "Zev has plenty of fast cars, I am sure he won't mind me borrowing one. Max will be okay until then."

I still have questions, but  I'm not going to ask them while wearing a headset and accompanied by the rhythmic pulse of helicopter blades. I turn to look out the window. Through its cracks, the Atlantic coastline slides past. Zev glances over his shoulder at us, though he doesn't smile, just looks at us from behind a pair of dark sunglasses he's put on. Under his glasses and headset, he looks almost predatory. I meet his look, but not before I feel a fresh shiver of attraction to him. 

There's something dark and dangerous about him. His aura saturates the cabin, laden with charisma. I feel helpless against his power. He turns back to the controls, flips several switches and we tilt hard to the right. I press my hand against the white leather of the door to keep my balance as the dark strip of the ocean gives way to a stretch of woodland. Ahead, hazy with distance, I can just about make out the faint outline of the Blue Ridge Mountains against the horizon.

"How fast are we going?" I ask.

"Almost two hundred miles per hour," Zev answers through the headset. "We'll arrive in about an hour forty-five. Then we'll figure out what to do about your cat. It'll be faster if I let Darius use the chopper."

I glance at Darius in time to catch the sharp lift of his eyebrow. He doesn't look at me, instead, he looks at Zev's back, and for the first time, I sense his animosity toward Zev.

"You can fly helicopters?" I ask. "Seriously?"

Darius nods, terse, his jaw set in a tight line. I know that look. He's pissed off. I wonder why. But I get the feeling now isn't the time to ask.

Instead, I look at the mountains in the distance and force myself to think about nothing at all.

***

Zev's "house" is a fortress. A very cool fortress. It's like something out of a science fiction movie, all concrete and glass set deep in the mountains with no way in except by air. It's so cool for a few minutes I forget all the shit that's happened. I just watch as we circle the place, perched at the top of a mountain, as big as a supermarket, surrounded by pine trees, and enclosed by a wilderness for as far as the eye can see. I have so many questions, like how the hell he built this place when there is no way to it by road.

"He had everything flown in," Darius says, answering my question.

I look at him, "How did you know—"

"I asked the same thing myself the first time I was here."

I blink. "You've been here before?" Like the layers of an onion, I keep finding more in Darius. I wonder how deep the deception of my so-called best friend goes. Considering the isolation of this place, I sense there will be plenty of time to find out the answers.

I look along the ridges of the mountains into the distance. There's nothing for miles around. When Zev said we would go somewhere safer, he wasn't kidding. This place is impenetrable. I find myself wondering how a guy as young as him can have all this. Maybe he's a tech zillionaire. One way or another, I am going to find out. Everything.

Zev brings the helicopter down onto a helipad set on the highest of the tiered levels of the fortress's grass-covered roof. We land with barely a bump. He cuts the engine and the blades and rear rotor swirl to a stop.

For a beat, the silence is deafening.

Zev pulls off his headset and jumps out. His door closes with a soft thump. Darius reaches over and opens the door beside me.

"Ready?" he asks.

"No," I say.

"It's going to be okay," he smiles, but it doesn't do much to convince me. I'm in the middle of the mountains, surrounded by wilderness, and the only way out of here is by air, and I can't fly. It's not lost on me that my safe place could very quickly become my prison.

Darius jumps down and holds his hand out to help me down. 

His backpack still in the cabin where he left it, Zev heads across the helipad to a huge metal door set deep into the side of the building, big enough for a Land Rover to drive through. A console beside the door lights up which reminds me of a scene in Return of The Jedi during the Battle of Endor when Leia and co are trying to get into a bunker. I have no idea why I draw the similarity. Maybe I'm having a breakdown. Probably. Zev keys in a code and then stands completely still while his eyes get scanned.

The massive door slides open. Inside, harsh white strip lighting flickers to life along a corridor. Its concrete and metal design give the impression this place might be more than just his home - like maybe it belongs to a Black Ops security company.

"Is he special ops or something?" I ask.

"Something."

Darius doesn't say anything more, just leads me through the yawning opening. We follow Zev down the corridor, its lights flickering on with static-y snaps as he progresses. Behind us, the door slides back across the opening and closes with a heavy thud. The echo lasts a long time.

At the end of the corridor, Zev leads us through a couple more metal doors and into a huge light-filled botanical garden at least three stories high. There's the gentle sound of water flowing. I bend over the balcony and spot a stone-edged stream winding its way through the whole length of the garden.

Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, a sheer drop falls away into a deep valley filled with rocky ravines and clefts tufted with pine trees. The view is unbelievable.

But I have no time to take it all in. Zev escorts us to an elevator, down three floors, and out along another corridor to a dark kitchen set into living stone adjacent to a living area dotted with low sofas. Of course, there's another breathtaking view.

"Anyone hungry?" he asks as if he hasn't just shown us the seventh wonder of the world.

"No," I say.

"Yeah," Darius says, sliding onto a bar stool at the stainless-steel counter of the kitchen's massive island. "You got any of those protein shakes around?"

Zev opens one of the brushed-steel doors in the double-wide fridge and pulls out two protein shakes. He tosses one to Darius who catches it with one hand.

"I think it's best if you head straight back and get Aya's cat," Zev says between swigs of his shake. "I can handle things here."

I look at Darius. He has that tight line on his jaw again. He sets down his shake. "You want me to go now?"

Zev gives me a look. "You want your cat, right?"

"Yes," I say though I'm not sure how I feel about being left alone with Zev so suddenly, and with so many questions still answered. But, I am worried about Max. One thing at a time. I can wait for Darius to come back with Max, I guess.

Zev tilts his head toward the elevator. "You know the drill. Be back before sunset with or without Max."

"I'd rather give Aya a day to get her head around everything before I leave her," Darius says, protective. "I can go at first light."

Zev gives Darius an unreadable look. Then: "Why don't we leave it up to Aya to decide." He turns to me and impales me with his green eyes. "Do you want Darius to get Max now, and stay here with me for the day or wait for him to go tomorrow? I can give you the answers you need if you don't want to wait."

Darius's lips press into a thin line. His eyes narrow. "Seriously?" he says.

"Seriously," Zev smiles. He turns to me. "Aya? What do you want?"