Chapter 262: Not strong enough

"Hey, Erick!"

"Erick, bro! Wake up!"

Erick blinked his eyes furiously, his mind looking a bit hazy. He felt a bit disoriented as he tried to find his balance.

Moments later, he grudgingly pried his eyes open and saw Bastian sitting across him on an armchair.

Erick frowned. An armchair?

He blinked his eyes once more, trying to shake away the haziness. He then groaned. It was then he realized that there was something strange about him. He looked down and saw there was a rope around him, tying him together with the chair he was sitting on. He tried to move his arms, which were tied to the back of the armchair and found that his wrist was chained together.

When he tried to use his shifter powers, he could even feel his power suddenly fizzle, making him frown deeper in confusion. That was strange.

He looked across him where Bastian was watching his every move. The other man nodded, as if confirming his suspicion.

He growled in frustration. Not wanting to believe that he could not summon a bit of his powers, he tried once more. He even tried calling Dane in his mind but there was no response. What the feck is going on?

He found it even more odd when he felt nothing at all when he tried to break off the chain to no avail. He always thought that wolfsbane was the only thing that would make a shifter weak and limit their powers. Could it be that there was another thing that could weaken them? Even if it does not hurt them at all?

He then tried to think of a solution on how to remove the chains when he recalled what had happened to them just before they got locked up here.

He looked around him and felt like deja vu. He felt as if he had been here before but he could not recall when. And rather than calling the room where they got locked in, a prison cell or a dungeon, it was as if they were very important guests being treated with a hotel-like room. Except for the fact that their arms were chained behind their backs.

It was no exaggeration to say that he felt like an important guest by looking at the room. The room was huge where it comboed between a bedroom and a living room, making the place more homey. Although the interior design of the room looked old, something that was conjured up from the Victorian ages, with a cast-iron bed, covered with canopies, drapes and ribbons, marbled-topped cabinets and tables and drawers made of oak. Even the lighting of the room was fashioned with candlelights.

He turned his head back to Bastian and asked, "What's going on?"

Bastian rolled his eyes. "Don't you understand?" he said. "I'm ashamed to admit that this is my second time being kidnapped. Am I that easy to be kidnapped??"

Erick's eyebrows furrowed. "Kidnapped?" He looked around the room, feeling rather welcome, despite the chains. So, why does it feel like he wasn't being kidnapped?

He then froze when another realization dawned on him. He looked hard at Bastian and asked roughly, "Wait! What about Amber?"

He shook his head, his eyebrows still furrowed as if he was trying to endure a headache. He closed off his hearing from any distraction as he tried to recall what had happened. He remembered, after Fred had told him about Amber being kidnapped, he had rushed over to her workplace. He became greatly worried when the admin there told him that she had left work early that day. And when he asked where she could have gone, the admin gave him a weird look, saying that she only asked for an early leave.

Apparently, he was worrying too much, it did not occur to him that he could have called her. If he had known that earlier, he would have smacked his head for his stupidity.

They did not go too far from the daycare when he and Bastian were suddenly ambushed right there out in the daylight. They were surprised by how nearby passerbys did not take notice of them. It was then they perceived that there probably were warlocks casting an illusion spell within reach.

Although the two shifters had the advantage at the beginning with their strength, they were unguarded against the trickery of the warlocks. And before they could retaliate, Bastian was the first to go down where he was hit with blindness spell before being hit until unconscious. Erick tried to help him but he too went down.

Which leads them to being shuffled away.

Erick gritted his teeth in anger as he cursed underneath his breath. "Feck, I can't even reach dad with my mindlink," he swore softly.

"Feck. That damned Fred must have tricked us," he cursed again once he realized that something fishy was happening to them. Similar to Hamish, he did not want to think negatively about his packmate. But the reality was that it had happened and they were now in the enemies' hands. They weren't even sure whether they could make it out alive.

Thinking of it made Erick feel so frustrated and furious. Even after all these years, he still feels weak. He thought that he needed more power. He couldn't even go against a group of warlocks.

While he was trying to get the chains off his wrist by squirming around in his seat and moving his arms around, Bastian slowly stood up. Or at least, tried to stand up with the armchair on his back, his body bending nearly in a ninety degrees bow.

Erick looked up in surprise as he watched Bastian gingerly walk towards him, carrying the armchair on his back with him.

The other shifter continued to walk until he reached behind Erick, facing away from the latter. He carefully put the chair down, trying not to make too much noise, lest he would get unwanted attention.

He then slowly edged closer to Erick so that their hands could reach each other and said, "Try to break my chains and I'll break yours afterwards."

Erick cocked an eyebrow. He did not expect this friend of his to be smart.