Cold Blooded (20 page)

Rourke unfolded his arms, his expression still guarded. “I hear what you’re saying,” he said. “But Eudoxia has a plan. You can’t forget that. She wasn’t fooling anyone by making this agreement. Even if that asshole is a traitor, she’ll never admit it. Something else is going on here.”

“Of course she’s not going to admit it,” I said. “But she never stipulated I couldn’t fight back.” I gave him a slow smile. “Or that I had to stay in my cell.”

Rourke raised a single eyebrow.

I inclined my head to him. “My plan is to get free as soon as possible, find Naomi and Ray, and get someplace safe.” My voice was barely above the smallest whisper. “And if you don’t hear from me just before sunset, you have my permission to tear the house apart.”

After a moment he finally nodded.

“While you’re outside, scope out the grounds and keep an eye out for James and Marcy,” I told them. “Nick, I want you to make your way back over the wall and see what you can find. If you’re successful in locating James, he can help coordinate the wolves. If my father is badly injured, we need him. We can’t afford status fights in the middle of all this. Maggie said they would turn up here and Marcy has to stay safe.”

“Will do,” Nick said. “I have all the emergency Pack numbers in the SUV. If James and Marcy are free, he has likely put a call in to the Safe House. I can let them know where we are and make sure the rest of the Pack members are alerted.”

I turned to Tyler and Danny. “Don’t worry about me in here. Contacting Dad is your top priority. Go somewhere to shift. Keep trying. If you don’t hear from me once the sun sets, find Ray and keep him safe.”

The library door clicked open by itself.

Our five minutes were up.

“Are we all good?” I asked, glancing around the group.

Everyone nodded. I walked out into the foyer, Rourke behind me, followed by the boys.

There was a lone vampire waiting for me, as the Queen had promised.

He was the exact opposite of Valdov in every way: young, blond, and built like a Mack truck. I had no idea vampires could have that many muscles. He must’ve been changed in his absolute prime as a bodybuilder. It was weird to see, because most vamps were lean with sinewy muscle.

His incisors snapped down as he took a step toward me.

“No need to touch me,” I told Conan the Vampire Barbarian, blocking Rourke with my back. If given a chance, my mate would go for his throat if this vamp mistreated me in any way, especially with a buildup of adrenaline bouncing around his system. “I will go with you willingly, as agreed. I won’t put up a fight. Just let me say goodbye to them.”

“You will not dictate what I can and can’t do,” he sneered as he reached a beefy arm toward me.

One second before Rourke took a step forward to snap him in half, I snarled, “If you touch me, I will kill you. How about that instead?” To accentuate my point, I lashed my power outward. This vamp was a baby, and even though he tried to keep up his macho façade, he shrank back against my power. “Like I said, I will follow you. Your Queen left you in charge because she knew I would not resist. I gave her my word and I will honor it. If you don’t fight me on this, nobody has to get hurt.”

I turned back to Rourke without waiting for Conan’s approval and wrapped my arms around his neck.

He leaned down and brushed his lips against mine, whispering, “I will find you.”

15

The underground maze Conan led me through was easily twice as big as the mansion above it. There were no windows and the walls were made of thick, porous limestone. Lit torches hung every ten feet, giving it an ominous feel, perfectly fit for a dank dungeon.

“The Queen couldn’t spring for electricity down here? This is a little on the Addams Family side if you ask me. If anyone were watching us now, we’d be in black and white and you’d look exactly like Lurch.”

“This place is off the grid and we keep it that way on purpose,” Conan grumped. “And keep your mouth shut, or I’ll shut it for you.”

“I’d like to see that,” I snickered under my breath. I could easily incapacitate him and make a break for it, but it would lead to immediate complications I didn’t need. This was probably a test anyway. Send me with a baby guard and see what I’d do. She probably had fifty guards waiting around the corner. If I pushed too hard from the beginning, she would be justified in torturing me next, which I’m sure she was hoping for.

We’d passed a few closed doors, but I hadn’t heard any heartbeats or movement behind them. I hadn’t scented anything familiar either. I was fairly certain Naomi and Ray weren’t down here, but that wasn’t an absolute. Things were likely spelled.

The real question was: How was I going to break my way out of limestone and dirt?

Once I sprang myself from the cell, I would find Naomi first. She would know her way around this place. Then we could free Ray and meet up with the boys, hopefully before the demons arrived. There was no question they were coming. I just hoped my father would turn up before then. I gave a little silent prayer to Maggie.
I hope you’re right, little one.

The muscled vamp stopped in front of a huge iron door with a tiny barred window. He took his brawny arm and unlocked it with a key from his belt. He strained as he tugged it open, so I knew it was ridiculously heavy. Once it was open, he gestured for me to enter.

I walked into the cell.

And stopped. “You have got to be
kidding
me. I’m not staying in here with them.”

Two vamps occupied the cramped quarters.

I turned to sucker punch Conan in the throat, but he was already slamming the door shut. Much more quickly than he’d opened it. Creep. I knew the door was spelled, but I put my fist against it just to be sure. A strong current pulsed beneath my skin. The spell had a strange signature. I’d felt something similar to it on the walk down here. It didn’t feel like witch magic. Witch magic was organic; this felt concrete.

“Put the chains around your wrists,” Conan ordered through the tiny window. “The ones hanging on the far wall.” A single, thick finger came through the bars to point me in the right direction. I growled. I wanted to tear the digit off his hand.

“I’m not staying in here with …
them
, so go tell your Queen the deal is off,” I snarled, bringing my face close to the window as he hastily withdrew his finger.

“If you don’t do what I say, I will kill the male vamp who they say is yours,” Conan sneered. The guy had one look. “I hope you refuse, because I need to feed and he looks like he’d put up quite a nice fight.”

Ray could likely hold his own, but if Conan drank my blood, it would be disastrous.

I turned and glanced around the dirty cell.

The two emaciated vamps hissed at me from their respective corners. It seemed they hadn’t fed in … years.

I was fresh meat.

The only light in the cell came from one lone torch hanging precariously from the seeping stone wall. It appeared in jeopardy of going out. “I didn’t realize your Queen was so sadistic. This is hard-core imprisonment. How long have they been in here?”

“That’s no concern of yours. Now put on the chains. The cuffs are spelled so you won’t be able to get free.”

We’d see about that.

I walked over to the chains dangling from the far wall.

The good thing was they weren’t silver, so they wouldn’t burn my skin. The bad thing was they were several inches thick and likely made from reinforced wolfram, one of the strongest rare metals on earth and extremely hard for a supe to break out of, hence the name.

Anything with pure natural qualities was tough for us to defeat.

I picked up a single shackle and glanced behind me at the two vamps. Defeating them and freeing myself at the same time was going to take some skill. I tried not to be too regretful of my decision to acquiesce to the Queen’s wishes.
We have to be on our best game here
, I told my wolf.
We break the chains as soon as possible and keep the vamps from drinking us at all costs.
She growled her agreement. She was laser focused on the two bloodsuckers. They were so gaunt their faces appeared permanently skeletal.

“I said put on the chains,” Conan snarled from the kiddy window. “But then again, I am getting pretty thirsty.”

“I’m going, I’m going,” I said. “And you better stay away from Naomi and Ray if you know what’s good for you. If I find out you’ve hurt them, or partake in a single drop of their blood, I’m coming after you.”

He laughed ominously. “You aren’t getting out, wolf. Meet Yuri and his wife, Alana. Our resident cave dwellers. They will rip you to shreds and leave you wishing you were dead, most likely before I can walk back to my office. This is the end of the line for you. Only the worst offenders are put here. Welcome to hell.”

My eyes darted to the vamps as I clicked both shackles around my wrists. I needed Conan to leave quickly. The vamps seemed to be waiting for him to leave, too, because they hadn’t moved. But it was hard to tell by their vacant stares. They were each slumped in a corner opposite me. I lifted my arms and wiggled the chains at him to prove it. “I’m in. You can leave now. I’m sure you have pressing business to attend to.”

“I might just stay and enjoy the show,” he said.

As the weight of the wrist cuffs settled on me, I felt the spell. It had the same weird signature as the door, but this spell had a taste, which was even more bizarre.

The two vamps perked up once they saw I was secure, rising to their knees on the dirty ground and starting to gyrate like a couple of snakes in the grass.
Jesus, they’re completely deranged. It looks like they’ve been down here for centuries and get to drink only when they have naughty visitors. We need Musclehead to vacate the area. I’m going to throw some power into my words and see if I can send him away. If not, we’ll have company before we’re ready. You focus on breaking the spell or we’re going to be vamp dinner.

As she sent power into the spell, it manifested strangely in my mind. It was honey colored and tasted sour. It wasn’t nearly as powerful as what we’d tackled with Selene. The cuffs rang with it, but it hadn’t penetrated farther into my body, which was a bonus.

“I think your Queen is calling you, Lurch,” I said, throwing strength into my words, aiming it right where his face sat pinched in the window. “You better scurry away and see what she wants.”

His head tipped back, glancing down the hallway.

“Yup, I just heard her again.” I pushed outward, filling my mind with bright golden light, making each word count. “You better go and see what your Queen wants. Could be important. We don’t want a repeat of last time, do we?” This guy had “inept” written all over him. Once I successfully got him to leave, the power I’d used to urge him would evaporate, but I hoped he’d be gone long enough for me to do what I needed to do, which was escape. And just maybe he would forget to check on me again, because he was that stupid.

He turned and grumbled, easing away from the window. His footsteps finally echoed down the tunnel, and I joined my wolf in trying to break the spelled cuffs.

As soon as he’d gone, the male vampire, whom he addressed as Yuri, scuttled up the wall
Exorcist
style. Without stopping, he clawed his way along the ceiling, making his way to me from above.
Jesus! That’s the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen. We need to break these chains quickly.
My wolf threw all our power into the spell. It was a more technical spell than we’d encountered before, kind of like picking a lock. She yipped at me anxiously as she went. I took that as a
Please try to stall the creepers if you can while I focus on the hard stuff
.

“Listen, buddy,” I told the specter, who clung upside down eyeing me, his dirty hair dangling from his head in greasy hanks, his eyes a dead, listless black. “You don’t want to mess with me. If you come at me, I’ll have to kill you. Do you understand what I’m saying? You’ve managed to survive down here for, what, a hundred years? You don’t want to die now at the hands of a wolf.” I knew I could put these two out of their misery fairly easily. “Or maybe you do?”

Before I could say any more, the female, Alana, lunged at me from the corner.

Without thought, I extended my arms fully, flexing my wrists hard on the chains while I arched my back against the cold stone and swung both legs up like a gymnast balancing on the rings. My feet connected with her squarely in the chest, right as my body morphed into its Lycan form. It all happened in less than a heartbeat. She flew with a screech into the wall across from me, hitting it hard, and tumbled to the ground.
Dammit, she’s not down.
She rose immediately, albeit on wobbly legs, and shook herself off while Yuri hissed at me, enraged I would dare hurt his female. He primed himself to spring, bending his arms and snarling.

My wolf continued to work feverishly on the lock spell, unable to aid me with the vamps.
You have to speed it up. I can’t fight them both in chains.
She gave me an irritated bark. I couldn’t use my feet against Yuri, because he was coming at me from the wrong angle. Instead I primed my right fist, bringing it up to my ear, and waited. He’d have to be almost a foot from my face before I could act. And once I did, I would only have so much room before the chain expired, culling my punching radius down to two feet at the most.