Chapter 26
Addison
The corridor stretched ahead and glowing sconces cast my slinking shadow against the wall, my muffled footsteps muted by the raucous masked figures chattering away in the main hall. Hunter and Ethan were somewhere behind me, working their angles with the masked elves, buying me time to do what I needed to do.
Find Penelope.
I didn’t have a plan. Not really. All I had was desperation, hope, and the memory of Cathy’s smug face replaying in my mind like a taunt. I clenched my fists, forcing myself to focus.
I ducked behind a massive decorative urn when a pair of partygoers strolled past, their laughter light and carefree. How could they be so nonchalant, so utterly disconnected from the horrors happening just behind closed doors?
But I couldn’t waste a second scowling after them, I had to move quickly. Spotting a staircase at the end of the hall I bolted toward it – a mad dash into yawning darkness. The stairs led downward, the air growing colder as I descended into what felt like a basement level.
I’d barely turned a corner before I hauled myself back again, pressing myself to the wall when I spotted a bulky figure nearby. Sticking to the shadows, I risked a small peek in his direction. The guy wasn’t wearing a mask, and the baton at his side told me he definitely wasn’t there for the party. He was guarding something – guarding the door at his back.
He also seemed restless, checking his watch and shifting on his feet like he had somewhere else to be.
A moment later, I understood his impatience. A woman in a feathered mask appeared from an adjoining hallway, her drunken laugh bouncing down the corridor, and the guard immediately perked up.
Where the hell have you been all evening?” he crooned, tugging her closer when she tottered over to him.
“Oh you know… socializing. Are you jealous?” she teased him, walking her fingers up his chest. “I could make it up to you...”
The guard’s eyes gleamed but he hesitated, glancing nervously at the door at his back. “I really shouldn’t–”
“Come on, Max.” The woman pouted, slinging her arms around his neck. “They’re not going anywhere.”
The masked woman pressed her lips to his throat and the man faltered, taking one shuffling step towards her. I poked my head out again, willing the two of them to wander off together. When the woman lifted her mask to peck a kiss to his cheek, poor old Max didn’t stand a chance.
I watched as he followed her down the hall, practically trotting after her like a lovesick puppy – and leaving the corridor conveniently unguarded for the time being.
My heart thudded in my chest. This was my chance, but I had to be fast. Something told me Max wouldn’t be a very long lay. Or a particularly impressive one for that matter.
I waited a beat, listening to the lovebirds’ fading footsteps, before stepping out into the open. The door at the end of the hallway was sturdy and unmarked, but the faint sound of muffled voices leaked through the crack at the bottom.
I crept closer, my hands curling into fists when I recognized one of those voices. It was a voice I was beginning to believe I’d never hear again. A voice I’d nearly forgotten entirely.
I pressed my ear to the door, straining to make out the words. Someone was speaking softly, soothing and sensible, though every word was edged with terror.
“It’s going to be okay,” they murmured. “Help will come... It has to.”
My throat tightened, and it took every drop of my restraint not to bash my fists against the door, not to scream her name at the top of my lungs, not to fall to my knees and beg for her forgiveness.
Instead, I knocked softly, keeping my voice to a whisper.
“Penelope?”
There was a long pause from the other side of the door, a stunned silence followed by hurried footsteps. The door shook on its hinges as she threw her body against it.
“Addison?!” My sister’s voice cracked with disbelief.
My sister.
Penelope was alive, and I’d found her.
“It’s me,” I managed to choke out, pressing my forehead against the door, tears threatening to spill over. “I’m here. I – I found you.”
“You’re real?” Her whispered response threatened to buckle my knees. “Oh my God, Addy, is it really you?”
“It’s real, I’m here.” My fingers were already fumbling with the bolt. “Hold on. I’m getting you out. Just – just hold on.”
“What are you – how are you here?!” My sister’s voice was trembling, tinged with something like hysteria as she jostled the door. “You shouldn’t be here. It’s not safe!”
“I don’t care. I’m getting you out ,” I hissed through my teeth, jaw set as I battled with the bolted door.
The lock was older than I expected, the mechanism rusted with misuse, and for a brief, excruciating moment, it refused to budge.
“Come on ,” I muttered, blinking rapidly to clear my vision. I couldn’t let the tears fall, not yet. Not until I was sure she was safe.
After a few tense seconds the bolt finally gave with a groan. I pushed the door open to reveal a small group of bedraggled humans, huddled together in the dark. They looked pale and gaunt, their eyes wide and watery.
I counted ten of them. Ten terrified strangers… and Penelope.
I ripped the mask off my face and for a moment, I couldn’t move. Penelope stood a few steps away, thinner than I remembered, her eyes haunted in a way they had never been before. But they were the same wide eyes I had seen a thousand times in my memories. Despite the horrors she’d been subjected to, they were still bright, still hers.
I crossed the threshold in two strides, and then she was in my arms. I held her tightly, burying my face in her shoulder as a sob escaped me. Her arms wrapped around me, just as desperate, and for a moment, all urgency dissipated. I had my sister back. We were still in the belly of the beast, but we were there together.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered into her hair, my apology rough and unpracticed. “I’m so sorry it took me so long to find you. I’m so sorry for everything . I–”
“Addison, stop,” she interrupted, her grip tightening. “You’re here now. That’s all that matters.”
We stood like that, clinging to each other as if letting go would mean losing each other again. My guilt clawed at me, the months of searching, of failure, weighing heavier than ever.
“I thought I’d lost you,” I rasped, my tears soaking into her hair.
“You didn’t.” Penelope pulled back just enough to look at me, her own eyes wet and glassy. “You found me. But Cathy… Cathy’s people – God Addy, they grabbed me outside the club one night. I don’t even know how long ago that was. I don’t know how long I’ve been gone.”
Her voice faltered and she clung to me, the words spilling out in a rush. “They brought me to her lab. They ran tests – so many tests. They wanted to make sure I had some unique gene, and when they confirmed it, they tested everything else. My blood, my heart, my lungs… They wanted to make sure I was perfect.”
Over her shoulder, I could see the other captives slowly climbing to their feet, eyeing me warily as Penelope babbled, her tears flowing freely now. “When I tried to escape the first time I overheard them talking about… about a feast.”
My breath caught and I met her bleary eyes. “A feast?”
Her lips quivered, and she nodded. “My cellmate… they said she was ‘ready.’ I didn’t understand at first, but then–” Her voice broke. “They’re eating people, Addy. Humans like me. Like us. That’s what they’re doing.”
My stomach turned, bile rising in my throat.
“I got caught,” she continued, her voice barely above a whisper. “I panicked when I heard them talking about it, and they heard me. They dragged me back to my cell and… and gave me something. Drugged me with something to keep me calm, keep me quiet.”
She was scared, I could see it. That flicker of fear rippling her features, the way her voice shook at Cathy’s name, her unsteady legs buckling at every shaky breath – it was enough to snap me out of my grief. We weren’t out of the woods yet.
I sucked in a breath, swallowing the lump in my throat.
“We need to go.” I untangled her arms from my neck, forcing myself to think clearly.
Her body trembled against mine, but she nodded, pulling back to gesture to the others. “We have to get them out too.”
I glanced at the other captives. They stared back at me with empty eyes. My heart ached at the sight of them – bruised and terrified. I couldn’t leave them behind.
“Can you walk?”
They nodded hesitantly, one of them shuffling forward and clutching Penelope’s arm for support.
“Good.” I stepped back to let them file out. “Follow me. Quietly.”
This wasn’t exactly part of the plan, and I had no idea how I was going to sneak eleven fear-stricken captives out of the mansion. Not with all the guards crawling the premises – not to mention the masked elves crowding the main entrance. But I had to try.
We slipped out into the corridor, the group moving like ghosts behind me.
The others were slow, their fear and exhaustion dragging their feet. I kept glancing at Penelope, watching the way she flinched at every sound. It broke my heart.
We were almost at the corner when the sound of heavy footsteps froze us all in place. The guard was back, his voice carrying down the staircase as he oozed a syrupy sweet farewell to someone out of sight.
“Back!” I hissed, herding the group back down the hall, my arms outstretched as if I could physically shield them from the inevitable. Penelope clung to me, her steps unsteady, her breaths shallow. The others followed in a clumsy, panicked shuffle, their fear slowing them down.
But in my heart, I already knew it was futile. There were eleven of them, all scared out of their minds, stumbling over their own feet. We were too loud, too obvious, too slow.
The guard spotted us immediately, and his expression shifted from smug satisfaction to sudden stinging malice. “What the fuck is this?!”
The captives froze, their wide eyes flicking to me in a silent, desperate plea. Penelope’s knees buckled and she dropped to the floor, trembling so violently I worried she’d bite off her tongue.
“Go!” I hissed, trying to urge the others forward. But they didn’t move. They were frozen in terror, their feet rooted to the ground.
The guard took a step forward, his hand moving to the baton at his hip.
“You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that,” he sneered, zeroing in on me, the ringleader in a dazzling red dress. “But this little jailbreak? It ends now.”
I glanced back at Penelope, her tear-streaked face tilted up toward mine. I could run. I could leave them all behind, save myself, and maybe – just maybe – figure out another way to free her later.
But I couldn’t leave her behind. Not now, and not ever again.
Something deep inside me snapped into place, a resolve I didn’t know I had. I was not going to fail her a second time.
I stepped in front of my sister, planting myself between her and the guard. My heart thundered in my chest, but my hands curled into fists when I met his gaze, my body rigid as I squared my shoulders the same way I’d seen Hunter do.
“Let them pass.”
The guy could only laugh, his grin widening as he took another step toward me, reaching for the weapon at his hip. “And why would I do that?”
“Because,” I said, forcing steel into my tone despite the rattle in my teeth, “if you don’t, I’ll have to kill you.”
His laughter stopped abruptly, and he tilted his head, studying me with all the conceited swagger of a guy who just got his dick sucked. “You’re serious, aren’t you? Sweetheart, you’ve got no idea what you’re up against.”
I swallowed hard, throat dry as sandpaper, but I held my ground. Behind me, I could hear Penelope’s shaky breaths, the muffled whimpers of the other captives. I tightened my fists. I had no weapon, no way to contact Hunter, no plan beyond sheer determination. But I wasn’t moving. Not without Penelope.
The guard raised his baton, his eyes glinting with triumph as he prepared to swing. I braced myself, every muscle coiling in preparation to fight back, even though I knew my chances were slim at best.
But before the baton could strike, a loud whump sounded through the hallway and the guy let out a startled grunt. He blinked at me for a moment, expression rippling through various stages of confusion, and then he crumpled to the ground in a heap.
“What the–” I gasped, staggering backward.
Standing behind the unconscious guard was a petite woman decked to the nines in a pastel pink outfit, holding a heavy-looking brass wall sconce above her head. Her curls bounced as she blinked at the guard, then at the sconce, then at me.
“Oops,” she chirped with an exaggerated wince, dropping the makeshift weapon with a loud clang . “I may have hit him too hard.”
My mouth hung open, my words lost somewhere in the ether.
The woman flashed me a dazzling smile, her hands clasped in front of her like she hadn’t just knocked a man unconscious with a decorative light fixture. “Looks like I arrived just in time.”
“I – what?” I stammered, my heart pounding as adrenaline still coursed through my veins. “Who are you?”
“Maxine.” She introduced herself, bobbing into a curtsey. “I’m a good friend of your partner in crime.”
“Huh?” I stared at her, my mind spinning. “Hunter sent you?”
She grinned wider, showing off perfect, slightly pointed teeth. “Not exactly. But I heard through the grapevine that she might need a little backup tonight.”
She gestured to the guard on the floor with a casual flick of her wrist. “And judging by the state of things, I’d say I was right.”
I blinked at her, still trying to catch up. “But how did you even–”
She cut me off, leaning in conspiratorially. “Your little evidence wall, darling. It helped me piece things together and clear poor Hunter’s name. She owes you big time for that, by the way.”
My stomach churned at her words. “I don’t understand–”
Maxine waved a manicured hand. “Long story. We can chat about it over coffee when all of this is over.”
Her grin softened and she tilted her head, curled locks bunching on her shoulders. “She really does care about you, you know.”
“I – I know,” I mumbled, unsure what else to say to that. “Wait. Are you a vamp–”
“All right, enough chit-chat!” Maxine cut me off, flashing me a pointedly fanged smile and a subtle wink. “Let’s get your sister and the rest of these poor folks out of here, shall we?”
I stared at her, my mind scrambling to piece everything together. Maxine was a vampire, just like Hunter. Her eyes met mine and I saw the faintest flicker of something there – a warning. She didn’t want the others to know. Not the humans, not Penelope.
I got the message loud and clear and quickly shut my mouth.
I didn’t know where Maxine had come from or why she was there, but at that moment none of it mattered. She’d knocked out the guard, and she was willing to help. That was enough for me.
I crouched down and picked up the baton the guard had dropped, gripping the solid weight in my hands. Turning to Maxine, I nodded once. “All right. Let’s get these people to safety.”
“Atta girl.” Maxine slung an arm over my shoulders, nearly forcing me to my knees considering she was two heads shorter than me and disproportionately strong for her size.
“I knew I’d like you.”