Chapter 15
Raven
The blonde witch, who’d spent thirty minutes extracting my blood with inhumane glee, ignored me when I requested a healer to fix the extensive bruising she’d caused. The more blood they took, the woozier I felt.
I had no problems donating blood to Rasmus, but in here, they didn’t bother offering me iron supplements to counter the blood loss, and I hadn’t had one orgasm.
Disappointing, honestly.
Alaric’s father had been AWOL since our little chat not long after he transported me and his son here. Not that I had a problem with that.
Yeah, not only did I now have two mothers-in-law I despised, but I’d also been goddess-blessed with a horrible father-in-law too. Worse still, one of my other now-dead fathers-in-law was officially the world’s worst serial killer. How lucky I was!
Or cursed.
“Wait here,” the blonde witch barked as she disappeared through the door. I rolled my eyes. Like I had anywhere to go. This place was more secure than Fort Knox. Every doorway sealed with magical wards and keypads. If only I could access my magic…
I rubbed my wrists, wrists that were now stained purple and red raw from the cuffs that dug into my skin.
Their toll on my body worsened with each day. I hadn’t realized how essential it was to expel magic regularly. The longer I went without being able to cast magic, the more the pressure built inside me. The more time that passed, the hotter my amulet burned against my skin.
A witch masquerading as a nurse had tried cutting the amulet off. I grinned to myself when I recalled how she’d screamed as the stone scorched her fingers.
Served the bitch right.
My mates could touch the amulet with no ill-effects, but it burned everyone else. Thankfully none of the witches or mages had spotted my ruby vampire necklace. I’d half expected the illusion spell to fade with so much distance between me and my mate, but his magic continued to hold firm.
I forced all thoughts of my mates down. Worrying about them did me no good. Instead of sinking into a soul-deep depression, I needed to plot an escape.
My gaze snagged on the door. The witch had left me alone, so it was time to take advantage and snoop for information.
I hopped off the examination table and quickly scanned the contents of the room. Nothing but empty blood vials, some paper towels, and a stack of metal bowls.
Ugh. I guessed it was too much to hope for that the witch had discarded a handy scalpel or syringe filled with deadly toxins lying around.
I listened for a few seconds but heard nothing. No conversation, footsteps, or sounds of equipment being moved.
When I stuck my head out of the door, the corridor stretched in both directions, empty. This was too good an opportunity to miss.
The staff would punish me for leaving the exam room, but rules were for losers. It was time to channel my incubus.
If Zane were imprisoned in this place, he’d have caused havoc by now. Probably assaulted dozens of mages, killed as many as he could, and then escaped. I might lack my incubus mate’s unhinged tendencies, but stars be damned, I’d had enough of sitting around letting things happen to me.
I padded out and glanced both ways before heading left. There were more rooms down here. If I searched each one, I might find something helpful.
The first room yielded nothing. Nor the second. Paperclips would not save me. Nor an abandoned stack of Mage Monthly magazines. Who even reads that garbage?
Mage Monthly was nothing more than propaganda these days.
Thinly veiled editorials about eugenics and lesser species population control.
The last time I’d picked a copy up while sitting outside Montgomery’s office, it contained an article proclaiming forced sterilization was a potential cure for feral shifter disease.
Goddess save us all from mages and their gut-churning ideology.
I continued exploring.
A horrible series of growls alerted me to another’s presence, and when I peered inside a small window, I saw the vampire female strapped to a bed with a plastic tube inserted in her wrist.
She must have caught my scent because her head swiveled sideways and a pair of red eyes found mine.
A sensible witch would have run away. However, risk-averse decision-making wasn’t in my nature, so I twisted the door handle. To my surprise, it clicked open.
“Wiiiitchhh,” the female hissed, the extended fangs making normal speech difficult.
“I’m a witch but also a prisoner,” I announced with a bright smile, hoping to forge enough of a connection that she didn’t try tearing my throat out.
Not that she had much chance of doing that.
The metal bands locking her in place were likely spelled to prevent a vampire with inhuman strength from breaking free.
The vampire’s hostility faded. Her gaze dropped, lingering for a moment on the spot where my ruby necklace rested. She frowned.
“Can you see it?” My fingers brushed the necklace, seeking comfort.
“It belongs to my family.” Another angry hiss followed. Goddess, did she think I’d stolen it?!
I took a giant step back, not keen on the idea of a rabid vampire taking revenge for a crime I hadn’t committed. There was enough on my plate right now without dying in a puddle of blood.
“Rasmus is my soul-bonded mate. He gifted it to me.”
The female’s red eyes welled up with bloody tears. “My brother is…alive?” Oh my goddess, this was my mate’s sister? I choked back a sob. There wasn’t time to lose my shit. We didn’t have much time. The staff were probably already searching for me.
“Yes, he’ll be hunting for me.” And hopefully killing lots of mages along the way. “How long have you been stuck in here?”
“I don’t know. Ever ssssince the bloodborne virussss sssstruck.” The female closed her eyes, giving me a chance to stare without feeling judged. Thick black veins snaked down thin arms, and whereas a healthy vampire always healed quickly, festering wounds covered her exposed flesh.
She was not in good health. What in the goddess’s name had these monsters done to her? Many years had passed since the vampires had supposedly died off. Had Rasmus’s sister been trapped down here all this time?
“I’m going to get you out of here,” I said with great determination while simultaneously having no plan. There had to be a way. Alaric would help. From our brief dream conversation, he was no happier about being imprisoned here than I was.
The vampire sighed. It was obvious she didn’t believe me.
“There are many more trapped in thisss place.”
“More vampires?”
“More everything. Ssssirens, mermaidssss, sssshifters, even kitsssunessss.”
Oh my goddess, were Kenji’s relatives imprisoned too? I gasped out loud as the door flung open and an armed mage stormed in.
“We’ve found her,” he yelled into a comms device before bashing me with an electric shock baton. My body spasmed in agony. Was this what Demelza endured when Alaric roasted her ass? If so, I now had some sympathy. Not much, admittedly, but holy hellfire, being electrocuted hurt.
“Stop!” I screamed louder when the mage zapped me a second time for his own amusement. I wasn’t even trying to get away!
The vampire twisted in her bindings enough to reach his belt. She yanked him back and sank her vicious fangs into his butt. Now it was the male’s turn to shriek.
Rasmus’s badass sister tore a chunk from the mage’s scrawny ass. He screamed some more and then dropped his shock baton. Not wanting to be zapped again, I picked it up and wielded it against a second mage who’d just arrived.
He gasped at the fate of his poor colleague. “Drop the weapon, you feral bitch, or I’ll fucking shoot!”
“Calm the fuck down!” Miss Whiplash materialized in the doorway, her lips pursed in annoyance. “If you hurt the witch, Vane will kill you, so I’d think very carefully before you shoot.”
The mage about to cast an attack spell at me gulped and lowered his hand. Behind me, Rasmus’s sister gnawed and growled like a feral dog as the first mage whimpered. Her level of unhinged aggression made even Zane appear civilized.
Good to know I now had a sister-in-law I could relate to.
“We should swap recipes sometime,” I suggested as she spat out a hunk of fabric and flesh. “I have a great one for slow-cooked pork.”
She mumbled an agreement. At least that’s what it sounded like. It was possible she’d just choked on a chunk of fatty ass gristle.
The mage with a missing chunk of hairy butt slumped to the floor, bleeding everywhere. A nicer witch would have offered to heal him, but first of all, my healing magic sucked, and second, these bastards had put magic-blocking cuffs on me.
“I hear there are good plastic surgeons working at human aesthetics clinics,” I told him. “Maybe consider a Brazilian butt lift when it stops bleeding. Females don’t find flat asses attractive.”
“Zolton, take the witch back to her cell while I deal with the bloodsucker.”
The mage, who’d fully intended to murder me for no good reason other than to satisfy his ego, scowled. He didn’t like being ordered around by a female. What a misogynistic asshole. Women made much better managers. We had more empathy.
At least I did.
I wasn’t so sure about Miss Whiplash over there examining her acrylic nails. That bitch lacked a lot of things. I’d read an article about a female human serial killer and was ninety-eight percent certain Miss Whiplash bore a striking resemblance to the mugshot on the magazine cover.
She definitely gave off serial killer vibes with her cold-fish eyes.
“Have you killed many people?” I asked out of curiosity as the misogynist mage led me out of the vampire’s room.
“Lots,” she said with a smirk.
“Fantastic,” I replied. “Now I won’t feel guilty when I melt you.”
It might not happen today, or even tomorrow, but the minute I got these cuffs off, that bitch was joining the sea witch wherever evil souls with no redeeming qualities ended up.