Chapter Twelve #4
“Ever since, he’s been shouting about coverups and broken treaties.
He’s been saying all the demons in Abaddon are too chickenshit to bring an accusation against Lucifer, so they’re wetting their pants scrambling to cover up his crimes.
” He inclined his head. “Which is true, but it’s one of those things you don’t say.
“Anyway, it’s like Hell War CCCXXIV out there. Fae against demons,” he said. “I had to end class early because another fight between the two groups broke out, and three students up and got themselves killed.”
I hissed, wincing. “That’s awful, but not surprising.” I recalled Iarla’s story, and the ninety years Lucifer made his father wait. “Ravenscar was never going to accept an ending where Lucifer gets off scot-free.”
“Maybe so, but he should’ve learned from the countless others who’ve gone up against him and failed. There is no greater enemy than—”
BOOM!
The whole room rattled, shaking the shelves on their hinges. I screamed when stacks of books dropped from the rafters.
Radu pounced on me, bodily shielding me from the missiles.
“What’s going on?” I cried as the thud, thud, thud traveled through his body and jolted mine.
“I don’t know.” Twisting, he frowned at the door. “But it’s nothing good.”
“How—?” I blinked and Radu was gone, leaving nothing but the echoing slam of the door ringing in my ears.
I held still for a minute, wondering if he really just took off and left me after my escape attempt.
No, that wasn’t about me. That sounded like an explosion, and even worse, it sounded close. Of course he had to check it out—
The door creaked open.
“Ugh, back so soon, Professor Prick?” I rolled my eyes at the ceiling. “I guess whatever that explosion was wasn’t an emergency.”
“Oh, no, it was definitely an emergency.”
I bolted upright.
“One that’s going to buy us time to get away.”
I gaped at him—my heart leaping back into my butt and racing into my throat. “N-no,” I whispered, lips trembling. “I can deal with the dizziness and the jelly limbs, but hallucinations are too cruel!”
“This isn’t a hallucination, Charlie.” Tristan cupped my chin, smiling into my eyes. “I’m really here, and I’m really saving you from that fucking leech.”
Tears collected on my lids, making the apparition twist and bend even more. “This can’t be real. I don’t have it in me to hope for something as wonderful as this.”
Tristan scooped me into his arms. “We’ll talk about how real I am when I’ve gotten you far away from here. We can’t stick around,” he said, racing for the door. “Radu could be back any second.”
Tristan crushed me to his chest as he ran through the pitch-black hallway.
I could only cling to him, scarcely letting my heart believe that after three and a half long weeks, it was finally over.
I was done being that vampire’s blood bag.
I was done with making Dora wait. I’d find Sabrina, and end this hellish nightmare once and for all.
Tristan sprinted through the open doors of the vampire dorm, and kept running for the main corridors. We reached the branching hall leading off to various wings, but instead of heading for the demon wing, Tristan veered off in the opposite direction.
“Wait, where are we going?”
“Werewolf wing,” he replied. The man was running at full speed with over a hundred pounds in his arms, and he wasn’t even winded. Put it down to Radu’s vampire aphrodisiac, but all I could think about was how sexy that was. “It’s the only place in the castle that vampires can’t enter.”
“But I thought you couldn’t enter either?” The words rattled out of me. This was quite a bumpy ride.
“I can now that I’ve put down every alpha who’s challenged me.”
My eyes bugged. “Challenged? You mean that sick blackmail scheme? They actually made you go through with that after... what happened?”
“When a challenge is put forth and accepted, there is no backing out. Not even the murder of one’s brother changes that.
” Tristan whipped around a corner, taking me and my whiplash with him.
“But as ridiculous and twisted as it all was, I faced the challenges and won because I had to. I knew I needed somewhere safe to hide you when I realized Radu lied about killing you, and had been keeping you hidden the entire time.”
“You knew?” I cried. “How?”
“Your scent. Your real scent. The scent of Charlie Hunter was all over the leech,” he forced through gritted teeth. “And there was only one reason I could think of for why he was walking around smelling like a mortal woman.
“So I fought my way back into the pack dorm, and then I pledged to be the exclusive weapons-maker for House Belphe.”
“Belphe? You mean Ronin Belphe?”
“Yep. That black-blooded bastard extracts a high price, but it was the only way to get him to cause the distraction I needed to get the vampires out of the way. That whole never-fucking-sleeping-thing is a real bitch.”
I was too stunned to speak for a full fifteen seconds.
“My gosh, Tristan,” I whispered, burying my head in his chest. “You did all that... just to rescue me?”
“What? Of course I did,” he replied, laughing. “You didn’t think I’d abandon you, did you?”
I smiled into his chest, so happy I could bust. His words from that day floated through my mind.
“I probably won’t see you again after tomorrow, so I just want to say... I’m glad it was you.”
“I’m glad it was you, too.”
Tristan didn’t say anything. He just held me tighter.
My ears were locked in, listening for the slightest creak or whisper that we were being pursued, but no one came as Tristan ran through the wings, carrying me to safety.
Whatever distraction Ronin set up really packed a punch. I guess everyone in this place is right to both fear and loathe him.
“Tristan, there’s something you need to know,” I heard myself say. “When Radu was questioning me, he recorded me saying who I really am. He told me that if I ran, he’d expose me to all of hell.”
“That’s okay.” Tristan sprinted around the final turn leading to the werewolf wing. “Honestly, I suspected that was one of the bullshit cards up his sleeve. But you don’t have to worry about the wolves. Finding out who you really are will only make them more determined to protect you.”
“Okay, I trust you.” And as those words left my lips, I knew I meant them with every fiber of my being. “I know right now the first priority is getting somewhere that he can’t reach me, but the next one has to be finding Sabrina.”
“Sabrina?” He tipped his head down to pull a face at me. “The snake?”
“The snake,” I confirmed. “Because the snake knows who started all this. She knows who killed your brother and all the others.”
His eyes flashed. Gritting his teeth, he said, “Don’t worry. We’ll find her.”
Finally, the locked, chained, bolted, and carved doors of the werewolf wing loomed in front of us. Slowing down, Tristan held me one-handed, then pounded on the wood. “Open up.”
The small peephole flew open. “What the fuck do you want?”
“What do you think, asshole?” Tristan barked.
It really is all love around here.
“The password,” Tristan began, “it’s—”
“Uh-uh. I don’t think so.”
Thud!
Tristan jerked—the hit resounding through his body. Eyes rolling up in his head, he crumpled and brought both of us crashing to the floor.
“Tristan?” I wheezed—all the air punched out of me as his heavy frame pinned me to the floor. “Tristan!”