Chapter 68
GAbrIEL
The room stank of iron and damp stone.
The battered table still marked with burn marks from my cigarettes.
Gods, I could use a cigarette right now.
I tasted blood with every swallow, copper clinging to the back of my throat. My wrists were bound behind a chair—the same chair I’d used during my own interrogations—shackles biting into tendons and broken skin.
Giovanni’s hired thugs had done their job well.
My head hung forward, blood dripping steadily from my broken nose.
Every rib ached. Some were cracked, maybe broken, my kidneys so bruised, I’d be pissing blood for days, though I doubted I’d live that long.
My eyes were swollen nearly shut, and every time I changed position, pain lanced up my side fiercely enough, I nearly blacked out.
At least pain meant I was still alive.
A good sign, given the alternative.
I’d had sufficient time to replay all the ways I’d fucked up today, while calculating the shrinking chances I’d survive this. I should have listened to Emberline. She’d tried to warn me, but I’d been so sure I was invulnerable, I’d plowed ahead, driven by pride and arrogance.
Well, now I’d die, and when we saw each other in the afterlife, she could say I told you so.
Gods, I could hear her clever insults now, while making me laugh at the same time.
My grin faded when muffled voices drifted in from the other side of the door.
“…I’m telling you, this isn’t right.”
“You could be wrong,” a second voice, lower, uneasy. “You didn’t see them up close.”
“Fuck no, I didn’t get close.” A long pause as boots scraped the floor outside, and then, “I don’t have a death wish.”
“I heard they don’t even move like vampires,” the second one whispered. “And their skin… looks like stone almost, it’s so white. And fire glows in their eyes.”
They were talking about the Ashbound.
“Why would he bring those atrocities here?” the first guard muttered. “We’ve got two fucking prisoners and twenty guards.”
“Not for long. Bringing in more prisoners, I heard. They’re rounding up every Dominico off that island now. Going to Purge them all, I heard,” the second countered. “Don Giovanni wanted plenty of backup tonight.”
Fuck. I should have seen this coming. I should have evacuated the island days ago, shipped my family to safety, but I hadn’t. And if they’d caught Nico or Emberline…
“They’re fucking attack dogs.” A dry cough followed. “Hope I don’t fucking see the things.”
Silence fell again, and I shook my head, rage building with no place to go. I’d failed everyone. My friends. My family. I didn’t fucking deserve to be Don.
Knuckles rapped against the door.
“Hey, Your Highness,” one of the guards called, “You still alive in there? How does it feel for the Dominicos to finally lose their crown?”
I didn’t answer.
“Doesn’t matter,” he went on, almost conversationally. “You’ll be dead soon. And when your friends show up, know this…” A chuckle. “They’ll get eaten alive.”
Footsteps drifted away, and laughter faded into indistinct murmurs.
I closed my eyes. The Ashbound weren’t backup; they were a trap.
Giovanni was counting on a rescue mission, and prowling the halls were these hired thugs, a few Draconi soldiers, and gods knew how many Ashbound, and I would just bet they were all under orders to kill first.
That’s what the bounty was for, after all—dead or alive.
And once he had us rounded up, Giovanni would Purge my bloodline from this earth, down to the last female and child. I squeezed my eyes tighter as reality crashed in. I’d sentenced my entire family to death because I’d been too fucking arrogant to consider I wasn’t the smartest male in the room.
I worked my hands in the shackles until they were slippery, but the metal wouldn’t give. I had to get myself out of here. I was nothing but bait in a trap.
“Come on, you fucking things.” I grit my teeth against the pain as I twisted my hands inside the metal bands, blood flowing fast. “Throw me a fucking bone here.”
I had to get these shackles off, or I was fucking dead. I couldn’t fight, I could hardly walk, but if one of those creatures burst through the door, I’d be godsdamned if I’d sit here like a…
A distant crash had me straining for the next sound. Shouting erupted outside, sharp and panicked, followed by the pounding of feet flying past my door.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. I yanked at my bonds, the chair tipping… tipping…
“Godsdamn it.” I hit the floor hard, the right side of my face taking the brunt of the force, pain radiating up through my already shattered cheekbone. Great. Just fucking great.
From my sideways position, all I could do was watch the door tremble as something—or someone—heavy slammed into the other side, knocking dust loose from the ceiling. Someone whimpered, the sound like an animal dying, and then…
The lock clicked, and there they were.
A mostly naked Dante stood in the doorway, blood splattered across his chest and face, an old blanket wrapped around his waist, a knife gripped in his hand. His bare chest rose and fell in steady, controlled breaths, and his eyes…
His eyes blazed with fire.
Luca—who was supposed to be safely back on the island—calmly monitored the hall behind him, his gaze sweeping the room behind me, then the outside corridor, calmly assessing for threats.
The kid was splattered in almost as much blood as Dante.
“Having some trouble with your chair?” Dante muttered, tipping me upright so the world wasn’t sideways anymore. I wasn’t sure that was an improvement, given the way my head pounded. “You look like shit, brother.”
I huffed a weak laugh that had me hacking up blood. “You smell like dead fish.”
“We should get moving,” Luca said flatly, nudging a guard’s body with his shoe. “No telling how long a window we have to get out of here. I really don’t want to fight more of those things.”
Dante wrapped his hand around the chains, and the links bent, then fell away.
The moment my arms were free, circulation started, and pain exploded through my shoulders and wrists. I hissed through my teeth, fighting it down as I dragged my hands forward.
“We’ll get those shackles off later. If I try to melt them, I’ll just burn the shit out of you.” Dante crouched down in front of me, gripping my jaw, tilting my face up to inspect the damage.
“Can you even fucking see?” he asked.
“Looking at you, I kind of wish I couldn’t. Did you misplace your clothes?”
“Blame the demon; he seems to have an issue with modesty.”
“We really have to get going.” Luca’s voice didn’t change, but his expression tightened as he stared down the hall. “Fighting’s getting closer. Your brother shouldn’t dematerialize, not with internal injuries.”
“Good call.” A flicker of something—approval, if I wanted to be generous—crossed Dante’s face.
“Dare I ask what the two of you are doing together?” I hissed as Luca hauled me up. My legs nearly buckled, but I forced them to hold my weight long enough for him to slip his arm under my armpits.
“We’re a team,” Luca said, as if that made a fucking bit of sense.
“I’ll clear the way.” Dante cracked his neck. “You keep him upright and moving. Can you manage that?”
Luca nodded, and I wondered if I’d gotten it in the head harder than I thought. In what fucking world would Emberline allow her brother to fight out in the field? None.
“What’s our situation?” I rasped.
Dante handed me a blade without hesitation, and I wrapped my shaking hand around the hilt, trying not to drop the damn thing.
“Not so good. Worse if we waste time talking, but by all means, keep asking questions.”
“You are such an asshole. I should have left you in that prison.”
“Right about now, I wouldn’t have minded if you had.”
“Go to the right,” Luca advised. “There are too many voices coming from the other direction.” Dante covered us as Luca dragged me along, my feet useless, dodging bodies and avoiding puddles of blood.
Another sound echoed down the corridor ahead of us, just around the next turn. Low and guttural, not quite vampire.
Dante shouldered past us. “Stay here, keep your distance. Stay low.” He looked at Luca. “You know what to do.”
The kid lowered me to the floor as my brother paused at the intersection, then stuck his head around the corner. He looked back, and his fingers flashed. Twelve. He dropped the blanket, then disappeared around the corner, and all I saw was his bare ass.
“There are twelve of those things?” I tried to sit up, and Luca pressed his hand to my shoulder and held me in place. “How many did you see coming in?”
“A lot. Stay low if you want to keep your hair.”
We both flattened ourselves down as a blast of superheated air roared over us, not quite loudly enough to block out the high, shrieking screams coming from Dante’s position.
“Ashbound dying,” Luca explained, wrinkling his nose against the stench. “They sound like that because their souls are being severed from their bodies, and it must be painful.”
“How do you even know that?” What the fuck was going on here? Luca was supposed to be safe, not traipsing around with my half-naked brother. What the fuck had I missed?
“Because we’ve already killed about twenty,” he explained, with a touch of the same kind of awe I used to feel every time I looked at Dante. “The demon inside him has the same kind of fire magic, which means he can destroy their magic.”
“How…” I shook my head, wondering if I’d heard him right. Wondering when my brother decided to trust this kid with his deepest, darkest secrets. And not me.
“When did he explain all this to you?”
“On the boat ride. After we stole the Basin—the real Basin—from my uncle. It was guarded by a bunch of these things, and he turned them to ash in one go.”
Another blast of heat rent the air above our heads, and more shrieking echoed from around the corner.
“And your sister?” I asked weakly. “Where is she?”
“Oh, you’re not going to like it,” Luca hedged. “Maybe your brother should tell you.”
I grit my teeth. “Where is Emberline?”
After a pause, Luca said, “Creating a distraction.” He sighed. “Okay, fine. She went to the palazzo to distract my uncle, to give us time to steal the real Basin, and for us to come and rescue you. I expect she’s running out of insults, right about now.”
Oh gods. Fear sent my heart into a skittering rhythm as I imagined her alone with that fucker, after all the ways he’d already hurt her. This was my fucking fault. Mine. If I’d played this smarter, the female I loved wouldn’t have to risk herself to save my worthless ass.
“Just so you know, none of this was my idea,” Luca pointed out as Dante prowled around the corner, naked as the day he was born, smoke drifting from his nostrils. He paused, picked up the blanket, and wrapped it around his hips.
“Looks like we’re moving again.” Luca heaved me up to my feet, and I ignored the spike of pain, tightening my grip on the blade as more of those guttural growls came from behind us.
By the time we burst into the open night air, my vision was tunneling, my battered body screaming in protest.
“Tell me Emberline didn’t go up against Giovanni by herself.” I braced my hands on my knees, dragging in ragged breaths. “Fucking tell me she’s not alone.”
“Of course not,” Dante grunted. “Nico’s with her, and we’re already late to the rendezvous point. So, buckle up, my brother, because this is going to be a rough ride.”