46. Chapter 46
46
A s I neared the cell door, a glowing sigil appeared surrounding the lock, growing brighter the closer I drew. I stopped in front of the bars blocking my way and curled my fingers around the cool metal as I peered into the shadows.
Thane dozed on the cot on the left side of the cell, just as in my vision, and Javier melted into the shadows in the back right corner. I wouldn’t even have known he was huddled there on the floor if I hadn’t been able to feel him through our bond. Neither man moved at my approach, and I assumed they were exhausted by blood loss from feeding the queens. Either that, or they had been beaten into unconsciousness.
“Javier?” I called in a whisper. “Thane?”
There was no movement in the corner, but Thane jerked awake, raising his head to peer toward the cell door. One of his eyes widened, the only visible part of his shadowed features. He sat up slowly, carefully, like it took far more effort than it should have to do even that simple movement. When he stood, his face passed through a patch of sickly light. Parts of his face were bruised, and one eye was swollen completely shut. The shifters must have been starving him of mortal blood, or he would have healed already.
Bastian stepped forward on my left and crouched in front of the lock, holding up the keys one at a time and squinting as he painstakingly compared the sigils on each to the one on the cell door. I wondered why he didn’t just try each key in the lock. At this rate, it would have been much faster.
“If I use the wrong one,” he explained, glancing up at me, “it’ll trigger the ward and the flood hatch will open.”
Thane moved like an elderly man as he shuffled toward the cell door. “Sophie?” he rasped. “What are you—you shouldn’t be here.”
A huge pale hand gripped one of the bars directly above mine, and Ash’s bulky arm brushed against my shoulder. “We came for you,” Ash murmured, his voice a gentle rumble in the darkness.
Thane’s throat bobbed, and he peered over his shoulder at Javier, the movement making him wince.
It pained me to see the powerful vampire so weakened, and I uncurled the fingers of my left hand and extended my forearm into the cell. “Here, take some blood,” I said. “You’ll need your strength.”
Thane snapped his head around, his lips pulled back and his teeth bared like he was barely able to restrain himself from tearing into me. With a fierce grimace, he turned his face away again.
Ash reached through the bars and covered my hand with his, pushing my arm down so it no longer extended into the cell. He leaned closer until his lips nearly brushed my ear when he spoke. “He’s afraid he won’t be able to stop once he starts. Better to wait until we get this door open so I can restrain him while he feeds.”
“Oh,” I said, swallowing roughly. “I didn’t realize.” I gripped the bar once more, feeling awful for unintentionally taunting Thane with my blood. “I’m sorry.”
“Javier’s in bad shape,” Thane said, his voice rougher than before and his face still angled away. “They stopped restricting how much blood the queens can take from him.” Thane peered at me out of the corner of his good eye. “I think they’re hoping the queens will kill him.”
I pulled back, horrified. “Why?”
Thane bowed his head. “Because they have me now,” he admitted. “A fresh blood bag, and since I’m nowhere near as powerful as Javier . . .”
Hands on my shoulders told me Gavin was behind me. “You’re the lesser threat,” Gavin finished for him. “It makes sense. I would have done the same.”
“Got it!” Bastian exclaimed, flashing me a fierce grin when I glanced down at him. He fit the huge iron key into the lock and held his breath. The sigil flared, then faded to little more than the ghost of the mark.
Bastian exhaled heavily and turned the key. A muffled clang echoed down the long corridor, and Bastian dragged the cell door open.
Ash, Gavin, and I stepped back, allowing the door to open all the way, and then Ash stalked forward into the cell to embrace Thane.
“Get to work on the other cells,” Gavin told Bastian.
I followed Ash, eager to feed Thane so I could move on to Javier.
Ash moved to stand behind Thane and wrapped his arms around his beloved, pinning Thane’s arms to his side. “Go ahead, Sophie,” Ash said, nodding to me.
I raised one hand, extending my wrist toward Thane. He stretched out his neck, reaching for me as I stepped closer, closing the distance between his mouth and my wrist.
Thane didn’t hesitate. The instant my skin brushed his lips, he struck, digging his razor-sharp teeth into my flesh. I gasped, feeling nothing but pain, no hint of pleasure or desire in his bite. Tears welled and spilled over the brims of my eyelids, and I released a shuddering breath as he ravaged my wrist.
“That’s enough,” Gavin hissed.
I tried to pull my arm back, but Thane dug in with his teeth. “He won’t let go,” I whimpered in pain.
Suddenly Gavin was there beside Thane and Ash, gripping Thane’s jaw and forcing his bite to release.
With a muffled sob, I snatched my hand away and hugged my gnawed arm against my chest.
Bastian curled an arm around my back protectively and pressed his lips against my temple. He took a deep inhale, breathing me in like he needed the comfort as much as I did after that mildly traumatizing scene.
Gavin stalked closer to me, a waning thundercloud. He raised his wrist to his mouth and savagely tore into his own flesh. “Hold out your wrist, Sophie,” he said, his bloodstained lips appearing almost black in the dim light.
I did so, my hand quaking.
Gavin held his wrist over mine, letting his blood drip onto my throbbing wound. The first contact stung but was followed a heartbeat later by tingling relief. I watched in horrified fascination as more and more of Gavin’s blood filled my wound and my flesh knitted back together with impossible speed until, at last, all that remained was a pink scar smeared with blood.
“Thank you,” I breathed, looking from my healed wrist to his. His own wound was already closed up as well. I raised my gaze to Gavin’s face, meeting his burning silver eyes.
“My blood is yours,” he said with absolute conviction. He stepped closer, leaning in to press his lips against mine in a brief but thorough and delicious kiss. When he pulled away, I was utterly breathless. He looked toward the back corner of the cell. “I’m afraid you’re the only one who can help him now. I’ll be right behind you, just in case.”
I gulped, my heart a heavy drum beat, and turned toward the corner. The lump that was Javier didn’t move as I approached. My feet seemed heavier with each step, but finally I reached him.
“Javier?” My voice was barely a whisper.
He wore a tattered blanket wrapped around himself like a cloak, concealing every part of him. My mind manufactured a stench, but there was no increased foulness on my inhale aside from the odor of dried blood and a scent like incense that dredged up long-forgotten memories. Javier was an undead vampire, so his body didn’t function like a mortal’s—or even like a shifter’s or an elemental’s. He didn’t eat food or sweat or pass waste in the familiar sense. His body didn’t naturally do anything stinky, so he just smelled like himself.
I crouched and reached out, taking a guess at where his head was likely to be. Holding my breath, uncertain what I would find, I pulled the blanket away.
“Oh Javier,” I said when I finally saw his face, the air hissing out of my lungs.
His once handsome face was gray and gaunt, his eyelids shut and his cracked lips parted. He had always been clean-shaven when I knew him, but he now wore a full beard. According to my eyes, the man before me was not alive. But I could still feel him, in my heart, in my soul. His crippling fear and desperate hope. They clawed along the bond we shared, luring me ever closer. I just hoped that spark of life was enough and that he wasn’t already too far gone.
I closed my eyes and bowed my head, fresh tears sneaking free and streaking down my cheeks. For a decade, he had been my whole world. He had been the only reason I survived the attack. The only reason I was still alive today. It shredded my heart to see him like this.
Sniffling, I drew the combat knife sheathed on my hip and gritted my teeth before dragging the blade across the heel of my palm. It used to drive me nuts when characters in the movies cut their hands to draw blood—couldn’t they find a body part they used less frequently? But here I was doing that exact same thing. The bite of the blade was white hot, and I hissed in a breath. I quickly wiped the blade on my pants and re-sheathed it, careful to capture the welling blood in my cupped palm.
A low, keening moan filled the space between Javier and me, and it took me a moment to realize the sound was coming from him. Hope surged within me. There truly was life in him yet.
Raising my bleeding hand, I dropped my knees to the floor and leaned in. His nostrils flared as he breathed in the scent of my blood, and his lips pulled back, his dry tongue darting out, searching.
“Here,” I whispered, dipping a fingertip in the welled blood and coating his lips with the thick liquid.
His eyelashes fluttered as he tasted my blood. I would have sworn I heard my name in his exhale.
Encouraged, I reached out, curving my good hand around the back of his neck and gently tilting his head backward. I fit the side of my bleeding hand against his bottom lip and tilted it, slowly pouring the collected blood into his mouth. He swallowed once. Twice. Wincing, I pressed the cut to his open mouth to let the fresh blood seep into him directly.
His eyelids snapped open, and his eyes locked with mine, his irises burning like superheated metal. The first pull of blood from my open wound was pure agony, but the second seemed to be dragging blood from low in my abdomen. The third pull made me gasp as a needy ache settled unexpectedly in my core. This was a completely different experience than the brutal pain of a moment ago with Thane. Despite his deprived state, Javier was being incredibly gentle, careful to not even let his sharp teeth graze my wound. Because he was my consort and we shared a bond? Or did he simply have that much self-control?
My breaths came faster, desire suddenly raging within me. I squeezed my thighs together to ease the throbbing ache between my legs.
Javier tore his mouth away from my hand, his lips and chin coated with my blood. “Luna?” he rasped, his brow furrowing as he scoured my face, likely reconciling the woman I was with the girl he had known. His features appeared slightly less gaunt, and his deathly pallor had faded, leaving his skin closer to the light brown I recalled from my youth. “Did they capture you?”
Lowering my bleeding hand, I shook my head, forcing a shaky smile. “I came to rescue you.” I shrugged one shoulder, wincing as I pressed my other palm to the open wound to stave off the bleeding. “I owed you one.”
He laughed, but it devolved into a cough.
My smile turned limp. “Do you need more?” I asked, raising my hand.
“No,” he practically growled, and I drew back slightly. His features gentled. “If I take any more, I won’t stop with blood.”
“Oh,” I said, not fully understanding him. Finally, I realized he was talking about sex—with me —and my cheeks heated. Apparently, I hadn’t been the only one aroused by his drinking of my blood, and I assumed that was the long-neglected bond at work, pushing us toward a full communion .
“Sophie!” Gavin hissed from close behind me. I had been so focused on Javier that I completely forgot Gavin had followed me into the cell.
My head snapped around so I could see him.
“We’re out of time. The shifters are coming down. You need to get out of here now .” He crouched, reaching an arm into the corner behind Javier to help the other vampire up to his feet.
I stood and started toward the cell door, noting that only three of the other cells were open, with Bastian currently kneeling as he sought the matching key to the lock on a fourth cell door.
“But what about the rest of them?” I asked, stopping just outside Javier’s cell and scanning the others. There had to be at least a dozen more locked cell doors. At least a dozen more queens.
“They’re not my priority,” Gavin said, handing Javier off to another vampire. “Bastian,” Gavin called out. “Leave it and get the hatch open.”
Bastian dropped the key ring without argument and stood, hurrying toward what appeared to be a large iron drain cover in the floor in the middle of the corridor.
Gavin gripped my elbow, dragging my attention back to him. “Sophie,” he said urgently, walking me further out of the cell. “This is not your fault.”
My brow furrowed, and I searched his face, his eyes, trying to understand his meaning. Slowly, I shook my head. “The queens . . .?”
“Someone has to stay behind to feed them,” he said, his expression solemn. “I will return to you,” he swore and leaned his forehead against mine. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, his breath warm on my skin. “I wish there was another way, that we had more time. I wish—” He growled his frustration and pressed his lips against mine in a desperate, searing kiss that felt like both a promise and a goodbye.
And then he was gone, the cell door slamming shut between us, and I was left with nothing but the taste of his lips and the shattered remains of my heart.
I stared at him through the bars, still not understanding what was happening. Why was he in the cell?
“Sophie!” Bastian shouted. “We’ve got to go. Now!”
“But—” I gestured to the locked cell door. To Gavin, who had just willingly made himself a prisoner.
“ Now , Sophie,” Bastian urged, gripping my arm and tugging me away from the cell. Away from Gavin.
I felt numb, like I was moving through a fog as I was guided to the hole in the floor and helped to sit on the ledge, my feet dangling into the flooding tunnel under the dungeon. Apparently he had already opened the hatch. Someone fitted a mask over my face, Bastian, maybe, then pulled me into the hole and under the water. My movements were robotic as I swam through the narrow hatch and out into a larger tunnel.
Gavin . . . He was back in the dungeon. Back in the cell.
And we were leaving him behind.