Chapter 4
Waiting for the guards—orAdrian—to make their next round was a new form of torture. Every night until now, I’d dreaded their little visits. Now, I anticipated it. So much so that I was silently urging them to open that damn door and get their asses in here. Quite the change for me.
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but finally, I caught the sound of footsteps. I snapped my head toward Gabriel, and he gave a single nod, silently acknowledging that he’d heard them too. We shared one last glance, then I quickly shucked my clothes and shifted, while Gabriel laid down inside his cage and played dead. I shivered at the sight of his too-still body and prayed that I never saw him so vulnerable again.
The footsteps paused in front of the door, and two voices carried into the room. Much to my disappointment, neither belonged to Adrian. I really, really wanted to sink my fangs into him. But I was also smart enough to know we had better chances fighting the guards. I wasn’t physically ready for the big showdown. Not yet.
Much like every other night, I paced the cage. I needed to pretend nothing had changed. Which meant I needed to be anxious and angry. Thankfully, those emotions weren’t exactly difficult to call upon. I was as anxious as a wolf in a cage, and yes, I silently snickered at the simile.
The guards opened the door and entered, the second guard closing the door behind him. My hackles rose, and a deep growl rumbled in my throat, my lip curling up to display my monstrous fangs. I had to be threatening and aggressive to keep their attention primarily on me. They had to think I was the threat here, not Gabriel. A fairly easy task, given everything.
“Wolf form again, eh, sweetheart?” one of the vamp guards commented. He paused in front of my cage and chuckled. “Don’t think I’ve even seen what you look like under all that fur.”
The taunt was designed to rile me up, and under different circumstances, it likely would have worked. But this time, my focus was razor-sharp, every fiber of my being strung tight with anticipation. I let out another growl, this one deeper and far more menacing. I locked eyes with him, silently promising him a world of pain.
The vamp laughed, clearly unfazed by my threat. They believed they were safe out there, what with us locked up. He wasn’t wrong, he just didn’t realize that everything was about to change.
“Don’t worry, hun,” the guard continued. “It won’t be much longer now. Boss is just going over some things with his kid”—he shot Gabriel’s still body a glance and laughed—“well, his other kid, and then they’ll be right down to finish up with you two. Look at the upside, you won’t have to spend any more time in that disgusting cage of yours.”
I lunged at the bars, and not just to put on a show.
“Oh, I don’t think she liked that,” the other guard chuckled. “Come on, let’s give our liege his last dose, then get out of here. I’ll be glad never to step foot in here again.”
The vamp closest to Gabriel’s cage fished in his pocket and withdrew the keys. He approached the door and quickly unlocked it before stepping inside. The other guard, however, only ventured a couple of steps closer, and sadly, not close enough for me to reach.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Gabriel could handle the one guard, but the second would make it up those stairs before we even stood a chance. I uttered a long snarl, one that drew the second guard’s attention, but he paid me little more than a cursory glance. His focus was all for Gabriel.
There was nothing I could do, not while I was trapped in here.
I had to trust that Gabriel could handle this.
The first guard approached Gabriel, then paused a foot away, frowning. “Is it me, or does he look?—”
Before he could finish the sentence, Gabriel shot to his feet, grabbed the vamp by the throat, and snapped it.
Brutal and efficient—and I loved every moment of it.
“Oh, shit,” the other vamp muttered.
My attention shot to the second guard, who stood frozen, his earlier bravado dissolving into a pool of fear. The tables had turned, and he knew it. Gabriel’s cage sat wide open, and the guard with the keys lay in a heap at Gabriel’s feet.
Realizing his options were to run or die, the guard bolted for the door. Except Gabriel, hyped up on werewolf blood, was faster. Before the vamp could even reach for the handle, Gabriel had him by the throat.
“Liege, please,” the vamp stammered.
With a savage snarl, Gabriel crushed the guard’s throat. Vamps didn’t need air to breathe, but they certainly needed it to speak. And without a working esophagus, the vamp couldn’t call for help or alert anyone to our escape.
“Liege,” Gabriel repeated, disgust dripping from his words. He leaned close, their noses practically touching. “You are a traitor, and do you know what I do to traitors?”
I couldn’t see the vamp’s face, not with his back to me, but I caught the tremble that worked through his body. Apparently, he knew exactly what Gabriel did to traitors. I didn’t. But I could guess.
Gabriel gripped the vamp’s head, and with a sharp pull, divorced it from the rest of his body—which was just my nice way of saying he beheaded his disloyal subject. The guard’s body slowly slumped to the floor, and Gabriel casually tossed his head aside like it was nothing more than a tennis ball. It bounced off the wall, then rolled a few feet across the floor before coming to a stop.
Eh. Better him than us.
I quickly shifted back into human form and dressed while Gabriel hurried back to his cage and stole the keys from the first guard. I’d just finished putting on my boots when Gabriel strode out of his cage, a second head in hand. He tossed it aside with the other, then quickly unlocked the door to my cage.
The moment he pulled open my cage door, the weight of the past few days crashed into me all at once. But the fear, the anger, the desperation all melted away the instant Gabriel stepped into my space, his presence a sudden and overwhelming relief. For the first time in days, there were no metal bars separating us and no holy water coursing through his veins.
For a moment, we simply stood there, staring at each other, the silence between us speaking volumes. Then, without a word, Gabriel swept me into his arms. I buried my face against his chest and breathed him in, his familiar scent cutting through the lingering stench of death and decay. Tears pricked at my eyes, but I refused to let myself cry. Not here. Not now. That would come later when we were safe.
“I thought I was going to lose you,” I whispered, my voice muffled by his shirt.
Gabriel’s arms tightened around me. “Never,” he said, his voice a low rumble.
I lifted my head and stared up at him. He gently cupped my face before he leaned down and kissed me. My eyes immediately closed, and I sank into him, reveling in the feel of his lips against mine. Adrian had held us captive here for days, and during that time, my thoughts had gone to a dark place. I had no idea what the future held for us—I still didn’t—but standing here in his arms, my thoughts didn’t feel so dark anymore. He was my light. My hope.
The concrete room faded into nothingness, leaving only the warmth of his lips on mine. I wound my arms around his neck and slid my hands into his hair, my fingers curling in his silky strands. Gabriel deepened the kiss, his tongue stroking mine with a possessiveness that made me groan. But now wasn’t the time for this, and it took all my willpower to finally pull away.
“Later,” I assured him. Because there would be a later—a thought that strengthened me. “I’m afraid to say this, but I think escaping the cages was the easiest part. Now we have to escape the rest.”
Gabriel’s nod was solemn, an acknowledgement of the reality that lay ahead of us. This room was our prison, but in a way, we were also safe in here. At least, until Adrian and Elias returned. We had no idea what lurked beyond. Hell, we didn’t even know where we were. If we were still in Jackson or not.
Butwe were together. And right now, that unity made me feel whole.
He took my hand, intertwining our fingers with a fierce grip. Then we turned toward the door. The first step was the easiest, but my body tensed with every step afterward. Thanks to my sensitive hearing, I knew there wasn’t anyone beyond the door, but that didn’t mean the situation would stay that way.
“You ready?” Gabriel asked once we reached the door.
I gave my own determined nod.
“Then let’s do this.”
* * *
Steppingthrough the door felt like crossing into another world. Gone was the dark, musty atmosphere, now replaced with…well, a bit brighter and less musty atmosphere. Truthfully, there wasn’t much improvement at all. I frowned as we edged into a dimly lit hallway, one lined with a series of closed doors.
I lifted my chin and drew in a deep breath, picking apart the plethora of scents. Concrete, wood, and was that fur?
“Where the hell are we?” I whispered so quietly Gabriel had to crook his head in my direction to catch my words.
Gabriel’s gaze scanned our surroundings, a frown furrowing his brow. “I’ve no idea.”
I eyed the doors once more, the fear that Chris might be behind one of them kicking in. It was the only explanation I could think of, since he wasn’t in the same room as us. A part of me—the part that used to love watching horror movies—told me to keep moving. That opening these doors was just asking for trouble. But the other part of me knew I could never leave this place without searching for Chris first. There was no way in hell I would ever leave him here.
Gabriel studied the hallway. “Does every door lead to another holding cell like ours?”
I shuddered at the thought. If so, that meant this place had a dozen or so rooms. Why did Adrian need this many? What was the purpose of this place? And who else was the King of Pricks keeping prisoner here?
“Come on,” Gabriel said, moving forward.
I snatched his wrist and pulled him to a stop. He turned with a raised brow, but I shook my head.
“I can’t leave yet,” I told him. “Not until I’ve checked every last room. Chris…Chris could be here.”
Gabriel held my gaze for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. I’ll take the left side, you take the right. And let’s be quick about this.”
Hope had me hurrying to the closest door and shoving it open, only to find nothing but an empty room with an empty cage that reeked of old blood. I took a step back into the hallway and stared at all the different doors. It was then that the realization hit me like a ton of bricks. This place was a fucking holding facility.
Gabriel and I exchanged matching looks of horror.
Quietly cursing, I closed the door, then moved to the next door. One by one, I checked the rooms, my heart leaping every single time.
“Anything?” I whispered, knowing Gabriel would hear me.
“No,” was all he said.
I tore through the rest of the hallway, quickly checking all the rooms, one after another. Thankfully, I didn’t find any other prisoners. But the stench of pain and death grew stronger every time I ventured into one of the rooms.
A lotof people had been kept here. And I had a feeling very few had made it out alive.
I reached for the last door, then stopped dead in my tracks when I noticed a series of deep scratches etched into the wood. No, not scratches. Those were claw marks.
Huh. Cocking my head, I reached out to touch them. They ran deep, almost as though something had gripped the door and held on for dear life. Human nails couldn’t gouge that deep.
“Gabriel,” I quietly called out, my voice trembling.
His soft footsteps carried him to my side, and he touched the marks. After a moment, he straightened and reached for the handle. The second his fingers closed around it, I heard a sound. One that sounded like a soft whine. The kind of noise that absolutely was not human.
I tugged Gabriel away from the door, then lifted a finger to my lips. Another soft whine, one that was an unmistakable sound of distress.
“Someone’s in there.” This time, I reached for the doorknob.
“Maddie.” Gabriel’s hand came down on top of mine. “It could be anyone. For all we know, it could be one of Adrian’s people.”
A third soft whine. One that sounded exactly like?—
“It’s a werewolf,” I said, my ear perked toward the sound. But that didn’t mean Chris couldn’t still be inside. Maybe he was being held in a room with a werewolf.
Hope had me gripping the doorknob and turning it, bracing myself for what we might find.
I opened the door to a yet another room identical to the one we’d just escaped. Much like ours, a lightbulb dangled from the ceiling, illuminating a single cage placed in the center of the room. And there, in the far corner of the cage, was the source of the whining—a figure huddled against the wall.
The werewolf gave another soft whine as it struggled to push to its feet. Matted fur covered their body and the scent of old blood filled my nose.
Disappointment slammed into me with the force of a wrecking ball when I realized Chris wasn’t here. Nor was he in any of the other rooms. So where was he then? Was it possible that Adrian hadn’t captured him? That he was perfectly fine, and out there, somewhere, searching for us?
I focused on the werewolf, since they were the immediate problem. “We need to get them out. We can’t leave them here. See if our guard’s keys open this cage too.”
Gabriel hurried to the cage. Thankfully, the keys worked and he was able to unlock the door. But the moment he did, the werewolf lunged to their feet with their hackles raised and lips pulled back. A second later, it crouched, clearly ready to attack.
“Hey, hey, hey,” I said, diving in front of Gabriel. “I’m a werewolf. Just like you. I want to help you, I swear. But you can’t kill him”—I jerked my chin toward Gabriel—“cuz then I’ll have to kill you, and that doesn’t really help either of us, does it?”
The werewolf blinked, then lowered their lips and straightened. Clearly, they trusted me, but not the vampire behind me.
“Now we need to go,” I said. “Right this second, before anyone realizes we’re gone. You with me?”
Their dark eyes flicked over my shoulder, and their upper lip trembled.
“Gabriel won’t hurt you,” I assured the werewolf. “He’s a good guy. But the other vamps aren’t. Believe me, I know.”
Footsteps echoed in the distance, and all three of us went on high alert.
“Come on,” I hissed at the werewolf. “We need to get the fuck out of here. Now.”
The approaching footsteps seemed to knock some sense into our new friend, because they nodded, then hurried out of the cage, their steps dragging and awkward. Not great. Their lack of speed would certainly hinder us.
The three of us tumbled out of the room. I glanced down the hallway and jerked to a stop at the sight of Elias and Adrian. They stood a ways down from our former prison cell, their comically wide eyes making me snort.
A part of me wanted to shift and take them out right here and now. I might even have given it a shot, were it not for the small army of vampires fanning out behind them. At least six at first count. There were only three of us, two of whom weren’t performing at full-strength. Not to mention, I had absolutely no idea if the other werewolf even knew how to fight. Not all werewolves did. Which left us with Gabriel. He was powerful and pissed to all hell, but not even he could handle Elias, Adrian, and six other bloodsucking leeches.
As much as I hated to admit it, they greatly outnumbered us. And I wasn’t willing to risk either of our lives right now, not when we were so close to escaping. Sometimes the smartest thing to do was to retreat and fight again another day.
Gabriel cursed under his breath, then squeezed my hand. I squeezed back.
“Go,” he ordered. “Run.”
It killed me to do it, but I ran.