Swallowing, she examined us each in turn and put the bar down. “Okay. Let me know when we’re ready to leave then.” She grabbed her bottle and crawled back under her blankets. “Oh, and they’re not kidding about the electrified bars.”
As she moved, bruises of different colors showed all over her already darker skin. The last couple of days had not been kind, but she could still summon sarcasm. A girl after my own heart. I nodded. We were going to get her out of here.
Exchanging a determined look with Carson, I finished the bottle and threw it at the bars. The plastic did nothing but bounce off, but I was sure the same wouldn’t be true for me. If we could overload the circuit, then I could maybe get out and do… something. My earlier failure pushed me back down. Even if we got out, who knew how many were left on the other side of those doors. There were too many of them, especially with no support from Devon.
Carson still had support.
“Nadia?”
“Yes, Rowan?” Her voice was still frail, but I could see her struggling. She was trying to break her shackles. The rune-inscribed manacles were holding fast.
But rune work was tricky. If an extra mark was added to one of the runes, it would change its effect. It was for that very reason my zip strips had the runes inscribed on the inside of the metal, where no one could mess with the symbols. A tricky gamble, since the difference in one line might change the rune for “weaken” into “pain” or “death.” That’s why ley sigilists were paid big bucks and were given background checks from hell.
My heart raced. “You have long nails,” I said. Maybe this could be our way out.
Her laugh was hollow. “Are you critiquing my manicure?”
“The runes–you can alter the runes. If you scratch a new line and make it say nonsense, you could just rip the cuffs off the wall.”
She stopped struggling. Her eyes widened. “I’ll try.”
“You can do it,” Carson encouraged.
I searched my brain for my semester on sigils and their meanings, trying to remember the symbols on my cuffs. I never paid attention, but I used them all the time. “The safest one, if you could find it, would be Nauthiz, which restricts strength. It would look like a vertical line crossed by a shorter, diagonal line from upper left to lower right.”
She studied beside her. “Okay, found one like that.”
“Try and scratch a line through it going any way but in direct opposite of the little line.”
From across the room, she grunted with strain, and her wrist tried to bend awkwardly around the cuff. After a few minutes, she stopped and relaxed. “No good. All the runes are spiraling along the bottom. I can’t turn my wrist enough to even reach one of them.”
Damn them and their well-reasoned placement.
She emitted a growl of frustration, well outside of her normal character. I eyed her carefully, but she just stared at a spot between her and Devon. I glanced at Carson, biting my lip.
He caught my gaze and cocked his head in confusion. “That’s a scary expression. What are you thinking?” he asked.
We did still have one option, but I didn’t like it.
“Nadia?” I waited for her gaze to shift to me again, taking in a quick breath at the intensity of her glowing eyes. “Can you take Carson over like you did before, at the club? With your strength and healing, he may be able to get through the electricity and the bars.”
She snarled at me. “No.” Her gaze went back to where it was before. “I am too hungry. I don’t even know how I did it before. This is just too much. I need to feed.”
Following her gaze, I spotted a bottle sitting on a side table, not far from her and Devon. That must have been the clink I’d heard before the others had left. I would bet my pension it held blood, and it was open. The smell alone was driving Nadia down a slippery slope. Carson’s pacing next to me took on a new meaning.
I needed help.
Devon! I pushed with all my might, willing myself to reach him and drag him out of his drugged stupor. Taking hold of his thoughts, I got fleeting glimpses of water and swimming and a rocky shore in the sun… and laughter. He was dreaming. Who the hell knew vampires dreamed? If I tried hard enough, I might even be able to see it. I’d woken him before, but all I’d ever gotten was fuzziness and irritation. Now, he was dreaming of a beach and the sun.
Devon, I–we–need you. Wake the hell up.
What? Who? I got the sensation of him swimming again. The feeling of water slid over my body.
Progress. Now if I could only draw his attention to me. Wake up, you sorry excuse for a vampire! Get your ass up and try to be useful for once!
That did it.
“Rowan!” he said aloud as his eyes flashed open. Waking had taken a lot of effort, and he sagged against his bonds again.
Carson jumped and tripped into the bars. Everything crackled, and he yelled before he bounced back off it, panting with the effort. Nadia snarled at Devon, who sneered at her with equal anger.
Yay, we were all awake. Now what?
Carson curled in on himself, sweating heavily. I wanted to cover him up or hold him until the pain passed, but I couldn’t reach him through the bars.
Blinking and taking deep breaths, Devon scanned the room. “Where are they?”
I stood and moved, so we could have a line of sight to each other. “They were called away by the DEC. We may have been missed.” I tried to put more hope in my voice than I felt.
“Missed?”
“My money’s on Shahid. He’ll know something’s wrong by now.”
He shook his head, but I noticed his gaze kept stealing over to the same bottle Nadia was now leaning toward. “Told him to leave with the car. That we were staying here to work and would call when ready.”
Hope sank into my stomach. Shahid wouldn’t go against Devon’s orders. At least Will was protected.
I hesitated before my next idea but then asked Devon, “Could you give me any healing at all? Maybe I could take enough to overload whatever is powering these bars, and Carson could pick the lock or break out through Nadia.”
Damn this was going to hurt.
“Gave you everything before.” His voice was changing like Nadia’s. Becoming lower, more animalistic. Even knowing he couldn’t get to me, fear swept through me at the hunger in his voice. I’d never heard it this bad before.
Guilt made me glance over at Hannah. She watched us all, just waiting. She was strong, but if we took away this hope, she’s lose her strength. I smiled weakly at her, and she shrugged.
Frustrated, I moved to the back of the cage and sat against the wall. Both vampires leaned toward the table, and Nadia fought against her bonds, her hands more claw-like and her teeth drawn back. I wasn’t sure she’d hear me if I talked to her.
Devon wasn’t far behind. I had to keep him here. As much as I hated to admit it, we needed them.
“Devon?”
No answer.
“Devon!”
“What!” he snapped, but his eyes didn’t leave the bottle.
“Dammit, try to sack up, man. Brainstorm with me. Help get us out.”
“Hungry.”
“Me too.”
He stopped responding. Okay, we could discuss being hungry as long as he was talking. I grabbed my dry protein bar, opened it as noisily as possible, and crunched on it. Peanut butter. Yuck, I hated peanut butter. But it caught his attention.
I swallowed. “I hate being hungry. I was starving for so long before we got together.”
A new pinched expression crossed his face. “I remember.”
“It was always like… this empty hole eating its way out of me. I always made sure if we had anything that Will ate. I never wanted him to feel the same hunger.” I took another bite. “What’s it like for you?”
He didn’t even sound like himself. He’d been beaten, starved, and prodded like an animal. He was devolving before us, and, dammit, there was nothing I could do. My chest hurt. I had to get him back.
&nb
sp; I poured my concern for him through our bond, hoping he’d remember our connection. I envisioned him as he’d been, strong and in control of every situation life threw at him. A man I looked up to.
Emotions from confusion to anger to struggle crossed his face before melting into pleading as his eyes met mine. He took a deep breath then began to speak quietly. “Hunger, but not like you know it.” Okay. Full sentences. Progress.
“How so?” I prompted his silence.
“It’s not just a feeling in your gut or a pain that wakes you up.” He gathered himself and spoke closer to normal. “It’s like… well, you love swimming at the gym. You go and push for a hundred laps.”
“Hunger is like swimming?” I teased to make him respond.
He rolled his eyes which was creepier in his new illuminated hues. “No. Imagine if you had to swim those laps all while holding your breath. It starts like that, holding your breath.” He paused and coughed up blood. “At first, it’s nothing. Just a feeling, a change–something you can handle. As your need for air grows, it gets closer and closer to the point where your lungs are going to give you no choice but to take in air. The lust and desire to breathe takes over everything.”
I frowned. That’s what hunger felt like to him?
He returned his gaze to the bottle. “Every thought, no matter how… zen you may be. And if you don’t breathe during the lust stage, it turns into panic and pain.” He shifted and, I don’t think he realized it, leaned more toward the blood. “There is no thought, no brain… nothing but you and the do or die, fight or flight, animalistic need to survive.”
His muscles couldn’t take the strain, and his strong form collapsed against the wall. My chest ached. Oh, Devon.
“Then when you break through and get that one, clean, glorious breath of air, there’s nothing like it. No breath before it ever felt that good. That’s what it’s like.” His last words came out almost as a sob.
It was lovely and sick, twisted and poetic. These two beautiful and powerful creatures were losing their war against hunger, and their faces were showing the effects. My eyes burned. Carson had been right; it was something I never wanted to see and now wished I could unsee.
Those bastards had inflicted this on Devon and Nadia. They were drowning with land so close. Before long, they would crack and tell these psychos anything to end this agony, and we scions would be taken, or they would become the animals I hunted in the street, and we’d be lost with them.
Time was running out.
I had no idea what to do.
he Super Hell Squad had returned an hour later. Though, to be honest, our windowless accommodations had made it impossible to tell how long it’d been. Other than giving us more peanut butter bars and water, they had ignored us. They had been in a good mood–which meant we were boned. No one was coming. We were on our own. After a bit or work and bickering, they’d fallen asleep on the cots.
Losing my one hope of the cavalry riding to our rescue made me feel worse than before I’d thought about it.
Hannah had stopped talking to us shortly thereafter. I think for the same reason: hope was not our friend in here. We’d been her hope–and her death–all in one. I’d asked if there had been any weak spots in the cages, but she had only given me a cold expression. A look much older than a college girl should have the ability to give.
Now, after allowing sleep to take me for a few hours, I woke with a new determination. We were getting out of here. Whatever it took. If nothing else, I was going to get Hannah away from these psychos.
Moving quietly around my “room,” I searched for points of weakness in my cage. They hadn’t held people here before. This was a new tactic which–I hoped–meant these cages were untested. I tried not to imagine what Walton did on his time off that required electrified cages. There could be undetected faults.
I was more than willing to beta-test the workmanship for the bastards, free of charge.
Using our captors’ steady sleeping breaths as my canary in the coal mine, I searched for a small piece of metal to check if our bars were still hot. The hum had stopped after they’d returned, but there was no need to make painful assumptions.
My glance caught the piss bucket I’d tried to forget. I tapped it with my foot. Metal. Perfect. I placed it close to the bar. No change. Using the sole of my shoe, I pushed it closer and closer until the metal touched. When no light show went off in front of me, I exhaled a long breath.
Okay, step one down. The bars weren’t electrified. Now, I could check for weak joints and points on the cage itself.
I started in the corner closest to Carson and shook the bar by the back wall. If I could remove it, he and I could try and make a stand together. Maybe work together on the bars in the front. The stubborn thing didn’t move for me. What if I had leverage?
As if he read my mind, Carson’s hands appeared on either side of mine. Using head nods as our silent count, together we attempted to shake it loose. Nothing. The bastard was welded well. Stupid good craftsmanship. Systematically, we moved down the line, bar by bar, searching for the slightest sign of give.
As we worked, I stole glances at Carson. His light skin was paler and covered in a sheen of sweat. When we moved again, he met my stare. His eyes were blank. He wasn’t doing much better than Devon or Nadia.
When the last bar didn’t move either, I ran my fingers over his hand and grasped it, trying to add my strength to his. The earlier torture had taken too much out of him. If we got out, the department–or whatever was the Canadian equivalent–was going to have to give him serious counseling. He smiled weakly at me and motioned that he would continue working down the rest of the vertical bars in his personal prison.
I tilted my head to Nadia. He shook his head and moved off, using the cage to help him stay upright.
Sighing, I decided to leave the front ones, closest to our captors, for last, and moved to the opposite corner. To my surprise, Hannah met me there. I smiled. This girl had some serious moxie.
Sharing a moment of teamwork, together we count nodded and tried to force the bar to move. Nothing. Undeterred by failure, we moved in unison up the line, bar by bar. But, again and again, nothing happened.
Ready to give up, we took a second to breathe before grasping the bar in the front right corner. This was my last chance to use her help. If this one didn’t budge, I’d have to move across the front of my cage, alone. On my third nod, we pushed and pulled, and the bar shifted. Not by much. I might have even imagined it.
I met her gaze, praying she’d noticed it, too. Her eyes were bright as she nodded. She had seen it, too. I shot her an almost-giddy smile, and we fought the bar’s strength again. Another few centimeters it moved.
I motioned for her to take a break for a second though I wanted to bounce on my toes. We were wiggling it, but removing it was a separate issue. With this bar gone, we would both be small enough to slip into a room full of vampires, but what then?
I turned my eyes toward Devon. We needed backup. If Hannah and I got out, could one of us get help before the bastards woke?
For me: no. If I got out, all they had to do was kill Devon, and I’d drop like a stone. Hannah had no connections. If we were quiet, maybe I could get across the sleeping room and free Devon before anyone woke. Together, neither of us would be a liability to the other, and we could fight to give Hannah time to get out and bring in reinforcements. That was our best bet.
Not knowing how lightly our keepers slept, I motioned my plan to Hannah, pointing to myself then Devon and pantomiming breaking his manacles. Then I motioned at her then the exit and made a gesture of a phone. She shook her head, fear shining in her eyes. At my fervent gestures, she glanced at the sleeping group, then the door, then me. With a scared but hard look in her eyes, she nodded and moved back to the corner bar.
I reached into Devon’s mind and sifted through the constant buzzing of hunger, attempting to bring him out of it.
Devon, talk to me. We need your strength. I
have a chance to break through.
Je mange le, le, le.
It took me a second to realize he wasn’t speaking English.
Dammit, Devon, pull yourself together. Give me something here.
After a few seconds of nonsense coming through the bond, I willed any strength he had left into me. Pulling for a few moments, power trickled through the scion bond and into my wrecked muscles. I breathed easier. He was in there somewhere. Still trying to help. He was going to eat more than me after this.
Smiling at him, I joined Hannah at the bar. I nodded each beat. One. Two–
A loud gong chimed from the desk, sending us both tumbling backward.
The room grumbled awake, and Martha pressed buttons as the screen came alive with information. Acting like her nap hadn’t happened, she worked with renewed vigor. The others, however, slowly sat up and glanced around, annoyance on their faces. Only Chuckles stared in our direction first.
The vampire boss spied Hannah and I close together, sprawled on our butts. He tipped his chin up and narrowed his eyes at us. I stretched my arms wide and moved into a crisscrossed sitting position. I stared at him, narrowing my eyes. He raised an eyebrow, and–heaven help me–he smiled back.
Great, I was making myself interesting, but at least he wasn’t watching Hannah anymore.
Martha’s voice rang out. “Got it! There’s a secondary sequencing in the DNA that is allowing their thyroid to release more provisal. This creates a deeper repository for the ley markers to synthesize.”
“Are you certain?” Chuckles challenged. “You are more wrong than right.”
Anger flashed on Martha’s face, but quickly died into smugness. “Of course I’m certain. The samples from the other active scions all show the same thing. It’s one of the hundreds of stats they collect, so I hadn’t looked at it before. The Basement hid its tracks well, but we’ve got it now. Chosen scions have higher ley hormones being released from their thyroids. There’s a tighter connection to the vitae energy in the lines. With those higher levels, they should survive the process of forging a bond.”
Of Scions and Men Page 25