“I'm going to transform. You need to climb up my back before I do so we can fly out of here.”
“Fly where?”
“Ireland. You're in hiding, sweetheart.”
She made no comment, and he felt her clutch around blindly, fingers trailing from his hair down to his shoulder until she could climb behind him. The touch made some part of him tingle, but he ignored that and prepared himself for flight.
The transformation was quick, and pretty soon they were flying up in the air again, farther and farther away from the trees. Finn didn't anticipate the demons coming out of the clouds, swarming over them almost as if they could see them.
He also didn't expect the greater demon with red eyes flying with them.
A net was thrown down over Finn and Lucinda, something in it electrocuting them both.
Instead of flying, they started falling down from the sky as Finn lost all consciousness.
CHAPTER FOUR
When Lucinda woke up, it was to a sore spot on her shoulder and complete, utter darkness.
But being a vampire had its certain advantages, and within seconds of blinking, she was finally able to orient herself enough to see the damp brick walls surrounding her and the man on the other side of the room, his back rested on the wall. Finn was eyeing her quietly, those deep blue eyes focused on her with an intensity that was both honest and probing. It left her momentarily breathless before she got hold of herself and forcibly stared at him back, keeping her own gaze level.
His name was Finn Jackles, the famous red dragon of the shifter dragon clan. He was taller than most men she knew, and rougher than most when it came to fighting. There was nothing extraordinary about his face, save for those blue eyes and the grin that completely transformed his demeanor. He wasn't refined or handsome at all.
He was her bodyguard, and in the end even he couldn't save her from this disaster.
So much for hiding.
“How long was I out?” Lucinda asked, taking note of her surroundings and filing the details away for future use. There wasn't much except for the shackles in the corner.
Finn shrugged. “I wouldn't know. I was out like a light and woke up just a few minutes ago.” A hesitant second, and then, “Are you okay?”
“I've been better,” she replied calmly, refusing to mention the shoulder. The glint in his eye told her he wasn't buying it fully, but he didn't say a thing to contradict her statement.
Then he suddenly stiffened, and Lucinda sensed the presence enough to understand they weren't alone anymore.
A quick look to her right made her see a shadowy figure standing outside the cell, his gaze trained on hers. Unlike Finn's non-threatening gaze, his was enough to have a certain coldness seeping through her skin, even when vampires weren't supposed to feel that much.
The figure stepped forward and the shadow was gone, replaced by a man with the most handsome features she'd ever seen—silky black hair, flawless skin, reddish lips. But his red eyes gave him away, and she remembered the cold calculation in them earlier before the net was thrown at them. He was in his original form then—red-skinned, bigger than all the lesser demons that had surrounded them.
Finn stood up, still leaning on the wall. His pose was casual, but Lucinda felt a restless energy in him that he couldn't quite hide. Ignoring him, she turned back to the demon and nodded her head.
“What do you want?” she asked simply.
The demon smiled, revealing dimples and even, white teeth.
“I would like us to get to know each other, first off,” he said smoothly.
“I would rather go back home, if I may be honest,” Lucinda replied just as smoothly.
Finn scoffed. “So many pleasantries. Why don't you just release us, demon, so I can kill you with my bare hands?”
“Such language,” the demon said with a dark chuckle. “Like I said, pleasantries first.”
Lucinda would have rolled her eyes, but years of practice made her keep her neutral expression as she finally nodded. “Pleasantries it is. You already know who I am. I would very much like to know who you are.”
The demon inclined his head, almost as if in flourish. “My name is Belvar, the demon of bargains. As I'm sure you've heard of me, I would like to let you know you are completely safe where you are... for now.”
Of course she'd heard of Belvar. John had only one thing to say about the creature, and that was to never, ever make bargains with him. Cautiously, Lucinda tried to think of the best way to handle the greater demon without aggravating him further, but it was proving to be difficult with the way Finn kept making side comments before she could go the diplomatic route.
Like right now.
“Perhaps if you’d free us right now, we can feel as safe as you claim we are,” Finn said, sarcasm dripping. “Because right now all I want to do is reach beyond this damn cage and tear your limbs apart.”
The image in her head made her want to laugh, a completely inappropriate and crazy reaction. Silence followed the dragon shifter’s words.
Then Belvar gave them a sly smile, one she didn’t like at all.
“I would like to make a bargain with you,” he said.
“Hell, no,” Finn growled.
“Let us hear it,” Lucinda said at the same time. She felt Finn’s glare turn towards her, decidedly ignoring it as she kept her eyes on the real threat.
“Sweetheart—” Finn started.
“My name is Lucinda,” she replied frostily. To Belvar, she repeated pleasantly, “Let us hear it.”
“I will give you the chance to escape from my world and go back to your own. If the other demons won’t detect you and you can bypass all forms of death, then I will grant you freedom out of this realm.” The glint in the demon’s red eyes told her there was something she was missing—as was always the case when bargaining with demons.
But really, what choice did they have?
“We’ll take it,” she replied after a few seconds.
Belvar nodded his head. Then he disappeared in a swirl of black shadows, the cell eerily opening right after.
Finn eyed the entrance to their prison warily. “It’s a trap.”
“Of course it is,” Lucinda replied.
“Yet I can’t figure out what I’m missing.”
“I can’t, either.”
“I’ll bet my ass this isn’t going to be good.”
Lucinda levelled him with a stare. “If we keep talking, nothing’s going to happen.”
With a sigh, Finn stepped forward. “Fine. Gentlemen first.”
Without further ado, he stepped out in one go, and Lucinda felt him brace himself as he crossed to the other side. Nothing happened. Quickly, she followed as fast as she could, using her speed to her advantage and ordering him in a whisper to keep up.
Theirs wasn’t the only cell in the area, but all the others seemed empty as silence filled the space. With no time to look, Lucinda made her way to the nearest exit, peeking around a corner and finding the same darkness stretching towards what looked like a set of corridor-like cave interiors.
“Can you see?” she asked Finn, who had also stopped beside her.
“Enough,” he replied. Then he stepped ahead of her and led the way.
It could have been minutes, but it felt like hours. They could hear footsteps and screeching here and there, but no one ever showed up to witness their escape or cause any trouble. She could sense Finn getting pumped beside her, like a coiled snake ready to strike, but there was no one to fight as they passed room after room of rocks and dirt and lifelessness.
Alarm bells started ringing in Lucinda’s head as a particular set of rocks caught her attention. Her hand whipped out to grip Finn’s arm, stopping his movements.
“We’ve passed this area before,” she said simply.
Finn stared at the rocks, then at her. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. I take note of everything.”
He cursed, then took a deep breath. “Okay. We’ll try it
one more time.”
They were more careful this time, agonizingly slow as they navigated the landscape and strange plants suddenly popped up in her vision that they hadn’t passed before. This gave her hope.
Then the same set of rocks landed on her sight again, and the alarm bells in her head rang louder.
No sounds at all. No demons. Same set of rocks. The bells stopped as everything clicked into place.
“He never said the chance to escape was now,” she whispered.
Another curse came out of the dragon shifter, louder this time. “Son of a—the bastard was playing us.”
“And what fun it is to play with you two.”
Belvar’s human form appeared in front of them, not physically formed enough for either of them to attack him. Lucinda put one hand behind her, fisting it as her temper tried to get in the way. She wanted to shout, wanted to lunge at him like the predator she was and end this so-called game he was playing.
Instead, she gave him a small nod.
Vampires could also play this game.
“When is your bargain available for us?” she asked.
Belvar shrugged. “When I feel you’re ready. Remember, this bargain is just for the two of you.”
“What exactly are you implying?” Finn barked.
“Nothing important,” the demon replied.
Then his form disappeared again, leaving the two of them alone.
Lights appeared at the top of the caves, their source unknown and the brightness temporarily blinding Lucinda. She closed her eyes, taking a step back and almost bumping into Finn as she did so. She righted herself just in time, slowly opening her eyes as the brightness dimmed again.
Finn had grown unusually quiet when he should have been cursing by now. She turned around and found his furious expression trained at a spot, and a glance at the same spot had her staring as well.
The prison area they were trying to escape was right beside them, and it hadn’t been there before at all. But that wasn’t what Finn was looking at.
He was staring at one of the prisoners inside with a demon beside her. Lucinda’s stomach dropped.
It was Nell.
Nell’s scream suddenly pierced the air as the demon bit her arm, interrupting the horrified silence. Then all the demons that were missing in the scene came at once, piling in the space and attacking Finn and Lucinda from different directions.
All the emotions that she was trying to force inside were threatening to come out. Ruthlessly—because it was absolutely necessary not to lose control—she shoved all of them back in and focused on the one emotion that rose above all.
Fury. Righteous fury for Nell.
The anger fed her strength, and she used that to hone in on her instincts and become the predator—monster—that she was. It didn’t matter that Finn was there, able to witness it all. It didn’t matter that the space was going to be filled with blood, the blood of lesser demons who knew nothing better.
They hurt Nell. And they were going to pay.
She slashed through the creatures. Finn slashed his share as well. Every time they seemed to gain ground, more started pouring in.
Then more.
More.
Eventually, it felt like all the demons in the realm had come, surrounding them and overwhelming them with sheer force. Pain on her shoulder warned her that one of the demons had bitten her, and she gripped its arm and jerked it off, feeling part of her flesh go with it.
Then more pain came. More demons bit.
Darkness came.
CHAPTER FIVE
Finn was thrown back in his old cell, but Lucinda wasn’t put in with him anymore. Instead, she was placed on the opposite end, unconscious at the beginning after taking the brunt of the demons’ attacks. After a few minutes, she regained consciousness enough to stand up in a snap, her hands clamping on the cell bars like a vise.
Nell was in the cell a few rows behind, and she hadn’t woken up at all. They both tried calling out her name, asking her to respond, to no avail.
And then the torture began.
They tortured Nell first. While she hadn’t responded to their voices, she certainly responded to lesser demons as they did something to her that he couldn’t see. Her screams reverberated around the space, along with bones breaking and flesh ripping from time to time. The combined sounds sent a sickening thud in Finn’s stomach, especially when the screams hardly stopped.
Lucinda was still gripping the cell bars, and her hands had turned paler than the rest of her. Her lips pressed together in a tight line, and Finn knew she was still trying to hold on to her careful control, the one she’d showed everyone from the attack at their vehicle to his rescue, back to their escape attempt here. She never lost control of the situation, almost as if unaffected.
It was all lies, he knew.
As the screams went on, those light green eyes met his, and he saw the frustration in them before she pushed it down as if it didn’t exist.
Eventually, after what seemed like an hour, Nell’s screaming stopped. The demons left, and the only sound in the area was the rattling of the bars on Lucinda’s side.
“You’ll hurt yourself,” Finn said quietly, eyeing her hands. They bruised from the force of her grip, then healed just as quickly, and she never indicated that she felt the pain.
“I’ll hurt them first,” she vowed softly.
Belvar appeared again in a puff of smoke, this time taking a full physical form and standing outside Lucinda’s cell.
“It seems unfair that I’ve let your… helper have all the fun,” he said.
Finn pounded at his own bars, swiping a hand to reach Belvar and unable to do so. Something in the demon realm didn’t allow him to shift at all, which frustrated him further. The demon ignored his attempts and kept his focus on Lucinda.
“Perhaps you would like in on the fun?”
Lucinda lifted her chin, a haughty action.
“Do your best,” she replied.
Finn waited for the lesser demons to come again and torture her just like they did Nell, but surprisingly enough, none came. Belvar stayed where he was, smiling a cruel smile.
“Very well. I’ll let your friend here watch, too, since he seems to want to join in.”
With those parting words, Belvar lifted a hand and closed his eyes.
Finn felt a strange, strong tap in his mind, before he was jerked away from the bars by an unknown force. Then he saw nothing as he was sucked into a world of oblivion.
*****
Lucinda was eight years old, and she was the light of her parents’ life.
Finn watched as her father took particular joy in her, playing with her when he got home from work while her mother cooked food and watched them affectionately from the kitchen. Their house was in a suburban area, though he couldn’t pinpoint the exact state. They weren’t rich, but quite well-made, and he saw her collection of porcelain dolls before the vision flash-forwarded to a year later, when her mother happily announced she was pregnant with a second child. Nine-year-old Lucinda jumped for joy, happy with the news and adamant to have a little brother or sister soon.
Then the car accident happened, and her parents were killed in an instant of a stranger’s drunk driving.
*****
Lucinda was fourteen years old, and she had just run away from the dreadful orphanage she was placed in for the nth time. The lady in-charge was mean and liked to beat children up, and she knew from the first week that she’d rather stay in the streets than grow up in such an environment. The lady had taken a liking to her on the second day, and even now the bruises on her arms and stomach still hadn’t faded.
She’d grown skinny as she thieved her way into survival, unable to bring herself to steal too much and have the people she’d stolen from suffer, in case they actually needed the money. Finn watched her skin sag and her bones show, watched as she slept behind random dumpsters at night and tried to keep the shivering at bay. Some kids joined her sometimes, but she b
asically kept to herself, not wanting to draw any unwanted attention. She was beautiful even at that age, hair so fine under all the dirt and eyes that could haunt you with a look.
It was disarming.
*****
Lucinda was nineteen years old, and she was just starting to close the cash register for the night. She’d been working in the convenience store for more than a year now, and the money she earned was kept in a tin can inside a secret abandoned building. She wanted to go to school, wanted to keep up with the knowledge of the world and read tons and tons of whatever textbooks she could get her hands on.
It was almost one in the morning, and she had to lock the store up before she left. Lucinda’s mind was so preoccupied with the amount of her savings that she didn’t see the boy creep up behind her—didn’t hear the footsteps until it was too late.
Finn shouted, but no sound came out of his mouth. A vision was all this was, and there was nothing he could do as the boy clamped a hand on her mouth and forced her away from the store and into the van nearby. Two more boys were inside, and her green eyes widened as she recognized one of them.
“Tommy, don’t,” she pleaded as they locked the door and forced her down, undressing her as tears streamed down her face. She pleaded with Tommy, pleaded with them to spare her, but their hazy eyes didn’t understand and didn’t care. Finn roared soundlessly as they took turns with her, not stopping even once her screams had died—not stopping even as she lost consciousness when the force of their abuse was too much.
She woke up again after a while, and they took turns raping her once more, before throwing her into the nearby bushes and driving off into dawn.
I’m sorry, Finn kept saying as she lay there immobile, the tears now dry on her face. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. He felt like he was going crazy, unable to imagine the agony she’d gone through even while he witnessed it firsthand. I’m sorry you were alone.
The turning in his stomach had gone, replaced by a hollowness that stayed there for a long time.
Hours later, the vampire came and took her blood, giving his blood in return and starting the process of her change. The face of John Grimaldi III was silhouetted in the night as he took her to his home and told her everything was going to be all right.
Dragon: The Clan Legacy Series Page 16