by Marcy Jacks
Angel put his pants back on but then had an idea when he reached for his shirt.
He hoped Theron wouldn’t be insulted, but Angel went through his middle drawer, the one Angel had seen him open up when Theron had reached for a fresh shirt.
There weren’t many clothes inside. Not when Angel compared it to the number of clothes his vampire masters had.
When compared to the clothes Angel had in his former position as one of Varrick’s slaves, it was a lot.
There were three other shirts inside. Two of them T-shirts.
All of them would be much too big for Angel, considering Theron’s size. The length of his shoulders alone…
Angel reached into the drawer and grabbed the red shirt.
It had no design on it. It was just a plain shirt with a pocket over the chest.
But it smelled like Theron did, and when Angel put it on, he felt almost as if the alpha was hugging him.
It was definitely too big. It didn’t go down to his knees or anything, but if Angel had a twin brother, he could fit him in here, as well.
Angel reached for his socks and shoes, putting them back on. He didn’t want to be alone in here. He wanted to be with other people while the alphas were doing…whatever it was they were doing.
At least this way, if Angel went to be with the other omegas, they might have a better idea of what was going on.
There was enough noise in the house that Angel knew the attack hadn’t made it here yet. He was glad for that, and all he had to do to find the other omegas and where they were hiding was follow his ears.
He followed them to the library.
Miles was definitely there. So was Micah, holding his baby, and the two humans who had worked for Varrick were also there.
Angel briefly froze at the sight of the guns holstered to their hips, but then he calmed himself.
They weren’t alphas, but they were well trained, and the guns were most likely to defend the people in the library should anyone break in.
Zane looked at him, and the human smiled softly.
Angel barely allowed him to smile back. Even though Zane and Josh had worked for Varrick, he didn’t hold much of a grudge against them. He knew how it could be for the humans. They didn’t understand what they were getting involved in until it was much too late.
That didn’t mean he was all that comfortable around them.
Angel ignored the other omegas for the most part until he spotted the other two he’d come to this house with. They were sitting in a small group. Cole was there, as well, his piercings glistening in the light of the library.
Angel walked over to the group but then stopped short when the fourth person in their circle turned.
He froze.
Sorin. Again, Sorin. Angel hadn’t realized it was him because his clothes were so…common. He wasn’t wearing anything fine. Jeans and a plaid shirt over a white /t-shirt looked odd on him, and Angel was still adjusting to it.
He was going to have to get used to it, fast, if he wanted to avoid another encounter like this.
Cole smiled at him, as did the other two omegas, who, strangely, didn’t seem to mind that one of their former masters was sitting amongst their ranks.
“Angel,” Cole said, reaching his hand out. “Are you going to come sit with us?”
Angel looked at Cole and then back at Sorin.
* * * *
Van couldn’t believe the size of such a tunnel. And he couldn’t believe there were so many of them.
It explained why the bloodsuckers had such an easy time getting in and out of the house whenever they pleased.
“Kind of interesting that Varrick thought to make tunnels like these,” he said. He needed someone to talk to about this.
It was too cool to not talk about, even if the only other company he had to talk to in the entire tunnel were vampires dressed in black and a few beta wolves.
One of the vampires nodded, as though the look of this place was nothing new at all. “Lord Varrick isn’t the first incredibly wealthy man to dig tunnels in and out of his home.”
“Right, I guess drug cartels and human traffickers are just as paranoid about getting caught by the police.”
Eight of the dozen or so vampires in the tunnel with Van and the five betas were not wearing their protective masks. Not yet. They were just wearing the black uniform. Which allowed Van to see the way each vampire looked at him with raised brows.
And suspicion.
Van raised his hands, backing off on the subject. “Not saying anything against Lord Varrick. It’s just interesting how his mind works is all.”
“I understand,” said the vampire, though he didn’t sound as though he understood at all.
Van smiled at him, though he made a mental note to keep his mouth shut, at least for now.
He didn’t want to give too much away to the bloodsuckers he was forced to travel with.
That wouldn’t turn out well for the people he was trying to save.
And he didn’t want these guys getting too close to Micah, either.
His heart ached to think of the omega. It had been so long since he’d felt Micah’s touch, and he still dreamed of that day when Micah had found him in the halls, bleeding and broken after Lucian’s vicious attack.
Micah had saved him, brought him back to his room where his wounds could be tended, and for that, Van owed the beautiful omega with the mismatched eyes everything.
He was doing this for Micah. He hoped Stefan wasn’t taking advantage of the omega too much.
One day he would be able to come home, and on that day, he would be able to convince Micah that Van was really the right choice.
Until then, Van was forced to do these little bullshit jobs for a vampire.
The tunnel was long, long enough that the entrance to it was over a mile and a half away.
Something like this wasn’t simply dug into the earth with a few shovels, and it didn’t take a couple of days either or a few months.
The construction of this thing must have involved many experts, a lot of machinery, and manpower.
Thank God there were some lights on every twenty feet or so. Otherwise the darkness and length of the thing might have creeped him out a little more.
There was a set of tracks on the floor of the tunnel for a vehicle to run on, but when the vampires tried turning it on, it proved to be broken.
Which let them all walking.
It sucked, but it was still a short walk for what they were going to be doing.
Important work wasn’t supposed to be easy, after all.
Van thought this plan would go down without a hitch. He thought he would make it back into the house, be able to check on Micah, prevent the vampires from doing too much damage until he found Seth, and then continue on his mission.
He honestly didn’t expect for Seth to come to him in the middle of the tunnel.
Or for a number of other dragons to be with him, almost all the alphas, including a few Van had never before seen.
He frowned. It seemed Seth had been busy since Van had been cast out.
“Hey, Van,” Seth said. “Why am I not surprised to find you leading the charge?”
Van growled. He clenched his fists but then unclenched them at the sight of Lucian.
Then he smiled. “How’s your pet bloodsucker doing? I hope his face isn’t too fucked up after he cooked in the sun. Was he a little overdone when you got him?”
Lucian bared his teeth, revealing long fangs in his mouth. He stormed forward only two steps before a hand reached out, stopping him.
Stefan’s hand. Of course. Van forced himself to not look at the alpha. If he looked at Stefan, he would only be reminded of the things that had been taken from him. That was the last thing he wanted.
The vampires around Van, the ones who hadn’t put their masks on yet, quickly did.
“How did you find this place?” Van asked, smiling, because he knew he was in control. He knew almost everything. “I didn�
��t even know about this place until Varrick showed it off in the plans.”
Seth growled. “Right, we know about the tunnels. You didn’t know that I installed cameras on the entrance or broke that stupid cart you’d set up. I’m going to fill that fucking hole with cement when I’m done with you. I might even do it while you and your vampire friends are still in it.”
Van glared at Seth for that.
He couldn’t have the idiot doing that. Not yet.
Van looked back. He noted the way the vampires reached for their weapons. Their Tasers and shock sticks.
They crouched down, bending their knees just enough, as though getting ready to spring at any moment.
Van then looked to the betas. He nodded to them. “All right, boys, it’s time to get to work.”
His words weren’t that odd to the vampires, which was probably why the betas were so easily able to sneak up on the vampires even after Van had given away what should have been the obvious clue to what they were doing.
The three betas came up behind three of the vampires. They snapped their necks so quickly that it left the remaining vampires unaware of what had happened until it was almost too late.
Almost.
They turned, and they began to fight. Van stopped out of their way, moving back to the original four who had kept their masks on from the moment they’d left the house. He grabbed the shoulder of one then barked at the other three, getting their attention. “Off with your masks. Hurry up. I don’t want anyone getting confused about whose side you’re on now.”
The four men nodded, and even through their masks, Van could tell they were stunned. Their eyes were probably wide and their mouths dropped wide open. He was good at reading them like that.
They pulled their masks off their heads, revealing wolf ears of varying colors pressed flat against their heads.
One man had his ears cut off, and he had to wear a bandanna to keep harsh wind and stray dust out of the ear holes.
Van had wanted to bring him along because the omegas seemed to be in the most danger for additional abuse if he’d stayed behind.
He looked back at the fight taking place.
With the three betas and the dragons tearing into the vampires, overpowering them and killing them before they had any chance to really get their shit together, it was over almost too quickly.
Van would have felt badly for them if he’d been able to give a shit about their kind.
It seemed the vampires weren’t all that graceful, or powerful, in a fight when there wasn’t so much open space. They couldn’t simply duck into another room in a tunnel like this. Totally trapped.
The three betas backed off quickly when the last of the vampires were down. They came to stand beside Van, and since Van was already standing in front of the four omegas, it made for a nice protective wall.
A dragon that Van had never seen before, a man with a shaved head and a dark, earthy skin tone, stepped forward. “You’d better hand over those vampires if you don’t want us to do the same to you.”
Van crossed his arms, enjoying it very much when the betas on either side of him growled back at the man.
“You might want to get your eyes checked,” Van said, stepping aside just enough so Seth could see the ears on one of the cowering omegas.
It was clear that Seth saw them by the expression on his face.
“Are those…are you serious? You brought omegas here?”
“It was hard enough killing the vampires who were supposed to be here and sneaking these guys in their place.” Van glared at Seth. “I’d like to see you pull together the balls to do the shit that I’ve been doing to keep these guys alive.”
He looked to the omegas. “That’s your alpha now. Go and stand next to him. Pledge your allegiance. He won’t hurt you.”
The omegas looked at Seth, then Van, and back again.
Van growled. “Don’t make me say it twice.”
He was already having enough trouble with a few of the omegas chickening out on him. He’d had to put two of them down who had threatened to go to Varrick.
He hadn’t liked doing that. He didn’t come this far with these four just for them to puss out and try to go back to Varrick’s mansion.
Luckily, the four of them walked by Van, slowly at first, but each one of them did as they were told, and each one briefly touched Van’s arm in thanks as they walked by.
Lucian growled. “What, are these supposed to be spies?”
“No,” Van said, folding his arms and trying desperately to squash down the irritation he felt for the other man. “They’re more omegas I’m rescuing since you and Seth and all the rest of you assholes are too busy living it up in that house instead of doing real work. So I’m doing it for you. Seth wants to be the savior of the omegas? Well, now you can save these ones.”
Van didn’t particularly like the way Seth looked at the omegas, as though he didn’t trust them. As though he wanted to strip-search them just to make sure they weren’t going to betray him or some stupid bullshit like that.
He looked back at the other dragons around him.
“Marxus, take these four back to the house. Figure out what’s going on and what their stories are if they’ll talk.”
“They’re former prisoners of Varrick,” Van said, glaring at his former alpha. “They’re not prisoners for you to interrogate.”
“Yeah? Well, too damned bad, I want answers,” Seth said.
Van growled. “Still a prick. Good to know.”
“Right, I am a prick,” Seth said. “I’m the only prick in town that you trust enough to help you, that you trust enough to bring a bunch of scared omegas to. So don’t give me that holier-than-thou horseshit.”
Seth narrowed his eyes. “What are you up to?”
Van was getting real sick of this. “What I’ve always been up to. I’m helping the omegas. I’m doing it because they need help, and I’m not doing it just because they happened to come with the nice, bright, and shiny house that Varrick built on your land.”
Seth raised a brow at him. “Uh-huh. Does this have anything to do with you wanting to impress Micah?”
Stefan growled at the question, and he glared at Van.
Van flipped both of them off. “Not any of your fucking business. And if you want me to bring you more omegas, you’ll leave that tunnel open.”
“You should have brought more omegas because I’m definitely closing it now.”
Van’s eyes flew wide. He heard the shocked noises and then the growls from the betas beside him.
“What the fucking hell would you do something like that for?” Van demanded. “I just told you that I’m going to bring more omegas through it.”
“Uh-huh, and ignoring the fact that I don’t trust you enough to not take advantage of this tunnel or tell Varrick that I know about it. I’m not risking that you’re just doing this to get close to Micah again. I’m especially not taking the risk of something like this staying open for Varrick to take advantage of. We find a tunnel, and we block it off. That’s the way it works.”
“I know,” Van said. “It’s been going around Varrick’s house how pissed off he’s getting at you for that.”
“Good, does that mean this is the last tunnel? It looks like it might be. It actually opened up beneath the pool table, and there can only be so many of these.”
Van gritted his teeth. There was nothing he could say that Seth couldn’t catch onto. The man would know he was lying no matter what he said, so he stayed silent, and Seth gave him that annoying smirking expression.
“I guess that means it is. If Varrick wants to come after the house again, then he’s going to have to settle with attacking the outside of it instead of worming his way through tunnels.”
“You motherfucker.” Van was seething, he really was. “I’m trying to save as many people as I can over there, and you don’t give a shit.”
The betas beside him growled, as though in agreement. It wasn’t their agreement Van needed
. It was Seth’s.
“Right, you don’t get to pretend that you’re above all this shit when you left Sorin out to die in the sun after he did everything possible to save Lucian. That’s not your right.”
“Vampire lover,” muttered one of the betas beside Van. He definitely wasn’t going to tell the man to shut up.
What he’d said was true.
Lucian, on the other hand, growled at the beta.
“Say that shit again and I promise I’ll smash your teeth on the floor.”
“You can’t threaten to hurt him,” Van said. “He’s a slave. You can’t do anything to him that no one else hasn’t already done. He knows the score. He’s willing to take risks to make sure the omegas get out.”
“We’re coming for them,” Seth said. “I just need to safeguard the house and my mate first.”
“Of course. Take your time while hundreds of omegas lose hope that you’re going to be coming at all.”
Seth looked at him, looked at him in the way Van was beginning to get used to, when it came to him.
He expected a lecture, a lecture on how Seth thought Van was using the omegas to feel important or something, but it never came.
“Anyway, just take these omegas back with you. I’ll head back with these betas, and we’ll say that you ambushed us. It’s practically true anyway.”
“What are you going to do about the fact that none of you are injured?” Seth asked.
Van smiled. “We’ve got that figured out, but there are a couple of bloodsuckers watching the end of the tunnel. If you want, you can help us take care of them so we can get out of her.”
When Seth smiled back at him, Van got the feeling that he’d underestimated his former alpha more than he’d thought. “We’ve already got that taken care of.”
Chapter Nine
It wasn’t as easy as Theron would have liked, considering he wanted to get back to Angel, like, ten minutes ago, but the three idiots who were wandering around with their dicks in hand by the door to the tunnel needed to be taken care of.
It was such a small door. Maybe one person at a time could fit through it. It was definitely well hidden. Theron was shocked Seth had managed to find it, even with the help of those two humans who used to work these grounds.