by Cecy Robson
“Tribemaster?” I asked, despite knowing what she meant.
“The demon lord, Ceel. The real one.” She shook her head. “I don’t think the creatures we fought at Death Valley were it. I think we’d fought . . . his babies.”
My body scorched with newfound pain as my pulse raced. If Shayna was right, we fared far worse than I could have imagined. The demons Danny had called forth tossed the weres around like pillows and almost killed us. No way did I want to meet Papa.
Emme sealed her lids tight. “What do you think they’re going to do to us? They’re hungry, I can see it. But they haven’t . . .”
Tried to eat us? Emme had a point. Why wait? The Tribe had a plan for us. But what did we have that they could want? I didn’t want to find out. I scanned our dirty metal cave. A single bulb dully lit the area around us. Otherwise, the compartment was dark and empty, and reeked of rust and garbage. I pushed up to a standing position. “Any idea where we are or how long we’ve been driving?”
“No,” Shayna answered.
I spit some blood onto the filthy floor. “Well, screw this. Come on.”
I shimmied against the sides. Shayna and Emme grunted, barely able to roll. Emme shook her head. “We can’t, Celia. Maybe it’s your metabolism burning through the magic of the bullets. But you’re in better shape than we are.”
My brain hammered against my skull, and blood continued to pool in my mouth. My sisters could barely crawl. Dear Lord, how was I going to get us out of here? “Just try, okay? I’m going to play with the door to see if I can get it open. If we’re on an open highway, maybe someone will see us.”
I reached the roll-up door and anchored my foot beneath a metal latch. The semi clashed in a percussion of steady bounces, sending me sprawling into my sisters. I twisted forward again, banging into the door when the truck came to an abrupt halt.
The air brakes had barely stopped screeching when the trailer door swung open, momentarily blinding me with bright sunlight. Before I could react, two demon children dragged me out of the semi with their clawed hands. I flinched away from their serpentine tongues licking my face and squinted wildly, trying to keep a position on my sisters.
Emme cowered and cried harder. Shayna kicked and flailed, making the Tribesmen holding her laugh. I decided not to fight. No, not yet. I needed to conserve my remaining energy. If Emme was right, I’d get my strength back somehow.
Misha, Misha, where are you?
Even as I called Misha, I thought of Aric, hoping he and the other wolves were tracking us. The thought of what might happen in the meantime, though, made me panic, so I willed myself to relax. My sisters needed me, and I needed a plan.
I took in my surroundings, trying to figure out where the hell we were. Before us stood an imposing building resembling a castle, its high walls and towers fashioned from tan and gray brick. At first, I thought we were someplace foreign, until a large sign in front of the building gave away our exact location.
The Old Idaho Penitentiary
Tours Sunday through Saturday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
I focused hard on the sign and thought of Misha, hoping our call would somehow transfer the information.
I hadn’t concentrated long before our demon captors hauled us through the gate and into a large courtyard where a slew of Tribesmen awaited us. The courtyard mimicked a well-manicured and surprisingly pretty park, unlike the lockdown unit we entered next.
Tribesmen crammed the unit. The former prison had become their lair. As we were dragged through, weres and vampires catcalled and whistled while demons greedily licked their fangs. They taunted in an obvious attempt to frighten us. It worked. I tried to edge away from their unnerving stares only to encounter disturbing visions that sent my heart fluttering into a frenzy.
Hundreds of cells, each housing one nightmare after the next, lined the three-story-high enclosure. Naked women in varying stages of pregnancy crammed several cells nearest to us. A few of these broken souls curled on the filthy floor, quiet and still, reeking of urine and feces. Others cackled in hysteria, clawing at their bodies or pounding their heads viciously against the cinder block walls. Worse yet were the parasites that crawled beneath the surface of their bellies. I shuddered, understanding then what had become of the women who’d disappeared. The slaughtered men had gotten off easy.
Emme and Shayna shut their eyes, but I couldn’t do the same. I needed to know everything we faced. But then I saw her. The awkward young woman from the club the night we were attacked. The one ignored by the males who’d flirted with her friends. My God, I hadn’t realized she’d been one of those missing. I searched her face for any signs of verve or hope. Only to have her dead eyes stare past me, an empty shell of what once held promise.
The demon wrenched me away before I could pledge to help her. But as the being stealing her life squirmed the length of her protruding stomach, I knew nothing could spare her now.
About halfway down the cement corridor, the Tribesmen stopped unexpectedly. Inside the adjacent cell lay a pregnant woman screaming and convulsing violently. It was hard to watch the suffering, mostly because there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.
What happened next, though, proved more than I could bear. The woman’s stomach erupted like a bloody volcano, splattering the paint-chipped bars and cracked floor with nauseating fluid. From her remains, a demon child’s head emerged. His clawed hands carved open the rest of her body. His tongue eagerly lapped the blood caking his face. Once free, he jumped against the bars, making the vampire and werebear holding me shudder. They gagged as his revolting and putrid-smelling form writhed next to us. I vomited uncontrollably, unable to take the gore.
One of the larger demons opened the cage and grabbed the newborn by the throat. He tossed him in the adjacent cell, then flung the woman’s lifeless body into the heap. That cell housed a flock of them, happily munching away on what remained of their mothers.
The next block contained about thirty vampires in the late phases of bloodlust, chained at their necks and waists to the rear walls. Judging by their size and degree of starvation, the bars alone wouldn’t have held them. As we passed, it became apparent that even the chains weren’t enough. One of the bloodlusters broke free and took hold of the werebear through the bars. The bloodluster tore into the bear’s throat and drained him in a matter of seconds.
A horde of demon children serving as guards tried to contain her as the others hauled ass to our final destination. A vampire yanked open a large metal door, with a tiny window, leading to the prison’s former death row. Death row. Awesome. Irony had a way of spitting in my face. I only wished I could punch back.
Only four cells and a short hallway composed death row. Our captors shoved us into one cell together, but they didn’t shut the barred door right away. One of the werewolves lugged me to my feet by the front of my T-shirt. He sniffed my neck in a way that made my stomach roil.
“Leave her alone!” Shayna screamed.
“No! Please no!” Emme begged.
I was too scared to move.
“What are you doing, Bryan?” one of the vamps asked.
The wolf’s breath was hot and nasty. “I want to taste Aric’s whore.”
Terror gripped me when he licked my neck, and I began to hyperventilate. But when he groped my breasts, my fear turned to rage. I swore once I’d never let anyone hurt me that way again, so I leaned back and slammed my head hard into his face.
Blood spurted from his nose like a jet stream. His fist drew back, but my dulled reflexes slowed my response. His blow launched me into the cinder block wall, where stars exploded in my vision and my body collapsed like sand.
A sick throbbing sound pulsated behind my left ear before a rush of fluid seeped out. I tried to stand when I saw him coming, only to immediately topple over. Shayna and Emme scrambled in front of me in a pathetic attempt to shield me. But I knew they were powerless to stop him.
Just when I thought he would kill us, the vampire twisted
the were’s arm behind his back and pulled him away. “Tribemaster wants them alive,” he told the were.
The were growled. “That whore is mine! No one hits me and lives.”
The vampire rolled his eyes. “Relax, idiot, you’re already healing. Besides, do you really want to be fed to the demons over this stupid bitch?”
The were stormed away, foaming at the mouth and swearing. The threat of death by hungry demons proved a suitable deterrent. The others followed, slamming the metal door behind them.
The bleakness of our situation hit Emme and Shayna all at once. They collapsed against each other and sobbed. The room swayed and turned repulsing colors, yet my sisters’ despair compelled me to gather my senses.
I scooted toward them, although my body begged me not to move. “I have a plan.”
“What?” Shayna stammered.
“We’re going to cut these ropes. Shayna, you have to sharpen something—anything—no matter how small.”
Shayna let out a shaky breath. “I don’t know if I can. I’m so busted up.”
“Emme suspended Taran in midair after being shot. You can do this. I know you can. Start looking for anything you might be able to transform.” I turned to Emme, sounding more optimistic than I felt. “Can you use your force to manipulate the locking mechanism?”
“I’ll try.” She shook her head. “But, Celia, what good will that do? There are hundreds of Tribesmen and only three of us. We’ll be slaughtered.”
“There won’t be just three of us, Emme.” I swallowed more pooling liquid in my mouth. “You see, we’re going to release the infected vampires.”
CHAPTER 30
Shayna went to work following her initial shock. She tried a faucet from the old broken sink and the chains supporting the beds, but the alloys proved too thick and she remained too weak to transform them. Emme thought to use a piece of broken bedspring. I pried it loose and dropped it in her hands. After several efforts to draw her power, Shayna’s gift triggered and released between her fingers. A glimmer of light spiraled along the metal, changing its shape into a tiny sword, slightly larger than the plastic kind used in cocktails and with a blade thick and deadly enough to slice through stone. Yes, that will do.
Shayna panted and paled, immediately slicing the ropes that bound my wrists. I freed her and Emme, and then Emme unlocked our cell. Their efforts wiped them out, but there was no time to waste. We hugged each other quickly and headed for the door leading out of death row.
I peered through the small window. Only four vampires stood guard by the door. The lockdown unit boomed loudly with manic cackles and famished hisses, loud enough to distract the vamps from noticing me. Uncertainty punctured through to my skull until I spotted the locking mechanism closest to where the infected vampires were housed.
Emme stood at my urging and nodded when I pointed to her target. I held my breath and watched, praying she had enough strength left. Her face reddened from her grueling effort, but the latch did move, inch by agonizing inch. Finally she gave one last mental heave and about thirty cells popped open.
For a moment, everything went quiet. But then the bloodlusters recognized their golden opportunity. And took full advantage.
They broke through their chains and out of their cells, turning the unit into an all-you-can-eat buffet. Mayhem erupted. I grabbed my sisters and hauled them along. It was hard. I limped badly, but still fared better than Emme. She barely managed to stay on her feet. We crept along the walls until we snuck behind a huge werebison pummeling his way toward the exit.
Misha, if you’re coming, now would be a good time to show up.
No one noticed our escape at first. I’d just caught the first whiff of fresh air when a werecat clinging to the rafters yelled and pointed our way. By chance, the only attention he received was from a charging bloodluster. He tackled the werecat and brought him down to the cracked concrete, cutting off the cat’s gurgled screech in one voracious bite.
We hit the yard and I immediately dragged my sisters behind a row of bushes. The expanse was too open to cross without being seen, so we adhered to the shadows and shrubbery along the building until we reached the rear of the prison. I peeked around the bushes. No one seemed to be around, but my senses remained too dulled for me to be certain.
I tried shifting into the ground, hoping to transport us beneath the wall and away from this nightmare. Except my body remained stubbornly aboveground, and my head pounded from the effort. I gathered my prowess and turned to my sisters. “Okay, you’re going over the wall. Stand on my hands and I’ll throw you to the top.” I knelt by Emme and cupped my hands to show her. “Try to roll as you land. It’ll help absorb the impact and prevent you from getting hurt.”
Emme glanced toward the high wall. “What about you? How will you get over?”
Emme’s eyes widened the longer it took me to answer. Shayna grabbed my arm. “You aren’t coming with us, are you?”
“I can’t, Shayna.”
Her breaths released in short, horrified bursts. “Is it because of Aric?”
“No. It’s because I want you to live.” I swallowed hard. “It won’t take the Tribe long to discover we’re gone. If I can distract them from finding you, I will.”
Emme flung her arms around my neck. “Celia, we can’t leave you.”
“You have to.” I ripped Emme off and held her away. “Just go. Misha will find me in time.” I dragged them to the wall before they could argue.
Tears slicked Shayna’s face. “What if Misha doesn’t show?”
I stilled, knowing Misha might not arrive in time. “Then don’t let me die in vain.”
Shayna allowed me to toss her, though she continued to openly weep. In my weakened state, I barely managed to get her to the ledge. She hung on with her good arm and used her legs to climb the rest of the way. Her thighs straddled the wall as she waited for Emme.
I sent Emme soaring, only to have a demon child catch her midair while another swooped down and captured Shayna. We had come so close!
“Going somewhere?” a grotesque voice gurgled behind me.
I spun around. A clawed hoof caught me in the chest and shoved me to the ground. To my right, demon children restrained Emme and Shayna. They cried when the creatures hissed menacingly and snapped at them with their fangs.
The demon that held me dug his dagger-sharp nails deeper to gain my attention. I let out a pained grunt. “I am Matar, the Tribemaster,” he said. “Father of your unborn children.”
Chills pelted my body like sleet. Matar’s voice triggered a memory I’d long since suppressed. I’d been wrong. The demon Aric fought in Death Valley had not been the one to possess Misha. That one, and the one I’d killed, had lacked the speech capacity and the shrewd gleam dominating the demon lord that held me. The Death Valley demons had been more hungry carnivores, in search of food. Matar . . . his red eyes blinked back at me with the keen intelligence of a true predator.
Jesus.
Matar towered eight feet above me. Hideous yellow fangs glowed against his silver-scaled body and wings, wrinkling in the grooves of his face and giving him a scarred appearance. And to complete the scary-monster-from-hell look, he flaunted a snakelike tail that whipped around to caress my cheek. “I’ve been watching you since first learning of your exoneration from vampire court.” Matar motioned to the side, where the damned wereweasel who’d photographed Aric and me snickered. If I wasn’t pinned down and terrified, I would have killed the shifty bastard.
My head angled back to face off with my captor. Aric feared his presence would place me in danger. Here, I’d managed to do that on my own. Yet I failed to feel regret just then. What I did feel was resentment, and hate. Matar and his band of goddamn misfits had tortured, kidnapped, killed, and raped, spilling enough blood and horror to overflow a river. My jaw clenched. “What the hell do you want with me?”
“I told you. I want to breed with you, Celia. And your sisters.” Matar’s voice reverberated with desire. His c
lawed fingers tugged the waistband of my jeans. “The problem was stealing you from those who guard you. I tired of waiting and ordered my tribe to take you yesterday. No matter the price.” Matar’s face twisted into a gruesome smile. “I’m only disappointed they failed to obtain your other sister. She sounds delicious.”
Matar’s sentence structure was casual, very unlike the sinister tone of his voice, which rumbled as if he gargled with broken glass. God, he literally looked and sounded like hell.
I tried to squirm, but couldn’t budge under the weight of his foot. “Why us?” I choked.
The claw on Matar’s big toe poked my already injured shoulder. I gasped, biting back a scream. He frowned, displeased by my lack of suffering. “Like all my brothers, I am the product of a demon father and a witch mother. Our mothers’ magical strength makes us indestructible and allows us to spend unlimited time on earth.”
Matar’s head tilted to the side as his toe dug deeper into my flesh. This time I couldn’t squash my shriek. Matar smiled, satisfied. “Powerful magic wielders are scarce, Celia. We’ve fertilized mostly humans, giving us spawn, but none that matched our power. Then you and your sisters came to my attention.” His body shuddered with obvious arousal. “With your magic, and my spores, the unimaginable will rise from your wombs.”
“Oh my God,” Emme whimpered behind me.
I knew how she felt. Every hair on my body stood at attention and begged for a quick death. “Why destroy the weres and the vamps?” I asked in hope of distracting him from our apparently enticing wombs. It didn’t work. The scent of his increasing arousal reached my human nose and clenched my bowels.