She looked at the grotty padded walls and in the back of her mind was an unwelcome thought. What if I belong here? What if none of it is real and I really am just crazy?
The voice of the older girl who had tormented her in the care home echoed through her mind. She quickly shook off the intrusive thoughts.
Without windows it was hard to really gauge the passing of time, thought she would guess that it was the early hours of the morning. She felt fatigue creep up on her, and even though there were two men in the room guarding her, she briefly considered lying down and seeing if she could sleep.
Before she could think on it anymore the door opened and Sera braced herself, fully expecting to see Price coming for her. She gasped as the familiar figure of Eva walked through the door.
“Sera, dear,” Eva greeted her with a warm smile. The vampire queen was wearing a deep red dress with a plunging neckline. Sera suspected she never dressed in anything other than full evening wear.
“What are you…it was you,” Sera said as she scooted farther away on the bed. After everything Henri had said about vampires honoring bonds with their humans, she couldn’t believe it. There was a split second where she thought Eva was there to rescue her on Henri’s behalf but she soon realised how unlikely that was.
Eva came and sat down on the edge of the bed. She approached Sera like she was a wounded animal she didn’t want to spook. Well, it was too late for that.
“I’m sorry for the way my people took you,” Eva told her, talking to her as though she were a child. “But I think that in time you’ll come to see that it’s truly for the best.”
“Henri and Leo will kill you for this,” Sera told her with a sneer.
Eva sighed and reached out a hand to tuck a strand of Sera’s hair behind her ear. “Henri and Leo will never find you. They’ll go after Price. I expect to get a call from Henri anytime now asking for my help in finding you. I’ll play the part of the dutiful queen and comfort him in his loss.”
Sera didn’t know what to say. She had a terrible feeling that Eva could be right.
“Tell me, when did you last feed him, hmm?” Eva asked. Her hand was still playing with Sera’s hair. Sera remembered what she had feared from Price, being kept as a pet or a toy. She just about managed to suppress a shudder.
It had been more than a day, a day and a half perhaps, but she wasn’t going to tell Eva that.
“You have to wait for my blood to leave his system before you can bond with me, don’t you?” Sera asked. She pushed Eva’s hand away from her hair and scooted back farther against the headboard. “I fed him this evening, so you’ll have to wait at least two days.”
It would buy her some time at least.
She saw a flash of anger wash over the pleasant mask Eva had been wearing since she walked in, but the vampire soon regained her composure.
“Why don’t you get some rest, dear,” Eva told her as she stood from the bed. “You’re going to be here for quite some time.”
“What did you do to Andy?” Sera asked, wondering what had happened to her friend.
Evan smirked at her. “I made him immortal.”
Sera felt sick. Evan had used Andy like a pawn and destroyed his life all because he was in Sera’s life. All his plans for university had gone out the window. She remembered what Henri had said about his first few months as a vampire and the monster he became.
“In time, Andy will thank me,” Evan said. “As will you.”
Sera watched the vampire leave. She felt a measure of relief when her guards followed her out, that was until she heard the sound of bolts and chains locking her in.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The psychiatric hospital looked even more depressing than Leo had thought it would. He looked at the old building and imagined the horrors it had seen. It had been closed down in the seventies and had been empty until now. He knew that Sera had struggled her whole life with being different, being made to feel as if she was crazy. He hated that of all the places that bitch could have taken Sera, she chose there. It made him want to kill her all the more.
Besides Henri, Price, and himself, there were five of Price’s people. Leo had been skeptical that they wouldn’t need more until Price had told him that three of them were witches.
“Okay, I’ll go in closer, then you call her,” Leo told Henri. Not only was he a werewolf, he was a bounty hunter. Hunting people down was what he did.
Henri gave him a nod. They were a team, always, and now Sera was a part of their family. Not getting her back just wasn’t an option.
Leo opened up his senses and crept up to the building. He could hear three people, men, in the lobby. They were bitching about having to be there.
“This isn’t right,” one of them said. “There’s a reason she doesn’t want the rest of the coven to know about this.”
“She’s our queen,” another one said. “We serve her.”
“Doesn’t make it right,” the first man said.
Leo made eye contact with Henri across the parking lot and held up three fingers, indicating how many people there were inside.
Leo crept along the wall, making sure to duck when he came across a window. He stretched out his hearing, looking for any sign of Sera, or Eva. As he moved around the building he picked up the sounds of another seven people. They were scattered around the building, doing different things. He closed his eyes and dismissed them one by one until he heard a woman’s voice, Eva’s.
“Take over for Timothy and Mathew,” she said. “And if anyone touches her, I’ll do things to you that you couldn’t even dream up in your wildest nightmares. Understood?”
“Of course, Eva,” one of the men said.
Leo listened to the sound of her heels echoing through the empty halls. There was one thing Leo knew for certain. Tonight, Eva would die.
* * * *
There was a loud crashing sound, like glass breaking coming from the floor above. Sera tensed and went over to the door, putting her ear against it in an effort to hear what was going on.
There was another crash and a muffled cry of pain.
Was this it? Were Leo and Henri finally here?
“Leo!” she shouted as loud as she could. “Henri!”
She didn’t know what was happening above her but there were telltale sounds of fighting.
What if there’s too many of them? she thought. What if they can’t win?
She couldn’t just stand around and wait to see if they would survive long enough to get to her. She thought back to her last lesson with Carolynn and the fact she had managed to make a drinking glass move rather than shatter. She thought about the bottle she had suspended in the air.
It was a long shot but she was done being the victim, the damsel in distress, she had to at least try to get to them.
“Fuck,” she swore as she leaned her forehead again the cool metal door. She couldn’t see what was on the other side, but she had heard the sound of a bolt lock and a chain. She tried to calm her mind, like Carolynn had taught her, but it had been hard enough sitting in Carolynn’s peaceful garden knowing she had all the time in the world with nothing at stake. Now, wondering what was going to happen to the men she loved, and to herself, it was a lot harder.
“I can do this,” she said to herself. Carolynn had told her that the reason glass shattered when she became afraid was because all of her power rushed out of her at once. In order to move something she had to dial it back, nudge at it gently.
She focused her mind on the bolt, tried to picture it, and then imagined it slowly moving across.
“Come on,” she whispered as she imagined the same thing over and over again. “Come on.”
When she finally heard the bolt move, just a little at first, Sera felt her heart leap out of her chest.
“Yes,” she said. “That’s it, come on.”
She concentrated harder than she ever had before and managed to get the bolt to slide all the way across. There was no time for a victory celeb
ration, however, as there was still a hefty chain keeping the door shut.
She tried to see it in her mind and placed her hands on the door. She imagined a force passing through her and out through her hands. It wasn’t glass, but in theory it should work on any material as long as she found the right frequency. The longer she tried the more tired she felt. Finally, with an almighty scream she managed to force the lock on the chain to shatter.
Sera slumped against the door in relief. There was a small drop of blood on the floor from her nose that she ignored. She only allowed herself a moment to rest before she pulled open the door and stepped out into a dark corridor.
It was long and thin and Sera had seen more welcoming places in horror movies. There were doors just like hers that also had locks on them, but none of them were closed. Above her head, there was a row of strip lights. Only one of them was switched on and it was flickering ominously.
“Okay,” Sera said to herself. “There’s nothing to be scared of…except, of course, all the vampires upstairs.”
She made her way through the corridor to the stairs. It didn’t matter that she was a nephilim who had some sort of supernatural powers, walking in the near dark through the basement of what she was pretty sure was an abandoned psychiatric hospital was still scary. Whatever was waiting for her at the top of the stairs would no doubt be even scarier, but she couldn’t just leave Henri and Leo up there alone.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Leo felt the magic flow through his veins as the shift went through him. They had taken the vampires inside by surprise so that had given them an edge. He had pulled a sign post out of the ground and swung it at the window, smashing it in before they all jumped through it.
Leo typically didn’t get into fights very much, but this was the third one since meeting Sera. His life had definitely changed since the nephilim came barreling into it.
Now in his wolf form, Leo lunged at a vampire and sank his fangs into the man’s arm, dragging him down to the floor.
Henri, Price, and Price’s people were fighting as well, and it looked like they might actually win until Eva showed up with two more vampires in tow. Everyone stopped fighting as the queen approached.
“Henri!” she shouted. “Think about this. Think about what you’re doing? Is losing your life, your mate’s life, really worth it?”
Leo snarled and Henri pulled out a dagger.
“You took her from me,” Henri said, his voice low and dangerous. “You broke our most sacred law. I am well within my rights to kill you.”
“Don’t be I, Henri,” Eva seethed. “Rules were made to be broken. If you wanted to keep the girl from me then you really should have kept her hidden.”
“Like you?” Price said. The older vampire stood back looking cool and calm. “Is that your plan for Sera? To keep her locked away, hidden from the world, there for your every enjoyment and whim?”
“Price,” Eva said, acknowledging the other coven leader. “Why doesn’t it surprise me that you’ve wormed your way into this situation? Henri, dear, do you really think you can trust him? Do you really think you’re going to walk out of here with the nephilim? Even if you do kill me, Price will betray you, you know that. Surely one girl you’ve only known for a few short weeks isn’t worth all this.”
Leo growled again and Henri’s grip tightened on the dagger in his hand.
Price walked over to the broken window and peered out of it, feigning disinterest.
Henri gripped and held the dagger up and took two steps closer to Eva. “I don’t trust him, and I clearly can’t trust you. You know the rules, Eva, we all do. You broke one of our most sacred rules by endangering my bonded, and it is well within my right to have you killed.”
“And whoever kills you,” Price said as he examined the broken glass around the windowpane. “Takes over your coven.”
Faster than Leo was able to track, Price pulled a shard of glass from the windowpane and threw it at Eva. The sharp makeshift weapon embedded in her neck with an unpleasant sound.
Eva staggered backward and pulled the glass from her neck before turning her rage on Price and hissing at him like a pissed off cat. Everyone seemed to understand that it was the end of the temporary break as the fighting started up again.
A vampire jumped onto Leo’s back but one of Price’s witches threw something on him and he rolled across the floor screaming with his hands covering his face. Leo didn’t know what the witch had done to him, but he was glad that none of it had gotten on him.
Got to protect Henri, was the thought going through Leo’s head on a loop. While Price went in with the intention of finishing Eva off, Henri went after her two minions. They were outnumbered but Leo had already bitten one vampire, leaving him a writhing mess on the floor. He set his sights on another.
He felt something sharp stab his shoulder blade and he turned, snarling, only for the vampire to pull a sword free and swing it at Leo’s head. Leo just about rolled out of the way in time. The fighting went on until Leo started to feel exhaustion creep in. There didn’t seem to be any sign of it coming to an end. All he could hope was that Sera was safe.
It was as if thinking her name had summoned her. No one seemed to notice that Sera had joined them, not until she screamed and all the remaining windows in the place came smashing inward. Eva was pinned to a wall by several long slivers and Price was slashed by the onslaught. In fact, everyone there suffered injuries of some kind, except for Leo and Henri.
“Sera,” Henri shouted as he ran to her.
Leo was still bleeding and he could do little more than limp over to her. As soon as she saw him, she fell to her knees and leaned against him.
“Leo, you’re hurt.”
He shivered and let the magic pass through him. Sera was left in the arms of a naked and bloody man.
“I’ll be okay,” Leo assured her. “I’ve had worse.”
He looked at her and saw that there was blood trickling from her nose and her ears.
“Sera!” Henri cried in dismay. The sudden scent of nephilim blood had made some of the vampires go mad and a couple of them started running to her.
Price, picked up a sword and got between them, running through two of Eva’s men and one of his own.
“I’m okay,” Sera assured them. “I think I’m just tired.”
Henri placed a kiss on her forehead and hugged her close. Leo could already feel the wound on his shoulder start to knit back together.
Sera swooned a little on her feet as they stood and Leo easily grabbed hold of her, picking her up in his arms. It made him think of their first night together and the way he had carried her to their bedroom.
“You’ve seen what she can do,” Henri said as he turned to face Price. Price looked once more at Eva and saw the way her body twitched against the wall. There were seven long pieces of glass keeping her pinned there. “We had a deal, and I’m going to hold up my side. Eva’s all yours.”
Price nodded, a pleased smile starting to creep onto his face.
“But if you ever make the mistake of thinking you can come for Sera, Leo and I will be the least of your problems.”
He let the threat hang there. It was clear to everyone still alive that Sera was already a force to be reckoned with, and she had only been learning how to use her abilities for a couple of weeks.
Price nodded once again. “If I kill Eva, her coven becomes mine. You will be mine. To harm or take the bonded of a coven member is punishable by death. You may not like me, Henri, but that is a rule I would never break.”
Leo still didn’t trust the man, but then he suspected he never would. Still, that was a problem for another time. Right now all he wanted to do was get Sera and Henri home.
“You came for me,” Sera said in a sleepy voice as Leo carried her outside, still naked as the day he was born and not caring one bit. Henri was by his side, his hand resting comfortingly on the small of Leo’s back.
Leo held Sera a little closer. “We will always
come for you.”
* * * *
The unmistakable feeling of lips dragging over her bare skin woke Sera up. She felt like she had been asleep for a long time. There was a heavy fog around her that was hard to shake off.
She made an attempt at an appreciative noise but it came out sounding more like an annoyed whine.
She heard Leo chuckle, his mouth brushing softly over an exposed shoulder blade. “Good morning.”
Slowly, Sera opened her eyes and came face to face with the most beautiful man in existence, well, one of them.
“Morning,” she said as she blinked her eyes open and looked around the room. They were in the London apartment, but she didn’t remember getting home from the hospital. “Are you okay?”
Leo stroked her hair back from her face. “Am I okay? Luv, you’re the one we were worried about.”
“Where’s Henri?”
“He’s out on the balcony, making some calls,” Leo told her.
The werewolf was wearing a pair of boxer shorts but nothing else. He came to lie beside her and pulled her against his chest.
Leo leaned in and gave her a chaste kiss. “I love you.”
Sera smiled and pressed her face into the warmth of his neck. “I love you, too.”
The two of them lay like that for a while. It was so comfortable that Sera could have fallen asleep again but she heard the sound of the balcony door opening and she needed to look at Henri.
“You’re awake,” Henri said with a relieved smile. He walked over and sat down on the end of the bed. “You had us worried.”
“I’m fine,” she told him. She wasn’t lying either. She really did feel fine.
“I’ve spoken to Carolynn,” Henri told her. “She said that you shouldn’t use your abilities for a few days, and when you do use them again start with something small. She said that it’s like rehab after a pulled muscle.”
Henri was a little more dressed than Leo. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a pale gray T-shirt.
Welcome to the Underworld (Siren Publishing Menage Amour) Page 15