Enslaved by the Others (27 page)

Grunting with effort as he leaned his weight on me again, I wrapped my arm around his waist and shuffled forward. I managed to huff out a few words between pants after we made it to the door.

“Hey, if I can get you out of here in one piece, promise me something?”

“Depends. What?”

“First thing you do, take a shower.”

He laughed, and I was starting to think maybe we’d be all right after all.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

It took awhile for us to find Arnold and Sara. Gideon had some kind of connection to her that told him roughly where she was, but the problem was that, like me, he had been confined to a few specific rooms and wasn’t familiar with the layout of the building. He couldn’t tell what floor she was on, only when he was getting closer to her. It was a royal pain in the ass when we both realized that he’d taken us in a circle because she was either on the floor above or below us.

Plus he wasn’t a very good navigator in the dark, getting frustrated when I didn’t turn
right that second
when he told me to, usually when it was too late for me to cleanly maneuver us through doors or around corners. Ass. At least there weren’t too many rooms with the lights off.

Considering Kimberly and the vampires with her had gone after the captives belowground, I was willing to bet that Arnold and Sara must have gone in search of them once they lost track of us. They must have thought that was where we went, too.

By the time the thought occurred to me, I was already on the verge of exhaustion and Gideon’s grip on me had slipped a couple of times due to his growing weakness. He’d tied his handkerchief around his neck, and he’d stopped bleeding awhile ago, but being upright wasn’t doing him any good. He needed rest, and so did I.

The only bright spot in my day was that the way to the underground cells wasn’t hard to find once we did a bit of backtracking. The trail of blood helped.

Dark red footprints led to and from the hole that had been pounded in the security door. Judging by the way the metal behind the veneer of shredded silkscreen wallpaper was twisted and bent inward, one of the vampires had decided busting through was a more expedient method of getting inside than letting Kimberly try Arnold’s tactic of shorting out the locking mechanism’s circuitry.

I examined the entryway with a wary eye, then glanced up at Gideon. The muscles in his jaw were tight, but I wasn’t sure if it was from pain or nervousness. “You got any magic tricks up your sleeve if we run into trouble?”

“Not really, but desperation is the mother of invention.”

“I thought that was necessity.”

“That fits, too.”

The temptation to run my hand down my face in exasperation was strong, but thanks to the tacky coat of ick on my hands, I wasn’t about to touch any part of myself without washing first. It was no wonder half the Others in the country wanted him dead. He was an annoying smart-ass, just like me. Blowing out an exasperated breath, I gestured as best I could with my off hand.

“Look, there’s no way I can carry you down those stairs. Stay up here and be ready to do your thing if something follows me back. And for God’s sake, don’t wander off.”

He made a face. “Like I could, even if I wanted to. You’re my Get Out of Jail Free card, Copper-top, so don’t go getting yourself killed. That would be really inconvenient for me.”

I rolled my eyes, tone gone dry. “How sweet, I didn’t know you cared.”

After setting him down by the top of the stairs, where he would have a clear view of both the hallway and the blood-spattered stairwell, I made my way down. I took it slow, fighting a growing sense of terror and claustrophobia. The last time I was down here, Max had kept me locked up in a tiny room, telling me I was nothing but a piece of property to be used or discarded on a whim. The vampires who had participated in his slave auction had been down here, every bit as ancient and formidable as Max. Some of them might have hung around, and I had no doubt I would be dead long before Gideon or anyone else could help me if they were waiting in the dark.

Still, there were other people trapped in the rooms below. Even if I didn’t have the advantage of claws and fangs and supernatural strength anymore, I had to do something to help them.

Telling myself that wasn’t making it any easier to take each successive step. Neither was the blood on the walls.

When I rounded the bend and could see down the corridor, I grimaced. The beautiful gold inlay in the hardwood was lost under a sea of red. There were bodies in the hall, not all of them in one piece. People-sized holes had been made in walls and doors, the smell of death and piss and desperation an overwhelming, smothering blanket. Every door was open, most of the rooms dark.

I’m not sure how long I stood there, but voices at the end of the hall, from the room with the statues, drew me forward. Beating down the growing sense of panic, I picked a long, sharp sliver of wood, which might once have been part of a door, out of the red muck, and stalked toward the rectangle of light at the far end.

Once I reached the doorway, I sagged in relief and dropped my gore-covered, makeshift weapon with a clatter. Arnold looked up from where he was wrapping a bandage around someone’s leg, and Sara rose from comforting a pale, shaking woman to wrap me in a fierce hug. Returning the gesture, I peered over her shoulder, taking stock of the survivors.

There were only two vampires standing, both looking distant and pale. I wasn’t totally thrilled that Fane was one of them. Kimberly was crouched by one of the statues, her head bowed and arms wrapped around her knees. Over a dozen people in shredded, red-spattered white robes huddled together, including an elf with a black eye and some kind of Other with patches of tawny fur that kept sprouting and disappearing on various parts of his body as I watched.

“Is everyone okay?”

Sara briefly tightened her grip, then pulled back and shook her head. She was a bit shaky, and there were a few tight lines of pain around her eyes, but there was a hard edge to her voice that spoke of her determination and courage.

“Max killed half our people before he rushed off. We’ve been patching up the survivors. Where did you go? Where’s Gideon and that woman?”

“Gideon’s waiting upstairs.” I moved inside, addressing everybody this time. “Max is dead. We need to get out of here. Come with us, we’ll help you.”

Most of them looked up at me, even Kimberly. A few huddled deeper into themselves, and one or two of the people in robes started sobbing in relief. I shifted in place, uncomfortable with the wave of thanks and grateful hugs and touches some of them gave me as they worked up the courage to approach.

One of them jabbered something in a language I didn’t recognize. German, maybe? She sounded scared and a little angry, but I wasn’t sure how to respond. Neither was anyone else, judging by the blank looks all around. She complied when the others gestured for her to follow us out, even though she was obviously wary and kept as much distance between herself and the vampires as possible.

I led the way back up, Fane making his way to the front of the crowd to walk beside me. His sharp features had gone stony and drawn, and he didn’t say anything, though he radiated tension. Whether from the battle or fear or hunger or something else, I couldn’t tell.

When we rounded the stairs, Gideon braced himself against the wall and struggled to his feet, relief etched across his face. The vampire stilled beside me, then was nothing but a blur.

Half a second later, he was holding the necromancer against the wall by the throat and the wrist of his tattooed hand.

“Fane, don’t!”

The vampire’s fangs were bared, eyes gleaming crimson as he hissed up at the squirming mage, whose face was going purple from lack of air. “You have no idea what this is. It can’t be suffered to live.”

I pounded up the stairs after him, tackling him around the waist before he could choke the life out of Gideon. The three of us fell with a heavy thump outside the hole in the wall. Something sharp sliced across my upper arm as we fell, and I was pretty sure the other two hadn’t made it through unscathed, but it had the desired effect of startling Fane into letting the necromancer go.

Gideon clawed at the runner, trying to drag himself out from under us, but all he managed to do was pull the strip of carpet closer. The vampire snarled and struggled to grab at the necromancer again, but I straddled his back, putting all my weight into him, and whacked him as hard as I could on the back of the head.

“Leave him alone! He’s not a danger to you!”

“Like hell,” Gideon panted, then yelped as the vampire’s hand came down on his shoulder. The yelp quickly turned into an agonized shriek as Fane’s fingers bit into his skin, sinking deep into the muscle.

Somewhere on the stairwell, Sara gave an answering cry of pain.

I didn’t have the strength to pull Fane back, and he was still hell-bent on the kill. I did the only thing I could think of.

“For fuck’s sake, somebody help us! Get him off!”

The Other with the fur was the only one who bothered to help. He rushed forward, baring a mouthful of fangs at Fane as the vampire fought to keep his grip on the necromancer. Fingers tipped with wickedly curved black talons closed around Fane’s wrist, dislodging his grip with a sickening sucking sound from Gideon’s shoulder.

I traded places with the Were or whatever he was. The guy did a much better job than I had at keeping Fane pinned. The vampire stared at Gideon’s limp frame with raw lust in his eyes, but stopped fighting to reach for him when he realized he was at a disadvantage.

Shuffling forward on hands and knees, I gingerly touched Gideon’s back, relieved when he cursed and flailed. He couldn’t be too badly hurt if he was still fighting. “Stop that, I’m checking the wound.”

“Son of a motherfucking
whoremaster,
that hurts,” Gideon replied, and with feeling.

Yeah. He would be just fine.

Arnold shouted my name. I gritted my teeth and gave Gideon a light smack on the small of his back, far from the seeping divots in his shoulder. He flinched anyway. “Don’t move. I’ll see what Arnold needs. Maybe he can do something about that.”

He cursed at me again, and I managed a weak grin, relieved. Except when I turned around, the other vampire had Sara in his arms, Arnold holding her hand. She had gone paler than before, pain twisting her features into an unrecognizable mask. With a gasp, I dashed to her side, putting a hand to her cheek.

Her skin was cold, and there was a faint, reddish light glowing on her arms in the shape of the runes that Gideon had supposedly removed. Even as I watched, they faded away, leaving her arms unblemished. I whirled, only to see he was sitting up, rubbing his bad shoulder with an apologetic expression.

“Sorry. I tried not to,” he said.

Arnold made an inarticulate sound in his throat, his free hand lifting like he was thinking about hurling some kind of magic—but held back only by the thought of what it might do to Sara. His fist clenched, tightening until his knuckles cracked. Gideon had the grace to redden.

“I’m sorry, I can’t undo it. The siphon or the bond. The minute I do, I’m a dead man. Don’t deny it. I see it in your eyes.”

Arnold gave him a grim, humorless smile, all teeth. “You’re already dead. The minute I figure out how to fix this, I’ll hunt you down and end you.”

I stepped between them, hands up, though I was suppressing the umpteenth urge to throttle Gideon myself. “Look, we need to keep him safe for now, and he needs to come with us back to New York. We’ll figure out a way to undo it and keep
everyone
alive and well in the process, got it?”

Gideon gave me a tentative nod, but Arnold didn’t answer. I turned my attention to the mage, giving him a significant look, one eyebrow arching. His glare shifted from Gideon to me, lights flickering in his green eyes like lightning flashes in a thundercloud.

It was the first time I ever felt anything close to genuine fear of Arnold.

His stare stayed on me for a long, uncomfortable moment. Then he turned away without answering to focus on Sara, whispering something to her too softly for me to hear.

It wasn’t a promise not to hurt Gideon once the spell binding Sara to him was broken, but for now it would have to do.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Collecting the remaining survivors and finding Soo-Jin, Angus, and the others didn’t take long. The vampire who had been holding Sara handed her off to Arnold before rushing off at inhuman speed to track the rest of our party down and bring them to us. Fane, after promising not to attack first and ask questions later, was released. He made a point of sucking the blood off his fingertips, staring at the necromancer in a meaningful way as he did it. The perv.

Arnold and Sara weren’t speaking to me, even though she had for the most part recovered. Gideon had shuffled off as far from everyone else as he could get while remaining in the same room.

It was uncomfortable as hell, made worse when Angus and Soo-Jin returned with the others and gave me the kind of soul-chilling, disapproving looks I thought no one but my mother could pull off. Maybe the case of the shivers they gave me was because the capital “L
”
Looks I was getting were coming from an angry, ancient vampire and a nine-tailed fox-demon. They didn’t have to say a thing to make me feel like a heel. Considering I already did, all they accomplished with their unspoken condemnation was making my embarrassment deepen once I got over the urge to pee myself.

Rather than look either of the two in the eyes, I took stock of who was with them, searching for familiar faces. Max had moved his harem of unwilling donors to the same cages Sara and Iana had been in, which meant that the women I had shared a prison with should have been among the humans being ushered along by the surviving vampires. All of the mortals were terrified, eyes wide, limbs trembling, clinging to each other for comfort. One of them looked relieved when she spotted me, but the rest were far too scared of Soo-Jin and the vampires still sporting fangs and glowing eyes to relax.