Jess Haines - Enslaved By the Others

He paused once in the doorway, his eyes widening at the carnage. It was rather impressive, but Angus had no patience for it, giving him a little shove from behind.

After stumbling, he threw a glare over his shoulder and then resumed his trek forward, leading us to wherever Sara was hidden. He didn’t seem surprised to see a towering fox-demon with nine tails in the hall, merely giving her a wide berth as he led the way. He must have seen her before at some point.

I don’t care how blasé you are about supernatural creatures. Something like Soo-Jin would be cause for comment in my neighborhood, and I’m from New York, fer Chrissakes.

‘You owe me.’

The voice was a whisper in the back of my mind, but I did my best to ignore it. Gideon gave no outwardly visible sign that he was mentally badgering me with demands, much like the spirit in the hunter’s belt used to whenever I wore the enchanted artifact. I didn’t want Angus or Arnold to hurt Gideon, so I tried not to show any signs of how creeped the hell out I was, either.

‘I promised to get you two out. I intend to keep my word. After all, if they hurt me, she’ll feel it, too.’

That made me falter. Arnold’s hand on my shoulder steadied me, but I couldn’t bring myself to move again right away.

‘She’s mine now. If I go down, she goes with me. Keep that in mind.’

Great. Just fucking peachy. Like I had any way of explaining that to Arnold or the vampires that wouldn’t make them more inclined to forcibly separate his head from his shoulders.

On the bright side, by keeping Gideon tied up, Max might not jump to the conclusion he’d turned traitor and kill him first.

Shivering with a combination of nerves and dread, I trailed behind the others. Arnold kept his hand on my shoulder, and I set my hand over his. We’d been through bad times like this before. Maybe not quite this bad, but we’d figure out a way to fix this, just like we always did. Somehow.

The necromancer led the way downstairs, down a corridor I wasn’t familiar with, and then to a recessed oak door with a padlock on the outside. It was deep in the house in a shadowed alcove, easily overlooked. Gideon jerked his jaw at it, then rubbed his cheek against his shoulder, trying to dislodge the gag.

Angus elbowed him aside and reached for the lock. Gideon kicked the back of his knee until the vampire swung around and planted a fist through the wall next to the necromancer’s head. Slowly, deliberately, he then set the knuckles of the hand with the sword on the other side.

Gideon’s back thumped against the wall, and he stared up at the vampire. A new scent wafting from him filled the air, one that made me consider him with new eyes. A predator’s eyes. Hunger cramped my stomach so badly I had to bite my inner cheek hard enough to fill my mouth with my own blood to quiet the building need.

Plaster chips pattered on the floor as Angus yanked his hand free of the wall. His thick fingers hooked under the cherry red tie, pulling it down, then tugging the balled up pillowcase out. Gideon gasped and coughed, then choked out a few words.

“Some ... Ow! There are some vampires in there, too, you ungracious Neanderthal.”

Angus growled, but backed off. I eyed the hole he left in the wall, suitably impressed. Vampires didn’t often make such an obvious show of their strength around me. Knowing they could do it and seeing it were two very different animals.

The necromancer stayed where he was, not protesting as one of the vampires took his arm. Angus wrapped a hand around the lock and wrenched it off, tossing it over his shoulder. So much for going in quietly. He hefted a booted foot and kicked the door in.

I was getting the idea he really enjoyed doing that.

We moved in, the vampires leading again.

There were an awful lot of Max’s vampires inside, and they were well prepared to fend off our assault. Many of them moved like Angus, with the same fluid grace and speed, which meant they were all elders. They had guns, too, which had Angus and Soo-Jin quick to backtrack and yank me out of there. But not before I spotted Sara, Iana, and several of the other girls by the far wall, trapped behind a set of bars bolted into the wall like some jail in the Old West and backed up as far from the fight as they could get.

They left me in the hall outside with Gideon and the vampire holding him in place, even Soo-Jin slinking back through that door to rejoin the fray.

“Well, this is lovely. I feel so useful like this,” Gideon said.

“Shut up,” the vampire holding him snapped.

The shriek of wrenching metal made me cringe and cover my ears. My hands didn’t drown out the sounds of the battle as they became more of a fever pitch, the snarls and growls and yelps outnumbering the gunshots. There was a flash of light, and a roil of flame rolled out of the room and into the hall, scorching the door frame and the wall opposite. We all scrambled out of the way. A particularly chilling cry rang out, quieting everything else for a moment.

Smoke drifted out of the doorway and filled the hall.

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph.”

Gideon quirked a brow at me. “I don’t think they had anything to do with that, Copper-top. Looks like your little mage friend got pissed.”

“Didn’t I tell you to shut up?”

Gideon turned a flat stare on the vampire. “Why, yes.” He then returned his gaze to me. “So. How about you undo these ropes so I can be of some use, hmm?”

An urge to do just that rose in me. With a growl, I stalked closer—and slapped him, hard. “Don’t you ever fuck with my head again or I will rip yours off. You hear me?”

The vampire stiffened. “What did he do?” Then shook Gideon. “Hey. What did you do?”

Gideon smirked and tilted his head up, slowly licking the blood from his split lip. The scent of it drew me closer, and that was when I realized there was some on my knuckles. Before I knew it, my hand was inches from my mouth, my throat burning for the taste of it. The only thing that stopped me from licking it off was how very interested Gideon appeared to be in my actions.

“Go on,” he purred, “drink up. It’s what you’ve wanted to do all night, isn’t it? Drink until there’s nothing left.”

The vampire shook him again. “If you don’t shut up, I’m going to stuff an old sock in your mouth next. Can it and leave her the fuck alone.”

I met the necromancer’s too-interested gaze as I swiped the back of my hand down my jacket, wiping the blood off. He frowned, then shrugged, as if he hadn’t had some kind of investment in the outcome a moment ago.

Soo-Jin had warned against giving in to the urge for blood. I was starting to get the idea that it might make the monster inside of me come out to play if I gave in to the need.

That would, in turn, make me easier for Gideon to control. What a dick.

After successfully tamping down the urge to smack him upside the head again, I sidled closer to the door to peer inside. The smoke made it hard to see well enough to tell who was winning, but there were still plenty of bodies clashing, moving with inhuman speed.

Three figures were headed this way, shadowed by smoke and clinging to each other, edging around the fighting. I thought about going inside to work off a little steam, too, but better sense prevailed. I backed up a couple of paces until I was beside the vampire, drawing and leveling my gun at the doorway in case whoever was coming wasn’t on our side.

I snapped the safety back on and put it away as soon as I saw it was Iana, using her great strength to half carry, half drag Arnold and Sara on either side of her. The two of them were coughing and limp in her arms. I got on the other side of Sara, putting her other arm over my shoulder and helping her along until we were a good distance from the doorway.