I laughed and kissed him again. “It was perfect. You gave me a reason to leave. Do you need blood?”
He grabbed the back of my neck and moved his lips down, blindingly fast, his teeth piercing my flesh. Sweet pleasure quickly covered the bite of pain, and I groaned with the feel of him taking from me. He pulled back with an intake of breath, his elongated canines stained crimson.
“Better than memory,” he murmured, and then licked the wound, sending a jolt of pleasure through me.
I pushed away from him, needing space. Especially from the urge to drag him down to the ground on top of me. Now I felt bad for making fun of Cahal.
A glance up revealed that Emery had already hastened Penny, who was still crying, out of the cell.
I nodded at him and stepped through. “Emery.”
He returned my nod. “Reagan. Good to see you.”
“I’ll bet. You all got yourself into quite the pickle, huh?” I patted him on the shoulder. We weren’t at the hugging stage yet. Penny I just let cry, because she seemed very close to shattering, and we needed her to hold it together so we could get out of here.
“Okay, here’s the plan…” I said, leading the way back to the torture chamber room. Cahal didn’t so much as nod hello. It was clear why he had no friends.
“You develop plans now?” Emery asked, following with the others as we headed for the stairs. “You really did learn some things.”
“Yeah. As I said, here’s the plan—we’re going to fight our way out of here, hopefully with the help of Ja and some of her vampires, collect the dragons, and then make a break for the Realm.”
“Ja is down here?” Darius asked.
“She snuck into my rooms in the castle and ambushed me with an offer to trade for help, yeah. She came into the Underworld after Penny tore down the fog—not wise, by the way—and framed Vlad. Lucifer now wants to kill Vlad. Until he finds out what really happened, obviously, which he likely will, and he will want to kill Ja. And you, of course. And probably Penny and Emery.”
“Happy to join the club,” Emery said.
“How will we rendezvous with Ja?” Darius asked.
“No idea. Hopefully we’ll meet her along the way as we try to bust out of here.”
“And the dragons? Do we have a meeting point?”
“They’re out there flying around. I should be able to catch their attention.”
“I take the planning thing back,” Emery said.
“So what is the actual plan part of the plan?” Penny asked, sniffling.
“Freedom. Here we go.” We ran up the stairs to the main floor. “How is your energy? Penny?”
“A little hungry, but we’ve been running on fumes for…however long we’ve been in this accursed place,” she answered, matching my pace. “We’ll make it.”
“We don’t have much choice,” Emery murmured.
“That’s why we’ll make it, obviously,” Penny retorted.
“Ohwee.” We slowed as we neared the door leading out to the main floor. “Penny has found her inner Karen.”
“Yes, I have, and I’m not even ashamed to admit it.”
Cahal paused near the door, his magic wrapping around him and obscuring my vision of him even though I was five feet away. He paused, waiting for everyone to gather on the landing, Darius taking up the rear, before he nodded at me and stepped through.
I let the door close behind him until a soft knock came. I pushed out next.
You and he have developed a strong working relationship, Darius thought as I slipped out the door and took a fast look around. One dead monster-looking dude. Cahal worked fast.
“Yeah,” I whispered as the others filed out, Darius stepping to my back. “We’ve had to. I’ll tell you all about it when we get out of here. We only know the main entrance. Do you know of any other?”
“No,” Darius murmured, probably to keep everyone on the same page. “That’s the way we came in. We didn’t get a chance to explore before we were drugged and locked up.”
“I was wondering how you’d been taken.” I nodded at Cahal, who started jogging along the right side of the hall. I crossed to be right behind him, the rest of them trailing me. “I still think I should just demand to leave. I’m kind of a big deal around here.”
“This sect knows we came here to free you. They know that Lucifer closed access to the Underworld to root us out and planned to execute us himself,” Darius said softly. “They will not just stand aside as you walk out. They will try to capture you, possibly killing us in the process, to turn you back over to Lucifer and gain his favor. Our only way out is by force.”
“Told you so,” Cahal said.
Oh good, he finally had someone to gang up on me with.