I could hear the creatures just down the hall roaring and screaming, sensing the fight, and more than likely wanting to take part in it.
And the entire time, all I could do was stand there, my back pressed to the wall, my eyes wide, and my heart racing. I prayed the flight-or-fight instinct would take over, because I refused to make this easy for anyone.
I didn’t know how much time passed as I was frozen in place, watching the vampire decimate both humans. There were a few body parts lying scattered, blood sprayed across the ground and walls, but despite the carnage, the male had his sights on me.
I made a frightened noise in the back of my throat and flattened myself against the wall as much as I could.
He bent down, ripped the key card off one of the humans, and ran it over the manacles. The mirage surrounding it dissipated, and the lock opened a second before falling unceremoniously to the ground. He hissed through gritted teeth and sharpened fangs. His wrists were raw, blistered, and charred from the cuffs.
And then he was stalking forward, stopping when he was a foot from me.
He didn’t say anything, but his gaze spoke volumes.
“Come, female.” His voice was guttural, harsh. It was reminiscent of someone who didn’t use it very often.
I didn’t move, confusion filling me.
“Female,” he growled. “If you want to get out of here with your mate, let’s go.”
I was so stunned by his words that I just blinked, my mouth opening and closing on its own, but no words spilled forth. “My mate?” He knew where Odhran was? I should’ve been hesitant, feeling this swell of hope fill my chest at the prospect of seeing him.
He exhaled in annoyance. “I overheard the guards talking about you, saying your name and your mate’s as I was taken out of one of their torture rooms.” There was a harsh growl that left him, his eyes flashing red. “If you want to get to him, I know where he’s at. I don’t know where the guards are, and I don’t know how long we have before they swarm in. We have to go now.”
And then he turned and started walking back down the corridor, leaving the grisly scene behind.
I could’ve told him what D said about the cameras and the guards’ rotation being altered. But my words were lodged in my throat. I wanted to ask him how he got free so easily, and if he’d been able to do that the entire time, why he’d allowed them to drag him to begin with, to capture him.
But none of that mattered.
I found myself moving, following him before I knew it was happening.
And I didn’t even focus on the cells on either side of me, which were suddenly extremely quiet, this tension surrounding the male in front of me.
These creatures are terrified of him and sense him for the dangerous and deadly predator that he is.
I felt like I was holding my breath the entire time I followed him. He seemed like he knew his way around, as if he’d been watching, memorizing everything surrounding him.
I should’ve felt nothing but trepidation and fear in following him to the unknown. But I’d risk anything, take any chance, just to see Odhran again.
“Who are you?” I whispered so softly I didn’t even know if I said it out loud, didn’t know if he heard me. And although he glanced over his shoulder, silently confirming he heard me, he didn’t respond otherwise.
We’d only been walking a minute or so before he held his hand out, palm toward me, a silent demand to still. And then a second later, he pressed his forearm to my chest and shoved me back against the wall so suddenly the force had the air rushing out of my lungs.
Revulsion filled me at his touch, and he instantly took his arm away. I wondered if he knew the uncomfortable sensation his touch gave me. He looked down at me and lifted his hand to place his finger to his lips, the universal sign for me to be quiet. A moment later, the sound of low voices came through.
I dug my nails into the cinder block behind me, and the entire time, the vampire stared at me, his composure calm and easy, his eyes flashing red intermittently as if he was ready to kill at the drop of a hat.
We were both still, with me holding my breath, as two human males walked by us, their backs toward us, their conversation low. Humans had such weak senses that they didn’t even know a killer stood a mere meter from them.
I glanced at the vampire again and could see him staring at the humans. I could sense how much he wanted to go to them, to break their necks and drain their bodies of blood. But he was controlled enough to know drawing attention wasn’t in our best interest.
When the humans were gone and we could no longer hear their voices, he gestured for me to follow him again. We went in the opposite direction, taking a left, then a right, and finally the vampire stopped when we arrived at a large metal door, the small, wired window in the center showing a slice of the interior.
From our vantage point, I could see cells on either side of the room and a human stationed at the end of each point of the walkway. I swallowed roughly, because as the vampire glanced at me and grinned, I knew exactly how this would go.
He used the key card to open the door, and faster than I could anticipate, he was inside, snapping the neck of the guard closest to him first, then ripping the throat out of the other. The noise within the cell block grew tenfold as the creatures caged inside went berserk at the violence and bloodshed.
“In here,” called the vampire, and I glanced around the corner before hesitantly stepping inside.