Chapter 35

“Who are you?” Hayes growled again, tightening his grip on her neck.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

“I’m no one,” Sylvie wheezed, curling her fingers around his, pulling softly. “Please, stop.” Tears sprung to her eyes, but she refused to use her full strength and reveal her true nature to him.

“I just thought-” Tears poured down her cheeks. “I thought you wanted me.”

His grip loosened enough for her to draw a full breath, and she kept her hands on his despite how much they trembled.

He laughed and let go, stepping back to look at her thoroughly. “You are beautiful, but why would I want you?”

Shame filled her belly as he sneered. “I don’t want my brother’s sloppy seconds.”

She swallowed the embarrassment and palmed her flaming face. Being rejected by someone who looked identical to her mate was a mind fuck, and it took everything not to get offended.

“Aren’t you hungry?” she asked meekly, holding her wrist out to him, angling the portion she lathered in potion towards his lips.

“I just ate.”

She swallowed and nodded. Tears threatened to spill again as she palmed the doorknob beside her. “I’ll just go then. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have-”

Just as she turned the handle, a strangling grip took her wrist and pulled her off her feet, cold hands wrapping around her hips and planting her ass on the counter.

Ew, she cringed. No matter how clean she was, asses didn’t belong where food was prepared. She guessed vampires didn’t have the same hygiene standards considering all they ate was blood, but still. Ew.

From her new position, Hayes levelled his gaze with hers. She stared at his lips and swallowed, flickering her eyes down again. Specks of blood stained them, and she was not looking forward to the second-hand meal.

“Just let me go,” she mumbled, pulling back a fraction. His demeanour was beginning to get on her nerves. “Please. I won’t tell.”

“Something about you intrigues me, and I don’t know if I like it. Perhaps I should kill you and be done with it.” He caged her thighs with his hands and sighed in her face, the scent of copper pennies tickling her nose.

The irritation bubbled over, and Sylvie ran her tongue across her teeth.

“Well, hurry up then,” she said, levelling her gaze right back. His fantastical dramatic bullshit was getting really old.

A smile curled his lips, and his eyes twinkled. “Ah, there it is. There’s the feistiness.”

She scoffed. “Oh, you like that do you?” Of course, he did.

The challenge in her voice was clear, and Hayes shifted, taken aback. “More for me to break,” he murmured, swiping his finger across his lower lip, clearing some of the blood specks. “Like an animal.”

He licked his lip as he said it, and Sylvie exhaled a sharp chortle.

“Is that your best line? Comparing me to an animal.”

She knew the second she said it she had taken it too far, but she quickly squashed his face between her palms and yanked his head forward to kiss him. Her speed was no match for him, but surprisingly, he put up little resistance as she kissed him.

Sooner than expected, his body grew leaden, sliding down between her legs and to the floor with a soft thud. She wasn’t even sure she kissed him deep enough to spread the potion, but there he was. Painfully still. She jumped down beside him and toed his limp body.

“Dick.”

Without wasting another second, she pulled the knife free from her thigh and sliced her dress to knee height, wrapping the extra fabric around her waist and trying it in a bow. It may come in handy later. She eyed the knife and then the unconscious jerk but shook her head.

Killing him probably wouldn’t be a good idea. Even though he was a creep, a kidnapper and a murderer, he was still Elias’ brother, and she would leave that decision to him.

Yanking open the lower kitchen door to the tunnels, she swallowed, looking at her bare feet. There could be any number of creatures or debris in the tunnels. Even diseases. She wasn't even sure what kind of tunnel system it was. It could have been sewage, for all she knew.

Turning back to Hayes, she eyed his footwear. They were way too big, but the thick socks inside them would offer plenty of protection. At least from cuts, and that would be the greater danger. She unceremoniously tugged and dumped his boots to the side before slipping off his socks.

They were dry and odourless, so she repressed her disgust as she pulled them on. They weren’t even warm, so she could pretend another person hadn’t worn them for god knows how long.

She headed for the stairs, grabbed the extinguished torch Hayes had placed by the door and lit it with the candle still flickering on the counter. It took with a spitting fervour, and she tilted it away from her face into the tunnels below.

She was ready.

Closing the door behind her seemed pointless as Hayes would probably realise what she was planning as soon as he woke, but she did it anyway, waiting for the lock to make a faint click. She hoped she would get at least an hour from then before he woke as she darted down the steps. That would give her time to find the shifters and portal the hell out of there. At least, that was the thinking.

The tunnel was just as damp and cold as she remembered, the occasional chirrup of insects and rodents her only evidence of life. “Come on, shifters, where are you?” she whispered, padding further into the darkness.

She walked for at least ten minutes, not hearing or sensing anything when the lightest touch on the fringes of her mind alerted her.

Here.

“Where? Where are you?” she whispered harshly, speeding up and following the subtle pull in her head. Then, as if moving on instinct, she made a sharp turn to the left and blinked, realising there was another path that way. She had assumed it was all straight, but the dim light of the torch didn’t light up the entire width of the tunnel.

“Shit. Where are you?”

Here.

Right. She turned right, her feet moving faster in time with the growing thudding of her heart. The faintness of the shifter’s voice scared her.

Maybe it was already too late.

A gaggle of alarmed deep voices sounded faint from where she came, and she hastened. The guards must’ve found Hayes. She could only hope her mates and Kerensa slipped past them to follow her.

We’re here...

“I’m coming.” She gnawed her lip and rubbed her mate marks with her free hand, nothing felt amiss, but the way none of them had caught up with her made her stomach sink.

She hadn’t thought much of them, too focused on searching for the shifters, but it had been a long time without at least one of them appearing. It was then she missed cell phones. How would they find her in this rat maze?

We hear you.

“Oh shit.”

With one last left turn, she almost ran headlong into a tall man, his red eyes whipping around to her with shock. Sylvie skidded on her feet, grabbing the torch like a club and smashed the guard across the face with it, shaking in terror as he crumpled to the ground.

The soft plink of water from ahead drew her gaze, and she nearly screamed.

Fright and relief flooded her veins as the grubby faces of a dozen shifters appeared, their eyes were wary and bodies frail.

“I’m here to free you-”

“Keys!” One young woman hissed. “Grab his keys.”

Sylvie nodded and dropped to her knees, pawing at the unconscious vampire’s body. Unlike the starving vampire she’d seen in the marketplace, this one looked much healthier.

The blood in the corner of his mouth made her scowl. He had been feeding on shifters. She patted him down, finding a keychain clipped to his belt and unclipped it holding it to the fading torch light.

“The silver one,” the same woman said.

Adjusting the torch and keys, Sylvie searched for the lock and jammed the only silver key into the keyhole. With a hard twist, a bolt rattled, and the door swung open.

“Holy shit. How did you get here.”

“I heard you,” Sylvie replied, beaconing them out. More than thirty shifters ambled from the cell, many with ratty clothes, mud-covered bodies and matted hair.

“What do you mean you heard us? There’s no mind link here,” a man said, eyeing her in the dark.

“Look, we don’t have time. I’ll explain everything once we’re safe. Is this everyone?”

“Yeah, this is it,” the woman answered. “I’m Seona.”

“I’m Sylvie. Do you know the way outside?”

“The guards will be there; we don’t stand a chance.” Seona shook her head and grabbed the cell door as if to close it again, and Sylvie yanked it back open.

“Take me to them, and I’ll clear a path. We just have to find somewhere safe to hide until my mates find us.”

“Mates?” the man said. “What do you mean, mates?”

“Like I said,” Sylvie grated between her teeth. “No time.” She understood their resistance to trust her, but the hairs on her nape stood as the voices she had heard earlier grew louder.

“Trust me, please. Alpha Rowan sent me.”

The man scoffed, but Seona nodded with a sigh. “Come on. Quickly everyone. Stay together.”

She hobbled back down the hall where Sylvie came but took a left at the junction. The group moved in virtual silence despite their outward appearance; the animal instincts in them remained strong.

They ran straight for a few minutes and made a slight right, only stopping as a wooden door blocked their passage.

Sylvie looked at Seona for confirmation, and the other woman nodded, mouthing ‘outside’.

Steeling herself with a slow breath, she pulled the keys from her pocket and tried each one, succeeding on the third try. Finally, she pushed the door open and blinked in the dim light, searching for any guards or weapons to use against them, but the short section of the lit tunnel was empty.

“There’s no one there.”

“What?” The man pushed past Sylvie’s shoulder and peered around. “There’s always someone here.”

Seona touched Sylvie’s shoulder lightly and guided her into the last stretch of the tunnel. “Maybe there’s something else that took their attention.”

Sylvie nodded and beaconed the group to continue. “Or someone,” she whispered, but the widening eyes of the shifters proved they heard her.

“Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“Wait,” Seona grabbed her hand. “Once we pass these doors, we’ll be beyond the city gates and into the wastelands.”

“Okay, so we just need to find somewhere to hide. Do you know of anywhere?”

“There are many cave systems and tunnels, but many are overrun with turned.”

The man spun and faced them both. “We could try the falls. Last time I went out there, it was clear.”

Sylvie nodded and smiled at the man. “Show us the way.”