“That would mean no more mind control.”
He winced. Yeah, I’m right there with you buddy. Whatever he was about to say was interrupted by the guards who handed us all axes. “Try not to kill each other or the other miners,” the shirtless one said. He must be the talker for the both of them because the other one just glared. We all had our talents.
As soon as they left, we dragged our chains behind us to a partial tunnel jutting to the right of the central tunnel everyone was working in. As soon as we were all semi-hidden, I worked on removing our chains. Once that was accomplished, we went deeper and deeper in the shaft, stopping at every miner we approached, so Camden could see if they were Cecil. There was a guard about every hundred yards. Since we were supposed to be working on the wall in front of us and not traveling down the mineshaft, it was going to be tricky getting by them.
Camden asked me, “You didn’t happen to swipe up the illusion talent for later, did you?”
“Afraid not, your boy back there had no aura. Go figure.”
“Hmm. Maybe you can’t manipulate some people.”
“I know. Total shame.” I studied the upcoming guard. “I could make him float?”
We weren’t going to make it out of here alive if I didn’t contribute in a big way. The guards would notice us talking to the miners if I didn’t force them to look the other way. At every station, I convinced the guard he had an urge to go to the bathroom, or he had a headache and needed to lie down, or should go and inspect a miner’s work. I was a busy beaver. A bloodied, busy beaver.
By the third guard, Camden was on to me, and Kong was becoming visibly upset, probably from the amount of blood spurting from my nose.
“Don’t waste my efforts, Camden. Hurry. Find Cecil and let’s get the hell out of here, so I can pass out without worrying about all of these rapey people.”
He leaned in, whispering against my ear and sending shivers through my body. “I can’t heal you. Please, don’t do anymore.”
I gave him a wink, hoping it would ease the tension, but I failed miserably. His jaw was clenched, but he did move at a quicker pace. Maybe we would find Cecil soon. After a few minutes, I said, “It is so easy to convince these guards to look the other way. I mean, if you don’t factor in the blood loss, and yet I almost believe Monad didn’t buy what I was selling.”
Camden checked another miner, but he didn’t fit the profile. “He didn’t.”
“Come again?”
“Your mind control did not work on him. Monad allowed us to come down here. He wanted to see why we’re really here.”
Kong grunted. Really? Even the ogre knew Monad was above my mind controlling skills.
“At what point were you planning on telling me that the psycho illusionist didn’t believe the lies I wove and is probably planning his attack on us now.”
Camden shrugged. “Been a little busy.”
That was fair. I couldn’t be mad anyways; my schedule was completely filled up with trying to avoid a panic attack. We were going deeper into the mountain. The funny thing was I never noticed I was claustrophobic. It was dark, the tunnels were narrow, and there wasn’t a ton of oxygen. Camden sensed my fear. He grabbed my hand and without saying a word, his thumb gently stroked my wrist.
“When were you going to tell me that you lied to me about Ariana wanting you to accompany me?”
“That’s a good question. I would honestly say probably never. I mean, no harm no foul, right?” Kong, the traitor, shook his giant-sized head. Oh, all of a sudden, he wanted to be judgmental. Whatever. “Let’s look at it this way. Ariana is the best soothsayer there is, correct? I mean, those were your words. So technically, she knew I’d be here in this dark, claustrophobic place with you, and she didn’t try to stop me or alert you. So, in a roundabout way, she did give me the go ahead.”
“A mate that lies to me.”
“And now we’re just going to accept this thing, whatever it is between us, all of a sudden?”
“Sometimes, you can’t fight the inevitable.”
What did that mean? I looked over to Kong and he just shrugged. Even the ogre was stumped. Good. I didn’t want to be on Confusion Island all by myself. Somewhere along the way, I started to think less of the cramped space and more about what our future looked like. Not mine and Camden’s, but our immediate future considering that Cecil wasn’t in the tunnels. Everything we’d done so far was going to be a lost cause, and what about Camden’s vow? What happened when you broke one of those?
I voiced my question out loud, and Camden said, “Vows are taken seriously. There would be heavy consequences.”
“Death,” I asked.
“Possibly.”
My stomach clenched. He’d made those vows to protect me. I had peeled back another layer.
As we reached the end of the tunnel, Camden asked, “What do we have here?” He grabbed a short man up by his arm. His feet barely touched the ground, as Camden held him up for closer inspection. “Let me guess. You’re Cecil?”
The man sneered. His red hair hung in dirty clumps around his slightly pudgy face. Freckles covered his face. Where Celia had long legs that went on forever, this poor soul looked like an oompa loompa. “Who wants to know?”
“We are going to get you out of this tunnel and back to your father, but you will do exactly as I say. Do you understand?”
The man blinked his eyes several times. “My father? I knew that crazy old man would eventually find me.” Cecil studied Camden for a few moments. “Lead the way, wolf.”
I grabbed a hold of the wall as a wave of dizziness hit me. I might have persuaded him to not ask any more questions. But honestly, who had time to sit and chat in a claustrophobic place while bleeding out. Not me. We all followed Camden, who was the only person who could smell fresh air, which also equaled the way out. To keep from passing out, I made a to-do list in my head. We would take care of the vows Camden made. He would have his key, and I would be free to lead a normal life. I looked up at Camden, who was now dragging Cecil by his chains. I felt a sharp pain in my chest at the thought of leaving him. But it wasn’t like we had a future together. Just because he was admitting I was his mate didn’t mean he wanted to claim me as his mate, and his strong feelings for me didn’t mean he could ever love me. No matter how attracted we were to one another, or how fate had claimed us to be together, there could never be anything between us because of Camden’s past. Those were his feelings. I didn’t have to agree with them or like them, but I did have to respect them. Because when you loved someone, that was what you did and I loved him. With all my heart. A tear leaked out of my eye. Great. Now, I was losing all kinds of bodily functions. The pain in my heart was almost unbearable, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing because it helped me stay on my feet. None of my feelings mattered; soon, I would be going home. Unless the siren blaring was any indication that Monad would now like a second meeting, in which case, I might be a permanent miner.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The four of us hiked back through the tunnel. Kong was still bent over, almost crawling. There was no way I could manipulate all of the guards at once, not without injuring or killing myself. They would know we were escaping, and there was nothing I could do about it.
Camden put a hand under my arm. “We need to hurry.”
I didn’t bother telling him we were already going as fast as we could go. We passed several miners that shot us fearful looks. Fear of us, or fear of what they thought was about to happen to us, I couldn’t say. I couldn’t pass any judgement because I was pretty afraid, too.
“Any minute now, someone is going to re-shackle us.” Every step Cecil complained. “I should have just stayed where I was. We’re all going to get caught, and you’re just going to make my life harder now.”
“If you don’t stop your whining, I’m going to end your life now,” Camden growled.
I should try to be the mediator, but the truth was I was tired of hearing Cecil’s mouth, and I was a
bout to encourage Camden to kill the little jerk until I thought of the vow he would break. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any energy to waste on convincing Cecil to shut up, so I just ignored his blabbering.
We ducked into a partial tunnel as a group of soldiers stormed past us. As soon as we were in the clear, Cecil started up again. “I don’t know what you were thinking. You have no plan. How are we to escape this? Maybe if I call the guards over now, they will be lenient on me. I’ve seen them torture people. I will not be subjected to that.” From the look on Camden’s face, I realized he no longer cared about breaking his vow. He turned around to face Cecil when Kong intervened. Hunched over, he put one beefy hand around Cecil’s neck and bounced him on the ground a couple of times, and then he dragged Cecil behind him like a ragdoll.
Camden cuffed Kong on the shoulder. “Thanks. I don’t know if I could have restrained myself from killing him.”
Cecil dug his heels in the ground, but the ogre didn’t notice. “Not friend. Bad man. Mouth stop.”
I nodded. “Yes, you stopped his mouth, and I will be forever grateful. Drag him faster if you can.”
Camden grabbed my arm. “There are many guards blocking the exit. I can hear them.”
“I’ll teleport Cecil to the market then come back for both of you.”
“No,” Camden said. “You are already bleeding. Can you imagine what teleportation will do to you? No, we will fight our way out.”
“Fight!” Kong said, as he dropped Cecil behind him.
This was our only option. What if we couldn’t fight our way out? What if Kong became a prisoner yet again?
No, I couldn’t let that happen. Quickly, I grabbed Cecil’s leg. I didn’t want to even touch the weasel, but in a flash, I had Cecil in the market where some succubi stared at us, wide-eyed. I left him throwing up in the dirt as I returned for Camden and Kong. It took a second for my eyes to readjust to the darkness. They had moved to another tunnel veering off to the side.
Camden was pissed, but he’d get over it. “What were you thinking? Do you want to die?”
Ignoring him, and the way my legs shook, I grabbed Kong next. As soon as he was outdoors, he smiled. I didn’t have the heart to tell him we were far from being out of danger.
Cecil turned around, his face a blotchy red. He pointed one of his fingers at me. “Why you—”
Kong took a meaty fist and bopped him on the head. As I was teleporting for Camden, I heard Kong say, “Again. Mouth shut.” I was starting to love my ogre.
By the time I returned to Camden, guards surrounded him and I was in pretty poor shape. My body felt like it was about to shut down. Camden fought the guards in the tightly confined space with ease, his motions fast and accurate. He didn’t hit to cause bodily harm; he hit to disable. Most of the guards were unconscious or holding their windpipes.
Trying to sound bored, I asked, “Do you want to stay and finish, or do you think we can blow this joint?”
“Waiting on you, beautiful,” he said, dodging a fist to the face. “You are about to drop on your feet. I’ll carry you back to where you left Cecil and Kong.”
“Yep, sure. Or we could just—” I grabbed his arm and teleported him to where I’d left the other two. Camden looked like he wanted to throttle me, but after taking in our surroundings, he held me tighter to him. What awaited us was more than just unfortunate, it was flat out disheartening.
Monad stood there with a whole legion of soldiers. He was doing a slow clap. “Fantastic! Truly, that was something to see. So tell me, blondie, how is it that no one can use their magic in this portal but you and me?” He pointed to naked incubi standing fairly close to Kong. “I mean, they all still have the basics, even the wolf, but they are like fine cars stripped down to the bare minimum.”
Camden was fighting like that, and that was the bare minimum? “Um, I don’t know. This is your portal, you tell me.”
The boy looked even dingier out in the light. “If I wanted you before, I definitely want you now.”
“You won’t be getting her,” Camden said. I loved his confidence because right now, I had none.
Monad cocked his head to the side and smirked. I could hear a growl coming from Camden. We were too outnumbered to act hastily. I placed a hand on his bicep and squeezed. Not that I could hold him in place if he decided he wanted to fight our way out of this, but to calm him down.
“I felt you trying to control me. You are so very strong. But this—this was a surprise. So, you can teleport? But can you teleport out of this portal?”
Um. Good question. Before I could tell him I didn’t have a clue, he whispered something to the guard next to him. The guard pointed a gun at Camden. “Those are silver bullets, love. I want you to try and teleport out of this plane. If you are successful but don’t come back within thirty seconds, the wolf dies.”
The crowd immediately started going crazy. They were hopeful I was their ticket out of this dirty place. Camden gave a bark of laughter. “She will do no such thing.” The crowd became riled at his words.
Monad nodded, and a guard aimed at Camden. That was all the motivation I needed. I closed my eyes and pictured Camden’s estate. Maybe I could bring the vampire back with me. We would need back up. My body began to travel, but then I was slammed into something that felt like a brick wall. My head began to pound, and my bones felt as if they were breaking in my body. I came hurtling back to where I had been just standing moments before. Camden caught me before I hit the ground. My nose was gushing blood, and I was seeing double.
Camden cradled me to his chest. “Why would you even try?”
“Because they had a gun pointed at you? Or maybe the loss of blood is affecting me. Does it matter? I tried. It hurt. End of story.”
He gave me a look like I was slow on the uptake. “You don’t have faith in me, do you?” Still holding onto me, he said to Monad, “Tell me when you’re dead, who will rule this shit hole?”
A crazy looking incubus shifted from foot to foot so fast he looked like he was trying not to use the bathroom. “Me!” He waved one arm above his head, as if he was trying to flag someone down.
Seriously? Out of all the people here, they couldn’t have picked someone that looked a little more stable? It must’ve not been a majority rules kind of thing.
Monad tilted his head back and laughed. “Like someone could dethrone me. I could cast an illusion so fast that—”
With Camden’s ‘basic’ skills, he ran towards Monad, knocking two of the closest guards out of the way. His leg swept out, hooking both of Monad’s feet, and making the boy fall to the ground. The boy cast a grand illusion turning everything pitch black. It was so dark I couldn’t see my own hand. Over the cries of the crowd, I heard a scuffle, and then as fast as it went dark, the light returned. That’s when chaos was created. All of Monad’s guards rushed us. If I hadn’t been scared for my life, it would have been comical seeing a bunch of naked people turn on each other. I saw things flopping in every direction.
Some things were never meant to be seen. This was one of those things.
Kong let out a roar and knocked guards over like pins in a bowling alley. Camden swung wildly at all who dared get close to him… or me. Naked people scattered, and I’d never been so thankful of anything in my life. I was on my knees, panting with exhaustion, as I watched Camden and Kong fight with abandonment. Neither one of them let anyone get close to me. Camden was choking one guard from behind as he kicked another guard in the face. I could hear the bone crunching from here. At least I wasn’t the only one with a nose bleed. They were out-numbered, but they didn’t need me, and I was perfectly fine with that. I would sit here and gather my strength.
Blinking, I found Kong standing next to me with a knocked-out Cecil over one of his massive shoulders. “We go now?”
Huh? I looked around at all of the fallen guards. There were some who had decided that this wasn’t their fight, and they were leaving the area. The illusionist’s body was crumpled on the
ground. His eyes were unblinking, staring at nothing as blood trickled down from his mouth. Definitely dead. Camden stepped over him towards the crazy incubus.
“We are heading towards the front of the market, so I suggest you have a party celebrating your new leadership role. Anyone that follows us will die.”
Kong nodded. “Crush.”
The four of us traveled the football field’s length it took us to get to where we had first entered the plane. Everyone stared after us, but wisely no one followed.
Camden pulled the key out of his pocket. “We have to be quick in crossing. We can’t chance them jumping through the portal.”
I pictured the curvy brunette that had propositioned Camden. He was right; we couldn’t let a whole bunch of incubi and succubi take over Key West. Talk about Girls Gone Wild. After the portal was opened, we jumped through and were able to close it before any curvy skanks or creepy perverted men came through. Point for us.
Even with Camden healing me, I was beyond exhausted, but I didn’t hesitate to take Kong, followed by Cecil and Camden, to Camden’s estate. I’d never been so happy to see a place before in my life. It was daylight when we were walking up his drive.
“How many hours has it been?” I asked.
“Time operates differently on the planes. Most of them operate like Groundhog’s Day. They are on constant repeat.”
I wanted a bath, pajamas, and a bed. If I didn’t get those things soon, there was a good chance that someone would pay. Only moments after being in his house, I knew that I wouldn’t get any of those things anytime soon, and I was livid.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Lil fluttered around, acting all mama bear on everyone, including Kong. She had taken an immediate liking to the ogre. Kong had free range of the downstairs thanks to the vaulted ceilings, and the ogre made good use of his time. He was like a toddler at the doctor’s office, opening up every cabinet or drawer there was. Stephan tried to keep a respectful distance. In his defense, Kong leaned in close to Stephan and took a deep whiff of his neck, and that was enough to make the vampire nervous.
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