The thought had crossed her mind. “I wasn’t sure, but now that you’re here, take us to Rico. We’re wasting time.”
“As you wish, Governor. But walking into the heart of the fae wearing that much iron is like banging a drum in the middle of the nursery and expecting the infants not to cry.” He spread his long fingers, hands up. “It’s your funeral.”
Will snarled. “It’s her funeral if she takes it off.”
“It’s Ishalan’s if something happens to me.” She held her hand up. There wasn’t time for this. “I’ll take the coat off. But I’m keeping the bracelets.”
“Fine.” Ishalan turned on his heel and marched toward the stronghold and the gothic arch that was the fortress’ entrance.
She quickly shed the coat into Will’s waiting hands and caught up to Ishalan. “Why is it so quiet?”
“Most of my brethren are asleep.”
Mist swirled around them, making it hard to see more than a few steps ahead. “Really? Because it feels like a trap.”
“They’ll wake up soon enough, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Why aren’t you asleep? Why aren’t you affected by the sun like all the rest of them?”
He shot a quick glance at her. “An interesting question from a vampire who should also be asleep in a safe, dark place.”
“A witch’s potion protects me.” The fog seemed to thicken. “You?”
The ground changed beneath her feet. From dirt to wood. She looked down to see they were walking across a bridge that spanned a chasm. As far as she could tell through drifts of mist, there was no discernable bottom. The visual was enough to knot her stomach.
“Inside the gate, I am protected by fae magic. I’ve been here for hours, waiting in the woods for you and your friends.”
She stopped looking at the chasm. “So the fae can be out and about so long as they’re behind the gate? That would have been good information to have had already.”
“My apologies. I thought your dhamfir would have told you that.”
Maybe Rixaline didn’t know. After all, she’d been held prisoner, not left to wander. Then a new thought came to Donna. “Wait. Does that also mean you won’t be able to leave again until dark?”
“You’re very perceptive for a vampire.”
She didn’t know how deep the woods inside the gate were, but after this, he’d be a target. Could he really hide long enough to get to safety? Or had he actually embarked on a suicide mission? That was quite a risk. Whatever his motivation for being there, it was very strong.
Despite the premonition she’d had earlier, something told her his end would not be today.
He glanced over his shoulder at the crew following them. “You turned a Venari to your side? Very impressive. Or is she here as a watcher?”
“A watcher?”
“To make sure things don’t escalate, and if they do…” He slid a finger across his throat.
Was that why Cammie was here? Donna hoped not as she frowned and forced down the temptation to tell Ishalan that Cammie was her sister. Seemed an unnecessary sharing of information. “She’s here to help.”
That was all he needed to know.
They crossed onto stone again as they entered the stronghold. The interior was lit by more torches, the hall before them grandly paneled in wood and accented with copper and bronze and tapestry wall hangings depicting all kinds of scenes. Long wood tables paralleled the walls. Each had a pair of flickering lanterns on it, the light reflected in the finely waxed stone floors. It was beautiful. And empty.
The small hairs on the back of her neck pricked up. But maybe that was because she was in the middle of a fae stronghold now. Possibly the most dangerous place a vampire could be. Behind her, the team formed a small circle. All of them facing out. All of them in battle stance.
They needed to do this and get out. “Which way to the dungeons?”
Ishalan smiled. “Down, of course.”
Chapter Eighteen
If they had to fight on the stairs, they were in trouble. That was Donna’s first thought as they descended the narrow passage that led to the bowels of the stronghold. It was dark and dank and smelled of death. The tinny, sweet odor of decaying blood permeated the air. Even for a vampire, it was an awful stench.
Her stomach roiled at first, finally settling a few moments later. She checked her crew. Except for Cammie, they all looked a little queasy. How used to this sort of thing was Cammie?
The raspy sound of fae voices reached them as they hit a landing.
Ishalan put his hand out, stopping the party in their tracks. Then he held a finger up for them to be quiet. He flattened his palm. He wanted them to stay.
They all nodded. He slipped a hand under his coat and withdrew a short dagger. “You must trust me, Governor.”
They’d come this far. And if he tried anything, the crew behind her would end him. She nodded. “Fine.”
He held his free hand out to her. She took it, wondering what was about to happen. She didn’t have to wait long to find out. He pulled her close, wrapped his arm around her neck, and held the dagger to her throat. “Play along,” he whispered.
Behind her, she could hear the hiss of blades being pulled from their sheaths and soft, muttered curses.
“It’s all right,” she whispered to her team. All while hoping she wasn’t telling them a lie.
“Ready?” Ishalan asked.
“Yes.”
“Good. You take one, I’ll handle the rest.” He started down.
They hit another landing and went down two more steps. Three fae guards were shooting dice in front of a barred door. Rows of cells were visible through the bars.
She inhaled. And smelled wolf more strongly than she had since LV and Toni had joined them.
Ishalan tugged her along. “Brought a present for the king.”
The guards looked up from their game. The one nearest the door started to rise. Ishalan released her, then threw his dagger into the man’s throat.
Donna pulled her sword free and caught the middle one cleanly, lobbing off his head before he had a chance to speak.
At her back, Ishalan had the third up against the wall, his hands gripping either side of the man’s head. A sharp wrench left, the cracking of bones, and the last fae slumped to the ground. Ishalan bent and retrieved the keys from the man’s belt. He dangled them on his finger. “Let’s go get your wolf.”
The rest of the team flowed down the stairs, but she stood there, a little numbed by the sight of the purple blood staining her sword. It wasn’t the first time she’d killed someone. But it was the first time she’d done it with intent.
Her stomach twisted again.
Cammie caught her by the elbow. “Tuck it away for later. Those feelings aren’t going to help you now.”
She nodded. Compartmentalize. Temo had said she was good at it. Didn’t feel that way right now, but she did her best.
Ishalan had already unlocked the door.
Donna lifted her head. “Right.” With bravado she didn’t feel, she wiped her blade on the dead fae’s clothes and slid it back into its scabbard.
Ishalan pulled the door open and smiled. “After you, Governor.”
“You first, fae,” Cammie answered. She pointed down the long hall of cells with her sword. “Go.”
Ishalan frowned but started walking. Donna followed, almost pushing him along to make him go faster.
“Rico,” she hissed. No response. Was he unconscious? She glanced back to check on her team. Immediately behind her were LV and Toni, still in wolf form. Temo had stopped halfway. Kace, Will, and Cammie were at the door.
Ishalan slowed as they approached the end of the row, key ready in his hand. He looked into the last cell, confusion on his face.
Donna peered in. It was empty. She whipped around. So was the cell across from that one.
They were all empty. Rico wasn’t in the dungeon.
LV and Toni snarled.
Donna turned on Ishalan, livid. Her fangs punched through her gums. “You set us up.” She grabbed him by the collar of his tunic and shoved her arm against his throat so that her iron bracelet caught him squarely.
The sizzle of flesh rewarded her, as did his grimace of pain. “I had nothing to do with this. I swear on my wings.”
“Then where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
A ripple of energy at her back pulled Donna’s attention. She turned to see LV and Toni standing there in human form.
Toni was staring down Ishalan with the most murderous glint Donna had ever seen. “Let me kill him now.”
Donna needed to defuse the situation. “Can either of you pick up Rico’s scent?”
LV looked at her like she was a little crazy. “His scent is everywhere. It’s like they deliberately put him in each cell. Add to that the stink of the fae, and finding him is impossible.”
Donna turned back to Ishalan. “Where would he be?”
The fae swallowed. “There is one possibility.”
“Where?”
“Dredward’s chambers.”
“Why would Rico be there?”
“Dredward has been known to keep high-value prisoners close during daylight hours as an extra precaution.”
She glared at him, letting anger make her eyes shine bright. “More information that would have been useful earlier.”
“I never assumed—”
She grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled him close. Almost nose to nose. Her fangs were out, and she was almost snarling as she spoke. “What else haven’t you told me?”
“Nothing. I swear.”
“Where is Dredward’s chamber?”
Ishalan raised a single finger to point skyward. “Main turret. Top floor.”
Her lip curled back. “I could kill you now.”
He nodded as best he could with her fingers digging into his neck.
She used her hold to steer him toward the entrance. “You’re going to take me there. And if this is some kind of trap, I promise that I will take you down before I die.”
As they rejoined the rest of the team, she yanked him to a stop. “Rico’s being held elsewhere. I need cover.”
Cammie nodded. “A distraction?”
“Exactly. Ishalan and I alone will get Rico. The rest of you raise havoc and draw all of their focus.” She looked at LV. “Time to unleash the wolves of war.”
LV stared daggers at Ishalan. “You bring my grandson back, or the wolves of war will pick this place down to the bones.” Then she turned, and she and Toni shifted back to their wolf forms and ran out.
Cammie braced her sword on her shoulder and shot a look at Temo. “What do you say?”
Temo grinned. “One distraction, coming up.” He clapped Kace on the shoulder as he glanced at Will. “Let’s go, boys.”
They all hustled out.
Donna kept her grip on Ishalan, doing her best not to look at the bodies they’d left behind. “How long before the guards file out?”
“When the alarm goes up? A minute. Maybe less. Dredward might keep a pair of guards, his personal ones, but that will be it.”
“He’ll be alone?”
“No. His paramour will be with him.”
Donna struggled not to roll her eyes. “Remember how I just asked if you had any other important info to share and you said no?”
He frowned. “The paramour is unimportant. She might be Dredward’s companion, but her loyalty is to herself first. She’ll cower at the first sign of trouble.”
A rumble outside shook the fortress. A chorus of howling followed, accompanied by a high-pitched sound like a siren going off.
“You have a banshee too? That’s quite a distraction,” Ishalan said. “Now wait…”
The thunderous beat of footsteps and shouts to rally rang out. The soldiers were leaving the stronghold.
Ishalan held up one long finger. Finally, the exodus seemed to be over, but the noise outside swelled. Fighting had begun. “Now.”
He led Donna back up the steps, then straight through the grand hall to another set of stairs.
Her earpiece crackled. “Boss, it’s going off out here. We’re holding our own, but don’t take too long.”
“Copy.” She poked Ishalan in the shoulder. “Faster.”
He sped up. She kept his pace without a problem, and after what seemed liked a thousand steps, they arrived at a set of ornate wooden doors. No guards stood outside. Donna took that as a good sign.
Ishalan glanced at her, brows raised in question.
If he was asking her if she was ready, she was. She nodded, hand on her sword.
He held up three fingers, then two, then one. Shoulder lowered, he launched himself through the doors, breaking them apart in a shower of wooden splinters and copper fittings.
The fae Donna assumed to be Dredward stood at a window on the opposite side of the enormous space. He whipped around as they came barreling in, his gaze ricocheting from Donna to Ishalan. “You,” he snarled.
“That’s right, dear brother.” Ishalan smiled. “I’ve come home.”
A weak voice came from the right. “Donna?”
She glanced over and found Rico shackled in bands of silver inside a cage no larger than a dog kennel. “Rico.”
Anger drove her. She grabbed the cage’s door and ripped it off its hinges.
From the bed, a female voice shrieked. “Guards, guards.”
Donna ignored her to get Rico out of the cage. He was dirty and smelled like they’d done nothing for him in the way of personal comforts. “I’m sorry it took so long.”
He just stared up at her without much response, his lids drooping. Had he been drugged? Or was the silver in his restraints making him sick? Didn’t matter. They’d figure it out. She grabbed him under the arms and got him out as best she could while bent over and trying not to hurt him further.
A blade whistled past her head and sank into the wood paneling behind the cage. She yanked Rico the rest of the way free and drew her sword.
Ishalan and Dredward were locked in hand-to-hand, so that wasn’t where the blade had come from. She looked toward the bed.
A barely dressed fae woman with a handful of little knives stood on the bed. She threw another one as Donna was assessing the scene.
She dodged, Matrix-style, as the blade came soaring past her left side. As she twisted away, she came all the way around and used the momentum to charge forward, taking the woman down.
The fae screamed and kicked and snapped her teeth at Donna.
So much for cowering in fear.
Donna pressed her bracelet to the woman’s throat just like she’d done with Ishalan. It had the same sizzling effect, but the woman kept bucking like a rodeo horse.
There wasn’t much else she could do, so Donna clocked her across the jaw and knocked her out. Behind her, Ishalan and Dredward were wrestling on the floor, cursing each other and snarling like wild animals. Both were bleeding.
Fine with Donna. She needed to get Rico free of the restraints. She went back to him, grabbed the blade out of the wall and used it to pry off the shackles binding his wrists. Raw, oozing skin covered every inch the silver had touched. She worked on the ones around his ankles next, finally freeing him.
He moaned. She took it as a good sign. The time to get him out was now. Ishalan and Dredward were not her concern. “Can you walk?”
He nodded. At least she thought that’s what he did. She pulled him to his feet, got his arm around her shoulders and hers around his waist, and started him out the door.
He felt lighter than she’d expected. Had he lost weight? “Temo, Charlie, I’ve got Rico, and I’m on my way down.”
A garbled mess of battle sounds, snarls, swords clanging, and shouting answered her. If Temo’s response was an actual word, it didn’t come through.
She got them to the steps and carefully began their descent. She prayed they didn’t run into any guards, because Rico would b
e an easy target. She’d have no choice but to kill them, and she’d already realized that ending a life was a pretty traumatic experience for her.
What that said about her as a vampire, she wasn’t sure. Of course, this was war. And she’d do whatever was necessary to protect herself and her friends.
They made the first landing without incident and kept going. The sounds outside grew louder as the battle raged on. Could the citizens of Manhattan hear any of that? The fae magic had to work as a sound barrier as well.
Rico turned his face into her neck. “Thank you,” he whispered. His voice was raspy and dry.
“You’re welcome.”
“I take it you didn’t trade the dhamfir?”
“No.”
A hoarse bark of laughter wheezed out of him. “I knew you wouldn’t.”
“Save your energy. We still have a long way to go.” The great hall lay ahead of them. She paused at the stairs’ exit to make sure the space was empty. A guard slumped near the hearth, purple blood covering him.
She listened hard, but there was so much other noise that detecting a heartbeat seemed impossible. Had he retreated to safety only to die by the fire? If he was still alive, he didn’t seem like much of a threat.
“We need to go.” She shifted Rico to the other side so that if the guard did come around and decide to attack, she’d take the brunt of it. The last thing Rico needed was more wounds. With more speed than care, they crossed the great hall.
About halfway and her earpiece came to life with Temo’s voice. “Boss. The queen just showed up. Not sure if that’s good or bad.”
She tapped the button. “The queen?”
“Yep. Artemis.”
Chapter Nineteen
Artemis? Donna didn’t have the time or mental energy to process that. Not right now. Plus, Arty was a big girl. She could look after herself. She’d said as much.
Donna held on to Rico a little tighter and picked up her pace toward the exit. They still had to cross the bridge with that gaping chasm below it. If she lost her grip on him, or he suddenly shifted… “Rico, how are you doing?”
Sucker Punch: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel (First Fangs Club Book 3) Page 14
