“Run Aria!” Mary screamed, the hysteria in her voice alerting her to the fact that Caleb was already starting to recover.
Aria hit the stairs, taking them two at a time as she ascended rapidly. She was dismayed to realize she was already breathing heavily and her heart was lumbering from the effort. The loss of blood, lack of food, and brutality she had endured had taken far more of a toll on her than she’d thought. A toll she was going to have to do her best to ignore if she were to have any chance of surviving this.
If Caleb got his hands on her now…
She shuddered at the thought and broke it off. Reaching the top of the stairs, she grabbed hold of the knob on the heavy metal door at the top and swung it shut. Even though Caleb had the keys, and for all she knew he could get through the door without the key, she was still reassured by the loud click of the lock as she slid it into place and spun away from the door.
“Bitch!”
A small gasp escaped her as a hand snagged in her hair. She hadn’t realized there was a hole at the top of the door. Caleb’s hand cruelly fisted in her hair, she clawed at it and jerked roughly to the side as she tried to force him to release her by pinning his arm awkwardly against the door.
Frustration filled her, her eyes burned as he pulled her head back, bending her neck at an unnatural angle. He may not mean to do it, it would ruin all of his plans, but she was becoming increasingly fearful that he was going to accidentally break her neck. A strangled cry escaped her as she threw herself forward. Stars burst before her eyes; she could feel the hair ripping from her scalp as she kept her weight shifted forward. Losing her hair was far preferable to losing her life.
A clump of her hair gave way with a wrenching tear that caused her eyes to burn. She fell forward, her knees and palms stung as they slapped on the floor. Scrambling to her feet, she didn’t look back as she bolted down a lengthy corridor. She was completely unaware of where she was going as she fled into the bowels of the palace.
***
His rooms were much as he’d left them. Trashed. He clearly recalled the last conversation he’d had with Caleb in these rooms; he’d been getting fitted for his wedding when Caleb had come to him. The tailor had been terrified of him, everyone had been terrified of him, even Caleb, and rightly so as he’d been an out of control, bloodthirsty monster after Aria had left him.
But it was that conversation with Caleb that had pushed him over the edge. Aria had been spotted, in a cave, with another man. He now knew that other man was William, but at the time Caleb’s revelation had sent him into another frenzy. He’d already destroyed his apartment once after discovering her gone, but this time he’d ripped it to shreds, leveling it. He’d known the damage he’d done, he’d been there for it, but this was the first time he was actually witnessing it.
He’d gone to the dungeons after with the goal of sating the beast within him, but he’d never made it there. Instead, he’d finally given up on his pride and vowed to hunt her down, vowed to make her pay for turning him into this insatiable monster. Instead, she’d quenched the savagery within him.
Now he was standing here, back in the rooms where it had all started, and he could feel the rising bloodlust as it pulsed through him. This time though, it would only be death that satisfied him.
William let out a low whistle as he stepped over some broken furniture. “Your father has a temper,” he muttered.
“I did this.”
William’s mouth dropped. “Why would you… Aria.”
“Yes.”
Braith nodded to the soldiers and began to pick his way carefully through the debris that littered the floor. He could see, but he still relied on his other senses the most right now. He would hear and smell the enemy before he saw them. The sitting room was in much the same condition as the living room, and he knew without having to see it, that the room Aria had spent the majority of her time in was the most devastated. He’d tried to destroy anything that held her exquisite scent on it, anything she may have touched, but he hadn’t been able to bring himself to ruin it all.
“Wow,” Max breathed.
He didn’t look back at them. He was not proud of what he’d been then; he had despised the lack of control that had consumed him, the death and misery he had rained down upon the innocent. He couldn’t take it back though, and right now he welcomed the thrumming power that came with the knowledge that Aria was being threatened, that came with letting the darkness creep in to take control again.
He stepped into the room that had been Aria’s upon first arriving, not at all surprised to find the tunnel near the bed barricaded. He suspected that at least part of the tunnel had also been demolished. He refused to look at the nightgown spread out on the bed as he turned on his heel and left the room. Keegan remained at his side as he made his way into the main living area.
At the door of the suite, he pressed his hands to the wood, and his eye to the peephole. He saw nothing out there, and sensed no one as his hand rested on the knob. He turned it bit by bit and stepped into the hallway. There was no one about, but he could hear running footsteps in the massive foyer below and shouts echoed off of the cavernous walls.
There were some walls breaking the openness of the hallway before him, but for the most part it was an open balcony to the main entryway below. They would be far too visible to the soldiers and people beneath them. Unfortunately, it was also the fastest way to the dungeons.
He turned and went the other way, disappearing deeper into the palace as he moved toward the servant’s corridor. It would take longer, but this part of the hall was hidden in shadow, and sheltered from view by massive walls. He had to turn sideways to make it down the stairs at the far back of the hall.
It didn’t become any more comfortable as he finally stepped out of the stairwell and into the hallway the servants used to transport supplies, and had their rooms in. A man, stepping from his room, spotted them. His mouth dropped as recognition lit his eyes. “Intru…”
Braith snagged hold of him and snapped his neck before the man could finish the shout that had started to erupt from his throat. Daniel let out a low curse as William made a strangled sound. He turned back toward them, Max had his bow raised, but to Braith’s surprise the arrow wasn’t aimed at his heart, but at the human he had just destroyed. They stared at each other for a prolonged moment before Max grinned at him and lowered the bow. He didn’t know when it had occurred but Max seemed to have started to put some faith in him, some trust. Or if not trust, Max had at least decided that Braith would be the one to get Aria back.
Braith stepped negligently over the servant’s body as he continued down the hall. The further they moved down the hall the more candles started to cast shadows across the dark rock wall. Though the palace had electricity, his father had never installed it in these lower areas as a way to exert his control, and torment the servants forced to reside in the dark.
The hallway opened up as they stepped into a room filled with tables and a large stone fire pit at the end. Burnt logs were still in the pit, fresh heat radiated from it but there were no servants lingering around it. Everything seemed to be going to plan but there was a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach that he couldn’t shake.
He just had to find Aria, he’d be able to think better and be less on edge if he could just see and hold her right now.
He was moving faster as they accessed another small hallway and the staircase that led to the lowest bowels of the palace, the dungeons. Even as he took the stairs he knew that something was wrong. He knew, before he even saw the ruined door that Aria wasn’t within the dark cells below. A low growl escaped him; his hands trembled as he pulled the heavy metal gate away from where it had fallen across the bottom of the doorway.
A snarl curved his upper lip as he bypassed the steps and leapt into the depths of the dungeons below. The smell hit him first, he had been here before, he had drawn people from here before, but he’d never truly noticed the smell until now. He hadn’t ev
en noticed it on his victims; he’d been too lost in the madness consuming him at the time. It engulfed him now, suffused him with its desolation and dread. Even though he was struck by the harsh scent, beneath it all he could smell Aria’s potent, more delicious scent. She had been here, trapped within this place, ensconced in this awful gloom. This place was everything that her woods weren’t, everything that she wasn’t. The clamoring madness inside him was briefly pushed aside as a lump formed in his throat.
Sharp gasps accompanied his sudden arrival. People scurried like cockroaches from the light to the backs of their cells. He deserved their terror, there may even be some women still within that he had fed from, but he didn’t have time for it.
He stopped before an open cell door, his hand twisted around the metal frame. For a moment he couldn’t move as her scent overwhelmed him. He’d known what they would do to her, the abuse that she would endure, but the strong scent of her blood slapped him in the face with the harsh reality of it. He ripped the door from the wall with a violent wrench that did little to soothe him. He managed to restrain himself from heaving it at the back wall as it fell with a clattering ring at his feet.
He stepped away from the dingy, filthy cell, and turned to the man that stood in the middle of the one next to Aria’s. “What happened here?” he demanded. The man simply stared at him with a gaping mouth and bug eyes. “Where is she!?”
Determined to get answers from the man Braith seized hold of the cell door. He was about to yank it free when a faint whisper pierced the air. “Max?” Braith’s head shot around at the name. “William? Daniel?”
The three of them had crept to the bottom of the stairs; the radiance of a single torch flickered over their horrified expressions as they took in the dungeon. Braith stormed down the hall toward them, and the voice that had come from their right. Snatching the torch from them he thrust it forward, causing the woman within the cell to shrink back. He didn’t know if she was one of the women he’d fed from, he hadn’t been able to see them, and they’d been a blur of blood that hadn’t been nearly good enough. The woman watched him with a wary expression that made him think she might have been one of his victims though.
“Mary.” Max was staring at the woman in disbelief as he stepped closer to the bars. “I didn’t think you would still be alive.”
Her gaze darted to Braith and her lower lip began to tremble. He might have felt bad, he was certain he would feel bad once his panic and wrath abated, but right now all he felt was irritated and incensed. “Neither did I,” she whispered.
“What happened here?” Braith grated.
The woman just stared at him with large, frightened eyes. Braith took a step toward the bars, causing the woman to shrink back even further. Max shot him a look as he elbowed Braith out of the way. Braith’s jaw clenched, his hand tightened around the torch, he thought he might have preferred it when Max hated him and went out of his way to avoid him. This side of Max was a little to brazen for his liking right now.
“Mary, was Aria here?” Max asked.
“I know she was here,” Braith retorted.
William and Daniel shook their heads as they stepped forward. Mary continued to study Braith like he was a hairy spider. “You really trust him?” she inquired doubtfully.
“Yes. Please Mary was Aria here?” Max pressed.
“She was here,” she answered after a moment of hesitation.
“What happened?” Braith thrust the torch at one of the soldiers as he grabbed hold of the bars of the cell. “Who took her from here?”
“No one took her.” The voice came from the man that had been in the cell next to Aria’s empty one. “Your brother,” the word was spat at him. “Came for her.”
“Caleb came into the dungeons?” Braith asked in disbelief.
“He did.” Mary moved hesitatingly toward the bars. “He attempted to put the chain on her.” A cold chill flitted down the back of Braith’s neck as beads of sweat began to coat him. Knowing his brother, Caleb may very well keep it on her until the day she died.
“She got away though.” There was amusement in the man’s voice and a few chuckles emerged from the cells surrounding them. “Kicked his ass actually.”
Braith didn’t know if he was more proud or terrified by that revelation. He did know that he couldn’t let Caleb get his hands on her again.
CHAPTER 9
“Concentrate on the ones behind us, we can take them!” Jack yelled above the twang of arrows and the growing shout of voices erupting from the crowd. He pushed his way through the horde, heading toward the group that had turned to focus on the enemy approaching from the back. He grabbed hold of Ashby and pointed to the top of the battlements. “We need to get some men up there.”
Ashby stared at him as if he’d just sprouted a horn from the middle of his forehead. “Jack…”
“Just do it Ashby!” he barked. “We have to keep them occupied if Braith is going to have any chance of slipping in from behind.”
Ashby was unmoving for a moment before he visibly paled and rushed into the crowd of bodies. Jack could hear him calling for vampires and humans to follow him as he ran toward the wall. David appeared at his side and reclaimed his bow and arrow. He turned and slipped away toward the soldiers encroaching on their backside.
A loud shout rose up from both armies as they collided with a loud crash of bodies and metal. Jack grabbed hold of one of his father’s soldiers and flipped him over his back. Slamming his foot down on the man’s throat, he drove his wooden spear through the man’s ribcage and into his heart. The man thrashed for a few moments before going still.
Jack ripped the spear free and turned in time to face the next threat barreling down on him. He spotted Calista within the throng; blood already coated her dark skin and faded clothing. She was grinning savagely, thoroughly enjoying the mayhem as she stepped back and heaved her spear at a soldier that had made the mistake of thinking she was more vulnerable because she was a woman.
Two of their own vampires fell around him, but the tide was turning in their favor as the militia battled through the soldiers with ferocious glee. They wanted this more than his father’s men did, Jack didn’t think that alone was enough for them to win, but it was enough for them to fight harder. Assured that Calista and the others had this under control, Jack broke into a run as he hurried toward the pack still concentrating on the wall. He snagged a bow and arrows from a fallen human and took up a stance beside the scattered line of archers.
Ashby, and the men he had gathered, had managed to distract the attention of the guards on the wall. He hadn’t expected Ashby to go up there himself, but he was climbing with a swift and deadly purpose. Someone shouted as one of their men fell from the wall, an arrow was embedded at a downward angle through his shoulder. Even before he hit the ground Jack knew the man was dead. Another fell seconds later, and then others began to topple off as the king’s soldiers turned their attention to the new threat scaling the wall toward them. They weren’t going to be overpowered from behind, but unless Braith managed to get his group inside, Jack knew they weren’t going to make it into the palace either.
Jack leaned back on his heel, but this time he didn’t aim for over the palace walls, but at the soldiers gathered on top. He focused on one about to fire at Ashby and released the arrow. The guard’s arrow went astray as Jack caught him in the shoulder.
Hurry, he thought frantically as more of their men fell from the wall and the growing heat of the flames from the town pressed against his back.
***
Unlike Braith and the king, Caleb couldn’t track her through her blood, but with as loud as her heart was beating and as noisy as she was breathing, it wouldn’t be difficult for him to find her. She longed to pause to catch her breath, and calm her pulse, but she didn’t dare stop for even a moment. She had a head start on Caleb, but not much of one, and he was much faster than she was.
His freakish humming filled the air as he strolled through the dark ha
lls, relentlessly and unerringly pursuing her. She fell against the wall, wheezing as her legs trembled and shook from exhaustion. She knew she was being louder than normal but she didn’t understand how he managed to stay on her trail so easily.
Lifting her arm to wipe the sweat from her forehead, she froze as a small groan escaped her. His blood may not be inside her, but her own blood was still seeping from the multiple bites that had been inflicted upon her. Though most of them had stopped bleeding, there were a few of them still open and raw enough to leave a blood trail behind her. She was ringing the dinner bell and Caleb was answering it.
He was taking his sweet time because he knew no matter what she did she wouldn’t be able to escape him. Tears burned her eyes, a knot lodged in her throat as she shoved away from the wall. Her teeth grated as she forced her legs to move. She would not go down this way, she would not.
“Here kitty kitty kitty.” Caleb’s taunting voice drifted down the hall.
Aria had never wanted to punch someone more than she wanted to punch him at that moment. Rushing down the hall, determined to escape, she wasn’t prepared for when the walls suddenly gave out and she staggered into some sort of sitting room. She stopped, momentarily confused by the sudden appearance of the room within the dark and twisted passages.
“I’m just going to catch you.”
She glanced over her shoulder, she could tell by the clarity of his voice that Caleb was gaining on her but she still couldn’t see him. Aria bolted across the room, looking for something, anything she could use to defend herself with but there were only three couches and a small table in the center of the room. She wanted to linger longer in the hope that she would find something, but there was no time to waste.
Aria hurried past the room, and plunged back into another hallway. She was unable to see her hand before her but she rushed onward. She didn’t know where she was going, where any of these hallways led, and at the moment she didn’t care. She just had to stay free of Caleb long enough to find a weapon of some sort, or Braith. There was a sizzling energy in her veins that made her think that he was also close.