Page 21 of Midnight Queen

Closing my eyes, I force myself to remain calm, which is hard to accomplish when nothing about the past day has been calm. With slow, steady breaths, I think of my dream and the way Silas looked in the sunshine. If I focus hard enough, I swear I can smell the intoxicating cologne that always clings to his skin.

The calm is once again ripped away from me when the deafening sound blasts through the room. You watch explosions happen in movies or television shows all the time, but you never consider just how loud they are in real life.

The chains that hang across the ceiling above me clang as the building shakes from the loud boom. My body tenses up. With each beat of my heart, anxiety pushes its way through my veins while I wait for what’s to happen next.

An eerie silence falls over the building, and for a moment, all I can pick up on is the sound of my blood rushing in my ears and the steady flow of cold air circulating through the room.

But then I hear them.

Just like when Silas’s home was ambushed by Gideon’s men, the air fills with the sound of gunshots. One after the other, they fill the air.They’re not as loud as the explosion, the thick metal door of the room making them seem muffled, but I’d still recognize that sound anywhere.

It’s the same sounds that filled me with dread and fear just a day ago, but now, they have the opposite effect on me. Instead, I’m filled with hope and triumph.

He’s here, Ira had said in my dream. I thought he meant that Silas was in the courtyard with us, but now I think my subconscious was trying to tell me that he washere.

He found me.

The smile that breaks across my face is one I wouldn’t be able to fight, even if I wanted to. Even Gideon barging into the room with a wild look in his eyes can’t make my smile fall.

“Uh-oh,” I pretend to sound concerned. “Sounds like you’re in trouble, Gideon.”

Gideon’s lips move as he mumbles something incoherent to himself. He charges for me, and instantly, I attempt to jerk away from him, but just like before, it’s no use.

Without acknowledging me, he makes quick work of removing the needles and tubing from my arms. He doesn’t bother to reach for the bags that have been filling with my blood—it’s as if they don’t serve a purpose for him anymore.

“You shouldn’t let that blood go to waste,” I taunt. “Have a sip before he comes for you. A last meal of sorts.”

Again, he keeps his head down and he continues to talk to himself. I’m starting to think I’m witnessing the remaining pieces of his mind break. He already had nothing to lose when all of this started, but if his head is cracking like a fucking walnut, things are going to get interesting for everyone.

He moves to the end of the table at a speed I struggle to keep up with. Cold fingers make quick work of releasing my ankles from the shackles.

“What are you doing?” I question when he moves on to the ones locked around my tender wrists. When the metal is peeled away from my skin, the scabs that had adhered to it are torn away, causing the wounds to open again. I hiss out a breath when the blood begins to drip. “Are you giving up and letting me go because you know you’ve lost?”

That does it.

Gideon’s eyes snap to mine. Trouble sits behind those orbs now. Shaking his head, he says, “I haven’t lost yet, Quincey.” Wrapping his hands around my biceps, he yanks me off the table. My knees give out and I almost fall to the ground when he puts me on my feet for the first time since I’ve been here. “Get up!” he yells. “We’ve got a date with the king.”

Half holding me up and half dragging me, Gideon leads me out of the room that’s been my prison and into the chaos that waits for us.

Warm blood sprays across my face when the guard, who’s chest my fist is currently buried in, violently coughs. His eyes are so wide, I’m surprised they haven’t fallen from his skull. More blood drips from his gaping mouth as I rip my arm from his body. He falls to the ground next to the other guard I’d ripped apart just seconds prior.

The black shirt I wear is soaked through with blood, the fabric sticking to my skin, but I don’t mind getting my hands dirty right now.

Each person who dies by my hand tonight is a victory. I don’t care that these guards are just doing the job they were hired to do. They’re attempting to keep me from my woman and that is reason enough for them to die.

Twenty of my own guards have been brought in from all over North and South America. It’s amazing what can be done in a short amount of time when you have more money than God. A few strings were pulled, and multiple wire transfers were made, and just like that, I had a small army at my disposal before the sun set.

While Lorcan and Rory had slept on and off all day long, I’d paced the confines of the safe house. I felt each agonizing second pass by as I waited for everything to come together. With the live feed disconnected, it had been unbearable to not see what was happening to Quincey all those hours. My mind had come up with each worst-case scenario and by the time the alarm on Rory’s computer went off, I was once again prepared to walk out the door into the daylight to find her.

When the footage appeared again and I was able to confirm that Quincey was still alive, the uncontrollable beast inside of me settled and my rationality returned. She was pale and covered in dry blood, but she was breathing and for the rest of my days, that’s all I will care about.

As long as Quincey Page’s heart continues to beat for the both of us, the world can burn for all I care. Nothing else matters.

A man screams in agony off to my side. Turning my head, I find Lorcan burying his fangs deep into his jugular. Fighting—killing—is what Lor lives for. It was what he excelled at as a human, and as a vampire, he’s perfected the skill.

On the two hour long drive here, Lorcan had bounced in his seat like a child on his way to Disney World. A few times, I considered kicking him out of the vehicle and telling him to meet us at the meat packing plant where Gideon is holed up.

The plant hasn’t been used for those purposes in a long time, but someone has been paying to keep the utilities on. I would bet a large sum of money that this property is owned by one of the many shell companies Gideon operates. If Rory were willing to do more research on the matter for me, I’m sure she’d uncover it, but the hacker was true to her word and so was I.

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