Page 74 of Gemini Hunted
There’s one of my alphas, at least.
Apparently unharmed and not even disheveled, except for the fresh blood spattering his narrow hands and staining thecrisp cuffs of his uniform shirt. My Goblin King is levitating over the raised portcullis, casually gripping one of his hidden cache of knives (also dripping with blood) in each hand.
Guess he’s gotten stabby with a few of those AIB killers. He likes to kill that way when it’s personal. The way it is for him now, with his asshole dad in play, maybe even lurking somewhere in this dungeon with us.
Watching.
No wonder V’s guarding the tunnel.
If any of our enemies (like his father) manages to slip into that sewer ahead of us, we’ll be trapped like rats.
Under Vasili’s floating feet, a narrow walkway emerges, slime-coated and dripping. It hugs the edge of the tunnel. Looks to me like that Open Sesame Mallory conjured has done more than raise the portcullis. It’s lowered the actual water level in the reservoir to expose that walkway.
Curse or no curse, that’s one helluva spell Mal unleashed.
Barely illuminated by the flashlight’s wavering beam, Jae and Mal have already reached the walkway. Now they race right into the tunnel, Jae guarding his girl’s back as she runs, awkward and stilty on her long pale legs, with that grisly spellbook—the Book of Flame and Breath—still clutched fervently to her chest.
I bet my apple-polishing bestie is afraid of late fees from the library or something if she loses it.
Me? I’ve seen enough of that book in action.
A yelp from Neo yanks my attention back to him. Without the flashlight’s wavering beam ahead to guide him, he’s barely visible in the dark, but still blundering determinedly toward the tunnel. Unfortunately, he’s hindered—both by the backpack strapped to his broad shoulders and the duffel he’s cradling protectively in his arms.
Sounds like our kitten has definitely had enough of that carrier. Piercing meows, piteous with protest, rise incessantly from inside.
Still airborne and guided more by sound than sight, I weave my way through the forest of shadowy pillars, each one emerging suddenly from the dark, and call down to his shadowy form. “Neo, baby, you gotta haul ass.”
“Trying!” he calls back. “I can barely see, babe.”
“Just follow me, okay?” I hum to summon a crackle of voltage, then lower myself to float a few feet before Neo like a human glow stick. At this elevation, of course, I’m vulnerable to attack myself.
Well, bring it on, world. I’m fuckingready.
I’m sick to death of being hunted.
Forcibly I regulate my spiking adrenaline and ratchet my aggression from an electric crackle to a steady hum. The important thing right now is, the subdued violet light of my electrically charged body is guiding my fated mate.
Directly before us, no more than thirty feet ahead, the tunnel yawns.
A hyena’s sinister chuckle rises from the dark.
We’re being stalked.
I growl, swerve to put myself between Neo and the sound, and tell him roughly,“Run.”
Yeah. I’m definitely gonna teach my bookworm some basic self-defense skills, like he’s been repeatedly asking for.
As soon as we make it outta this mess.
“I’ll hold you to that,” Neo whispers, plucking the thought right out of my head. “I mean it.”
Then he’s running blind, blundering from pillar to pillar for the tunnel. If he falls in the water, I earnestly hope Mordred will catch him.
Mordred.
That’s one mating bond that would be useful for me to have right now. I mean, if only to communicate with the guy (just leaving all actual sex with the sex demon out of it). I’m definitely hoping V has that demon on a good tight leash.
But I can’t ask, because V himself is suddenly all murky and cloudy in our mating bond.
