Page 82 of Blood and Magic
When she didn’t move, I banged my cuffs on the cement floor. I didn’t know where the vampires were or if they’d be able to hear us, so I didn’t want to make too much noise, but if there was any way to get out of this, I’d need her help. I wouldn’t leave without her.
“Ginny!” I called again. This time, she groaned and lifted her head, wincing as she looked around.
“Fucking hell,” she mumbled and touched the wound on her temple. She, likewise, had been knocked unconscious. “Where are we?”
“The vampire house of horrors,” I said. “We have to get out of here.”
She clenched her eyes shut and blinked a few times. “I think I have a concussion.”
I opened my mouth to ask her if she could get out of her cuffs, but a door on the far end of the room opened and several people entered. The disgusting scent of rotten eggs filled my nose, and I nearly heaved. Vampires were horrendous creatures. How could Mill ever think he was like them?
“Welcome back to reality,” said the big one in the front. When he stepped into the light, I recognized him as the leader, Marx. He clapped his hands and rubbed them together, flashing a wicked grin that made my skin crawl. “You two wouldn’t have been plotting an escape, would you?”
I squared my jaw and glared at him.
“That wouldn’t be very well behaved for someone with your upbringing, would it?”
Percy moved to his left, and I shifted my focus to my brother. I hadn’t seen him in months. Guin and Sol had led us to believe he’d moved away after his fall from grace, leaving his pregnant wife behind. But now, I knew the truth. He’d been turned into a vampire by the piece of shit standing in front of me.
“How can you stand this?” I asked Percy. “How can you let him do this to me? To your family?”
Percy shifted and rubbed his neck, glancing at the ground.
“Fucking spineless?—”
A sharp slap twisted my head to the side, amplifying the headache blossoming behind my eyes, making the anguish in my muscles worse. Torment radiated down my cheek and into my jaw, and I spat blood on the floor in front of me, the result of biting my tongue.
“That’s enough,” Marx said. “Percy is a good little soldier, aren’t you?”
Again, Percy remained quiet.
“I was owed a Vanderbilt daughter,” Marx continued, holding up a hand to his goons. “I mean to take what’s mine.”
He waved his fingers, and they moved forward, three on either side of me. One unbuckled my cuffs on either wrist while the other held my feet down, but as soon as my hands were free, I lunged. Claws jutting out, I scraped a female on the cheek and tore into another’s throat, who gasped and clutched at the wound.
The sound of a cocked pistol halted my fury, and I looked at Ginny, who had a vampire standing in front of her, barrel aimed at her head.
“Come willingly or I’ll put a bullet in her brain,” Marx said.
“Don’t listen to them,” Ginny said.
But I didn’t have a choice. They would kill her if I didn’t do what they said, and I would rather die than watch her brains paint the wall.
“Okay,” I said, holding my hands to either side. “Okay.”
The vampire I’d scratched grabbed my upper arm and dragged me to my feet, whispering in my ear. “You’ll pay for that, you filthy fucking animal.”
I grinned a predatory response. My heart raced and my muscles trembled, but I wouldn’t show these walking corpses any of that. If I went down, at least I could say I went down swinging. The big guy next to Percy bent to lift me from the waist, slinging me over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold. Marx told one of the vampires to stay and guard Ginny while the rest went with us. I scrambled for what to do next. I was sure they planned to take me to some dark, dingy room to do dark, horrible things. Mill’s words ricocheted in my head.
They’ll spend days draining you…torturing you…using you. And that’s if you’re lucky. I shudder to think what he would have done with Sol if Orion hadn’t gotten to her when he did.
I swallowed down another wave of terror, knowing if I put up a fight, they would hurt Ginny in response.
Think, Maeve! Think!
We rounded a corner, and the sounds of shuffling feet made me perk my head up. Over thirty other vampires stood in a circle. The room reeked of death, and my terror started to take over.
“Calm,” urged my inner fox, but I didn’t know how to do that when the threat of being dinner became abundantly clear.
