Page 85 of Mortal Blood
I shivered and clamped my mouth shut, because honestly I had no clue if he had that kind of power, and I was in no hurry to find out. Playing nice. That was my plan. And I was going to need to stick to it for more than thirty seconds if I wanted to get out of here—even if Brennan was a total asshole who clearly got off on trying to scare people.
“That’s what I thought. Turn around.”
I stared at him, and he arched a brow. “Resisting an enforcer’s instructions already? You saw that, right, Pierce? I’m going to have to use force to ensure compliance.”
“Alright, alright,” I grumbled, turning around. I heard him step into the cell behind me, and the metallic clink of handcuffs. Like he needed them. I was powerless here. I grit my teeth as he stepped right behind me, and I didn’t need to see his face to know how smug his expression was right now.
Pain exploded through my ribs and I doubled over with a cry of shock and pain. Fucker had punched me while my back was turned. What anasshole! I spun around, ready to defend myself.
“Ah-ah, Ellis. Give me an excuse.”
I glared at him for a long moment before shuffling round to turn my back on him again. But if that prick tried it a second time…
He took hold of my wrist and snapped the cuffs shut round first one, then the other. I ignored his touch, which was easy enough because my whole side felt like it was on fire. Definitely a cracked rib or two.
“Move,” he said, grabbing hold of my arm and towing me along beside him. The guard walked behind us, presumably in case the tiny, warded, handcuffed not-quite human managed to get to drop on the big burly enforcer.
“Where are we going?” I asked as he led me through the corridor. I kept my eyes forward, and tried to ignore the gaze of the guard I could feel boring into my back. Neither bothered to answer me, and as we reached a studded door at the end of the corridor, Brennan jerked me to a halt. The guard pressed his hand to the wall on our right, and a second, plain, door appeared next to his hand. Right. Because why would the door really be a door, and the wall really be a wall?
“Don’t want to go through that one, dhampir. There are creatures worse than you there.”
I cast a glance at the studded door. Yeah, I so did not want to know what was on the other side of that. But Ididwant to know where the hell we were going. The guard opened the plain door and when Brennan made to steer me through, I planted my feet.
“Resisting again, prisoner?” Brennan said, his voice laced with barely suppressed glee. I lifted my chin.
“I’m not moving until you tell me where I’m going. Prisoner or not, I have rights.”
“You have whatever I say you have. Now move.”
I stayed where I was.
“You’re trying my patience, dhampir. Last chance. Move, orI’ll make sure your clothes have an unfortunate mishap right before you go into gen pop for social this afternoon.”
“You wouldn’t do that.”
“Move, or find out.”
I held his sneering gaze for another second before whirling on my heel and marching through the door, hoping I didn’t look as sick as I felt. Because I hadn’t evenconsideredthat they would dump me in gen pop. How the hell was I supposed to protect myself against hardened supe criminals? Worse, it meant they planned to keep me here, and I needed to get out—and not just to save my own skin. My mom was out there, and no-one knew her as well as I did.
I didn’t bother resisting again as the pair of them led me through several more doors, the last of which took us into a small room with four empty chairs and a table, all of which appeared hewn from the ground itself. The supe version of furniture bolted to the floor, I guess.
Brennan marched me round to the far side of the table and pushed me into one of the chairs. I bit back a hiss of pain because fuck him, and shifted my weight to take the pressure off my damaged ribs as best I could with my hands still cuffed behind my back. Brennan settled into one of the chairs on the other side of the table—not the one opposite me—and proceeded to ignore me. Fine. Two could play at that game. We were clearly waiting for someone, and it was just as clear that he wasn’t about to tell me who. I’d find out soon enough.
We waited in silence for a few minutes before someone knocked on the door. The guard slipped outside, pulling it to behind him, and I couldn’t quite make out the hurried, quiet conversation that took place. Then the door opened again and Istared, not quite believing what I was seeing.
“Cole?”
“The fuck is he doing here?” Brennan demanded, lurching to his feet.
“He’s her mate,” the new guard, the one who I guess had escorted Cole here, said.
“I know who the fuck he is, what the fuck is he doing here?”
Cole met his eye. “She’s my mate, and it’s my right, under section seven of the Shifter Hierarchy and Mating Act of 1124, as I’m sure you’re aware, being a fine, upstanding officer of the law.”
He leaned round Brennan and shot me a wink. I guess he’d been chatting with Ling.
“Five minutes,” Brennan snapped, moving to stand against the wall and let Cole past. “We need to interrogate the prisoner.”
