Page 77 of Fanged Desire
“Can you walk?”
They nodded hesitantly, one of them shuffling forward and clutching Penelope’s arm for support.
“Good.” I stepped back to let them file out. “Follow me. Quietly.”
This wasn’t exactly part of the plan, and I had no idea how I was going to sneak eleven fear-stricken captives out of the mansion. Not with all the guards crawling the premises – not to mention the masked elves crowding the main entrance. But I had to try.
We slipped out into the corridor, the group moving like ghosts behind me.
The others were slow, their fear and exhaustion dragging their feet. I kept glancing at Penelope, watching the way she flinched at every sound. It broke my heart.
We were almost at the corner when the sound of heavy footsteps froze us all in place. The guard was back, his voice carrying down the staircase as he oozed a syrupy sweet farewell to someone out of sight.
“Back!” I hissed, herding the group back down the hall, my arms outstretched as if I could physically shield them from the inevitable. Penelope clung to me, her steps unsteady, her breathsshallow. The others followed in a clumsy, panicked shuffle, their fear slowing them down.
But in my heart, I already knew it was futile. There were eleven of them, all scared out of their minds, stumbling over their own feet. We were too loud, too obvious, too slow.
The guard spotted us immediately, and his expression shifted from smug satisfaction to sudden stinging malice. “What the fuck is this?!”
The captives froze, their wide eyes flicking to me in a silent, desperate plea. Penelope’s knees buckled and she dropped to the floor, trembling so violently I worried she’d bite off her tongue.
“Go!” I hissed, trying to urge the others forward. But they didn’t move. They were frozen in terror, their feet rooted to the ground.
The guard took a step forward, his hand moving to the baton at his hip.
“You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that,” he sneered, zeroing in on me, the ringleader in a dazzling red dress. “But this little jailbreak? It ends now.”
I glanced back at Penelope, her tear-streaked face tilted up toward mine. I could run. I could leave them all behind, save myself, and maybe – just maybe – figure out another way to free her later.
But I couldn’t leave her behind. Not now, and not ever again.
Something deep inside me snapped into place, a resolve I didn’t know I had. I was not going to fail her a second time.
I stepped in front of my sister, planting myself between her and the guard. My heart thundered in my chest, but my hands curled into fists when I met his gaze, my body rigid as I squared my shoulders the same way I’d seen Hunter do.
“Let them pass.”
The guy could only laugh, his grin widening as he took another step toward me, reaching for the weapon at his hip. “And why would I do that?”
“Because,” I said, forcing steel into my tone despite the rattle in my teeth, “if you don’t, I’ll have to kill you.”
His laughter stopped abruptly, and he tilted his head, studying me with all the conceited swagger of a guy who just got his dick sucked. “You’re serious, aren’t you? Sweetheart, you’ve got no idea what you’re up against.”
I swallowed hard, throat dry as sandpaper, but I held my ground. Behind me, I could hear Penelope’s shaky breaths, the muffled whimpers of the other captives. I tightened my fists. I had no weapon, no way to contact Hunter, no plan beyond sheer determination. But I wasn’t moving. Not without Penelope.
The guard raised his baton, his eyes glinting with triumph as he prepared to swing. I braced myself, every muscle coiling in preparation to fight back, even though I knew my chances were slim at best.
But before the baton could strike, a loudwhumpsounded through the hallway and the guy let out a startled grunt. He blinked at me for a moment, expression rippling through various stages of confusion, and then he crumpled to the ground in a heap.
“What the–” I gasped, staggering backward.
Standing behind the unconscious guard was a petite woman decked to the nines in a pastel pink outfit, holding a heavy-looking brass wall sconce above her head. Her curls bounced as she blinked at the guard, then at the sconce, then at me.
“Oops,” she chirped with an exaggerated wince, dropping the makeshift weapon with a loudclang. “I may have hit him too hard.”
My mouth hung open, my words lost somewhere in the ether.
The woman flashed me a dazzling smile, her hands clasped in front of her like she hadn’t just knocked a man unconscious with a decorative light fixture. “Looks like I arrived just in time.”
