Page 52 of Livewire Witch

We can’t risk him moving on to something or someone else once he realizes it didn’t work.

“And the current leaders?”

“Not going to pose a problem. We have the aura reader in our pockets. The man has so many vices, it was hard to pick so we went with a few,” Simpson snorts. “He’s vain, a desperate social climber, and surprisingly bad with business, always trying to keep up with his betters.”

I almost snort. That’s Felix summed up all right.

“The other one has readjusted his priorities of late. Not unusual for a man so close to retirement. I’m sure no one suspects a thing.”

“So we’re on track, then?”

“The threat will be easy to neutralize once our powers are boosted. Our value will be impossible to ignore. Once people start to lose their heads all over the city, they’ll have little choice but to turn to us for help. We’ll regain our place at the top of the chain.”

“What do we do?”Silver hisses in my head. “Try to take them all out?”She shakes her head, biting her thumbnail.“No, we can’t take them all on.”

“Compel them to leave and we’ll focus on this Simpson fucker,”I tell her. Always better to divide and conquer than try to plow on in to a vampire den and assume you can overpower the slimy fuckers.

Ro and I learned that a few months back.

“Hold on, I have a better idea.”Before I can think to stop her, Silver is shimmying out of our hiding place, away from the basement.

I hold my position, not knowing what the fuck she’s doing. I can’t risk moving and giving away our presence or our location.

There’s the faint sound of glass smashing and a shout from upstairs, followed by a strong smell of something burning.

Shit. Did she just set the place on fire?

“What the hell’s that?” I hear one of the female vampires yelling from inside the basement.

“I don’t know! Better go check it out.”

Silver crawls back into the chute beside me and gives me a little grin that has my stomach twisting. Then her smile drops and her eyes widen as her boot connects with the side of the chute, clanging loudly.

Shit.

So much for remaining unnoticed.

“What do we have here then?” Simpson says, his voice closer than it should be.

Things then happen so quickly, I barely know which way is up. Silver is yanked out of the chute at super speed and Simpson has her held up by her neck. I push forward out of the vent, collapsing onto the basement floor on my hands and knees.

“Don’t move or I’ll rip her throat out.”

I raise my hands up, still on my knees as I stare helplessly on.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. We should have got reinforcements as soon as we realized this was the guy. What the hell were we thinking, trying to take him on by ourselves?

“Little witch,” Simpson’s teeth elongate into sharp fangs as he shifts his face toward Silver’s face and he takes a deep sniff. “You smelldelectable. So much in one little package. I don’t know how I didn’t catch your scent sooner.” He licks his lips, the knuckles of his free hand brushing against Silver’s cheek.

“Now, I could kill you right now, like I’m going to do with the mage here. But I think I have a better idea.”

He zips across the room in a flash, dragging Silver with him. Her feet drag on the hard concrete floor and it looks like he’strying to bend her ankles the wrong way. She barely stifles a wince and I have to fight the urge to charge forward.

Keeping one hand on her neck, he uses the other to tear something I can’t see off the wall. He then twists Silver around so she can see what he’s revealed.

Chains.

Hanging from the ceiling, with manacles at one end.

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