on either side like the one we came out of, and a visible end to the hallway just down from our door. The other end vanished around a curve that hid anything more than twenty feet away. A dead-end corridor with a series of doors into dead-end rooms; I'd feel sooo much better when we got around that curve, and out of this nearly perfect ambush area.
"Where are our people?" I asked.
Thaddeus motioned up the hallway. "Last door on the left has your men in it."
He started to lead us toward that door, but I glanced at the four other closed doors. "Are there more prisoners down here?" I asked.
"No, just our masters and their vampire henchmen."
Lisandro and I exchanged a look. "We need out of this hallway," he said.
I nodded, because I totally agreed. If it had been a normal vampire hunt we could have staked the vampires, or put silver bullets into their brains and hearts, but if the vampires died, then their animals to call might die, too. It would be really ungrateful of us to kill our rescuers, so we had to leave the vampires behind us, dead to the world for now. The back of my neck prickled with the thought of them behind the doors, waiting for night, and us having only one way out. I appreciated Thaddeus and the lions helping us, but we weren't rescued yet.
Thaddeus led the way with the male lion beside him. Lisandro insisted on going next and putting me between him and the female lion. I didn't waste time arguing. We just needed to get the others and get the fuck out of Dodge.
The door we wanted was nearly at the bend of the corridor, so the lion, whom I was still calling Thing One in my head, drew a gun and glanced around that blind curve. He didn't startle or wave us off, so apparently no nasty surprises were up ahead. Good.
Thaddeus unbolted the door. It opened almost noiselessly. He said something harsh in a language I didn't speak, and in English said, "They are not here."
I tried to peer around the broad shoulders and cloak, but Lisandro was actually taller and looked over his head. "Shit," he said.
I realized I'd never asked who they had. I understood in that moment that I'd been afraid to ask, because part of me didn't want to know who they had as hostages. I was pretty sure it was Bernardo, because he'd had the coffee just like Lisandro and me, but Nicky and Olaf hadn't. I hadn't asked if they were captured, or dead. Having Olaf die in the line of duty would solve so many problems, but he was a good man in a fight and he was a fellow marshal. I couldn't wish him dead. I admitted to myself that it was Nicky that bothered me most. Bernardo was a friend, but more a work friend. I'd be sorry, but my life would go on. Nicky dead would seriously change my day-to-day life. If he'd been my lion to call his death would have hurt me, and I'd have known, but Brides of vampires are often cannon fodder, the vampires that are left behind to delay the hunters while the masters get away. If you have the vampire ability to make brides, you can always make more. Most masters knew better than to fall in love with the cannon fodder.
"Who got captured with you?" I asked Lisandro.
"I came to with just Bernardo and a guy I didn't recognize."
"What about Nicky and Olaf?" I asked, and I forgot to use Olaf's "marshal" name. In that moment, I didn't try to correct it. I'd learned when accidentally giving away someone's alias that just ignoring the mistake attracts less attention than repeating and correcting. Most people edit what they hear to match what they expect to hear anyway.
"I passed out when you did, Anita."
"Shit," I said. "Thaddeus."
He turned and gave me those serious green eyes in their mask. "While I fetched weapons they moved your friends. I have failed you."
"Who's the man that Lisandro didn't know, and what happened to the other two men with us?"
"The red tiger mongrel that you made your lover," he said.
"Ethan?"
"I believe that is his name."
"I've only slept with Ethan once."
"You have a reputation for bonding very closely with your lovers after very little contact."
"How did you get him out of the red tiger's lair?"