Bound by Danger (The Alliance #6) - Brenda K. Davies Page 0,9
tunnel. Their vivid red eyes were bright against the darkness enshrouding them. When the man took another turn, those eyes became the only source of illumination.
What are they? As the question ran through her mind, a primal part of her whispered the answer. You know what they are.
But it was impossible. They simply could not be what she thought they were.
Vampires did not exist. They were a myth made up to scare people into behaving centuries ago. They were scary stories to tell around campfires. They lived in movies meant to frighten and came to life in fantasy books. They did not pull you off the street, drag you into some unknown underground hell, and thrust you into a pit to…. What?
Why had they taken her? What was her purpose here?
Her fingers dug into the flesh of the man’s back, but he was not a man. She couldn’t deny that anymore. His red eyes, his bites, and the slurp of her blood told her what he was.
And he was also the reason she was here. She didn’t understand it and had no idea what was happening, but she was sure she was here because of him.
The rest of these assholes were free; shackles bound his wrists. The rest were clean and dressed like any other person walking down the street. He was filthy, missing a shirt and shoes, and his clothes were too baggy on him.
She wanted to get as far from him as fast as she could, but she suspected he was as much of a prisoner in this place as her. Which meant he was also an ally—the enemy of my enemy—even if that enemy kept using her as a pincushion.
Prisoner or not, he was also the only one who had caused her to experience the worst pain of her life, not once but twice.
She had to get away from him, but right now, he might be her only chance of escaping this mess. With the creatures closing in on them, she realized she was going to die. She didn’t want to die. She had so many dreams and things she planned to do.
And she especially didn’t want to die at the hands of these monsters as their red eyes and loud breaths echoed around her. They all but drooled at the prospect of her death.
She slapped his back a couple of times. “Faster.”
Lucien didn’t need her to tell him that; he heard them closing in, but starvation and weakness were starting to wear on him, and his step faltered even as he was overwhelmed by his compulsion to get her to safety.
Chapter Five
Lucien took a right and plunged onward through the darkness. He relied on his senses to guide him as the slap of his bare feet rebounded off the walls. A sound change indicated an opening ahead. He smelled it when the air became fresher and a barely perceptible shift in the currents drifted over his skin.
The shift pulled him to the right, and though the fresh scent of the outdoors beckoned him. The possibility of freedom propelled him faster as he felt himself growing weaker.
Callie couldn’t tear her eyes away from the creatures spilling over the top of one another. Maniacal, rabid clowns were less terrifying than these monsters as some of them crawled over the walls and heads of their fellow psychopaths. She had no idea how they were doing it, but their speed must have made it possible for them to defy gravity.
Her bladder clenched as she made a concentrated effort not to piss herself. She wasn’t exactly thrilled with the freak carrying her, but she didn’t want to piss all over him either.
The air whipping by her blew her hair like she was riding in a convertible with the top down. She felt nauseous and dizzy as the ground rushed past her in a blur while those things clambered forward.
One of them took a swipe at her. Its fingers brushed across her cheek and nose. She cringed away and slid back over the man’s shoulder as she tried to get away from it. She didn’t get far as his arm remained locked around her legs.
“Oh shit,” she breathed.
The terror in the woman’s voice and her nails digging into his shoulder somehow made it possible for Lucien to run faster. The aroma of fresh air grew stronger as he held her tighter, and increased the distance between them and the Savages. He would get her out of here.