Demonic Vampires (Supernatural Shifter Academy #3) - G. Bailey Page 0,49

before turning back to me. “Looks like the gang's all here, Ms. Brix,” he says with a smile. “You got what you wanted. Let’s just hope it’s worth it to the rest of them.”

“We’ll see,” I spit out through gritted teeth. My voice sounds foreign to my own ears, like the voice of a dead person.

Hawthorne chuckles but says nothing. A few minutes later, the sound of approaching footsteps can be heard outside. Hawthorne perks up and shoots me a look before leaving the room to meet the group. If I weren’t so weak, I could try to work on my restraints, but I’m past the point of being able to struggle by now. “Well, boys,” I hear him say, sounding like the cat that ate the canary. “It’s nice to be seeing you all again. I wish it were under better circumstances.”

“Cut the crap.” The voice is achingly familiar -- Shade’s, if I’m not mistaken. “Where is she?”

“Now, let’s just take it easy for a minute,” Hawthorne begins placatingly. “I don’t want anyone doing anything they’ll regret-”

“Let us see Millie, or we’re going to make this a lot harder for you.” That sounds like Hunter, and his tone is brokering no argument.

“Believe him,” Landon mutters. “We will.”

“You had to know we would want to make sure she’s still alive,” reasons Silas.

There’s a long pause on the other side of the door. I hold my breath. Finally, the bolts slide away and Hawthorne shoves the door open again. I find myself face to face with a cluster of familiar faces, and my breath hitches in my chest.

I can feel Hunter staring at me from the other side of the room, his expression drawn and menacing. Slowly, he turns back to Hawthorne. I feel like we’re on the edge of something, and the window of opportunity is shrinking fast. If something is going to happen, it needs to happen now. Otherwise…

“On second thought,” Hunter says, his tone more dangerous than I ever could have imagined coming from him, “maybe we’ll make it hard for you, anyway.”

Chapter 21

It’s astonishing how fast everything goes to hell after that, although maybe that’s just my altered perception from whatever energy-draining procedure they’ve been using on me. Either way, the world seems to move almost in slow-motion for the next few minutes, and I’m helpless to do anything but watch.

Hunter is the first to move, shifting into his vampire form with a speed and precision I’ve never seen from him before. His rage is written all over his face and if it weren’t for one of the henchmen -- an equally fast vampire shifter -- he would be tearing Hawthorne’s throat out right now. As it happens, though, he ends up locked in close-quarters combat with the woman behind him, the two vampires grappling each other with a ferocity I’ve never seen before. She appears to be a bit stronger, and I watch in horror as she pushes him into the wall, wrestling to maintain her grip on his arms as Hunter leans back into her with all the strength available to him.

“Get off!” That’s Landon, already using his siren’s voice , and the command is enough to give the woman pause. She looks like she’s resisting it on her end, but the momentary diversion is enough for Hunter to regain the upper hand, whirling around and slamming her face into the wall with an animalistic growl.

Looking now, I can see that there are a handful of other henchmen escorting my would-be rescuers. Almost as soon as the fighting is going down among the others, everyone seems to be shifting at once.

Silas, whose powers have been giving him trouble ever since he was in my position, seems to shake off his difficulties with no trouble now. I wonder if it could really be because he sees that I’m in danger. Shifting and giving a flap of his enormous wings, he unleashes a massive gust of wind in the enclosed space. The vampire shifters are able to maintain their footing, but Hawthorne, the only human in the room, is blown back by the force of it; he stumbles into the far wall, nearly tripping over his own feet.

“What are you doing?” he yells, all of his composure out the window at this point. “Stop them!”

One of the other guards looks like a wolf shifter, and he’s halfway into his form when Landon charges him, body checking him from the side and breaking his concentration. I’ve never seen