his duty very seriously, and since he wasn't here at the moment, it was up to Quinn to save the princes.
He hated saying this, but… "I can't leave, not without my friends." He wasn't quite ready to say who his friends where, not until he understood a little better why his mother was here.
"Quinn—"
"I'm not going without them," Quinn said firmly. "They fought to save me."
His mother's brows drew together in a deep frown. "They had to fight to save you?"
Quinn nodded.
She stared for a moment then sighed. "All right, come on." She continued through the doorway then turned left and headed down a narrow set of stairs. "Just hurry. We don't have much time. Those guards aren't going to be distracted for long."
Quinn ran down the stairs after his mother. When they reached the cells, he raced over to the door where Prince Nikolas and Prince Marcus were. When he'd been pulled out of there, they were in the middle of a battle, so he peeked through the window.
"Sirs?"
"Quinn?" Marcus appeared in the window. He had a bruise blossoming on one cheek and a scratch on the other. "Are you okay? What did they do to you?"
"I'm here to get you out of here." He just had to figure out how. He turned to look at his mother. "Do you have a key?"
"Who is that, Quinn?" Marcus asked. "Who are you talking to?"
"Long story." He wasn't sure how to explain his mother being there. Mostly because he didn't know, but that was a conversation for another time. Escape was higher on his priority list.
"You have to hurry," his mother said as she passed him a key.
Quinn unlocked the door and then pulled it open. "We need to go, sir."
"Quinn," his mother whispered sharply.
Marcus filled the doorway. His eyes snapped to Quinn's mother. "Who are you?"
"Mara," she replied.
Marcus frowned. "Who?"
"Sir, please. We have to get out of here. We don't have much time." He wanted to get out of there before it was too late. "The guards are only going to be distracted for a few minutes."
"Fine, let's go, but we are going to be talking about this."
Quinn knew that, but escape seemed a tad bit more important at the moment.
Marcus stepped out of the cell, Nikolas right behind him. He didn't have any marks on him, but his shirt was ripped.
Marcus held out his hand. "Give me the key."
Quinn handed it over without comment and then watched Marcus walk over and open the cell directly across from them. Several vampires walked out before two men came out carrying a third man between them.
Now this guy, he looked like he'd been worked over. Blood and bruises covered almost every inch of skin Quinn could see through his ripped and torn clothing.
"Is that your friend Saul?"
Marcus nodded. "They brought him back after they took you away." Marcus grimaced as he looked at the beaten man. "He hasn't woken up yet."
Quinn winced just thinking about the pain the man had to be in. Maybe it was better that he didn't wake up yet. He needed a doctor and some seriously good pain medication.
He turned his attention to his mother. "Which way?"
Mara's face grew pinched and pale as she looked at everyone standing there. "Quinn, we can't take all these people. We'll be spotted for sure."
"They're going." He wasn't going to leave anyone behind to be beaten like Saul. "We all go or no one goes."
"Quinn, you don't understand. He's evil right down to his core. If I don't get you away from him, he's going to kill you. He hates humans more than he hates anything in the world. He lives to kill them."
Marcus's eyes narrowed. "He who?"
Mara's pressed her lips together and shook her head, a clear indication that she wasn't going to answer his question.
"Can we talk about this once we get out of here?" Prince Nikolas asked.
Quinn was all for that. He gestured to the stairs and then followed his mother up them. When they reached the top, she went down the hallway on the right and then through a doorway that led to the outside.
They walked around the corner of the building before Mara stopped and pointed to a tall brick fence about a hundred yards away. "You need to get over that fence. Unfortunately, there is no cover between here and there."
Which might explain why she was so worried about so many people going with them. That was a lot of ground to cover.
"Once you get to