Page 92 of Desired for Her Blood

I won’t have to stop Zuben or Ryker from putting Ember through that torture again, and on the slim chance that it ever would have worked, she will not be doomed to life as a vampire.

The passageway takes a sharp bend to the right and Zuben looks toward me before turning. “Do you hear anything?” he asks.

I concentrate, but hearing nothing I shake my head.

“Keep listening,” Zuben says. “We must stay alert. If my sense of direction is accurate, and it always is, this passage might emerge near the guard station located at the prison entrance.”

I tense. Fuck. What if this is leading us toward a stake? Or into the general population of the dungeon, separating us from Ember?

We continue slowly along another long stretch of the tunnel, exploring the sides with our hands and our eyes, looking for possible ways out.

Another explosion rumbles the walls, one strong enough that I instinctively brace myself on the sides of the passageway.

Zuben turns back toward me, alarm in his eyes too.

“I believe that the guards are setting off explosives,” he whispers, and I nod.

Zuben’s right. The rumbles are certainly not natural, and with mining and the bombs of war ruled out, I can think of no other explanation.

Stopping, Zuben turns back toward me, and points ahead. Another sharp turn, or a dead end, lies less than a quarter of a mile away.

“It could be the way out,” he whispers. “We must remain silent.”

I nod.

We continue forward slowly, both of us careful to check the walls and the ceiling for changes, and I listen intently, working to expand my range of hearing, but with nothing specific to focus on, all I hear are the sounds of my own body and Zuben’s.

Not fifty yards back from what is most certainly a dead end, Zuben stops short. His heart rate accelerating, he turns back toward me and puts his hand up to his ear. I concentrate harder on my hearing.

“Shit,” says a voice ahead of us somewhere. “How many more boxes of this shit is she sending down here?”

“Fuck if I know,” says another voice. “At this point, we’ve got enough explosives to collapse the entire prison.”

My chest tightens.

“So, we just kill all of them?” the first voice says. “I could think of easier ways to do that. Ways that wouldn’t risk our lives too.”

“She’s fucking crazy,” says the other voice.

“Quiet!” the first guard says sharply. “You want to end up locked in this dungeon?”

“Fine. So what doyoumake of our wise and exalted leader’s obviously sound and justifiable plan?” The guard’s voice is thick with sarcasm.

The other one sighs. “She’s doing this because she’s pissed about the ones stuck in the bear cave.”

“Sealing them into the cave wasn’t enough?”

“Apparently not. The boss says the CEO knows a secret way into the cave. Must be somewhere around here. She plans to collapse it.”

“Secret way into that cave?” the second guard asks. “Where?”

“Fuck if I know,” says the first one. “But since we’re loading all the shit here, must be close by.”

“When are they setting off the explosives?”

“Don’t know. Maybe tonight.”

Zuben turns toward me, gesturing with his head and making it clear that he thinks we should turn back. And I don’t need to be told. We need to get back to Ember and Ryker—fast.