Page 83 of Vipers and Vendettas

The door opens, and I fight the urge to hide, to show how terrified I am. No, I will meet the fae head-on. I won’t speak to them. I won't show them pain or fear.

But it’s not one of Tamadrielle’s soldiers who comes through the door; it’s Daemon.

He’s in his demon form, and he’s covered in blood.

He’s come for me.

There’s a yell from the hall, and a vamp barrels into Daemon from behind. He staggers forward into the room but recovers quickly and twists around to grab the vamp by the neck. Daemon picks him up and lets him kick around for a second until he snaps his neck and then takes a stake and thrusts it through his limp body. He tosses the vamp aside and turns back to me, but then he freezes, and his eyes fall on the bed. His glamor comes down, and he’s suddenly standing in front of me in his human form. The color leaches from his face as he stares at the bed, and then up at the ceiling, where I notice iron rings set into the concrete for chains.

This was the room he was kept in, I realize, hating it and the vamps even more than I did ten seconds ago.

‘Daemon?’

He doesn’t respond, his gaze flitting around the room. He’s panicking, I realize.

I approach him slowly. ‘It’s okay,’ I say. ‘It’s all over now.’

He doesn’t look at me, so I put a tentative hand on his arm over the expensive, ruined suit.

‘Daemon? We have to leave now.’

Nothing.

‘Tamadrielle’s coming,’ I try. ‘If he takes me back, he’ll never let me go. My baby will be born a slave, Daemon, or worse, he’ll have my throat slit and then do to her what he did to me.’

He looks down at me and blinks as I finally get through to him.

‘Come on.’

Relief envelopes me as he leads me down the hallway and up the stairs.

A few dead vamps litter the corridor, but it’s nothing compared to the carnage on the next floor. There’s blood splattered everywhere. There are bodies all over the place. I try to ignore the sights and smells, but my stomach revolts, and I turn to the side and throw up, realizing belatedly that I just vommed all over a dead vamp’s face.

Daemon swears quietly and pulls me along.

I hear fighting in other parts of the house.

‘Did you do all this?’ I ask, trying to side-step a puddle of congealing blood.

‘Not quite,’ he says, his jaw tight. ‘The others are dealing with the stragglers. I’m taking you somewhere safe. We need to get to the door in McCathrie’s audience chamber. That’s the only one a link key will work on.’

I follow him through the house, and I can’t help my gasp as I take in the slaughter in the room I stood in the middle of not more than an hour ago. McCathrie’s headless body lies on his couch. The rest of him is nowhere to be seen. The others in the room are literally torn limb from limb, pieces scattered around like macabre and messy 3D puzzles.

Daemon looks smug. ‘This I did.’

He puts a link key on the door and opens it. His hand comes to rest on my shoulder, and he draws me to him so I’m directly in front of him. We step through together, and when we come out, we’re in an office I don’t recognize.

‘Where are we?’ I ask.

‘The club we brought you to before,’ he says.

I nod. ‘Okay.’

He leads me to the bathroom, and I look around it.

He snorts, shaking his head at me. ‘Well, you seem fine. Of course, you fucking do. We rush in there, expecting McCathrie and the others to be taking turns raping you and sucking you dry, but it’s just another day for you, huh, Jules?’

I keep my mask on, not sure why he’s mad.