“Thank God,” Mollie muttered.
“Do you know where the ramp is?” Mike asked Scott.
“No,” he said. “I’ve seen the map before, but I haven’t left this house since the day after they captured me.”
Sympathy tugged at Mollie’s heart, and she almost squeezed Scott’s arm before recalling Mike’s reaction to Doug nearly touching her earlier.
“How sad,” Mollie murmured.
“Where is this basement?” Mike demanded.
“It’s hidden.” Scott stopped in front of one of the floor-to-ceiling bookcases lining three walls of the room. He ran his hand over the shelves, some of the books, and assorted antiques, before settling on a crystal cat perched in front of a book on taxidermy.
A piercing scream from somewhere nearby drew Mike’s attention to the thick, black curtains covering the windows. Doug pushed back a corner of one of the drapes and peered out as the scream rose in pitch.
“What do you see?” Mike asked.
“Just the woods,” Doug murmured. “They’re torturing someone.”
Mike was turning back toward Scott when he glimpsed the arc of an arm swinging at him. He twisted to avoid the blow, but he couldn’t avoid the stake entirely. It pierced through the flesh of his shoulder and tore through muscle before coming to a stop against his bone.
“No!” Mollie cried.
From her angle, it looked as if the stake had gone straight into Mike’s heart. Something inside her broke at the idea of losing him. Tears of fury and agony burned her eyes as she leapt forward, swung the rifle around, and bashed the butt of it into Scott’s chest.
A rib audibly cracked before he staggered into the bookcase. Artifacts clicked together as they teetered back and forth; some settled into place while others toppled and shattered on the mahogany floor. She spun the rifle back around and aimed it at Scott’s chest.
“You so much astwitch, and I’ll kill you,” she snarled. “Mike, are you okay?”
She didn’t dare take her eyes off Scott. The bastard had made her feel sorry for him and then attacked Mike; she trusted him less than a rattlesnake.
“Mike?” She couldn’t keep the note of hysteria from her voice when he didn’t respond to her.He can’t be dying! I can’t lose him! Iwon’tlose him!
Her finger twitched on the trigger as a killer instinct she hadn’t known she possessed surged to the forefront. If she did lose him, she would make sure Scott paid for what he’d done.
“I’m fine,” Mike assured her, though his pride had taken a bit of a kicking.
He pulled the stake from his shoulder and dropped it on the floor before resting his hand on the barrel of her gun. The look on Mollie’s face was one of retribution, and he feared she’d kill the prick before they learned if there really were humans here.
Mollie lowered the gun and glanced anxiously at him. “Oh,” she breathed when she spotted the blood seeping through the hole in his shirt and the bloody stake lying at his feet.
“Doug, can you get Scott?” Mike asked as the scream outside abruptly cut off.
“No problem.” Doug strode forward, and seizing Scott by the throat, he pinned him against the bookcase. The look on his face was nearly as murderous as the one on Mollie’s.
“What did he do to you?” Mollie swung the rifle onto her back and stepped closer to inspect the bloody wound.
“It’s fine,” Mike assured her when she reached for the hole in his shirt. “Really, Mollie.” Clasping her hand, he brought her fingers to his lips and kissed them. “It will be healed before we leave this place.”
Mollie swallowed the lump in her throat and enclosed her hand around his. Careful of his injury, she slid her arm around his neck and rose on her toes to hug him. “I thought I lost you.”
“It will take a lot more than that to take me away from you,” he assured her as he slipped his good arm around her waist.
Mollie turned her head into his throat and kissed him before reluctantly stepping away. She yearned to stay in his arms, but they had far too much to deal with here. She glanced at Doug to find him staring at them with a grin that was oddly out of place, considering what just happened.
Mike kept his temper tightly leashed as he stalked toward the human and stopped before him. Scott didn’t shrink away from him, but Mike hadn’t expected it. Mike couldn’t do anything worse to him than anything else he’d endured these past five years. Those years had warped him into nothing more than a puppet for the vamps who controlled him. Mike suspected Scott had also been promised immortality in return for his service, but that promise would never be fulfilled.
Mike shredded the sleeves of Scott’s jacket and shirt to reveal two holsters strapped to his wrists. One of them still contained a stake, but the other was empty. He found two more stakes tied to Scott’s calves, a knife at his ankle, and a handgun and keys attached to his waist. Mike divided the stakes with Doug before pocketing the knife.
