The male cleared his throat. “It’s not the merman.”
“Whatever, just fucking deal with it, Rink!”
Footsteps faded away, and a door slammed shut with a blast of magical energy.
Tears filled my eyes at the thought of what the mages would do to my soul-bonded mates. Only the knowledge that Maverick, Zane, and Rasmus were incredibly powerful stopped me from having a complete breakdown.
I had to remain strong for them. They were coming for me.
“You called, witch?” Kenji popped into view on a stone table. He took one look at the rug beneath me and his whole demeanor changed from bored to incandescent with rage.
“My brother!”
Oh my goddess, was this white animal pelt the remains of Kenji’s brother? Horror washed over me.Poor Kenji.
“I’m so sorry, Kenji. I had no idea.”
“They will pay for this!” Kenji’s eyes flashed molten, mirroring my witch fire magic. The spell holding me shattered. I gasped in relief at finally being able to move my aching limbs.
Brianna spun around. She spotted Kenji and cast dark magic in his direction, but he blinked out of sight before the spell hit him.
Alaric’s eyes snapped open, widening when he saw I was now free, but before I could use my magic to melt the ice around him once again, a wave of thick, shadowy dark magic washed over me.
Brianna smirked. “That should hold her until we reach the facility.”
Facility?
A glowing portal appeared at the end of the room just as the door behind me opened and heavy footsteps sounded. The unpleasant scent of an unwashed male rolled over me. Thick arms hooked under my armpits as a second male lifted Alaric’s prone body.
I tried to scream, but Brianna’s spell had sealed my mouth shut. Without Kenji’s help, I had no way of breaking the enchantment.
The mages carried Alaric and me through the portal and into a gleaming white room.
What on earth was this place?
The portal closed as a mage dropped me onto a gurney and anchored my wrists and ankles with thick metal cuffs.
The ice encasing Alaric melted away once a mage snapped cuffs onto his wrists too.
“Take her to room ten,” Tiberius ordered from the doorway. “I have a meeting, so we’ll begin tomorrow.”
I struggled to no avail. The cuffs blocked my magic.
The stinky mage pushed my gurney into a corridor lit with retina-searing strip lights. It was eerily quiet. No voices, cries, or yells.
Then we passed an open door, and I saw something that made my blood run cold. A female lay strapped to a table. Tubes siphoned blood from her wrists into a container on the floor. Red eyes landed on me as my gurney rolled by, and I spotted sharp fangs when she hissed.
Oh my goddess, Rasmus wasn’t the only vamp to survive the bloodborne virus!
But why was the female vamp stuck in this place, and why were they taking her blood?
We left the room behind and reached another metal door. The mage pressed his thumb to a small pad, and the door opened. He pushed the gurney in and then left me.
I screamed and yelled, but when it became clear nobody was coming back, I sucked in a shaky breath, forcing the panic down.
As a strong, independent witch, I didn’t need my mates to rescue me. I was more than capable of rescuing myself. And since Alaric was in no fit state to help me, I’d rescue his pathetic ass as well.
The mages would regret the day they’d crossed me!
