Page 21 of Imprisoned with the Vampire King

"Just a second!" Jazz yelled.

Shiv lifted his hands, the way he did when he was using his magic. I'd never been able to see whatever he was doing with it, but something usually happened afterward.

"I'll get you a pen and paper. I need you to draw me a guide to what I'll need to weave to get myself into the elevator. Can you do that?" Shiv asked Ophelia. "Jazz needs to get out of here. Build another prison for me if you have to, but she deserves to leave."

"I can try," Ophelia said, but her grimace told me she wasn't hopeful.

"Worst case scenario, you might have to consider taking a mate to strengthen your magic. If you two disappear, Jazz and I won't survive. Everyone will be too suspicious. We all have to leave, or none of us can," he added bluntly.

Ophelia's entire face wrinkled as she basically shuddered at the idea. "I'm not taking a mate."

"Would you rather be trapped down here?" Shiv asked.

"I'd rather you learn how to weave my spells, or finally grow the balls and fall."

I cleared my throat. "We need to get out of here. All of us have to lay low for a few days, or Reaper's going to get suspicious. How long will you need to learn the spell?"

Shiv looked at Ophelia.

"To learn the elevator's magic? It'll take me an hour or two to sketch the whole thing out, and a few days for Shiv to memorize a weave that may or may not get him through it."

"Then we'll plan on seven days," I said. "We'll leave first thing in the morning a week from now, after Ophelia and I get out of solitary. Interest should cool enough by then. If it hasn't, we'll delay it by a few days. If anyone asks, she and I spent the last twelve hours fucking, and we're obsessed with each other."

Shiv grimaced deeply.

"If anyone asks, she's a pixie. She can pass as one," I added, looking at Ophelia for confirmation.

She nodded. "My magic can only do harm, but I can make it seem helpful."

"Alright. We'll meet you at the elevator that day. Be careful," Jazz warned.

"You too."

She stepped away from the door. Shiv lifted his hands again, ending whatever magic he must've started when he lifted them.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry," he said quietly, his gaze meeting Ophelia's for a moment before she looked away.

They left us alone, and loud voices floated through the doorway until the door shut as much as the enchantment allowed it to.

I murmured, "Try to act like you're obsessed with me."

"Try to act like you're obsessed with me," she countered.

That… wouldn't be difficult.

I wrapped an arm around her waist and grabbed the door.

six

OPHELIA

Dante was alarmingly good at socializing, and at pretending to be obsessed with me. The man always had a hand on some part of my body. He growled at anyone who came too close to me, too.

He also talked to almost everyone. Not loudly, or enthusiastically, but calmly and bluntly.

By the time we made it to his cell that night, I was exhausted. The cell was tucked away at the back corner of a hallway, right next to Jazz & River's. That was slightly awkward.

But River hadn't killed me as soon as he saw me, earlier.