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“She’s fine.” I squeezed his arm. “I have her safe. It’s over, Joey.”
He passed a shaking hand over his face. “Okay. Okay.”
“Let’s go.” I urged him forward again. “She’s at my place, waiting.”
“Thank God,” he whispered. His eyes closed, and he swayed on his feet.
I grabbed him before he fell, and half-carried, half-walked him to the stairs. When he looked at the first step as if he didn’t know what to do with it, I slung him over my shoulders in a fireman’s carry and jogged up the steps while Bajoie and the two dhampirs took another look around the basement.
In the foyer, I set Joey on his feet again. “Can you walk?”
“Yeah.” He pulled himself upright. “Sure.”
Just to be sure, I slung an arm around his waist. “Lean on me.”
As we reached the front door, Tomas appeared. “You go ahead with the boy. I’ll stay here and help clean things up. Most of the vampires are still asleep, but we found locked rooms on several of the floors.”
“Blood slaves,” muttered Bajoie.
I hesitated, but until we were sure who to trust, I didn’t want to let Joey out of my sight. “All right. If they’re holding blood slaves, take them to a safe house.”
You couldn’t just release a blood slave. If they’d become addicted to the high, they had to be weaned off the blood slowly, like any addict. Otherwise, the shock to their system could make them deathly ill.
Tomas lifted a brow. “Your father?”
My father didn’t allow blood slaves in the Kral Coven, but he turned a blind eye to what the other covens did.
“I’ll clear it with him. There are two vampires locked in the basement, too. Find out why.” I waited for his nod and then jerked my chin at Bajoie. “You. Come with me.”
“Yes, sir.”
Outside, I deposited Joey in the front seat and then handed him one of the orange juices Lougenia had packed. “Drink.”
He obediently brought the bottle to his lips. The kid was parched. He drained the bottle in a couple of gulps.
Bajoie stood guard until we were both safely in the car and then inserted his large body in the sportscar’s tiny backseat. As I pulled into traffic, Joey finished the juice and then slumped in his seat, eyes half-closed.
I glanced again at the bruises on his face and arms, and flashed on my brother, bruised but defiant, the silver chaining his wrists.
At least Joey’s bruises weren’t recent; he’d probably been roughed up the night he was kidnapped. Still, he’d clearly been drugged, and treated more like a dog than a human being. He smelled rank, and he’d obviously been wearing his Baltimore Rat T-shirt for the past week.
My jaw tightened. I wondered what the slayers would think if they could see how their vampire allies had treated Joey. The man was barely out of his teens.
We were almost to my building when he roused himself. “Mila’s all right?” he asked again. “She’s with you?”
“She’s fine, don’t worry.”
“You’re sure? Those dicks said if I didn’t cooperate, they’d hurt her.” His throat worked.
“She’s safe at my apartment. You’ll be able to see for yourself in five minutes.”
I pulled into the garage. Joey exited the car without any help, but Bajoie and I stepped up on either side just in case.
He glanced from the big enforcer to me. His eyes narrowed. “Kral,” he spat out. “You—you’re one of them.” He turned and hobbled away as fast as he could.
I swore under my breath. Mila had kept the fact that I was a Kral from her family, but I’d assumed they’d eventually figured it out.
“Joey. I got you out of there, didn’t I? Now come with me. Mila’s waiting for you.”
