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The flames inched closer to Davey’s legs. That circle was failing. The demon screamed.
“Tell me.”
Davey broke. His face crumpled and he cried out, “End of the hall, go right!” He pointed with a trembling hand. “Third door! They weren’t hurt, they weren’t?—”
“They were.” Disgust had his voice thickening, but Zane waved his own hand and the metal flew off Davey’s legs.
Davey gasped, staring up at him with wide eyes.
“We’re not all evil, kid. You need to start realizing that.”
Davey pushed to his feet. Almost fell right back down. A broken leg wouldn’t stop a demon. The kid could still manage to get out of there.
Zane turned away from him. He tore down the hall. “Catalina!” With two binding marks, she’d never be able to control the fire. If it came after her the way it had come after the others…
Burn, witch.
Her worst fear.
His feet pounded on the hard floor as he searched for her, running down that snaking hallway and following the desperate directions Davey had given him. If the kid had been lying, Zane would go back and rip him apart.
Zane turned a hard right, then slammed his foot into the third door he found. The door shattered and flew forward and he saw Catalina on the floor. Her hands were jerking at the chains that bound two men to the wall.
She whirled toward him with a gasp, but the fear left her eyes when she saw him. “Zane! Help me!”
The fire hadn’t gotten to them yet. Smoke seeped inside the windowless room from the vents, but otherwise, they were okay. He hurried forward and grabbed the manacle on the first guy’s hand. The man, blond, young, with glinting blue eyes—shit, the shifter I saw when I went into Jana’s mind—just shook his head. “You can’t break them. They’re reinforced, even I can’t?—”
Zane shattered the manacle. “You can’t because they’re made of silver.” They know your weakness. The old story about werewolves and their silver weakness was based on some fact. He broke the other manacle. The shifter stepped forward, then staggered. Long cuts and incisions covered his chest and legs. Fuck.
Catalina jumped to her feet and put her arms around him as she tried to help him to balance.
The other prisoner hadn’t moved. His skin was gray, his dark head hung low, and the scent of blood was heavy around him.
“Be careful, Zane,” Catalina warned. “They’ve bled him for days, and he hasn’t?—”
The prisoner’s head snapped up when Zane got close, and wickedly sharp fangs came at his throat. Zane caught the vamp’s chin in one hand and held tight. “Easy.” Black eyes stared back at him. Not demon eyes. The sclera was still white, but the iris had faded to pitch black. A vamp in hunting mode. No, a vamp who was starving. “I’m not on the menu.”
The vamp snarled. Zane fired a fast glance at Catalina. “We leave this one. He’s too far gone. Vamps attack anyway, and he’s?—”
“Please.” A desperate whisper from the vampire. “Won’t…bite… Don’t…leave.”
“He comes with us.” Catalina stared at him with a raised chin. “They drained his blood for the last four days. He’s starving.”
“All the more fucking reason to leave him here.” Zane didn’t ease his grip. Wasting time. Was Jana still outside? Had she already left him? “A hungry vamp is a dangerous vamp.” No, any vamp was a dangerous vamp. “We don’t have a lot of time. The fire’s coming?—”
“I-I know, but we can’t leave him!”
He glanced back at the vamp. At those dark eyes.
“Won’t…bite…you,” the vamp swore again. His fangs were still out, his eyes still so dark. “Begging.”
His jaw clenched. “If you do, you’re dead, Drac.” Simple fact. He eyed the chains holding the vamp. Looked like the same kind of metal he used for his cuffs. “Cat, is there a little something extra on these…?”
He glanced back and saw her trembling nod.
“Do you have enough magic to break it?”
She sucked in a sharp breath. “I’ll use everything I’ve got.”
