For a moment, everything went quiet. But then the bloodlusters recognized their golden opportunity. And took full advantage.
They broke through their chains and out of their cells, turning the unit into an all-you-can-eat buffet. Mayhem erupted. I grabbed my sisters and hauled them along. It was hard. I limped badly, but still fared better than Emme. She barely managed to stay on her feet. We crept along the walls until we snuck behind a huge werebison pummeling his way toward the exit.
Misha, if you’re coming, now would be a good time to show up.
No one noticed our escape at first. I’d just caught the first whiff of fresh air when a werecat clinging to the rafters yelled and pointed our way. By chance, the only attention he received was from a charging bloodluster. He tackled the werecat and brought him down to the cracked concrete, cutting off the cat’s gurgled screech in one voracious bite.
We hit the yard and I immediately dragged my sisters behind a row of bushes. The expanse was too open to cross without being seen, so we adhered to the shadows and shrubbery along the building until we reached the rear of the prison. I peeked around the bushes. No one seemed to be around, but my senses remained too dulled for me to be certain.
I tried shifting into the ground, hoping to transport us beneath the wall and away from this nightmare. Except my body remained stubbornly aboveground, and my head pounded from the effort. I gathered my prowess and turned to my sisters. “Okay, you’re going over the wall. Stand on my hands and I’ll throw you to the top.” I knelt by Emme and cupped my hands to show her. “Try to roll as you land. It’ll help absorb the impact and prevent you from getting hurt.”
Emme glanced toward the high wall. “What about you? How will you get over?”
Emme’s eyes widened the longer it took me to answer. Shayna grabbed my arm. “You aren’t coming with us, are you?”
“I can’t, Shayna.”
Her breaths released in short, horrified bursts. “Is it because of Aric?”
“No. It’s because I want you to live.” I swallowed hard. “It won’t take the Tribe long to discover we’re gone. If I can distract them from finding you, I will.”
Emme flung her arms around my neck. “Celia, we can’t leave you.”
“You have to.” I ripped Emme off and held her away. “Just go. Misha will find me in time.” I dragged them to the wall before they could argue.
Tears slicked Shayna’s face. “What if Misha doesn’t show?”
I stilled, knowing Misha might not arrive in time. “Then don’t let me die in vain.”
Shayna allowed me to toss her, though she continued to openly weep. In my weakened state, I barely managed to get her to the ledge. She hung on with her good arm and used her legs to climb the rest of the way. Her thighs straddled the wall as she waited for Emme.
I sent Emme soaring, only to have a demon child catch her midair while another swooped down and captured Shayna. We had come so close!
“Going somewhere?” a grotesque voice gurgled behind me.
I spun around. A clawed hoof caught me in the chest and shoved me to the ground. To my right, demon children restrained Emme and Shayna. They cried when the creatures hissed menacingly and snapped at them with their fangs.
The demon that held me dug his dagger-sharp nails deeper to gain my attention. I let out a pained grunt. “I am Matar, the Tribemaster,” he said. “Father of your unborn children.”
Chills pelted my body like sleet. Matar’s voice triggered a memory I’d long since suppressed. I’d been wrong. The demon Aric fought in Death Valley had not been the one to possess Misha. That one, and the one I’d killed, had lacked the speech capacity and the shrewd gleam dominating the demon lord that held me. The Death Valley demons had been more hungry carnivores, in search of food. Matar . . . his red eyes blinked back at me with the keen intelligence of a true predator.
Jesus.
Matar towered eight feet above me. Hideous yellow fangs glowed against his silver-scaled body and wings, wrinkling in the grooves of his face and giving him a scarred appearance. And to complete the scary-monster-from-hell look, he flaunted a snakelike tail that whipped around to caress my cheek. “I’ve been watching you since first learning of your exoneration from vampire court.” Matar motioned to the side, where the damned wereweasel who’d photographed Aric and me snickered. If I wasn’t pinned down and terrified, I would have killed the shifty bastard.
My head angled back to face off with my captor. Aric feared his presence would place me in danger. Here, I’d managed to do that on my own. Yet I failed to feel regret just then. What I did feel was resentment, and hate. Matar and his band of goddamn misfits had tortured, kidnapped, killed, and raped, spilling enough blood and horror to overflow a river. My jaw clenched. “What the hell do you want with me?”