No, he wasn't dead. She refused to believe it. But if he were free, she wouldn't still be in this cell. He was probably chained up, too, somewhere.
Well, one of them was going to have to get them out of here. It might as well be her.
The manacles were tight around her wrists-too tight to pull her hands through-so she tried yanking the chains free from the wall behind her. That didn't work. Not the human way, at least. Closing her eyes, she concentrated, imagining the manacles popping open, imagining the chains flying free and not . . . thank you very much . . . knocking her out in the process. Still nothing.
Arturo?
No reply, of course. He'd never been able to hear her thoughts. And all she heard in return was her stomach growling with hunger.
Tipping her head back, she railed at her sorcerer's power to be of some use, dammit.
Suddenly, she heard something. The creak of hinges nearby.
She went still, her pulse accelerating. At the sound of footsteps, her mind sighed with relief even as her muscles tensed, and her heart began to race.
A shadow appeared on the ground outside her cage, and grew, followed closely by the appearance of a man-a big, heavily muscled, and thoroughly naked man with broad shoulders, a bushy mop of light brown hair, and a beard to match. Though incredibly well built, he was not a particularly good-looking male, his mouth too narrow, his eyes the color of cement and just as hard.
He wasn't alone. Two other naked males followed behind him, neither quite as big, or hairy, but both as well built. Werewolves, no doubt. One, a young man with peach fuzz across his upper lip, came to stand beside the bearded were, but the other, a bald male, hung back.
"Find the key," the bearded one said. He eyed her with excitement and a hunger that made her flesh want to crawl right off her bones. And suddenly Quinn thought she understood the reason for the redundancy in her imprisonment. Her chains were to keep her and her magic in. The cage was to keep the werewolves out.
Quinn felt the power buzz beneath her flesh. Finally.
Peach Fuzz began searching.
"Gunroth . . ." the bald man said disapprovingly. "You'll be banished for this."
"Who cares? We'll be stronger than all of them put together. And when the city's magic fails, we alone will be safe. We'll be free."
"It's not here," Peach Fuzz grumbled.
Gunroth's mouth turned as hard as his eyes. "The alpha must have it. We'll just have to find another way in." He pushed out of the doorway, rooting around in what sounded like a metal box or locker, then returned with what looked like . . . lock picks.
Hell. Come on, power.
The bald one threw a look of disgust ceilingward and walked away.
"Are we going to fuck her before we eat her?" Peach Fuzz asked far too eagerly.
Eat her?
Quinn's magic began to spark and spit beneath her skin. There had to be a way to turn this energy into something more useful than power blasts although a power blast might be welcome in a few minutes if they got that door open. The energy began to quake inside her.
"We won't have time," Gunroth said as he began digging at the lock. He glanced back, realizing his second companion was gone. "Fuck." He stepped up his efforts, his movements growing increasingly frantic.
Quinn heard the telltale click of the lock. Terror flared. Her heart pounded. They were going to shift into their animals, rip into her with their fangs, and eat her.
Like hell.
Gunroth swung the door of her cage wide open, grinning even as he shifted into wolf form, his teeth sharp and gleaming.
As she stared at the vicious animal, Quinn willed the power to fly, to throw him back. Beneath her, the ground began to shake.
As Gunroth stalked her, Peach Fuzz shifted into a smaller wolf behind him and followed him into her cell. Two vicious animals intent on killing her.
She embraced the terror rising inside of her, focused it, drawing it in to feed her power. They're going to kill me, they're going to kill me, they're going to kill me.
Finally, the energy burst free, sending both wolves flying-Peach Fuzz out through the door of her cage, Gunroth into the inner bars. But two seconds later, they were on their feet, coming back for more. And with the energy dissipated, she didn't have any more to give.
Shit, shit, shit.
In the hallway just outside, she heard the low, vicious growl of yet another wolf, and her heart sank. She was so dead.
But to her astonishment, the smaller wolf, Peach Fuzz, sank to the floor, whimpering in supplication. The larger, Gunroth, tensed as if suddenly torn. But he made his decision quickly enough. He leaped at her, mouth open wide as if ready to take the biggest chunk out of her he could get.
Her pounding heart stopped suddenly as a third wolf raced into her cage, taking Gunroth down. Sharp fangs snapped closed inches from Quinn's thigh, then Gunroth was on the floor, his wolf's neck caught tight between the other wolf's jaws. He gave a whine of submission, and the larger wolf released him, backing off him to shift into a man in a process that was neither fast nor slow and appeared to cause little pain.
Quinn stared, her heart thundering as the male eyed her with a hard gaze. He was taller than Gunroth, his shoulders massive, his dark hair falling in waves to his shoulders, his eyes black as a Vamp City night.
"Leave us," he snapped.
Peach Fuzz and Gunroth ran in wolf form, Peach Fuzz whining as he went.
Quinn stared at the male, wondering if he'd saved her from death or simply meant to keep her all for himself.
Stepping forward, he gripped her jaw, forcing her to meet his gaze. "I will remove your gag, sorceress. But if you utter the first word of magic, I'll snap your neck and eat your remains. Is that understood?"
Quinn nodded. An easy promise since she didn't know any magic.
The shifter did as promised, untying the gag and pulling it from her lips, tossing it on the floor.
Moving her lips, stretching her sore jaw, Quinn watched him.
"Are you the one Cristoff searches for?" Black eyes bore into her, and she hesitated, knowing Arturo didn't want the wolves knowing any more than they had to. At the moment, she could pass for someone else, thanks to her glamour. But if they didn't get out of here soon, the glamour would fail, and they'd know the truth, and know they'd been lied to. And she was pretty sure this male would not appreciate being lied to.
"I am. As far as I know, I'm the only one who can save Vamp City."
"Then why did you run?"
Apparently, all of Vamp City knew she'd gone missing.
She swallowed, wondering how much to tell him. Arturo was so much better at this than she was. "I didn't run. Cristoff was torturing me. One of the vampires didn't like it and got me out of there."
"The one who was with you just now?"
"No. Another." That, at least, was the truth. Technically, Kassius had been the one to spring her though at Arturo's request. "How did you know Cristoff lost the sorceress?"
"All of Vamp City knows. The fact that a sorceress had been found spread like wildfire. The news that she'd subsequently been lost spread just as fast."
"The vampire I was captured with . . ." Her breath caught. "Where is he?"
"In the trough." He sniffed her, his nose in her hair, dipping to her neck.
The magic that had never died sparked again beneath her skin.
"What's the trough?"
The alpha straightened. "You do not smell of magic. Yet your eyes are glowing."
"It's what happens when I'm threatened."
He watched her with interest. "Then I do not threaten you. Not now." His eyes narrowed even as he sighed. "In truth, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with you."
She'd like to ask him what the options were, but was afraid she wouldn't like any of them. "What's the trough?" she persisted.
"The feeding tray where my wolves will feast off of him. Food is scarce. And while vampire flesh is tough and stringy, it renews constantly as long as we don't accidentally kill him."
My God. They were eating him alive.
She had to swallow back the bile. Oh, Vampire.
"It distresses you that the vampire suffers," the wolf leader murmured, surprised. "He may not have freed you, but you care for him just the same."
She had to learn to hide her reactions better. "He's not like some of the others." She remembered another woman, a Slava, saying the same about another vampire, one Quinn had watched die at the hands of furious humans. Delilah. "You're not the alpha of the Herewood pack, are you? I know Narina's sister, Delilah."
"I am not." He looked at her with interest. "How do you know the alpha's mate's sister?"
"I met her a few weeks ago. I'd like to see her again."
"We are enemies of the Herewood pack."
Of course they were. That would have been too simple. "My arms are killing me. How about we have this discussion with me no longer chained?"
"What am I to do with you? I'd rather leave you here, but I'm afraid another of my wolves will try to break in just as Gunroth did." With a grunt, he strode to the side of the room, where she now saw a small safe tucked into the wall. Turning the dial one way, then the other, he finally opened the door and removed a small set of keys.
Returning to her, he unlocked the cuffs at her wrists.
Quinn lowered her stiff arms, swallowing a groan as the blood began to circulate through her limbs again.
"Turn around."
Quinn looked at him warily. "Why?"
"You will be bound one way or another, sorceress, or you'll not leave this cage."