His brother shook his head. “I’m seeing it and I still don’t believe it.”
I felt a low rumble in the hellhounds’ chests when the men spoke, and I wondered how in hell I was going to stop the beasts from hurting someone. The hounds seemed docile enough with me, but apparently that did not extend to anyone else, especially armed men.
“Um, can you guys lower your weapons?”
None of the men moved to do as I asked, and they all stared at me like I had lost my mind. I understood their hesitation, considering what they were looking at, but I could not see any other way to end this peacefully.
“They are protecting me, and you all look pretty dangerous right now,” I explained, still petting the hounds’ heads. “They don’t know you are friendly, so could you please just put the swords away?”
The blond warrior was the first one to comply, sliding his sword into the sheath on his back. The others followed, and as soon as the last weapon was out of sight, I felt the hellhounds’ hackles go down.
“Much better. Now, I don’t suppose any of you know how my hellhounds ended up here.”
One of the twins gaped at me. “Your hellhounds?”
I patted one of the huge heads. “Do they look like they belong to someone else?”
Callum chuckled, and the blond warrior gave me an appraising look. Seamus and Niall stared at the other two men as if expecting one of them to say something. When neither spoke, one of the twins said, “They got here yesterday. That’s all I know. I don’t normally handle any of the beasts.”
“You have other animals here?”
He made a noise. “I wouldn’t call them animals, but yes, I think there’s usually a few in the menagerie.”
The image of young trolls trapped in a cage flashed through my mind, and outrage filled me. “You have a menagerie here? You put creatures on display?”
“That’s just what we call it. It’s where we keep some of the creatures we capture that are causing problems for the humans, until we can figure out what to do with them.”
“I want to see it.” He looked like he was going to object, so I said, “If my hounds are living there, I want to see it. Besides, how else do you plan to get them there?”
His eyes flicked warily to the hellhounds, and he sighed. “Follow me.”
I trailed him, keeping a safe distance as he led me to a cluster of stone buildings at the back of the property. The hellhounds walked beside me, but I saw how they constantly surveyed our surroundings, looking for anything they perceived to be a threat.
Claire hadn’t taken me near these buildings during my tour, and I’d figured they held weapons or more training rooms. The largest one was a long rectangle two stories high with windows on the second story only, and a domed roof that looked like thick glass but was most likely a much stronger material. There was one entrance, and my guide pulled open the heavy reinforced steel door, allowing me and the hounds to go ahead of him.
Whatever I was expecting, it was not the bright, airy, two-story room separated into eight caged enclosures of varying sizes. Between the cages were solid walls, presumably to keep the inhabitants from bothering each other, and metal bars lined the front of each cage. I could not see inside the cages when we first entered the building, but shuffling noises at the far end of the room told me that at least one of them was occupied.
“Can I look around . . . which one are you again?”
He grinned. “Seamus. Go ahead, but you’d best be putting up your beasts first because they make the other critter nervous. And me, too.”
“Where do they go?” I hated the thought of caging any animal, but common sense told me the hellhounds could not be allowed to run free. At least not yet.
“There.” Seamus pointed to the first enclosure that was at least twenty feet wide and fifteen feet deep. There was a slot at the front near the floor where food and water could be pushed inside, and at the back I saw an opening that led to a dark cave-like structure.
I waved at the open door to the cage. “All right, in you go, boys.” The hounds hesitated for a moment, and I thought they were going to refuse to enter the cage. I couldn’t blame them. I wouldn’t want to be caged either. But they went in without any further urging, and I closed the gate behind them. “I’ll come visit you every day. Maybe they’ll let me take you for walks if you behave yourselves.”
Seamus made a face that suggested no one would ever trust the hellhounds enough to let them walk around freely no matter how well they behaved. We’d have to see about that. These hounds were my responsibility, and I would not keep them locked away like zoo animals.