kill you. Do you understand what I’m saying? You’ve managed to survive down here for, what, a hundred years? You don’t want to die now at the hands of a wolf.” I knew I could put these two out of their misery fairly easily. “Or maybe you do?”
Before I could say any more, the female, Alana, lunged at me from the corner.
Without thought, I extended my arms fully, flexing my wrists hard on the chains while I arched my back against the cold stone and swung both legs up like a gymnast balancing on the rings. My feet connected with her squarely in the chest, right as my body morphed into its Lycan form. It all happened in less than a heartbeat. She flew with a screech into the wall across from me, hitting it hard, and tumbled to the ground. Dammit, she’s not down. She rose immediately, albeit on wobbly legs, and shook herself off while Yuri hissed at me, enraged I would dare hurt his female. He primed himself to spring, bending his arms and snarling.
My wolf continued to work feverishly on the lock spell, unable to aid me with the vamps. You have to speed it up. I can’t fight them both in chains. She gave me an irritated bark. I couldn’t use my feet against Yuri, because he was coming at me from the wrong angle. Instead I primed my right fist, bringing it up to my ear, and waited. He’d have to be almost a foot from my face before I could act. And once I did, I would only have so much room before the chain expired, culling my punching radius down to two feet at the most.
He dove.
My wrists were coated in fur, the unforgiving metal gouging into my new larger frame. Once Yuri was within a foot of me, I smashed my fist into his cheek with so much force the entire chain snapped out of the limestone— bolt plate and all. Yuri flew into the stone wall across from me and crashed to the ground in a jumble of arms and legs. He lay there unmoving. Thank goodness. He wouldn’t stay down forever, but he’d hit the wall harder than his bride and since he was so starved, it would likely take him some time to heal his injuries.
I turned to inspect the holes where the chain and bolt plate had pulled out. I don’t get it. How could we pull the entire thing out of the wall? It should be spelled. Or maybe it was and we’re just stronger? No time to contemplate because Alana gurgled from behind me. Let’s pull the other plate out and use the chains to our advantage. I lifted my left arm and jammed it downward in one quick motion. The second bolt plate snapped cleanly from the wall and sailed in the air. I turned, flicking my wrist at the last moment and directed the chain toward Alana.
The corner of the plate took her in the forehead.
It landed there and stuck with an ugly thunk. She wheeled backward, clearly not used to this much resistance from a prisoner. Right as she spun from the impact, my wolf broke the spell and the shackles on both wrists snapped open. Alana crumpled in a heap, taking the rest of the chain with her, the plate still lodged in her head.
Well, that was horribly gruesome.
I glanced from Yuri to Alana, both looking like nothing but bags of bones piled on the floor. I kind of feel sorry for these two. I turned back to the wall and scratched my head. Breaking out of those chains was too easy. Eudoxia would never allow her restraints to be broken so readily. Something’s up. My wolf perked her ears in agreement. I don’t hear anyone coming. Let’s see what we can find.
I gathered power to myself and sent it outward, trying to sense if there were any other spells or signatures around me. The two vamps had surprisingly strong magic pulses when my energy cascaded over them. They must be very old. Almost as old as Eudoxia, but not nearly as strong. Conan had said the male’s name was Yuri. That sounds Russian to me. Maybe we should shackle him up and try to wake him? If he’s been around that long, he must know something. My wolf growled, undecided. What else are we going to do? I don’t feel any other power signatures nearby. I want to know why she put me in here with these two, because I don’t think this was a mistake. She knew they would be easy for us to defeat. Something was definitely up and that was puzzling. I was missing something big. I’m beginning to think there was trouble brewing all along between her and Valdov and I’ve somehow propelled us right into the middle of it. I glanced at the still-unmoving Yuri. Let’s find out what he knows. We don’t have a better option.
I didn’t wait for my wolf to agree. I walked over to the crumpled Yuri and crouched next to him, not wanting to touch him yet. I peered closely at his face. It was beginning to heal, but it was going to take a while. I stood and paced over to the free chain that had dropped off my arm—the one that wasn’t currently tethered to Alana’s forehead.
I couldn’t look at her without cringing.
We’ll have to deal with her next. I’ll have to secure her before I pull the plate out so she can heal. Gross. When I do it, we pray she doesn’t wake up. Of the two, she seems the most deranged. Yuri may be our only chance of getting any good information.
I grabbed the chain and went back to Yuri. I bent over and gingerly picked up one of his dirty feet and tugged him by the ankle toward the wall where the chains had hung before. I’m going to try and twist the bolts back in. He’s not that strong, so they may hold. I don’t want him to come after me once I wake him up. I stopped in front of the wall, resting my hand on the stone and running my fingers over the holes. They were completely torn open. There’s no way the bolts are staying in there. Let’s look for something else. I eyed the room critically and spotted a piece of rebar sticking out of the far wall. Bending the rebar over the chain might work. I made my way over, toting Yuri behind me. I reached up and hooked the end of the link on the rebar.
Now we just have to bend it.
This was going to be straight out of a superhero movie.
I knew I was strong enough, but actually doing it was another matter. I went on my tiptoes and palmed the end of the steel and pushed upward. We can’t break it off, so watch the angle and go slow. My wolf channeled power into my hand and the muscles hardened to aid me. The metal began to move. I slid my hand down and wrapped my entire palm around it so I could mold it like clay. It totally worked.
It was kind of badass bending metal with my bare hands.
Once I secured the rebar over the chain link, I slid Yuri in front and hooked his ankle with the shackle, snapping it shut. He hadn’t woken, but his face had improved. The chain didn’t quite reach the ground, so his leg hung in the air a few feet above the floor. It was an awkward position, but it would help him stay put.
Now we just have to wake him up.
I went to the opposite wall and sat down, wanting to be clear of him just in case he awoke in a rage. I laid my back against the cool stone and called, “Yuri, can you hear me?”
No response.
“Yuri, it’s time to wake up.” I tried to infuse power into my voice.
Nothing.
He’s too badly damaged and malnourished. He needs more power. But in order to transfer power directly, as Tyler had done to me when I was in Stasis, it meant I had to touch him.
I really didn’t want to touch him.
Resigning myself, I crawled forward. Transferring power was coming more easily to me, especially after I’d done it on Selene, and most recently on the Porsche. As I moved, I gathered gold strands in my mind, concentrating them as I settled next to Yuri. We give him one burst and move out of the way. I rested my palm on his forehead and released the accumulated power. It shot straight into Yuri with a jolt, making my hands tingle. I retreated backward quickly.
The old vamp jumped like he’d been defibrillated.
His eyes blinked open.
“Hello,” I said once I settled back against the wall. “My name is Jessica McClain, and I’m sorry I had to smash your face in, but I think you’re going to heal. You may want to rethink your attack modes in the future, however, to avoid another massive head injury.”
He hissed at me, shaking his leg, struggling to right himself.
“I don’t think you can get free, but if you do, I’ll just knock you out again and try something else. So instead of trying to get free, how about we just make some kind of a deal? I need information and you want out of this
