The question that kept eating away at him was how had she managed to find all four of Jelissa’s mates, when others waited decades—some even centuries—before finding theirs? If she was that damn good, the bitch should give up on this harebrained plot of revenge she had cooked up and just open a Mate-Finding service. The realm she hailed from would likely worship the ground she stood on then and help her to usurp the throne. No, there had to be something even more going on, and more beings involved than those he had seen coming and going thus far. Not that he’d been allowed to see too much.
To top it off, whenever he would try to even think about how to get them out of this situation, his mind would either cloud over or he would completely forget his train of thought. Jayden had even tried digging his claws into his thigh, hoping the pain would help detract from the spell or whatever the Hel it was. But no such luck. The only thing that did was earn him was a little bit of blood loss, and half the time forgetting how he’d even suffered the blood loss.
The monitors that surveilled Underlayes started beeping behind them, on the opposite side of the large room. Both Jayden and his captor turned around and stood to see what that noise was all about.
Of the other twenty or so flat-screen plasmas that covered the wall, the four surveilling the Vampire castle began to blink out until they were nothing more than white noise. Before Jayden and his captor had a chance to even blink, those exact four monitors exploded with a loud crash, and that glass came flying at them like a ton of miniature throwing stars.
By no will of his own, and much to his chagrin, Jayden found himself shielding the bitch from the brunt of it. Grabbing her to him, he ducked them both down, covering her with the long black leather coat he wore. Having her this close to him made him wish with all his might he could snatch her head off her body. Too bad there was never a Djinn around when he needed one; not that anyone could ever trust the bastards.
When those few seconds that seemed like hours were finally over, Jayden stood and allowed the glass and debris to slide from his coat. Shaking the remaining shards from of his hair, he silently hoped for a piece or three to fly into the bitch’s eye. No luck with that though.
He did receive a marvelous sensation upon seeing many of the shards had indeed landed in her face. The sight of several sitting there, jutting out, made him feel all tingly inside, especially when the blood began gushing out as she started pulling them out one by one. The only thing that would have made the moment all the more delicious was her quivering in pain as she did so. Alas, that didn’t happen; she remained straight-faced, her expression only changed minutely by irritation.
Their captor’s mouth started to curl up into an evil grin as she looked over at the other set of monitors and saw Jelissa was feeding. “That’s right, little girl. Drink your fill,” she said to the screen, pulling out that remote once again.
Just as the thought crossed Jayden’s mind that the hag was about to do something to him, Jelissa went stock-still. Then to his utmost horror, the bitch-captor mended. Every cut, scrape, and gash that he had relished seeing upon her face—gone. Somehow that button allowed her to syphon the essence that Jelissa had fed while not even in the same damn room.
The techno mages were more involved than he had originally thought. And he couldn’t help but wonder if he was able to destroy that damn remote, they might have some type of advantage; even if not the upper hand, at least another point on the scoring board, because he was sure that monitor exploding must have been a point in their direction. The problem? How in Hel’s name was he supposed to get his hands on that remote?
17
Demons At Play
“Let me let you in on a little secret, Kierra. There are no secrets amongst demons, at least not the breed you are. Being born here in Underlayes, you may not know what it is you’ve been scenting. I wasn’t born here. And if we’re going to get some information from the little shit there, I need you to look as intimidating as possible.” Bran was speaking to Kierra in one of the dungeon cells, the same one that Grimm had been tortured in. He wanted to get this done quickly before anyone had the chance to realize they had gone, and together. “Now, as the humans say, man the fuck up before we wake him up, and let’s get this over with.”
“Damn you, Demon,” Kierra stated with contempt. “And what about when we release him, genius? Or if someone flashes down here?”
Rolling his eyes to the back of his head, he explained as if speaking with a child, “One, no one can flash directly in here, so we’ll hear whoever approaches in more than enough time for you change back. And far as the lil’ punk in there, he’s not leaving here alive, and dead men tell no tales.”
“How the fuck do they put up with you?” she said on a guttural growl while reaching deep inside to that other part of her, the more masculine side. Bending down onto one knee, Kierra placed her hands on the ground for purchase. She began shifting; her soft, feminine hands became larger and more calloused. Tiny white claws became long and curved black ones. Her
