Caged by Damnation (Caged #2)(35)

"No offense, child, but when someone has a fit like that, they are rarely fine." The elder of the two guards held out his hand to help me to my feet.


"I'm okay now, honest."


The guards exchanged glances and the younger one shrugged. "If you say so." His voice was deep, holding power in each syllable. It made me uneasy. "I'm Rafe and this ancient chew-toy is Maloc." Rafe flashed his incisors once more.


"Ancient chew toy, my ass. I may be older, but I can still take on a little scamp like you." They both laughed and turned back to me and Ash.


"You nearly scared your boy to death. I have no doubt he would have incinerated this entire wing to pry those doors open. You sounded as if the fates themselves were punishing you." Maloc had spoken in what seemed to be a teasing voice, but when I looked behind me I was shocked.


The doors to the elevator were charred and twisted, bent away from the inside of the elevator. It looked like a scene from a comic book, as if someone with incredible strength had pulled the doors apart, with the effort most people used to crush a mosquito.


"Wow ... I…." Turning back to Ask, I placed my hand on his shoulder. "You did that?" He shrugged and looked everywhere other than in my eyes. "Ash?"


"What did you expect? You were screaming like something was trying to kill you. After what happened at the house, I ..." He took a deep breath. "I thought you needed me." He shook his head, putting an end to the conversation.


Ash looked tense, his body slightly angled away, as if he couldn't bring himself to face me. "I did ... I do need you! I was terrified, and just because it was in my head doesn't mean that I needed you any less."


Ash's eyes were shadowed in vulnerability.


The silence stretched on, carrying a wave of yearning and regret, before Rafe cleared his throat. "Come on." His voice was short and clipped, and we walked down the corridor, away from the guards. I waved goodbye to them.


"Is Izzy down this way?"


"Yeah, we've all been taking turns watching over her door. I knew you wouldn't want her to be alone."


A wide staircase that led down into a murky darkness lay before us. Ash grabbed a torch from the wall to light the way, while I made my way down the cement steps. This section looked like it needed a renovation badly. I was more suited to a dungeon than a maximum security prison.


"I thought they put her in the ward with the best security?"


"I asked the same thing." He held the torch against one of the walls to show me ancient symbols written across it. They were everywhere. "This is the oldest part of the building. It was built on the site of the threshold to the Divine. It's called the in-between, because we are neither here nor there. Izzy is powerless as long as she is in this wing."


A small light bloomed ahead, but I wasn't anxious to reach it. I wanted to make sure Izzy was okay. However, my need to finish my conversation with Ash was overshadowing everything else. I knew the temptation was a bit selfish and I despised that piece of myself, but the sound of his voice was like a lullaby for my soul. It made me feel safe and warm, adrift in a sea of emotion.


I also remembered Liam and Ash telling me that Diamante and members of her coven would guard over Izzy. The light ahead served as a warning of that confrontation. A part of me still resented Liam's mother ordering him to seduce me. However, given everything that had occurred since her interference, I could overlook the past to withstand the present.


"I didn't know places like this existed. I thought you could only cross the threshold, not stand within it."


Ash angled a sidelong glance my way and paused in his steps. "Neither did I. Apparently, the elders only share the location of this place under duress. You were poisoned by something our coven has never seen, so they brought you here. It's sort of a supernatural sanctuary."


"Supernatural Sanctuary? What the heck does that mean? What kind of supernatural beings?" Demons, angels, witches ... what else was out there? I thought back to the guards, the incisors Rafe had sported. "Wait, Rafe? Was he a vampire?"


Ash laughed hysterically, pausing only to mock me with a smile, and say, "No, not a vampire. A Draconian." When he received no response other than an irritable sigh, he explained as if he were reciting a passage from a book he had been forced to memorize. "A Draconian is a human who is a descendent of the dragons from the war of origin – the war between demons and angels. Dragons were ... I guess you could say they were the steeds of the demons, created as a weapon to use against the archangels. Most of them turned on their slavers. As a result, their blood is diluted from breeding with ordinary humans, which had left their descendants the ability to shapeshift. They can take on the shape of any animal or creature, but most of the time they're confined to the shape of a human."


"Um, why didn't I know this? Why didn't Maye tell us any of this?" When I got back to my room, Maye would be answering some of these questions. I was starting to believe the elders were keeping more from us. There was an entire species that I had no idea existed!


Ash shrugged with a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. "S, I know you have questions. So do I, but can we please do this later? I haven't slept and this whole mess is giving me one hell of a migraine. So, unless you brought some painkillers from the medical ward down with you...."