Vengeance (The Captive #6)(77)

“Do you think others may have come with him?” Goran inquired.

“No,” she replied. “But notify the guards to be more alert and place more of them on the barricade at the end of the street. He’ll come with us, when we leave. His twin’s ability to track him may be her downfall.”

With a flick of her fingers, she dismissed him as if he were no more than an annoying gnat. His first reaction was to flip her off, but he thought better of it. She’d probably enjoy ripping off the finger he would soon need. The vampire’s hands on his arms squeezed more firmly; he kept his legs weak as they turned him away from the queen. The curtain rustled when it fell into place behind her. She’d left the room, but now that he’d encountered it, he could still feel the pulse of her power against his flesh.

Another vampire came forward with a length of rope he wrapped around William’s wrists and cinched tight. His pinched skin turned red almost immediately, but he didn’t protest. He continued the fa?ade of being weaker than he felt as they led him past the crowd of vampires who parted to get out of his way. Stepping outside again, he caught a whiff of acrid smoke in the air, but he couldn’t tell if Tempest had succeeded in starting the fires, or if they were the fires burning in the hearths to ward off the chill of the night.

Murmurs of excitement and interest followed him as they pulled him down the street toward the prison. He barely glanced at the vampires still in the stocks outside, but their heads raised to take him in. His feet clomped up the stairs as he was hauled inside of the brick building with Kane leading the way. Four vampires inside leapt to their feet from behind the desks they’d been sitting at. They weren’t wearing the white cloaks of the traitors, but he spotted the cloaks hanging from hooks on the wall.

They glanced questioningly at each other when he was led toward one of the cells. “Keys!” Kane barked.

One of the men jumped forward and pulled the keys from his waistband. William glanced over the other guards, one other had his keys at his waist, but the other two didn’t have keys on them. He wondered if they had sets of keys, or if they had them stashed somewhere else.

Kane snatched the keys from the man and turned toward the cell door. The door opened, Kane thrust it back with a clang that rattled through the building. The ten vampires imprisoned within, rushed to the bars lining the back of the square cell to cower within the shadows. His eyebrows rose at their action and the black and purple bruises marring them from head to toe.

The vampires holding him shoved him ruthlessly forward. He stumbled but managed to catch himself before he fell against the bars separating his cell from the one next to it. The eight vampires within that cell pressed further against the bars of the back wall.

Turning, his hands still bound before him, he met Kane’s despised, smiling face as he slammed the cell door shut. “These cells are designed to keep a vampire locked away.” Kane’s hands ran almost lovingly over the thick bars as his gaze lifted to the bars running across the top of the cell. His smile only grew when he focused on William again. “You’ve come so far to find me only to have you’re revenge denied, how heartbreaking for you.”

“What can I say, life’s a bitch,” he replied dismissively.

Kane smirked at him. “And soon you will become one. What the queen will do to you will make you wish you’d died when I ran you through.”

William smiled at him as he took a step closer to the bars. “I am going to kill you, and when I do, I want you to remember this moment and this vow. Your blood will be on my hands, and I’m going to savor ripping your heart out of your chest.”

Something in Kane’s eyes flickered, for a second William believed he actually saw distress there, but it quickly faded to a look of malice. His eyes shimmered with red as he held William’s gaze. “When the queen is done with you, I will have what broken bits are left, and I will crush them.”

“Are you sure about that?” William taunted. “Your queen didn’t seem to have much regard for you.”

A muscle jumped in Kane’s cheek; William could hear his teeth grating together. He stared unblinkingly back at the man until Kane spun away from him. “Break his legs and arms if he goes near those bars!” he barked at the four men still standing by their desks.

William’s gaze followed Kane out the door before turning to smile at the remaining guards in the prison. Lifting his hands to his forehead, he gave them a brief salute before walking to the bars lining the back of the cell. No bars ran across the floor of the cell, but he doubted there was any way out below them. The other vampires moved away from him, their gazes wary as he leaned against the back bars and waited for all hell to break loose.





CHAPTER 26


The wind had started to pick up. It blew her hair about her face when she crept to the back of the human bakery and knelt on the porch. She lifted her head to the sky, her heart sinking when she spotted the gray clouds creeping in to obscure the stars and moon that had been shining in the sky. She didn’t smell snow on the air, but the growing wind would whip the flames up and spread them through the town more rapidly.

If the fire spread too fast, would it give everyone enough time to get out? Would it give William enough time?

Her heart sank, but she couldn’t deviate from the plan, she’d promised him she wouldn’t. Her hands trembled as she lit the next rag, rose to her feet, and knocked out the window of the door. Tossing the rag inside, she dashed down the steps and across the yard. She skipped over the three buildings in between to kneel behind a small restaurant. William had told her to spread the fires out to create more chaos, and she preferred to stay away from the residential homes for as long as she could.