A Ride of Peril (A Shade of Vampire #46)(49)

The incubi grumbled and cursed under their breaths. Their backs slumped beneath the military uniforms. Their eyes sank in their heads, and their skin looked paler than usual. They seemed exhausted, and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. It hadn’t really been their choice. One does what one can to survive, and they were no different.

I heard our signature triple hiss and noticed a corridor opening to my right. Draven and I followed Hansa through it, leading us into a large service kitchen with hundreds of pots and pans and massive oak tables.

Green fires burned on wall sconces. A few incubi were finishing up, wiping the tables and putting the dry meats away, their expressions as dim as their fellow soldiers’ from the hallway. Nobody wanted to be there, and I could certainly sympathize.

We waited until the servant soldiers left for their quarters, cursing at Azazel and his Destroyers.

“I can’t wait for the day when they’re all lined up against a wall for us to drive our swords through them in return for everything they’ve done,” one of them muttered.

“Yeah, repayment for their selfless service, right?” another said.

“Deck the halls with their blood, indeed,” the third one murmured as they left the kitchen.

A moment passed before any of us spoke.

“Is it safe?” I asked.

He shushed me, and I felt him let go of my hand. One by one, the green fires were blown away, submerging the kitchen in absolute darkness.

“The green fire is Azazel’s,” I heard Draven say from the other side of the room.

A few seconds passed before I felt Draven standing next to me in the dark, his breath tickling the back of my neck.

“I’m guessing I’m not the only one with night vision in here, am I?” I said.

“I eat all my vegetables and don’t read by candlelight,” Draven quipped, making me fawn over him for a brief moment.

I pulled Aida’s notes from my satchel and placed them on the table. I was surprised to see them visible as soon as I took my hand off them. I realized then how the spell worked. Everything I had on me was included in the spell until it left my body. Draven picked them up and looked through them, flipping the pages a couple of times to reveal the dungeon sketches Aida had scribbled. I used my True Sight to read them as he held them.

“If I’m reading this correctly, we need to go further below ground,” he muttered.

I looked around and noticed a narrow black door at the far end of the kitchen, opposite from where we’d come in. I took the notes from Draven and stuffed them back in my satchel as I made my way toward the door. I reached it in a few rushed steps and turned the knob, opening it slowly. There was a set of stone steps descending underground.

“I think I found a way,” I said.

Hansa and Draven joined me. We went down the stairs, heading for the dim light at the end. It opened onto a wider staircase that ended in what looked like a sprawling basement. We kept ourselves closer to the left wall, taking one step at a time.

Green torches led the way, so we moved quietly.

Sudden hissing and shuffling behind us froze me in place. Draven’s hand clutched my wrist, and we stilled as four massive Destroyers rushed down the stairs. I felt him let go of me as one of the monsters bumped into him, knocking him off his feet.

I inadvertently gasped, then immediately covered my mouth, moving so my back was against the cold black wall. My heart thudded as the Destroyers stopped and looked around, sniffing the air with confused expressions on their once humanoid faces.

Their tails were long and thick with black scales, while their upper bodies were well built with bulky muscles beneath their leather tunics. They’d once been handsome young Druids with short black hair, but their yellow snake eyes and the scales on their temples and cheeks were a sign that those days were long gone.

One of the beasts came back, slithering up the stairs and looking around, as if sensing there was someone there.

“What is it?” another asked from farther down.

“I hit something, but I can’t see what I hit,” the curious Destroyer replied.

“Why do we all have to stop for you to pretend you’re not the clumsy oaf we all know you to be?” a third one said.

“You’ve got quite the mouth on you, you know that? Maybe you should serve Goren for a while. You seem to be doing too well under Patrik,” the Destroyer replied with a snarl.

He came dangerously close, his face barely a few inches from mine. I couldn’t move even if I wanted to. My blood froze, and I held my breath, praying to all possible deities, including the Daughters, to not let this beast discover our presence there.

The creature eventually scoffed and followed his mates down the stairs.

“Come on. We need to fetch those two loyalists of Mermid for Azazel,” the third one barked. “You know he likes them early in the morning!”

“I’ll never understand why he enjoys tormenting the incubi he captures from the other districts. He just starves them in their cages, and when he gets bored, he starts slicing away at them just for kicks,” the curious Destroyer grumbled.

“Does he ever get any information out of them?”

“I don’t think so,” he replied. “I think he does it mostly for the fun.”

“You call that fun?”

“I don’t! He does!”

“He finds more pleasure in torturing and tormenting the creatures he keeps in his cages than he does in ruling Eritopia with the iron fist he’s always boasted about,” another Destroyer chimed in.