Darker (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #6)(28)

Bianca’s long black ponytail swung as she opened the door and peeked into the hall. “I’ll come back for him later. We’ve got to go. Briggs doesn’t know you’re here yet. Trust me when I say you want to keep it that way.”

I was torn. Could I trust Bianca? For all I knew she could have unsavory plans for me. Despite what he’d just done to me, I didn’t want to leave Kale.

‘What are you waiting for? Get the hell out of there before Briggs knows he has you,’ Arys warned.

I cast one last glance back at Kale and followed Bianca into the hall. “How did you know I was here?”

Instead of heading back the way I had come in with Jez and Willow, Bianca led me through a maze of halls in the opposite direction. She paused to remove the horrible handcuffs. I rubbed my bruised wrists and gratefully tapped my power. It surged through me, a comforting sensation.

“I ran into your friends. I recognized the leopard. She told me about Hunter. The man is an oversized child with a gun. It’s ridiculous.”

“Hunter? You mean Agent Asshole?”

Bianca laughed, a short clipped sound. “Yeah, that’d be him.”

A tall, leggy thing, Bianca had ebony hair and eyes that glittered with sensuality. She’d seduced my wolf mate, making him her willing blood slave. I hated her. That she sprung me from Kale’s prison rubbed salt in a wound that might never fully heal. It was one of life’s little kicks in the teeth.

“So, where is Jez now?” We passed a wing of empty rooms rife with spiritual unrest. The residual energy screamed of violence and death. Spirits swarmed me. They pulled at my clothes and whispered obscenities in my ears. I shielded against them, forcing them back.

“She got out. With the angel, who called me a harlot.” Bianca slid a sidelong glance my way. “I suppose I deserved that.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

If we dredged this up, I wouldn’t be able to censor myself. I wanted to blame her for taking Shaz away from me, to tell her she’s the one who turned him into a junkie and drove him out of town. It wasn’t true though. She had merely taken advantage of Shaz’s weakness, but it had started with Arys and me.

“Fair enough. I get it. I’d hate me, too. But, I was just taking what he was freely giving,” she said, leading me to the left when we reached a T in the corridor. “This way.”

We rounded a corner, and I was happy to see a stairwell ahead. I wanted desperately to escape the truth lurking behind her ugly excuse. My adrenaline had long since run out. I forced myself to keep moving, shoving aside the blood loss and exhaustion of having my ass kicked.

My short-lived imprisonment was almost over. I couldn’t wait to get away from the writhing black mass plaguing my every step. I cast a wary look at the vampiress, curious as to how it was affecting her. The last time I saw her here, she had been on the top floor, far from the basement.

As blessedly short as my stay had been, I was ready to get out. So, when Agents Hunter and Hastings stepped into our path, I groaned in exasperation. Without hesitation, I slammed them both with the power pent up inside me. It felt so damn good to unleash it.

“Bianca, what the f**k are you doing down here?” Hastings grunted. He gasped for breath and reached for his weapon.

Bianca was on him before he could aim it. Her guttural snarl echoed in the dank, empty corridor. The atmosphere hummed with her savage hunger. She bit into Hastings with the intensity of a rabid dog. That answered my earlier question. She couldn’t handle it down here either.

I fixed my attention on the ass**le I now knew as Agent Hunter. He stared up at me with terror-filled eyes. The force of the blast I’d hit him with kept him pinned to the rubble-littered floor. I stood over him, savoring the way his human energy so easily bent to my will. I could feel his fragile heart, every beat palpable. So easily, I could crush him. I bent down, retrieved my phone from his pocket and gazed deep into him.

“Agent Hunter, you’ve made a very big mistake. I’m going to leave now, but I promise I will hunt you down and kill you slowly. And, you will love it even as you’re screaming for your pathetic life.”

Anger flashed in his eyes. I didn’t hang around long enough to hear his retort. Leaving Bianca to have her way with the agents, I sprinted up the stairs with that disembodied voice begging me to stay. I didn’t stop running until I had escaped the haunted hospital, leaving Kale behind for the second time.

Chapter Eight

“Ok, we’re not doing that again.” I collapsed in the passenger seat of Jez’s Jeep. “Not only did I get my ass kicked by two humans, but I have Shaz’s playmate to thank for springing me from Kale’s private prison.”

“You saw Kale?” Jez turned to me excitedly, almost side swiping a parked car as she drove us away from the hospital. “You’re bleeding. Are you ok? Is he ok? What happened?”

I sucked in a deep breath and slowly let it out. I turned in my seat to look at Willow who watched me with an expectant expression.

“He’s far from ok,” I said, reluctant to tell them everything. “That place has driven him mad. He bit me. Obviously.”

“And?” Jez prompted. “Come on, spill it.”

“What happened, Alexa?” Willow spoke up, a knowing look in his gold-flecked eyes.

I gripped the door handle tight as Jez took a sharp corner. “They cuffed me and locked me in a room with him. He attacked me. And, he tried to take more than my blood. He didn’t get far.”