Page 12 of Hitched to the Vampire King
Gabriel studied the hallway. “Does every door lead to another holding cell like ours?”
I shuddered at the thought. If so, that meant this place had a dozen or so rooms. Why did Adrian need this many? What was the purpose of this place? And who else was the King of Pricks keeping prisoner here?
“Come on,” Gabriel said, moving forward.
I snatched his wrist and pulled him to a stop. He turned with a raised brow, but I shook my head.
“I can’t leave yet,” I told him. “Not until I’ve checked every last room. Chris…Chris could be here.”
Gabriel held my gaze for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. I’ll take the left side, you take the right. And let’s be quick about this.”
Hope had me hurrying to the closest door and shoving it open, only to find nothing but an empty room with an empty cage thatreekedof old blood. I took a step back into the hallway and stared at all the different doors. It was then that the realization hit me like a ton of bricks. This place was a fucking holding facility.
Gabriel and I exchanged matching looks of horror.
Quietly cursing, I closed the door, then moved to the next door. One by one, I checked the rooms, my heart leaping every single time.
“Anything?” I whispered, knowing Gabriel would hear me.
“No,” was all he said.
I tore through the rest of the hallway, quickly checking all the rooms, one after another. Thankfully, I didn’t find any other prisoners. But the stench of pain and death grew stronger every time I ventured into one of the rooms.
A lotof people had been kept here. And I had a feeling very few had made it out alive.
I reached for the last door, then stopped dead in my tracks when I noticed a series of deep scratches etched into the wood. No, not scratches. Those wereclaw marks.
Huh. Cocking my head, I reached out to touch them. They ran deep, almost as though something had gripped the door and held on for dear life. Human nails couldn’t gouge that deep.
“Gabriel,” I quietly called out, my voice trembling.
His soft footsteps carried him to my side, and he touched the marks. After a moment, he straightened and reached for the handle. The second his fingers closed around it, I heard a sound. One that sounded like a soft whine. The kind of noise that absolutely was not human.
I tugged Gabriel away from the door, then lifted a finger to my lips. Another soft whine, one that was an unmistakable sound of distress.
“Someone’s in there.” This time, I reached for the doorknob.
“Maddie.” Gabriel’s hand came down on top of mine. “It could be anyone. For all we know, it could be one of Adrian’s people.”
A third soft whine. One that sounded exactly like?—
“It’s a werewolf,” I said, my ear perked toward the sound. But that didn’t mean Chris couldn’t still be inside. Maybe he was being held in a room with a werewolf.
Hope had me gripping the doorknob and turning it, bracing myself for what we might find.
I opened the door to a yet another room identical to the one we’d just escaped. Much like ours, a lightbulb dangled from the ceiling, illuminating a single cage placed in the center of the room. And there, in the far corner of the cage, was the source of the whining—a figure huddled against the wall.
The werewolf gave another soft whine as it struggled to push to its feet. Matted fur covered their body and the scent of old blood filled my nose.
Disappointment slammed into me with the force of a wrecking ball when I realized Chris wasn’t here. Nor was he in any of the other rooms. So where was he then? Was it possible that Adrian hadn’t captured him? That he was perfectly fine, and out there, somewhere, searching for us?
I focused on the werewolf, since they were the immediate problem. “We need to get them out. We can’t leave them here. See if our guard’s keys open this cage too.”
Gabriel hurried to the cage. Thankfully, the keys worked and he was able to unlock the door. But the moment he did, the werewolf lunged to their feet with their hackles raised and lips pulled back. A second later, it crouched, clearly ready to attack.
“Hey, hey, hey,” I said, diving in front of Gabriel. “I’m a werewolf. Just like you. I want to help you, I swear. But you can’t kill him”—I jerked my chin toward Gabriel—“cuz then I’ll have to kill you, and that doesn’t really help either of us, does it?”
The werewolf blinked, then lowered their lips and straightened. Clearly, they trusted me, but not the vampire behind me.
