Page 18 of A Dawn Of Blood

“I’m a friend, I’m here to get you out,” I rush to whisper.

He doesn’t seem to believe me, not really, but he does start getting up, visibly struggling.

It’s my wolf I address next. “Are they still trying to break in?”

“They are.”

Then I need to hurry, fortheirsake as well.

“We don’t have much time,” I tell Phinelis. “Do you know where the keys are?”

He tells me and I find them.

And when I open the cage and get him out, my heart soars with relief, especially when I see the surprise in his eyes. We still have to figure out a way out, but at least this part’s done.

But before I can move on to the other subjects, I spot this glow around his wrists.

And before I know it, he’s slumping to the floor,dyingright in front of my eyes, at the same time an alarm starts blaring.

Fucking hell, I think I’ve just killed the manandalerted the vampires to our presence.

I move to at least use my powers to try to heal him, when he grabs me by the wrist and pulls me down, this unsettling spark in his eyes that wasn’t there before.

Blood curdles in my veins even before he lifts himself up a little to whisper in my ear, “She’s in Nasgard.”

“Who?” I urge in a low, tense voice. “Who’s in Nasgard?”

No reply. When I look down, I see the man is already dead.

That awful alarm is still blaring and now I can hear Nuala and Dryden barging into the room, yelling at me to get a move on.

And when I jump to my feet and turn around, behind their back, I see Jaeger trying to fight off a soldier.

Chapter 13

Lungs straining and heart slamming against the ribcage, my body is urging me to either lie down and surrender or break into a sprint and run for my life. So right now, I need to force myself to just keep moving at a medium to brisk pace. Through hallway after hallway and with that awful alarm blaring from everywhere around us, I’m doing my best not to bump into the soldiers we’re following.

They look so disciplined and dangerous as they keep marching forward, looking for us. If it weren’t for Dryden’s cloak and the fact that we hid right behind their backs, their boots drowning out the sounds of our footsteps…

Wehavebeen treated with the scent-erasing plant before we went on the mission, but if I hadn’t managed to heal Jaeger in the short space between us escaping that one soldier and spotting these four…

Nothing would’ve stopped the vampires from smelling her blood.

We keep following them until we barge outside, onto a large space enclosed by huge buildings shooting up into the black sky.

Still moving, I look up and then down. Must be some kind of drill yard.

I spot the main gate, my entire body flooding with hope.

At this rate, it shouldn’t be more than a couple of minutes before we’re out.

But I barely manage to take another step before the alarm suddenly cuts off, and in the dead silence that ensues, Nuala, Dryden, Jaeger and I, we all freeze.

What makes mereallysuspicious, though, is that the soldiers in front of us stop as well. That they stop as if they’re surprised.

What the…

The next thing I know, soldiers are materializing along the yard walls. Much more dangerous looking soldiers. But they’re not moving.

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