Page 25 of Even Vampires Bleed
“Are they all empty?” he asks again.
Léandre and I exchange a puzzled look.
What does he really think we went away to do? I’m starting to fume inside, and Léandre must notice because he answers for me this time.
“No, all the occupants are drugged,” he tells him as matter-of-factly as he can, but I can feel like he might be getting mad, too.
“Them being drugged doesn’t mean we don’t need to free them,” the warrior snaps.
Oh well, this one might be one of Pierre’s friends.
I breathe slowly before I talk again.
“I freed them. Now, no, we can’t carry that many people on our back, but from what I’m hearing upstairs, they might need our help. We might have more rooms to open when it’s over, so when you’re done with your pissing contest, I have to find my dad.”
He’s stunned by my answer, and doesn’t say a word when I turn my back to him, walking the way we came with Léandre until we reach the door to go upstairs.
Léandre seems to be prepared because he comes to stand right next to me, and I shift my leg once again. In two seconds, the door is opened.
“Are you coming or going to double check all my locks?” I ask above my shoulder to the idiot who looked down on me less than a minute ago.
He’s not sneering or looking down on me anymore. Instead, all I can see on his face is awe and maybe a bit of fear.
Oh yeah, I counted the cells when we went away the first time… and there were twenty-five of them. All full. Which means each of the teams unlocked four cells. Me and Léandre did nine cells. Without a virtual key.
They can be scared.
13
Cassiopé
Iwas proud when I managed to shut the other guy’s mouth, but now that we’re upstairs and I can see the carnage that happened here while we were downstairs, I’m regretting it a bit.
Why?
Because everything went smoothly. The hidden entrance was right where Anna told us it was, only a dozen guards were stationed around the castle, and only half that were in the dungeons when the first team arrived.
It’s bloody though. Obviously it’s bloody. The team from the dungeons came flying in their fully shifted forms so no one had any weapon. We don’t even have clothes to dress in, so imagine the carnage they had to enact with fangs and claws.
Nothing is pretty, and Léandre’s wing tips are right at home in the blood-spattered dungeons.
Marcus is in the dungeons. The rest of the team is in the dungeons. The guy who appointed himself team leader told us that when we climbed up the stairs.
But we still haven’t found my father, and when I see the state that we found the survivors in the dungeons in, I’m starting to fear that I might be too late.
I’ve opened every door in the basement—yes, there was a second level underground. I’ve found contraptions that seemed to be right out of torture books.
I’ve found human remains. I’ve found shifters covered in their own excrement with missing limbs. They weren’t in the cells we first opened; they weren’t even locked down. I don’t think they couldn’t move on their own.
I’ve found every nightmare I could conjure, and yet I feel like the worst nightmare is yet to come.
“Here,” someone yells from somewhere above me in the castle.
I know deep in my mind what they have found, so I run.
I probably should be careful, because I’m naked, don’t wear shoes, and the ground is covered in blood. I almost fell on my butt twice before I even reached the door to the inhabitable levels.
There are bloody footprints that make the ground slippery, but that’s not all. The castle smells like a mix of bleach and blood. This is definitely not the first time this castle is seeing blood.
