Page 65 of Even Vampires Bleed
But my relief is short, because I can hear steps coming to our room again.
This time I don’t question myself more.
I know there are other people in the cells next to mine, but we don’t have time. We’ll come back to free them, or ask Elhyor to send a team, but we can’t do it now.
“Shift,” I order Léandre and do so myself in the next breath.
The butterfly shifter stays right next to me as we soar to the ceiling and wait for whoever is coming at us to pass through.
I nudge Léandre against the corner of the wall and make him grip whatever he can so he doesn’t have to fly and can tuck his wings in.
He’s not moving, and I can hear his slow breathing as I drape my wings on top of his very bright white and red feather coat.
It’s going to be a miracle if this works.
Especially since I can see it. We didn’t close the door back completely and someone is bound to see that I have escaped.
They might not notice the butterfly. Maybe they didn’t even notice they locked it in with me in the first place, but an empty cell can’t be missed.
“Didn’t we throw the bat chick in that cell earlier?” One of the guards asks as he walks right under where we’re hiding.
“You’re sure it wasn’t one at the end of the row?” another asks, and I thank whatever god wants to hear my prayers for forgetful soldiers.
The one who talked first gets in the cell and still takes a look at the ceiling as if I would have stayed in there in my animal form if the door was open.
That tells me all I need about the shifting suppressant that could have been in the air. They only needed the electric field, after all.
I see him grab the bars of the door and close it after him. What I see above it all are the gloves he’s wearing that seem to make him impervious to electricity. Maybe all cells have that kind of electric field, after all.
It wasn’t just about me.
He looks around suspiciously and then follows the other further down the row of cells.
This is our opening.
I drop from the position I was in, and Léandre seems to understand that we need to fly fast, because he manages to fly almost as fast as I do.
Did I say that bats are the fastest?It’s just a shame it doesn’t apply in human form. It would have prevented a nasty headache and a few hours in a dank cell. Also, it would have prevented me from being electrocuted multiple times.
The race gives me a weird sense ofdéjà vu,but in reverse.
I just hope this time no one is going to get caught again.
I’m keeping an eye on Léandre and the butterfly, but end up slowing down because I have no idea where we’re going.
Léandre takes the lead, and surprisingly, it only takes a few minutes for me to start recognizing the corridor.
It’s the one we entered when we came to steal the wings—and a massive shark. It feels like an eternity has passed since it happened, and yet I know it’s been less than a day.
We go through the illusion on the wall and keep flying until we get out in theSaint Michelquarter. We’re almost home.
The thought tugs something inside my heart because it’s been weeks since I referred to Notre Dame as home, and I know it’s all my fault.
I love the people who live inside. Hell, my dad is still inside of this building.
But I realize my pain got me away from everything that was my world not so long ago.
I didn’t know Léandre for long, and still, I stayed away because he was there. That doesn’t sound right to me.
