Page 49 of Prince of Storms
Earlier, I had seen nothing but a hallway. Clearly, there was more.
“You can do this,” I whispered, trying to amp myself up. Breaking the rules wasn’t exactly my style, and I needed a bit more time to gather my courage first.
Finally, I reached out and slid the door open, far enough to slide through. Then I stopped and waited, looking to see if any traps sprung or alarms went off. When nothing did, I stepped across the threshold and closed the door behind me. Again, I waited, but no sounds could be heard.
That was, at least, nothing but the ceaselessboomsabove me. They were a constant presence and somewhat frustrating, because they would do a great deal to mask the approach of either Tor or Ty, making it harder for me to avoid them.
The hallway was just as dirty as the rest of the house, so it wasn’t as if the area had received special attention. After discovering the first two doors were locked, I continued to wander deeper into the manor.
“So this is where the rest of the basement is,” I said as I reached the next hallway junction. A hallway lined with doors extended to my left and right, a door at the end of both sides. In front of me, however, there was a wide set of carpeted stairs that descended below ground. I’d been below ground in the parking garage, but that section of the basement was tiny compared to the rest of the house.
Now I knew why. Most of it was completely separate. Again, I wondered why. What did Tor keep there that he didn’t want me to see? There was only one way to find out.
I went down the stairs. However, there wasn’t far to go. A large steel door blocked the way perhaps thirty feet from the last step. It was completely blank, except for a pair of rods that extended out. They were unadorned metal cylinders, perhaps three or four inches in diameter, sticking out about a foot from the wall.
“Well, that’s weird,” I said, reaching a hand out toward them.
I felt a buzz through my fingertips as they neared the rods, forcing me to snatch my hand back quickly. Were they electrified?
“What on Earth is this place?” I muttered to myself, looking around for anything else. How did one open this door? There had to be a keypad or lock somewhere, right? I searched both sides of the wall, pressing and feeling each stone, but nothing seemed out of place. Nothing except the door.
“So weird.” Finally, giving up and deciding to head back up the stairs and explore the other hallways, I turned to go.
With a softhiss, I heard the door behind me open.
“Who are you?” a voice asked.
I spun back, only to find myself staring at someone’s chest. My head jerked up until I met the smoky gray eyes of another tall, muscular male in a bright blue shirt and burgundy pants. His hair was a light blond, falling well past his shoulders. He might be easy on the eyes, like Ty or especially Tor, but there was nothing friendly about the look on his face.
“Uh,” I said, stepping back, hands coming up. “I don’t want any trouble.”
That movement, away from the giant, allowed me to see past him into the room beyond.
I gaped at the sight before me. A large bronze metal arc could be seen on the top of a raised dais in the center of the large domed room. That was bizarre enough on its own, but what’s more, the space below the arch flickered with blue-white lightning, turning the entire space opaque. I couldn’t see beyond it.
“What the hell is that?” I gasped.
“Intruder!” the man barked, reaching for my neck.
I dodged under his swipe, moving fast, and ducked to the side, managing to get past him. I darted into the room but came to a halt as someone came through the archway.
They didn’t appear from behind it. They camethroughit. There was no other way to describe what I saw as the blue-white lightning field parted and they walked into the room.
“Holy shit.”
Aliens. They were freaking aliens disguised as humans. Coming through some sort of portal to take over Earth.
“Gotcha!” the first alien-man cried, a thick, meaty, superhuman grip closing around my neck and holding me tight. “You’re coming with me, human girl.”
Human girl. He called me human. Meaning he’s not.
I was in way deeper shit than I’d ever suspected.
Why couldn’t it have been a sex dungeon?
Chapter Twenty-Three
Mia
