Page 23 of Savage Blood
“That’s enough, Wes.” Roxie marched into my cell and jerked him off me. “You heard Barric. He warned you not to touch her—unless he says otherwise.”
Wes snatched his arm out of Roxie’s grip. “Why are you even here? You’re not a fucking shifter, and yet Barric gives you all this rank and power.”
“Why don’t you ask Barric?” Roxie jerked her chin toward the door. “Go.”
Wes’s mate laughed as she grabbed his hand. “Don’t let her fool you, Wes. She’s just Barric’s little whore. That’s all.”
Roxie flipped the pair off but didn’t deny it.
Ick. Was she really sleeping with Barric?
Once the three of them left, another groan echoed from the new prisoner in the cell next to mine. The shifter sat up, rubbing the back of her head.
“Where am I? Something attacked me.”
I searched my cell for a cup of water, but Roxie had knocked it over. “You’re in the Underworld.”
“What!” She became a little more alert as she sat up, her mouth parting. “I’m in a different realm?”
“Here.” Ruin knelt at the bars separating us, offering his cup of water. He stopped ranting, and some of the fog cleared from his eyes.
When he passed the cup, his chains dragged along the ground. The Collective wasn’t taking any chances with him. Ruin was a high demon, and he had plenty of power to throw around, a point he made with Roxie earlier when he easily broke the loop binding him to the ground.
“Thanks.” I took the cup, giving Ruin a soft smile.
His shoulders relaxed at the gesture, and he sat back on his haunches.
I turned away and hurried to the other side of my cell. No matter how much pain and torture he endured, I had to remember who and what Ruin was.
A bad guy.
A villain.
“My name is Tate.” I folded onto my knees and passed her the cup. “What’s yours?”
“Alicia.” She sipped the water and sighed. Beads of sweat clung to her olive skin, and her cobalt t-shirt and jeans, tight against her curvy body, sported a few rips and tears.
“Do you remember how you got here?”
Lines developed across her forehead beneath messy strands of hair. “I was on my way to meet my mate when I had the strangest urge to go elsewhere. And then these creatures in black robes and masks surrounded me.”
“That was The Collective,” Enid said.
Alicia’s mouth parted again. “The Collective Hunt?”
“Yep.” Saint’s mom wrapped her fingers around the bars, her sky-blue eyes piercing the dungeon’s shadows. “Or at least they used to be. I don’t know what the hell this group is now.”
Demonic, maybe.
“My mate must be going nuts. I just got him back from that horrible hellhole in the Underworld.” After taking another sip, Alicia’s hand began trembling so badly she had to set the cup down. “Knox and I were on our way to?—”
As her words and the name registered, my hand shot through the bars and grabbed her wrist. “Knox? He got out of Heldrok?”
Her head snapped back. “Do you know him?”
“I was there. He helped me.” A humorless laugh slipped outof my mouth. “Knox had Fane deliver a message to you, that he would get out one way or another.”
“You’rethatTate?”
