Page 42 of Savage Blood
“What about me?” Ruin ambled toward the bars, his complexion paler and the shadows deeper beneath his electric blue eyes. “Can I tag along?”
“Absolutely not,” Enid snapped. “You’re part of the reason we’re in here. And you murdered plenty of shifters before Barric became this monster.”
Ruin rolled his head, navy hair falling across his sharp cheekbone. “That’s fair. I deserve punishment for that. But you should be the ones to give it. Not Barric.”
Pangs sliced through my chest, and my heart thumped erratically. I was torn between Enid and Ruin. The former demon lord deserved to be locked up for what he did to shifters and the demons he experimented on.
Because of him, Warin drank the unbalanced Soulvation and then slaughtered Jayla and my friends. And I killed him.
“Tate, don’t leave me here.” Ruin’s voice cracked, and his bottom lip quivered, anguish washing over his features. “Please.”
He’d been here for months, tortured, starved, and used. They treated him like a pet and then drained his power time and again.
He deserved punishment, but not like this.
The high demon’s long, tattooed fingers curled around the bars as he leaned his forehead against them, his gaze searing into mine. “If you leave me in here, Barric will continue to siphon my power. They’ll use me for countless rituals.”
“You can’t seriously be thinking of bringing him, Tate.” Enid stood beside me, her hand resting on my shoulder, pouring tension through my muscles. “We can’t trust him.”
“But we can’t let The Collective Nosterium keep him.” I shrugged her hand off, marched toward Ruin’s cell, andunlocked the door. “If you do anything stupid, Ruin, I’ll kill you myself.”
He lifted his hands, the chains rattling across the ground. “Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye. I’ll be a good little soldier and eat all my vegetables.”
The Collective had been at it again, taking his power and leaving him unstable.
He definitely couldn’t stay here. Fane might attempt to kill Ruin, but that was better than leaving him.
As I grabbed the heavy cuffs, I swallowed back a sob at the scars they left behind. They looked like the ones marring my wrists, courtesy of my foster mother Rena.
“The Malbraxis manacles stay on,” I murmured, brushing my thumb over the raised strips of flesh.
Ruin nodded as he gave a soft smile, one I’d rarely seen. “No problem, sergeant.”
Before I unchained him, my nape prickled, and a familiar scent hit the air moments before Roxie’s shapely form materialized in the dungeon corridor.
“No one’s going anywhere.”
She skimmed her thumb over the rune on her dagger’s hilt, extending the blade into a lethal sword that could cut bone like butter.
Chapter
Eleven
My former friendturned enemy blocked our path to freedom as she loomed in the hallway, the flickering lantern lights on the rough-hewn wall gleaming on the transformative raven’s blade. Roxie’s malicious smile had chills raking down my spine.
Even though the Malbraxis manacles no longer restrained my power and I could take her easily, something about her grin was just unsettling, like she had a few tricks up her sleeve.
I stepped out of Ruin’s cell, leaving him still chained despite his grumble of protest. “Unfortunately for you, I’m at full power.”
Onyx talons sprouted from my fingertips as I felt my pupils thin to diamonds.
Roxie snorted and stepped forward, her skin-tight black pants hugging every curve while her crop top showed her toned abs. “You’re not really at full power, though, are you, Tate? Not with that pesky little speck of the Infernal Sol poisoning you.”
My nostrils flared, knowing she was right.
Enid flanked my side, a growl vibrating her chest. “ButI’mat full strength, and I’d love a chance to pay you back for some of that torture.”
Alicia’s lips curled into a savage grin. “And there’s only one of you.”
