Page 36 of Demon Queen
“I’ve checked it out. It should be a breeze to get in.”
“And getting out?” Mixl asked, getting right to the heart of the matter. Kid was a genius.
Tom smiled and looked positively cheerful. “Sandra’s one of the fosters. She’ll be fine.”
“She’ll be fine? The last time she was around her friend, she lost most of her blood,” Mixl said, scowling darkly. “Unstable vampire is not a good exit strategy.”
Tom smiled at Mixl and tapped his head. “You’ve got a good head for strategy. What do you think?”
He got shifty looking. “I think that we take the Candy Queen back to the den and hope Drigo doesn’t notice the damage to his mate.”
“I’m not his mate,” I said, shaking my head. I stood up and then sat back down. I wasn’t sure if it was from blood loss or vodka, but either way, I swigged from the bottle, capped it, and put it under my arm before I stood up and stayed there. “We’re going to the dungeon.”
“What? Are you crazy?”
“Yes,” I said, nodding soberly at Mixl. No, that was probably a drunken nod. Either way, I nodded and then went towards the stairs.
“Wait, are you serious about going to the Grand Master’s dungeon?” Mixl sounded positively panicked.
“Tom thinks it’ll be fine,” I said, but honestly, at that point, I didn’t care anymore. I’d eaten demon. And Roberta… This made way more sense than any of that. “You can stay here if you’re nervous.”
“I’m going to go tell Drigo,” he said.
Tom put his arm over his shoulder. “Can’t have that. This is a seriously delicate mission.” The demon went boneless and slumped to the ancient orange carpet.
“Did you just drug the baby demon?” I frowned at Tom. “That seems wrong.”
He smiled at me. “Trust me, it’s better this way.”
“Trust you?” I looked at my bottle of vodka and then at the slumped demon. I went over to the couch, got a pillow and a throw blanket, and made the little guy more comfortable. He was so adorable with his face relaxed in sleep. I smoothed my hand over his hair and adjusted the blanket just so before I staggered to my feet and nodded at Tom. “Let’s go see whata vampire dungeon looks like. It’ll give me great ideas for my Halloween display.”
twelve
. . .
The nice thingabout hijinks with Tom was that he had ropes and harnesses, so when we were descending down a cliff because there was a tunnel in at the bottom, it wasn’t free fall. The bad thing was that he wouldn’t let me take the vodka with me because glass and climbing were a bad combination. I knew that, I mean, I could barely feel my arm, but it was definitely not great and all thanks to glass and climbing.
So, I had to drink the rest of the vodka really fast before we rappelled down the cliff face. It was fine. Tom set off a mosquito bomb right next to this vampire guarding the entrance to the sewage tunnel, so he was busy while we slipped past him, and then we were in the dark, walking through sludge, my garbage boots happily waterproof. We walked in the dark in the silence for a long time, until we finally came to a set of stone steps carved into the wall. Tom flicked his lighter on for a second, enough to see the high cavern ceiling and the river next to us before it went out and we went up the steps. He had me hooked up to him on a rope so if I accidentally fell in the river, he’d go with me.
I snickered and he hushed me. I went quiet immediately then felt the tug on my belt, two tugs that meant I should stop walking.
“Here’s the tricky part,” he whispered. “I’ll distract the vampire guard and then after the count of five, you follow me. The White Rabbit’s cell should be through the second door, then down the hall.”
I nodded although he couldn’t see me in the dark. He unclipped the rope so we were separated and then he went to work on the lock. I listened to the rustling and then the click. He threw the door open and the sudden brightness had me blinking before strong hands landed on my shoulders, pinning me absolutely in place.
The person behind me bent his face to my neck, exactly where Lucy had bitten me. I batted him away. “Not a chance. I’ve already been drunk enough.”
He sniffed and then exhaled a breath. “You are definitely drunk enough. Tom, why does this female smell like my wife?” He urged me through the door to follow Tom where he was surrounded by three vampires who had his arms and neck in very firm grasps.
“Lucy ate me when I was showing her the impossible piñatas. Did Wat have a good birthday?” I craned my neck to look at the tall vampire who looked slightly familiar. “Hazen, right? I was at your wedding.”
He blinked his red eyes and then released me, took two very large steps away from me, and gestured at the other vampires who reluctantly released Tom. “Perhaps you can explain what you’re doing in my dungeon. Usually people try to stay out of my dungeon, but over the last few months, someone…” he shot a glare at Tom. “Has been testing my security.”
“You have good security,” Tom said affably.
Hazen shook his head at the slayer. “And if you accidentally got eaten by a vampire, leaving your wife desolate?”
Tom nodded. “That could happen.”
