“I think you’d better start packing your bags,” Kirill growled. “Because when I get out, and I will get out, it’s your head I’m coming for first.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Yakov had the audacity to laugh. “You’re still under that wolf’s thrall. As soon as he’s removed from the city limits, you’ll be back to your old self again. In fact, I think I deserve a bonus once you realize how close you came to making the biggest mistake of your life, and you finally understand it was only my quick thinking that saved you from yourself. I don’t know what was so special about that mutt, but he’ll be nothing but an unpleasant memory after tomorrow.”
Kirill growled again, frustrated beyond measure he was restrained. His beloved was out there, probably waiting for him, tugged by a feeling he didn’t understand. Kirill has seen him, tasted a drop of his blood after the poor wolf had been hurt. Kirill needed to get to him, help him, bond with him… Removing the wolf from the city limits would just mean he would take longer for Kirill to find.
“Anyhow, there’s no point in my being down here listening to you growling. I must be off.” Yakov checked his watch again. “The mercenaries have promised to update me the moment our little issue has been resolved. I should be down in the morning, with a fresh set of clothes for you and the keys to your chains. Aren’t you glad you devised the only set of restraints a vampire can’t get out of? I know I am.”
Yakov had the audacity to come closer, patting Kirill on his chest like he was a favored pet. Kirill lunged, his teeth snapping, his chains digging into his wrists and ankles as they held him tight. Yakov laughed as he neatly stepped just out of reach.
“Honestly, Kirill, what were you thinking wanting to bring a wolf into our precious coven? How could you even think for a second that mangy mutt is fit to be a coven master’s beloved. You’re not held in the thrall that comes from meeting your beloved; you’ve been zapped with a spell, probably dark magic from a crazy mage or worse. You’ll thank me when your head clears, you just wait and see. Now, get some sleep. You’re supposed to be looking like you’ve been on holiday when you greet the coven tomorrow.”
I’m going to kill him, Kirill promised himself. I’m going to kill him. I’m going to rip his head from his puny neck and tear his heart out of his chest. His intestines will be his necktie. I’m going to… Kirill’s thoughts continued on those gruesome lines until Yakov was gone and the cell door was once again firmly locked.
Then he grinned in the dim light, because yes, Kirill did design the cuffs holding him and Yakov probably should’ve kept that reminder to himself. Kirill also designed the door to his cell, and with everything he’d ever designed, there was always a failsafe way out of them. If he hadn’t been so worried about his precious wolf and so angry at Yakov’s disrespect Kirill would’ve remembered that himself. Now, I just have to remember is it the third screw from the left that will get me out of these chains, or the fourth from the right? Just knowing mercenaries were on his beloved’s tail was enough to make him think quickly.
/~/~/~/~/
“Is this all of them?” Ra glanced around at the six strewn bodies on the ground. “They’re all completely inebriated.”
“Which makes questioning them more difficult.” Cass dumped the last two bodies in a heap with the others. “I think this was all of them.”
“Except the alpha.” Wes was leaning casually on a wall, a gun pointed at the pile of bodies. “I did tell you these guys are not his pack. If they were, he’d be here, and I doubt they’d be this pissed. They had to have gotten some heavy-duty booze to be affected this badly. Can you read anything off them, babe?”
“What have I said about calling me babe when we’re on a mission, sweetheart?”
Ra thought the endearment was rather cute given Cass was in his demon form, and babe wouldn’t have been the first word to come to Ra’s mind to describe him. More like, satanic devil from the depths of the underworld, or at least Ra thought that was what one of the inebriated wolf shifters called him, when they had surprised the men drinking in an alley.
There hadn’t even been a fight. Wes had approached them first, and simply said he wanted to ask the men a few questions about why they were hanging around that particular area. One of the wolf shifters waved a booze bottle covered in a brown paper bag in Wes’s direction and said he was pretty enough to fuck, and that enraged Cass, who lumbered into the alley in full demon form. The drunken wolf shifters basically fell over themselves trying to get away.
Cass picked one of the bodies up and looked him up and down. Frowning, he dropped him, and hooked another one into the air by his leg. Ra wondered what the demon could see, beyond dirty jeans and jackets that had seen better days. None of the men were overly clean, but their jean/jacket combo was almost like a uniform. After the third one was scanned and dropped by the demon, Cass said, “these bastards are rogue shifters.”
He picked up the fourth and glared at him. The man’s head was lolling at an impossible angle and Ra was sure he’d have one hell of a headache when he woke up. “Yep. Rogues. What the hell are they doing working together? I thought they usually worked alone.”
“More to the point, who set them onto the alpha?” Ra pondered as one of the dropped men stirred.
“Vamp juice.” The scruff waved his hand weakly at one of the bag-covered bottles that had been dropped in their rush to get away from Cass. “Hey, you. Pretty boy.” He was looking up at Ra. “Gimme the vamp juice.”
“I can assure you, I’m a lot older than I look.” Ra glided over and picked up the discarded bottle. Removing the bottle from the bag, he frowned as he considered the label. It looked like a typical brand one could buy from a liquor store. The top was off, and Ra sniffed it, and then, loathe to actually stick his fingers near where anyone had been drinking, he flicked his finger up causing the fluid in the bottle to rise into the air.
“I’m not smelling anything unusual about that booze.” Wes had come closer, his gun still in his hand, his nostrils flared. “So how the hell did these guys get so drunk? They’re shifters. It shouldn’t be possible unless they’ve drunk a barrel of the stuff.”
“And yet, there they are lying about like beached whales.” Ra swiped his finger through the levitated liquid and stuck it in his mouth. He wrinkled his nose. “Ugh. Cheap. Nothing but typically low-priced booze that tastes like cat piss. I’d say there’s some other reason these guys are in such a state.”
“And yet, them calling it vamp juice strikes me as more than coincidental.” Cass strode over and picked up the only guy capable of making a sound, although he was still reaching for the bottle Ra was holding with grabby hands. “Oi, pay attention to me, not them.” He gave the guy a shake hard enough to rattle teeth.
“You ain’t pretty.” The man peered at him as though he couldn’t make out Cass’s features.
“I’ll be your worse fucking nightmare if you don’t start answering my questions. What do you know about the vampires in this area?”
“They pay real good.” The shifter twisted his head around so he could see the bottle. “Gimme the juice.”