As she came to a window, she kicked her heel into the glass.
It shattered, and she reached through the broken glass and unfastened the window from the inside. She pried it open and slid inside.
Chains, whips, and other torture sex devices dangled from hooks on a rack along the wall.
Slings and chains hung from the ceiling.
These, along with tables with straps, cuffs, and chains that were scattered across the floor, assured Maggie this was where the kinkier crowd came to play. She headed out a doorway across from the window. Just before she closed the door, she glanced back and saw the winged guard step through the window.
A blonde in a white-laced nightgown headed down the hall. Maggie crept quietly so as not to rouse her interest. She headed to a door at the end of the hall. There had to be a stairwell or something she could use to get to a lower floor. She could have maybe even jumped if she was just one floor lower.
A creak came from behind her.
“There she is!”
She sped up.
When she reached the door at the end of the hall, she opened it, and to her relief, it was a stairwell.
Thank God.
She practically skipped down the steps.
Checking over her shoulder to gage the men’s progress, she saw one was just behind her, his wings tucked close behind him as he dove at her. He reached out before him.
She ducked so that he missed and landed on the platform to the second floor, just before the door.
As he regained his bearings, she barreled into him, hoping to knock him to the side, but he was strong, far stronger than Kinzer.
He’d warned her immortals were more durable than mortals, but she hadn't expected him to be a wall.
Her shoulder blades hit the cement platform. She reached into her heel and pulled out the blade Kinzer had given her.
An echo in the stairwell drew her attention as the two other men came to assist.
The guard laughed before kneeling and snatching her arm. As he pulled her to her feet, she whirled around and stabbed him in the eye.
“Fuck!” he wailed.
While the higherling recovered from the attack, Maggie spun around, opened the door, squeezed out, and burst through a door on the other side of the hall.
Empty.
She went right for a window at the end, forced it open, and stepped out onto the ledge.
If she hung from it, she knew it would be a rough fall, but she didn’t imagine she’d break anything.
She sat and dangled her legs off the side.
A hand reached out from the window and snatched her by the wrist.
Her captor’s face moved into the streetlight outside, revealing the guard she’d stabbed in the eye, the knife still in his socket, blood dripping down his cheek.
With her other hand, she grabbed the knife, yanked it out and stabbed his arm.
He cried out again as he released her.
She slid off the balcony.
One of the other men reached out over the ledge, grabbed her, and pulled her back into the building.
Dammit.
