“Like Mark’s.” I glanced back at the cells, looking at the third, empty one. It was open, broken, and next to a narrow window that was busted. I looked back at the other two creatures, and examined their doors. The locks had been reinforced.
“Can you say anything? Do you understand me?” I asked the figures inside.
Neither seemed to understand me. Both just huddled against the back. Their skins were glistening, and it was at that point that Penn said, “The scent is coming from these…bodies?”
“How many are there, in there?” I asked, my throat feeling raw.
“Two,” Penn said.
“Two…” Dante let out a soft breath. “I think we know what happens to the initiates. They aren’t sucked dry out of their bodies.”
“You mean these…belong to them?” Penn asked.
“My guess is that they were part of those creatures a few days ago. I think they…changed? Transformed? A little later than Mark. Somehow he escaped, but he must have transformed once he was out of the house. Did he know what was happening to him? Did he realize what was going on?” The reality of what we were facing horrified me even more than what we’d imagined. I had no idea what the end plan was for these creatures, but I doubted even they knew.
“What are they?” Penn asked.
“Some sort of lizard creature.” And then, I knew. “I have a feeling this is what’s behind Erik and Analee’s glamour—you felt snake vibes…and these are in the same family.” It suddenly occurred to me that we couldn’t leave these creatures here.
I had no idea if they knew what they had realized what they were getting into, but the fact is that they were being held captive. And that meant they hadn’t planned on being here. “What do we do now? We can’t just leave them here.”
“Call the cops? But we’re breaking and entering,” Penn said. “And while I think Destiny would understand, I’m not so sure about the rest of the cops. Erik and Analee seem pretty convincing to me and you know they have to have some story already cooked up.”
“We should get out of here,” I said, suddenly aware of the passing time. “I honestly don’t know what to do about these two?—”
At that moment, Orik let out a whistle, which echoed down the stairs. Crap, we’d been puttering around too long.
“Hurry, let’s get moving—” But the next moment, Orik came racing down the stairs. He could move pretty fast for such a big man.
“Are they home?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yeah, and they have company. There are at least three others with them.”
“Bodyguards?” Dante asked, as I began eyeing the broken window. We could make it through, but there were still jagged edges of glass and the last thing I wanted was to get stabbed in the gut as I wormed my way through a window.
I grabbed a pillow off of a wing chair that was beneath the window, then clambered up on the chair itself. Steadying myself, I reached up and used the pillow to protect my hands as I tried to break away the remaining shards. Then I unzipped the sham and tossed the stuffed insert onto the ground, resting the sham over the edge of the window.
But, before we could flee, there was a loud noise and the clattering of footsteps. Light flooded the basement. I turned just in time to see Analee and Eric stop on the stairs as they took in what was happening.
Erik let out a snarl that didn’t sound human, and that was when I saw three men behind him. All five of them were staring at us, their eyes reflecting the light, much like a cat’s eyeshine. The illusion surrounding them began to dissolve, much like a watercolor painting that had been hosed down. The colors of their skin and clothing faded, as their true natures came into view.
To the side, Penn had been muttering some incantation and now I felt a shield form around me. It had to be some sort of group protection spell.
Dante and Orik held out their blades, waiting. I pulled out the dagger that Dante had loaned me, wishing I were wearing better clothes for fighting.
“Who are these two?” I asked, deciding there was no use in keeping my mouth shut. “Did you capture Mark Ryle the way you captured them? Only he escaped, didn’t he?”
Erik and Analee, by then fully in their reptilian form, seemed quicker than they had in human form. Analee leapt, landing on the floor near me. She was almost my height, looking almost exactly like the pair of creatures locked in the cages.
“You have no idea what you’re messing with,” she said, her voice a combination of clicks and hisses. The words sounded ethereal, as though she hadn’t really said them aloud, but somehow they echoed through the room.
“Then tell us. What are you? Some form of dragon?” I didn’t think they would answer, but I hoped for some clue. Even though I suspected we were going to have to kill them, we needed more information for our records. How many of them were there? Where had they come from? What did they want?
Erik lifted something that looked like a key fob. He pressed the button and there was a noise from the cells behind us. The doors were swinging open. The pair of creatures inside began to move toward us. Holy hell, were they going to work with Erik and his buddies? I hadn’t expected that.
“Do you really care?” Analee asked. “You’re not going to be around much longer.”
“Then tell me,” I said. “If you’re planning on killing us, tell me what you are.”
