Jade,Belfry whispered, tight and anxious,I don’t like this.He trembled beneath the collar of my jacket, his warm body curled up into a tiny little ball against my neck and collarbone. I didn’t like it one bit either, but David, as much of a dick as he was, had never resorted to violence. He was a bully, sure, but he liked to do his bullying the academic way: with words.
“I don’t owe you anything,” I said, stepping toward the phone on the desk. “And you need to leave before I call security and have you escorted out like the tantrum-throwing man-child you are.” It felt very good to say that because it was true, and when it came to this asshole, I really didn’t bother mincing my words.
It caught me by complete surprise when his hand lashed out. The phone skidded across the carpet, plastic cracking as it hit the wall. My breath caught, shock blooming too slowly. He’d changed, and I was abruptly, extremely aware of how vulnerable I was. I brought my hands up in front of me, the jade and gold chains of my bracelet gently chiming. If ever there was a moment for a protection charm to work, it was now.
David loomed closer, and this time, there was no couch as a barrier; I’d given him that opening when I’d moved to the desk for the hotel phone. “I offered you the easy way,” he said, his tone much calmer now. It was a threat, I knew it. My mouth opened, but I didn’t get the chance to scream.
Pain exploded, white and absolute, and the world dropped out from under me as his fist connected, and everything went dark.
Chapter 27
Jade
Something brushed my cheek. I groaned and tried to turn my head away, only to discover I couldn’t. My skull throbbed in thick, pulsing waves, like someone had filled it with wet sand and shaken it hard. I couldn’t recall ever having felt quite like that before, not even after drinking too much on a night out.
Jade,Belfry whispered urgently inside my head.Jade, please wake up.He sounded so sad and scared that my heart ached for him. I forced my eyes open. Darkness pressed in from all sides, broken only by a narrow rectangle of gray light high up on one wall; a basement window, the kind meant for air, not escape. Cold seeped through my clothes, but the air was dry and stale rather than damp.
I tried to move, and the rope bit into my wrists. “Oh,” I muttered thickly. “That’s bad.” Really bad, astronomically so. My heart began pounding in terror, the rush of adrenaline clearing some of the cobwebs from my head.
You’re awake,Belfry said, relief tangling with fear. He hovered inches from my face, wings buzzing too fast, his little vest rumpled.I was so scared, Jade. You wouldn’t wake up.He made that sound terrifying, but perhaps it was just the terror that clung to every word.
My head screamed as memory slammed back into place. David’s face, the phone hitting the wall, the punch I never saw coming. I swallowed hard. “How bad do I look?” My jaw ached as if it hadbeen punched; the left side of my face felt thick and stiff, and my eye was puffy.
Not dead,Belfry said quickly.Which is very good. But your head…He didn’t finish that thought, but it hung there, implying all kinds of terrible things. I probably looked like the Bride of Frankenstein, all misshapen and lopsided. Fun.
I swallowed roughly and forced some of my panic away. “Yeah,” I said. “I noticed.” Shifting in the stiff wooden chair, I tested the ropes, which caused the chair legs to scrape faintly against the rough concrete floor. Whoever had tied me knew what they were doing.
My bracelet chimed softly against the binding, the charms cold against my skin. “Great,” I muttered. “So much for that. Luther gives me a protective charm, and I still get kidnapped.” The least it could have done was prevent this killer headache from splitting my head.
Belfry bristled midair, then swooped through the dark basement to circle around me. He was checking out my bindings for himself, and perhaps the status of the protective bracelet.That bracelet isn’t meant to stop danger; it’s meant to give you an edge in surviving it.
“Oh?” I said weakly. “Because from where I’m sitting, it feels pretty useless.” Really useless. It hadn’t stopped David from hitting me or me from passing out; it hadn’t warned me there was danger on the other side of the hotel room door. Bitterly, I wondered, just for a flash of a second, if it even had any magic, and what proof did I have that magic was real? Just the glow of Luther’s eyes and the moonlight mark along my ribs.
The small bat came back around to land on my knee and cling to my jeans with the thumb claws at the tips of his wings.The blow didn’t break your jaw,Belfry said firmly.Or your skull, which it would have otherwise.He seemed very confident of that fact, but I didn’t believe him.
I snorted despite myself. Belfry always talked the good talk, that was for sure. “You can’t prove that,” I said through my aching jaw. Where was I? I wanted Luther, and I could really use that troll friend of his. What was his name? Arden?
I can,he said, very quietly now.I have seen it plenty of times. I’ve had centuries to learn what humans break like.That shut me up. It was such a horrifying thought that I gave the little bat a wide-eyed stare. He smiled at me, as if to say it was all right, but it wasn’t. It really wasn’t.
I took a slow breath, then another, pushing through the haze and the throbbing pain. “Okay. Okay. Think. How long was I out?” There was daylight, pale and dreary and very much not spring-like, coming through the sliver of window. That meant, fuck, at least twelve hours had passed. It had been early evening when David had shown up, and the light had gone pale golden as the sun began dipping toward the horizon. This light was too white for that, so it had to be morning.
I don’t know,Belfry admitted.Not long enough and too long at the same time. It’s morning, the night passed while you were out.He fluttered from my knee to the small window for a flyby to indicate the light, then came back to me, seeking closeness, contact.
“Does Luther know?” I asked. Surely, Luther would be tearing the city apart looking for us. It couldn’t have been very long after David had shown up that he returned. At the most, half an hour, so he must have had all night to look for us. I eyed the window, where there was no sign of anything except that pale sliver of sky.
I don’t think so,Belfry said, his small voice wobbling.I would have felt him if he were nearby.Which could mean so many things, but most of all, it meant that Luther didn’t know where we were. We could be out of the city entirely.
Panic fluttered in my chest, sharp and useless. I shoved it down. “Where are we?” Please, please let us still be in Boston. Belfry zipped away, scouting the room, fluttering past bare concrete walls, cluttered shelves stacked with old boxes, and a rusted furnace hulking in one corner. There was nothing here that could help us—no signs, no smells I recognized, not so much as a sound either.
Nowhere friendly,Belfry concluded sadly. He drooped against my jeans and wrinkled his nose.It stinks in here, and I’m hungry.If only those were our only worries, but it was much more dire than an empty stomach.
I eyed the window, where that pale strip of morning light tempted me with the possibility of freedom. “Can you get out? Go find help?” If Belfry could reach Luther, all would be well, I knew it. David was an idiot for doing this, and he was going to pay for pissing off my vampire. He’d messed with this girl for the last time.
Belfry landed on the sill and rattled the glass with his tiny claws.I can’t open it, and it’s daytime; I’d be exposed.“Exposed” made me think of vampires and the apparent myth that they couldn’t handle daylight. Belfry wasn’t talking about a sensitivity to light, though, but about being seen by a predator and killed. It was a big risk. A tiny bat would make a tasty snack for a predator like a hawk or eagle.
“Damn it,” I swore. The window was out of the question anyway if Belfry couldn’t open it. Footsteps sounded overhead. Belfry vanished into the shadows of a cluttered shelf just as the basement door opened. Light spilled down the stairs, followed by voices. David came first, looking smug and freshly pressed in a different but equally bad suit from the one he’d worn yesterday.
Behind him was a man I didn’t know and didn’t need to know to recognize danger. Everything about him was wrong in a way my skin understood instantly. He was too still, too composed. His suit was impeccable, his smile polite but empty.
