We’d never kept prisoners before, but if we did I would keep them someplace discreet, like the storage room where we kept the gym mats. Or maybe even one of the unused apartments depending how well I liked said prisoner. Considering Maz hated Ruby and seemed to only be keeping her alive for my benefit, I headed for the storage room.
The smoke was already billowing into this floor, and was it just me or did my feet feel hot?
Hunters ran in pandemonium down the side exit stairs, which had yet to become engulfed, and I had a moment of terror when I thought of the nursery on the fourth floor. They would get out in time, right? They had to … or I’d never be able to live with myself. Maybe this had been a mistake … maybe I should have called in a bomb threat first or something. We hadn’t used enough gas to take the whole building down that quickly, it was just enough to scare them and flush them out … right?
Now I was second-guessing this plan.
Cutting down the hall, passing a few hunters who barely looked my way, I found the storage closet locked.
Interesting, it was never locked before. That was a good sign that Ruby might be in here.
One hard twist of the knob and it came off right in my hand. I kicked the door wide and it splintered into four pieces.
Oops. Too much vampy mojo.
“Ruby!” I yelled.
A muffled scream came from deeper inside the room and I sighed in relief. Rushing in, with only the emergency lights to guide my way, I streaked past mats and old gym equipment. When I got to the back of the room, a whimper came to the right. Spinning, I saw Ruby chained to a radiator in the corner. She looked bloodied and bruised. Her hands were cuffed at an odd angle. Duct tape covered her mouth.
“Ruby!” I whizzed over to her and she froze.
Reaching out, I grabbed the chains with my bare hands and pulled. They strained against my strength for a split second, before buckling and tearing apart. Ruby’s eyes went wide. I grabbed the corner of the duct tape next and pulled.
She winched as the tape ripped off and looked up at me in shock. “Aspen … you’re a …vampire.”
I swallowed hard. “Yes. Long story, I almost died and it was necessary to save my life. The building is on fire. We need to scram.”
She nodded, allowing me to help her into a standing position. “My hunters. The orphans.”
“All safe in Vampire City. Ten of your best fighters are outside right now.”
She sagged in relief against the wall, and I realized she had no intel this entire time and probably thought they’d all died.
“I’m way faster than you. Can I…?” I wrung my hands together in embarrassment. “Carry you?”
Ruby Thorn was my idol. If it was too demeaning for her, then—
“Hell yeah, piggyback me and let’s blow this joint.” She grinned.
I chuckled and turned to give her my back. Two seconds later, she’d latched on like a kid would, wrapping her hands loosely around my neck and shoulders. I was a blur of motion, zipping around the gym mats and through the now empty hall, which now plumed black smoke. By the time I reached the broken window I’d come in through, I’d only been running for seconds.
“That was kinda fun,” Ruby said in my ear.
Well, she was taking the vampire thing surprisingly okay.
“Well, hold on tight, because this mightnotbe fun,” I told her, stepping out onto the ledge. Looking down, I took in the scene below. A few dozen House of Rose hunters were bleeding out onto the side street, and the van was nowhere to be seen. I didn’t recognize Maz, but she could be among them.
Ruby suddenly clenched my shoulders in a death grip. “Wait, you’re not gonna jump, are you?”
Without waiting to give her an answer, I leapt into the pandemonium below.
“Shiiiiiit!” Ruby yelled all the way down. I landed with force jarring enough to dent asphalt, and pain shot up my calves. Ruby slipped off of me and stood at my side, trying to catch her breath.
The hunters on the street looked at us in shock as they coughed and panted, black soot marking their faces.
“Aspen!” Holly shouted.
“She’s a vampire! Maz was right, she’s with them,” Anthony said, pointing at me.
