Ryker turned around, addressing the rag-tag group.
“We move as one.” He met the dragon shifter’s gaze. “Therian, you take the back.”
The captain’s mind was working overtime, mapping out the most efficient way out of this mess with the limited information they’d been given. Ryker felt a kinship with the other Choosing participants and wanted to keep them safe. They weren’t born of the same blood, nor were they all related to Representatives, as the rebel had erroneously assumed. Even so, they’d built connections during the Choosing and deserved to live.
The dragon shifter grunted and moved to the rear.
Ryker adjusted his grip on the weapon and dipped his head. “On three, we run.”
He waited for the others to agree before he counted them down. He hit three and swung open the door, revealing a hallway. Lights dotted the ceiling like a runway, illuminating a path.
Another door was at the end, and there was a glowing biometric lock.
Ryker cursed, and they paused to retrieve the unconscious guard.
Three times, they used the rebel to unlock a door, only to find themselves in yet anotherhallway.
“Is this a fucking labyrinth?” someone grumbled.
The fae captain was beginning to feel the same way, although he didn’t say that. One of the first rules of leadership was looking confident, even if one didn’t feel that way on the inside. And inside, he wasn’t calm.
He needed to get out of here. A thousand-pound weight was pressing down on his chest, and he wouldn’t be able to rest until he saw Brynleigh with his own eyes.
“You’ll never get out of here,” the rebel fae slurred. He’d woken up sometime between the second and third door. “They’ll stop you. You have no magic and two guns. What do you think you’ll do?”
“We’ll fight,” Ryker grunted, slapping the man’s hand on the next biometric lock.
That was the only option.
The door hissed open, just like all the others, but this time…
The rebel chuckled. “Told you so.”
CHAPTER 35
Death Threats and Late Arrivals
The fourth door didn’t open into a hallway like the others. It revealed a large workspace that might have been an office at one point. Several long tables covered in papers and computers took up floor space. Warm lights hung from the ceiling. They must’ve still been underground because there were no windows.
It wasn’t the change in scenery that had Ryker’s heart racing and his stomach dropping. It wasn’t even the dozen impressive guns trained on his group or the multiple strands of deadly Death and Earth Elf magic hovering threateningly in the air.
No.
That was caused by the too-beautiful-to-be-real vampire standing in the middle of the group of rebels.
Jelisette de la Point’s cold, obsidian eyes drilled into Ryker’s, and a malicious smile crept across her features. Dressed in black training leathers, she looked like a warrior vampire from the time of the Four Kingdoms.
“Greetings, Captain Waterborne.” The violent vampire strode towards him and smirked. “Going somewhere?”
Hatred coiled in Ryker’s gut, and keeping his stolen weapon trained on Jelisette, he snarled, “You bitch.”
She did this, somehow. Set Brynleigh up. Ryker could sense it in his gut.
“Is that any way to speak to your mother-in-law?” Jelisette raised a brow.
“Fuck you. Brynleigh doesn’t see you as a mother, and neither do I.”
Both he and his wife were sorely lacking in the maternal department.