Of Blood and Downfall

Chapter 42.

It took me a matter of minutes to find the stairs of a very, dark room after getting distracted with a vampire male who was deeply interested in me. I had to reject once the conversation started to dive deep on how I found out about them.

I made sure no one was following me before I descended down the old narrow stairs. Holding up the skirt of my dress, I took cautious steps until I reached the bottom of stone ground. Turning, I find a string that is attacked to a light above the low ceiling.

Once I pull, a dim light flickers on and I look ahead to find a row of cells on each side of the wall. My mouth parts in disbelief as I walk in the center, in case there is someone down here—someone not human—and smells me.

"Sam?" I whisper although I hear the booms of the music from the ballroom above us. "Sam, are you here?" I continue to walk deeper and deeper where the light is beginning to fade.

I pause to find a cell door open with a tray of food half eaten. No, not a tray but a plate from the ceremony. I look into the closure that is empty and mutter, "Sam?"

There's no response but something of stone that skips past my heels and stops in front of me. I slowly turn and stare at the black cell across from me. Inching closer, my heart hitched in my throat, I reach the cell bars.

The sound of my uneven breathing echos in the silence as I hope my eyes adjust to whatever is locked behind the closure.

An arm reaches out and is fast enough to scratch my collarbones with long, rigid nails. I yelp, stumbling back on my heels and falling onto my ass.

Karden's POV:

I jolt and press a hand on my chest. Aria's eyes glimmer to the side when I react urgently. Damien notices across the table and gives me a look. I quickly scan the room, but I don't find my mate the moment her yell shoots down our bond.

She must've slipped without me noticing.

Mavis's POV:

Gasping, there is a face, an ashy sick face pressed between the bars screaming and hissing—fangs peeled behind thin lips.

Black hair is curtained around the face, full of knots and grease—undone and dirty. I stare at the face, the hungry eyes and wide mouth aching for a taste of me, completely rabid.

Then she stops and blinks, nails running down the rustic bars with a gut-wrenching shriek.

"Mavis." She croaked and I swallowed down my fright and blinked back tears.

"Jenny?" I breathe, recognizing her soft, joyful face that is now drained of light and completely...dead.

There is a scurry of feet and coming down the stairs is Sam dressed in the clothes he arrived at my apartment in. He grabs my upper arm and pulls me up, but I can't stop staring at Jenny. She hasn't left the company...she vanished and was here all along.

The company sent her here to get a photo before becoming a—

"I'm getting you out of here." Sam says to me, but I try to pull away from him. Jenny snarls again, inhaling the blood that has ran down my chest and between the cleave of my breasts.

"No, I'm not leaving." I yank back and try to ask Jenny is she's okay or how long she's been in here for.

"Mavis! She let me out to leave but I couldn't leave you behind." He grabs my face and reels me back to his wide eyes. "Please Mavis, they aren't who you think they are. They have Jenny, she's been in here for months."

Then I believe him. I truly do.

How long has Karden known?

I nod, pushing down the bile in my throat.