Another handful rushed in two minutes later, and I fought side by side with Odhran, hearing the vampires growling and hissing, the Lycans snapping and howling.
When bodies were littering the ground and we stepped over them, the hallway forked off again, and I sent the rest of our crew one way, and Odhran and I went the other direction.
We stayed quiet as he scanned every room we passed, but soon that silence faded as we heard multiple noises. Growls, shouts, curses, and a hell of a lot of inhuman sounds came from behind a pair of metal double doors up ahead. I gave Odhran one look before I spotted a keypad beside the entrance, stopped in front of it, and brought my fist down so hard the mechanism crushed beneath the force and shattered into pieces.
There was a loud chirp, a flash of flickering lights, and then the red light above the double doors clicked off. Odhran slammed his boot into the center, sending the doors flying inward.
We both stepped inside and promptly stopped at the scene before us. Cells upon cells lined either side of us, and within those cells were Otherworld creatures. They shouted and roared out, the males slamming their bodies against the bars, and a few were whimpering or crying.
“Holy fooking shite.”
“Yeah,” I said and looked in the first cell, only seeing a pair of glowing red eyes staring back at me. “That about sums it up, wolf.”
I kept staring into those red eyes, ones that were pretty high up and letting me know whatever Otherworld asshole was in there was one big fucker.
Facing the cell, I took a step closer just as the creature did the same.
“We need tae fooking go, vampire,” Odhran said low and hesitantly.
Yeah, we did, and as I was about to turn and do just that, the male with the red eyes behind the bars came into the light and wrapped his hands around the bars. I could see his forearms flexing, could feel the otherworldly magic pulsating throughout this entire room.
There was no doubt in my mind that the only reason none of these creatures were able to get out of these cells was because the bars were mystically protected. And that big, horned, and fanged bastard was able to hang onto the bars as if he was getting a massage.
I knew what he was. I’d seen his kind once in my life. I’ve seen him.
He was called a Diablos.
I’d barely come into adulthood when I heard of a beast terrorizing a small village. Of course, the fiend in me wanted a front-row seat.
And oh what beautiful carnage I’d witnessed.
He was the only creature in the Otherworld that didn’t have a life expectancy and was rumored to be immortal. He was a big bastard, taller than seven feet, with horns curving up and back around his head, fangs that went past his bottom lip, and scars that littered his entire chest.
“Shit, man. You got a face only a mother could love.”
He bared his teeth in a grisly display of a macabre grin. He leaned in close to the metal and said in a low, distorted voice, “Why don’t you let me out of here and say that without these bars between us.”
Kayla. I have to get to her.
“We have to get the fook going!” Odhran shouted, and I was by him a second later, lifting my arm and giving the Diablos my middle finger.
We made our way past the cells, the creatures trying to get at us, swiping claws through bars, growling, roaring, and some continuously throwing their big bodies against the metal.
There were Lycans and vampires, demons, and even an Angelis species. I spotted a handful of shifters—dragon and bears—some phoenixes, and also a variety of nymphs. I noticed Odhran stopped at the cells of the latter, this frantic look on his face before he moved onto the next.
I followed, watching closely, seeing Otherworld creatures from the Katara Faction mixed within.
“A fucking zoo they got here,” I muttered under my breath.
We busted through another set of doors once the cell block ended, and I instantly felt the hum of Kayla’s blood move through me. I picked up my pace, the need to get to her so fucking strong I could taste it. I followed the call of her blood inside me and turned left, right, right, then one more left. I didn’t know if Odhran was following, didn’t even care.
Get to her. Get to her. Get to her.
And then I rounded the corner and stopped. Fucking froze.
Standing twenty feet from me was Kayla, her eyes wide in fear, her lips pursed as tears tracked down her cheeks, and her body slightly shook. And behind her was James, that fucking traitor, holding a knife to her jugular. His focus was clear and steady, malice pouring from him like black tentacles.