Page 76 of Bad Medicine

In the end, I walked away fromthe throne room with the bracelet on my arm. The huge doors clanked shut behindme with a sound of finality I didn’t like.

The two vampires who’d escortedme in stepped away from the wall. “This way,” one of them said.

I adjusted the strap of themoney-filled bag and was just about to turn away when I heard something comingfrom deep in the building—something I’d heard the last time I was there, aswell.

But this time…

I narrowed my eyes and turnedto face away from the vampires. “Was that a fuckingdogI just heard?”The sound came again, and I honestly couldn’t tell if it were an animal or aperson. A yelp, quick and somehow weak, despite the fact that the sound reachedmy ears. Wolves had exceptional hearing, and the sounds within these vast,echoing walls would carry. “That had better not be a fucking dog.”

“Come with us,” my escort said,firmly but with absolutely no emotion.

I cracked my neck, then my knuckles.“I’m not going anywhere with you until you answer my question.”

“It’s not a dog,” the other onesaid, exasperation in his voice. “It’s a prisoner, and it is none of yourbusiness. You will come with us.Now.”

But I was tuned into theprisoner, and when she screamed, I felt it to my toes. My stomach tightened,and rage, as unexpected as it was welcome, rushed through me. My wolf growled,and the two vampires looked at each other, then back at me.

I could see the exact secondthey prepared themselves to leap at me, so I leaped first. They were strong,but I was stronger. Even in my human form, I was still a wolf, and they had nochance against me…or my demon blade.

I left them lying on the marblefloor, blood and…other things spread around them. Maybe they’d heal. Maybe theywouldn’t. But it had been a fair fight and they were vampires. I had absolutelyno compunction about killing them.

Then I ran down hallway afterhallway, following the sound of agony. No, that wasn’t entirely true. I wasfollowing thefeelof agony.

Three more vampires tried tostop me, and with a sense of urgency running through me, I was only furtherenraged.

Finally, I found the person towhom that awful, agonized voice belonged. I slammed through the double doors ofthe room in which they were being held, only to find my way blocked by half adozen bloody—and busy—vampires.

“What the hell is up with allthe vampires?” I asked, and had no time to see who was lying on a table, nakedand savaged, before the vampires were upon me. I knew they were not going tokill me, and they knew it, as well. I was the hand of the council. If theykilled me, they would have faced something a lot worse than a wolf.

They were hobbled by theircouncil, and that was why I was able to fight six vampires at once and killevery single one of the motherfuckers. They could not subdue me, not while Iwas flying high on rage and eager to end a blood-sucking, once-dead, parasiticmonster.

When they lay scattered aroundme, I finally saw the victim and her tormenter.

“Kait,” Lilah said, dressedonly in blood, “why are you here?”

I remembered once calling Lilah“sweet,” and my alpha’s longsuffering and disbelieving reaction. I understoodthat reaction now.

Lilah stood at the only tablein the large room, a blade in one hand and something that looked like a silverpie server in the other. Her face was nearly unrecognizable with her mask ofblood, but I did recognize her.

She should have been afraid.There was no one else in the room, only the two of us and the victim, and she’djust watched me kill six vampires. Still, she showed only a mild curiosity anda not-so-mild impatience to get back to her gory work.

Without taking my stare fromhers, I pointed at the table. “I’m here to stop the torture.”

She lifted the grisly pieserver and licked it, pausing when I gagged. Lilah Rose was not altogethersane. “I’m working,” she told me. “This prisoner is one of the many keys todiscovering the secret of the daywalkers. Go home, Kait. We will call upon youwhen we need you.” And she actually turned back to the table, as though shethought I was seriously going to just walk away and leave her to her “work.”

I slid through blood, nearlyfalling, as I hurried to the table. I stared down at the victim, and it wasn’tuntil she opened her eyes and moaned that I realized who she was.

Farrow.

Bastien’s Farrow, the girlwho’d been turned from vampire to daywalker. They’d forced Bastien to turn herover to them, but they hadn’t wanted her so they could destroy a daywalker.They’d wanted to study her, to try to find the magic that would give them thesecret to becoming a vampire who could walk in the sun.

And Lilah wanted to tortureher.

“Bastards,” I whispered, fullof tears and horror. It didn’t matter that I didn’t like vampires. It didn’tmatter at all.

I looked at Lilah. “If youdon’t want to die here tonight, walk away. I will give you one chance.”

Honestly, I didn’t want tofight her. Lilah was different than the vampires I’d killed. I wasn’t sure whatshe was, but even if she couldn’t have defeated me, she could have delayed me.She could have caused complications with the council, and I was going to be inenough trouble as it was.