Page 48 of Bent Out of Shade
“Hurry up,” Yoshi said.
We bypassed the regular dungeon for the narrow, windowless prison housing the demon, and he nudged me through the gap that was the sole way into the cell.
I peered into the gloom and my mouth fell open.
The space had been transformed. A thick carpet covered the center of the floor, and tapestries hung on two of the walls to hide much of the iron coating and dispel the damp cold. Soft orbs of light stretched across the ceiling, providing enough illumination to read the books piled in one corner next to the heap of large cushions and knit blankets.
Not quite as cozy were the scattered bones that were too large and curved to belong to a human. The one closest to me had a blob of glistening pink meat stuck to one end, but otherwise had been gnawed clean by something with very sharp teeth.
I swallowed and took a step back. “I’m mostly fat,” I protested. “You really want a high protein source. May I suggest a nice bodybuilder?”
“What are you going on about now, Ms. Feldman? No, never mind.” There was no threat in Zev’s voice, merely impatience. The vampire rested on his calves in the middle of the carpet in jeans and a T-shirt that stretched across his broad shoulders and hugged his biceps.
The simplicity of his outfit hammered home the vampire’s raw power. Somehow, the less clothing he wore, the fewer layers of civility masked his core primal nature. His expensive suits were as much a cloak as my black invisibility mesh.
Zev cradled the estrie in his arms but he was by no means embracing her. He brushed her hair away from her face and pressed a ceramic mug—that I recognized as one of Jude’s—with what had to be blood to the demon’s lips, encouraging her to sip from it.
That did not make it less weird. Nor would I have gotten within biting range of the demon even if I were Zev.
“She likes gift cards,” Yoshi said from the entrance.
I whipped around. “The estrie?”
Did they want me to go out and buy the demon a spa day?
Yoshi pressed his lips together like he was holding in a laugh. “You. For your role in my recovery.”
I snorted. Right, nice cover for my real gift of the heads-up for Eli. I crossed my arms, about to demand the reason for this jail time, when Kian snapped her head toward me, her ancient primal sentience boring into the deepest parts of me, and my brain stuttered.
Her gaze was as sharp as her teeth. It was a promise that she would sever my soul from my flesh, my flesh from my bones, and crush any memory of me to dust.
A bead of icy sweat ran down my back.
“Society has become woefully impersonal.” Zev pressed another sip on his maker, unaware or uninterested that I was choked with fear and not contributing to the conversation.
I punched my way through the terror Kian inspired by latching on to facts. Yoshi wouldn’t have warned me about Eli if I was being fed to the lions, and Zev wouldn’t be droning on about the ills of society if he was going to kill me. Okay, well, he’d totally pull an evil monologue, but it would be more targeted.
The estrie blinked, and I took a deep breath. Now that she’d stopped staring at me, I could take her in properly.
Kian looked deathly pale—undeathly pale? Worse than she should. Being held captive with all the iron in here was taking its toll on the demon, but she was clean, and the rags she’d been dressed in when I brought her out of Gehenna had been exchanged for a long dress in a soft-looking material. Her hair was free of snarls, and on her feet was a pair of slippers that appeared to have been knit by someone’s grandmother.
Slowly, I wrangled my breathing under control.
“I remember when people selected a gift perfectly tailored to the recipient and that person was delighted to receive it,” Zev said. “Now people are happy with cash to a generic store. No wonder humans are in such a state. Basic civility is a thing of the past.”
Civility? I barely bit down my scorn that he could dress this cell up all he wanted, but he still held his sire captive in a prison designed to cause her to suffer and render her too weak to escape.
“Need anything else?” Yoshi said.
BatKian shook his head. “That’s all for now. Thank you, my friend.”
“I look forward to my gift card,” I said.
Yoshi smirked and left.
The estrie reached out for the mug but Zev shook his head. His response was too quiet to hear, but he lay a hand on her cheek and her pinched expression eased.
“Yoshi filled you in on Esposito’s little edict about turning humans?” Zev selected a small metal device from a leather sleeve on the carpet. I couldn’t see it properly from my angle, but it seemed rather tooth-extractiony in nature.
