Page 85 of Wicked Curses
She couldn’t stay in here with them.
“It sounds like it’s calming down,” an imp said.
“Always worse at night,” Gromuck grunted.
Sahira repressed a shudder; how could it get any worse than this?
She learned they had a week’s worth of supplies stashed in the library during her training. All the original buildings did.
But, no matter what, someone had to pay the ultimate price for this to end. Sahira tried not to think about that while she ignored the witches and warlock.
CHAPTERSIXTY-ONE
Orin proppedhis chin on his hand while studying the pub’s occupants. Most remained quiet while some played cards, and others talked amongst themselves.
A few were not taking the stress of being locked down and the looming possibility of death well. They paced and sweated while their hands trembled. Others talked more loudly than they should, with faster voices than normal.
One of them was Carmella as she paced back and forth behind the bar. Another was a vampire who kept rising, then sitting, then rising again, only to sit without stepping away from his chair.
The third, and the one who concerned him most, was a berserker whose eyes kept rolling around the room as he paced to the door, turned, and stomped back the way he’d come. Every inch of him emanated malice.
“How long has he been here?” Orin asked Belda.
“About twenty years.”
“Is he like this every time?”
“I don’t know. This is the first time I’ve had the misfortune of being in lockdown with him.”
“He looks about to explode. We might have to sacrifice him and shove him out the door.”
“He’s survived the last nineteen Reapings; he’ll survive this one.”
“I hope you’re right, but if he decides to do something stupid, I’m shoving him out the door.”
Belda scowled at him but didn’t protest his statement.
“I’m not the only one watching him,” Orin told her.
The berserker’s irritating behavior had drawn the attention of many of the fifty-plus immortals in the pub. A few watched his every move with a calculating gleam in their eyes.
“We’ll have a bigger problem if he starts a fight,” Orin said.
“Then why don’t you try to calm him down?”
“We both know I’m not the calming type. Besides, telling a berserker to relax would have the same effect as telling a woman to relax. I don’t like playing with explosives.”
And that was the kicker of it. If they tried to calm the berserker down, he’d most likely lose his shit, but if they kept letting him carry on like this, it could set off another immortal.
He had a feeling that, one way or another, things would get ugly.
* * *
Only a dim glowilluminated the edges of the windows and the main door. With the shutters closed, it was impossible to tell if it was day or night, but the dwindling glow around them revealed night was coming.
And Gromuck had said things get worse at night.
Sahira settled with her back against a bookcase and a spear in hand while others scattered around the room. They all kept their backs to the walls and focus on the door or the covered windows.
