Chapter 11
Plastering a hand over her breast, feeling the blood rushing back into her face, Evie moved her head from side to side. Remembering Lars just outside, she kept her voice low. “You startled me.”
Straight, white teeth flashed in the dimness. “Sorry.”
With one last deep breath, Evie moved forward. “How on earth did you manage to get in here without Lars seeing you?”
Ghost, dressed all in black, closed the doors behind him. “I have my ways,” he replied and glanced around. “Your room is much nicer than mine.” He reached out and touched a creamy white rose petal from an enormous arrangement beside the balcony. “Smells much nicer, too.”
Evie shook her head. “Never mind that, have you learned anything?”
With a shrug, he replied, “Only the location of the dungeon.”
It took her several seconds to digest those words. Then she stepped up to Ghost. “Well, where—” He held up his hand and glanced at something behind her. Evie turned to see the door creeping open.
Alice stepped into the room, her face pale and her lips spread thin into a grimace. She held up a stunning gown of deep wine red. “His lordship said to apologize for the wrinkles in your dresses. Evidently, the trunk fell when it was being brought inside and the clothes got tossed about. He said to give you this,” she held up the gown in her hand. “And that there will be more to come.”
Pursing her lips, Evie glanced behind her to get Ghost’s reaction. Seeing the balcony doors open and him gone, she shook her head and walked into the dressing room. Bending down, she examined the trunk and found no damage to the exterior. Not even a scratch.
Evie wasn’t surprised.
Alice entered the dressing room, still obviously shaken by the encounter with Lord Montague. Taking pity on the poor maid, Evie turned around. “After you unfasten this dress, go pour yourself a drink to settle your nerves. I won’t need you for a few minutes, anyway.”
Without a syllable of protest, the maid scurried out of the room and Evie removed her traveling clothes, but kept the silk purse with the vial and key around her waist. She would not take it off until the proper time. After a quick wash with the cool water in the pitcher, she stepped into the dark red gown. Alice returned, with more color in her cheeks, and handed her a small glass of sherry. “I thought you could use this.”
Smiling her thanks, Evie downed the drink, then set the glass aside. Her usually chatty maid spoke very little and worked quickly to have Evie ready before the first bell.
Just as Evie opened her mouth to question Alice about the people she saw, a knock sounded at the door. The maid yelped and dropped a ruby encrusted comb onto the rug. “Do not worry, Alice,” Evie said in a soothing voice as she scooped up the comb and placed it into her hair. “I will answer.”
As Evie opened the door to find a glaring Lars, she vowed to make Lord Montague pay for upsetting her poor maid. Then she smiled sweetly at the man. “Is it time for dinner already?”
“It is. Come.”
After retrieving Belle and Ghost, Lars led them down to the dining room, a long, rectangular room with three heavy chandeliers illuminating the massive wood carved table. One side of the room was taken up by a huge fireplace with grotesque gargoyles carved into the white and gray marble surrounding the opening. A roaring orange-gold fire eagerly ate away the split logs piled high on the grate. The room should have been warm, but a chill ran through Evie. She crossed her arms and swallowed when she realized the reason for her reaction. Lord Montague stood in the midst of a group of about a dozen men, watching her with an intensity that made her most uncomfortable.
Suddenly, this didn’t seem like such a good idea, after all. What could she have been thinking? Evie slowed her steps. Her mouth went dry and her heart pounded hard, heavy thuds in her chest. Thoughts jumbled and scattered in her head.
Lord Montague broke away from the group and came to stand before her. His thick lips parted in an unsettling smile that did not reach his eyes. “Good evening, my lady.” He placed heavy hands on her shoulders and leaned forward. “You are looking exceptionally lovely in that dress,” he said softly into her ear.
Before Evie could manage a reply, he turned and greeted the others. She recognized Mr. Taskers, Lord Sheffield, and Lord Wesley, but none of the others. Then Lord Montague took her by the arm and propelled her toward the men, making introductions to the men she did not know. Evie tried to concentrate on the names, but she had a difficult time focusing her erratic thoughts. Perhaps Belle would remember.
Lord Montague led her to the chair to his right and held it out for her. Evie sat and watched as footmen seated Belle and Ghost farther down the table. The evening passed by in a blur. She ate very little of her lamb, not liking the dish to start with, and took just three sips of her wine during the entire two-hour meal. Lord Montague noticed, of course, and snapped his fingers at a footman that Evie be brought a fresh glass.
After the baked custard and bread and butter pudding, Lord Montague assisted her to her feet. They walked into a room with portraits and tapestries, and he spoke of his ancestors along the walls. With a slight chill, Evie noticed they were alone. Lars must have escorted Belle and Ghost back to their rooms. She took a deep breath, her hand going to the silk purse beneath her dress.
One of the men from dinner, the older fellow with a bad limp, trundled into the room just as she was about to ask for some wine. The man gave a nod to Montague, then pulled aside the tapestry of a maiden on a horse. Evie saw a light flicker and realized there was an open door behind the tapestry. She shook her head as her mind wondered what was going on.
Following silently behind Lord Montague, she walked down a spiraling set of stone steps. The flickering light came from torches, and the passage was so narrow, Lord Montague had to walk with his shoulders tilted. The air smelled of mold and burning torch, and grew colder with each step down. Watching the torchlight glisten over the silver strands of Lord Montague’s hair, Evie wondered where he was taking her. The dungeon, perhaps? She had to see what would happen next, although she grew apprehensive about what it could be. Did Montague mean to have his way with her? But why take her down here, wherever here was. Did he learn something to alert him that she was a Guardian?
Evie swallowed, her mind scrambling for a plan in case something went wrong. She glanced behind her and remembered the man with the limp guarded the door at the top of the steps. Perhaps she could overpower him and get away. Perhaps.
When they reached the bottom, Evie noticed what looked like three cave-like openings had been carved out of a stone wall. Lord Montague reached for the nearest torch and lifted it from the iron ring that secured it to the wall. He turned and motioned with his free hand. “Come, this way,” he ordered, his words bouncing around the tall cave.
With a deep breath, Evie followed him through the middle opening. “What is this place?” she asked softly.
He chuckled. “The bowels of hell, my dear.”
Growing more uneasy by the minute, Evie was about to stop and turn back when she noticed light up ahead. She debated for another five steps until she decided to continue. Blade and Dragon had to be found soon and something told her she was close. Lifting her hand, she grazed the cold, rough stone and knew her instincts were telling her true.
Reaching the end of the tunnel, Evie stepped into the room and had to close her eyes momentarily against the light. She blinked and focused on the huge round cave spread out before her. Lit candles in various sizes and shapes flickered and burned on top of every rock that jutted out along the walls. White wax dripped down to the floor, signaling candles had been there a long time. Years, even.
Evie turned, startled to see Lord Montague shrugging into a long, black robe. Then he removed a silver necklace from his pocket and settled it around his neck. The pentagram glistened and Evie backed up a step, not liking anything about what was happening. He was supposed to be trying to seduce her. She would pour Amelia’s tonic into his wine. Then he would tell her everything she wanted to know.
This…whatever this was, she did not expect. Nor did she like.
He reached for the torch he had placed into a holder earlier and began to walk back toward the dark passage. “Come with me.”
Evie followed, thinking she would dart right up those steps and get the hell out of here. Yet when they reached the entrance at the bottom of the steps that led to the way out, the men from dinner were walking down, blocking her escape. Belle and Ghost were not with them.
“Come,” Lord Montague said, chapping a hand onto the top of her right arm, “this time, we enter here.” He nodded toward the left cave entrance.
With little choice, Evie moved alongside the man. This time, instead of revealing a dead-end, the passage widened into an opening with three more cave entrances. Montague walked into the one on the right. After another fifty steps, more cave entrances. This continued another four times and Evie struggled to remember the right combination. Just as the passage widened yet again and three more entrances came into view, Montague stopped and turned. The torchlight flickered in his eyes, giving him a creepy demonic appearance, as it glistened on the pentagram. “I should have warned you, my lady, that if you get lost, you will never find your way out.” He released her arm, leaned down and smiled. “People have died down here.”
Evie really hoped she didn’t look as scared as she felt. When he turned around and moved into the middle cave, she released her breath and followed after. Getting lost in a pitch-black cave was exactly something she would do, having no sense of direction whatever.
The passage widened out into a large semi-circular room, just like the one with all the candles. Except this one had very few candles burning along the walls and had a huge stone table rising up in the center. Evie shivered and crossed her arms.
“Cold?”
“No,” she lied, “I am just…”
Montague picked up the red material folded on the stone table and walked toward her. She held her breath as he draped the cloak around her shoulders and secured the brass button at her neck. “There, that will help.”
As he opened his mouth to speak again, a faint moan came from somewhere deeper in the cave, where no candles had been lit. Evie tried to focus on where the sound came from, but saw nothing but blackness. “What was that?” she whispered.
Montague placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her around. Evie swallowed when she realized she was squeezed in between his body and the stone table behind her. “Why am I here,” she asked softly, her gaze lowering to the pentagram swinging to and fro against the black wool. She was terrified of his answer, but lifted her gaze back to his. She had to know.
His smile was slow and calculating. “That is what I like about you, Evie, you have spirit.” He lifted his hand and traced a blunt-ended finger down her cheek. “You are also very beautiful.” The he leaned forward to whisper into her ear. “You will make a worthy sacrifice.”
“Wh-What?” she said faintly as she watched the cloaked men march into the room. They had their black hoods raised over their heads, each wearing the same silver pentagram. The dozen men circled the stone table and Evie thought she was going to be sick all over Lord Montague as he stepped back and raised his own hood.
“Brothers,” Montague said, “to remain protected and become even more powerful than before, we must have a worthy sacrifice. The better the sacrifice, the more powerful we become.”
The men murmured their agreement.
“What better sacrifice than one of the peer’s own virgins?”
Evie shuddered, wondering how she would get out of this horrible situation. Never had she thought of this as a possible outcome. Montague was supposed to want to be alone with her. She would then prepare him a drink, adding a few drops of Amelia’s serum, then learn everything about the Viper’s Nest. She had to know where Blade and Dragon were being kept. She had to seek her revenge for what they did to Jeremy. This wasn’t supposed to be happening.
The cheering men made her cringe. She saw no way out of the situation and slumped back against the stone until it bit into her back.
“There is one thing I need to do before we begin,” Montague said as the cheers died down, then he retrieved an iron key from his pocket.
Evie recognized the key and her heart began to pound. It matched the one in the silk purse still tied around her waist.
“Go retrieve the prisoners,” he instructed the two men to his right.
The men took a torch and walked to the shadowy back of the cave. Within the faint glow of the fire, Evie could see an iron cell and the two figures lying on the floor within the cramped space. The door screeched open and Montague’s men kicked the two inside to rouse them. When that failed, they used buckets of foul brackish water stationed outside the cell.
One of the prisoners groaned, while the other sputtered profanities. Then the men were hauled to their feet and brought forward. One limped while holding his ribs and the other cradled a bloody bandaged hand. Both had bruised faces, swollen eyes, split and bloody lips. There was no doubt in Evie’s mind who the men were: Blade and Dragon.
Montague motioned the men holding them to bring the prisoners closer. “You will answer this question truthfully or suffer.”
Since she had been informed Blade was the one that had a severed finger, Evie knew the one limping was Dragon. He shook his head, causing droplets of water to fall from his dark, curly hair. “Fuck off, you bastard.” Then he spat on the floor.
With a snarl, Montague marched around the stone table and punched the man in the stomach. Dragon doubled over, coughing. Satisfied, Montague turned to Blade. “Do you know who she is?”
Blade glanced over Montague’s head then back and shrugged. “Lady Evelyn Thornton.”
Montague shook his head. “No, I mean is she part of the Guardian organization?”
Evie kept her gasp firmly behind her lips. She didn’t move, didn’t dare to even breathe.
Scrunching his brows together, Blade glanced at her then back at Montague. “No, she isn’t.”
Of course, they wouldn’t know she had recently joined. They had been taken before her first meeting. Evie let her breath out slowly and forced her insides to quit trembling. Now, if she could just find a way for them to esc—.
The huge blast reverberated throughout the cave, causing dust and rock to rain down from the ceiling, and shook the ground. One of the torches fell from the wall and scuttled several feet across the dusty floor.
Montague let out an inhuman snarl then spoke to the men holding the prisoners. “Take them back to their cell.” He turned and nodded to the man beside Evie. “And throw her in there, too.”
“Don’t touch me,” Evie said and shook off the man’s hand. She calmly followed the men to the cell, then turned as the door slammed shut and the man locked them inside. The smell of urine and mold made her wish for a scented handkerchief, but Evie calmly waited for the last of Montague’s men to rush out of the cave. Then she counted to twenty before turning to the two men standing behind her. “Will you both be able to make it out of here?”
“Er, my lady?”
Evie smiled. “I am Falcon, Blade.” Then she turned and nodded to the shorter of the two. “Dragon. I’ve come to get you out of here.”
The two men exchanged startled glanced and she turned to the side to lift up her skirt and pull the key from the silk purse. Evie went to the door, put the key into the lock and gave it a twist. She smiled in satisfaction when the door groaned open, then she glanced over her shoulder. “Come, follow me.”
And as she took a step out of the cell, something strange shifted in the air around her, something familiar. Then a hand covered her mouth while an arm wrapped around her middle and brought her back up against a solid male chest. “You are full of surprises, pet.”