The Mating Rules

Hadley’s POV

Two days, it’s been two days since Zenith and I bantered about getting out of here. What started as a laughable conversation of dreams turned into a faint hope of maybe breaking out of this hell hole.

I grope around on the floor, my fingers closing around the plastic bottle and I pick it up, pulling off the top as my canines slice my own skin an I drip b***d slowly down the neck to join what I’ve already managed to save.

It’s taken time, even without Hunter, my skin heals quick and I can’t risk losing too much b***d as though they are feeding me, it’s still not anywhere near what I would normally eat so I am still weakening slowly.

A g***n from across from me has me stilling, the downside of what I’m doing is that Zenith can smell my b***d and he has to fight every single time I take the lid off not to give into his b***d l**t.

‘It’s about half full’ I mutter, popping the cap back in place and cutting off the scent, ‘is that enough?’

A hiss is the only response I get, and my head drops back against the bars in defeat, there is no talking to the Vampire right now, he needs to come round again. I’m worried though, we have no idea how long it will be before they come to take Zenith away, so if we are going to attempt this escape we need to do it soon.

The door at the end of the corridor creaks and I quickly back away from the bars, shoving the half full bottle behind me as I kick over my tray toward the opening. I’ve already had my wolfsbane shot this morning so I’m hoping they are just coming back to pick up my tray, not here to take Zenith.

I’ve been lying on the floor face down each time the guards have come in to inject me, they were wary at first, thinking I was going to attack them, but really it was so I could hide the bottle of b***d underneath me whilst giving the impression that I was indeed weakening from lack of food and the wolfsbane on my system.

‘Prisoner!’ the deep voice of the guard hollers through the darkness as a torch turns on and swings over to light up Zenith’s gaunt face as he hisses in pain and tries to shield his eyes. ‘Time to go Vamp’ the guard adds, and I can hear the smirk crawling across the man’s face, he’s enjoying watching the Vampire shy away from him.

‘Hands out Vamp’ the guard orders, waiting for Zenith to stick both hands through the small gap in the bars before clamping cuffs on his paper white skin.

‘Where are you taking him?’ I demand, shuffling forward and grabbing the bars with one hand, the other behind me, holding tightly to the bottle.

‘Shut up prisoner’ the guard snarls, ‘this is nothing to do with you, worry about your own sentence.’

‘He’s my friend, so it does concern me’ I reply angrily, standing up as the guard unlocks Zenith’s door and grabs his cuffs, dragging him out of his cell, the Vampire stumbling weakly putting up no fight.

‘Hey!’ I call out again, ‘what, are you scared of me? Why won’t you tell me where you are taking him?’

The guard flinches but ignores me, shutting the cell door with a clang and tugging on Zenith’s wrists to get him moving.

‘Hey!’ I yell louder, ‘chicken sh*t, am I that scary? Is the big bad guard nervous of the drugged up wolf? What, you won’t come over here without your friends to back you up?’

The guard spins around, letting go of Zenith and storming over to me, his light in my eyes as I pull out the bottle and throw it blindly through the bars toward what I hope is my Vampire friend.

‘Zen! Catch!’ I scream, shielding my eyes from the torch and hoping to the Goddess that I hit my mark. What feels like a thousand hours, there is silence but I doubt it was more than a couple of seconds where the guard stood dumbly between us, unsure what was happening.

Suddenly a feral growl echoes around the room before the high pitched scream of the guard and the ripping of flesh reaches me. The torch has skidded across the floor toward the other end of the cells, the light pointing away from me so I can’t see anything.

‘Zenith?’ I call out, ‘Zen? Can you hear me?’

A shuffling of feet and deep panting breaths is my response as someone drags themselves further down the corridor and slowly raises the torch.

Heading back my way, I ball up my fists, readying myself for a fight. I may be chained to the floor but I’m not going down without a fight and the guard is surely injured if it’s him.

The light shines through the bars as I cover my eyes with my arm before there is a sound of a key turning, and my cell door creaks open.

‘Well?’ comes the vampire’s amused voice, ‘are you coming?’

I drop my arm, squinting against the brightness until Zenith’s face comes into view. B***d is trickling down the side of his mouth and his tongue flicks out to lick it as he grins at me.

‘The guard?’ I ask uncertainly.

‘Your b***d gave me my strength’ the Vampire replies, ‘but I’ll never turn down a free meal when it’s offered.’

My eyes grow accustomed to the light and I look down at my ankle that is still chained to the floor. Crouching down, I pull at the metal with everything I’ve got, growling in annoyance when it doesn’t even move.

The vampire opens the door to my cell, moving around me and squatting down by my leg, studying the lock before trying each of the keys on the keyring he must have taken from the dead guard until he finally finds one that fits and unlocks it, dropping the cuff to the ground.

I bend down and rub my ankle that’s raw from contact with the silver before straightening up and looking over at my fellow prisoner. ‘What now?’ I ask quietly, suddenly a little nervous with a full strength Vampire beside me.

‘Now’ Zenith replies, a spark of excitement in his eyes, ‘we go and have some fun.’

Without waiting for me, the Vamp stalks out of my cell, leaving the door open for me to follow which, after a moment of hesitation, I do. We make our way to the door, Zenith fumbling with the keys and sliding each into the lock one after another until he finds the right one and turns it slowly until we hear the unmistakable sound of a lock opening.

Giving me a grin in the torch light, the Vampire winks as he opens the door and barges through, me hot on his heels as we push through the gap into a well lit corridor.

Surprisingly, the whole passageway is empty, just stark white walls and a concrete floor welcomes us. I do a quick sweep of the ceiling, looking for cameras but find none. This is weird, how are their no security here? It’s a prison, the whole place should be swarming with guards and where the heck are the other prisoners? There are no doors leading off the corridor that I can see, its just one long tunnel leading to a windowless door at the other end.

‘Zen’ I murmur, ‘where the hell are we? Where is everyone?’

The Vampire’s mouth curls up into a dangerous grin, ‘we’re in the seventh depth of hell my friend’ he replies with a chuckle, ‘and we are about to claw our way out.’ He looks at me, eyebrow raised, ‘are you ready to send these bastards back to the fire pits where they came from my friend? You can still turn back, go into your cell and shut the door, I won’t think worse of you, you owe me nothing.’

I shake my head, straightening up, ‘I’m with you’ I reply rolling my shoulders and preparing for a battle ahead.

The other man nods approvingly, ‘lets go then, and Hadley?’ he adds, halting me as I’m about to step forward.

‘Yes?’ I ask in surprise.

The Vampire sighs, ‘you really are a good friend’ he mutters, ‘I’ve never had someone accept me like that, especially not a wolf but you did and I . . well, thank you.’

I nod quickly, acknowledging his words before facing forward again and taking a deep breath, readying myself.

We move quickly toward the far end of the corridor, wary of the fact that the door could open at any time from the other side, fully expecting a slew of guards to suddenly appear and try to take us down.

Surprisingly, we reach the door without incident and I hover near Zenith’s elbow as he works his way through the keys again, trying to find the right one for the lock. A small voice at the back of my head is warning me, pointing out that this is going to be easy, that a real prison would have biometric locks or someone in a secure room that opens each door remotely. We wouldn’t just have one guy with keys.

I have to push the nagging aside as, with a muted whoop, Zenith unlocks the door and places his hand on the handle, glancing over at me expectantly.

‘Ready?’ he asks quietly, watching me closely.

I clench my fists at my sides, am I ready? The vision of Jamie-Lee’s face, tears pouring down her cheeks as she screams my name, clawing at Caden to get to me as he tries to hold her back, fills my mind. I blink a few times, bringing the Vampire into view again, and nod curtly.

‘Yeah’ I reply with determination, ‘I’m ready, let’s go and cause some havoc.’

The Vampire’s smile widens as he nods back at me, ‘hell yeah’ he agrees and pushes down the handle, swinging the door wide and we barrel through, ready for a fight.