I do indeed like it, he told her, even if she couldn’t hear him. He examined the flat object, about half the size of his palm, before eventually extracting a long, thin tool. Seven minutes later, he’d taken apart the ancient lock, and pulled open the door to his cell. Like the cellar back home, the room he emerged into was dimly lit, this time, by a globe overhead.
“Bulb, not globe,” he corrected himself, remembering that Io had called the object that made light out of nothing a bulb. This bulb was hung somewhat haphazardly on a cord that wove drunkenly down the ceiling, disappearing into the wall at the far end.
He glanced around, noting the narrow passage lined with numerous doors. There was no one in sight, and unable to resist the desire to know what was in the nearest room, he tried the door. It was locked. As was the one next to it, and on down the passage. Nikola walked to the end where his own cell had been, pulled out the tiny screwdriver, and went to work on the lock of nearest door. It was a bit more rusted than his had been, but after a few minutes’ work, he was able to open the door.
The air that swirled out to cover him was fetid, rank with the odor of unwashed bodies, and blood. His nose wrinkled with the scent of rotting animal flesh at the same moment that whatever was within the cell realized he was at the door. An inhuman howl of rage rent the air, and another swish of air warned of the swift movement within. Nikola just had time to see a pair of burning black eyes beneath a matted, filthy mass of hair before he slammed the door shut again, hastily twisting the lock so that it caught into the teeth of the mechanism. A second howl followed the slam of a large body against the solid door. Nikola quickly screwed the faceplate back onto the lock, the memory of those insane, burning eyes giving him pause.
“If they captured me, they must have done likewise to Io,” he said softly, and went to the next door, carefully stripping the lock down to where he could open it. He cracked the door just enough to catch a whiff of the air contained within, found it just as abominable as the last one, and had the door closed and locked before the occupant even knew he was there.
Three more such rooms followed before he came to one that didn’t bear the odor of animalistic, violent humans.
He peered cautiously into it, opening the door a little wider when the air smelled nothing worse than a little musty. A figure lay curled up in the corner, but it wasn’t the figure of a man. It was a large, cinnamon-colored lion, and it stood up slowly, its eyes wary as Nikola glanced around its cell.
“You wouldn’t happen to be named David, would you?” he asked.
The lion blinked at him for a few seconds; then its entire body seemed to shudder and ripple before changing into that of a nude man. “It’s Daffyd, actually, but everyone calls me David. Are you one of de Marco’s men?”
“Do you have clothing? Your nudity does not disturb me, but I would not like Io to be exposed to it.”
“Er…” The man stepped back to where a pile of clothing sat in the corner. “Io?”
“Yes. She is my woman. She is highly sensitive, and would not care to see you without clothing. In your human form, that is. I believe she would greatly enjoy seeing your lion form. It is true she has stated that she takes much pleasure in seeing me without clothing, but I cannot believe that to see others would be at all pleasing to her. You must be a therion. My son mentioned you to me. He did not, however, say that you would be sans clothing. Ah. That is better. Do you know where Io is?”
“No, I don’t.” David had a slight Welsh accent.
Nikola studied him, this man his son had chosen for a blood brother. He was still somewhat disturbed that Benedikt and Imogen could believe him capable of severing all ties with them, his beloved children, and he felt instinctively that Benedikt, for whatever reason, had felt the loss of a father more than Imogen. He badly wanted to know what sort of a man his son had turned out to be, so logically, he must look to the people with whom he had surrounded himself.
But that could wait until he found Io and reassured himself that she was not harmed. “I must find her. You may accompany me if you desire. I realize that my son seeks your freedom, but Io’s safety must come first.”
“Yes, if she is your woman, then I imagine it must,” David replied with a little amusement in his eyes. “I will accompany you, although I don’t quite understand just who you are.”
“I am Nikola Czerny.” He turned on his heel and left the cell, moving to the last three doors.
“Czerny? Are you related to Benedikt?”
“He is my son.” The next cell smelled worse than a privy. Nikola hastily closed the door and turned to the second-to-last door.
“Ferals. What a tragedy. They are long past saving. I thought you were dead,” David said, peering over Nikola’s shoulder as he unbolted the lock. “Ben said something once about you not being around anymore.”
“That was the incorrect past, according to Io.” He exhaled in relief when a familiar scent caught his nose as he opened the door a crack. The air smelled of warm, sleepy woman, his warm, sleepy woman, one who was lying on her side with her back to the door. “Io! Are you injured?”
She didn’t appear to be. He rushed to her side, quickly making an examination of her body parts. Arms and legs appeared to be untouched, as was her face. In fact, she appeared to be doing nothing more sinister than taking a nap.
“Sweetling, wake up.”
She didn’t seem to want to. He scooped her up and rose, a need to get her to safety overriding his curiosity about where they had been taken, and who was behind their abduction.
“Is she all right?” David asked, following when he strode back down the long, narrow corridor.
“I assume so, since there are no markings.”
“Did de Marco capture you, too?”
“I am not sure. There was a man with a slight lisp and some sort of bulky firearm that Io said was a Teaser, but we were tracking my brother when we found him, so it not clear to me who is responsible for—can you hold her for me, please?”
David looked surprised as Nikola thrust Io’s warm, supple body into his arms. Nikola hesitated a moment, giving the younger man a good, stern look. “You will not enjoy the warmth of her body against yours. You will not admire her satiny freckled skin. You will not desire to touch her breasts and thighs and other parts. She is my woman.”
The therion had the cheek to grin. “You really have it bad. Like father, like son, eh?”
“Io is not like my daughter-by-marriage. She does not perch on the side of my chair and ruffle her hand through my hair. She does, however, sit on my lap, which pleases me more. If you would stand a little out of the light of the bulb, I will disassemble this lock and we shall free ourselves.”
The lock of the door to the corridor was just as old as the cell doors, and it was only a matter of a minute before he reclaimed the still sleeping Io, and followed David up a narrow flight of wooden stairs.
Right into a room containing two surprised-looking people seated around a long table dotted with food and drink.
Nikola took one look at the occupants of the room, and gave David Io’s delicious form again. “Would you mind holding her once more?”
“Actually, I would. I have a score to settle with that man,” David said, handing her back, his voice rough with emotion and his eyes glittering with an unholy light.
“What the deuce are you doing up here?” Rolf, who had been stuffing his face with a turkey leg, sputtered bits of greasy turkey skin and flesh as he shoved back his chair and leaped to his feet. “How did you get out of the cell? Damn me, man, you told me he wouldn’t be able to get out!”
The lisping man who had incapacitated them rose to his feet, as well, but it was David he was staring in horror at, not Rolf. David’s body did that rippling, shifting motion that resulted in him stalking forward in lion form.
“Did you see that, sweetling?” Nikola asked Io, shaking her slightly in case she was on the verge of waking up. “It’s fascinating. I must make a comprehensive study of how it’s done. You can assist me.”
“Dammit, Nikola, I demand to know how you got free!” Rolf set down his turkey leg and advanced, his narrow eyes now only little slits in a face that Nikola was shocked to realize was filled with malice.
He looked for somewhere safe where he could set down Io, but at that moment, she stirred.
“Hrang?” she asked, blinking her eyes and frowning as she tried to focus on him. She lifted a hand and poked him in the cheek. “Nia?”
“Yes, sweetling, it’s me. Sit here while I deal with my brother.” He placed her in a chair and turned to Rolf, who had snatched up a long carving knife and was advancing upon him.
A soft, slithering noise behind him had him whirling back to Io just in time to see her fall off the chair and land face-first onto the floor. She lifted her head slightly, and said in a voice thick with befuddlement, “Ow. Nikla?”
“Stay there, my love,” he commanded, turning back to face his brother. “Rolf, I am disappointed in you. If Mother were alive, you would have broken her heart.”
Rolf froze, fury overtaking his expression of malice. “How dare you mention her!”
A scream echoed from the far end of the room where David the lion had pounced on the lisping man.
“Do not kill him yet,” Nikola called to David as the lion began savaging the man now crawling on the floor and babbling for mercy. “He conducted an act of Teasing against Io, and thus I must exact my revenge on him, as well.”
“Taser,” Io said thickly. “That was it. That precious guy had a Taser. Gonna whack him on the kneecaps with it.”
“You were the one who brought her endless grief,” Rolf yelled, gesturing with the knife. “If you had died like you were supposed to do, she would have gotten over it. But no, you had to bargain with that demon lord to make you immortal, and she worried herself into her grave over what happened to you.”
Nikola stared in stark surprise at his brother, ignoring the sounds behind him of muttered swearing and a chair scraping as if someone was using it to pull her still-dazed self to her feet. Do not harm yourself, sweetling. I will be able to assist you just as soon as I’ve dealt with Rolf.