New York City, present day ― Zoricah, the draconian demigoddess, has limited time to uncover a series of killings before one of her own meets the same fate. With the help of her team of female warriors, she is determined not to let that happen, but...
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Romania, 1800
Tardieh realized he must have passed out because he could feel that the sun was in a different position now. It was almost sundown already.
Without opening his eyes, he unlocked his senses to his surroundings. It wasn't easy—he was weak, but he forced himself to stay calm. He first focused on the sounds around him; water dripping somewhere above him, someone breathing and a heart beating a few feet away. Just one heartbeat.
They had left only one razbianto guard him; they must have thought he was very weak. Not that they were wrong. He had lost a lot of blood, and his body ached all over.
Breathe, breathe,he thought, and decided to open his eyes just a fraction. He didn't want the guard to know he had awakened. The first thing he noticed was the dancing shadows on the walls, cast by the dim light of a single candle placed on the ceiling.
On the ceiling?
No, Tardieh realized, the candle was on the floor. He was the one on the ceiling—hung upside down. The dripping sound wasn't water either; it was his own blood dribbling onto the floor. He was suspended by his ankles with thick silver chains; his hands bound behind him in the same fashion. His head throbbed from being upside down for so long.
Inhale, exhale.
The smell of piss, excrement and something else, something worse, assaulted his olfactory receptors. Fear. He could smell the fear of previous prisoners who had suffered in that room before him. Their terror had been so tangible it had tainted the air, the walls, the floor.
"So yer awake, then."
The razbian guard stood up and placed himself in front of Tardieh. He could see the guard's sharp blackened teeth and smell his putrid breath.
"We thought yeh was gone. But yer a mulish one, ain't ya?"
The razbian was of average height, much smaller than a draco or a vampire, but one would consider him bulky. The green leathery skin and bulging wide-set yellow eyes—characteristic of his kind—were the only things preventing them from walking among humans like vampires and dracos did. Thank Apa Dobrý for that, otherwise the pricks would have turned the world upside down by now.
Tardieh felt the air shift around his face before the blow hit him. He was so weak he didn't even try to duck or defy the guard. All he could do was close his eyes and welcome the pain. The bastard's high-pitched laugh struck him like déjà vu. How long had he been in this piss-smelling prison?
Another blow. This one hit his stomach with such force that Tardieh's body swung back and forth, like meat in a slaughterhouse.
"Hey, I'm talkin' ter ye!"
More of the high-pitched laughter.
Tardieh tried to speak, but couldn't make the words come out. He tried again. "Water."
