- Bridget -

I sat alone in silence, hugging my knees on the bed of straw. My skin began to return to its normal color, the bruising fading.

I watched the guards patrol outside my cell. There were at least two of them on duty at any given time. Occasionally I could hear the crying and whimpering of other prisoners echoing down the hall.

One of the guards brought me some food. A plate of unidentifiable brown slop. I didn’t bother eating. I wasn’t hungry. I didn’t need to eat anyway. Given how unappetizing that “food” looked, maybe I’d never feel like eating.

After a while, I noticed a shadow moving outside my cell. The shadow slipped between the bars and suddenly Stacy was standing right in front of me, an apprehensive look on her face.

“Stacy!?” I gasped in surprise, and she shushed me.

“I’m going to get you out of here,” she whispered.

- Stacy -

I used a combination of shadow meld to stay out of sight and mist form to slip into Bridget’s cell.

The trouble now was getting out. I couldn’t turn others into mist, only myself. So I would have to break the iron bars. I was strong enough to do it. When vampires were put down here Dagon usually drained their blood to weaken them, but I made sure to fill up on Priscilla and Leslie’s blood before coming down here. The problem was the sound it would make. I wanted to avoid alerting the guards, we needed to get as far away as possible before anyone noticed Bridget was gone. So the best option would be to take them out.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Pretend you didn’t see me here,” I told Bridget. “I’m going to wait for the next guard to come down here and take him out.”

“You’re going to kill him?” she asked.

“No, just neutralize him.”

I melded into the shadows and hid in the corner of Bridget’s cell. Bridget continued staring at me, and I tossed a glare her way. She got the message, and looked away. As long as I was melded in the shadows I couldn’t be seen as long as nobody looked directly at me. If Bridget was looking at me and the guard got curious what she was looking at, he might spot me.

As the guard passed the cell, I slipped through the bars with mist form then thrust my arm through his chest, destroying his heart. He instantly fell unconscious, and would remain that way until his heart could regenerate. Piercing the heart was the best way to neutralize a vampire. These guards had mid-level regeneration though, so it wouldn’t be long until they were back up. I had to move fast and neutralize the other guard so we could get going. I saw him down the hall with his back to me. I rushed down the hall with shadow meld active. He must have heard my footsteps approaching because he spun around, but it was too late. I thrust my arm through his chest, and he fell to the ground.

A prisoner in a nearby cell screamed as she witnessed the act. That sound would carry, but it was normal for the prisoners down her to make noise. Hopefully nobody would think to investigate.

I rushed back to Bridget’s cell and pushed the bars aside. Bridget hurried to my side and I wrapped my spare cloak around her, the same one I had given her days ago.

“Keep your hood up and your head down,” I told her. “We don’t want anyone seeing your face.”

She nodded, and we hurried out of the dungeon.