Lord of Misrule by Rachel Caine Read Free Book Online

and ensure your escape route. Claire.” Her pale eyes fixed on Claire with merciless intensity. “Whatever else happens, you must bring Myrnin out safely. Do you understand? Do not let Bishop have him.”
    She meant, Everybody else is expendable. That made Claire feel sick, and she couldn’t help but look at Hannah, and even at the two vampires. Gérard shrugged, so slightly she thought it might have been her imagination.
    “We are soldiers,” Gérard said. “Yes?”
    Hannah smiled. “Damn straight.”
    “Excellent. You will follow my orders.”
    Hannah saluted him, with just a little trace of irony. “Yes sir, squad leader, sir.”
    Gérard turned his attention to Claire. “You will stay behind us. Do you understand?”
    She nodded. She felt cold and hot at the same time, and a little sick, and the wooden stake in her hand didn’t seem like a heck of a lot, considering. But she didn’t have any time for second thoughts, because Gérard had turned and was already heading down the hall, his wing man flanking him, and Hannah was beckoning Claire to follow.
    Amelie’s cool fingers brushed her shoulder. “Careful.”
    Claire nodded and went to rescue a crazy vampire from an evil one.
     
    The door shattered under Gérard’s kick. That wasn’t an exaggeration; except for the wood around the door hinges, the rest of it broke into hand-sized pieces and splinters. Before that rain of wreckage hit the floor, Gérard was inside, moving to the left while his colleague went right. Hannah stepped in and swept the room from one side to the other, holding her air pistol ready to fire, then nodded sharply to Claire.
    Myrnin was just as she’d seen him in the picture—kneeling in the center of the room, anchored by tight-stretched silvery chains. The chains were double-strength, and threaded through massive steel bolts on the stone floor.
    He was shaking all over, and where the chains touched him, he had welts and burns.
    Gérard swore softly under his breath and fiercely kicked the eyebolts in the floor. They bent, but didn’t break.
    Myrnin finally raised his head, and beneath the mass of sweaty dark hair, Claire saw wild dark eyes, and a smile that made her stomach twist.
    “I knew you’d come,” he whispered. “You fools. Where is she? Where’s Amelie?”
    “Behind us,” Claire said.
    “Fools.”
    “Nice way to talk to your rescuers,” Hannah said. She was nervous, Claire could see it, though the woman controlled it very well. “Gérard? I don’t like this. It’s too easy.”
    “I know.” He crouched down and looked at the chains. “Silver coated. I can’t break them.”
    “What about the bolts in the floor?” Claire asked. In answer, Gérard grabbed the edge of the metal plate and twisted. The steel bent like aluminum foil, and, with a ripping shriek, tore free of the stones. Myrnin wavered as part of his restraints fell loose, and Gérard waved his partner to work on the other two plates while he focused on the second in front.
    “Too easy, too easy,” Hannah kept on muttering. “What’s the point of doing this if Bishop is just going to let him go?”
    The eyebolts were all ripped loose, and Gérard grabbed Myrnin’s arm and helped him to his feet.
    Myrnin’s eyes sheeted over with blazing ruby, and he shook Gérard off and went straight for Hannah.
    Hannah saw him coming and put the gun between them, but before she could fire, Gérard’s partner knocked her hand out of line, and the shot went wild, impacting on the stone at the other side of the room. Silver flakes drifted on the air, igniting tiny burns where they landed on the vampires’ skin. The two bodyguards backed off.
    Myrnin grabbed Hannah by the neck.
    “No!” Claire screamed, and ducked under Gérard’s restraining hand. She raised her wooden stake.
    Myrnin turned his head and grinned at her with wicked vampire fangs flashing. “I thought you were here to save me, Claire, not kill me,” he purred, and whipped back toward his