Nina nodded, her head’s up-and-down bob sluggish. “Yeah, yeah. Wonder Twin powers activate. Let’s roll before I collapse the fuck all over the floor.”
Wanda nodded her perfectly coiffed head, her wings throbbing a muted whir. “We meet in the ballroom in forty minutes. No longer, understood? We all need to be accounted for before we take this a step further. We’ll regroup then if we don’t find him.”
Toni looked to Carl, who, while considered odd by the castle members, was allowed to stay indoors and wander throughout their connecting rooms. “You with us, buddy?”
Carl stomped his hoof in favor of finding Jon.
“All right, girls,” Wanda said, raising her arm high. “Let’s really storm the castle!”
“Who dares to imprison us, Günter? Answer the question!” Jon raged, shaking the bars of the cell he and Dannan were stuffed inside, in the prison below the castle.
But the guard refused to turn and address them, keeping his back to the cell.
Dannan, the top of his head bent sideways with his cheek against the cell’s ceiling, poked him with a big toe to his shoulder blades. “Lad, quiet! I cannot think when yer caterwaulin’ like a woman!”
Jon sneered, gritting his teeth. “We must get to Toni before she sees the king and possibly leaves the realm forever. How else would you have me do that but make demands, ogre?”
If she left the realm without giving him the chance to tell her of his heart, to tell her the truth, he’d never forgive himself.
“Has it helped ye so far? Nay. Now pipe down and let yer old friend think.”
“The women will never find us here in time, Dannan. We must find someone who will listen to the truths I speak. Unlike Günter, who has clearly been ordered to ignore my commands at all costs!” Jon spat.
“Ye should have thought of what the prince would do if he felt threatened. He is not as strong as ye, lad. We are imprisoned because his decisions are based on fear. And ye should have thought to tell yer lady love much sooner, ye fool!” Dannan grumbled.
Jon paced the floor, knowing his friend was right, knowing exactly why he was locked up in this cell. “Aye, but that is done now. I cannot change such. Now we must find our way out of here quickly.” Before he lost the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his days with.
“’Tis good ye are my friend or I would have eaten yer foolish hide by now.”
He grabbed onto the bars again and rattled them, his knuckles going white from the effort. “Damn you, man, you must listen to me!”
But Günter refused to turn, making him a loyal guard to the king, but hellfire and damnation, now wasn’t the time to prove his worth.
“Lad?”
Jon whipped around, and if not for their circumstances, he’d roll on the filthy cell floor with laughter at the sight Dannan made, squished into a corner as though he were a rag doll a child had shoved into her tiny dollhouse. But right now, he was too angry.
“What, man?”
He grinned, wide and mischievous. “I think I have a plan.”
Chapter 14
Toni latched on to Nina’s arm and pulled her close, growing more worried by the second at the vampire’s paler-than-pale skin. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Get the fuck off me and stop doing the mother-hen shit. I get enough of that crap from Marty and Wanda. Just shut up and keep moving.”
But Toni gasped, clamping her hand over her mouth.
Nina stopped dead in the middle of a long halfway that appeared to go on for a thousand miles with nothing in between the beginning and end. “Now what?”
She lifted a finger and pointed at Nina’s face, her eyes going wide. “You’re lying.”
Nina squinted at her. “Did you just call be a liar? Who the fuck do you think you are?”
Now Toni narrowed her eyes and shook her finger. “You’re lying about feeling all right. The proof is in the pudding. The pudding being your nose!” She gave the end of Nina’s nose, pushing farther from her face, a tweak, fighting hysterical laughter.
The vampire lifted her hand to her face and snarled. “Goddammit, Sparkly Pants, fix this!”
Toni gave her a look of innocence, throwing up her hands. “I don’t know how to fix it, remember? Now stop bullshitting me and slow down. We need to get you somewhere you can rest with Carl and I’ll go the rest of the way alone.”
Nina grabbed Carl’s harness, pulling him close. “Um, nope. You go nowhere alone, kiddo. We tag team or we call it quits. I’m the muscle, and I always have been.”
“Well, here in the realm you’re not so muscley, now are you? So stop being so damn difficult and let’s find you a place to catch your breath.”
“I don’t breathe, twit.”
Toni rolled her eyes and gave Nina a shove forward. “Then let’s find you a place where you can not breathe, Crusty.”