I considered answering him and then hesitated, "I dooooo, unless of course I say that I do and then you go Demon on my soul, in which case I'd politely answer with nooooo, I like it here?"
He smiled and shook his head, his eyes turning briefly from their silver and black pattern to red as he plopped on the bed and folded his arms behind his head. "You will need to hurry, Adrian will meet you at the exit road," his eyes met and held mine, "You are going to be timed of course, Ryder will be back shortly, so you have exactly fifteen minutes to be out of here. This information comes with a price Synthia," he smiled coldly.
"Great, you want my soul?" I glared at him unamused.
"Nah, that thing is battered and bruised. You now have fourteen minutes. I need a promise that you will stop this before it happens. If Ryder openly attacks the Guild, it will mean a full out war. While it would be a feast…I cannot allow it." He waved his hand and I felt a cold breeze pressing gently across my face as the thick oily presence of his magic surged through me.
"So tell Ryder," I said harshly, "What did you just do to my face?" I asked afraid if what he had done, but it felt clean and less painful now.
"I cleaned you up a bit and you've met him Flower, he's about as fluffy as a porcupine. He will not listen to me or to you unless there is powerful evidence to change his mind. There is something else, you need to get close to Arianna and you need to look closely at her Syn. She's off, something isn't right about her. I can’t “see” her and that can mean a multitude of things—most of them bad. Got me?"
"You want me to take her out?" I asked carefully.
"No, I want you to look at her. Ryder would kill you before you could take her out, don’t be stupid. You'd start a fucking war of the worlds you do that shit. Thirteen minutes," he replied smiling.
"Fine," I started to stand up and groaned from the pain inside my head.
"C'mere girl," Ristan said smoothly, before I could protest, I was pressed against his mouth with my eyes bugging out as he kissed me. When he was done I pulled away wiping off my mouth with the back of my hand. Power pulsed through me, raw, dirty power. Demon magic…I smiled and started to walk out of the room but he caught my hand and pulled me back staring. "Fucking hell, you taste good."
"Thanks…I'm leaving now." I looked down noticing he'd just done more than juice me, he'd given me black sneakers, black sweat pants and a black long sleeved shirt for escaping in, rather than the bloody mess I'd been wearing before.
"Good luck, go stop this before it’s too late," he whispered before he flicked his hand and the collar appeared on his neck, his face taking on an instant black eye as if I'd hit him myself. I turned and left the room shaking my head and wondered if Ryder would really believe that I overpowered Ristan.
~~~~~~~~~~*
The basement was on the next floor down. I'd barely managed to miss being seen by two guards as I'd not so stealthily walked right down the middle of the hallway. I could sense the Demon magic he gave to me with that lovely kiss was dangerous kicking up my pulse. I felt no pain, my emotions were gone. I felt like darkness would overtake my soul if I let it.
I took the stairs more carefully, my eyes scanning for body heat as second sight took over. I had to actually concentrate using it as I walked. As if I wasn’t myself and maybe that had to do with the head pounding I'd encountered with the door. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, a single door sat ajar.
I pressed against the wall and peeked inside, Larissa and Adam both sat on chairs with their hands tied in front of them. I slipped inside, expecting to fight. I looked around the barren rooms. Pulsing cells enhanced by Fae magic were constructed along the walls. An enhancing spell covered the wall in black ink and I had a feeling Ryder was creating those cells for Witches alone.
I slipped over behind Adam who had been sleeping and started untying his ropes. They got ropes, while I got platinum, I felt special—sorta. "Adam, untie Lari. I'll guard the door. We got ten minutes to be out of here."
He lifted his dark head and leveled his emerald gaze on me, "Syn, he's going to attack the Guild, we have to stop him."
"Untie Larissa Adam, he won't attack them tonight," I said feebly. I had no idea if he would, but I couldn’t go into panic mode right now, not juiced up on Demon.
I turned back to watch him carefully untie Larissa while patting her cheek to wake her up. He was gentle, his hands sure as he undid her bindings. "Baby, we gotta go."
Larissa opened her eyes and turned a brilliant smile on Adam, "Told you she'd be here to save us."
"Guys, we gotta go," I said needing to get them a safe distance before anyone noticed they were gone.