“No, don’t,” he said. Nolan glared at him. “Don’t you remember how strong that silk is? He can lower us to the window.”
Gabby tested the silk webbing with her hands, stretching and pulling it. It was tacky but strong, each length of silk the thickness of her pinky finger. With ten of them wrapped around her, Léon could lower her with ease.
“You will not fall,” Léon whispered.
She threw her other leg over the parapet.
“Gabby—” Nolan called, but with a quick breath, she let her backside slip off.
The webbing cinched tighter but held. She dangled midair, feeling a momentary flutter of panic when she began to drop smoothly toward the window. The room was black. When she hissed up to Léon to stop lowering her, she gripped the sill and within seconds had opened the window and climbed inside.
She took her dagger, sliced through the webbing, and waited. A few minutes later, Nolan and Vander joined her inside the room, and then Léon himself climbed down the side of the building, his sticky fingers clinging to the exterior limestone.
“The draining room,” Gabby said as soon as he’d ducked inside. “How do we get there?”
Léon wiped his hands on the sides of his trousers, then shook them out. “It’s in the basement.”
“Excellent. We have five possible floors on which to get caught,” Nolan muttered.
“There are guards on every floor at every flight of stairs,” Léon added. “But there is a servants’ stairwell two doors down from here to the kitchens, and from there, a set of stairs to the basement rooms. The draining room is the one farthest down the corridor.”
Gabby knew it was just five floors, but it felt as though he were giving them directions to Africa.
“Léon and I will draw the guards and disciples away,” Nolan said to her. “I know I can’t keep Vander from Ingrid, and I’m quickly learning you’re as stubborn as you are impatient.”
He took Gabby roughly by the arm, dragged her toward him, and crushed his lips to hers. She breathed in sharply through her nose, too stunned to kiss him in return before he broke off and stepped back.
“What was that for?” Gabby asked, a little dazed and embarrassed. Vander and Léon had edged away from them, toward the door. “Luck?”
“No,” Nolan said with his trademark arrogant grin. “It was because I love you.”
He didn’t wait for her response. He withdrew his sword and he and Léon charged out of the room, making whooping noises and catcalls to draw the attention of whatever guards lurked at the top of stairs.
Gabby drifted across the room to Vander’s side, Nolan’s voice still ringing in her ears. She knew she had to have a ridiculous expression on her face because Vander laughed.
“Well, in that case, I’d best keep you alive, Lady Gabriella,” he said. Then, together, they fled the room.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
It was worse than Ingrid had imagined.
The style and warmth of the posh upper floors had deceived Ingrid into thinking the room where Dupuis planned to drain her blood would be just as elegant and charming.
It wasn’t.
The room, located in the basement, was a medical nightmare. A series of steel-topped tables lined one wall, and strewn about them were all sorts of beakers and tubes and sharp-edged instruments. The walls themselves were just the stone foundation, the low ceilings constructed of plaster and hewn beams. The harsh electric light only made the room feel more cramped, and the corners were draped in shadow.
Three wheeled gurneys, each outfitted with leather restraints, were positioned against the wall directly in front of Ingrid as she walked in, Marco on her heels. Beside each gurney were serpentine tangles of tubing attached to cylindrical copper-and-glass vats.
No wonder Léon had run away from this place.
“The average human body holds approximately five and a half liters of blood,” Dupuis explained as he came to stand beside the vats. His long fingers traveled over the twists of clear rubber tubing. “We shall draw out your blood, separate it in this system, and then immediately pump the filtered blood back into your body.”
He brought his hands back into a steepled position. “The transfusion will be lengthy, I am afraid.”
Ingrid tried to keep her trembling to a minimum. She had to do this. They were holding Luc against his will. Feeling her fear and being unable to come to her must have been excruciating for him.
“How will these machines know to withdraw my angel blood and leave the rest of it?” she asked.