Coldbloods (Hotbloods #2)

To my horror, I recognized the coldblood at the door as the same silver-haired one who had chased me last time.

Sneering, he advanced toward Navan and pointed his gun at Navan’s arm. “Show yourself—or I’ll pull the trigger.”

I scanned his scowling, sculpted face. Would he actually shoot Navan?

A glowing blast exploded from his gun. Navan ducked his shoulder away just in time.

The coldblood hadn’t been bluffing—that shot would’ve injured Navan badly. My heart was nearly pounding out of my chest. I had to surrender.

“I’m warning you,” the silver-haired coldblood snarled.

This time, he aimed the gun between Navan’s thighs.

“Don’t fire!” I cried out. “I’ll show myself.”

“Don’t!” Navan shouted, just as I pressed the button on my suit.

When I materialized, I lunged out of the way, but the silver-haired coldblood was too fast. He tackled me onto the ground. As I struggled, he kicked me, then, straddling my waist, pointed the gun at my right thigh.

“Struggle again and I’ll shoot you this time. After all,” he said, smiling with yellow teeth, “you don’t need legs to talk.”

Ahead of us, there were sounds of a scuffle. The other coldblood cursed in irritation as he was thrown backward.

“Whoever you are, invisible idiot, stop, or I’ll shoot her!” the silver-haired coldblood roared.

There was a pause, then an “Oh bollocks” from Galo as he materialized too.

“Gotcha!” the other coldblood cried triumphantly.

Galo and I eyed each other anxiously as the coldblood threw him to the ground as well. My hand dove into my suit for the comm device. I jammed the button, just as the silver-haired coldblood snatched it out of my hands.

“Nice try—but did you really think a human could outsmart coldbloods?” He chuckled and tossed the comm device onto the stone floor, crunching it under his foot. He moved his boot onto my chest. “What other things do you have hiding in that suit of yours?”

Cold fear cut through me. Would he actually strip me down completely? What else was he going to do to me?

“Nothing,” I said, glaring at him. I’d just have to wait until he was distracted… and then I could stab my knife into his stupid evil back. Stab and keep stabbing until he’d stopped moving entirely. It was the least they deserved.

But now he was squinting at me, pressing his foot harder against my chest. My breath came out in shuddering gasps.

“We’ll see about that,” he said softly.

He felt me up and down, while I squirmed, until his hand clasped triumphantly on the knife in my pocket.

“You lying little bitch,” he growled.

With his knee digging into my shoulder, he raised the knife, then slashed it down. It connected with the button on my suit with a great crackling shudder. He repeated the motion, over and over again, until my whole suit sputtered and shuddered into permanent visibility. He tossed the knife to his companion to do the same to Galo’s suit, then turned his sneering attention to me.

“You really thought that would work? For Rask’s sake, humans are getting dumber every day. In any case, you won’t be needing those suits anymore.”

“What should we tie them up with?” the other coldblood asked once he’d disabled Galo’s suit too.

His long brown hair flicked back and forth as he turned his head to look around the room, before his gaze stopped on a chain hanging from the ceiling. He glanced at the silver-haired coldblood, who nodded.

“Bingo.”

“By the way,” the silver-haired coldblood said as he advanced to grab it down, “in case you haven’t gotten the message yet—if either of you moves or tries to escape, I’ll shoot one of you.”

I glared fiercely back at him, once more picturing myself stabbing him with the knife over and over again. These coldbloods were nothing like Navan—they were a different species entirely, one that didn’t deserve to exist at all. Hot tears rose to my eyes. I knew it wasn’t fair to blame myself for failing again, but I couldn’t help it. I’d been so eager to free Navan, so overjoyed to see him, that I hadn’t stopped to consider that this could be a trap. And it had cost both of us our freedom this time.

I glanced at Navan, who was looking at me as if I had actually been shot, with tormented, longing eyes. “Don’t struggle,” he mouthed at me sadly, and I nodded. As soon as they’d threatened to hurt him, I had stopped struggling.

By now, the two coldbloods had pulled down the chain and brought it over to Galo and me.

“There’s not much of it,” the other coldblood pointed out, eyeing the metal thing dubiously. “Not sure if there’ll be enough for two.”

The silver-haired coldblood looked from me to Galo to Navan, then back to me again. A menacing smile came over his face. “Oh, don’t worry. I’ve got an idea.”

I gulped. Did that mean what I thought it did? That if there wasn’t enough chain for two… then he’d have to get rid of one?

He advanced toward me, with his hands out.

“If you hurt her…” Navan growled.

The silver-haired coldblood grabbed Navan by the throat. “Shut up, human-lover.”

Letting him go, he shoved me down next to the chair and gestured for his companion to do the same with Galo. Then, he wrapped the chain around both of us and the chair several times. This resulted in Galo and me being on the floor, chained to the front legs of Navan’s chair.

I exhaled in relief. Maybe they weren’t going to kill off one of us after all.

The two stepped back to admire their creation with cocky grins.

“The real question is,” the brown-haired coldblood said, “what happens if the chair falls over?”

They chuckled. The silver-haired coldblood gave the chair a kick, which made it tip back uncomfortably. Laughing, he crouched down in front of me and took my chin in his rough hands. “You were the same intruder as last time, weren’t you? I got in big trouble for letting you slip out.”

“Leave her alone,” Navan snarled.

The silver-haired coldblood kicked Navan in the leg, sending the whole chair shaking.

“You’re not exactly in a position to make demands, fool,” he sneered.

Navan glowered at him, his eyes burning with the promise of a painful death.

“Shouldn’t we tell Ezra that we’ve captured them?” the brown-haired coldblood asked.

“True,” the silver-haired one replied. “I’ve had enough of looking at these pathetic creatures anyway.”

Together, they strode out.

Navan only spoke when the sound of their footsteps had quieted to silence. “Please tell me that this is somehow part of your plan.”

“It’s not,” I said hoarsely. “I’m so sorry.”

He exhaled sharply. “You shouldn’t be here,” he said, and I winced at the anger lacing his words. “You shouldn’t have come. What were you thinking?”

“I couldn’t just abandon you!” I said.

“She does have a point,” Galo interjected.

“And you have a Fed agent helping you? What about the others?” Navan demanded.