Read Online Soul Guard (Elemental Book 5) by Rain Oxford - Free Book Online Page A

not going to hurt you,” Henry said.
    The boy swallowed. His eyes were sunken and his skin
had an oily, grayish quality. “The cages are electrified. If a certain number
of us touch the bars in a set period of hours, the lights come on and we die,”
he said, pointing to the ceiling. It looked like solar panels on the ceiling,
but when I aimed my light up, I saw there were wires in the glass panels.
    “Ultraviolet?” I asked.
    “Something,” another vampire said. “They discovered
something in our blood that is affected by a special light. It burns us faster
than sunlight, but the humans are fine.”
    “Maybe I can shoot them out. Or… there should be a
power box down here.”
    “I already got it,” a woman said with a thick Russian
accent, entering through the door behind me.
    Henry immediately growled and pushed me back so he
could get between me and the stranger. My instincts warned me of her power, but
not that we were in danger. “She’s one of them,” Henry said.
    I nodded, already having figured it out. She didn’t
look like a demon. She had short, strawberry blond hair and wore a steam-punk
corset with gold chains, a very short black leather skirt that was covered in
what looked like thin chainmail, and black leather boots. 
    The woman just rolled her eyes. “I thought I was
going to have to do everything myself. The power is out, but we only have a few
minutes to get them out before the backup power starts up.” She reached for the
boy’s cage and ripped the door open before he could protest.
    Realizing that she was right, several of the stronger
vampires broke out of their cages. Henry and I got to work helping those who
were too weak or unconscious. None of the cages were hard to break into, since
no one was willing to damn the lot of them by trying to break out. The young
boy who had stopped Henry from freeing him, who I learned was named Cesar,
followed me around and tried to help despite being so weak he could barely
stand.
    A couple of the vampires found some blankets, but
what they all needed was blood. “Did they ever feed you?” I asked, trying to
rouse an older vampire.
    Since converted vampires stopped aging after they
were turned, and those who were born vampires aged very slowly, I knew this
unconscious vampire had been a middle aged human when she was turned. Cesar
could have been a thousand years old or ten.
    “Only when they were testing poisons and drugs,”
Cesar said. “She’s dead.”
    “She has a pulse.”
    He laid his head on her chest to hear her heart. “We
call that a dry beat. The heart doesn’t know she’s dead yet. Her life is gone.”
    “That doesn’t make sense.”
    “You’re a wizard, right? Aren’t you supposed to be
experts in souls and life forces?”
    Actually, I was supposed to learn about that in my
fifth semester, but I decided not to tell him that. Fortunately, he wasn’t
expecting an answer.
    “When we starve to death, they drain our blood and
use it in their experiments.”
    “Are you all from Stephen’s coven?”
    “No. Some of us are rogues. Four of the vampires had
human spouses, which the hunters used to track the vampires down.”
    “Oh, shit,” Henry said suddenly.
    “What’s wrong?” I asked, reaching for my gun.
    Half the vampires ducked, probably out of reflex.
Henry, however, was checking his phone. “No service,” he said. “I need to check
on Scott.”
    “Now? We’re kind of in the middle of something.”
    “My cub comes first, always. You have your instincts
to warn you of danger, but my instincts are telling me Scott needs me.” He
walked out without another word and I sighed. I couldn’t really blame him,
though.
    “Keep trying to get her to wake up,” I said,
standing.
    Cesar frowned. “She’s gone.”
    “Don’t give up on her. Never give up on people.”
Still frowning, he started trying to wake the woman, albeit a little less
gently than I had. Since everyone else was being taken care of, I found