Hidden In Plain Sight (MxM)✔

Chapter 30 - Confrontation

The first thing that hit him was the smell. It was strong and intoxicating, drawing him further into the room as his stomach growled hungrily. It was just like back at the tavern, only this time it was much more powerful.

He had made it to the bottom of the stairs by the time he realized that scent was the blood of these poor victims. Ashamed, he quickly covered his nose to block it out before he did anything foolish.

Most of the captives took notice of their visitor. Their cloths were thin and stained from roughly bandaged wounds. Many of them huddled together in their cages, others pressed against the bars, and some just sat with their eyes averted, accepting their fate.

    The last time someone cowered before him, Luke was able to pop out his fangs and flash a disarming smile. Not this time though. This time they were right. He was a monster, and as much as he hated it, his mouth watered at the scent of their blood.

Luke's new fangs extended, making it difficult to close his mouth properly, so he used his palm to hide them better. There was no use in scaring these poor victims any more than they already were.

    He wandered the chamber, searching for keys and praying he'd get lucky again. Whenever he passed by one of the cages, the humans would scramble away. He tried not to let it get to him and he continued his search until he'd gone through every nook and cranny. Realizing the keys weren't here, Luke decided to try and simply break the doors open instead.

    Approaching the nearest cage, he was startled when one of the humans tossed a pillow at him. The bars blocked it from actually hitting him, but it still startled the man. Luke noticed the woman who threw it was particularly young, maybe about fifteen, and was glaring at him defiantly.

    "It's okay!" Luke lisped, still adjusting to the new fangs. "I'm not going to hurt you!"

The human did not look convinced and stood to shield the other two from him. Luke knew words would never be enough, so he proceeded to yank the door open, successfully breaking the locking mechanism.

Now with no bars between them, the human captives all backed up, pressing against the back of the cage nervously with the woman looking less confident. He could see that they were on the verge of panic, but he didn't have time to worry about it. Carefully he climbed into the cage and made his way closer to them. The human on the left, a young man of about thirteen with a wild, dark mop of hair, began whimpering fearfully.

    The woman hurried between them. Every one of them had shackles binding their arms and legs, with a short chain between them. Luke decided she was the one he had to win over, so he inched closer to her, then reached for her ankle shackles and yanked until the chain link shattered.

She was still sporting a thick metal ankle bracelet, but without the chain she would be able to walk and run freely. Finally the human seemed to understand his intention. Luke then held out his hand, and she slowly brought her hands over so he could shatter the chains on those as well.

    There was a round of skeptic looks as the other two hesitated, but eventually they crawled closer, allowing him to do the same for them.

After crawling out of the cage, the defiant woman glanced at the exit, then back at Luke before making a run for it. When he didn't stop her, the other two followed.

The other nearby humans witnessed the display and stopped cowering. Instead, they watched Luke eagerly as he began to make his rounds, breaking open each cage, shattering their chains, and setting them free.

    There were ten cages in total, with several people hung up on the walls. When he was done with the cages, he made his way cautiously towards the more severely injured ones.