by HELEN HARDT
No. Couldn’t be. He was still a rarity, and she wasn’t stupid.
I didn’t believe for a minute that she was willing to let any one of the three of us go.
Unless…
Unless she’d taken my sperm when I was here previously. Ten years’ worth.
In which case…
“Riv, you’re the only one who’s safe down here.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You’re new stock. New Gabriel vampire stock. Your dad and I—we’re old news.”
“I don’t get it, Dante.”
A theory. Just a theory. Was I willing to stake River’s life against my theory? Was River supposed to take both me and his own father out?
He hadn’t been trained. Had he? She’d only been holding him for hours, certainly not enough time to get him ready for the fighting pit.
What was she up to?
She definitely had an ulterior motive, though for the life of me, I couldn’t figure it out.
Braedon still stood, growling, but making no move against either of us.
Why?
Of course.
He knew us. He wouldn’t harm his son or his nephew, no matter how full of ’roid rage he was.
“Uncle Brae,” I said softly, “what did she do to you?”
He growled, baring his formidable fangs.
“Fuck, Dante, don’t rile him up.”
“I don’t think he wants to hurt us, Riv.”
“I never would have believed it of my dad, but he’s—”
Braedon’s eyes narrowed, and moisture shone within them. Sadness. Whatever he was supposed to do at this moment, he didn’t want to do it.
Damn. I was right. He was supposed to kill me or I him. We were both going to protect River. Braedon would protect him because he was his son. I would protect him because he was weaker than I was. Either way, she knew if either Braedon or I had to choose, the choice would be River.
I had to test my theory. It might be the only way to end this.
Forgive me, Riv.
Chapter Three
Erin
“Logan,” I said. “You don’t have to hurt people. Don’t let her control you.”
“But she does. I don’t mean to, Erin. I don’t.”
“Did you ever hurt Dante? When he was here before?”
“No. I never saw Dante. But there’s someone else.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know his name. But he’s huge. All muscle.”
I gulped down nausea. Huge. All muscle. I’d never seen Julian Gabriel as anything but a manifestation, but Levi Gaston had considered him and Braedon to be the ultimate specimens of vampire manhood.
Braedon. It had to be. Logan had tortured Braedon.
“Wh—” I cleared my throat, attempting to force back the nausea. “Wh-What kinds of things did you do to hurt him?”
“Did? Erin, I do it. I’m still doing it.”
God. Nausea again, this time clawing up my throat with tiny hooks. “Okay.” I tried to sound calm. As calm as I could be while tied down and trying to persuade this hurting man to let me go. “What exactly are you doing? And to whom?”
“I told you. This monstrous guy.”
“Just him? No one else?”
He shook his head. “No. Not that I can remember.”
“And how much can you remember about this?”
“It’s hard, Erin. It’s like it’s in another lifetime.”
“Like when you’re above ground?”
“Yeah. It’s like I have three different and distinct lives right now. Two are dream worlds and one is real—whichever one I’m in at the time.”
“So you have your life at University, your life down here, and…”
“My other life down here. When I’m not…me.”
“Who are you then?”
“I’m not sure. It’s like I’m this automaton. This sadistic automaton. And I…”
“What? You what, Logan?”
“I…” He raked his fingers through his hair. “God, Erin. I can’t tell you. I can’t.”
“Logan. Look. I can help you, but not if I’m imprisoned here. She’s going to take my eggs, Logan. Without my permission. She’s going to fertilize them with vampire semen and implant the embryos into surrogates. I can’t let this happen. It’s a violation. I’ll have children I don’t even know about. Please, Logan. Whatever she’s doing to you, be stronger. I need you to be stronger.” Desperation poured from my voice, poured from every part of me.
“Erin, I want to help you. I really do.”
“Then do it. Just do it.”
“I…can’t.”
“You can.”
“No, you don’t understand. She’ll… She’ll…”
“She’ll what?”
“I don’t know. I just know it will be bad.”
“Look, I can help you, Logan. Dante can protect you. He can get you out of here. He’s already gotten Lucy and my brother out. Patty’s baby. The other women and some homeless people who were being kept down here. I don’t know why.”
“I know why,” he said darkly.
“Why?” Though I wasn’t sure I truly wanted to know.
“Blood.”
Abe Lincoln was B positive. Were the others? I had no way of knowing. “She has plenty of blood down here. I saw the blood bank.”
“But it’s not fresh.”
My bowels churned. I didn’t like where this was going. “What do you mean, fresh?”
“Fresh. Fresh blood. Fresh human blood.”
“And why does she need fresh human blood?” Again, I didn’t truly want to know. Yet I had to know.
“I don’t know. I really don’t. I… Sometimes I see her take people somewhere.”
“What? That doesn’t help me, Logan.”
“She brings people down here, mostly homeless people no one will miss, I think. Then they disappear.”
“And she claims she’s not a killer.”
“What?”
“Nothing. Nothing for you to worry about, anyway.”
Of course, in her mind, she wasn’t a killer. She probably didn’t do the killing herself. And if it was a human life, she didn’t care. After all, she was trying to end humanity.
Vampyr omega.
Had she used Logan to kill these innocent victims? Probably not, or he’d feel worse than he already did. He’d have some hazy memory of it, as he did of torturing the monster.
She obviously liked her blood fresh. She’d fed on Dante, but perhaps she required non-vampire blood as well.
Damn! I needed my book. I’d left it in the room where Dante and I had slept for a few hours. I hadn’t thought about it when she came in and took me. Dante hadn’t woken up, and there was only one explanation for that. She had slipped him something. Otherwise he would have heard me.
“Logan, if you can’t release me, you have to at least cut me.”
“Cut you? Are you nuts?”
“If you’ve tortured—”
“I don’t like torturing, Erin! For God’s sake. I’m not in control of myself when I do it.” He raked his fingers through his hair once more. “But I do like it. In some disgusting way.”
“It’s a glamour, Logan. Somehow she turns you sadistic.”
“How? How could she do that?”
“I don’t know. I know nothing about vampires.”
“How can you know nothing? You’re in a relationship with one.”
“That doesn’t mean I understand everything about them. Logan, there are things that vampires themselves don’t even know. Secrets. Mysteries. Things that are kept hidden.” I closed my eyes, willing my mind to think. Bonneville had something on Logan, or was able to manipulate his glamour. But how? And why? He’d told me he wasn’t schizophrenic, but I’d assumed he was lying. What if he wasn’t? What if something else made him prey to Bonneville? “Logan, have you ever been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder?”
“Multip
le personalities? No.”
“The voices you hear, you say you know what they are, right? That you can control them?”
“Yeah.”
“So you know they come from within you. Not from outside of you, right?”
He nodded. “I’m medicated. I’m… You don’t think…”
“Yeah, Logan. I think you’ve been misdiagnosed. You aren’t schizophrenic at all.”
“I told you I wasn’t. You didn’t believe me!”
No, I hadn’t, but I did now. “I think you have another personality. One she’s taking advantage of.”
I expected him to argue the point as he did about the schizophrenia. Instead, he wrinkled his forehead.
“One that’s…sadistic?”
“Not necessarily, but one she can exploit. Manipulate. Force to do her bidding no matter how heinous or sadistic. Someone insecure. A child, maybe, or someone with PTSD. Does anything like that sound familiar to you, Logan?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“It’s all right. You’re unique, clearly. You are resistant to glamouring to a certain extent, so she’s found a chink in your armor. Something she can use to her advantage.”
“How could I have missed this? I’m a doctor, for God’s sake.”
“Were you a doctor when you were diagnosed with mental illness?”
“Well…no.”
“Look, Logan. I can help you a lot better if you unbind me. Help me get out of here.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
He started to speak, but I gestured him to stop.
“If you can’t unbind me, at least cut me open. Just a tiny prick will do. Dante will smell my blood, and he’ll come for me.”
“Erin…Dante won’t come for you. Not right now.”
“Why not?”
“He’s…busy.”
Chapter Four
Dante
Forgive me, Riv.
I growled, my teeth descending. I wasn’t angry with my cousin or my uncle. I was angry at her. If this was what I had to do to get River out of here, I’d do it.
“Fuck, Dante. What the hell are you doing?”
I stalked toward him, snarling. “Only one of us gets out of here alive.”
“Shit. No. It’s that dark energy, isn’t it? Fight it, cuz. You can fight it. You have to!”
“Fight or die in the arena.” The words came out on a snarl.
“Control, Dante. I’ve heard Uncle Jules say it to you a thousand times. Control, damn it!”
The mention of my father perked my interest. Where was he? His brother was here. He should be here too. I advanced toward River, still slowly, but still surely.
“Dante, you don’t want to do this.”
He was right. I didn’t, but I sure had to make it look like I did. She had to know I was serious. Only then would she intervene as I intended.
I curled my hands into fists, tension rising in my body. I might have to actually strike for her to take me seriously, and if so, I’d have to strike hard. She’d know if I didn’t.
I didn’t want to harm River, but I had no choice.
Quick as a jackrabbit, I lunged onto my cousin and tackled him to the ground. I sat on his chest, pinning his arms to his sides with my strong thighs. A punch to his nose should do it. It would hurt like hell, but it would heal quickly.
I raised my hand and met my cousin’s gaze.
Fear shone back at me from his dark eyes.
Good. She’d know I was serious.
I lowered my fist—
“What the—”
In a split second, I was on my back, ten feet away from River.
I’d been tossed. Tossed like a sack of flour in the back of a bakery.
My uncle stood over me, his eyes glaring.
“Uncle Brae? Thank God. I knew you were in there.”
“I couldn’t let you hurt my son.” His voice was gravelly and menacing. It had been altered.
“I didn’t want to.”
“I know. I know what you’re doing. It took me a minute, but I snapped out of…well, whatever was wrong with me.”
“She’s got you jacked up on something,” I said. “And your voice…”
“Dad?” River said weakly. He stood and walked over to us. “Dante, I never in a million years thought—”
“I didn’t want to, Riv.”
“Then why?”
My uncle cleared his throat and spoke quietly. “He was forcing her to make a choice. He figured she’d choose you over either one of us.”
“Me? Why me?”
“You’re new meat, for lack of a better word,” I said. “Brae and I have been here for a while. It’s likely she’s already gotten what she wants from us.”
“What does she want from you?”
“She’s breeding vampires, Riv. She wants our seed.”
River held back a retch. “How did you get down here anyway? I’ve seen you control her.”
“She played her trump card.”
River swallowed. “Erin.”
“Yeah. She poisoned her. Threatened to let her die if I didn’t fight once more.”
“And you believed her?”
“Of course I did. The bitch is evil.”
“But if Erin is…”
“Fuck. You’re right.” I rubbed my forehead. “How could I have been so obtuse? She wouldn’t harm Erin. Not now, after I let all the other women go.”
“Don’t blame yourself,” River said. “She played on your emotions.”
“What are you two talking about?” Braedon asked.
“Erin has a genetic marker,” I said. “Bonneville—”
“Who is Bonneville?”
“The queen, as she calls herself. She’s actually a physician named Zabrina Bonneville.”
“Why does she call herself the queen?” River asked. “Have either of you ever figured that out?”
I shook my head. “I have no idea. Uncle Brae?”
“I know she’s very old.”
I jerked. She’d said something like that to me before, but with everything else going on I hadn’t ruminated on it. “Then she has a great skincare regimen. I wouldn’t put her any older than forty.”
“She made a slip once when she was…”
“What?”
“She was feeding from me. Taking my blood.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “She did the same to me. For ten fucking years.”
“She always fed from me, but recently it’s gotten a lot more frequent.”
Because I’m no longer here. A sharp pain lanced into my head. I rubbed my forehead.
“You okay, man?” River said.
“Yeah. It’s just—” I inhaled. Erin had opened a vein again. She was calling me. Blood to blood.
Bonneville had said our blood bond was an old wives’ tale. She was about to be proved wrong. I had to answer the call of the blood.
My body throbbed, warming, rage rising. Only one thought.
Erin.
Get to Erin.
Take Erin’s blood.
“The book said female vampire blood can change a male,” River was saying. “There’s something about male vampire blood, but we couldn’t read…”
His words became muffled as a high-pitched noise pierced my ears.
Damn, I could hear her blood flowing from her heart out through her arteries.
She was near.
And she was alive.
Bonneville had administered the antidote. If, that was, Erin had ever been in any danger at all.
Dante?
Cuz?
River’s voice.
From somewhere in this dark place.
I looked up. We were dropped in from above. I’d never gotten out of here on my own, not that I recalled anyway.
We were at least fifty feet down.
Had to get to Erin.
Had to get to Erin.
I closed my eyes, opened my mouth, and my teeth descended with a pai
nful snap.
“Auuuggghhhh!” I roared.
My cousin, standing next to his beefed-up father, widened his eyes. “What the hell are you doing?”
My feet left the ground and I rose.
Rose.
Rose until their two heads were specks in the distance and I was standing above the fighting pit on solid ground.
Two icy eyes glared at me.
I roared again, pinning her to the wall with the sheer force of my will.
Her blue eyes widened for an instant—only an instant, but I had frightened her. This was the third time I’d moved her telekinetically, something she could not do—or at least had not done—to me.
She hid it well, but this time she’d been frightened.
She, who couldn’t be frightened.
I had frightened her.
“Formidable, as I expected,” she said, immobile.
“You created me. You love to take credit.” I showed off my long and sharp cuspids. “You made me what I am, but only I will control it.”
I had more to say to her, much more, but something else pulled me away.
I ran.
I ran toward Erin’s blood.
I ran toward Erin.
I ran toward life.
Chapter Five
Erin
“I’m telling you, Erin, it isn’t going to work. He’s indisposed.”
I stared at the river of blood oozing out of my forearm. Logan had unbound my arms so I could sit up. “It will work,” I said softly. “I have faith.”
“You don’t understand her power.”
“You don’t understand Dante’s power, or the power of our bond. Mark my words. He will come, and you might want to not be here when that happens.”
“He doesn’t scare me.”
“He should. If he thinks you had anything to do with imprisoning me, I can’t be held responsible for his actions.”
“What? He’ll kill me?”
I shook my head. “He’s not a killer. That doesn’t mean he won’t pummel the shit out of you.”
“Shame,” he said grimly.
“What’s a shame?”
“That he’s not a killer.”
“What the hell are you saying, Logan?”
