Nick nodded slowly.
“Mr. Grandstaff,” Harriet said. “Why don’t you lie down? It’s clear you haven’t slept all night, and you won’t be able to help Rowan if you’re exhausted.” She pointed out that the padded bench he was perched on was long enough to stretch out on.
“I agree,” Gabriel said. “We’re going need your help. Get some rest. Tobias and I will wait outside.” The giant man made his way out the door, the wagon swaying with his every step.
Harriet again pointed at the bench. “Please.”
He stretched out, his head landing on a blue satin pillow embroidered with a red dragon. It reminded him of Rowan.
Help Rowan. Save Rowan. Yes. He needed to do that. Because Nick needed to figure out what this was between them, and goddamn if he was going to let her get killed or stay captured before he got the chance. Frowning, he turned his back on Harriet and shut his eyes. He drifted off to the sound of laughing children.
* * *
For all theeffort she’d put into making conversation with Barry, Rowan had gotten nowhere trying to convince him to release her from her bindings. She’d drifted to sleep a few times in the chair beside him, only to awake and try again to connect. She’d discovered that Barry had grown up in Oklahoma and wanted to be an astronaut before he’d been trafficked at the age of sixteen. The NAVAK coven had used the fact that Barry was gay and his parents were unaccepting of that to target him on social media. He’d thought he was meeting a boy his age who was also gay, and then he was nabbed by NAVAK, tattooed, and compelled to be their slave. He didn’t use those words. Rowan cringed as he made it sound like he was saved by the vampires, but she knew the truth. Poor Barry didn’t even know if his parents were alive or dead. He hadn’t been free in years.
Her stomach growled.
“Dinner should be here soon.”
Silently, she thanked the Mountain they planned to feed her. She needed to keep her strength up if she had any hope of freeing herself. Sure enough, a tray slid through the slot in the door a few minutes later.
He brought it over to her and removed the foil wrapping. “They sent enough for both of us.”
Rowan scowled. “Peanut butter sandwiches, chips, and apple juice.”
He was already burning through his first half sandwich. Rowan wondered how often he got anything but peanut butter. But she was too hungry to turn her nose up at the food. Carefully angling her bound hands, she chose a sandwich and took a bite. Grape jelly. It wasn’t bad.
She was on her second sandwich when a sound from one of the coffins made her stop everything and drop what was in her hands. “Barry, what time do the vampires wake?”
He licked a bit of jelly from his thumb. “Soon now. The sun is still up, so they can’t go outside, but they usually wake well before dusk. Malvern likes to eat someone before he starts his day.” He rubbed the marks on his neck like maybe they’d started to itch.
Another sound from the coffins, a body shifting against satin, reached her ears, and Rowan was on her bound feet and pressed against the wall.
Barry cleared his throat. “It’s better if you don’t fight it. Everything is easier if you just obey them.”
“Untie me, Barry. This is our chance. I swear to you I can get us out of this if you just untie me.” She pleaded with him in hushed tones, her eyes filling with tears. “It’s not your fault you’re here. You deserved love. You still deserve love. And if you allow me to get us out of here, you can come stay with me. I’ll get you back on your feet.”
He stared at her, all emotion draining from his face. The gleam went out of his eyes, emptiness filling in where the light went out. “I don’t want to leave,” he said so quietly she could hardly hear him.
The lid to Malvern’s coffin opened with a slow squeak, sending Rowan’s heart hammering in her chest. Her eyes darted around the room, but she’d inspected every inch of this place and there was no way out. Malvern’s bright blond head rose from the coffin and he turned to face her. She blinked and he was in front of her, his fingers stretching along her cheek and stroking behind her ear, behind her neck.
“There you are, my pet.” He pressed himself against her, and she became grateful for her bound wrists now sandwiched between their chests. At least she had that layer of distance between them. “We don’t have much time before the Forebears get here and try to take you away. I found you. I deserve you.” He leaned toward her ear, his breath smelling of blood. “You would be such a prize in my herd. I bet you fuck like a minx.”
She turned her face away from his in disgust and struggled against him, but with her limbs bound, there was nowhere to go. Malvern’s teeth extended, and she cried out as he bit the side of her throat. He drank deeply, the sounds of his swallowing filling her ears. Weakness overcame her. And then his hands were on her, turning her to face the wall, and the heavy length of him was pressed up against her ass.
“No. Please, please no.”
He pulled her hair to the side and licked up the side of her neck, preparing to bite her again. Her breath came in shallow, shaky jerks. She prayed to the goddess of the mountain for help.
“Let us have a turn,” a voice said from behind her.
She turned her head just enough to see the other vampires had woken up and were eyeing her like she was breakfast.
Malvern released an intimidating hiss. “No one touches her but me.”
Rowan had a moment to see a redheaded vamp sink his teeth into Barry’s thigh before Malvern swept his arm under her legs and caught her. The walls blurred as he raced her from the room and from the hungry gazes of the other vampires. He carried her up two flights of stairs and into a bedroom, this one with an actual human bed.
After a moment of weightlessness, her arms and face slapped against a black velvet coverlet. He gripped her ankles and flipped her over. Malvern’s terrifying visage hovered over her like a gargoyle, his eyes wild as if her blood had intoxicated him. His gaze raked down her body. She was still dressed in nothing but the red dress, and she felt naked under the thin material, not to mention filthy from her time in that dungeon where the vampires slept.
