For all the good it did her.
One moment, Dario was near the door; the next, he was nothing but a blur. She didn’t have a chance to even take a swing at him before his hand was around her neck again. Lifting her off the floor, he slammed her against the wall hard enough to knock the oxygen out of her lungs. Cold air seemed to pour off him in waves, making her numb. She fought him with everything she had, punching, kicking, and scratching. The results were no better than the first time she’d tried it in the alley. It was like hitting at a brick wall.
As her vision began to dim, it occurred to Alyssa he might actually choke her to death and be done with it. But then he grabbed her left wrist and yanked her arm toward him, forcing her to watch in horror as his fangs slowly extended and he bit her.
Alyssa swore the damn creature was doing everything at half speed simply so she’d have to deal with the torture of those fangs sinking into the soft flesh of her inner wrist longer. It felt like they were going all the way down to the bone. It was even more painful when he began to feed on her blood, his lips tugging on her skin as he sucked it into his mouth.
Screams echoed off the stone walls as the twin werewolves and the three girls begged Dario to let her go. Alyssa would have screamed, too, if she could have made a sound.
When Dario finally released her, she hit the floor hard, her head swimming like she’d just downed two Long Island iced teas—fast. Her vision went dark as shudders ran through her body. As much as she wanted to get up and protect herself, her mind was telling her to remain where she was.
But staying down had never been her thing.
She shoved to her feet and lunged at Dario, swinging the hardest punch she could. It landed—a solid roundhouse to the jaw that made her whole arm go numb, leaving her hand throbbing badly enough to make her think she might have broken something.
Unfortunately, Dario barely seemed to have felt the blow. He merely stepped back with a superior smile, licking traces of her blood off his lips.
“You’re a fighter, I see,” he said. “That makes you even more perfect for the ritual.”
The words chilled Alyssa to the bone. She threw a quick glance at her wrist to see the two puncture wounds still trickling a tiny bit of blood, but not nearly as much as she’d expected.
“What ritual?” she demanded.
Dario grinned at her. “We have a ceremony planned for this morning, one you’ll play a very important part in.” He gestured to the younger Curtis. “We’ve decided to make Stefan one of us in appreciation for the faithful service he has provided the coven. The five oldest members of the coven will drain your friends, then they’ll turn him.”
Alyssa glanced at the three women on her left and the two werewolves on her right to see their eyes fill with terror.
“Stefan will be ravenous for blood after that and will need to quench that thirst,” Dario continued, seeming to relish the panic he was causing all around as he focused his cold, black eyes on Alyssa. “That’s where you come in. While I’m tempted to keep you for myself, I will honor my promise and allow Stefan to feed on you to complete his transformation.”
Alyssa felt the blood drain from her face, fear making her feel weaker than she already was.
Stefan glanced at his uncle. “Don’t think for a second this gets you out of the frying pan. You’re still going to die. It’s just a matter of how.” Stefan looked at Dario. “Maybe we could give him to the younger members of the coven that don’t normally get to feed during the ritual.”
Dario considered that. “Perhaps.”
When Randy Curtis didn’t say anything, Stefan let out a snort.
“You don’t know how glad I am that I get to feed on that fucking werewolf’s mate instead of you, old man,” he said to his uncle. “At least she’ll be fresh.”
That got a rise out of Randy. Eyes suddenly sharp, he got to his feet and hurried over to the bars. “Werewolf? There’s a werewolf in LA?”
Stefan casually strolled over to stand in front of his uncle’s cell. “Actually, there are several werewolves dumb enough to not only show up in town, but also to attempt to stand against us.”
Randy gripped the bars. “And you’re sure she’s mated to one of them.”
“I’m sure,” Dario said. “I heard her talking about sleeping with one of the mongrels on the phone right before I grabbed her. That’s part of the reason Ididgrab her. Stefan might be thrilled to have someone young and pretty to feed on for the ritual, but I’m more interested in using her dead body to lure her mate. That was an added bonus too good to pass up.”
Alyssa started hyperventilating at the thought of being used as bait to hurt Zane. It was crazy. She’d be dead long before these monsters got around to even attempting to hurt Zane, but that didn’t stop her from being afraid. As the fear welled up from her stomach and into her chest to wrap its icy fingers around her heart, she was sure she was going to pass out.
“Are you insane?” Randy demanded. “Doing the ritual with a group of werewolves around—especially if she’s mated to one—is suicidal.”
Stefan only laughed at that.
Dario remained expressionless.
“I’m warning you not to underestimate them,” Randy ground out in frustration. “I know it’s been decades since the coven has gone up against a pack of werewolves directly. They’re far more dangerous than you can imagine. You won’t need to lure them anywhere because they’ll come for her. You have no idea what they can do when you threaten the people they care for.”
Alyssa stared in shock.
