She felt it too. This inexplicable pull towards him. “You held me. And it hurt, but just for a moment.”
Declan’s eyes darkened, and he shifted closer. “You should not have remembered any of it, Riley. My glamour is unbreakable.”
Staring into the flames, she let herself drift in her memories. “The tour guide was talking about the bodies they’d found in the basement cells. The woman who’d escaped. And I backed away from the group. But I felt something. Behind me. And when I turned,” she lifted her gaze to his, “your eyes. They were…mesmerizing. I wanted to look away. But I couldn’t. You talked to me. Comforted me, I think. I felt…safe.Acushla.What does it mean?”
“Literally, pulse. But it is the word for ‘darling’ in Gaelic.”
“Do you say such sweet things to all of your…food?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer. But yet, she had to.
“No. I do not usually speak to those I feed from at all. What else do you remember?”
“You. Coming to my hotel room. Telling me to wait at the door because letting a strange man into my room wasn’t smart. And your name.” He’d been so sweet. Solicitous. “Then…at the bar…I saw you. And Iknewyou. I…shouldn’t have run.”
Declan snorted and stared down at the stone floor. “That is exactly what you should have done. I am the one who should not have been there. Had I not wanted to see you again, you would have been safe.”
“When they took me,” her voice trembled, and she shrank back against the cushions, pulling her legs up so she could wrap herself even tighter in the blanket, “they glamoured me. I tried to fight them, and I did…for at least a few minutes. The big one—”
“Patrick.”
“P-Patrick,” said I belonged to them now. And all I could think was that I had to get away, but it was like trying to move through wet sand. Like…my arms and legs weighed a hundred pounds each.” Her chest tightened, and her eyes started to burn.
Declan surged forward and wrapped her in his arms. “You belong to no one, Riley. And they are not here. Take a deep breath for me.”
“I…”
“Breathe.” The command carried weight, and she sucked in an unsteady breath.
“Did you…just glamour me?”
“No,acushla. I will not do so again.” He stroked his cool fingers through her hair, down her neck, and started massaging away some of the knots in her shoulders. “Can you go on?”
Held against him, she felt stronger, grounded, and she nestled her cheek in the crook of his neck. “I passed out, I think. Or…they made me sleep. I don’t know. But when I woke up, I was in that cage.” She shuddered as she told him everything she could remember. The shock at feeling the blood leave her vein, being passed to three different vampires. “But only two of them…took much the first time. The third…Patrick told him to stop. I was too weak. They had tomake me last.”
Declan’s growled curse rumbled close to her ear, but she didn’t understand the Gaelic word.
“I passed out for a while. But they kept coming. Every couple of hours, I think. They’d bang on the cage or one of them would pull me out and…feed. And then they fell asleep. When you came…they’d just fed again. Patrick and…another one…Stephen, I think. And it just hurt…the whole time.”
“I will end them. If they are even still walking the earth,” he said sharply.
“Why wouldn’t they be?” She pulled back and swiped at her cheeks. She couldn’t stop her tears, and she hated feeling so…helpless.
“Because when I found you, the Hunters were right behind me. And Patrick…he was lying in a heap on the floor. Sick.” Declan gently took Riley by the arms and held her gaze. “Your blood tastes different from any I have ever sampled. Stronger. Richer. Unique. And it has had no ill effects on me. But Patrick was screaming when I entered his lair. He said he was burning from the inside out. And Riley…” He leaned forward and ran his nose along her vein, inhaling deeply. “You smell…like the sun.”
* * *
The first hintsof the impending day started to light the horizon, and Declan stood and held out his hand. “I must go downstairs until nightfall. Will you come with me?”
“I…” She glanced out the window, her desire to be outside—anywhere but underground again—tempered by her need to feel safe. The idea of leaving Declan didn’t sit well with her. But she couldn’t stay here forever. “This isn’t my world, Declan.”
A muscle in his jaw ticked, and he dropped his arm. “I know. But will you give me one more day? Twenty-four hours? I would like to make sure you will be safe if—when—you leave here.”
“Even if you find those assholes and kill, err, end them, I’m still dying. Nothing you do is going to save me.”
Declan swept her into his arms and pressed his nose to her neck. “You do not smell sick,acushla.Do you stillfeelill?”
“I haven’t felt this good in years.” She rested her cheek against his shoulder. “But how much of that is your blood?”
“My blood will heal many things. Is it possible you are no longer sick at all?”
