“Well, do you?”
“No,” I lied. “Not anymore.”
Stark looked at the crate, and I could see his wheels turning.
Probably his guilt kicking in.
Then, without warning, he reached inside the crate and lifted Charlie’s body by the head, giving the neck a twist. A loud crack ensued.
“There. All fixed,” he said. “Now Charlie will not turn. Happy?” Stark dropped the lifeless body back into the crate like a ragdoll.
Meanwhile, I just stood there, my mind trying to comprehend exactly who this person—vampire—was. So cruel. So vicious. What had I ever seen in him?
I felt the love inside me silently fizzling. There wasn’t one thing about him that I recognized.
“I never liked Charlie anyway,” he added. “Always driveling on and on about humans and vampires living in peace. Would’ve made a bad vampire.”
“Howdid you becomeso evil? No concern for life, for me, for anything.”
Stark sighed with exasperation. “Perhapsyouare the evil one. You placed Charlie in this position to begin with.”
No matter what I said, I couldn’t get through to him. “Yep. We’re all going to die,” I muttered to myself. “All because I fell in love with a five-hundred-year-old man with a T-rex brain. We lost our one chance.” If I hadn’t met Stark and gotten involved with him, I wouldn’t have gone to prison, and Stark wouldn’t have outed vampires. In a roundabout way, this was all my fault.
“I assure you, my brain is full-size, along with my other organs.” He stared for a long moment, his eyes narrowing with suspicion. “What are you talking about, ‘we all lost our chance’?”
“Nothing.”
“You are lying.” He hunched down a little, attempting to get a better look at my eyes. I looked away. “What are you hiding, Masie?”
I continued staring in the other direction.
“Answer me.” He pointed a finger in my face. “Answer me, or I will—”
“Go ahead. Do that thing with your eyes. I know you want to. Just remember when you’re doing it, it’s because you’re too weak a man to earn my trust and keep it. You are just another dirty, disgusting vampire to me.”
Like a raging fire combusting, Stark took me by the arms again and lifted me in the air, his eyes ahypnotic swirl of blues and greens. Before I could react, he shot off one word, “Sleep.”
“Dammit, Stark!” I spouted right before following his command.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I didn’t recall dreaming or having any awareness of my surroundings after Stark did the ungentlemanly thing for the fiftieth time by disregarding my right to…not be controlled by him! Dang it!But when I heard him speak the magic word, “Wake,” the lights flipped back on in my head. My rage, too.
I catapulted upright in an elevated bed, eyes wide and teeth gritted. Hot adrenaline pumped through my veins like lava with a vengeance. “You fucking backward pile of shit!”
“My goodness, Masie. What would your mamma say?” A shirtless Stark chuckled, casually manspreading in a black leather armchair a few feet away. The single lightbulb dangling above us cast an ominous shadow over his face—cheekbones, brows, and muscled jaw—along with the contours of his bare chest. He looked like a dark lord sitting in his throne, waiting for a virginal sacrifice.
Luckily for me, I wasn’t a virgin. (Sorry, Mamma.)
My eyes quickly scanned the room for an escaperoute. Stark’s chair blocked the only exit, and the walls were covered in black satin, button-tuft upholstery.
“Your scream-proof waking chamber?” I assumed that was where we were and that I’d been asleep for hours while Stark had waited out the sunlight to get me here. What had he been up to all those hours in the warehouse?Probably drank all our whiskey.
“This room is well insulated, yes; however, my waking chamber is—shall I say?—much more stain resistant.”
Ew.“Then this must be one of your kinky sex rooms.” I’d told him never to bring me here. “Is it the his or hers?”
“Depends on who’s enjoying themselves.” He leaned forward, threading his fingers together, resting his elbows on his knees. “Who told you about the waking chambers?”
