No exit. There was simply no exit. Only sparkling lights and calliope music. Groups of people laughing. Everyone having an amazing time.
Didn’t they know it was all wrong?
Pushing through the crushing throngs of delighted circus goers, she stopped abruptly when she found herself in front of a metal cage. Inside, a white tiger paced back and forth, occasionally stopping to snarl or growl at some unseen thing in the distance.
Don’t pet the tiger, she thought.Bad idea.
And yet… It was so mesmerizing. So majestically beautiful with its restrained violence. A predator this fierce shouldn’t be trapped. Shouldn’t be caged.
Let it out.
The new thought wasn’t hers. She didn’t know where the voice inside her head came from, but it was familiar and comforting. A voice that promised everything would be alright in the end. All you had to do was trust it.
So, she did.
Reaching up to the thick metal bolt, Cora slid the latch over and pushed open the door to the cage.
The tiger stalked over to the threshold and stared down at her. Something ancient and primal danced in the depths of its dark brown eyes as they searched her face.
It really was so beautiful.
And then the beast pounced.
Chapter thirty-nine
Saiden
“Bianca Holgrem.”
Saiden snapped his head over to where his brother sat in front of the computer monitor. “You found her?”
They had been searching for almost an entire day for any information about the blonde vamp that attacked Cora. Baylin had been able to pull only a single blurry still from the security cameras before the system went dark, and he’d been running it through an enhanced facial recognition program for the past ten hours.
Granted it would have been more like twelve hours except Saiden wasn’t particularly helpful in providing details at the beginning. His family showed up at the compound shortly after he started Cora’s transformation, but he didn’t even bother asking where they’d been or what happened. All he cared about was his mate.
Without so much as a word, he’d taken her into his bedroom and stayed locked to her side for the first couple of hours. Turning someone into a vampire wasn’t an instant process. It could take anywhere from half a day to three days depending on the human, and the entire time they needed a slow trickle of Essence to keep the initial influxburning until completion. It was why vampires almost always had family nearby before a change. That way someone could step in and take over when the sire needed a break.
Tressa was with Cora right now, but Saiden couldn’t fight off the urge to return to his mate for much longer. He’d stepped away once to tell them everything he knew about the attack, and a second one shortly after to demand answers from his family. He may have also made a handful of idle threats against their lives and limbs, but his fury at them died off when he was reminded that his cell would work better if he kept it on him. He’d been so wrapped up in his date with Cora that remembering something as trivial as a phone had fallen to the wayside.
It was all Eliana, they’d relayed once he calmed enough to see reason. She’d seen something and pulled all the vamps from the compound at the last minute, leaving only the humans inside, clueless as to what was happening. Minutes later gas filled the house, knocking everyone out, and Bianca showed up.
It was all too easy. Had to be an inside job, they’d determined.
Tressa was the one who eventually caught Donna trying to sneak out the back of the property. It took little effort to wring the confession from their housekeeper, and the sound of hearts breaking could be heard throughout the compound. She had been like family to them, and no one could fathom any possible reason for her betrayal. Until they could figure out not only the how but the why, she was currently enjoying an indefinite stay in their five-star dungeon.
Saiden had made them all promise not to touch the human. Not until he had his chance first.
“Yeah,” Baylin said, pulling Saiden’s attention back to the task at hand. “I think so. Is this her?”
It would be a thousand years before he’d forget the face of the onewho stole his mate’s life. The one who stole his chance to convince her to turn willingly. This Bianca had ripped everything away from him, and staring at the grainy snapshot on Baylin’s monitor caused an intense kind of anger to flare to life that he hadn’t felt in a long time.
The overwhelming urge for violence coursed through him. Not because it was his job and not because it was necessary. No. He wanted to fulfill every promise of pain he’d made to Bianca last night. He wanted her to suffer.
“Where is she?” he gritted out, clenching his fists so tight he might break his own bones again if he didn’t calm down.
“Unknown,” Baylin replied as screen after screen flashed up on the monitor.
Too fast and complicated for Saiden to understand, he collapsed into the chair next to his brother and tried to force the tension from his muscles. He needed to think rationally right now. Later, he promised himself. Later there would be blood. Oceans of it.
