“Good. I like when you admit you’re an idiot.”
“No matter.” Roland’s grip on her tightened. “I acquired Beckham’s trust and led you here. I was waiting for you to make your move and expose yourself.”
“Reyna,” Katarina said from the corner. “Stay very still.”
“Keep out of this,” Roland spat at her.
Jodie slowly eased out the door. It was clear she was going to get help, but who could help Reyna out of this? Even Beckham couldn’t move fast enough to stop Roland from snapping her neck. She had to do it. She had to make him stop.
“Why are you doing this?” Reyna asked. “You helped us. You gave us the information to stop Harrington. You were on our side.”
“You’re the key, Reyna. If I control you, then I control Beckham. I can take Visage. I can put him in his place. I canrule.”
She sighed in exasperation. “God, get an original idea. Harrington already tried that one. Look how well that went for him.”
Roland snarled low and then did the unthinkable. He reared back and sank his fangs into her neck.
Reyna screamed as he pierced the tender skin. His venom flooded her system. It felt like black sludge in her veins in comparison to Beckham’s sweet euphoria. But it rocked through her nonetheless. Adrenaline raced through her. Flight or fight started and all she wanted to do was flee. She struggled against him, attempting anything to dislodge him, but he had her in his grasp.
She was the sheep.
He was the wolf.
Nothing she could do would stop him.
Then he pulled back, gasping in pleasure. “Sweet nectar of the gods,” he groaned. “No wonder he has held you to himself.”
Reyna reached out, dizzy and disoriented, for Beckham, but she felt nothing. She felt like ice. Roland couldn’t have taken that much from her. It wasn’t possible.
She tried again, grasping for Beckham to heal her. She felt a flicker of his location. The sense of where he was somewhere below her in this enormous compound. But that was it. Either he was too weak to heal her or she was too weak to reach him.
She slumped forward in Roland’s arms.
“Let her go,” Katarina snarled. “You’re killing her. What is wrong with you?”
“I wanted to taste her, as I have wanted to for too long.”
Reyna coughed and tried to hang on to coherent thought. She straightened and opened her dark eyes. She could do this. “Do you know what happens if you kill me?”
“I take over the world.”
“Beckham kills you. No if, and, or but about it. You will be dead within twenty-four hours. If you go through with this, you die.” Reyna’s head lolled. “Beckham will kill you. He will hunt you down and end your worthless existence. You think you’re going to get Visage out of this bargain? Now that you’ve tasted my blood? If you kill me?”
“That’s your version of things.”
“If you let me go,” Reyna continued, “you’ll get a head start. We can go back to being enemies tomorrow.”
Roland laughed. “We never stopped being enemies, ma cherie.”
“At least that we can agree on.”
She closed her eyes, ignoring the pain from her neck, and felt for Beckham. He was closer than before. Much closer. He was coming for her. She didn’t want him to come in here. Then he would be in the same position she had pretended to be in with Jodie. She needed to get Roland to release her before Beckham came inside. Because that was precisely what Roland wanted from her.
“Worse,” Reyna finally struggled out. “We can do worse to you.”
“Worse than killing me?” he asked with a laugh.
That was when she saw her opening and pressed into his ego and his sense of self-preservation. “We can cure you. Make you nothing more than a worthless human. Force you to live out your days just like me.”
