“What’s your name?”
I cleared my throat, wincing at the burn. “Adrienne Valois.”
The girl smiled, slipping her hand back in mine. “Elaina Belovuk.”
Belovuk. I thought I knew that name from somewhere, but my tongue was heavy in my mouth when I tried to speak. She shushed me, wiping my face again.
“I’ve been here…for a while. I lost count around six months,” she explained, assuming wrongly what I’d been about to ask. “Occasionally the vampire brings me up to meet immortals and they feed on me, but they always return me back here. When I first arrived, there was a human male here with me named Joseph, but he didn’t return after his last summons.”
My head swam and I struggled to follow what she was saying. “H-how long have I…?” I barely managed the words before my stomach lurched, but there was nothing to come up. Her thumb ran across my knuckles comfortingly.
“A day, I think.” She started to hum as she wiped my face again. The sound was soft but lovely, a reminder of the musicthat had all but abandoned me in the prison of Lucas’ townhome. My eyes stung with tears as she worked over me, refolding the cloth to blot at the angry wounds.
Suddenly, she froze. “Someone is coming.”
But she did not scoot away as I expected. Instead, she clutched me tighter, shielding my body with hers as she turned toward the door. The vampire male I’d seen before slipped through, his violet eyes shining in the dark.
“Ah, you’re awake, Mademoiselle Valois. There is a buyer here interested to meet you.”
Elaina’s hand tightened around mine. “She is ill.”
The vampire only nodded. “And should she behave, Elaina, I will give her the necessary tonics to be well again. Come, Mademoiselle.”
The room spun as I rolled to the left, Elaina helping me to my feet. It was then I saw the bars around us as the vampire slid a key into the lock and opened the door.
“These are powerful immortals you are about to meet,” he hissed. “Please them and you please me. Anger them and you anger me, do you understand?”
All this time I’d thought I had been raised to be a blood giver in Oylen, to sit at luxurious tables with influential vampires and offer them my blood. I’d believed I was to be coveted and possessed—a jewel set into a ring on a powerful hand. But if there was anything I had learned since being kidnapped, it was thatthiswas what my mother had raised me for.
I was a pig to be slaughtered as soon as the harvest failed.
Perhaps that was why I no longer fought. Why after the first few days my screams had turned to shrieks and then to silence. I was as good as what I could offer, and the moment I could not, I was thrown out like the trash I was.
So I nodded at this immortal as he swung open the door and led me up the narrow staircase. The thick scent of incensefilled the air, but I had no time to assess the room, not with my vision hazing and the floor tilting. I wasn’t sure exactly how we’d gotten there, but we were stopping in front of another door, the male pulling my hair back from my face before he opened it.
I was dreaming, I was sure of it.
Seth stood by the fire, his hand resting on the mantel, outfitted in a beautiful dark blue suit and light gray half cloak thrown over one shoulder. His black hair brushed his chest, unbound unlike how males usually had it in this time, complementing his neatly trimmed beard. Those golden eyes pierced mine for the briefest of moments before they slid to the right.
To where Eamon stood.
“If it is beauty you are looking for, sire, this is the best I have to offer you,” the male who held me began. “Her previous owner kept her in a sorry state and I’m afraid I have not yet had the time to heal her. However, should you desire, I would be happy to make the arrangements.”
My knees trembled while burning tears slid down my cheeks. Eamon was similarly outfitted to Seth, but he held none of the smooth gracefulness of his maker. A muscle pulsed in his strong jaw and though his body tensed with violence rippling off him in waves, his eyes were full of so much love I wondered if I was dead instead of asleep and Keryes was offering me one final mercy.
Because there was no world in which I’d thought I would see Eamon again. No matter how many times he had told me I was his blood mate, deep down part of me had believed he would let me go.
“I have another female downstairs as well. A Lycan, from a powerful line. I’ve kept her fed on a steady diet ofluynaversoshould you fear her more…feral qualities.” The male nudged me forward. “Go on, greet them.”
Eamon reached for me the very moment I took astumbling step, gathering me into his arms and pressing my face to his throat. I breathed in his scent, clutching at the lapels of his jacket. Every wall I’d ever built to keep him out crumbled around me as his skin touched mine. Never had I known such safety and security as when I was in his arms. His hand slipped through my hair, catching on the tangles, but his chin angled toward the vampire, whose brows drew together in confusion.
Seth flicked his hand lazily and the door shut behind us with acrack.
“My lord?” the male asked slowly.
From the corner of my eye I caught Seth prowling forward, but it was my mate’s low growl that filled my ears.
“Send my regards to Keryes.”
