Page 47 of No One’s Daughter

I felt my control slipping from my grasp. This wasn’t at all going as I had planned. I needed to get in contact with Marlette and figure out just how much shit I was in. The call I’d tried to make back at the pub hadn’t connected. How long had Zack’s team been following me? Were they on our trail now?

I needed to get her out, needed to train her. Force her to realise her power and potential and claim it. But she didn’t trust me. For good reason I supposed but I was at a loss at how else to approach it. I couldn’t give her the choice of making her own decisions.

I groaned internally. I’d been so foolish to think we had time. I should have hidden her and cut ties with the Ninth from the moment I suspected who she was.

My eyes were firmly on the winding country road ahead when I suddenly felt a brush of chill air to my side.

I turned just in time to see her door swing wide open.

And then she was gone.

For a single, disorienting heartbeat I was rendered immobilised. I watched her body hit the tarmac and roll toward a ditch of overgrown wild blackberry bushes, then she was on her feet and in a blur of speed as she climbed a cattle gate and ran into a field.

Fucking Hell. This woman.

I swerved the car to an abrupt halt and I took off after her in pursuit. I angled the cap down to shadow my face from the fucking sun that was now burning in the sky. It wasn’t high yet, but it was there, nonetheless. I could already feel it, the slow, creeping burn along my skin, and I pulled my hood up over the cap as I kept to the shadows of the hedges.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

That bitch.

She’d timed it.

She’d waited until sun up deliberately.

Clever.

Fucking fuck.

My eyes tracked where I’d seen her last, and there she was. She was cutting across the field at an angle, long grass brushing against her legs, uneven ground slowing her pace just enough. Beyond her, the land stretched open—rolling fields bordered by dry stone walls, patches of gorse and hedges breaking the landscape, nowhere near enough cover to hide from me.

Thank fuck.

She didn’t stand a chance.

I wouldn’t last more than a few minutes in the direct sunlight. But I wouldn’t need more than that.

The sunlight bit harder the moment I stepped beyond the shadows, a searing sting that crawled over my exposed skin, but I pushed through it, closing the distance between us fast.

She was quick and clever.

But she was untrained.

I had centuries on her.

I took seconds.

I caught her from behind, my hand fisting in her hair as I dragged her back against my chest, her momentum snapping her short with a breathless sound. She struggled instantly—twisting, kicking, clawing at anything she could reach—but it made no difference.

“Enough,” I snapped, already hauling her back the way we’d come, ignoring the burn climbing steadily up my neck and across my hands.

She fought the entire way.

“Fine,” I said, breath tight, irritation cutting through every word. “Have it your way.”

I slammed her body against the side of the vehicle, the impact solid enough to knock the fight out of her for half a second. I twisted her arms behind her back, forcing her still beneath my weight as I reached into my pocket, pulling free a heavy duty chain I’d acquired at the petrol station just in case the need arose for a situation like this. I secured her wrists in one swift motion, making sure to wrap the metal around her tightly several times.

She writhed against me with all her might, but she was no match for me. She might have been powerful but she didn’t know how to wield it and her physical strength was nothing compared to mine. With the chain secured I took hold of her by the hair and yanked her back against me once more.