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Plus, I was a stubborn bastard.

I could never explain to Cristofer how the ravenous urge to feed also elicited feelings of disgust. It wasn’t that I didn’t experience euphoria. Oh, I did. In such a powerful way that made resistance nearly impossible. But the second I was satiated, waves of repulsion overwhelmed me. I hated myself and who I was. I loathed who I’d been forced to become.

Leaving the bedroom and my sleeping lover, I gently closed the door behind me. It was bad enough that Ensley knew as much as he did and that fogging his mind had failed, but the last thing I needed was for him to get involved in the rescue. The hunters weren’t likely to harm him since he was human, but Iulian was a different story.

I hadn’t shared that part.

Outside, I took to the sky, crossing the distance to the area I’d been the previous night. Instead of landing near the trail or among the trees, I aimed for the lonely eyot, determined to explore the isolated stretch of land and learn what it contained beneath the cover of darkness.

On closer inspection, the boomerang-shaped mass was only partly tree-covered. The rest was barren, a field of dying grass. I came to rest on a plot of land near where the men had docked the rowboat the previous night. The vessel was on the other side, secured to a piling on the mainland.

Odd that they left themselves no way off, but at the same time, it made sense. On the off chance Iulian got free, which I found highly unlikely, he wouldn’t have a means to cross the water—supposing he was too depleted to use any abilities. It would have been stupid to provide him with a means of escape.

Logic suggested there were six human hunters somewhere nearby, but no amount of taxing my ears told of their presence.

I braced a hand on a tree as a wave of exhaustion tormented me. Back home, extended stretches without feeding never affected me like this. I supposed it was because I rarely used my powers, so the drain was negligible. Now, as I relied on them more heavily, I understood Cristofer’s warning.

My keen eyesight was an advantage the hunters didn’t have, so once I was strong enough, I advanced into the forested area on silent feet, scanning for signs of life or habitation. Considering what it would take to hold a superior vampire like Iulian, I suspected the location would be underground and fortified against my kind.

I was right.

Before long, I encountered the first obstacle. In a small clearing, two men guarded what appeared to be a steel hatch set into the earth and covered in foliage sporting white blooms. Their scent alerted me to what sort of flowers they were long before I had the chance to get closer. Garlic blossoms, far more potent than the bulbs themselves.

I reacted instinctively, spine stiffening, jaw tightening. I halted my advance.

The men, dressed in black from head to toe, stood on opposite sides of the hatch facing away from one another. They didn’t speak. I assumed they were meant to keep guard, but both were preoccupied with their phones and not paying attention to their surroundings.

One man had his back to me. The other faced me. Roughly thirty yards separated us. The soft glow from his screen highlighted his cheeks and the scruff dotting his jaw. He wore a ballcap, pulled low on his brow. Both men were armed with long wooden spikes and sheathed knives. They had pouches on their belts, but what they contained, I could only guess.

Two men left several unaccounted for. I had to assume they were underground.

I circled the clearing, keeping a safe distance, but found nothing of interest. Iulian was here. That much I could confirm, but breaching the barrier and descending was impossible. I had no idea what I was up against. A laundry list of possibilities made me wonder if I would be able to do this at all.

In a secluded nook between trees, I crouched and watched the men, waiting for something to happen, although I wasn’t sure what. The guard rotation I witnessed the previous night happened in the evening. I assumed a second exchange occurred in the early dawn, although I hadn’t been around to witness it. How early? Was it before the sun came up? After?

The men chatted at one point, a dull timbre that I caught easily. Nothing remarkable. Woeful complaints about all sorts of things.

At three, a clanging put me on alert. The men jolted to attention and spun toward the hatch, swiping the blossoms aside with their feet. The man with the ballcap heaved on a handle, wrenching the door open. The second man clicked a flashlight and shone the beam on a third comrade who appeared from below, climbing up what I assumed was a ladder.

They exchanged a handful of words, and the new arrival wandered into the trees after announcing he needed to take a leak. One of the remaining guards descended the ladder, leaving only one standing by the open hatch.

Snagging the opportunity, I reached into his mind, implanting a suggestion that he wander the perimeter of the island to check for intruders because he’d heard something.

In seconds, he cocked an ear and frowned before fisting his spike and wandering off into the trees, guided by nothing more than an innocuous prompt. It would occupy him for a dozen or so minutes.

The man relieving his bladder hadn’t gone far. I heard the heavy stream of urine hitting the underbrush. Tapping into his mind, I gave him different instructions, suggesting a cramp, a mild stirring of bowels, hoping it would keep him occupied for a few extra minutes.

Then, risking a drastic waning of strength, I raised a heavy mist over the clearing and aimed for the open hatch, cautiously avoiding the displaced blossoms.

My plan was simple reconnaissance. I had no intention of descending or facing off with a band of hunters. I merely wanted to investigate what lay beneath the earth. A quick peek. Nothing more. In and out. Thirty seconds at most. How far down was this subterranean bunker? What was its construction? How large was it? Were there visible traps up front I should be aware of?

Unfortunately, I didn’t get close enough to answer any of these questions.

Ten yards from my target, something snagged my ankle, tripping me so I staggered forward. I landed hard on my knees, skinning my palms to save hitting my face on the ground. At the same instant, blinding lights flickered and blazed to life, filling the clearing like high noon on a summer day.

Its effect was immediate. The blast of imitation sunlight seared my retinas and drained my powers, leaving me human, vulnerable, and crippled with an overwhelming discomfort that bordered on pain. It seized my muscles, and I cowered, trying to shrink away from the assault.

The mist evaporated.