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“Neither of us can reach the door. But I assume if we could, we’d find it locked.” Keaton held his arm out, palm facing up. He tapped his finger on the crook of his elbow. “There’s a puncture mark here. I assume you also had the same thing done.”

I flipped my arm over and studied the place where Keaton’s finger rested on his arm. When a study of the right one found nothing, I turned my attention to the left one. It didn’t take long once I had the correct arm to find the telltale mark. Anger surged. Who was this fucker who thought he could set a trap, incapacitate his victims, and then drag them back to his lair and do whatever the fuck he wanted to them? There were some twisted people in the world. I’d met some of them. Hell, I’d taken pleasure in conning some of them, but this took the biscuit as a premeditated act.

“I assume he took blood,” Keaton said. “That’s the most likely scenario I could come up with after chewing on it for a while.”

“Why?”

“Who the fuck knows. I haven’t met our captor yet.” The word ‘captor’ had me gritting my teeth. “No noise,” Keaton continued. “Either the room is soundproofed or there’s been nothing to hear. I don’t know if we’re the only people here or there’re others. You’ve probably noticed the blood on the wall. I don’t mind admitting that I haven’t taken a lot of comfort from that.” His gaze dropped to my neck. “Your chain is gone. And your watch.”

My hand flew to my neck, anger rolling over me in waves when I found it missing. Keaton gave me a curious look, but didn’t ask. No doubt he could tell from my expression that it wasn’t a topic I was up for discussing. “Your ring?” I asked.

“Gone as well.” He heaved out a sigh. “So to summarize, we’re up shit creek without a paddle.”

I still had my hand wrapped around my neck. The only time I’d taken that chain off since being given it was when it had broken and I’d had to find a new chain to hang the pendant on. I wanted to kill whoever had taken it from me, and I wanted to do it slowly and painfully.

“My father gave me that ring,” Keaton said out of the blue. “That’s why it means a lot to me, and I couldn’t let you steal it. I had considered swapping it for the suppressants until you tried to steal it.”

Mention of the suppressants that didn’t exist had me leaning my head back against the wall as an excuse not to have to look at Keaton. “What’s so important that you need them?”

A glance Keaton’s way found him staring at the concrete floor with a strange expression on his face. “Have you heard of the Seekers?”

I shook my head. “Should I have done?” Keaton shrugged. “Who are they?”

“It's a cult started by a crazy Canadian who found his way over here. I guess he got bored with not being the one in charge and wanted a cult of his very own, or something like that. Or maybe the cult is no more in Canada. I don’t know. The news service between here and there has been a little sluggish for the past seventy-six years.”

“Does he have a name this man?”

“William Anderson.” He said it with a sneer, like it left a nasty taste in his mouth. “But the other members call him Beloved Father. It apparently started as some sort of farming thing, but he’d stopped pretending it was anything but a religion by the time he reached our shores.”

I grimaced. “It all sounds like bullshit, if you ask me.”

Keaton laughed. “Oh, you don’t know the half of it. They’re all about recruiting members who’ve never been exposed to the red rain.”

“That must be a challenge. I’m surprised they can find enough people.”

Something about that statement made a muscle tick in Keaton’s jaw. “Yeah, it’s amazing the lengths they’ll go to. Like swooping in on a sweet and vulnerable girl who’s always been a little lost.”

“Your sister?” I guessed.

“Yeah.”

“So you want to rescue her?”

A shadow passed across Keaton’s face, and for one awful moment, I thought he might start crying. He blinked, and the moment was gone. “They have a strict set of rules that every member has to abide by. If they don’t, there are consequences.”

“What sort of consequences?”

“They have a thing called the cleansing, where they have to stand out in the red rain in just a white robe. If the Lord forgives them their sins, then they survive. If mercy isn’t granted and they turn, then they were never worthy. Serena…” His voice caught, and he cleared his throat. “That was my sister’s name.” Was. That “was” might as well have been carved into my skin. “She turned,” he said, “the first time they did it to her.”

“So not a rescue. You want revenge?”

“That, and to know where they buried her.”

“And where are these Seekers?”

“The south coast.” Keaton’s mouth twisted. “The bastard took up residence in Dover Castle like he was some sort of king.”

“That’s a long way to travel.”