I threw a glare his way, hoping he could see it in the dark, wondering when he’d bust out with the ‘young grasshopper.’
Steel hands wrapped around my throat and slammed me against a tree, the bark biting into my cheek. Frantic for air, I clawed at his arms as my legs flailed, hoping to connect with him but to no avail. Just when I started to feel woozy, he let go. Cool air rushed into my lungs, and I stumbled forward. Thank God, the asshole was giving me time to recoup. I closed my eyes to compose myself, when a howl pierced the calm night air.
“Jolie,” Rand snapped. I didn’t waste time rushing to his side, not at all excited about the prospect of standing on my own when a possible werewolf or something worse lurked in the foliage.
Ryder just stood there, staring into the woods like the idiot he was.
The howl sounded again, this time louder and closer. It was definitely the call of a werewolf. My heart jumped into my throat, and I had to resist the urge to grab onto Rand as I wondered if the wolf was Trent. I couldn’t imagine he would be idiotic enough to come for me when Rand could turn him into wolf shish kabob as easily as blinking. But what other wolf would have any reason to be here?
Rand looked directly into my eyes. “Don’t move.” Before I could question him, he slipped into the forest, hidden by foliage and darkness.
“Rand!” I called, worried that he might not come back. Then I checked myself, he was a warlock. I should be more worried for the wolf.
“I wonder what the hell that was?” I said, turning to face Ryder.
Ryder’s fist interrupted my vision as it connected with my face.
Then there was the blackness of nothing.
~
I felt like I was swimming.
Swimming through the blackest ocean, but it wasn’t an ocean at all, more like oil, thick and unyielding. I fell underneath the wave of black and crested again, sputtering.
I could hear something; it was the faintest sound of a voice calling to me in the distance. I just had to swim through the sludge to get to the shore, a seemingly easy deed that proved extremely difficult.
I didn’t have the stamina to stay afloat. My limbs ached with the intense agony of swimming in a limitless sea with no horizon in view. I went under again, and the voice called to me, encouraging me to swim through the wave.
I opened my eyes and saw white. I blinked, trying to focus. Slowly, the white took the form of a ceiling, a brown water stain spreading from the middle of the ceiling to one corner like a great big spider with one leg stretched out.
I was in a bed; I could feel the fluff of the pillow underneath my neck. I tried to turn my head, to take in my surroundings, but as soon as I moved, pain stabbed the back of my skull.
Magic.
It would take the headache away. I attempted to bring my hand to my head, but I couldn’t move my arm—something held it firmly in place, something cold. I pulled against the restraint again, and the sound of metal grating metal caused my eyes to pop open. Even though I knew the pain would fight me, I turned my head and looked down.
Each of my wrists was handcuffed to the metal railing of a cot. I turned my face forward again and closed my eyes against the onslaught of panic that was already visiting me.
My head ached like a bitch. But it wasn’t the pain that disturbed me the most; it was the sudden exhaustion that visited like a bolt of lightning. It was a fatigue the level of which I’d never experienced before—like I hadn’t had a thing to eat for two days and had just run a marathon—that sort of exhausted. Course, I’ve never run a marathon, but if I had, I’m sure I’d feel as tired as I now was.
I forced my attention back to the present, back to the riddle of why I was cuffed to a bed in a room I didn’t recognize.
“She’s coming to.” I recognized the voice. I couldn’t bring myself to open my eyes, though—invisible weights hung on the end of every one of my eyelashes.
I fell back into the tide of black water.
I don’t know when I awoke again. It could have been minutes or days, but I suddenly found myself conscious. I opened my eyes and my vision floundered for a minute. My gaze settled on the same white ceiling. Not a sound interrupted the silence of the room. It was quiet, too quiet.
Was I dead? I paid attention once more to my body and pulled against the cuffs that were still in full effect. If I were dead, I imagined I’d gone south because this certainly wasn’t the treatment of the saved.
I didn’t feel any pain, which was a relief. My vision blurred as I trained it to focus on an empty chair in the corner of the room. A feeling of nausea washed over me, like I had the worst case of the flu.
Once my eyes were capable of focusing again, I turned my head to take in the rest of the room. It was small and uncluttered. There was the cot I was occupying, a small bedside table, as well as two chairs, one on either side of me. Both were empty.
Knowing enough of my situation now, I began to worry.
Foreign room + cuffed to bed = bad situation.
I closed my eyes and breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth, trying to calm the fear that stampeded within me. My fear wouldn’t do me any good.
Think, Jolie, remember what happened … I told myself.
All I could remember was practicing my self-defense lessons with Ryder outside, and Rand was there. I was pissed off about something … God, what was it? I couldn’t remember. Then I recalled the howl from the trees, and Rand had gone to inquire.
Oh, God, Rand …
A scream sounded within my ears but never birthed itself on my lips. What had happened to Rand? I just couldn’t remember. I shook my head against the images that visited me—thoughts of Rand being killed by a wolf. I opened my eyes, hoping to dispel the horrors playing underneath my eyelids.
Then I remembered Ryder’s fist. I closed my eyes against the fury that seized my heart and threatened to squeeze the life out of it. Tears burned the corners of my eyes.
“Are you hungry?”
I gasped as my eyes flew open and it took me a moment to focus on the face smiling down at me. I knew that face. Dark hair, blue eyes, handsome aquiline features. Yes, I definitely recognized the face, but my muddled mind couldn’t put a name to it. It wasn’t a face that caused me any sort of fear; actually, it was quite the opposite. The man was extremely attractive, and his smile helped to subdue the anxiety warring within me.
“What’s wrong with me?” My voice sounded foreign, and I wondered if I’d pass out. This had to be what someone on drugs felt like—only partially aware of her surroundings and in control of nothing.
“You are being subdued,” the man continued as he sat in the chair closest to my cot. “You need to eat.” His voice echoed through my head as if there were valleys and mountains between my ears. I fought to maintain my focus on him. He kept fading in and out, as if projected on a screen that someone kept moving.
I shook my head. “I’m … not hungry.”
“You have not eaten anything in three days, Jolie.”
He knew my name. A flurry of wasps attacked my stomach and I had to close my eyes against the wave of exhaustion that rode over me. “How do you know my name?”
“You do not remember me now, but you will in time.” His voice was so deep, so baritone, and there was something different about it—an accent maybe? I kept my eyes closed, imagining it too great a task to even attempt to open them.
“Your memories will come back to you soon.”
“Tell me … what’s wrong … with me.”
“We had to subdue you so we … drained you.”
Drained me. … I couldn’t quite grasp what that meant. I could only focus on the timbre of his voice, how it reminded me of waves crashing against rocks. Somehow, I thought I should pay attention to the part of the conversation where he’d said someone had drained me, but I just couldn’t.
He said something more, but his voice was unintelligible and before I knew it, I was laying in a field of the greenest grass, with a
gnome whispering in my ear.
~
When I came to again, I wasn’t alone. I opened my eyes to see the dark haired man. I glanced down and found myself still cuffed to the hospital cot, a white blanket covering my lower half.
“How long was I out?”
“Perhaps an hour,” the man answered. I turned and noticed he was still holding the untouched soup. “You need to eat. Are you peckish?”
I had to imagine that meant hungry. But I wasn’t much concerned with food at the moment—I was more thrilled with the fact that I actually had awakened with a bit of energy. “I want answers.”
He shook his head. “You eat and I will answer your questions.”
I sighed, but nodded and parted my lips as he spooned the now lukewarm soup into my mouth. As soon as the first bit went down, my body came to attention, my stomach clenching with hunger. He brought another spoonful, and I swallowed it quickly, licking my lips where some escaped.
“You must eat it slowly or you will be ill,” the man said and pulled the spoon away from my mouth, depositing it in the bowl.
There was a certain kindness in his blue eyes. I didn’t know why, but instinctively, I wanted to trust him. As soon as the thought dared assault my brain, I rebelled against the lunacy of it. What the hell was wrong with me? There was nothing good about this man—he was holding me against my will and then there was that whole drained business.
I’d lost my goddamned mind.
“You said you drained me, what does that mean?”
The man dropped his gaze. “You were going to fight us. We needed to ensure we had complete control over you, so we drank from you.”
I thought I might wretch up the soup I’d just consumed. Drank from me? The sudden need to search my neck for signs of puncture wounds overwhelmed me, and I strained against my bonds. “You’re a vampire?”
“Yes. And before you ask, no, you will not become one of us …”
“I already know that,” I snapped, feeling exhausted. “Why does drinking from me make me feel like this?”
“You do not have enough blood in your system to operate fully.”
Shock and fear surged through me, as if hell bent on waging a war, but I realized it was no use. I was completely alone, cuffed to a bed in a foreign and unfriendly place with a vampire keeping watch over me. A vampire who’d already helped himself to my blood.
God, where was Rand?
Then I remembered I could speak to Rand with my thoughts. I closed my eyes. Rand …
It felt like someone stabbed me with a lance straight through my eye. It was so quick and unexpected, I cried out against the pain and pulled against the cuffs that held me tightly in place.
“You cannot use magic here. You are under a spell to prohibit it. I suppose I should have told you earlier.”
I squeezed my eyes against the tears that threatened to explode underneath my eyelids. I wouldn’t allow myself to cry. “Am I going to die?”
The man laughed. “No. In a few days, you will be fine. That is, if you do not fight us.”
“Who are you?” I opened my eyes again and focused on the man, trying to remember where I knew him or how I knew him.
The corner of his mouth lifted, but the would-be smile never reached his ice blue eyes. “Sinjin. We met at a party, do you recall?”
Icy realization crystallized in my blood. That smirk, those eyes, I should have known. “Yes, I recall.” I’d harbored a soft spot for Sinjin and to think he was keeping me here against my will and … drinking from me. Then I realized the fruitlessness of it all. It didn’t matter that I felt angry or hurt by what I perceived as his betrayal. Those feelings would do nothing for me now. “Why couldn’t I recognize you before?”
“You did not have enough blood in your system—it causes a concussion.”
A concussion? I had to swallow the bile in my throat and closed my eyes, warning the tears to keep away. I would not cry in front of this … monster.
“It seems last time we met was under … better circumstances,” he said.
I refused to look at him. Refused to admire the ocean blue of his eyes or the jet black of his hair and the shadow that covered his chin and cheeks. “I have nothing to say to you.”
He stood and made a motion to leave. “Very well, I shall leave you to your rest.”
Then I realized I was being stupid. I needed answers to my questions. “How did I get here?”
He sat back down. Picking up the soup once more, he held it to me. “Swallow a few more bites, and I will tell you.”
I acquiesced, and he blotted my lips where some of the soup escaped. Amazingly enough, I could feel my strength returning with every bite. It only steeled my will to learn what I needed to know from Sinjin in order to get out of here ASAP.
“Ryder brought you to us.”
The bastard! So he’d been a spy all along. Hatred pooled in my gut as I thought how much I’d love to run a stake through his heart …
“Is Rand okay?” I blurted out, thinking I couldn’t handle the possibility that Rand might be injured or worse, here.
“Yes, he is fine.”
“Did you capture him as well?”
“It was you we were after.”
“And Ryder, is he here?”
“Yes, but I am your assigned keeper.”
I sighed, relieved because between the two of them, I’d prefer having Sinjin for company. At least he could put a sentence together. “I assume that when you said Ryder brought me to ‘us,’ you meant Bella?”
He nodded, but didn’t say anything more.
I remembered Bella’s territory included the US and my stomach dropped. Maybe I wasn’t even in England anymore. “Am I still in England?”
“I cannot answer that question.”
I felt tired again. “Have you been feeding on me?”
Sinjin shook his head. “Ryder did.”
Bile traveled up my throat and I had to swallow it back down. The thought that Ryder had fed on me left me cold, and I immediately regretted eating any of the soup for fear it might revisit me.
My limbs ached as I attempted to shift in the bed. “Can you release me from these please?”
Sinjin hesitated. “Please,” I begged. “I can barely even lift my head let alone attempt to escape from you.”
Apparently seeing my point, he chuckled and leaned over to uncuff me. Once my hands were free, I rubbed my wrists, trying to relieve the pain. But the pain in my wrists was barely noticeable when I thought of Ryder feeding on me. Swallowing hard, I reached for my neck and noted the telltale puncture wounds. They felt like two tiny hills protruding from my neck, both concave in the middle.
“How long will these take to heal?”
Sinjin leaned into me. Shocked, I pulled back from him, but his grasp was strong and he easily held me in place. Oh God, not again! I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out. I didn’t feel his teeth—only the soft caress of his tongue on the puncture wounds.
He pulled away from me. “It is healed.”
My heart pounded and heat flushed my cheeks. I smacked my hand against the side of my neck as I searched, in vain, for the two marks. “They’re gone. What did you do?”
Sinjin shrugged. “Ryder, the fool, forgot to close you. If you seal the wounds with vampire saliva, they fade away to nothing.” My wide eyes met Sinjin’s and he smiled, licking his lips. “You taste wonderful.”
I started trembling. “You stay away from me.”
He laughed. “You will soon come to realize I am the only friend you have here.”
I’d thought he was the closest thing to a friend at Bella’s party and look where that had gotten me. “What does Bella want from me?”
“She wants you to join her side.”
“And if I refuse?”
“You will not refuse.”
I didn’t get a chance to argue as he stood and took hold of my arms. I had no energy to fight him. He reached for the cuffs and pinned my wrists in
each one as I looked on helplessly.
“I am going to get you more soup.”
I closed my eyes, praying this was all a dream, a terrible nightmare that plagues you, but always promises escape simply by waking up. But I knew such thoughts were hopeless. This was no dream. This was reality, cold and stark.
The door opened and Sinjin returned. He wasn’t alone. Ryder strolled beside him, acting as though he was late for one of our lessons, not as though he’d punched me in the face and then kidnapped me, or witchnapped me as the case may be. My stomach clenched at the sight of him, and all I could think about was that thing, sucking the life from me.
Ryder wasn’t shy about his disloyalty. He strolled to my bedside and looked as if he were ready to bite into my neck the moment I came into view.
“Keep away from her,” Sinjin growled.
Ryder grunted, but backed away, taking a seat in the chair beside the bed.
So it seemed Sinjin was the alpha vampire between the two of them. I wasn’t sure who’d win if you pitted them against one another. Sinjin was taller, but Ryder was as thick as a wall and I’m not talking about his intellectual capacity.
“I’m hungry,” Ryder groaned, never taking his eyes off me. “An’ she tastes real good.”
“You are not to touch her again. You nearly drained her completely.”
I felt utterly and completely invaded. I couldn’t help but wonder if Rand had any idea what had happened to me. Had he seen Ryder abduct me? Where was he, and was he trying to find me?
“Ryder, come here,” I said with as much authority as I could muster which wasn’t much considering I was the one cuffed to a bed and on death’s door.
Ryder chuckled. “She wants more.”
“I want to ask you some questions.”
“Be careful what you answer,” Sinjin warned the big and stupid oaf.
Ryder neared me and leaned in too close. I could see the hunger in his eyes and prayed that Sinjin wouldn’t leave us alone. Ryder would kill me, I could see it as clear as day in the void of his eyes.
“What happened to Rand?” I asked, forcing my mind off the devilish look in his gaze and his elongated canines.