If she acted as fragile as possible, he’d let down his guard even further. “Josiah. You’re hurting me,” she whimpered.
“Good.” He tightened his grip on her wrists. “Tell me what you know about the Vampire Lord, or I’ll take the ring off and let you burn until you beg for mercy.”
Manipulating Josiah was easier than she’d thought. In fact, a kernel of an idea began to bloom in her mind—a way to free every captive in the building—if she could manage to get out of there alive.
She lifted her eyes to his, letting them glisten. “I don’t know anything about an army. But please, Josiah—”
With a tight smile, he stared at her ring. “I’ve wanted to see what would happen when the spirit takes over you.” He dropped her other hand to slip off the ring, but he didn’t get that far. As soon as he let her hand out of his grip, her hand flew to his throat. Within moments, she had both hands around his neck. She dug her thumbs into his Adam’s apple. His eyes bulged, but she wouldn’t be strong enough to choke him out like this. She just needed more of his rage to break her out of this chair.
“The truth is, Josiah, you could never satisfy me like an incubus could.”
His face contorted with rage, and his fingers dug into her wrists before he ripped her hands from his throat. Snarling, he kicked her hard in the chest with one of his boots. The chair flew, slamming against the wall. The blow knocked the wind out of her, but it also had the desired effect. The crash splintered the chair into dozens of pieces.
She was free.
With an exultant smile, she grabbed a fragmented chair leg. When Josiah rushed for her, she jammed the splintered end into his thigh. It wasn’t enough to kill him, but he wouldn’t put up much of a fight after that.
Stunned, Josiah stared at her and staggered back—right into Caine, whose muscular arm tightened around Josiah’s neck.
Where the hell did Caine come from?
“Caine?” she shouted. Wood splinters pierced her back, and at this point, she was sure half her ribs were broken. “How did you get out of the chains?”
His black eyes were fixed on Josiah. Instead of answering, he tightened his grip. Shit. She was quickly formulating a plan, but it was one that required Josiah to be alive.
“Caine!” She shouted. “We need him to live.”
Caine’s midnight eyes, as dark and empty as the opening of a cave, met hers. She wasn’t getting through to him.
“Caine!” Panicking, she rushed forward and slapped him across the face.
He dropped Josiah, whose body landed on the ground with a thud. Rosalind knelt next to the Hunter and felt for a pulse. Blood still pumped through his veins. He was alive, but unconscious. Assuming someone found him before he bled out from the stab wound, he’d pull through.
Caine looked down at her. “You’d better have a very good reason for asking me to leave him alive. If this is sentimentality again, I’m going to kill him.”
Pain wracked her body as she rose. “I know how we can use him to save the others, but we need to get out of here first. We won’t be able to free them from their cells until I can get to a computer.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I need you to trust me.”
“Fine. Josiah was an idiot to underestimate you, and I won’t make the same mistake.” He eyed her torn shirt. “Hang on.”
He stripped off his blood-stained shirt, tossing it to her. She tried not to stare at his muscular chest. Focus, Rosalind. They needed to get the hell out of there.
A voice crackled over Josiah’s walkie-talkie. “Agent Endicott. Please tell us the captives’ status.”
Rosalind slipped into Caine’s shirt, and it nearly hung to her knees. “Thanks.”
“What’s the best way out of here?” Caine asked.
She closed her eyes, trying to visualize the building. “Right now, we’re underground. There are no secret tunnels, and there’s no way to get out discretely. We’re going to have to blend in. We’ll need better outfits.”
“Since you didn’t let me kill Josiah, I’m feeling a bit unsatisfied. I’ll be happy to divest some guards of their clothing.”
Josiah moaned, and Caine kicked him in the head.
The walkie-talkie crackled. “Agent Endicott. Please report immediately.”
“Let’s go,” Caine said.
Rosalind eyed him. “I still don’t understand. How did you get out of the iron chains? I didn’t even hear you escaping. The iron should have sapped your power.”
“No. That’s succubi. We’re different creatures. Like I said, the Brotherhood gave you a lot of misinformation. We don’t have time to get into that now. Let’s go assault some guards.”
Her pulse raced. “The chains didn’t weaken your strength?”
“No. They did nothing, really. Not that I want the Brotherhood to know that. The less they know, the better.”
Her pulse raced. “So—that whole time I was being tortured, you could have stopped it?”