I turned my head and bit into his cheek with my fangs.
“Don’t even try it!” Fletcher roared, locking my head so I couldn’t move.
My eyes bulged, and I felt on the verge of blacking out until I glimpsed movement in the hall. Light glinted off an object that swung in the air, and Christian bent over, his blood streaming onto the floor.
Rachel stood behind him, holding a shovel over her head.
Fletcher let go and jumped to the far corner by the door. “Better get her before she bleeds out. Unless you’re thirsty.” He flashed his teeth at me. “I’ll be seeing you again, my little pet.” He laughed maniacally and disappeared from the room.
Rachel stumbled backward, eyes wide. The shovel hit the floor with a clang, and she bolted out the door.
It took me a minute to realize what was tickling my neck and chest. Fletcher had cut my neck with a pocketknife.
Christian surged toward me and dropped to his knees.
I swayed, dizzy from the blood pouring out of my jugular. He bit his wrist and forced it into my mouth, and sweet Vampire blood flowed across my tongue and down my throat. Every swallow lessened the pain and invigorated me with so much of Christian’s emotions that my head spun.
It wasn’t enough. I clawed my way up to his neck and sank my teeth into his skin, deep enough to access that river of life inside him. Wrapping my arms around his shoulders, I drank deep until my old wounds healed up. I shouldn’t have gone that far, but once I started, it was impossible to break the connection.
And he gave. Not once did he draw back or tell me it was too much, even at the risk of my weakening him.
Christian gripped my chain and yanked it clean out of the wall. When I stopped drinking, he abruptly pushed me away and held my shoulders. “Sweetheart, I’m here now.”
I recoiled and slapped him. Sweetheart? If he hadn’t left me alone at the bar, I wouldn’t have gotten into this mess. It infuriated me so much that I slapped him again.
Christian pulled me into his arms. “Jaysus, I’m sorry. I never meant for this to happen.”
I tried to push away, but he wouldn’t let me.
“You can slap me all you like once we’re home.”
“I’m dirty.” My voice was a hoarse whisper. “You need to go after him.”
“Worry not. They’re on their way.”
“Who?”
“Keystone. Who else?”
I looked back at the empty doorway. “Go after Fletcher.”
“I’m not leaving your side.”
Trembling with anger, I stared at the cuts and bruises on my knuckles. “He needs to pay.”
Christian removed his coat and draped it around me. “I’ll make your Creator suffer a thousandfold for what he’s done.” He held up his bleeding wrist. “I vow it on my blood.”
Hot tears burned my eyes as I looked down at myself. “I don’t want anyone to see me like this.”
As I sat there in that cell, all I could think about was how clean Christian’s coat smelled. I breathed it in, and it wasn’t just his scent in the fibers, it was freedom. So unlike the smell of captivity, which was a distinct blend of sweat, urine, mold, concrete, and humiliation. I hated Fletcher. Wanted him dead. Wanted to set him on fire and put him out repeatedly for the next fifty years.
Or were those Christian’s thoughts?
I wiped the blood from my lips.
Christian glanced back at the door. “Niko’s waiting outside. If you don’t want anyone else to see you, then we’ll go home without them. Niko can stay here and watch the girl. Fletcher’s already taken the car and left her behind. She’s sobbing upstairs.”
I nodded, unable to look him in the eye.
Christian collected me in his arms and stood up. Though Vampire strength ran through my veins, I felt weak in his embrace. He pressed his forehead to mine, his voice a soft caress. “I never stopped looking, Precious. Never.”
Chapter 25
Cold water from the shower beat against my head. A curtain of wet hair surrounded my face as I looked down from my seated position in the shower stall. For whatever reason, standing in that shower made me feel normal again, and I wasn’t ready to feel normal.
“Where have you been, Christian? She’s been in there for over four hours,” Blue said in whispers. “She’s not talking. Shepherd wants to look her over. He said she needs an IV.”
“For feck’s sake. The girl’s been in a dungeon for over a month. Give her a chance to breathe before you accost her with sharp needles. I’m her partner, so let me take care of it.”
The door slammed.
When I looked up, a dark shadow appeared on the other side of the glass door. I’d been sitting in here a long time under a stream of lukewarm water just to get used to warmth on my body.
A knock sounded against the glass. “You can’t stay in there forever,” Christian said. “Are you sure you don’t want me to call Niko in to restore some of your light?”
“No,” I blurted out. “Tell them to stay out.”
My core light would replenish soon enough with time, food, and rest. Though my wounds had already healed from Christian’s blood, I still felt phantom pains all over my body.
Christian drew a circle on the glass. “You have nothing to be ashamed of.”
Mortified, I covered my head with my hands. Why did Christian of all people have to see me like this? Even more confusing was how tender he’d been when he found me. What could possibly have come over him?
The door clicked open, and he reached in to shut off the water. I slicked back my hair and watched with an absence in my heart, as if all my emotions had run down the drain.
Christian knew what I needed without asking, and the last thing I’d wanted when we got home was to talk. He lifted me as if I weighed nothing, the lanterns on the wall flickering as he carried me to the claw-foot tub. I looked down at the steaming water inside. That explained why the glass on the shower door was fogged up. When he lowered me into it, I grimaced from the hot water against my cold skin.
“You’ve lost weight,” he said, the anger in his voice barely caged.
I glanced at the candles in the recessed wall to my right. “I guess your blood wore off. I feel so weak.”
Christian dragged a small stool to the edge of the tub and sat down. His black T-shirt had a small hole near the collar, but he was never one to care about such things. “I’ll have Kira bring you up a plate of food. Real food. Not that shite we were eating months ago. I think you get a free pass from eating downstairs for as long as you need. She makes a decent roast.”
“She’s still here? I thought you all would have scared her off by now.”
“Shepherd does a fair bit of frightening the poor lass, but she doesn’t take nonsense from anyone. Leaves us alone, just as Viktor promised. Doesn’t have any desire to learn English or mingle. She was introverted when I found her. Well,” he said, rubbing his chin, “maybe introverted isn’t the word. She doesn’t seem to want any part of living in the real world.”
“Maybe you two should date.”