Chapter 27

The man behind the wheel wasn't Mr. Jones, it was a stranger, a little younger than Mr. Jones, with thick brown hair.

Wariness sheeted up my spine. I leaned forward. "Where's Mr. Jones?"

The driver's eyes met mine in the rearview mirror. "He had a family emergency. They sent me instead. That okay?"

Something about the way he was acting made me uncomfortable. He was too casual, trying too hard to reassure me.

"Of course it is." I slid the phone from my jacket pocket, careful to keep it out of sight of the rearview mirror. "I'm sorry about Mr. Jones, though. Is everything all right?"

"Everything's fine," the driver replied, his eyes on the road again. "I'll tell him you asked, though."

I nodded and flashed what I hoped was an unconcerned smile, then turned sideways and pretended to look out the window, trying to open the phone without the driver seeing.

In the window, I glimpsed a dark shimmer. It took me a beat to realize it was a reflection, that the shimmer wasn't outside the SUV, it was inside.

With me.

My heart kicked into overdrive. A vampire, coming out of the shadows. I jerked around in time to see a man in a pinstriped suit and a short hipster ponytail appear on the backseat.

Forget hiding that I was texting. I shoved the phone in front of my face and it opened. I desperately typed a short text to Talon.

EDEN:Help. Vampir—

I never pressed Send.

With superhuman speed, the ponytailed man plucked the phone from my hand, deleted the text, and powered it off.

My lungs compressed. I lunged for the door handle, then halted. We were going at least thirty-five miles an hour.

The baby. You can't jump. Not at this speed.

I swallowed sickly. Why hadn't I kept that freaking switchblade with me? It was still in the bottom of my sewing box. But I hadn't wanted to give Talon another reason not to trust me. I'd even wondered if it could be some kind of a test.

The vampire or dhampir—I didn't know which—produced a syringe from his suit pocket.

What the—?Panicked, I worked frantically at the handle, but the child lock had been activated and the door wouldn't open.

"Let go of the door." He spoke in Québécois-accented English, low and stern.

I released the handle, my eyes on the fluid-filled syringe. "What's that?"

"Something to put you to sleep."

Every hair on my body lifted. My heart battered at my chest with small, terrified fists.

"No! You can't." My fingers fumbled with the seatbelt buckle, trying to disengage it. "Please—I'm pregnant. You could hurt the baby."

"This won't hurt your spawn." Cool fingers pried mine from the buckle.

"No." I shoved at his arm. "I mean, please, I'll do anything you say. Just don't—"

My pleas strangled in my chest as he grabbed my leg, plunging the syringe through my pants and into my thigh.

"No," I cried, bucking wildly, fighting to get free. When that didn't work, I switched tactics, going for his face with my fingernails, trying to dig them into his goddamn eyes.

His hand shot up, too fast to see, corralling both my wrists. He kept them raised high above my head while he finished injecting a clear fluid into my thigh.

"Don't worry." Withdrawing the needle, he tucked the syringe back into his pocket and released my wrists. "We don't want to hurt you or your spawn."

A red-hot rage heated my brain. "You dick. I'll kill you for this."

I tried again to open the door handle.

A hand landed on my shoulder. "Calm yourself."

I tried to shake him off. "I will not—"

I stared at my fingers. I couldn't feel the handle anymore, or his hand on my shoulder. Fear stole my breath. Ice slid through my veins, slowly and inexorably, like a creek in the winter.

My eyelids grew heavy. I forced them open as he undid my seatbelt and eased me onto my side on the leather seat.

"Talon will—" My mouth had filled with marbles. I couldn't talk around them.

"Talon will think you ran away," he informed me in silky tones. "Again."

My stomach hollowed out. No.

Talon just might believe it. He might even think this was why I'd been so eager to see my mom and dad.

I shook my head against the seat. Inside, I was screaming and screaming, but all that came out was a moan.

The ice was everywhere now. I couldn't feel my legs or toes or even the leather beneath my cheek. My vision went dark but I could still hear.

The car slowed. The driver finally spoke. "What the fuck? You said you wouldn't hurt her or the kid."

The blond man growled. "Keep driving."

The darkness dragged me under.