Chapter 7

Talon settled back into his seat, watching me from beneath thick dark lashes. His words bounced around in my brain, menace wrapped in silk.

The small jet banked right over the coast of Nova Scotia. Lilith Island came into view, a chunk of black basalt coughed up by a long-ago volcano. My family had lived here for generations, pirates who'd staked a claim back when the French and British were still fighting over Canada. The First Nations people had known about Lilith Island and its neighboring islands, of course, but nobody except the pirates had been willing to cross miles of rough, shark-infested seas to settle them.

To Jules Leclerc, Brien's father and the first Maritime primus, the island's isolation had been ideal. He'd struck a deal with the pirates—sell Lilith Island to him and they and their descendants could live on the land rent-free. My ancestors' stolen treasure had been plowed into legit businesses like farms, fishing boats and shops, while the Maritime Syndicate grew into a powerful conglomerate with its fingers in pies across Eastern Canada.

And Talon was one of their two top men, answerable only to the primus.

I'm still deciding what your punishment will be.

The way his voice had dropped lower… That touch of his tongue to my ear…

I squirmed on my seat, a tiny bit afraid and a whole lot aroused.

Of the three friends—Brien, Talon and Cain—people said Talon was the laidback one. I knew better. With him, like with the ocean, you only saw the surface of something dark and deep and dangerous. Running from him had been a huge miscalculation. I'd triggered his alpha instincts. He would've never stopped hunting until he'd found me.

And now, I was blood-bonded to him. My thumb worried at a piece of lapis lazuli in the gold cuff encircling my wrist. A part of me was thrilled, the part that had missed Talon every single day I'd been gone. Which was messed up, but there it was.

Sensible Eden, though, had thrown up her hands, yelling, "What the hell, girl? He owns you now." That cage door wasn't just shut, it had been padlocked and reinforced with heavy chains.

He'd known just how to work me, too. I would've crawled naked through broken glass to keep my child. It was why I'd run. I'd been so afraid they'd punish me by taking the baby.

You did what you had to.

My mom's voice again.

But that practical tone centered me, reminding me that this wasn't about me, it was about the baby.

The jet dropped lower. It was long after midnight and the island was cloaked in darkness except for a few scattered lights in the windows of Castle Leclerc.

Two months ago, dragging me back to Lilith Island would have been a punishment in itself. Now I put a hand on the window, straining to catch a glimpse of Bluebeard's Cove and the street where my parents lived, but the thick forest between the castle and the town blocked everything except the light burning in the church tower.

Guilt compressed my chest. Mom and Dad must've been going out of their minds wondering if I was all right.

On the ferry to Halifax, I'd dropped my phone into the Atlantic so it couldn't be used to track me. The next day, I'd bought a burner phone and texted my parents to tell them I'd left the island and would be out of touch for a while. When they'd called back, I'd blocked their numbers, and the same with my sister Freya.

"It's not New York." Talon spoke in my ear. When I turned to look at him, his jaw was rigid. "I would've taken you there, you know. All you had to do was ask."

"It wouldn't have been the same."

"Yeah. You wouldn't have been shoehorned into a tiny apartment with no elevator. You'd have been in a big suite in a nice hotel, wearing pretty clothes and eating food you didn't have to buy yourself and carry up four fucking floors after working a long shift."

I shook my head. "It wasn't like that."

"Then how was it?"

"You wouldn't understand."

His mouth compressed. "Try me."

"I needed to do something myself. Make it by myself."

"And how did that go?"

Pride made me lift my chin. "Great. Wonderful. I'd still be there if it wasn't for you."

Actually, I hated it. I missed you. I missed my mom and dad. I was so homesick I spent most of my free time watching Nova Scotia travel vlogs.

The city was too noisy, too busy, too dirty, too…everything.

I'd wanted so bad to call my mom or dad or even Freya. But I couldn't do that to them, couldn't put them in the position of having to lie to the syndicate.

Talon narrowed his eyes, no doubt sensing the lie. Tough shit. He might own my body, but he didn't own my thoughts.

I turned my face toward the window.

"Look at me," he growled.

I did, taking my time about it.

His fingers curved around my throat. Not hard, just showing me who was in charge.

My nipples tightened and a shiver went over me.

The man exerted some kind of sexy black magic on me. More than the usual vampire magic pheromones, I mean. Or maybe it was just that I knew how good he could make me feel.

His nostrils flared in a slight inhale. He knew exactly how he affected me—you can't hide that sort of thing from a vampire.

Still with that light grip on my throat, he rubbed his lips over mine, his thumb caressing the sensitive skin over my pulse.

My insides heated. It was like a pinball zinged from my mouth to my breasts to my sex and back again, setting off flashing lights and ringing bells all along its path.

My lips parted, and his tongue swept inside, deepening the kiss until I was dazed with lust.

Talon released me. I touched my tongue to my lips, shaken.

His sensual mouth curved in an arrogant smile. "I wouldn't fight me if I were you. You won't win."

Fortunately, the jet touched down at that moment, saving me from responding, so I settled for a glare. I wasn't sure what I would've said anyway.

I want you but I also hate you for making me want you?

I love you but I can't tell you because holding it in is better than seeing that smile morph to pity.

God, I was pathetic.

The pilot cut the engines, and Talon unbuckled my seatbelt and pulled me to my feet. "Let's go."

The foyer of Leclerc Castle had been built to impress, but in a tasteful way, like a museum or a cathedral. A temple to the Maritime Syndicate's wealth and power.

As Rio and I followed Talon and the soldiers inside, sea-serpent sconces, their metal teeth clamped around frosted glass pearls, glowed to life, illuminating the French tapestries hanging on the rough stone walls.

"Holy shit." Rio hitched up his backpack. His gaze traveled from the tapestries to the arched ceiling, where a bright crescent moon shimmered in a star-drenched sky.

"My mom says it was painted by a vampire artist," I told him. "She says it's how they see the night sky."

"Wow." He spun in a slow circle, awe on his sharp-boned face.

My gaze was drawn to Talon, who'd turned aside to talk to Adrian and Nathan.

He looked so in control. So darkly handsome. So out of my league.

I recalled what else my mom had said. "They may look human, but they're not. They see things we don't, hear sounds we can't. To them, we're pets. They take care of us, they may even feel affection for us, but we're still pets. Don't ever forget that."

A former thrall, she knew what she was talking about.

Too late, Mom. I did forget. I fell in love with a vampire and now I'm fucked.

Rio eyed the curved mosaic of a great white shark that bisected the marbled granite floor. "This is something. It's an actual freaking castle."

I grinned despite my tangled emotions. "They didn't tell you?"

"Nathan said something like that, but I didn't figure it for a real, live castle. I thought it'd be more like one of those big-assed, Real Housewives of Whatever mansions. The outside is so Goth—all that black stone. I mean, who lives like this?"

"Vampires," I said.

"Right."

We exchanged wry looks.

"So." He hitched up his backpack. "Where are we staying?"

"You'll be upstairs," I told him. "That's where the humans who work at the castle live—the second and third floor. Everyone except the thralls."

"So where will you be?"

"The vampires live below ground. That's where the thralls stay."

His brow lowered. "I thought I'd be with you."

"You can't. You're not a thrall. But it's okay. I'll be fine."

"Fuck that." His fingers tightened on the straps of the backpack. "What if you need me?"

I briefly closed my eyes. "Look, just go with it all right? Don't cause trouble for me."

His chest lifted. Fell. Then he gave a reluctant nod. "Fine. But I don't like it."

"I know, but it's better this way."

He grunted. "I can't believe you were a thrall."

"For two-and-a-half years. It's just what you do if you grow up here," I added, aware off-islanders didn't always understand us. "Or a lot of us, anyway. There's no pressure—it's up to us. But you can make triple what you can make doing anything else. And the sex is—well…" I shook my head, my gaze tracking to Talon again.

"Huh." Rio jerked his chin in Talon's direction. "The baby's his, isn't it? That's why he's gone all caveman on you."

"She's carrying my spawn, yes." Talon turned back to us as Adrian and Nathan left the foyer.

He placed his hand on the small of my back, this time under my sweater, his fingers splayed possessively over my exposed skin. I stiffened as my screwed-up, uncertain emotions reared up again.

But Talon must've thought I was fighting him because his fingers flexed on my back. "Come," he bit out. "Rio, you go with Kerry. She'll show you to your room."

The castle's tall, grim housekeeper had materialized from somewhere. Heck, maybe she'd been hanging upside down in a closet. If I hadn't known for a fact that Kerry was human, I would've sworn she was a dhampir—the woman had a creepy gift for finding the darkest part of any room.

Rio planted his feet. "I'll see you in the morning," he told me as Talon propelled me across the foyer.

I sent the teenager a reassuring smile over my shoulder. "In the morning," I mouthed.

He nodded, his lips in an unhappy line.

Talon ushered me through the heavy door to the syndicate's lair and closed it, leaving me alone with him on the dimly lit landing. A flickering gas torch painted one side of his face gold, leaving the other side in shadows.

He'd never looked so much like a vampire.

Stern. Remote. My judge and jury.

My throat felt like I'd gulped down a dry, cactus-filled desert. "What?" I croaked.

Why had I stiffened when he touched me? It's not like I didn't like it. I was…conflicted. But Talon was interpreting it as resistance, maybe even dislike.

"Your punishment starts now, Eden. You're not under contract anymore. You're a prisoner."

Okay, that didn't sound like a sexy punishment.

I forced some steel into my spine. Vampires respected strength. He might be able to sense my fear, but I was damned if I let him see it.

"I know I messed up. I'm sorry. Spying on Twilight was wrong, and I apologize."

His expression didn't soften. "Apology noted. But it's not enough."

"I understand." I grimaced, feeling bruised inside, even though it was my own fault. I'd lost Talon's trust, and I wasn't sure how to gain it back. Or if I even could. "I didn't think it would be. I just needed to tell you."

"Follow me." He started down the narrow flagstone steps that led to the Leclerc lair, two flights below.

Since signing my thrall contract, I must've descended these steps a few thousand times. But never like this, my chest tight, my stomach a mass of knots.

I'd never seen the dungeon, but I knew it existed, a level below the main lair.

He won't lock you in a cell. He bought you new clothes, brought Rio along to keep you company. And there's the baby.

Still, I wasn't a hundred percent sure.

We came out on the lair's main floor and wound our way through its torchlit tunnels. Talon passed the turnoff to the thralls' section where my old apartment had been located. So I wasn't going to be with the other thralls. On the plus side, we hadn't turned toward the passage that led down to the dungeon.

He unlocked the door to the garden suite, and I followed him into the pretty one-bedroom apartment. When Brien had first brought Twilight to the island, he'd moved her into the garden suite. All the thralls had known that meant she was different.

I took in the sea-green walls and warm tropical-wood furniture. "This is where you're putting me?"

It was way better than I'd expected. There was even an enclosed garden attached to the suite, accessed through a French door at the other end of the living room.

And Talon's apartment was right around the corner.

"Yes. Cain thinks you should be thrown in a cell for the next decade, but Brien said it's up to me."

I flashed him a relieved smile. "Thank you."

A shrug. "Don't thank me. You need fresh air and sunlight…for the child."

My stomach twisted with hurt. Of course, he was doing this for the baby, not me. He wanted to keep his spawn's mother healthy.

He frowned at me, no doubt sensing my pain, but all he said was, "For now, you're confined to these rooms and the garden outside except for a daily walk, where you'll be accompanied by a guard."

"I see. That's…fair."

"Your bags should be here soon. I can tell Kerry to have your old clothes transferred to this suite but—" His gaze flicked to my abdomen.

"They probably won't fit much longer," I agreed. "But I could use my runners and things like sweaters and sleepshirts. If you let me into my old apartment, I can get them."

"No trips outside this suite," he reminded me. "Except for your daily walk. I'll have a maid pack up your room and bring your stuff here."

"Okay. Sure." I massaged the bridge of my nose. God, I was tired.

He nodded at the bedroom. "You're asleep on your feet. I'll see you later."

I peered at him. Was his tone softer, less cold?

Then he added, "And Eden? Don't fuck up, okay? Or even my blood bond won't protect you."

I grimaced wearily. "Got it."