Chapter 5

“IT’S ONLY A MATTER of time before they realize we’ve escaped,” Joshua said as they slipped through an ornate doorway into the main part of the vampire stronghold. The transition was jarring — from dank, utilitarian dungeons to corridors that wouldn't have looked out of place in a gothic castle. Gilt-framed portraits lined the walls, their subjects' eyes seeming to follow their progress. Thick carpets muffled their footsteps, and crystal chandeliers cast dancing shadows.

She could hear other people or vampires moving around on the floors above her. A lot of people. Maybe twenty. How would they fight them all?

“If I get you to the front door, can you find your way home from here?”

“I’m not sure where here is,” she said.

“You’ll figure it out. I can’t go with you. I need to stay here and finish my mission.”

To kill all the Vasiles.

“I need to finish my mission, too,” she said.

“You don’t have a mission,” he said irritably.

“I have to find Chrissy and rescue her. I need to find out what the Vasiles shot me up with and if there’s a cure. And I have a story to finish about these assholes.”

“You can’t write about vampires. No one will take you seriously, and one of the clans will send someone like me to kill you.”

“Would you kill me if they asked you to?” Keri wasn’t sure why she blurted that out. She most certainly didn’t want to hear him say yes.

“I could not. If you die, I die. That’s part of the mating bond we share.”

“Are you sure we’re mated?”

"Oh yes," Joshua murmured, his cool fingers encircling her wrist.

The touch sent a jolt through her body, and Keri had to stifle a gasp. Ever since their escape, her senses had been in overdrive. Every brush of fabric against her skin felt electric. Every scent was intoxicating. And just being near him made her pulse race.

“Does it work the other way too? If you die, I die?”

He nodded.

"Then I’m staying with you.”

"You’d make a good vampire." Joshua's lips curved in a predatory smile that made Keri's heart skip.

As they continued to skulk in the shadows, Keri was hyper-aware of Joshua's presence beside her. Their mating bond was playing havoc with her self-control. More than once, she caught herself staring at the strong line of his jaw and the elegant curve of his neck. It was hard to ignore the growing ache of desire, the way her body seemed to gravitate towards his.

They ducked into an alcove as a pair of guards passed. In the close confines, Joshua's scent overwhelmed her. Spice and musk and something uniquely him . She bit her lip, fighting the urge to lean in closer. But before she could act on it, Joshua ambushed the vampires and dispatched them without making a sound.

He dragged the bodies into their alcove. The more he killed the Vasiles, the greater the chance of them getting caught.

“We need to keep at least one of them alive to get answers,” she said.

“I don’t need answers. I just need to kill them.”

“You weren’t the one injected with their drug. I need to know what it’s done to me. Is it going to kill me? Us? If another vampire bites me...”

“That won’t happen,” he snarled.

“But if it does, can they now control me and that vampire?”

Joshua shook his head. “This experiment of theirs has to do with the mate bond. And you’re already mated to me. It won’t work with another vampire.”

“But you don’t know if they’ve done something chemically to alter that.”

Joshua’s expression told her how much he didn’t like that theory.

“Listen, up ahead.” Keri pointed to the door at the far end of the corridor. She heard a conversation but not enough to make out the individual words. “Let’s bust our way in and get details on what’s going on. Then you can kill them.”

“Fine,” he said. “Let’s keep pretending we’re under their mind control. It may get us in the room and behind a closed door. That will buy us some time.”

They walked up to the door side by side and knocked.

“Come in,” a voice inside said.

Joshua shook his head, probably in disbelief that he didn’t have to kick the door down, and they walked in. Keri closed the door behind them. There was a tense pause as three vampires stared at them in alarm.

“Reporting as ordered,” Joshua said.

The three vampires relaxed.

“What’s she doing here? She’s supposed to be with the other cattle,” a vampire in a brown suit said.

“Is that really Joshua Nicolau?” a vampire in a black suit asked and then laughed. “He doesn’t look like much.”

The vampire in a beige suit frowned and pulled out his cellphone. “Nicolau should be on his way to his clan right now. I’m not sure why they sent him to us.”

Joshua went after that one. His movement was a blur, almost too fast for her enhanced senses to follow. One moment, he was standing beside her, and the next, he had the vampire in the beige suit by the throat, phone clattering to the floor.

“Don’t kill all of them.” Keri pressed herself against the wall.

The vampire in the brown suit lunged at Joshua, fangs bared. Joshua pivoted, using the beige-suited vampire as a shield. Brown Suit clawed his buddy instead.

“Stop this,” Beige Suit said. “Tell him to stand down.”

Keri didn’t know who the hell he was talking to because no one said anything. Her eyes darted around the room, looking for anything she could use as a weapon. Her gaze landed on a heavy crystal decanter on a nearby sideboard. She inched towards it, trying to stay out of the fray.

Joshua broke the neck of the beige-suited vampire and threw him aside, the force of impact leaving a dent in the ornate wooden paneling. He turned to face the other two, a predatory grin on his face that sent a shiver down Keri's spine.

"Is that the best you can do?" Joshua taunted.

The vampire in the black suit snarled and charged. Joshua met him halfway, their bodies colliding with a sound like thunder. They grappled, a tangle of limbs and fangs, each seeking the advantage.

Brown Suit, seeing an opening, tried to flank Joshua. Keri saw the danger and acted on instinct. She grabbed the decanter and hurled it with all her strength. It shattered against Brown Suit's head, staggering him.

Joshua used the momentary distraction to gain the upper hand. With a move too quick for Keri to chart, he had Black Suit in a headlock. There was a sickening crack, and Black Suit went limp.

"Leave one alive!" Keri cried out.

Joshua turned to Brown Suit, who was shaking off the effects of Keri's improvised attack. "I’ll kill you if you don’t talk."

Brown Suit raised his hands in surrender. "I’ll tell you what you want to know as long as you promise to let me go."

“We promise,” Keri said.

"Sit," Joshua commanded, gesturing to a chair. Then he made sure Beige Suit and Black Suit were truly dead.

Brown Suit flinched when Joshua tore out their hearts, but Keri didn’t even bat an eye. She was getting used to the violence, and that was weird because, normally, she was a pacifist.

“Where’s Chrissy?” she demanded.

“Who?”

She closed her eyes in frustration. Right, why would a vampire deign to lower himself to know a human’s name or a recently turned vampire? “Where do you keep the cattle you drugged as vampire bait?”

“They’re in Anatole’s harem.”

Great. Just great. “And that is?” she prompted.

“Upstairs. Next to his bedroom. There’s a suite of rooms.”

“Who are you?” she asked.

“Who cares?” Joshua snorted.

“My name is Mihai Vasile,” he said with a fearful glance at Joshua.

“What does the drug that you gave me and the other humans actually do?”

Mihai licked his lips.

“Don’t lie or I’ll rip your heart out and find someone else to answer my mate’s questions.” Joshua’s voice was matter-of-fact.

Mihai wasted no time in coughing up the goods. “Anatol created a serum that worked like our gaze when we compel prey.”

“Mind control,” Keri said in distaste.

“Why bother with a serum when you can simply charm a human by looking at them?” Joshua asked, crossing his arms.

“It lasts longer. We don’t have to be in proximity of them. Once the human is injected, they are susceptible to Anatol’s suggestions. We send them out to seduce vampires of rival clans, and once they bite our drugged humans, they are compelled to mate with them. And once the mating bond clicks, Anatol can control both the human and their mated vampire.”

“So Anatol can tell me to do something, and I’d have to do it?” Keri said, wondering how she would stop him from gaining control over her again.

Mihai nodded.

“Another reason for him to die,” Joshua said.

“But it’s not working like it should because you didn’t tell Nicolau to stop when Radut told you to command him,” Mihai said.

“Why would Joshua feel compelled to follow my orders, though?” Keri asked.

“It’s got something to do with the mate bond and you being human. Between vampires, the power exchange from mating is equal. Because humans are so inferior, there is something in the mate bond that overcompensates, and the human can control the vampire.”

“How is that even possible?” Joshua asked.

Mihai shrugged. “Anatol’s the mad scientist, not me.”

“Why would he think giving a human that much power over a vampire is a good idea?”

Keri shivered at the violence in Joshua’s voice.

“As long as the human is controlled by a Vasile, it’s fine.”

“And this has worked before?” Joshua asked incredulously.

Mihai moved his palm from side-to-side. “It hasn’t been perfected. The humans are fragile and they die. The vampires go insane. It’s a work in progress. We thought we nailed it with the two of you.”

“Why?” Keri asked.

“Because Nicolau is an older vampire and very strong. And you were very responsive to all of Anatol’s commands.”

“I’ve never met Anatol.”

Mihai laughed.

Joshua cuffed him.

“What? She’s been walking around this mansion for a week.”

No, that was impossible. Panic welled up inside her. “That’s not true,” Keri said, shaking her head. “What day is it?”

“Friday,” Mihai said.

She slumped in relief. She had talked to Chrissy on Thursday. “He’s lying,” she told Joshua. “Rip his heart out.”

Joshua paused and looked at her thoughtfully.

“No, I swear it. It’s Friday the 13 th ,” Mihai said.

Keri staggered back. The last day she remembered was Thursday the 5 th . She knew it was the fifth because she had just submitted an article that had been due that day right under the deadline.

She had been Anatol’s pawn for a week? What else had she done that she couldn’t recall? What had they done to her?

She didn’t remember making a sound or falling, but she suddenly felt the rug under her cheek, and those mewling sounds were coming from her throat. Joshua dispatched Mihai in his usual bloody fashion, and then he scooped her up in his arms and brought her over to the couch. He held her while she shook and cried.

Keri leaned into his touch, drawing comfort from the simple contact. "I was his pawn. I still am. It feels like I’m breaking apart inside.”

“If you can still cry, you haven’t broken.” Joshua's thumb traced her cheekbone, sending a shiver through her. "You're stronger than you know," he said softly. "I've seen countless humans break under far less pressure than you've endured."

Nestling deeper into Joshua's embrace, she curled up in his lap. His strong arms encircled her, providing a strange comfort that belied their dire circumstances. She inhaled Joshua's unique scent – a mix of sandalwood and winter air that calmed her racing thoughts.

"I left my family because I didn’t want to be controlled," Keri murmured, her voice muffled against Joshua's chest. "And now look? I’m cattle."

Joshua's hand moved in soothing circles on her back. "No, you're not," he said, his deep voice rumbling through her. “I will annihilate this entire clan, and that will be the end of Anatol Vasile and his serum. And if you want, I will do the same to your family as well.”

It was tempting, but her family had no means to harm her. The Vasiles, on the other hand... “What if he sent me to trap other humans like Chrissy did with me? What if I hurt someone?”

“Then it wasn’t you. Any blame is all on him. He made you a weapon, and I’ll make him pay,” Joshua said, rubbing her back.

“What if he tells me to hurt you?”

“You can’t.”

“What if he captures me and threatens to kill me if you don’t kill your whole family like he planned?”

Joshua brushed a kiss against her forehead. “Mate, he will be dead before that command ever leaves his mouth.”

Mate. Keri closed her eyes and wondered how a drug and magic could create this feeling of belonging and being cherished by a stranger. It felt like love. And that was the most frightening part of this whole situation.