Chapter 3

There was only one shaft of moonlight lancing down from a window high up in the stone wall of my prison. A pool of light just over three feet in diameter, and lying smack bang in the center was Jeremy’s dismembered head. The ragged, torn flesh at the neck didn’t speak of a quick death. His head had been torn from its body with brute force.

Sucking, slurping gulps registered along with Mary’s soft whimpers. I squeezed my eyes closed, working to block them out.

I’d failed the Walkers, and the urge to scream, to rage, pressed against my senses, begging to be free. But rage was futile here. Screams would do nothing but enflame the beast.

I needed a moment to process. To plan. To block out the bloody odor that saturated the air and filtered into my lungs with every fucking breath because Jeremy was dead and Mary was being fed on, and there was nothing I could do about it. My stomach tightened, breath threatening to come faster because those people, those innocent people hadn’t deserved to die.

My gums ached where I clenched my jaw. Focus, Orina.

This wasn’t an escape situation. There was no getting out of the shackles binding me to the stone wall. Not unless someone let me out.

Not unless he let me out.

But could he be reasoned with this close to the rising? Would it have mattered if I’d woken sooner and tried to talk to him?

Something moved in the shadows to my right. Not him but one of the bat creatures, barely visible in the gloom. It hunched over, wings folded around its body, waiting for instructions, no doubt. I should have guessed he’d have creatures to do his bidding.

I’d read the file, all six hundred years of it, and come to one conclusion. Ezekiel Tepes was a monster. The fact the Order wanted me to protect the townsfolk from him was understandable, but they also wanted me to protect him, and that made no fucking sense.

The sudden silence registered, and ice flooded my veins.

He was done.

Mary was dead too.

I kept my breath even, stalling the panic and the fear from taking control of my body, and peered into the darkness at the spot where I suspected he stood now, watching me. When I spoke, my voice came out strong with authority. “You need to let me go. Now.”

A rough rasping sound drifted out of the shadows, and it took a moment to realize it was laughter.

He was laughing at me.

Anger formed a fist in my chest. “By the power of the Order of Helsing, I demand that you release me at once!”

The shadows leapt at me, caging me to the wall with long sinewy limbs that reeked of desiccation and death. I bit back a scream and squeezed my eyes shut, breathing through my nose to force my pulse into a steady rhythm.

Not prey.

I’m not fucking prey.

Cold fingers, skin as dry as paper, wrapped around my throat, and despite my valiant efforts, my pulse fell into a canter, beating like a trapped bird against his grip.

He forced my head up. “Look at me.” His voice was death and oblivion. It was the abyss and everything that spoke of nightmares and despair. “Open your eyes, little silver.” Talons caressed my scalp, snagging onto a tendril of my silvery locks and tugging almost playfully. “The Order should know better than to send such a pretty thing into my lair. Pretty, fragile…” He inhaled. “Ripe.” Hot wetness trailed up my cheek. His tongue. Oh fuck, he was licking me.

Heat flushed my body with anger. “Stop it!” I bucked to throw him off me, and his grip on me tightened, leaving me momentarily breathless. “Open. Your. Eyes.” His words were a blood-coated kiss against my parted lips. “Do it now. Or I’ll do it for you, and I can’t promise you won’t lose one…or both of your pretty peepers.”

Being with the Order meant that neither he nor his minions could kill me, but maiming wasn’t off the table. I’d seen the files. Learned what had happened to the ones that came before me. Several dead, several maimed, only a handful came back unscathed. That number included replacements to the original operatives sent to act as fang blockers, moral compasses, anything to keep him from going on a bloody rampage. “Befriend, beguile, distract, whatever it takes,” Micah had said. “But be smart and know when to back down. Know when it’s time to retreat.”

I wouldn’t be a failure to the Order.

I opened my eyes to gray skin pulled tight over bone, lips too thin and pulled back to reveal long teeth set into bloodred gums. His nostrils flared as I lifted my gaze to the fires of hell that burned in his eyes. And in that moment, hell stared right back at me, filled with flame and ravenous hunger.

He had to be at least a head and a half taller than me, but his frame was hunched over me now, the breadth of his shoulders the only indication of his potential power.

So this is what a century-long sleep looked like.

He trailed a talon down my neck, the sting of the scrape turning to a slow burn as he made his way to my collar, pulling it back to reveal the silver chain that held my Order emblem.

He touched the chain and let out a low hiss, his eyes fluttering closed as if he reveled in the burning pain the contact evoked.

“I could tear it from you,” he said, his voice a wicked whisper. “Leave you defenseless.”

“The emblem isn’t my only protection.”

“A few words on parchment.”

“Signed in your blood.”

A growl vibrated his throat. “You won’t stop me feeding, little silver. I won’t allow it. This is my year. My time. I will revel in it. I will bathe in blood and enjoy the pleasures of the flesh. It is my right to do so. Stand in my way and you will know nothing but pain. But step aside”—he leaned closer, his wicked mouth a mere inch from mine—“and you may enjoy the pleasures of court. Immerse yourself in them and return to your Order intact once your year is done.”

Was he trying to make a deal with me?

I bit back the acerbic words that sprang to my lips and forced them to smile politely instead. “How about this. You’ll feed without killing. You’ll follow the rules of Dracul territory and adhere to the Order’s remit, and I won’t be knocking on your castle door every day.”

His lip curled, exposing the full length of one of his fangs, and ice trickled down my spine. Could he break his oath? Was that a possibility?

“Your predecessor was wise enough to take my deal, but his predecessor was not. His flesh lined the bellies of the beasts in Silverwood.”

“If you wanted that, then you wouldn’t have had your minions retrieve me.”

“Maybe I’m simply curious to meet the new watcher the Order has sent to guard my actions. To test the merit of the human sent to keep me in check.” He sneered. “A woman.” His gaze burned a path down my face and lower to my heaving bosom. “Soft and pliable. Did they think they could bind me in temptation? Did they send you to seduce me to do your bidding like a pretty little whore?”

My cheeks burned. “If seduction means shoving my blessed sword up your ass, then yes, that’s exactly why they sent me.”

He stilled, his eyes narrowing as they locked on mine. “You’re not afraid.” It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t bother replying. “I can’t kill you. But I can hurt you. Over and over. I can make you wish for death.” He squeezed my throat hard enough to make the edges of my vision darken and my heart flutter like a hummingbird, hard enough for me to choke and wish for breath, then released me, leaving me gasping and coughing before jerking my chin up to stare at me. I glared daggers at him. “And yet, no fear. Why?”

“Fear is pointless unless you can fight or flee. I don’t have the option of either right now.”

He considered my words for a moment, then reached up and snapped the chains holding me bound. My arms dropped like lead weights, burning with the prick of a thousand icy needles as my circulation came back online. Pain followed, bright and sharp, reminding me of the wolf bites I sported.

“Go,” he said. “The door is that way. Take the stairs and a make a right. You’ll find an exit and horses too.”

I tempered the hope that flickered in my chest. “You won’t stop me?”

“I won’t.”

“Your minions?”

“They will not.”

Was he really letting me go?

He backed into the shadows. “Hurry before I change my mind.”

Fuck it. I made a dash for the door, about to pass through into the corridor when the air behind me moved. I knew he’d played me even before his hand grasped my nape and hauled me back.

He threw me at the wall hard enough to jar my bones, then pinned me there by my throat, leaning in to peer into my eyes. Agony raced across my shoulder and down my arm where the wolf bites had left me open and bleeding. I blinked back hot tears and stared back at him blankly.

His lip curled. “What is wrong with you?”

“I got bit. Twice. It hurts like a bitch. What’s your problem?”

Our rapid breaths met and clashed.

“Last chance, accept my offer and live to see another sunrise. Deny me, and my face will be the last human face you see.”

Human? Like fuck. “You’re not human, Ezekiel. You’re a fucking monster.”

His hellish eyes dulled, and the corner of his mouth lifted sardonically. “Would a monster offer you hospitality while you die?”

“What?”

He let go of me and took a step back. “This will be your coffin, little silver. You see, the wolves of Silverwood have toxin in their saliva. Lethal to some. It could be slowly killing you this very moment.” He canted his head, the movement alien and jerky. “I could heal you.”

“I’m sure you could.”

He moved close again, caging me in, his breath hot and bloody. “Are you afraid now, little silver?”

“Fuck you.” My tone was flat. Emotionless. Like hell would I give him anything to feed off.

He backed toward the door, his tall frame folding in on itself to pass through. “Godor, if she lives, let her go. If not, feed her to the dogs.”

The bat creature made a gruff sound of assent, and the clang of metal on metal sealed my fate. I slumped to the ground, suddenly spent.

I was trapped in a cell with two dead bodies and a bat man, and I had toxin in my blood. Was it killing me? The pain had stopped. I’d gone numb. Was that a sign? “Why didn’t he just kill me?” It was a rhetorical question, so I jumped when I got an answer.

“Master likes a challenge,” Godor said in a brittle, stilted voice. His eyes glittered in the gloom. Aware, intelligent.

I sat up straighter. “He does?”

He made an eager panting sound and shuffled closer, crouched on his haunches, wings folded tight at his back. “Master likes to play with his human toys.” He tipped his head to the side, the corners of his mouth turning down slightly. “Sometimes toys break.”

No shit. “Yeah, well, I’m no toy.”

A sharp pain lanced through my abdomen, and I cried out, pressing my hand to my belly. “Fuck.”

Godor sniffed and shuffled closer, his beady, crimson gaze going from my face to my torso.

“You lead the wolves away,” Godor said. “You try…save them.”

He’d seen that? “I failed.”

“Why not take Master’s deal?”

“Because I came here to save lives, not sit back and watch people die.”

“Then you will die,” Godor said almost wistfully.

He was right. I was dying. I could feel it. Nyx and Quinn would have told me to take the deal and then tell Ezekiel to shove it later. To double-cross and bend the truth, and that was all well and good if not bound by an oath of honor, and Ezekiel knew that. Knew that an oath of allegiance to him would be binding. Knew that he’d be free to do as he pleased.

And now I was dying because of it, and when I didn’t check in, the Order would send someone else. I was about to become a statistic, and the damn toxin was making me too numb to even care.

Ice crystallized in my veins, and my teeth began to chatter.

“Not all toys be broken,” Godor said.

“What?”

A gust of air hit my face, sweet and cloying, then darkness dragged me under.

The rumbleof thunder pulled me into consciousness under a star-studded sky. Ice clasped me to the jagged ground.

The rumbling stopped, and the slap of boots approached, but my head felt too heavy to turn.

“Is she dead?” a cool male voice asked.

“I don’t know.” This voice was gruffer, deeper. Warm hands skimmed my cheek, and fingers pressed to my pulse. “Alive.”

“The wolves got to her.”

The same fingers grazed my collar and found the chain around my neck. My Order emblem. “Fuck,” the gruff voice said. “It’s all right, luv. We’ve got you now.” I was lifted off the ground, head rolling toward a taut chest. The scent of sweet evergreen filled my head. I wanted to see my savior’s face, but my vision was swathed in shadows.

God, he was so warm…

He hugged me to him, moving goodness knows where with me.

“Drink this.” Something cool touched my lips, and icy liquid trickled into my mouth, bitter and awful. I gagged on reflex. “No. Swallow. You must swallow.”

His companion snorted softly.

“Seriously?” my savior grumbled.

“Sorry.”

“Hmmm.” His chest vibrated with the sound. Cool metal touched my lips again. “Antitoxin. Drink it.” This time, I obliged. “I need to get her to the chapter house.”

“What about the cargo?”

“You can manage.”

“I suppose so. But it seems like we’re a little late.”

“Just get them to him and then meet me in town.”

I wanted to ask who they were. Wanted to see who they were, but my eyelids slipped closed and refused to open. Not again. I would not pass out again. I would not…