She opened the door to the last room, but no one was inside. Stairs were in the corner. Stairs leading down below.

Cassie bit her lip. She wasn’t supposed to be there. Her daddy had said . . .

Daddy’s bad. He hurt me.

She went down the stairs. Then she saw him.

Big, dark. In a . . . cage?

His head jerked up, and he spun toward her. “Who are you?” the man in the cage demanded. His voice scared her. It was like an animal’s rumbling growl.

But she crept closer to him.

He stiffened as his dark gaze raked over her. “Why is there blood on you?”

“He killed me.” She understood exactly what had happened. And what would happen. “He’s going to kill you, too.”

The man came toward the heavy bars that separated them. “Do you want to help me, little girl?”

She nodded.

“Go back upstairs. See if you can find a key to open the cage and—”

Her fisted hand opened. She’d already taken the key.

Sometimes, her daddy didn’t realize how smart she really was.

She put the key in the lock. Heard the snick. “I don’t want him to kill anyone else.” Soft, sad.

The man came out of the cage. He bent before her. Stared into her eyes. “Who are you?” he asked again.

His eyes were so dark. Just like the darkness that had claimed her when she died.

“Cassie . . . Cassandra.”

“Come with me, Cassandra. We’re both getting out of here.” His fingers wrapped around hers.

His hand felt too warm.

“I want to get out,” she whispered, nodding quickly. “Please, help me.”

His fingers tightened around hers. “I will.”

She heard the thud of footsteps, coming down the stairs.

“Cassie!” Her father’s shout. “Cassie . . . what have you done?” He was there. He wasn’t alone. More men with guns. Always . . . the guns.

“Shoot him,” her father ordered as he glared at the man beside Cassie.

“No!” she yelled.

But they didn’t listen to her. They never did. Bullets flew by her. They thudded into the body of the man who’d been caged.

Hard hands reached for her and yanked her away from him even as his body fell.

“No!” She kicked and twisted and clawed, but she couldn’t get back to him. “Stop!”

“Move away. The fire’s coming . . .” Her father’s words. Heavy with an edge that sounded like he was excited. His smile made her stomach twist.

Her eyes returned to the man—dead now. Just like she’d been on her daddy’s table.

“Don’t worry,” her father told her, finally glancing her way. “He’ll come back, too.”

A few minutes later, the man’s body began to burn right in front of her eyes. Fire raced across his skin.

“I told you, Cassie,” her father said as he stroked her hair. “Monsters are real.”

The man continued to burn.

“Y-yes, Daddy.”

He was right. There was a monster in the room. But it wasn’t the man who was starting to rise to his feet—even as he burned. No, Cassie knew the real monster was the man smiling and hugging her.

Her father.

And one day, she would stop him.

One day.

CHAPTER ONE

It was hard for Cassandra Armstrong to love a man who didn’t remember her.

It was even harder to walk into the seediest paranormal bar that existed on the backstreets of Chicago and discover said man in the arms of some trashy vamp.

Cassie’s eyes narrowed as she stared at Dante. He was in the back corner, probably trying to hide in the shadows, except the guy wasn’t exactly the type to blend well.

Too big. Too dangerous. Too sexy.

And that vamp had her fangs way too close to his throat for Cassie’s peace of mind.

Cassie shoved her way through the crowd, muttering apologies as she bumped into the various paranormal beings—and the humans—who filled Taboo. A few years ago, the paranormals had stopped pretending they didn’t exist and gotten wild with their coming out party. Since then, clubs like Taboo had popped up in all the major cities in the U.S. and around the world.

Dante stood against the back wall. The vampire, a woman with long red hair and a way-too-short skirt, had her hands all over him. Blood-red nails, of course. Typical. The redhead was arching up on her toes and putting her mouth close to Dante’s neck.

“Okay. You’re just going to need to get away from him,” Cassie snapped as she closed in on them.