“We couldn’t exactly bring you to the Master with all that Fae magic shooting out of you, could we? We wondered what would happen if we shot you with the quellar drug since you are half demon and half Fae. The results were better than we expected. The darts they used in the woods had the original drug and we weren’t sure how fast your Mohiri system would burn it off. But Grigor’s been busy making a newer version of the drug that will last indefinitely.”

“Why do you care how long it lasts? You’re going to kill me anyway.”

Her smile made a pit open in my stomach. “My Master has plans for you. You won’t die anytime soon. You’ll just wish you were dead.”

She moved before I could blink, and I felt the bite of a needle in my arm. She injected the whole syringe and let me go.

At first I felt nothing. Then a burning sensation began to grow in my chest and spread through my body. Dizziness struck next, and I had to brace my hands against the wall to keep from falling.

“That should do it. Sleep tight tonight, little hunter. Tomorrow is a big day.” Ava handed the empty syringe to Grigor and walked out of the cell with the demon trailing meekly behind her. She locked the cell and turned to go, but stopped to look back at me. “Oh, I thought you’d like to know I’ve been getting to know your warrior really well. He’s even more delicious than –”

I hit the bars so fast pieces of mortar fell from the ceiling. “I’ll take you apart piece-by-piece if you touch him, you bloodsucking bitch.”

She jumped back. “Temper, temper. You should know that those bars are reinforced to hold back a mature warrior. So don’t waste your strength. You’re going to need it.”

I waited until they left before I sank to the floor and let the despair finally take me. I cried for Nikolas and the suffering he was going through because of me. I cried for the life we should have had together, and for waiting so long to tell him I loved him. I cried for the two young girls who would never see their families again and for all the people I was leaving behind. I cried until there were no tears left in me and I didn’t have the strength to get up off the floor.

Sometime during the night, I awoke to the sound of Anna being led back to her cell. I waited hours for them to bring Grace, but they never did.

I was sitting on the stone platform waiting for them when they finally came for me. After I’d cried myself out last night, a strange calm had settled over me. It was not acceptance of my fate, but acknowledgement that there was nothing I could do to change it sitting in this cell. If there was one thing I’d learned from my life it was that nothing was certain, and you never knew how your circumstances could change from one minute to the next.

Ava Bryant and the other vampire from yesterday approached me, and I didn’t say a word when the male unlocked my cell and ordered me to come out. As we passed Anna’s cell I saw a small shape curled into a ball in the far corner, and my heart hurt for her. Grace was gone, and I had a feeling Anna wouldn’t last much longer in this hell.

We went through the door and down a hallway before we came to a set of stairs. Ava took my arm and the male vampire walked ahead of us as we ascended the stairs. When we came out into a large kitchen, I had to put a hand over my eyes to shield them from the brightness after my day in the dimly lit cell.

Sara?

I almost cried out when Nikolas’s voice spoke in my mind. It was faint, but real, and I turned automatically toward it. I’m here, Nikolas. I’m coming to you.

No, you have to run, he said weakly as the vampires led me through the large house. I was so focused on him I barely noticed my surroundings. The Master... His voice faded away and I felt real fear for the first time since the vampires had come to get me.

Nikolas?

Silence.

Nikolas!

We approached a set of open French doors. Beyond them I could see a large room with a lot of windows. Cold spread through my chest. There were vampires in that room, a lot of them. And Nikolas was in there with them.

I tore my arm away from Ava, and she let me go. I ran through the doorway and searched the room frantically. Vampires sat on chairs and couches or stood in small groups talking, all looking like they were assembled for a social gathering. When I entered the room, they stared at me with an air of excitement.

“Nikolas!” I pushed past vampires to get to the man shackled and chained on his knees in the center of the room. His shirt was gone and his head hung forward so I couldn’t see his face. I fell to my knees in front of him and lifted his head. His eyelids flickered and he mumbled incoherently.

“I’m here.” I kissed his lips and pulled him into my arms without a thought for the vampires surrounding us. I love you, Nikolas. Stay with me.

“Sara,” he murmured weakly.

I pulled away to look at his face. His eyes opened and a sob caught in my throat at the agony in them. Something sticky touched my hand, and I looked down in horror at the two weeping puncture wounds in his throat. What have they done to you?

“How very touching,” drawled a male voice.

I looked behind me at a vampire with black hair and a small goatee, sitting in a high backed chair that resembled a throne. His hair was tied back in a ponytail and he wore an expensive suit. In his hand was a crystal glass of deep red liquid, and I shuddered at the thought of what it was. His dark eyes moved over me appreciatively, making me feel like I’d never be clean again.

I let go of Nikolas and stood to face the vampire who had caused me so much grief and pain. I met his cold gaze unflinchingly, and I was struck suddenly by how unremarkable he was. There was no air of power that I’d expect from a Master, and without his expensive clothes, he’d look like any other vampire in the room.