Chuck had the decency to flush and look away.
“Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“Dammit, Chuck!” she shouted. “You can’t do this. You don’t want—”
“What I want,” Chuck cut in, “is for that vampire behind you to do his best to turn you.” He reached over and hit another button.
Riker’s restraints snapped open, and he crashed to the floor. He was only down for a second before he leaped up, teeth bared and spitting blood.
“Fuck you,” he snarled. “I’m not doing it.”
Chuck smiled grimly. “I thought you’d say that. Riker.” He pivoted around and disappeared around the corner.
“Asshole.” Riker rushed to Nicole, angling his body between her and the door as his strong, warm hands came down on her shoulders. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” she lied. She was so not okay. This was not okay. Her brother— half brother—had lost his mind, and she’d put herself and Riker in terrible danger.
“What about you?” He was bruised and battered, and while his wrists had stopped bleeding, they could use some antiseptic and bandages.
“I’ll live.” Riker glared in the direction Chuck had gone. “But if I get my hands on your brother, he won’t be so lucky.”
She didn’t bother to defend Chuck or ask Riker for lenience. What Chuck had done—was doing—was indefensible.
Chuck came back into view and stopped at another chamber. With a jerk of his wrist, he drew up the blind, revealing a naked, battered female strapped, facedown and spread-eagle, on some sort of metal contraption.
Inside the room was a barred door, but what it led to
Nicole wasn’t sure. She’d never seen the design in any of the blueprints she’d studied.
“Neriya,” Riker croaked. “You evil bastard.”
“This is our breeding chamber,” Chuck said, as he punched a numerical code into a keypad on the wall.
The door whoosh ed open, and when he entered, Nicole found out what was behind the barred door.
A mountain of male vampire attacked the gate, hisgrowls and snarls like nothing she’d ever heard. He was as nude as the female, his body a mass of old and fresh scars, but it was his eyes that made Nicole gasp.
They were brown, not silver, which meant he was a born vampire, but it wasn’t the color that caught her attention; it was the pure, raw insanity that glowed like embers in them.
And they were focused not on Chuck but on the female. Nicole had to swallow against the bile that burned in her throat.
Dear God, it wasn’t a breeding chamber. It was a rape chamber.
Chuck freed Neriya from the contraption and dragged her out of the room, holding the barely conscious female so Nicole and Riker would be forced to take in the full horror of Neriya’s condition.
Her pale skin was marred by bruises, abrasions, and numerous vampire bite marks. Dried blood clung to her lips and chin, and Nicole realized with sickening clarity that she’d had her fangs extracted.
“You sick son of a bitch,” Nicole said, her voice hoarse with rage. “Who knows about this? How many board members are involved?”
“Only a handful,” Chuck said, so calmly he could have been discussing his favorite red wine. “Roland wanted to tell you about it. Before you started talking about selling off his division. And before your new vampire friends killed him.”
Dark, oily despair slithered through her at the magnitude of all this betrayal. “How long?” she croaked.
“How many years has this been going on?”
“It was our father who developed the breeding program,” Chuck said, and Nicole remembered Riker telling her something similar at the cave. “Your beloved nanny was one of his first test subjects.”
At those words, Riker lost it. Completely, utterly lost it. He hit the glass with a full body slam, his roar of hatred and rage echoing through the chamber with such force that Nicole’s ears hurt.
Chuck dragged Neriya to what Nicole recognized as an industrial-sized refrigerator. “Nicole, get your vampire friend to calm down and turn you.” He shoved Neriya inside the icy fridge. “Do it, or she dies. And I promise it won’t be quick and painless.”
Chapter 21
Riker could barely see through the anger that formed a crimson veil over his vision. When
Chuck came out of the refrigerator, his self-satisfi ed smirk made Riker swear to rip him from limb to limb.
What he’d done to Neriya and to Nicole made Riker want to do the tearing of limbs very, very slowly, over a period of days. Maybe weeks. Hell, if Riker could keep the fucker alive long enough, months.
The human would also pay extra for Terese’s treatment. Riker had suspected abuse, but the reality was far, far worse than he’d imagined. How many times had she been strapped to that contraption? How badly had that brutal male hurt her?