And Nicole . . . Jesus.
He closed his eyes and rocked his head back against the wall. She’d been at the gathering of the two clans. She’d seen him chained and dragged away. He’d heard her. Sensed her. And all he could think of was how he’d left things between them.
He’d yelled at her for making herself at home in a place where she should have been welcome. Instead, he’d freaked the fuck out. He’d been so full of guilt over how Terese had lived and died that he hadn’t been able to let anyone else in.
What if he couldn’t love someone the way she deserved to be loved? What if he didn’t imprint on the female he wanted? What if she died thinking she was nothing but a burden to him? An obligation?
Nicole had been a burden at first. Definitely an obligation—nothing more than part of his mission gone awry. And he’d treated her as exactly that.
But at some point, his feelings toward her had changed. He’d discovered that she wasn’t the evil Daedalus bigwig he’d believed her to be, and if anything, she had a bigger heart than many vampires he knew.
ShadowSpawn vampires, most notably.
Assholes. They couldn’t just kill him and be done with it, could they? No, they were going to drag out his humiliation and death for as long as possible. Not an hour went by when someone wasn’t coming into the dungeon to torture him. And every night, they hauled him to the common room, where they chained him to a whipping post for some wholesome family entertainment. While the entire clan looked on, he was beaten, cut, stabbed, whipped, pissed on—yeah, it was all great fun. He especially liked it when they threw rotten food at him and tried to force him to eat it.
Aylin always came into the dungeon after the family fun night events to clean him up, but she never spoke. Not that he was in the mood to chat by that point. Usually, he couldn’t see, let alone speak, through the blood and swelling.
The chamber door creaked open. Squinting at the bright light streaming through the opening, he braced himself for whatever was coming next.
A squat male who was built like a brick filled the doorway. “You have five minutes,” Brick said, speaking to someone outside.
Riker smelled Nicole before he saw her, and his heart screeched to a halt so fast it must have left skid marks on his ribs. Gripped by shock, he could only gape as she entered the dungeon.
“Oh, my God.” She ran to him and knelt at his side, taking his face in her hands. “What have they done to you?”
His injuries weren’t important. The fact that she was here and was staring at him with silver eyes was.
“Holy shit, Nicole . . . you’re a vampire.” His voice was as trashed as his body. His mind seemed to be equally trashed, because he couldn’t focus his questions or his thoughts. And like a dolt, he’d also just told her something she already knew. “Why are you here?
How?” He swallowed. “When did you turn?”
“Shh. First things first.” She stroked her thumbs over his cheeks, her touch extremely light and gentle on his bruises. “I’m here to free you and Lucy.” He wrenched his fists futilely behind his back, wishing he could touch her. “They’re letting you go. Lucy is already with Hunter and Myne.”
Thank God, Lucy was safe. But his situation was a little more serious. “That’s not possible,” he said. “kars wants to wring every drop of life out of me.”
“I have something he wants more than he wants you dead.” She smiled, revealing her new pristine white fangs. “Oh, and obviously, the vaccine Chuck gave me didn’t work.”
Riker couldn’t stop staring at her mouth and the way the tips of her fangs peeked from between her parted lips.
“Are you okay?” he rasped. “I know you didn’t want this—”
She pressed her finger against his lips. “I’m fine, I swear. I’m still getting used to it, but I’m really okay.
And if nothing else, it cured my lip-biting habit.” She gave him a sheepish smile. “At the end of the first day,
I had a super-swollen lip, and if I’d had quarters, I’d have had a full swear jar.”
He strained against his chains, desperate to get closer. Mere inches separated them, and he could barely move. He needed to touch her, needed to feel for himself that she was healthy and whole. kars thought he was being so clever with his torture methods, but this . . . this was by far the worst thing Riker had been put through.
“You look amazing,” he said, loving the dusky blush that spread over her cheeks.
He’d thought she was gorgeous before, but the dental makeover, along with the new sensual energy
that vibrated the very air between them, had transformed her from a sleek, elegant housecat to a muscular, powerful tiger. He wished he could hug her.