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“No.” I shoved at his arm. “I mean, please, I’ll do anything you say. Just don’t—”
My pleas strangled in my chest as he grabbed my leg, plunging the syringe through my pants and into my thigh.
“No,” I cried, bucking wildly, fighting to get free. When that didn’t work, I switched tactics, going for his face with my fingernails, trying to dig them into his goddamn eyes.
His hand shot up, too fast to see, corralling both my wrists. He kept them raised high above my head while he finished injecting a clear fluid into my thigh.
“Don’t worry.” Withdrawing the needle, he tucked the syringe back into his pocket and released my wrists. “We don’t want to hurt you or your spawn.”
A red-hot rage heated my brain. “You dick. I’ll kill you for this.”
I tried again to open the door handle.
A hand landed on my shoulder. “Calm yourself.”
I tried to shake him off. “I will not—”
I stared at my fingers. I couldn’t feel the handle anymore, or his hand on my shoulder. Fear stole my breath. Ice slid through my veins, slowly and inexorably, like a creek in the winter.
My eyelids grew heavy. I forced them open as he undid my seatbelt and eased me onto my side on the leather seat.
“Talon will—” My mouth had filled with marbles. I couldn’t talk around them.
“Talon will think you ran away,” he informed me in silky tones. “Again.”
My stomach hollowed out. No.
Talon just might believe it. He might even think this was why I’d been so eager to see my mom and dad.
I shook my head against the seat. Inside, I was screaming and screaming, but all that came out was a moan.
The ice was everywhere now. I couldn’t feel my legs or toes or even the leather beneath my cheek. My vision went dark but I could still hear.
The car slowed. The driver finally spoke. “What the fuck? You said you wouldn’t hurt her or the kid.”
The blond man growled. “Keep driving.”
The darkness dragged me under.
28
Talon
On my way to my mom’s house, I stopped by the garden suite to make sure Eden had gotten back okay, but she wasn’t there. The uneasy prickle returned.
“Eden?” I asked, palming a switchblade.
The silence reverberated in my brain like a gong, drowning out everything but the need to find her.
I tore through the rooms, checking the bathroom, the closet, even beneath the bed. Back in the living room, I jerked open the French door and ran into the enclosed garden.
“Eden?” I called as I raced down the curved flagstone paths. “Are you out here?”
The only answer was an irate meow from Demon, Brien’s white cat. It stalked past me into Eden’s suite, tail twitching.
I closed the blade and shoved it into a pocket so I could send a quick text to Jones. He’d been instructed to have Eden back at the castle by sunset.
Calm the fuck down. She’s fine. They had a flat tire or something.
