“If someone tries to bind you...”
“I say the word.”
“If you panic?”
I look at Knox.He stands close enough to touch, but not touching, just waiting.
“If I panic,” I say, “I call my mate.”
The bond flares, and Knox stops breathing.Everyone else suddenly finds something else to look at except Ari, who mouths,my mate,at Akasha and fans her face.
I point at her.“Don’t.”
She grins through tears.“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Knox steps closer.“Ready?”
No.Fuck, no.Not even fucking close.But I don’t say any of that.I think of the lower rooms.The missing people.The blood records.The monsters who think the girl they lost is coming home.
Then I think of the mark on my shoulder beneath the dress.His mark.
“Yes,” I say.
Knox holds out his hand, and I take it freely.His fingers close around mine, warm and steady and careful as ever.
The collar is cold at my throat, but his mark burns beneath the lie.
And for the first time since the vampires took me, I walk toward the dark with a monster at my side and no doubt in my heart which one of us they should fear.
Chapter Twelve
The Mark Underneath
Knox
Briana walks beside me with a collar at her throat and my mark beneath her dress.
