I bare my teeth.“Not tonight.”
Cruz takes the freed captives.Briana kneels before the fox girl and waits until the girl looks up.
“He’s loud,” Briana says, nodding at Cruz, “but he’s safe.”
Cruz looks offended.“Loud?”
The fox girl gives a broken little laugh, and Briana smiles at her.The bond carries the ache of it straight into my chest before she stands and turns toward the far door.The one leading deeper.
The look she gives me is worth every second of restraint that carved it there.The next rooms are worse.One empty except for chains.One filled with blood bags, medical tables, and a ledger, Briana grabs with steady hands.
Evidence.Names.Proof.
At the end of the corridor, the velvet stops, and stone begins.
The circular room beneath the theater waits in red candlelight.A glass ceiling reveals the stage above.Lucius stands beside a stone chair that looks too much like a throne.Five masked vampires flank him, and a witch with hollow eyes bleeds into a silver bowl.
Lucius smiles.“There you are.”
Briana steps into the room, and I go with her.
His gaze drops to the fake collar.“Still wearing my gift.”
Briana reaches up and unclasps it.My breathing stops as she drops the collar at her feet.The small clink against stone echoes through the room.
“I wore the lie long enough to get here,” she says, and Lucius’s smile fades.
The bound witch lifts her head.Hope has a scent, and it fills the room.
Lucius raises his hand, and the five vampires move, but so do we.This time, Briana doesn’t retreat behind me.She moves with me.Knife in hand, bond bright between us, my mark beneath her dress like a secret weapon only the two of us can feel.
A vampire goes for her throat.She whispers, “Mordane.”And the discarded collar erupts white.
The vampire screams as the backlash takes his hand, and I finish him with one punch.Lucius watches us, eyes narrowing.He understands too late.The collar was never surrender, It was bait.
And my mate, fierce and shaking and free, smiles.“You should have left me lost.”
