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“Oh gods,” I said, hating the chill that passed over me as I spied the motionless form inside.
Julian lay naked, strapped to the cot and unmoving. His blue eyes were unblinking, staring up at nothing. I swept a hand upward and the bars parted for me. Rushing forward, I laid my palm on his skin. It was the ice-cold feel of death that I’d learned not to expect from a vampire.
“What’s wrong with him?” I asked, but I knew the answer already. It had to do with the small blue wires snaking out of his temples and into a bronze helmet fitted over his brow. This was the deprivation chamber.
“Who’s in the bed?” Daphne asked, coming up beside me.
“Julian. Can’t you see him?” I asked, confused.
Mouth ajar, she shook her head. I guess it was a psychic thing. But at this moment, I was grateful for the ability.
“We can’t stay here,” Jensen said, stepping closer like she wasn’t sure which direction to move. “I shouldn’t have brought you. I don’t know what got into me.”
I had. And I wasn’t going anywhere until Julian was free of the torture machine. I directed my attention to Hazel and Daphne while keeping hold of his arm as though I could will him to come back to life. “How do I get him out?”
Hazel winced as grief overwhelmed me. “I don’t know.”
Daphne echoed her with sad eyes and a shake of her head.
I spun on Jensen and reached for her, but she slipped to the side and ducked against the stone wall like a cornered animal. I supposed she was in some sense.
“How do I get him out?” I demanded.
“Just pull out the wires,” she instructed, but alarm bells blazed in my head so loudly I startled.
Don’t. Pythia’s voice echoed against my skull.
“That’ll kill him.” I was sure of it.
Jensen grinned and her eyes flashed yellow. “You didn’t specify his condition when you got him out.”
Before I could react, she leaped to the side and shifted into a large crimson fox with at least nine tails. She sailed through the air and down the hall, evading zaps of green lightening Hazel shot at her and Daphne’s impressive race down the rocky path, launching herself sideways along the wall to avoid Hazel’s shots.
By the time we caught up, the elevator was already disappearing from sight. Daphne’s outstretched hand went right through it.
“Fuck!” Hazel yelled, letting her shoulders droop. “She got away.”
Anger flared, but I couldn’t go on a fox hunt at the moment. I had something more important to do.
“Where are you going?” Hazel asked, rushing to keep up as I sprinted back down the hall. “We have to wait for the elevator to come back, and we don’t know how to free him.”
“I need to do this.” I couldn’t explain it, but I had the sense I could somehow reach him if I wanted to, and that it was more important than chasing after a kitsune. This time, I was trusting my extra senses. No more mistakes.
Coming to a stop over Julian, I reached out a hand but hesitated. He looked so…robotic. I sucked in a breath and gripped his shoulders as I leaned my forehead against his, trying not to think about how cold and inhuman he felt. I’d never been able to read him—he was a vampire, technically dead. He had no aura. Yet, I knew I had to try.
Julian, I called in my mind, where are you?
A faint tug in the back of my mind, and I homed in, trying to catch what felt like a whisper and was just as fragile.
Annette, Julian’s voice called. If sorrow had a sound, it was that name.
No, I said gently, It’s me, Charlotte. I need you to focus on me. I’m going to find a way to get you back. I promise.
I never meant to hurt you.
He had to think I was Annette. Was he trapped in the past? Was it our past or another dimension where he’d hurt someone else? I had no reason to feel as jealous as I did.
The emptiness around me fell away along with my stomach as though I was dropping down a platform past streaks of color. When I jolted to a stop, the colors coalesced into a warm spring day with rolling green hills and tall wildflowers. In the distance, a small house sat on top of a hill with a brick well a few hundred yards away and horses grazing behind a crooked fence.
