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“Perhaps. Then, what’s my excuse?”
Cy’s eyes flashed to Summer’s and then to the sweet smile that played on her face. “You’re impressed with me?”
“I’ve never seen juggling skills quite like yours.”
Cy laughed. A real laugh. God, it felt good. With Summer and Wren, he could almost forget where he was, what was happening all around him.
“You’re good with him.” Summer’s voice was soft, quiet, so as not to awaken any of the other pets.
“He’s a good boy.”
“He is.”
Cy glanced around the room at all the other soundly sleeping bodies. “There are fewer of us than I imagined there would be.”
“Not all of the pets are kept in these quarters. Others share their master’s rooms. The dogs are kept in kennels for the fights.”
Cy swallowed. “The dogs…”
Summer nodded. “To be honest, I’m surprised you weren’t taken there immediately. But then, if you belong to Lord Haven now, it makes sense. He hates the fights.”
A shiver of revulsion slid up Cy’s spine. He’d heard of the fights but never witnessed them. He hoped he’d never have to. The barbarism was something only vampyres were capable of.
“I suppose I should be thankful for that, then.”
“Thankful to a vampyre,” Summer lamented with a soft smile. “Who’d have thought?”
“Who indeed?” Cy stroked the soft locks of Wren’s hair. The little boy shifted and wrinkled his nose in sleep. “This is no life for a boy. He should be running, playing, learning.”
“Was that the kind of life you had?” There was a knowing tone in Summer’s tone.
“I don’t want my life for him.”
“I wish there was another way.”
Cy paused, studying her soft features. “And if there was? Would you fight for it? Or are you resigned to the way things are?” No humans were suited to this life, none deserved to live the way they did in captivity. He’d made it his mission to save as many as possible—if he could save Summer and Wren too…perhaps his capture, and this whole mess, wouldn’t be in vain.
Summer froze, her breath coming quickly. Cy watched her chest rise and fall. Finally, she met Cy’s eyes. “I…would fight. I would try.”
Cy breathed a sigh of relief. “Fight with me, then,” he whispered.
“You were with the Veritas. Before all this?”
“I am still. I was captured during a raid on the fur farm in Highgate. I was trying to protect my friends and ultimately paid the price for it. The Karnsteins captured me and sold me to the Varneys who then passed me along to Thorne. But I’m getting out of here. I’ll find a way. And I’ll take you and Wren with me.”
“There’s no way out. If there was, we would have already found it.”
“I have…help.”
She bristled. “Help?”
“Thorne told me that he’ll help me escape if I gather information for him on Haven.”
“He wants you to spy on his progeny?”
Cy shrugged. “He thinks Haven is hiding something.”
“And you trust Thorne Bathory?”
