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As he fought off sleep induced by the sun, he kept an image of Leah firm in his mind. His purpose never wavered.
Wait for me. I’m coming.
Bang!
Leah groaned, her body a mass of aching nerves. She remained unmoving, her eyes shut, wishing she could return to the oblivion of sleep and rid herself of the hammer in her skull, but no luck.
She opened her eyes and didn’t recognize the white, sterile walls. Her Vegas bedroom had bluish-gray walls. Her room at the Compound had a desk across from her bed. This was neither.
She blinked, confused, as memories returned to her in bits and pieces. The Ruins. Julian’s bedroom. Emily giving her the gun. The stake. Julian’s skin peeling off.
Julian!
The fog cleared. Leah jerked up and winced at her body’s protests. She tried to curl back into herself and felt the heavy weight of chains. Two inches thick, the chains were about five feet long and fastened to anchors on the walls. Metal shackles locked around her ankles and wrists. She tugged on them, the gesture futile. She wasn’t a vampire who could break through these.
Another glance revealed she was in a ten-by-ten room with the bed as the only furniture. A door with a small window and a slit on the bottom for food was on the opposite wall, too far for her to reach.
The sight of the camera and the speaker in the top right corner had her blinking back the tears. No, she wouldn’t cry, though tears clogged her throat and despair ate at her insides.
Julian.
He’d tried to save her. Even after she’d tried to kill him.
She blinked again and again, swallowing the tears. Burying her face in her hands, she took several long, shuddering breaths.
God, what had she done? She remembered waking up, realizing she wasn’t in control. Horror had snaked through her.
All she had wanted was to lay next to him, to relive the fantastic night they’d had. Instead, she’d watched as her body mechanically pulled on clothes, walked to her purse, and picked out the stake and the gun.
If it hadn’t been for the mating bond, if it hadn’t been for her desperation to save him, Julian would be dead.
At her hands.
Another breath. A sniffle.
Get yourself together.Now isn’t the time to fall apart.
She recalled Dmitri filming a video of her to send to Julian. Her heart constricted. A part of her prayed he would come, come save her, come take her away. But the sane part prayed just as fervently that he wouldn’t.
It was a trap. What Dmitri wanted, she had no idea.
Another bang. A door opened somewhere. Clicking footsteps in the hallway coming in her direction.
Leah took another deep breath, preparing herself. The keys jangled, and the lock clicked, with a heavy metal mechanism sounding in the walls.
When the door opened, her eyes were dry, her pulse steady.
She was no use to anyone if she shattered into pieces.
Dmitri entered, followed by two tall, muscle-building Hunters with buzz cuts and military bearings. In comparison, Dmitri looked like the pencil pusher he was. Oh, he was physically fit with no ounce of extra fat on him, training in the gym religiously and boxing with the Hunter trainees. Yet, he lacked that hard edge and the dead look in his eyes the Hunters had that said they would kill you one second and eat dinner the next.
He might control the Hunters, but he wasn’t a killer. If someone handed him a stake in the middle of a fight, he wouldn’t be able to kill the vampire.
Years ago, the sight of him had made butterflies flutter in her stomach. He was handsome to a fault, with silky brown hair framing an angular face that spoke of his Italian heritage. She’d learned the hard way that beauty was only skin deep.
The butterflies had disappeared, replaced with fear when she had caught his interest, when he had manipulated her into his bed by threatening her friends.
“You’re awake, good.” The smile that would make any other woman’s heart skip a beat had the opposite effect on her.
