The fist in my hair brought tears to my eyes, but it was Salem’s words that spilled them down my cheeks.
Erebus…The man who delivered our meals in the mansion.
Our captor. I closed my eyes as my heart shattered. Not our captor. My captor. Salem was in on it.
“You know him.” I exploded in a fury of kicking and jerking beneath Salem’s restraining hands, my tears mixing with the dirt pressed to my face. “You were fucking in on it!”
Erebus crouched beside me, the blades on his belt glinting in the lantern light, and his eyes on Salem. “Need help?”
“Rope.” Salem released my hair to reinforce his grip on my arms and legs. “Help me tie her, and watch out for her fangs.”
“What? No!” My struggling worked the tear-soaked soil into my nose and mouth. “Why are you doing this? I trusted you!”
“Shh.” Salem stroked my hair, and the tender touch only further enraged me.
“Don’t shush me.” I twisted my neck and tried to catch Salem’s arm with my fangs. “You lying son of a—”
He gagged my mouth with a strip of leather and tied it at the back of my head. “You’re right about that, sweetheart. Elaine was a bitch.”
As I sank my teeth into the strap, the full force of his deceit hit me directly in the gut. In the mansion, we’d had a rocky start, sparring and circling each other for days. But he’d never gagged me, never so blatantly ignored my questions. I felt sick, violated, and utterly betrayed.
His furrowed brow darkened his eyes, his mouth tipping down at the corners. The depth of his treachery wasn’t clear, but as he bound my wrists behind me, I lost my grip on the ridiculous hope that this was all a game or a misunderstanding.
I rolled to my side, watching with a splintering ache in my chest as he and Erebus embraced each other in a hearty hug. The kind of hug shared among close friends, not business acquaintances.
I’d been duped. Played a fool since the day I ran into that mansion. Hell, maybe Salem had orchestrated the chase that had landed me there. I’d suspected as much the day I met him, but I’d ignored my gut to follow my dumb, guileless heart.
With my hands bound and mouth gagged, I should’ve been contemplating the severity of the situation, like them killing the prophesied daughter to destroy any hope for mankind’s freedom. But I couldn’t focus past the lancing pain of Salem’s duplicity against me and the relationship I held so dear.
Had I imagined every passionate moment between us? Had he tricked me into falling in love with him so he could use me for some heinous purpose? I’d been convinced he cared about me. How could I have gotten that so wrong? Even now, I refused to believe it was all a farce. He couldn’t have faked the connection between us. I simply couldn’t accept he felt nothing for me.
“Do you know how hard it was to not storm into that prison cell and deal with this myself?” Erebus gestured at me and glared at Salem. “Why isn’t she dead?”
I stopped breathing, my eyes blurring as I searched the hard lines of Salem’s face. He was supposed to kill me?
“I decided to keep her.” He straightened, his brutal expression etched in marble.
“Keep her?” Erebus snarled past his fangs and narrowed ice-blue eyes. “You decided to keep the daughter of Eve? Defeats the fucking purpose, don’t you think?”
What purpose? To kill me and be done with the foretold threat against their species? I sat up and bent my knees, planting my boots on the ground. I would never outrun them, but if they took me outside, I had to try.
“We’ll talk later. We need to get moving.” Salem lifted me to my feet with his hands on my waist. “Don’t leave anything behind,” he said to Erebus. “There’s a carbon-steel knife in her pack. Put it in a safe place.”
Tears gathered on the rim of my lashes, and each blink sent a droplet down my face. Why would he care about my mother’s dagger? And why was he rubbing my back as he led me bound and gagged toward the door. He was fucking with my head. Wringing my stomach. Gutting my heart.
We stepped outside, and the glacial wind instantly froze the moisture on my cheeks. Other than the rope on my wrists at my back, he didn’t restrain me, didn’t even touch me, as if to say, Go ahead. Try to run.
I scanned the perimeter and shuddered at the number of eyes staring out of the darkness. The human-shaped silhouettes were tall, masculine, and bristling with fangs. At least two dozen hybrids. But none moved to attack me. Did Salem have some sort of power or influence over them?
They sat atop huffing horses. Others stood around the six massive trucks parked in an intimidating line in front of the barn. Were they even trucks? No two vehicles were alike but they all looked downright menacing. Painted black and covered in armor plates, they were equipped with gasified fuel tanks on rear and side carriers, scowling steel grills that could plow through a building, and the biggest, baddest all-terrain tires I’d ever seen. It would take a large forest to produce the fuel needed to move that much weight. But there were no visible weapons mounted on the exteriors. They seemed to have been customized for the sole purpose of safe transportation.
Salem guided me to the vehicle parked second to the front of the convoy. It resembled a tank on four wheels. The only windows were on the front cab. The rear appeared to be a self-contained, armored pod.
He opened the back door, revealing something out of a medieval fairytale. Thick cushions made of silk covered the floorboards. Tufted velvet padded the interior walls, the fabrics boasting rich shades of red and black. An array of meats, fruits, vegetables, and wine spread over a built-in table. Dim electric lights glowed from handcrafted wood panels along the roof.
It was a palace on wheels. A symbol of majesty and power. A modern royal carriage fit for a dark prince with an aversion to the sun.
Was this a glimpse of his utopia? How could anyone afford such luxury in this world?
My hands fisted in the rope. I didn’t want any part of it.
The aroma of grilled meat reached my nose, rushing saliva against the gag. The food had been freshly prepared and served on silver fucking platters. If it was meant for Salem, the hybrids had been expecting him. They had known where to find him.
All of this was planned.
My stomach roiled and cramped as I stared up at him with so many questions wetting my eyes.
Who are you? What do you want with me? I loved you, and I don’t even know you.
He brushed the dirt from my cheek, his hand warm and painfully gentle. “We won’t stop again for a while. Do you need to pee before we leave?”
Yes, and given the coiling, fucked-up state of my insides, I might very well shit myself. And hurl all over my boots.
Footsteps sounded behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder.
Erebus led the Appaloosa out of the barn. He and the horse were weighed down with our belongings, including my bow and arrows. I twisted my wrists against the rope, trembling with the urge to flee. Fuck it.
I ran, darting between the vehicles and around the horses. My legs burned and my boots pounded and slid over snow as I sprinted north across the open tundra. North toward my fathers. Far away from Salem and his plans, his hybrids, and his fancy…fuck-I-don’t-even-want-to-know armored carriage.
The blustery air froze my lungs. My tongue dragged against the gag, my wrists scorching against the scratchy rope. I must’ve run a quarter of a mile before I dared a peek over my shoulder. The barn, vehicles, and horses blotted the bleak horizon. No one chased me. Not the hybrids. Not Salem. Adrenaline fired through my blood and fueled my muscles.
I redirected my focus forward and slammed into a wall of leather and muscle. The impact knocked me on my ass, and I blinked, dazed.
Salem stood over me, boots shoulder-width apart, hands clasped behind his back, and expression eerily composed. The flap of his black trench coat whipped like a flag in the wind, the veins in his throat outshining the moonlight.
My corset felt like a steel band around my ribs as I fought for air. How the hell did he sneak up on me? Why did he look so calm?
He knows you can’t outrun him, you idiot.
As if to punctuate that thought, he gave me his back, stepped a few feet away, and urinated in the snow. “If you don’t pee, Dawn, it’s going to be a miserable trip. We’re not stopping for eights hours.”
Because opening that back door would kill him.
Not my problem. I stumbled to my feet and took off in the other direction. The stomp of my boots echoed through the icy darkness. Only my boots. He didn’t chase? I glanced back at the snowy landscape. No Salem. Even with his superior speed, I should’ve spotted him. Unless…
I jerked my head forward and skidded to a stop. Too late. I collided with his chest and fell back.
He caught my arms, halting my downward tumble. I bit down on the gag. Did he fucking teleport?
“You’re wondering why you can’t perceive my movements.” He knelt before me and reached for the fastening on my pants.
I shuffled backward, chest heaving at the audacity of his touch.
“Come here.” He flicked his finger, pointing at the spot in front of him as lightning flashed in his eyes. “I’m going to help you with your pants so you can pee. And I’ll tell what you want to know.” He rested his hands on his thighs. “I’ll tell you everything.”
As if I could believe him. But at this point, I had nothing to lose. The threatening look he pointed at me said my pants were coming down the hard way if I ran again.
With a shivery breath, I stepped forward.
He pushed the trousers to my boots and waited until I squatted before he spoke. “I’m faster and stronger than a hybrid. Far faster than the human eye can detect.”
I emptied my bladder and stood, every muscle in my body trembling from the wind and his words.
“You can’t run from me.” He pulled up my pants, his fingers warm and soft along my thighs. “You can’t bite me. Can’t fight me. I will always win.”
The truth of his statement sucked the air from my lungs. He was bigger, deadlier, and faster. I was helpless against him, and that was the scariest feeling in the world.
He ducked his head to tie my waistband, and a sliver of skin peeked above his collar, glowing with veins.
Do it!
I opened my jaw and slammed my fangs toward his neck. But instead of making contact, the air was knocked out of me. Vision fled, and the sensation of falling overpowered my senses. Plummeting. Flying. It happened in a blink, and when the world stopped spinning, I was sitting in his armored chariot, surrounded by opulent fabrics and vented heat and Salem. He perched on a cushion across from me, liquid-steel eyes pinning me in place.
My heart thundered. Did I black out?
He read the question in my expression. “I carried you here, but you didn’t sense it, did you? I’m fast, Dawn. Too fast for your awareness.”
How was that possible? What was I supposed to do with that information? I looked around, didn’t spot any weapons. Not his club. No eating utensils. Nothing I could use to stab through his eyes. Not that I could wield any weapon with my hands tied behind my back.
The rear door was locked with a steel bar on the inside. Not only had he hurtled me across a quarter mile distance in a fraction of a second, he’d also barred the door. A bar I had no chance of removing if he was that damn fast.
Was I even capable of killing him? If I got that door open during the daylight, I could fry him. But the thought crushed my chest with unbearable pain. Maybe I could do it out of desperation or fear. I’d tried to bite him just a moment ago. If I’d turned him to ash, would I have regretted it? I still felt something for him, something twisted and complicated that entwined through my heart. I didn’t know how to untangle that.
I’m a stupid, lovesick girl. Perhaps too stupid to live.
I was supposed to be the prophecy. The prediction must’ve been flawed or misinterpreted. Though it had been drilled into my head since I was born, I’d always had my doubts. But I’d never questioned it as much as I did now, sitting beside a man who had imprisoned me not once, but twice. How could I save an entire race when I couldn’t even save myself?
The engine rumbled to life, and the transport rolled into motion.
He bent toward me and slid off my boots, slowly, carefully, while holding my gaze. I couldn’t look away, couldn’t move, my entire body frozen in heartache and bewilderment as he massaged my feet. Why was he caring for me? I needed to hate him. He’d lied to me. Bound and gagged me. Hell knew what else was looming on the horizon.
The floodgates reopened, dripping the evidence of my turmoil down my cheeks.
“Don’t cry.” He shifted to sit beside me and wiped the tears from my face. “I’m going to tell you what’s going on and answer all your questions. You’re not going to like it, but Dawn…” He cupped my jaw and stared into my eyes. “Nothing changes. This…” He gestured between us. “This is what matters. Everything else is just logistics.”
What did that even mean? I glared at him, seething against the gag.
He pulled off his boots. His coat was next. Then his shirt, leaving his chest bare and crawling with gleaming veins over sinewy muscle.
“I’m going to remove the restraints.” He turned me on the seat and lowered his mouth toward my bound hands.
I tensed but didn’t fight him as he bit through the rope. The instant it fell away, I reached up to remove the gag.
“Wait.” He clasped my wrists, lowering them to my lap and rubbing around the red marks on my skin. “You have a lot questions and a helluva lot of hostile things to say.” He smirked. “I can see it all behind that golden fire in your eyes. Let me talk first. I need to explain some things.”
With my stomach twisting in knots, I pushed my tongue against the gag and gave a jerky nod.
He untied the gag, and I wriggled my jaw, my attention fixed on his veins. The urge to bite him tingled through my gums, but I breathed through it, pinned my lips, and waited for him to speak.
Lowering his chin, he stared at his chest. “I can see what you see. I can see my veins and hear the amplified sound in my head.”
I opened my mouth to call him a cocksucking liar, but the warning look in his fluorescent eyes muted my voice.
“I’ve sensed hybrids this way for as long as I can remember.” He traced the largest, brightest vessel in his chest, unerringly following its path to his heart. “No one else has ever been able to see or hear my veins. Until you. And these silver things? It’s venom. Not mine.” He met my eyes. “It’s the venom I’ve consumed from hybrids.”
“How do you know?” I gasped. “Are you drinking—?”
“Shut up.” A muscle in his jaw bounced.
I sat back, nostrils flaring.
“The hybrids traveling with us aren’t attacking you,” he said, “because I’ve bitten all of them. Drained them to the point of near death. In doing so, I freed them.”
Freed them from the mental programming? Salem could lift the Drone’s harness on the hybrids’ brains?
“They’re not cured.” He stroked a thumb against his leather-clad thigh, his brows pinching together. “They still crave blood and sex, still have that need to proliferate and spread the infection. But their minds are free to make decisions. They can mentally fight the instinct. Some of them have been with me since my early teens.”
He freed their minds, and in return, he gained their loyalty.
My pulse went crazy. Salem was closer to a cure than Michio had ever been able to create in a lab, yet Salem had kept this from my fathers. Why? He could’ve saved…
“You could’ve saved Kip and my other soldiers.” My eyes widened, welling with tears. “Did you send the hybrids that breached the wall in the camp?”
“No. I had nothing to do with that.”
But he could’ve cured their minds. Except it would’ve drawn too much attention from my fathers, and they wouldn’t have let him go. Not if he carried a key to the cure. That was why he’d hidden this from them. So instead of saving the hybrids that attacked us, he’d killed them.
A gruesome thought hitched my breath. “The hybrid children—”
“It doesn’t work on children. I have to drain a dangerous amount of blood to remove the programming. I’ve tried.” He braced his elbows on spread knees. “And failed.”
“You told me you never killed a hybrid child.”
“I’ve never killed one intentionally.” He stared at his bare feet, unblinking. “Until the mansion.”
Why did he kill them? Why were they even there? I gripped my forehead and rubbed my head as a thousand questions pounded to the surface. The one that mattered most escaped my lips. “What do you want?”
He looked up, his eyes shining like molten moonlight. “I want to fuck you, cherish you, and protect you for the rest of our lives.”
Not the answer I expected, and it left me stumbling over my tongue. “That’s…I-I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I.”
I flinched, clutching my throat. “Do you love me?”
“I don’t know what that means.”
Acid burned in my stomach, heating my voice. “Would you die for me?”
“That’s ridiculous. No one’s dying.”
“It’s hypothetical, and you fucking know it. Answer the question.”
“Eat.” He gestured at the spread of food and wine. “We’re going to be in here for five days. Plenty of time to talk.”
“What? Traveling by car, we should make it to Alberta by tomorrow.”
He leaned back on the cushion and tilted his head. “I don’t live in Alberta.”