That thought banished fear. Instead, anger blazed in her heart as how evilly pleased with himself he sounded.
“Yes, I am awake, you foul blackguard.” She snapped the words at him, sounding utterly unlike herself. Usually her voice was so soft it could barely be heard. But her angry shout must have been heard by everyone in the house.
A dark shadow filled the doorway. With so little light, it was hard to distinguish him at first. It occurred to her he carried no candle or lamp and he had walked up a dark corridor to this room without trouble.
This must be his house. Apparently he knew it well.
He wore his dark clothing and his hair was black, so she could barely see him. “I demand that you untie me. Now!”
He shrugged. “I am considering it. I’m not sure which one I prefer.”
“What?”
“I cannot decide if I prefer having you tied to the bed in that erotically fetching way, or having you free so I can see what you would attempt to do to me.”
Nausea roiled in her belly. Erotically fetching?
She could make out a little more of him where he stood in the doorway. It was not easy to see him. She had to rest her cheek against the pillow to do it.
Mr. Ravenhunt’s shoulder was propped against the door frame, his arms folded over his chest. Relaxation exuded from him. Obviously, he wasn’t afraid that anyone else in the house—servants, for example—would learn she was his captive. They all must know.
She wanted to spit on him. But years with Mrs. Darkwell had taught her to pretend to be a docile prisoner, to bide her time.
But she had never been in such a vulnerable position in her life.
“Please untie me.” It took every ounce of control she possessed, but Ophelia spoke in the meekest voice she could.
“Not just yet, my dear. You look very appealing this way.”
The softness of his voice sent a shiver of terror down her spine. What did he want from her?
“Please . . . my arms ache. I’m frightened. Do you mean . . . to kill me?” There, she’d asked it.
“No, Lady Ophelia, I do not mean you any harm. In fact, I might be the closest thing to a savior you have. Now wait there. There is something I must do—to ensure your safety. Then I will be back.”
Ravenhunt drove his curricle into the stews that ran off Whitechapel High Street. He had no coachman, kept no servants.
He’d lived alone in his rented house on the outskirts of Mayfair ever since he’d returned to England. Lady Ophelia was the only other person who had been in it.
He slapped the reins sharply to set his two blacks galloping down the cobbled street. With expert touch, he veered around carts and slow carriages.
In London, none of the naïve and innocent mortals had any idea what monsters prowled their streets. Some vampires hunted the elegant, wider boulevards of Mayfair, or the dark streets surrounding the gentleman’s clubs and gaming hells. For the purpose of feeding, Ravenhunt now came here, to the maze of intertwined, narrow lanes, and rickety buildings packed with unfortunates.
When he’d first been a vampire, he’d been driven by lust and hunger. Too many of his victims had been fair maidens or voluptuous courtesans. He tried to forget their faces now. Those pretty faces wild with lust as he’d drunk their blood, then white with fear as they understood he was taking their lives along with their blood.
The prettiest ones he had changed into vampires, then abandoned.
He alighted from his carriage and tied the reins to a post. With his gray coat swinging around him, he strode deeper into the stews, passing through a narrow passage onto a dark, stinking lane.
“Slumming, Ravenhunt?”
“Feeding,” he answered brusquely. “I don’t hunt fragile maidens anymore, wolf. I like my prey bigger and stronger. Unlike you, I like my food with fight.”
The wolf was the Duke of Wolfcairn, prowling the stews in human form. As a human male, he was two inches taller than Ravenhunt. He was lean, with black hair and a shock of white-gray in it. The wolf’s laugh held the undercurrent of a growl. “I don’t prey on the weak or the fair either, Ravenhunt.”
Wolfcairn wore a gentleman’s attire and carried a gold-tipped walking stick. Ravenhunt dressed to disappear.
“I forgot. You aren’t Ravenhunt anymore. Gave that up to your young cousin. Too cowardly to keep up the ruse of mortality?”
Damn, he hated encountering Wolfcairn. The wolf liked to goad him—just as Wolfcairn liked to goad all the outcasts of the demon world who hunted here, in the depths of darkness, dirt, and poverty.
Raven was an outcast. He avoided all members of the demon world, like other vampires, wolf and dragon shifters, warlocks, satyrs.
There were many vampires in London. The vampire queens controlled different clans. There were even the “tamed” vampires who belonged to the Royal Society for the Investigation of Mysterious Phenomena.
Raven claimed no allegiance to any queen or any vampire clan.
In the shadows, Raven saw a warlock perform magic tricks with handkerchiefs and flowers to dazzle a large-bosomed ladybird who had been waiting on the street corner in a low-cut velvet dress.
Raven came here for blood, as did the wolf. Others, like the warlocks, came for sex.
“I am not cowardly,” he said coldly. “I gave up my life and title to protect someone I love. You are damned arrogant, Wolfcairn, and bloody stupid to keep your title. Unlike you, I don’t need a title to prove my power and superiority.”
“Indeed? What about a wager? A thousand pounds’ wager that, if we chase the same prey, I will catch it first.”
“I don’t have time tonight.”
“No time? We have eternity, man,” Wolfcairn pointed out.
“Someone is at my home, waiting for me.”
He remembered what Lady Ophelia had looked like. Stretched out on the bed and tied up.
Lovely, slender limbs. Her shift had been soft, clinging muslin that draped damned fetchingly over her pert, pretty breasts. Her golden hair had fallen from her pins, and it flowed around her in a halo of shimmering waves. Innocence shone in her big blue eyes.
Hades, it was like handing a six-year-old boy a cream cake and warning him not to eat it.
His cock had been going mad in his trousers, throbbing, pulsing, and bucking against the placket.
And her neck—
Pure temptation. Ivory skin, soft and perfect.
He had to get control of his hunger. He couldn’t bite her and feed from her. So he’d come here to do it instead.
“Why aren’t with her, you fool?” Wolfcairn asked. “Why hunt for prey in here when you have a delectable treat at home?”
“Never mind, wolf,” Raven growled. “I accept your wager.”
A woman’s sobs reached his ears. He saw the wolfman turn his head toward the sound and tip up his nose as if he was scenting.
“A female in distress?” Wolfcairn asked.
“Probably a dockyard brute abusing some poor, bedraggled street tart.”
“The perfect appetizer,” the duke said. “I will even give you a head start, vampire.”
“I don’t need favors from you,” Raven snapped darkly. “On the count of three.”
But by the time he’d reached two, Wolfcairn was already running for the dark alley. Screams now came from there.
Cursing, Raven ran, using his vampire strength to catch Wolfcairn. He couldn’t lose this meal. Not when he had to return to Lady Ophelia.
How could he have just left her here?
She should be thankful he was gone and he hadn’t hurt her. He was obviously mad. How could kidnapping her and tying her to a bed make him her savior?
Ophelia shut her eyes. Toad. Warty, smelly toad.
Calling him names did help to stave off fear.