“Yes.” Gwen twisted to enter the room.
The beast stepped closer and smelled my hair. “You smell like prey, Rabbit.” Then snapped his jaws.
I bound through the doorway in a massive adrenaline induced leap, running Gwen over.
She spun around. “Kam, behave.”
His echoing laughter answered her.
“He won’t hurt you. He’s just an ass.” She stepped next to me, her words barely registering.
I stood in the middle of a small cavern. The walls decorated with empty manacles and stained with old blood. Torches burnt in scions, their smoke clouding the ceiling.
Chained to the far wall hung Colby. His wrists and ankles bound by thick metal. The firelight flickered in his glare.
It took a moment or two before my thoughts cohered into something intelligent.
What should I start with? How ya doing? Didn’t sound right. A purple bruise covered his left cheek where Tane had punched him. The swelling reached his eye and lips.
I took a few steps closer before Gwen stopped me with a hand to my shoulder.
Conflicting emotions warred inside. I wanted to hit and hug him at the same time.
“Dumbass.” The insult blurted out. I didn’t know if I meant him or me.
Colby’s green eyes flared and he strained at his restraints. “Bitch!”
The cold, calculating person I associated with my ex-boss wasn’t present. I’d never seen Colby lose his cool before.
That’s not true…on Tane’s yacht he had flipped out. He’d been chained to a wall then too, also under Tane’s care. A shiver coursed down my spine as I remembered how ruthless the Nosferatu could be.
Would I be any less crazed if Luckard caught and chained me again?
I had reasons for hating Tane. They’d faded over the past few days, but this resurfaced some of them.
“I never asked you to come to my hotel room.” Crossing my arms over my chest, I strengthened my resolve to confront him without caving into tears.
Colby growled from deep inside his chest.
I sensed Gwen tense next to me.
“How can you be helping them, Connie?” The frustration in his voice ebbed.
“You’re human and working for the wrong team.”
“You tried to kill me.” I stomped my foot like a five year old, his accusation hit close to my own thoughts, and all my resolved vanished. Tears welled in my eyes.
My statement stopped him. His stunned expression told me all I needed to know. “It wasn’t him, Gwen.”
“How?” He repeated the same question from the hotel room.
“An assassin shot wooden cross bolts from a tree while Tane and I were outside two nights ago. The same night you came to the mansion with the team. One of the cross bolts almost shot me. If Tane hadn’t taken it for me, I’d be dead as a doornail.” I watched his eyes for any signs of guilt and only saw confusion. “Tane saw you running in the jungle with the weapon in your hands.”
“A crossbow? I tripped over it and picked it up.” His brow furrowed.
“Then why run?”
“We weren’t supposed to stay on the property after examining the body, I remained behind. We needed more intel. The killer is on the estate. I can smell it. When Tane came chasing after me, instinct kicked in and I ran.” He stared at me. “You have got to believe me. I’d never kill one of my own.”
“You’ve made it very clear I’m not part of the team anymore.” I wanted to believe him but—but what stopped me? Colby didn’t even kill vampires without proof they were murdering people. Yet, he did have a good reason to hate Tane on a personal level.
“I never betrayed the contract I have with the vampire nation. Each one I slayed was proven guilty prior to execution. Why would I kill the one vampire Lord who is upholding the laws?”
“Budapest.”
He flinched when I said the city’s name. “I’ve survived worse. Tane and I will never be friends, but I can tolerate him.” His admission drew a soft whine from Gwen.
I glanced at her and gave her a ‘ what the hell is wrong with you?’ look.
She couldn’t meet my gaze. Too many secrets, she needed to tell me what was going on between the two of them.
When I turned to Colby, he too stared at Gwen. “Do I know you?”
She snorted. “Nice to know I’m that remarkable.”
“Before last night. You seem…familiar.”
“No, we never met.” She spun and waited by the door.
“Colby, have you ever heard of a blood bond?”
“It’s what you and Rurik have. It’s how he saved you from Dragos and enslaved you.”
Touche. “Yeah, well, apparently it’s not with Rurik but with Tane. If you kill him I’ll die too.” I placed my hands on my hips and listened to my gut, not my brain.
Colby hung his head.
The whole time I’d been alone with Rurik I never felt like a traitor to my race.
Imprisoning Colby changed that. Guilt grew. What would Laurent think of my new life?
Far from the picket-fenced house with the two point five kids he wanted to give me.
It was the only future I couldn’t have. Fate had different plans for me.
I couldn’t chance setting Colby free until sunset and I knew Tane was safe. Like it or not, this bond meant more than a marriage since death do us part was taken literally.
Tane might be an asshole, but he was my asshole. It killed me to admit this, yet he was growing on me. Where Rurik was suave and sexy, Tane was cunning and deadly. I admired all these traits.
“Let me clear the waters for you, Colby. When the sun sets, the sharks will begin to circle. If I let you go and they catch you again, they’ll bite first and ask questions later.
Maybe too much later.”
A clicking of claws announced Kam’s return. “There are no sharks around here.”
Gwen rolled her eyes and left the room. “My brother, the genius.”
I followed her at a quick trot to not lose her in the dark.
“I didn’t try to kill him.” Colby’s shout followed us before Kam slammed the heavy metal door shut.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Outside the cave, Gwen stopped to answer her buzzing cell phone. “What?”
I leaned against a tree and stared at the fading light in the jungle. How the hell was I going to convince Tane to let Colby go? If he was innocent then the assassin was still at large. Maybe Luckard did have balls the size of watermelons and snuck onto the mansion’s grounds to make the attempt. Rurik thought someone else was behind the crazed Nosferatu’s plots. I couldn’t wait until sunset to consult with him. He’d know what to say and what to do.
“How’s that possible?” Gwen’s shout cut through my worries. She paced as she listened to the answer.
I straightened, drawn by her distress.
“Was anyone killed?”
Dread tightened my gut. I paced along side of her, waiting for more information crumbs.
“Shit, scour the hotel, question the staff and inform the brothers. I’m on my way.”
She closed the connection and looked at me. “Tane’s gone.”
“What?” I was stunned. “Are you sure?”
Her eyes narrowed. “I take my job seriously.”
“I mean, can he be, say, with someone in another hotel room?” The thought of Tane getting it on with another person turned my stomach. In the past few days, I’d begun thinking of him as mine…and possibly Rurik’s.
“Some of his guards are dead.”
“Oh.” Not anyone could take on a Nosferatu vampire, even in the day they were powerful. Whoever wanted Tane dead was very determined. What was I thinking?
Luckard must have managed this.
From Gwen’s stormy expression, I knew she came to the same conclusion. “The human Tane fed from was poisoned with the drug. It’s very rare and I don’t know how they keep getting their hands on it. They used it the last time they captured him.”