“I can’t track them anymore.” David had stilled near the edge of the dark water. Murky. Deep. A pool that would lead back to the ocean. David stared down at the water. “The scent ends here.”
No, that wasn’t possible. “They can’t swim back to the mainland!”
David’s laughter was bitter. “Maybe the sexy doctor was a mermaid in disguise. Never seen one of those before. Thought they were just myths—”
Case sent a powerful charge of silver coursing through the werewolf’s collar. “They are myths!”
David sank to his knees, but his head tilted back and his eyes blazed up at Case. “That’s what…people used to say…about vamps. About…werewolves…”
Case’s mind raced as he considered possibilities. Mainland, my ass. “They just swam out and around to the side of the island. That’s the only option they had. They’re still here.” He was sure of it. “We need to get outside of Purgatory’s walls and search the island.” He lifted the remote, but didn’t send another surge of silver out, not yet. “You will find them.”
Pain darkened the werewolf’s face. The guards’ lights were trained on the werewolf, so Case could see David easily as the guy rasped, “I’ll find her…”
“If you don’t…” Case leaned toward him. Made sure that his voice was too low for the guards to hear him. “I’ll pump you full of so much silver that you’ll beg for death.”
He waited for the werewolf to show fear.
But, instead, the werewolf smiled. “I don’t beg.”
Olivia’s eyelids flew open and awareness came back to her with a shocking rush.
She’d been asleep, curled up on the hard rocks, and she whirled around now to see—
Faint light, drifting in through the cracks and crevices in the cave. Her heart was thundering in her chest—her naked chest.
Because she was totally nude and her horrified gasp seemed way too loud to her own ears.
Her gaze whipped to the left and to the right. She saw her clothes, spread out, drying? And she also realized that the vampire was gone.
He’d left her. No, no, he couldn’t have. Olivia jumped to her feet. “Shane?” Her voice echoed back to her. “Shane, where are you?” The pool of water was near her feet, glistening. The rocky walls of the cave surrounded her. Was there a tunnel hidden somewhere in those walls? An opening that she couldn’t see in that dim light?
Olivia snatched up her clothes and dressed as quickly as she could. The clothing was still damp and it rubbed roughly over her too-sensitive skin. Skin that was sensitive because of…him.
What did I do? Why?
She’d lost herself with Shane. Her control—the careful control that she’d maintained for years—had vanished the moment he’d taken her blood.
It shouldn’t have happened. It couldn’t happen again.
No worries on that score, especially seeing as how he fucked me and left me.
Vampires. They weren’t exactly known to be trustworthy.
Her bare feet slid over the rough flooring of the cave. She started inching toward the darkness of the walls. Her hands lifted as she tried to search for an opening, search for some kind of way out other than a dive into that water once more.
What did I do? Why? Why?
She could hardly remember anything about the sex with Shane—except that she’d needed him, desperately. Fire had ignited within her when his teeth sank into her neck, and she’d been overwhelmed by a sensual hunger for him. So consumed that she would have done anything to have him plunge into her.
He did something to me. That was the only explanation. Vampires could control their prey after they took blood from humans, and he must have been controlling her.
“Bastard,” she whispered. She’d thought he was a hero, that he was saving her, when all along he’d just been manipulating her. “Vampire bastard!”
“Ah, love, now why are you so pissed at me?”
Her breath choked out and she whirled at the sound of his voice. He rose from the water, easily, fluidly, and the water slid over his powerful, bare chest. He was wearing a pair of pants, nothing more, and looking too damn sexy.
He’s still controlling me.
She put her hands in front of her. “Stay away from me—and get out of my mind.”
He shoved his fingers through his wet hair. Frowned at her. Advanced. “I haven’t been in your mind. Just your body.”
Asshole. He came closer. Closer—
She punched him.
Or, she tried to, anyway, but the vamp caught her fist in his hand and held her easily.
“Not quite the greeting I was expecting, not after last night.”
Her cheeks burned. “What did you do to me?”
His thumb brushed lightly over her knuckles as he kept holding her hand prisoner. “Fucked you. I thought that was obvious.”
Her other fist flew out. He caught it too. Shook his head. “Olivia, sweet Olivia…” He leaned in close toward her. “Don’t you think it’s a little soon to say we made love? I mean…it was rough and it was hot and it was fucking, so I don’t know why you—”
“You used mind control on me.”
His face hardened. “The hell I did.” He still held both her hands in his grip.
“I don’t…that wasn’t me,” she told him, frantic, her heart galloping too fast. So fast it hurt.
“Climaxed so long and hard you nearly drove me out of my head?”
How was this happening? “Let me go.” Her voice was hoarse.
He hesitated.
“Let me go,” she said again.
“Only if you promise not to punch me.”
She nodded. Mentally crossed her fingers.
Slowly, he dropped her hands. “I didn’t use mind control on you. You had sex with me because you wanted me.” Anger roughened his words. “So maybe you’re just having some morning after regret because you screwed a vamp, and you always thought you were better than that.”
Better? No, that—
“We’re good enough to be your lab rats, the experiments that you study so carefully, but you never thought you’d be begging one of us to take you.”
Had she begged? She didn’t remember that part, but a lot of the specific details about last night were kind of blurry.
This nightmare would never end.
Olivia retreated a bit, and her back bumped into the rocks. “You did something with your bite. You…”
“Made you climax?” He stalked closer, but didn’t touch her again. “Because you did. You came—twice—just from my bite.”
“You made me.” The only explanation that made sense. “You compelled me—”
“If I could control you, I’d be doing it right now.” Flat, brutal. Scary. “I’m not. I don’t force women to do anything they don’t want to do,” he said with a barely banked fury. “Now I realize you’ve had some bad fucking hours at Purgatory, but watch your step, love. You don’t want to push me too far.”
She was trapped in a cave with a big, too-powerful vampire. Her fear was a living, breathing thing inside of her, but Olivia wasn’t backing down. “Then what happened? If you didn’t control me, why did I want you so much?”
He growled. “Because I’m dead fucking sexy?”
Her lips parted in surprise. But wait, yes, he was.
His hand lifted and skimmed down her cheek. Her racing heartbeat actually stopped in that moment. “Do you know what you are?” Shane asked her, his voice a rumble that sank beneath her skin.