Page 89 of Midnight Kiss

“Yes, Master.”

Karn left me then and the door closed.

A moment later, it opened again, and two vampires entered. Another flash of the room in my mind’s eye, clearer than before. One vampire was short, yawning, bored. The other was taller and hunched over, leading with his nose as he entered the room. Both had those same blue eyes that I associated with the bad vampires who had taken me.

Taken me. Kidnapped me. Another fact that stung.

I wasn’t going to be weak anymore.

I lay there in the darkness, listening to the vampires talk softly among themselves as they watched me. Power filled my limbs. Karn had made a mistake by giving me his blood.

And I had made a mistake refusing it.

With a sense of disgust at myself, I opened my mouth and licked off the rest of the bitter copper taste he had left there. My head hit the slab behind me, and the image of the room solidified in my mind.

And then of the vampires. The door. The hall beyond.

My consciousness swept through it, as if it could see everything in real time. The hallway outside was cramped, made of stone, and there were brackets that bore torches along the walls. Actual fiery torches.

I shifted, and my stomach growled. Now, I actually was hungry. For the first time in ages, I was starving.

“Hey, settle down,” the vampire said.

It was the short one talking, and his mouth moved in my mind’s eye. He glared at me like I’d personally affronted him. The taller one nudged him and rolled his blue eyes.

“Just ignore her,” he said. “She’s going to die soon anyway.”

“She’s better not. The Master wants her kept alive.”

The tall vampire sniffed. “Have you heard the rumors?”

“About?”

“About her. She’s human. But they’re keeping her here like she’s something special. Maybe she is something special, you know.”

“Eh. Maybe she’s just meat,” the short one said.

Power filled me from head to toe. It wasn’t like light or heat or anything like that, but a potential. A feeling that I could do anything. That I would do anything.

My arms were bound by leather straps attached to chains. I’d been too weak to move them before, but I wasn’t weak anymore. Now, I lifted both of them and ripped my arms free.

“What the—?” the short vampire exclaimed.

I sat upright on the slab and removed the blindfold from my head, opening my eyes. The image in my brain collided with the one in front of my eyes, and I found they were exactly the same. Whatever Karn had done to me when he’d given me his blood, it had … empowered me.

I slipped off the stone slab and glared at them. “Get out of my way.”

The taller vampire with the terrible posture smirked at me. “Or what?”

“Or I’ll make you,” I replied.

30

ALEXANDER

They would do everything in their power to get the information from me. It was a waiting game, one I had to play. Emily was still alive, but I couldn’t let them bond her. Not now, not ever, because being bonded to Sanguine Nox was worse than death.

I stood in the center of a dungeon chamber, this one empty of stone slabs or torture devices—there were many in other chambers—my hands tucked behind my back. Waiting.