Nearby, something dripped.

Plop, plop, plink.

The sound worked its way into Lauren’s subconscious, pulling her from her dreams and back into the real world. She didn’t want to wake, knowing she wouldn’t be waking in Nikolai’s arms in his beautiful home. No, she was somewhere else entirely now.

Her eyes fluttered open, though she didn’t move. The light was dim, but it no longer appeared to be night—early morning, perhaps. How long had she been unconscious? She blinked, willing her eyes to get used to the lack of light so she could make out her surroundings. Old stone, grey walls rose around her, and a floor of similar material was directly beneath her. Cold leeched into her body from where she lay on the rock. Its history was steeped in every crook and cranny. How long had they travelled to get here? Was she even still in England?

Yes, she thought she was. Though she knew she was somewhere ancient, the smell in the air was still the same, the same atmosphere, the same temperature. Yes, this was still England.

She was awake now, but she remained still. Her mind pieced together what she could remember. The car, the flying, the passing out. Was the other vampire in the room with her? It was impossible to tell without sitting up and looking around, and even that wasn’t foolproof. She was in gloom, and her eyes still hadn’t got used to the low light. Would he attack her if she tried to move? She wasn’t under any illusions that this vampire would be anything like Nikolai. This man—this creature—had paid money to werewolves in order to have her kidnapped. He wasn’t going to care about her tears or pleas for freedom. He’d only care about what flowed through her veins.

Lauren had never been the kind of woman who sat back and let others take control of her life. She had no idea how she’d measure up against a vampire who could fly, but she’d take any opportunity available to her to escape if she could, and that was going to have to start with her sitting up and looking around, and seeing if there was anything she could use as a weapon. She wasn’t naive enough to think the vampire would have left a door open, or just happened to leave a stake lying around, but if she didn’t sit up and take control, she’d never know.

Slowly, she pushed herself up to sitting.

Tall, narrow windows with arches at the tops filtered in slants of early morning light. Though she was thankful for the daylight, she realised it meant something else. Nikolai wouldn’t be able to move in the day. Right now, he wouldn’t be able to come for her. She didn’t know how the others worked who were with him—Henry and the other men—but for the moment, she was all alone.

She remembered how she’d been able to hear Nikolai’s thoughts before, and desperately, she reached out to him again, praying she’d be able to hear his familiar voice in her head, but there was only silence.

“You’re awake.”

A sudden voice echoed from the corner of the room, and she jumped, clutching a hand to her chest. It was him, the vampire who took her. She remembered the moments before she’d been torn from the car, how Nikolai had been hurt.

“You bastard,” she snapped.

He chuckled. “Now, now, young lady. That’s no way to speak to your elders.” He had an accent, one she recognised.

“You don’t deserve respect. You’re nothing to me. You buy women, which makes you filth in my mind.”

“You’re going to make this far more painful than it needs to be if you continue with that attitude,” he chastened.

Her eyes began to grow used to the light. The shape in the corner rose to his feet. He’d been sitting on a chair, watching her as she lay unconscious. The thought made her shudder, but she figured there would be far worse to come.

“Where the hell am I?”

“An ancient place, steeped in history. I found it spoke to my soul.”

“You don’t have a soul.”

“And what would you know about that?”

He stepped forward, into a slant of moonlight. He was tall—even taller than Nikolai—with a slender frame that wasn’t far from being hunched. His hair was jet black and a few inches long, and his dark eyes had a wicked glint to them. The idea of this creature feeding on her repulsed her. She didn’t want his mouth anywhere near her.

“Who are you, and what are you going to do with me?”

A slight crease to his brow. “You mean no one has told you my name?”

The question confused her. “No. Should someone have?”

He gave a one-shouldered shrug. “We vampires have our connections. I wondered if anyone had mentioned me yet, that is all.”

“No. You mean nothing to me. You clearly aren’t as famous as you think you are.”

That same shrug again. “Only among certain circles. And as for what I plan to do with you, well, I am a vampire.” With that, he stretched his jaw wide, far wider than ever would have been humanly possible revealing the white flash of fangs in the hazy light.

Horror speared through Lauren’s heart, and she scrabbled backwards, even though she knew she had no place to go.

But even as she moved away, the vampire stepped towards her.

“No, no, no ...” she cried.

The glint in his eyes became one of triumph, and he darted at her, so fast, Lauren barely had time to scream ...