Chapter 26
Cori
It was so dark Cori couldn’t see anything around her. How much time had passed since she’d woken, she didn’t know, but it felt like hours. Her head throbbed, and a cut on her knuckles burned. As best as she could tell, she was underground. The floor she sat on was made of dirt, and when she’d scooted as far as the chain around her ankle would let her go, she’d bumped into a cool cement wall. The men who had grabbed her had handcuffed her wrists behind her back as well.
Cori had been terrified when she’d first regained consciousness, but now she was just numb. The cold had seeped into her bones until she couldn’t think about anything except getting warm again—and when Griff might come for her. He had to be the one who’d arranged her abduction after all. It was only a matter of time before the sun dipped low enough on the horizon for him to wake up. He definitely wouldn’t wait to see his prize or start punishing her.
She wished she could see so that she could at least form some kind of plan. It was hard to do much when she didn’t even know where the exit was from the room. Her abductors had been smart enough to empty her pockets, so she didn’t have anything to try picking the locks on her cuffs. It made her crazy to sit there as time ticked by slowly while she could do nothing to save herself. The only advantage Cori had was that she hadn’t been hurt too badly in the crash. Other than a headache, a sore neck, and a few cuts, she was alright. She just had to keep her wits about her and find a way out of this.
The floorboard above her squeaked.
She froze and stared upward, though she couldn’t make out anything. This was the first noise she’d heard since waking up. Hard footsteps against a wooden floor continued, moving to a part of the basement she couldn’t reach. A moment later, a door opened from a high point across the room. Soft light flooded inside, half blinding her. She had to squint her eyes for a moment before she could focus again. Cori could just make out the figure of a large, all too familiar man filling the doorway and a set of stairs leading downward.
Terror filled her, and her mouth went dry. Memories of when Griff had controlled her every movement and beaten her if she dared defy him came to mind. Now she was back in his hands. Cori could take a few wild guesses what he might do as punishment for the trouble she’d caused him. Griff had always sworn he’d make her pay for leaving, and she’d added trying to kill him to his vindictive list. Like a fool, Cori had given him a chance for payback.
He began moving downward in slow, halting steps. The creak of each stair sounded like a death knell. She started to shake despite her resolve to be brave. The cold and the fear were getting to her, and it was all Cori could do to hold still. Griff wanted her to be afraid. She couldn’t give that to him, or he would have truly won. He’d won far too many times already.
“Congratulations,” she said, bitterly. “You got me.”
A match struck and the scent of sulfur filled the room. A moment later, a lamp lit up the grungy basement. Griff carried it over to a small wooden table well out of her reach. It provided just enough light that she could make out his features and the hardness in his eyes.
“You have many powerful friends. It wasn’t easy.”
Cori lifted her chin. “They will find me.”
Griff smiled slowly. “I hope they do. I’ve got plans for them as well.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, stiffening. “What could you possibly do against supernaturals who are a hundred times stronger than you with more powers?”
He crouched a few feet away and stared at her for a long minute before answering. “If they’re so powerful, why haven’t they found me yet?”
She’d wondered that more than once herself. No one should have been so good that Melena and the others couldn’t eventually track them down. She’d known her ex-husband was cunning and dangerous, but not enough to thwart her friends.
“I don’t suppose you’re going to explain how you’ve hidden from us all this time?” she asked. Griff was an egomaniac, so there was a real chance he might tell her just to listen to his own voice.
He chuckled. “I’ve got powerful friends, too.”
“It still doesn’t make sense.” Cori shook her head. “I’ve got a friend who can detect…”
“A sensor?” he questioned, lifting a brow.
“Yeah.”
“With angel blood in her.” He shook his index finger at Cori. “That was the key to how she couldn’t detect me, though I know she tried very hard. Came so close a couple of times I could see her blue eyes.”
Cori stared at him confused. “I don’t understand.”
“I imagine you don’t.”
She took a deep breath. “Then why don’t you explain it to me.”
Griff’s expression turned sour. “How about you explain to me how you got that mating mark? It wasn’t there the last time I came near you, but I could feel it upstairs the moment I woke up.”
Shit. She knew this mood with Griff, and it never went well.
“It was a…” Cori’s mind raced. “An accident. We didn’t mean for it to happen.”
He snarled and pushed closer until their noses were almost touching. “Claiming marks are never accidents. I’ve spent these past few years learning a lot about the supernatural world from among the best. The mark only works if both sides accept it.”
“I didn’t know what I was accepting,” she argued, though she knew it was pointless. He was pissed that she’d ever bind herself to another man aside from him. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t intentional.
“Don’t give me that shit.” Griff reached out and put a hand around her throat. “Your subconscious knew what was happening, and it accepted the bond for you. That wasn’t right. You knew you were mine, and that I had already returned for you when you gave yourself to that nephilim.”
Cori tried scooting away from him, but her back hit a post. She was trapped, and her ex-husband’s grip on her throat was tightening. It was all she could do to squeeze out her next words, “I’m not yours.”
“You bitch.” He let go of her throat and backhanded her.
Pain exploded in her cheek, and she keeled over onto the floor.
“Get up!” he commanded.
Gasping through the discomfort of her throbbing cheek, she struggled to wrench herself back into a sitting position. It wasn’t easy with her hands bound behind her back. Griff watched with eyes so cold glaciers would have seemed warmer.
When she didn’t get up fast enough for his liking, he yanked her up by her neck. “You will be mine once I’m finished with you. That ugly-looking nephilim only thinks you’re his now, but not for much longer.”
Cori couldn’t breathe. Griff was clutching her throat in such a vise-like grip that he’d closed off her airway. Her vision began to swim before her, and her thoughts became cloudy. While he continued to stare down at her with malevolent intent, she lost sight of him as everything went dark. Cori let herself go, sinking into the oblivion unconsciousness could bring.
She’d used that escape many times with him.
Sometime later, maybe only a few minutes, she woke up slumped against the post. Griff had moved a few feet away and sat with his legs bent in front of him and his arms resting on his knees. He didn’t look the slightest bit concerned that she’d passed out. If anything, he appeared annoyed that he’d had to wait for her to open her eyes again. That was normal behavior for him. Cori had been on this roller coaster ride enough times that it was hard not to revert to her old self—the woman who didn’t fight and gave the man whatever he wanted if it meant the pain would stop. She’d thought she’d gotten past this.
“If your lover had been smart, he would have had you turned into a vampire,” Griff said, shaking his head.
She took a deep breath. “Why? Would it make it easier for you to torture me?”
“Yes. I owe you a lot of pain, but turning is a delicate process.” He paused, considering. “And it takes time we don’t have.”
Cori was used to Griff’s moods swinging from one direction to another. He was becoming reflective and chatty now, which was a lot easier to handle as long as she followed along. “Why come after me now? It’s been almost four years.”
“That’s complicated,” he replied.
She’d figured as much. “I’ve got time.”
He stared at her with narrowed eyes. For a moment, Cori worried she’d pushed her luck.
“I was turned by a vampire named Variola,” he finally replied.
Cori nodded, having already suspected that.
“I wasn’t with her for long. She had a master as well—a nephilim who wanted me for herself. I was told my vengeance would have to wait because she wanted me in New York.” Griff worked his jaw. “It wasn’t until recently that I was given a new mission, and a chance to see you again.”
Cori’s thoughts raced as she put the pieces together. There was only one female nephilim who he could be talking about. “You mean Zoe told you to come here? I thought she was in Russia.”
Surprise flickered in Griff’s gaze. “You know a lot for a human.”
“I helped the supernaturals kick Zoe out when she tried to take over Fairbanks last year,” Cori explained.
Since she was human and able to resist compulsion, Melena had used her to do missions in the city while they were stuck outside of it. Zoe had an army occupying the town, including her own team of sensors, so there’d been no easy way for the sups or Melena to infiltrate the area. Cori was the only one who could move freely through the checkpoints, faking her answers whenever the guards asked her questions under compulsion.
“Russia turned out to be the perfect place for Zoe,” Griff replied, pulling a black stone with silver veins running through it from his pocket. “It allowed her to track this rare item down.”
Cori frowned. “What is it?”
“One of several Gregorian stones she uncovered. It blocks the powers of anyone with angel blood in them, including sensors, as I’ve learned. Zoe was fairly certain it would work, but she made me test it out.” He rolled the stone across his palm. “It’s far more effective than either of us hoped, but there’s still one more test to run.”
Cori’s chest tightened. Something in Griff’s voice told her the final test would be the worst of all. “Why isn’t the stone affecting you? I thought vamps were originally born from nephilim.”
“We were, but the black magic used to create us corrupted our blood—and we’re technically dead.” He gave her a satisfied look. “The stone doesn’t work on us.”
She clenched her fists. This was bad, very bad. The female nephilim who had sent Griff was the worst enemy of Cori’s friends and had caused them all kinds of problems in the past. That was on top of her being power hungry and conniving. She also had a daughter, Rebecca, at the nerou training compound who wanted nothing to do with her mother. Zoe blamed Melena, Lucas, Micah, and Derrick for causing the rift. The archangels had confined her to Russia for now, but apparently that didn’t stop her from reaching out by some other method.
“So you’re here to get revenge for Zoe.”
Griff snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous. She wouldn’t send a young vampire like me for that. I’m just here to make sure the stone works properly, and get my reward for loyal service to her.”
“You get a second chance at life, and this is what you do?” Cori shook her head, unable to hold back her feelings. “You’re allying yourself with one of the most evil women on the planet. I can’t think of anything more disgusting.”
He moved so fast she didn’t see the fist coming until it had already connected with her jaw. Pain exploded in her head, and she hit the floor. Griff picked Cori up and hit her again several times in the stomach. She cried out, feeling as if he’d just turned her insides to mush.
“Think you’re too good for me?” Griff asked in an angry voice, tossing her down. “I’m going to beat you until you’re an inch from dying, then bring you back with my blood, and start all over again.”
Cori rolled onto her side and spat out blood. She angled her face to look up at him. “Good luck with that. Do you want to know the real reason I’m not a vampire? Because a mystic predicted that I can’t survive the turn, and it would kill me.” She let out a bitter laugh. “So go ahead if you’re willing to risk it.”
Griff made a snarling sound and picked her up. “One way or another, you will be mine—even if it’s only in death.”
He fed her a mouthful of his blood, enough to heal the worst of her wounds without turning her, then he started hitting her again.
“You’re worthless,” he shouted. “I don’t even know why I want you.”
He grabbed hold of her ankle and snapped it. Cori screamed, tears of agony flowing down her cheeks. Griff looked down at her like she was less than the dirt she lay upon. She tried scooting away from him, but he just pulled her back. She couldn’t escape, and she couldn’t fight. This was her worst nightmare coming to life all because she’d been stupid and left Bartol’s home without protection. Maybe she was worthless. Maybe she did deserve the pain.
Griff kicked her in the side.
It was all Cori could do to suck in air. She glanced up at him through the tangled fall of her hair, knowing how pathetic she must look. “What do you want from me?”
“For you to beg like the bitch you are.” He picked her up by the shoulders and held her so high she couldn’t touch the ground. “And to admit that you’re mine.”
“Never,” she swore.
Griff tossed her into the nearest wall. Her spine cracked, and she slumped to the floor in a puddle. He stomped over to her, examined the damage with a critical eye, and fed her more blood. It took longer this time to heal, but once she was mostly recovered, he started in on her again. Cori became nothing more than a human punching bag—worse than anything her ex-husband had done to her before.
As she went through waves of horrific agony that shouldn’t have been possible, she wished for death. Anything would have been better than being at the mercy of Griff. The only thing he didn’t do was drink her blood or try to rape her. No, he focused on reminding her why she deserved nothing except pain.
“You’re a murderer,” he shouted after the third beating. “And not just because you tried to kill me, but you also killed that man I sent to hurt you a little. There ain’t nothing good about you, which is the real reason our daughter is dead. Even God knew you didn’t deserve her.”
She sobbed, lying in the fetal position on the floor unable to move.
“Be glad I’m helping you see clearly.” Griff kicked her in the back, sending piercing pain down her spine. “Because you can’t accept love from nobody—not even me.”
Tears ran down her cheeks. He was right. It only took a reminder for her to see that she didn’t deserve Bartol, her friends, or anyone. How could she have forgotten that?