Ivan was aware of burning around his wrists and ankles, and the same sensation at his throat. He was upright, and, from the chill biting his skin, he was still naked. What the hell had happened? One moment, he’d been sleeping, curled up in bed with Charlie, and the next he’d been plunged into the middle of a nightmare. He’d been aware he was being taken, that someone had struck Charlie when she’d tried to stop them, but he’d been trapped inside his own body by the daylight, unable to do or say anything to change things.

He opened his eyes, but only darkness enclosed him. Even with his excellent eyesight and nocturnal nature, he still struggled to make out his surroundings. He seemed to be in some kind of cellar. The ceiling was low, so the top of his head almost hit it, and the ground was made up of dank earth. A second scent underlay the peaty soil, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

No matter, he had bigger things to worry about. He was chained to the wall, and by the way the chains bit and burned into his wrists and ankles and throat, he assumed the chains were silver.

Ivan clenched his teeth and let out a growl of anger. He knew who’d taken him, though he didn’t understand why. He gave a tentative tug on the chain around his right hand. The metal pressed against his skin, and there was a hiss and the stink of burning flesh. White hot agony shot up his arm, and he yelled in pain before releasing his pull on the chain. If he kept tugging, the chain would cut right through flesh and bone. Maybe he could keep up the pressure and risk losing his hands and feet to escape, but there was nothing he could do about the chain around his neck. He wouldn’t survive without his head.

The door at the top of the wooden set of stairs on the opposite side of the cellar suddenly opened, and a swathe of light poured into the darkness.

“I wouldn’t bother if I were you,” came a familiar female voice. “All you’ll do is sever your limbs, and you’ll still not make it out of here alive.”

“Michaela. What the fuck are you playing at?”

His ex-girlfriend stepped fully into the space at the top of the stairs and started to descend. She wasn’t alone. Two men were behind her, and he could tell from their scent that they were all werewolves.

“What the hell is this?” he demanded. “Some kind of vampire hate crime?”

She gave a small laugh. “Well, you’re a vampire, and I hate you, so yes, I guess you could call it that.”

“Why did you set me up for the deaths of those men?”

“I thought that was obvious, Ivan. So no one came looking for us. Of course, we hadn’t planned for you to hook up with a cop. That kind of threw a spanner in the works for us. If she hadn’t been fucking you, she definitely would have arrested your sorry arse by now.”

He shot her a scowl. “Then you should have been a bit brighter and not killed someone while she and I were together.”

She took a couple of steps to bring herself closer to him then grabbed the silver chain around his leg and pulled it hard. It hissed against his skin, and he bit down on his agony, not wanting to let her see his pain.

“You have no idea what’s really going on here.” Michaela laughed mockingly. “You thought you were so smart, tracking me down. Did it ever occur to you that you were totally set up to get you down here? After what you did to my father, how you betrayed him like that, did you really think I wouldn’t want to punish you for it? And the arrogance you displayed was just incredible—thinking I would need or want any comfort from you, of all people, after what you did.”

The silver chains bit into his wrists, his skin smoking. No sooner had his body healed the burns did another part of the silver touch him again, creating fresh wounds.

“Believe it or not,” he snarled against the pain, “I was trying to be nice.”

“No, you weren’t. You only wanted to ease your own guilt. You never gave a damn about me.”

“That’s not true, Michaela. I’m sorry you were hurt, but what your father was doing wasn’t my fault. He was selling people to vampires. He deserved what he got.”

“He was a businessman! He didn’t deserve to die!”

Ivan gritted his teeth. There was no point trying to reason with her. She was caught in a cloud of pain and grief, and it didn’t matter what he said. He would never change her mind.

“What’s the point to all of this? Why have you even got me here?”

“You bought us time. While the police were focussed on you, we were growing stronger, and so was the creature we’ve been working to free.”

“For the killings?”

“Of course.”

“What’s been killing those people?”

“It’s a full moon tonight,” she said almost dreamily, ignoring his question. “Have you noticed?”

Unlike werewolves, vampires weren’t attuned to the waning of the moon.

“There’s a creature who’s lived up here for hundreds of years. It rarely gets to see the moon, only every thirty-three years when the solar and lunar cycles match. And guess what? Tonight is that night. For the past three weeks, its strength has been building, and it’s been able to live in our world for just that little longer. Tonight it will be able to break free for good. When the moon goes down and the sun rises, it’ll no longer need to hide itself away.”

“Why? Why would you want a monster to be free?”

“It’s not a monster. It’s the most ancient form of our kind, of the werewolf kind. After what you did to my father, I decided it was time for the creature to run free. So it no longer needs to go beneath ground and hide away. No supernatural creature should be forced to live in such a way. But I knew the killings would go noticed, and I needed someone else to blame them on, and along you came.”

“You’re crazy.”

“No. I’m sick of vampires or any other supernatural creature telling werewolves what to do! The wolf I’m working to free is the most powerful of them all. It can kill vampires with a single bite. You’ll never heal from its bite. Its teeth hold a kind of poison, and there’s no cure. You’re going to be the first vampire it takes, and then there will be many more who follow.”

He wanted to tell her The Directive were in the area and would come down hard on her plans, but he didn’t want to give her any clues. She might not know they were around, and telling her would wise her up to their possible arrival, assuming they’d be trying to find him.

“I hope you didn’t hurt Charlie,” he said instead.

“Oh, the police officer? I can’t believe you’ve chosen to be with a human. How pathetic. You know, you had everything going for you back in London. You had me, and you were getting in with my dad. Things could have gone very well for you, but instead you messed everything up for that other vampire.”

He bristled at the mention of Nikolai. “That other vampire is like a son to me.”

“You weren’t saying that when you were using him to call in favours to stay close to me.” The look in her eyes changed, growing darker and sultry.

Ivan suddenly became aware that he was still completely naked.

Her voice lowered to a purr. “We used to have some good times, you and I, Ivan. Such a shame you had to mess everything up.”

He tensed as she took a couple of slow steps towards him, her hips bumping from side to side.

His teeth clenched. “It was for the best.”

Michaela reached him and leaned forward, placing her hands on his naked thigh. Because he was strung up on the wall, the position meant she only had to duck a little for her mouth to be right beside his cock. Her hot breath gusted against his balls, and he couldn’t help the physical reaction of his body. He didn’t want her, not in the slightest, and he shouldn’t want anything to do with sex when he was tied up and in pain, but frustratingly, it seemed he didn’t have much control over his dick.

“You always loved it when I sucked you off, Ivan. Do you remember? You loved it when I had you deep in my throat and groaned.”

Her nails morphed into her werewolf’s claws, and she ran her fingers down his thighs, the claws digging into his skin and the spattering of dark hairs, creating lines of blood in their wake.

“Fuck off, Michaela. I didn’t know what kind of person you were then.”

One of the men behind her finally spoke up. “Give it a rest, Michaela. He’s not here to be your plaything.”

She chuckled but mercifully backed away. The claw marks on his thighs took longer to heal than normal—a result of the silver touching his body—but at least his erection had begun to fade.

“Tell me how you did it,” he demanded, his curiosity getting the better of him. A part of him felt that she wanted to be the centre of attention, and he was providing her with her audience. “How did you know I was going to black out like that? Did you somehow cause The Thirst?”

He watched the first flicker of confusion cross her face. “Thirst? No. What’s The Thirst?”

So she hadn’t known about that. It had simply been a coincidence.

“It’s nothing. Something vampire’s sometimes suffer from. I assumed it was the reason I blacked out.”

“No. We saw you arrive and found out what room you were in. All it took was a little toxic gas to knock you out, and then we covered you with the dead man’s blood.”

He thought of something. “But I had a security chain on the door.”

“You also had a window,” she pointed out. “The door wasn’t the only way in and out of that room.”

He hadn’t thought of that.

“We let the gas off under the door, and then when it had done its job, my friends here scaled the outside of the building and opened the window. Doing so released the rest of the gas and made it safe for us to enter. Turns out vampires aren’t the only ones skilled at climbing and jumping. Wolves are, too.”

Ivan turned his attention to the two men in the room. “What are you both doing taking her side?” he asked them. “Don’t you know that what she’s doing is crazy and against the law? When The Directive gets a hold of you both, they’re going to make you sorry.”

Michaela laughed. “These men worked for my father, so now they work for me instead.”

Ivan scowled. “What are you paying them?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“So, you are paying them?” He lifted his gaze to the men. “I’ll double whatever she’s offered. Release me, and I’ll make sure the money is yours.”

But the red-haired male werewolf shook his head. “Not happening. This isn’t just about money, it’s about loyalty, too.” He curled a lip. “And anyway, I’ve never liked vampires.”