Sophie landed on the ground, trying to catch the breath that had been knocked out of her from the two-story drop. The knot in the sheets she so carefully tied together to make her escape had unraveled after she lowered herself down about half way, and she counted herself lucky that she hadn’t hit her head in the fall. As she looked up, the tattered cloth blowing in the wind seemed to wave at her, unrepentant in its betrayal.

Rolling to her side and curling into a ball, she hoped the pain in her ankle didn’t mean it was broken. If it was, she was dead.

She lay there hidden in the bushes, listening for the footfalls of Gregor’s security detail coming to find her and take her back. Glancing at the watch she’d swiped from Gregor’s nightstand, she saw that the shift change would be in five more minutes. That would give her enough time to sneak her way onto the street and melt into the tourist crowds in the French Quarter a few blocks away.

That was as far as she’d planned, since with no money, no phone, and no relatives who would help her, she was going to have to rely on her pickpocketing skills to get enough money for food and transportation away from New Orleans.

After spying the backpack she’d tossed out the window ahead of her, she scanned her surroundings, trying to control her breaths, which were coming at a frantic pace. The bag contained the sparsest of her belongings, since most of her things had been taken away from her upon her arrival at the estate. Gone were the keys to her apartment and car, her driver’s license, and her credit cards. The most heart-wrenching and irreplaceable loss was the amethyst ring her grandmother had given to her days before her passing.

Calm down, or you’re gonna ruin everything!

Gravel crunched a few feet away from her, and she stopped breathing, praying in her head for whoever it was not to look up at the open window. Peering through the brush, Sophie saw the boots of the guard she most feared—Hans. Terrified tremors ran through her, and she squeezed her legs together, hoping her bladder wouldn’t empty itself.

An older vampire, he was able to walk in the low morning rays, but only for a minute or so before the sun rose higher in the sky. He was also Gregor’s enforcer and right hand, delivering humans to his boss nightly to be drained dry. She’d witnessed Hans rip the heads off the shoulders of a few, laughing as the blood spurted into the air, raining down and gathering into pools on the marble floor.

As she remembered that he could have preternatural gifts, she thought, Oh, God! My heartbeat! He’ll hear it!

But then the smell of burning flesh wafted over, and he trod across the lawn and stepped back into the house. The latch clicked behind him, and all was quiet.

Is this a trick? Is he waiting for me to make a move, so he can grab me?

That thought made her wait longer than the few minutes during the changing of the guard. The insanity of what she was doing, trying to escape from her captor, and the consequences should she be caught, immobilized her.

As she waited, she racked her brain for who could possibly help her. She couldn’t go to the police. Gregor had many of them on his payroll, and those who weren’t would laugh her out of the station for reporting the crimes of a vampire. And most news journalists would write her off as insane, since supernaturals were well known and accepted and weren’t seen as criminals or killers. Most had gone out of their way to assure the public and officials that they were not a threat and merely wanted to exist alongside humans in the city they loved.

Knowing that, Gregor had built a reputation as a benefactor to local charities, helping the homeless and battered women. But Sophie had witnessed his true character, a drastic contradiction to his public persona, and she chided herself for believing all of his deceptions.

He claimed to have saved her from the streets, where she’d danced for dollars and sold herself for even more. In actuality, he’d taken her freedom and brought her into a living Hell that was much worse than anything she had experienced before.

“You’re my lucky charm, Sophie,” she recalled him saying that night, as he gathered all the chips from the table. He tossed a few of them to her, and she snatched them up, clutching them to her chest, while he laughed. “You have nothing to fear from me.”

That was the first time he’d played at the club where she worked. Each night thereafter, he requested that she sit at his side. Purporting to be a gentleman, he hadn’t touched her or shown any sexual interest in her, telling her she was worth more than she could ever ask. He lowered her defenses bit by bit, until he convinced her to take a job with him. The truth was that he trapped her as a prisoner in his home.

Within a few nights, his demands of her body became a regular occurrence, an expectation, sometimes in full view of his staff, dependent on when the urge hit him.

In the beginning, she ignored the lies he told her and got off on the idea of being a kept woman. She indulged in the shopping sprees and even the public sex, and she enjoyed seeing that the others desired what she gave Gregor. It made her feel that she was better than the woman she was before he brought her into his house.

But as time progressed, his hand landed on her harder, and his protection became the suffocation of locking her in her bedroom. His cock was a weapon, forcing tears as she knelt on reddened and bruised knees in front of him.

Sophie thought Gregor was crazy for believing she was the reason he kept winning. But as the months she spent as his captive stretched on, to her dismay, he hadn’t lost a single game. She was his living amulet whose presence brought him power and wealth as long as she was near.

Fear of Hans killing her in some gruesome way if he caught her trying to leave—images of torture that flashed through her mind—had kept her there at the house or at Gregor’s side if they went out. But she couldn’t hide her inner desire to escape, and after seeing her wandering gaze towards exit signs in clubs, one night he flew into a rage.

Yanking her up from her chair by her arm, he manhandled her, pulling her behind him as she stumbled over her feet in her attempt to keep up with him.

“You’re hurting me!” she cried.

“I don’t give a fuck! Shut your goddamn mouth before I do something to really cause you pain!”

Once inside the hallway leading to the restrooms, he shoved her against the wall, caging her between his hands at either side of her body.

“What do you think you’re doing, Sophie?” he’d spat out at her. “Looking for an escape?”

“No, Gregor! I wasn’t doing anything of the sort!”

“Then, what was it? What grabbed your attention from the table?”

“I... I....”

Ideas of what to say, how to respond to him, floated through her mind, but all of them disappeared in the next moment when his palm met her cheek with a resounding smack. Her head snapped to the side, and she heard the crack of her vertebrae, as her eyes swam in unshed tears.

Holding a finger up in front of her face, Gregor growled, “Stupid bitch. You’re nothing but a two-bit whore I took from the streets. I’ve bought and paid for you a hundred times over since I brought you into my home. What did you think, that I was taking care of you out of the goodness of my heart? Oh, no. You and the fortune you bring belong to me, Sophie. You go where I want, and you do what I want when I want. Got it?”

Terrified that he might strike her again, she nodded, cradling her face in her hand.

“You’re never getting away from me. Ever.” Leaning down to her ringing ear, he said, “And to make sure, I ordered a locator chip. I’m gonna stick it under your skin with a big needle. Then I’ll always know where you are, Sophie. You’ll be a bright blip on a map on my phone screen.”

“No! Please don’t do that to me!” she begged, weeping, horrified at his plans for her. “I wasn’t trying to get away! I was just looking around! I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for me! I swear it! Please!”

“It’s happening, so get any ideas of running out of your head.”

Certain he meant every word he said and dreading living the rest of her life under his thumb, she resolved to leave... or die trying.

* * *

Easing her backpack onto her shoulders as quietly as she could, Sophie watched and lingered in place for her next chance to flee. She didn’t have to wait long.

Ahead of her, the iron gate swung open, as an armored bank vehicle drove inside the compound. She looked up one last time at the window to see if the sheet was still there, announcing her mutiny should anyone look up. It was. Her absence hadn’t been noticed yet.

Without another backwards glance, she ran as fast as she could to the concrete wall that wrapped around the estate. After scrabbling over it, she dropped to the sidewalk and dashed towards freedom.