Chuck disappeared through a door at the rear of the gymnasium-sized chamber Riker hadn’t been able to see when he’d been hanging from chains. Now the giant room appeared to contain dozens of small cells like the one he and Nicole were in, plus some sort of large cage near the center. There was movement from within, but Riker couldn’t tell what it was.

“That son of a bitch.” Nicole’s voice was stricken, her expression equally so, as she gazed in the direction Chuck had gone. “I’m sorry, Riker. God, I’m so sorry.”

“I know,” he said. “But let’s not worry about that now. We need to get out of here.”

She slammed the side of her fist into the window, and the resulting warbling sound reverberated around the room in an almost musical wave. “These cells are built to neutralize most vampire abilities, so unless you have a laser-vision superpower we didn’t know about that can burn a hole in the Plexiglas, we’re screwed.”

Well, she’d just explained why he hadn’t been ableto use his hypnotic ability on Chuck while t he ass**le was stringing him up in shackles. “Sweetheart, I’ve beenscrewed many times, and tr ust me, this doesn’t even come close to being the worst of them.” She shot him a dark look, no doubt thinking of their encounter in her room when he wasn’t screwed, and he clarified. “When I was in the military. I spent a lot of time pinned down in burnt-out buildings and on mountain ridges. There’s always a way out.”

“Then what do you suggest?”

He scanned the area, noted the cameras mounted in dozens of spots on the walls and ceiling. “Do you think he’s watching?”

“Probably.” She glanced at the twenty-four-hour clock on the wall in the main chamber. “It’s the middle of the night, so except for a guard, he’d be the only one.” She rubbed her ribs where Chuck had kicked her, the bastard.

“I still can’t believe this is happening.” Riker didn’t have that problem. Humans were capable of anything. Nicole turned to him, her eyes haunted, her face pale and etched with desperation. “You’ve got to try to turn me.”

He shot a middle-finger salute at one of the cameras. Yeah, yeah, real mature. “Not an option.”

“It’s the only way to save Neriya.”

“You know he’s not going to release her.”

“No, but maybe he won’t kill her,” she said, looking so troubled and disgusted that he had to fight the urge to take her in his arms. No way was he going to give Chuck a means to hurt them both. Better if he believed they were enemies. “The longer she stays alive, the more time we have to figure a way out of this.”

“I’m not going to turn you.”

She studied the equipment in the outer chamber.

“I hate to even say this after everything Daedalus has done, but the company has had great success with its medical applications. The vaccine Chuck injected me with should work.”

“And if it doesn’t? You had complications from the

first vaccine. What if something similar happens with this new one? Are you prepared to spend the rest of your life being what you hate the most?”

There was a long pause. “What I hate the most isn’t vampires.”

Her gaze slid up to his, and the devastation in her eyes rocked him to the core. He suddenly didn’t want to know what she hated the most, but he had a feeling she was looking inward rather than out.

He hated seeing her in pain, and the irony wasn’t lost on him, since for two decades, all he’d wantedwas to see everyone in the Martin family suffer. But now that he was here with a Martin who was suffering inside her own facility where vampires had been tortured and killed, he felt no sense of vindication. Nicole wasn’t the monster he’d believed, and again, he had to fight the urge to comfort her. Protect her.

How could he sink his fangs into those scars on her throat, knowing how much a vampire had hurt her? “Iswore I wouldn’t bite you.”

“And I swore I’d do whatever it took to rescue Neriya,” she said firmly.

Shit. This was a no-win situation if he’d ever been in one. They weren’t going to get out of here unscathed, but he was determined that they would get out. Not a win, exactly, but not a loss. At this point, he’d take a draw. And he hated draws.

Nicole blew out a long breath. “This is my fault, Riker. I need to do something to help.”

As much as he loathed seeing Nicole in agony, he loved how fierce she was when she was trying to make things right.

“You know how you can help?” He angled himself so the cameras wouldn’t miss what was coming next.

“You can die.”

“Excuse me?”

Savagely, he wrapped his fist in her hair and wrenched her head so his mouth rested against her ear. “I’ll try to turn you,” he murmured, “but I’m going to make it look brutal. Your brother thinks I’m an animal, so I’ll give him what he expects. Then you need to play drained.”

“He’ll come for me to keep you from killing me,” she whispered.

“Exactly.” He snarled, hoping to hell Chuck was watching, because he didn’t like doing this. If he was going to take Nicole’s blood, he wanted it to be intimate, pleasurable. Maybe it was foolish, but he suddenly wanted to erase the memory of the vicious attack on her as a child, to show her that a vampire’s bite didn’t have to be an instrument of pain. He might not be able to make it an especially enjoyable experience, but he could at least make sure she didn’t suffer more than she already had. “It won’t hurt, Nicole. I promise.

But I need you to struggle and scream like it does.”

“No.” She shoved against him. Unprepared for her sudden movement, he released her, and she scrambled backward. “No!” she shouted. “I don’t care about

Neriya enough to do this.” She looked into a camera.

“Chuck, let me out. Please!”

Good girl. Riker almost smiled. She should have been an actress. In a flash, he lunged at her, catching her around the shoulders even as he bit into his wrist and released a stream of blood. She struggled as he jammed his arm against her mouth. She shook her

head, fought hard enough to score him with her nails.

This killed him. Under all that determination, he scented her anxiety as blood filled her mouth and dripped down her chin. She wasn’t swallowing; self preservation and instinct had likely kicked in, overriding her brain.

Come on, sunshine, you can do this. He loosened his grip a little, hoping to ease the feeling of being trapped, and her struggles lessened.

She swallowed, and a single tear rolled down her cheek. Relief and sorrow knotted in his chest. He’d never turned a human, never even thought about it, let alone done it against the victim’s will. Oh, Nicole was willing, but it wasn’t because she wanted it. She was being forced by her brother, and Riker was the weapon of choice, the gun held by the crazy person.

Pulling back his wrist, he licked the wound to seal it, tasting Nicole on his skin. Gods, what he wouldn’t have given to make this a special, tender moment. Cursing silently, he touched the tip of his tongue to the backs of his fangs, releasing the liquid agent that both turned pain to pleasure and injected an almost instant high.

“I’m so sorry,” he murmured against her neck.

Her entire body trembled as he sank his teeth into her tender throat. She stiffened, gasping at the invasion of his fangs into her body, but within the span of a heartbeat, pleasure made her groan.

Fight me, dammit. He cleared his throat softly, a prod that worked, because suddenly, she screamed and kicked, and as her blood flowed over his tongue, he began to drown in self-loathing.

Because as much as he hated this situation they were in, he found himself loving every moment of having Nicole in his arms and in his body.

• • • • • •

Just a week ago, no one could ever have convinced Nicole that she would enjoy the feel of a vampire’s fangs buried in her throat. Now she had to keep reminding herself to struggle against Riker, when all she wanted to do was melt into the warmth of his touch, and even his bite.

The taste of his blood still lingered on her tongue, but her stomach hadn’t rebelled. In fact, she felt a little drugged, even relaxed. Her initial struggles hadn’t been feigned; her instinctive panic had been far too real. But now . . . now she had to make a conscious effort to fight him.

After what seemed like seconds, he withdrew his fangs, but he kept his mouth over the punctures, licking, making the sucking motions for her brother’s benefit. Half brother. And now she couldn’t consider him even that. If she turned into a vampire, she was going to kill him. If she died, she was going to haunt him.

“Weaken your struggles gradually,” Riker murmured against her skin. “In about sixty seconds, stop struggling and play passed-out.”

She obeyed, slapping him weakly instead of punching. She kicked but in less frequent intervals, until she finally stopped . . . but threw in a few twitches for fun.

I hope you’re watching this, Chuck. I hope you lose a lot of sleep, you bastard.

“Don’t kill her!” Chuck’s shout blared over the

din of her own thoughts, making her even angrier. The mere sound of his voice irritated her. Had he always had that whiny, nasally tone that made everything he said come across like a complaint?

Riker tucked her close. “No matter what happens, stay still,” he whispered.

Her gut rolled. The next instant, Riker grunted and jerked, and she knew he’d been struck by a shock dart.

“Get back,” Chuck warned, and a moment later, Riker let out another pained grunt.

Nicole cracked her eyelids just enough to see Riker stiffen and collapse onto the concrete in a sprawl of flailing limbs. It took every ounce of self-restraint she had to remain limp and unmoving, when all she wanted to do was leap to her feet and help him.

She heard the sound of flesh-on-flesh strikes; Chuck was beating Riker.

Don’t cry . . . don’t cry . . .

By some miracle, she managed to keep her lids squeezed tight and not shed a tear. An endless minute later, she felt herself being lifted, and she risked another peek to see Chuck slamming the chamber door, locking an unconscious Riker inside.

Chuck plopped her unceremoniously onto an exam table and put his fingers to her throat, feeling for a pulse. “Nicole?”

She lifted her lids. “Surprise, ass**le.”

Chuck’s eyes widened in disbelief. Lifting her leg in a powerful surge, she bashed him in the face with her knee. Blood spurted, and he fell back with a shout, clutching his nose. “Bitch!” He came at her, but she dodged his fist and rolled onto the floor.

She hit the tiles hard. Pain speared her hip and shoulder. Flailing like a marionette having a seizure, she made it to her feet, but Chuck nailed her with a kick to the back of the knee, and she spun into an instrument tray. Her fingers found a scalpel.

She didn’t hesitate.

Spinning in an uncoordinated circle, she swung the blade, catching Chuck in the neck. The wound was barely a scratch, but Chuck screamed like he was dying, grabbed his throat, and staggered toward an exit.

“Nicole! Hurry!” Riker’s strangled shout drew her attention away from her fleeing brother. S hebolted to the chamber, where thick jets of fog were spewing from holes in the ceiling. Her heart nearly stopped.

Boric-acid gas. The dozens of vampires Chuck had killed using her “order” had died that way, suffering in gas chambers, all caught on video.

Hands shaking so hard she was barely able to work the control panel by the chamber door, she punched buttons, cutting off the gas and unlocking the door.

Riker burst out of the room, gasping for breath.

“I know where they keep the antidote.” She ran across the room to a glass cabinet and swept boxes of meds, vials, and first-aid items onto the floor, desperate to find the container marked as . . . yes, right there! She raced back to Riker, who was slumped against the wall, struggling to breathe.

“This . . . sucks.”

“The gas is highly concentrated.” She measured five CCs of antidote into a syringe. “It’s ten times the strength of the powder I used on you. You’ll need an injection and a nasal application. Hold still.” She plunged the needle into his shoulder and pushed the medicine into his muscles. When the syringe was empty, she tossed it to the ground and broke open an ampoule of powder.

“Sniff hard.” She put the little glass container up to his nose and inhaled with him, as if that would help.

Almost instantly, he stood up straighter, and his color went from ashen to tan. “Better.”

“It’ll take about an hour for all the symptoms to disappear, but we can’t wait. We’ve got to get out of here. Chuck will send the police and VAST.” She shot a glance at the supply closet. “But first, we’re destroying this lab.”

Chapter 22

As Riker caught his breath, Nicole kicked open a locked fi le drawer and loaded a plastic garbage bag with thick fi les. When the drawer was empty, she hit the meds cabinet next and swept dozens of pill bottles and vials into the open bag. Moving quickly, she left the stuffed bag next to the exit and then began hauling gallon-sized jugs out of a closet.

“I’ll start a fi re with these,” she said, “but if there are any vampires in these chambers, we need to free them first.”

She darted to the cage in the center of the room, where a scrawny, gangly male vampire, a teen by Riker’s estimation, huddled inside. He wore only a pair of loose navy sweatpants and a stained white T-shirt that showed way too many ribs through the thin fabric.

Still feeling like he was breathing fi re, Riker blocked her. “I’ll do it. We don’t know how he’ll react. Stand back.”