Sunrise came, and I didn’t go to bed.

Emotions were warring within me that I couldn’t give a name to, didn’t dare to give a name to. My mind was all mixed up, and I didn’t know what to do with myself.

How could he do that to me?

Torture me like that, stand so close to me that I could feel the vibrations in the air between us, feel the heat of his skin so close to my own and yet so painfully far away.

I’d never wanted to touch someone—never—until I met him.

Damn my body for wanting him, and damn my mind for being so fucking confused.

This shouldn’t be confusing. It should be simple.

Logic dictated that I was a twenty-three-year-old woman, and I had needs. Needs that had never been satisfied. Obviously, the presence of a man as beautiful as he would awaken that need within me. Of course I’d want him. Of course he’d drive me mad with desire.

It was just an animalistic reaction.

My mind should know better, but it was just as mixed up as my body was.

Would it be so bad to give in? To taste him?

I closed my eyes for a moment, sitting on the bed, imagining the feeling of his body pressed against mine, his thighs caging my own, his hands gripping my back, and his lips on my skin again.

I knew what it felt like. He’d held me once before, on the rooftop a few years back. I knew what it was like to have his lips feather kisses against my skin, igniting a heat within me that I’d never known.

A moan escaped me, and I quickly covered my mouth, my eyes popping open in horror.

Had he heard me?

My chest rose and fell rapidly, panic and excitement springing to life for a moment as I waited to see.

If he’d heard me, he’d come in to see if I was all right. He wouldn’t have known what the sound was, or what had inspired it. He’d just come to see if I was OK.

He’d find me here, on the bed, wearing one of the practically transparent nightgowns they’d given us thralls, and how would he react?

My gut clenched at the thought of it, and I felt hollow inside.

My heart hammered against my ribcage, but no sound came from the outer chamber.

His door didn’t open, his heavy footfalls didn’t cross the room, and he didn’t come to see me.

I should be relieved that I could get on with this stolen time, but I felt a twinge of disappointment.

Ruthlessly, I shoved it aside, refusing to dissect that feeling. Refusing to find out where it had come from and determine exactly why it existed in the first place.

It was entirely unacceptable, and it frightened me.

I stood up, fists clenched at my sides, and threw a rebellious glare at the door.

Damn him for the feelings he brought to life inside of me.

The childish urge to stomp around sprang up, but I squashed it with a roll of my eyes.

Instead, I knelt and pulled my gear out from under the bed, then stripped off my nightgown. I quickly clothed myself in the hunter’s garb, wrapped the red silk around my wrist, and covered my face.

I darted a look at the mirror opposite my bed, smiling, though I couldn’t see it. I looked like myself again.

The day was mine. The vampires wouldn’t catch me.

I slipped from the sleeping chamber and crept to the window I’d stood in front of a few hours earlier.

The memory of Gray standing behind me threatened to take over my mind, but I pushed it aside.

Not now. I couldn’t think about him now.

If I did, the guilt would come, and I couldn’t handle that.

A thrall had been hurt, and it was my job to keep them safe. To avenge them.

I’d destroy the vampire who had touched her, and the thralls would know they had a protector.

Though I doubted they’d be any more appreciative of what I was doing than the humans who walked the night. They feared the hunters as much as the vampires, for some ridiculous reason.

I lifted the window as quietly as possible, keeping my eyes and ears trained on Gray’s chamber door the entire time.

I heard the rustle of sheets and froze.

No.

He couldn’t catch me here. I couldn’t let that happen.

But I wouldn’t reach for his mind. The idea of bending him to my will was physically repulsive to me, and I felt my stomach roil at the thought of it.

It wasn’t that I was afraid of the magic in and of itself. I’d become rather adept at it since I’d come to live with the vampires. I’d never bend the mind of a wolf, but I had no respect for the vampires.

It had been a necessity to walk the halls during the day now that the guards peppered the castle.

I had to bend their minds so they’d look the other way while I stalked past them and control my scent so they wouldn’t detect me.

It was difficult magic, but it was a thrill to have a challenge.

It wasn’t magic I’d ever work on Gray. That would be a betrayal on a level I wasn’t willing to contemplate—nor was I willing to think too hard about why it was a betrayal.

No, no time to think about that.

Not another sound came from the room, and I pushed the window up a little more.

Clear. There was enough room for me to get out.

I crawled out the window, balanced on the edge and clung to the bit of wood that topped the window.

This was going to be difficult, but it was a bit safer than walking the halls with the guards.

Bending their minds was exhausting magic, and I didn’t want to do it if I could avoid it.

This was a new idea, and if it worked, I’d be better able to traverse the castle.

There was a balcony just below me. I let myself go, holding my breath as I fell through the air for a moment.

It was terrifying and thrilling all at once, and I reveled in the moment while I had it.

Then I landed in a crouch, absorbing the shock to my muscles and repairing them just as quickly as I’d injured them.

No time to deal with that.

I leapt from balcony to balcony, traversing the outside of the castle much faster than I would have the inside. It didn’t take me long to reach the window that led to the hall containing the rooms for the lesser vampires.

No plan was foolproof—I’d have to face the guards at last, but I’d minimized the risk of exposure as best I could.

I scaled the wall, hanging just beneath the window that would take me inside, and reached out my awareness.

One guard.

That wasn’t so bad. Clearly, they didn’t care about these vampires as much as they did about the nobles—or Gray. Gray had three guards, two standing point outside his door and one at the end of the hall.

It was much more difficult to get out of his suite than it was any of the others.

I reached for the guard’s mind.

Go for a walk.

I pushed the compulsion into his head, squashing the confusion that erupted to the surface as soon as I sent the thought. There was a minor battle of wills, but I bent him to my power quickly enough.

Before I pushed him down the hallway, I made sure to remove the memory of the confusion he’d felt.

No need to make anyone worry that a blood mage was on the loose.

A hunter was one thing. A blood mage was a whole different beast.

If they knew I existed, terror would claim their world, and there would be anarchy.

As tempting a thought as that was, I knew how bad it would be overall.

The feeling of the guard’s presence diminished as he went farther and farther away, until I couldn’t feel him at all.

I pulled myself up until I was facing the window, my muscles flexed to hold me upright.

When I shifted my weight so that it was all on one arm, I felt myself begin to shake—but it held.

With my free arm, I opened the window and then rolled inside, where I landed silently on the thick rug that ran down the middle of the floor.

Victory.

I waited a moment, then two, to make sure that no one had heard me and was going to sound the alarm.

When I heard no movement coming from any of the rooms, I crept down the hallway, searching for the room that contained the vampire I was hunting.

I’d gotten a sense of him from the thrall he’d hurt, and now I let my magic creep out of me and spread through the rooms, hunting for the man who would dare hurt a woman.

I found him at last and stole inside his room.

He was sleeping soundly on the bed.

The temptation to hurt him, to make his death a painful one, was great, but I couldn’t risk the sounds he might make. I couldn’t let him alert anyone else to my presence here—it was too crowded a hall. Just one vampire hearing him and running in would awake the entire hall, and then I’d have to fight my way out of the castle.

Quick as could be, I pressed a finger to his throat, disabled his vocal cords, and began the chant to boil his blood and destroy the heart that kept him alive.

His eyes snapped open and focused on me, though he didn’t open his mouth to scream.

Hatred lay inside those orbs. I wanted to flinch, but I kept control of myself. This vampire wouldn’t intimidate me. I had full control of his body. There was nothing to worry about here.

It was a simple kill, and it took very little time to complete.

Once he was dead, I turned back to the door—and found Gray leaning against the frame.

My heart sped up as horror descended into my mind.

He’d found me. Caught me red-handed.

Quite literally.

Oh, God, what was he going to do with me?

I don’t want to fight him.

That desperate thought filled my mind, but I knew I would fight him. I couldn’t let him take me.

He’d cage me again, for good this time, and I wouldn’t survive that. I would rather die.

I crouched, locking eyes with him, searching for his biorhythm.

I wouldn’t go down without a fight. He would learn what it meant to fight a blood mage—I’d make sure of that.

His eyes darted down to my wrist and back up to meet my gaze.

“Hello again, little hunter.”