When he started forward again, he followed her directions. Right, right and across. At that latest one, he cocked his head. Why didn’t you go right again?

She shook her head with a shrug. I didn’t realize at first how big the tunnel system was, so I was making decisions on instinct instead of some kind of well-thought-out plan. I was afraid if I took too many rights, it would lead me back to where I started.

Fair enough. He shone the flashlight both ways down the intersecting tunnel.

What happened to the stealthy someone? she asked.

I don’t know. There’s an echo down here. It could have come from farther away than I thought. Or he might have stopped moving.

That sounded a lot more sinister than she would have liked. If the feral had stopped moving, that might mean he was lying in wait somewhere.

She glanced over her shoulder. Beyond the range of her flashlight, the darkness looked as solid as a curtain. It seemed to have personality, like it was watching her. She studied the darkness carefully but saw nothing.

For the first time, she realized the ferals had to exist in total darkness most of the time. The cavern where they had been feeding had been lit, but she suspected the torches had been more for Justine and Anthony’s benefit, whereas the feral Vampyres would know every nook and cranny in the tunnels like the back of their hands.

After checking both ways, Julian stepped forward, and she followed.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of movement. Even as she turned her head to look at the feral that had dropped from a shadowed hollow in the ceiling, Julian sprang forward to engage.

Another feral dropped down and leaped after Julian. They had coordinated an ambush.

As soon as the realization hit, she whirled in a complete circle, her stake out and ready as she looked for the third.

He rushed out of the darkness, not from behind her, but from the tunnel ahead. She had never faced one without the barrier of bars between them. Terror flared, followed by a surge of rage.

She was done with being scared of these things. Done.

He came at her so fast, she wasn’t sure she could stake him accurately in the heart – and she didn’t dare get into such close quarters with him and miss, or risk getting her stake caught in his chest.

Leaping and pivoting at the hip, she went into a roundhouse kick that clipped the feral in the chin and knocked him back against the tunnel wall. He rebounded immediately – but that time she was ready for him. Even as he reached for her, she grabbed him by the wrist and hauled him toward her while she drove the stake into his chest.

For a moment she stared into the feral’s red gaze. She found herself searching for any sign of the personality he had once had, yet she saw nothing but madness in his eyes. As he bared his fangs at her, he collapsed into dust.

She turned just in time to see a snarling Julian in midlaunch toward her, easily two-hundred-plus pounds of deadly Vampyre male, complete with red eyes and fangs.

Flinching back against the wall, she gasped, “Holy shit.”

He landed in front of her, slapping one hand against the wall, so close that his body pressed hers against the cold stone.

“Jesus,” he said roughly. “I thought he had you. I thought I was going to be too late.”

Any other time, she might have slapped him with a retort for thinking she couldn’t take care of herself. But this time, she felt a shudder wrack his powerful frame as he sucked in an unsteady breath, and she realized he had been terrified for her sake.

Leaning forward, she put her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his waist. “I’m all right,” she told him in a soft voice as she rubbed his broad back. “Everything’s okay.”

Still breathing hard, he buried his face in her hair and held her tight.

An odd kind of peace stole over her.

Maybe they weren’t going to have sex again. Or even if they did, maybe they wouldn’t be together for long.

Maybe they would never get over what had happened before. Earlier, when she had given him her truth, he hadn’t said whether or not he had believed her. Even now, after so long, their conversation remained unfinished.

But she did believe in one thing now.

Wherever she was, and whatever kind of trouble she might get into, he would always come for her to make sure she was all right.

Because he really did care for her at least that much.

Eleven

A

fter a moment, she lifted her head.

He had calmed down enough so that he looked human again. She told him, “At least they’re all gone now, and we don’t have to watch over our shoulders for them.”

He nodded. “And I know I don’t have to come back to clean them out.”

This time, instead of taking point, he took her hand, lacing his long fingers between hers. The gesture stole into her heart, damn him, and she couldn’t make herself pull away. Instead, she fell into step beside him.

As they walked in silence for several minutes, she found herself thinking ahead. “Justine has to be local, doesn’t she?” she said. “Somewhere in the city, so that she can get back and forth from the tunnels.”

His attention sharpened on her. “Yes, unless she has come to some kind of agreement with Malphas. I wanted to ask you about that. Did you overhear them making plans or setting up some kind of arrangement?”

Biting her lip, she shook her head. “The only thing I heard them discuss was him getting you in the cell, and they weren’t careful about what they said in front of me, so I think it’s likely he’s still helping her, but I can’t say for sure.”

“Fair enough.” He frowned. “As soon as I can, I need to set up road barriers and search the city block by block if I have to. Maybe I can flush her out, unless she can fly.”

She raised her eyebrows. She would love to hear he was making a joke about that, but he sounded dead serious. “What do you mean?”

His mouth tightened. “We have all her assets frozen, at least those assets that we could find, but she might still have the funds to hire a helicopter. Either that or one of her allies on the council might have agreed to help her.”

Staring at his profile, she asked, “By now her allies must know what she did to her own household. Do you really think they would continue to support her?”

His expression turned cynical. “Anything is possible, including that.”