“You were a traitor, so I have to expect that Ryan will be one, too.” He bent near her, brushing his mouth beside her cheek. “How much shall I make him suffer?”

“Don’t!”

He laughed. “Do you want to save him? Do you want to make me a deal, the same way you bargained for the life of that werewolf?”

“Please,” the word was a ragged breath. “Spare Ryan. He didn’t know that I was with Alerac. He had nothing to—”

“I can make him into nothing. I can stake him out at dawn. I can drain him. I can turn him into ash that drifts on the wind.”

The big, wooden door opened. A woman stepped inside.

“Ah, Shonna, so good of you to join us.” Lorcan didn’t look back at her. His stare remained on his prey. “What will you give me, lost little Keira, if I let Ryan live to see you free once more?”

The desolation eased in her eyes. Hope brightened her stare. “What do you want?”

“He begged me to free you. Offered to trade anything for your safety.”

A blood red tear tracked through the dirt on her cheek.

“Bind your life to mine,” Lorcan said.

His words were chilling. She saw the shiver rake her body.

“Agree to the link, a link that will last until death for us, and I’ll let your brother live.”

She nodded.

He shook his finger. “No, that’s not how it works. You have to say the words. Doesn’t she, Shonna?” He looked over his shoulder at the woman with a long braid of red hair. A woman with a knife in her hand.

“Yes,” Shonna whispered. Then she began to whisper the words of a spell.

The bite scars on Shonna’s neck twisted the witch’s skin.

Lorcan’s focused shifted away from the witch. “Your werewolf will be long gone before you’re truly free. You won’t be betraying him,” Lorcan added as he brushed her hair over her shoulders. “You’ll be saving your brother.”

Another shudder shook her form. “I-I’ll bind to you, until death.”

At those words, the witch rushed forward with her knife. She drove that knife into Keira’s chest.More blood joined the dirt and grime that covered her.

“The bind will start the moment you escape your prison, when your lungs fill with their first taste of new air,” the witch’s words seemed to echo with power. “The bond will continue, through blood and pain, until one of you dies.”

Then Lorcan took the knife. He licked the blood away from the blade. “Death will be a very long time coming.”

***

“Get the hell away from her!” Alerac bellowed.

His cry had Jane jerking up. The images vanished.

And Lorcan was able to toss her aside.

In the next instant, Lorcan was on his feet. “She was the one to come for me,” Lorcan taunted. “I guess our link is stronger than she’d have you believe.”

Jane spat out the blood in her mouth. She hated having any part of him in her, but now Jane understood.

She’d agreed to the trade. Lorcan had been right, she’d willingly bound herself to him. “You bastard.”

Lorcan turned to look at her.

“You said that you’d let my brother live!”

Lorcan shook his finger at her. “No, I said he’d live to see you free. You’re free. He’s dead.” With a smirk, he glanced toward Ryan’s form.

But Ryan wasn’t alone on the ground. Zoe had made her way to him. She’d shoved her wrist over Ryan’s mouth. With tears streaming down her cheeks, Zoe cried out, “Jane…make him…bite!”

Alerac rushed to Zoe’s side. “Get away from him! You know what will happen if he bites you!”

Her beast would die.

“I’m…already d-dying…” Zoe’s voice was weaker. Probably because she was missing a big part of her throat. There was so much blood. “Let me…h-help…” Her gaze found Jane’s. “Make him b-bite…”

Lorcan stalked toward Zoe and Alerac. “It doesn’t work that way, bitch. You don’t get to save him. No one does.”

His claws flew toward Zoe’s neck.

Jane screamed.

Alerac caught Lorcan’s hands in a tight grip.

Lorcan didn’t back away. He leaned in toward Alerac. “How are you going to stop me? How are you going to stop me from doing anything? You can’t hurt me. Because, if you do, you hurt her.”

Alerac’s gaze flew to Jane.

“Tighten your grip a bit more,” Lorcan taunted. “Break my wrist. Break her wrist.”

Alerac became as still as stone.

“M-make him bite…” Zoe begged.

Jane focused on the female werewolf. Zoe only had a few moments left.

“C-can’t shift to heal…”Zoe whispered. “Could never…s-survive…”

Jane straightened her shoulders. Bite, Ryan. She attempted to find a link to his mind. She was trying desperately to reach out to him, but she couldn’t connect. She could only feel an icy touch, a too deep cold, seeming to emanate from him.

Bite.

Zoe’s wrist was still over Ryan’s mouth. Her eyes were sagging closed.

Thud. Thud. Zoe’s heart was giving its last few beats. Jane’s enhanced hearing barely picked up the feeble sounds.

“What are you doing?” Lorcan had torn away from Alerac. His eyes were on Jane. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Saving my brother.”

“He can’t be saved! He’s dead! He’s—”

Zoe gasped.

Jane smiled. “He’s not dead yet. He’s feeding.”

Lorcan lunged toward Jane. Before he could grab her, Alerac was in his path once again.

“You won’t ever hurt her again,” Alerac vowed.

Lorcan staggered to a stop. “Of course, I will. I’ll hurt her again and again. Watch and see.” Then he lifted up his claws—and plunged them into his own chest.

Blood poured from the matching wound that instantly appeared on Jane’s body.

Lorcan smiled his sadistic grin. “I can hurt her anytime I want. From anywhere I want. That was all part of the spell. Pain for pain. Life for life.”

Lorcan hadn’t driven the claws into his heart—because he didn’t want to die. He just wanted her to suffer.