I would never be satisfied. I could never get close enough.
We broke the kiss on a gasp.
He rested his forehead on mine. “Actually, maybe I don’t forgive you. I might enjoy having you make it up to me.”
Ronan saying naughty things.
My body sizzled.
“Yeah,” I managed to breathe, “I think we can work something out.”
He leaned in to kiss me again, slowly this time. Carefully. Like he was memorizing me for a test.
“Annelise.” His eyes met mine, and the fire in his gaze had eased into something warm. Enduring. “I love you, you know.”
The words washed over me, a soothing, cleansing wave. “Oh, Ronan. I love you, too. I think I always have. It’s something that’s always been there. Like, I don’t know, it’s like air. You don’t think about air. How you need it? But I need you, Ronan. You’re my air. My heart. I’d be lost without you. I don’t want to be without you.”
His expression froze. I had a moment’s panic that I’d said too much, but then his eyes flicked to the side.
I knew that look.
I went into Acari mode. Someone was at my back. In half a second, I’d assessed the location of my every weapon and how far they were from my hands. I began to reach.
Too late.
Charlotte had me by my neck. “
Brava
, young Annelise. You found us. I didn’t think you’d make it. My brother said I underestimated you. He said too much, actually.” She dragged me off his lap. “I believe you’re becoming a bit of a distraction for young Ronan. And I don’t like distractions.”
She flung me to the floor.
“Lottie. Enough.” Ronan was on his feet, but I saw how he had to lock his knees to stay upright.
I scrambled away from her and hopped up. “What did you do to him?”
I felt the misericordia in my boot, but I didn’t want to bring it out yet. I still had hope this family might resolve things. It seemed preposterous, but what other choice did I have? I couldn’t slaughter Ronan’s sister in front of him.
“I had to drug him. It seemed somehow fitting, considering his little trick earlier.” Charlotte strolled over to scruff Ronan’s hair. “That’s why he’s so weak.” She leaned close to his ear. “You’re weak, Ro. You have such potential power within your reach, and you don’t take it. You think you need people, but you don’t.”
“I need her,” he said, his eyes not budging from me. “I need Annelise.”
She shoved his head. “Pathetic.”
But he stayed standing. “There is no cause for you to behave like this, Lottie. We share too much. We share a family. A history. Can you not let me go to be my own man?”
“Let you go?” She repeated the words, infusing them with a mix of outrage and disdain. “Let you go? What do you think this place is? A resort you can stroll away from any time you wish? Who do you think you are? You have power. You must use it. Or someone will come along and use it for you.” A smile peeled across her face. “Just like we’re using her mommy. Her mommy had power and didn’t want to use it. And look what happened.”
She wandered to me and petted her hand over my head. And then again harder, then harder still. “Your mommy was asking after you. Such a shame you need to watch her die. Shall we go to her now?”
I slapped her hand away. I was ready for a fight. “Your days of using my mother are done. I’m not leaving without her.”
“Then it looks like you’re not leaving. Because there are a lot of vampires who would give much to have you infuse their bloodline.”
Ronan stepped forward. “You won’t harm her. And you won’t harm her mother, either.”
I felt it then. Ronan’s power, so familiar to me now, rippled through the room.
Charlotte staggered. Caught herself. She turned on him with a snarl. “You think to use your power on me? We might’ve been born with the same blood running through our veins, but I’m a vampire now, Ronan. Think twice before you cross me.”
I pulled my shoulders back and stepped between them to face her. “I, on the other hand, have no trouble crossing you. So leave him out of this.”
She laughed. “You’re not strong enough to face me, little girl. You’re barely tall enough.”
Insulting my height, now that was beyond the pale. It was time.
“Yeah,” I said as I pulled out the misericordia, “but this might help.”
A random thought blipped in the back of my mind: where was Carden? Shouldn’t he pop in at any second? It was his way to swoop in at the last second. To make his grand entrance and save me with a wink and a jest.
Charlotte flicked a cursory glance over my blade, and for a moment, I thought maybe she didn’t recognize what it was. But when her eyes met mine again, hers had hardened. “You’re a clever brat. No matter. My brother won’t let me die.” She turned her head to look at him. “Will you, Ro?”
Ronan’s voice softened. “Of course I don’t want you to die, Charlotte. I would never want that. Remember when we were children? Chasing crabs by the shore, racing the waves? That girl is still inside you. Remember her. Remember yourself. You’re a part of me, Lottie.” His arm slid around my shoulders, warm and firm. “But if you try to harm Annelise, there will be consequences.”
Her eyes narrowed. “So does this mean you’ve chosen? And you choose
her
?”
He drew his arm down and clasped my hand, twining his fingers tightly with mine. “We chose each other long ago.”
An expression of surprising sadness swept Charlotte’s features. “Then it’s a fight to the death, because—”
“Because?” Ronan’s voice was gentle. “Do you even remember why you’re so angry? What more could you want? You have power. Strength. Immortality.”
“I want to win.”
“Then I can’t help you,” Ronan said sadly. “I can’t watch this.” He caught my eye. His voice had gone hoarse. “Just…be merciful.”
He squeezed my hand once more, and I couldn’t peel my eyes from him as he left the room.
I’d make this okay for him. I had to.
It was just me and Charlotte. And the misericordia. The metal seemed to pulse in my hand.
“You heard him. Make it fast, little girl.” She flicked her eyes to my blade. “It’s obviously not a fair fight.”
But I didn’t budge. Instead, I let the silence hang. This was someone whom Ronan once loved more than anyone. How does somebody change so much? How did it go so wrong? Why had Charlotte become…
this
?
I sighed. “Tell me one thing. Why do you need to win so badly? It seems like you expend so much energy trying to be the favorite of one vampire or another. Dagursson, Fournier, Jacob…who’s next? Why not just please yourself? Who cares if you don’t win everything? Winning might not matter so much if you changed the game.”
“Says the girl who’s a loser.”
I shrugged. “If leaving here with my life and people I love makes me a loser, then great. So be it. I haven’t lost if I have someone like Ronan by my side.”
Her eyes glittered with anger…but did I see jealousy there, too? “You get my brother,” she said acidly. “You’ve made that abundantly clear.”
“I think you’ve been away from humanity for too long, Charlotte. Ronan isn’t a zero-sum game. He can love his family and me at the same time. In fact, he wants nothing more than to have you in his life. From the very beginning, he talked so much about you that I was even a little jealous, which has got to be the stupidest thing ever, seeing as you’re his sister and he thought you were dead at the time.”
Her expression cracked as she let out a quick gasp of a laugh. But then her face hardened back to its perfect shell once more. “I’m not good at sharing.”
My voice softened. For an instant, I’d seen Charlotte in there, Ronan’s Charlotte, the vulnerable, lonely girl. “Sharing’s pretty nice, actually. Without it, you’re alone. Is that what you really want?”
Anguish was quicksilver in her eyes, and then it flashed to rage. “What I want is for you to finish this.” She strode forward, getting in my face. Snatching my hand in hers, she pulled the point of my blade against the soft flesh beneath her own chin.
I tried to tug my hand back, but she drew it closer to her throat, pressing it to her skin until it began to sizzle. Her face crumpled in pain. And something told me it wasn’t her imminent death that was the unbearable thing. “Just…do it. Fast and easy.” She peeled her lips into a snarl. “Before I turn this blade on you.”
Amid her rage, I saw flickers of the deepest sorrow. She’d been as broken by these vampires as I had. Ronan was right—the little girl who’d chased crabs at the seashore was in there somewhere. And she loved him still.
I stepped even closer to her. It gave me a better angle with my blade arm. “Nothing’s easy. I’ve learned that the hard way.” I twisted, and my wrist broke free of her grip, though I kept the misericordia in place. “Now shut up and listen.” I pushed slightly, and her flesh smoked. “You won’t look for us. You’ll stay in your dark little world. And if you ever cross my path in anger again, Charlotte, I swear, my face will be the last thing you ever see.”
I swung my arm around and slammed the base of the misericordia on the side of her head, right on her temple. She toppled to the ground like dead weight, and I nudged her with my toe to make certain she was unconscious. “Don’t ever say I wasn’t fair.”
The sight of Ronan slumped and leaning sideways in the hallway, facing away from the door—it broke my heart.
I went to him. Hesitated for a moment, then put a hand on the small of his back.
It was such a pleasure to be able to touch him like this. That it was my prerogative now to take such liberties.
He turned, and I was met by those haunted eyes I loved so much. “Is it done?”
“I love you too much to kill your sister.” I took his hand, and the amazed, relieved expression that collapsed his features brought tears to my eyes. I laughed through them. “But I swear, if she comes for me, I’ll cut a bitch.”
A startled laugh escaped him. “Language, Ms. Drew.” Then he leaned down and kissed me.
By the time he pulled back, I was beaming. “I could get used to this.”
He put a single finger beneath my chin. “You’d best. And now, as someone I’m quite fond of might say, let’s finish this thing.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Ronan cracked the door and whispered, “Follow me.”
I grabbed a handful of his shirt to hold him back. “Can you make it? You could barely stand a minute ago.”
He nodded. “I don’t know what she got me with, but it’s metabolizing fast.” He tipped my face up to look at him. “Ann, we have no choice. We have to move now. The Synod is holding your mother several floors down. If we have any hope of saving her and getting out of here alive, we need to move before they can rally more guards.”
“This place goes even deeper under the water?” I shuddered.
He pulled me along the hallway. “And here I thought you’d become quite the sea nymph.”
I caught up to jog by his side. “It’s a wonder I’m not more traumatized, seeing as someone threw me in deep water before I was ready.”
“I wanted to see you in a wetsuit,” he said with a wicked grin.
I tripped over my feet, then scampered to catch back up to him, my cheeks burning. I remembered that day very well. Him, unzipping my suit. Me, mortified in my two piece. His fingers grazing my skin. He’d planned it that way?
All I managed to say was, “Oh.”
He shot me a quick, knowing smile.
Who knew Ronan had game?
We turned off into a small back corridor, and he led me through a thick metal door into an industrial-looking stairwell.
“Service stairs,” he whispered.
“So there are back stairs.” It made me think of my friends. Where were they now? Had they gotten free? I hoped they were all okay.
He held up a hand to pause the conversation and tilted his head, listening. “Sounds clear. Down we go.”
I’d expected a Medieval dungeon, but this floor had the same industrial feel as the main factory. With white-painted cinderblock walls, plain gray flooring, and fluorescent lights humming overhead, we could be in any hospital basement anywhere.
“It has all the charm of a morgue,” I said. “Or prison, maybe?”
“Because it is both those things.” Ronan grabbed me abruptly and pulled me into an alcove, his hand over my mouth.
Footsteps.
He held me tightly as someone walked past, the
click-click
of their shoes echoing along the cold, empty hall.
And it felt so good to have him clutching me like that, I forgot to be nervous.
He let go, and it took me a second to catch my breath. He must’ve spied some look on my face, because he leaned down and landed a quick kiss on my cheek. “You make this difficult. But I need you to concentrate. Then we will have all the time in the world for me to put that look on your face.”
I felt a blush flame from my forehead to my toes. But I nodded. He was right.
Concentrate.
“There’s a small infirmary through the double doors at the end of this corridor,” he continued. “They’re holding your mother there.”
“In an infirmary?”
“They’re keeping her alive, but don’t misunderstand. Their intention isn’t for her to get better. She’s a permanent feeder. The good news is, she’s too valuable for them to let her die. She’s weak, but she’ll be in decent trim.”
“That’s…” Tears sprang to my eyes. That existence was no existence at all. Thinking of my mother in there, thinking that was what the Synod had wanted for
me
…it was unimaginable. Horrifying. “We have to help her.”
“We will,” he said fiercely. “We are. We must be quick, though. There aren’t many places to hide on this level. When we step out, we sprint to the end of the hall. Quietly and quickly, aye? Quiet and quick gets us out alive.”
“Got it,” I told him, my voice tight. And it was true, as long as I had him, I had this.
He poked his head out to make sure it was clear, then we were out like a shot. Through the double doors.
We found ourselves in what looked like a small hospital ward. There were several closed doors and not a guard in sight. I tugged Ronan’s arm, and he leaned down for me to whisper in his ear. “Where is everyone?”
He whispered in mine, “You must’ve caused quite the stir.” But I’d melted a little at the feel of his warm breath on my skin, and he pulled back to demand, “This is you concentrating?”