“I suppose we should get right to it then.” Faris slid up behind me, pinned my arms to my side and licked my neck. “Even if I would prefer you didn’t smell like that rotten water, this will have to do. I want you bound to me before the night is over, Tracker, one way or another.”

I dropped my weight forward, and kicked back, catching him in the ankle and unbalancing his fangy-ass so he stumbled away from me. “Really, you want to play this game again?” A part of me knew I should be afraid of him. Hell, I had been terrified when I’d first met him. But I held the ace up my sleeve now.

He needed me, and I didn’t give a shit about him.

“Ah.” He dusted his hands together, regaining his balance without looking like I’d knocked him off-kilter at all. “Shall we talk about the oath you took? The one that said you will do—what was it now, yes, I remember—all in your power to kill the Child Empress?” His icy blue eyes snared mine and I forced myself to look away.

“You’re a lying piece of shit, you do know that, don’t you? If I’d known who she was, I never would have taken that oath.”

“Please, are you telling me you can’t come up with anything better than that?” He quirked one blond eyebrow. Standing there, all in black, soaking wet and totally bedraggled, he still managed to look better than most men on their wedding day. I had no such thing going for me. On the other hand, I had everything I did need to end this.

I yanked a sword from my back and uncoiled my whip with my other hand. “No, nothing better than that today. Unless you want a taste of this.” I lifted my sword hand and pointed the blade at his mouth.

“You’re not even going to thank me for saving you, are you?”

“Alex says thanks,” Alex whispered at my side. He coughed twice and then stood there, shaking, fur dripping onto the carpet. I hoped it left a stain.

Faris gave me a thin smile. “Your wolf has better manners than you do.”

When he moved, I wasn’t ready for it. No, that wasn’t true, I was ready, I just couldn’t match his speed. His shoulder slammed into my chest, and he sent me sailing across the room, tumbling through the air until I hit the wall with a resounding thud I felt all the way down to my boots.

I slid to the floor and pushed myself up to my feet while I fought to catch the wind that had been knocked out of me. My brain didn’t compute what I was seeing, not right away. Alex sat facing me; Faris crouched behind him. In the thick ruff of Alex’s fur around his neck, Faris’ hand was buried deep. The vampire shook Alex hard, twice. “Rylee, I do hate to take this to the extreme, but you are— like always—being difficult. If you won’t let me draw blood and attempt to bind you to me, then we must do this another way. Since I have met you, I have tried to be patient. I have tried to help you. But there is no time left to play the nice vampire.”

Alex scrabbled to get away from him, claws flailing and muzzle snapping, but Faris held him easily.

I didn’t tell him to let Alex go, didn’t ask him what he wanted. I knew. We both did. And there was only one way to make sure that Alex made it out of this alive. The werewolf let out a barking whine as he fought, gasping for air.

“Alex, be still.” I didn’t want this, but I didn’t know that there was any other way. There was no one coming to rescue us, no way they could find us here, wherever here was. Alex settled down, staring at me with nothing but trust in his big golden eyes. There was no way I could betray him, not even for this.

I would have to do what Faris wanted.

Faris smiled at me, wide enough that I could see his fangs clearly. “You understand? Let me be very clear so that there is no possibility of buyer’s remorse here. Binding you to me is tricky at best, and temporary. But what I’ve learned is that you, unlike Milly, wholly stand behind your word. You do not have it in you to break an oath. And you follow your misleading heart, even when you know better. So.” —he tipped his head to one side and smiled again at me— “you will Track the Blood for me so that I will become the Emperor, and you will hold to your oath to kill the Child Empress. And you will swear to both of those things on the redemption of every soul you’ve ever loved. And if you break your oath, I will kill everything, and everyone, you hold dear.”

He tightened his grip on Alex. “To continue this clarity, if you do not swear to these things, I will start with him and kill him now.”

My stomach flopped and my heart sank to the bottom of my guts.

Faris had finally won; he’d left me no choice. I lowered my sword, bitterness flowing through me. How in the world had I thought at any point he’d been there to help me? He was a douchebag who’d had hundreds of years to perfect his motherfuckery. “I’ll kill you for this one day. You know that, don’t you?”

Laughing, the vampire bared his teeth at me. “You can try; I would like to break you to my will. And one more thing, you will also swear that your oaths must be completed when I demand. Now swear it.”

“On killing you? Gladly. I swear on pain of—”

“Do not play with me, Rylee. I am not in the mood.” He shook Alex, who dangled from his hands like a rag doll, his eyes foggy with lack of air.

“Loosen up on him. I will swear to your stupid oath.” I watched as Alex took a deep breath, Faris’ hands easing up ever so slightly.

“What is the Blood we are going after? I need that much, to know if I can do it or not.” Not really the truth, but I needed to stall, and I hoped that with a little more information, maybe I could get us out of here in one piece. Even if it was a long shot, I had to try.

Faris’ eyebrows shot up. “You didn’t read any more of the book of the Fanged?”

I shook my head and he let out an exasperated sigh. “The Blood are the first three vampires, the ones who begat our race, the origin of our lives.”

“Are they dead?”

He barked a laugh and a glimmer of humor sparkled in his eyes. “Well, no more than I am. But they have been interred in a prison to keep them from the world. We have to find their prison so I can drink their blood and seal my life as the new Emperor. Now quit stalling, speak your oath.”

Every gods-be-damned word I spoke burned through to the core of me, acid eating me out from the inside. “I swear to you on the redemption of every soul I’ve ever loved that I will Track the Blood for you, that I will—” Gods, it stuck in my mouth. I swallowed hard. “That I will hold to my oath to kill the Child Empress, done within the time frame you dictate.”

“Well done, Rylee.” He threw Alex toward me, and the werewolf’s two hundred pound frame crashed into mine, taking us to the floor in a tangle of limbs.

“Alex sorry,” he whispered, lips turning down at the edges, as he scrambled off me.

“Not your fault, buddy.” I stood slowly, dusted my clothes off. Alex pressed himself into my leg, and I dropped a hand to the back of his neck. My fingers came away sticky with blood. Anger, hot and sweet, raged through me. Faris would be dead the second I had the chance.

Faris moved to a side table and poured what I knew wasn’t a glass of red wine, though it surely looked like it in the crystal glass. “Now, let us discuss how this will work, our little business arrangement.”

I had to get close to him if I was going to kill him. That was the only way I could nullify my oaths and avoid this whole situation. Killing him was not going to be easy with his speed, but maybe he wouldn’t expect an assault so quickly. I took a step toward him, keeping my breathing slow and even.

“Remove all your weapons. I’m not so easily fooled. I know you, Rylee.” He lifted his eyes to mine as he took a deep drink from his cup. “I do realize you will take any chance you get to try and kill me, so from now on, you drop your weapons when you are close to me unless otherwise directed.”

“Fuck you. That wasn’t part of the oath.” To prove my point, I raised my sword and pulled my second sword from my back. “My oath was to find the Blood you seek, and kill the Child Empress. Nothing in there about not slicing your head in half.”

He let out a sigh and his shoulders slumped. “I realize this is the only way to do things with you, but I’d really prefer to be civil. After all, I’ve done my best to keep you, and your little pack, alive. But, be that as it may, we can do this the hard way. And you will learn to do what I say, when I say it, like the well-trained bitch you will become for me.”

With a flash of movement, he was gone. “The bastard jumped the veil. Where the hell does he think he’s going?” I muttered, as I lowered my swords.

“Alex wants to go.” He limped toward me and tugged on the end of my shirt. “Really wants to go.”

“Yeah, I agree.” I walked to where the long black curtains hung closed and jerked them open. A blank, grey cement wall stared back at me. Of course, there wouldn’t be an actual window. What was I thinking? I snorted to myself. Faris would go to extremes to keep himself safe. The old tales of sunlight killing vampires was more than true, but most of them were so savvy they would never allow themselves to be caught off guard by daylight.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” I muttered, as I strode toward the only other exit, a simple black door with a tarnished silver knob that turned smoothly in my hand. At least it was unlocked.

I opened it and found myself staring at a cement-fucking-wall. I swallowed hard, the realization settling over me as heavy as the four walls and roof I had no doubt were also cement.

Faris had put me in a box of his making, one that didn’t require doors, or windows or a way out, because the bastard could jump the veil and leave whenever he damn well pleased.

Alex poked at the wall with the tip of his claw. “Hmm. Tough shit.”

I stepped back from the wall, unable to take my eyes from it. That was one way of putting it.

Chapter 17

SEARCHING THE ROOM proved Faris was savvy, indeed. There was no alternate exit, nothing I could use to break out. The walls were thick enough that wherever we were, there was no way I was getting through them. But it was Alex who coined it best.