The human tried to run.

Foolish, foolish human.

Lorcan followed him outside and slammed the human back against a tree.

“Y-you should be weak,” the human whimpered.

“Should I?”

“J-Jane was weak in the sun.”

His eyes narrowed. “Who are you, human?” He lifted him up and rammed his head into the tree once more.

“D-doctor Heath Myers.”

A doctor. Hmm. “Jane’s doctor.” The name was familiar to him. Because he’d had eyes on Jane. On those close to her.

I should have been watching this one more closely.

Lorcan dropped the human.

“You killed them all,” Heath’s voice was hoarse. He started to wretch on the ground.

A sigh broke from Lorcan. “You’re about to join them. You aligned yourself with the wrong vampires.”

Heath swiped his hand over his mouth. “I didn’t even know I was aligning with vamps,” he muttered. “Thought it was…someone else…until tonight.”

Curious now, Lorcan bent next to the man. His eyes narrowed on the human’s face. “Let’s just see what you thought.” And he sank his teeth into the man’s throat while Heath Myers screamed.

If you wanted to look at a human’s past, all a vamp had to do was take a bite.

***

Darkness. It was always the same when she slept. Jane instantly sank into a thick suffocating darkness.

She was trapped. Her wrists shackled. Her ankles bound. The darkness was complete and consuming.

She cried out, screaming again and again, but soon her voice was gone. Gasps were all that could escape from her throat.

Her voice was broken.

She was lost.

There was only the darkness.

Tears leaked down her cheeks. She knew that she’d been left in the darkness. Forgotten. There was no rescue. No hope.

There was nothing.

“Jane.” The voice, it was new. Voices never entered her dreams.

Yet she heard a man’s voice. Low. Rumbling. Demanding.

She tried to see the man in the darkness.

He’s not there. A taunt, from within. She was alone. That was the way that she would always be.

“Jane, open your eyes.”

She could feel him, touching her cheeks. As if he were wiping away tears. She knew that she cried. The darkness made her cry. No, it was the hopelessness that did that.

Slightly rough fingertips brushed her cheeks once more.

Why could she feel him, but not see him?

“A rúnsearc,” his rumble continued, and the language—did she know it? Yes. It seemed familiar, just as his voice seemed familiar, but the memory was just out of reach.

As all memories were to her.

His hands moved to clasp her shoulders. “Wake for me. Now.”

If only she could just open her eyes for him. But it wasn’t that easy to escape the darkness. Not once it had her in its greedy grasp. She hated to sleep. Fought it with every bit of strength that she had.

To her, the darkness was death.

No escape.

His mouth pressed to hers. The touch was electric, sending a sharp pulse of desire straight through her body. His lips brushed against hers, and his tongue slipped into her mouth.

She awakened with a gasp.

And he stole that breath, taking it away from her.

His mouth lingered for an instant. She didn’t fight him, actually, Jane wanted to grab onto Alerac and hold him as tightly as she could.

He saved me from the dark.

But then he pulled back.

She realized that she was on the bed. That big, king-sized bed in the small motel room. He was curled over her, his hands now pressing into the mattress, caging her.

His gaze—would she ever grow used to that shining green gaze?—pinned her. “You were crying in your sleep.”

And he’d seen her. When she was so weak. Humiliating. “Sorry.” If you don’t want to see me cry, then don’t watch me. She held the words back, for now. Angering the big, bad slayer of vamps probably wasn’t a good idea.

“What did you dream of?”

Jane shook her head.

“Did you remember?” Alerac pressed.

Jane had to laugh. “All I remember is darkness. Having a voice that can’t scream because it’s broken.” She shoved that darkness from her mind, but she knew it would come back. It always did. “I dream of being forgotten.” Exactly what had happened to her.

Six months. Her face flashed in the newspaper and on TV. For six months. But no family had come to claim her. No one had come to tell her that she mattered.

That she was loved.

Forgotten. Yes, that was exactly what she was.

Not surprising, really. Why search for a monster?

“You were never forgotten.”

Her gaze flew to his.

The faint lines near his eyes had deepened. “I should have transported you during the day, while you slept but—but you seemed weak.”

Right. Weak. Wonderful. Just what she wanted to be thought of by this tough, scary guy. Weak probably equaled prey in his eyes.

His gaze slid over her features. “I thought it would be best if you had a day of sleep. A day to prepare for what will come.”

That sounded ominous. “What’s coming?”

His stare turned away from her as he glanced toward the locked door. “Vampires will hunt us in the night, so we must take care.”

She lifted her hand. Curled it around his chin. Forced him to look back and see her. “What’s coming?”

Those too-bright eyes seemed to burn through her. “You tempt much when you touch me. The sheets smell of you. And though you might try to deny it…” He lifted the hand that had cradled his cheek. Brought it to his mouth. Kissed the palm. Lightly licked her.

Jane shivered.

“You want me,” he said, sounding both satisfied and hungry. “And the scent of your desire drives me f**kin’ crazy.”

Her breath caught. “A werewolf’s senses…”

“Are ten times better than a human’s.” Grim. He licked her palm again. Nipped lightly with his teeth.

The heat surging through her body had her heart pounding in a double-time beat.

“So I know exactly when you get wet for me,” Alerac whispered. “You’ll never be able to hide your desire from me.”

He knew. Horror widened her eyes as they flew back to his.

“My pack is waiting outside.”