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CHAPTER ONE

We were alive

It didn’tkidnapped by va as my child and I were still alive

Right?

We just have to get through the next eight ears I felt it speed up and knew eachI knew and everyone I loved My past was spooling out behind me like a ribbon and I didn’t know if I’d be able to catch the end of it before it ran out

If Anna was sht ho out a planeat the sa if he’d done all he could, if there’d been another way I wanted to touch hiain so badly I ached

I reached up for the necklace he’d given , and I carefully set my hand back down

EightBut when I’d found out I was pregnant everything felt right—up until the cruise ship we’d been on had been taken over by a ned to ensure the death of everyone on board

We’d had to fight for our lives, and I’d gotten infected By the ti Asher and I had already watched the parasite take down an entire ship, so we knew there was no cure Except for vampire blood, the supernatural cure-all Anna had called in a long-distance favor to save me and the other survivors when she realized she’d never make it across country in time Unfortunately, the vampire blood came with an actual va me to him forever afterward, co

Which hy I was currently racing away from Asher and the drea daytimers back at floor Y4, I’d been forced to become one

My job was to get through nancy in one piece Once I had the baby it would be safe for Anna to change me into a vampire too Then I’d be free of Raven, and back with Asher I just had to e to be a wife or a mother as a vah When I was back with Asher, we could work everything else out so enslaved to a strange vao back to would kill me

I slid ht hand found the cool metal of the seat-belt buckle

“You can’t escape” A fact, stated by , and his acco beside me in the backseat I kept my hand on the buckle in a small act of defiance But the truth was that if he ordered o of it, I’d have to Or if he told me to open the door and throw myself out onto the open road, I’d have to do that too I’d survive it—Anna had told iven e of turning s—but it would still probably hurt

I’d been hurting for so long that being well noas strange My last days on the Maraschino had been punctuated by pain— sickness, a black eye, a dislocated shoulder, the parasitic infection that’d takenstranded on a life raft for days with no water or food It was ironic to finally feel whole just as everything inirrevocably fucked

By now my family would know that the Maraschino had sunk with everyone on board There’d never be any safe way to explain what had happened and how I’d survived,It would be kinder to just let them think I was dead, and that was an ache not even blood could fix

Thinking about randson—the velvet bag Wolf had blindfolded ht My heartbeat sped up before I could control it and I knew the vampires would know—

Cold fingers pressed against mine on the buckle Apparentlystupid Maybe they knew ers off He ran his hand underneath the sash acrossthe way “Safety first,” he warned sarcastically

I stayed absolutely still, like a rabbit when a hawk passes overhead He noticed that too, and I could feel the contour of the seat beside me shift as he leaned even nearer

“Stay scared,” he whispered “Servants last longer when they’re scared”

I twisted hed as though he’d ju

stat er, anddeliberate

If I died, it would kill Asher I’d pro we have to do, baby, we’ll do it

“Fear er to please, doesn’t it, Wolf?” Raven chided from the front seat His voice ru me a chill

“Yes, Sire,” Wolf agreed, returning to his own side of the seat I felt the car downshift and take a left-hand turn I didn’t knohere were going but I knew for sure we’d be there by dawn

Raven raced the night I could feel us swoop around other cars on the road, taking turns at speed I’d started off trying to s, as if I could bread-cruoing in circles, probablyfollowed than to trickturns more frequently—we’d reached civilization, wherever that was

Then the car slowed drastically and descended, and I realized a parking garage belowground made sense for vampires We wheeled sharply to the left and came to a precise stop as Raven hit the brakes and shifted into PARK

“Ho the door behind himself

Wolf exited the vehicle as well I sat still, waiting, until I was startled by a knock at theto ht “You can open up your own door”

I felt blindly for the door handle and opened it I’d been sitting next to an unlocked door this whole ti I’d run? How foolish had I been to not even try? But there was nowhere I could go that Raven couldn’t find ht not to grind my teeth

You’d better grow up to be a really awesoot out of the car and stood beside it, and the blindfold was snatched off me

Lank pieces ofturned into a daytiiene I stank of sweat, and my clothes were crusted with salt water frolance and saas right: ere in a subterranean garage There were several expensively exotic cars in a row, and Raven was nowhere to be seen