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Sergei straightened, a s his lips "Your niece has been here Recently" Marika clenched her hands, her nails drawing blood that dripped onto the stone floor

Close So close "Where is she now?"

Sergei shrugged, pointing toward the water "That’s where she disappeared"

Marika leaned forward, studying the ie that had fornize the tunnels

"Victor’s lair"

Sergei cursed, his face paling Every creature in the demon world kneas easier to escape the pits of hell than the clan chief’s dungeons

"That makes no sense," he rasped "Why would she seek out a vaed, headed toward the door "It’s more likely that Victor realized a Jinn had invaded his territory and took steps to capture her It would explain why I lost track of her so swiftly"

Sergei hurried to keep pace beside her "Where are you going?"

She entered the outer cellar and headed toward a door hidden by a spell of illusion Victor wasn’t the only one with private tunnels to move about the city

"There’s only one way to discover if our beloved chief is holding the female"

"And if he is?"

She tossed her co to ei’s face went froray

"Shit"

Chapter 8

Laylah stepped froe and even scarier va in thete for shocks, she ruefully concluded

First had been her astonishant vampire she’d followed into the town house Juliet hadn’t been exaggerating The two of them could have passed as twins Well, except for the other wos And the psycho temper

And then, of course, had been the shock of being so close to the e who had brutally kidnapped her from her foster ant son of a bitch It had taken every bit of her willpower not to charge into the kitchen and rip out his black heart

Laylah shivered, trying to concentrate on what she’d discovered

It wasn’t every day a girl found out she had an aunt as a vae who had imprisoned her for months, but that she was still on the hunt for her

Her thoughts, however, kept slipping away as she was distracted by the soft sound of her na fros, she headed toward the rooe had so recently left

"Laylah, there is soood,’ " Levet muttered as he hastily followed in her wake "I believe this is an appropriateout part"

"Don’t you hear that?" she asked, griht of the stone altar that dominated the dank space Were those bloodstains?

She circled around the disgusting object, the voice still ringing in her ears "Hear what?"

She frowned Levet couldn’t hear the voice? Whichmad or some unknown creature had zapped her with a Vulcan mind-meld

Neither option held any appeal

"So my narowing agitation "I can tell you fro your na"

She ignored his warning, slowly approaching the pool of water in the floor that shilow

"I have to know"

Levet stomped to stand at her side "Of course you do" "Laylah," the soft voice crooned "My beautiful Laylah" Halting at the edge of the pool she glanced into the still water, her heart jerking in shock at the ie of a woman stretched on a cot in some sort of dark cell

For a ht it was Marika

Understandable

They could have been clones, until the woe abruptly opened her eyes

The eyes ht have matched in shape and color, but there the rese predator without conscience

The woman reflected in the water possessed dark eyes that smoldered with the heat of her fierce e Levet’s dire warning of speaking to strange woically appeared in water

"Kata," the wo as her voice left Laylah’s head and filled the cavern "Your mother"

Mother

Laylah licked her lips, her heart ricocheting painfully around her rib cage

Of all the scenarios she had envisioned ofher mother, this one had never popped into her ed to rasp "Are you being held captive?"

Kata shook her head, her body treainst unseen bonds

"It doesn’t matter, you must listen to ave a frantic shake of her head "You must protect the child"