I’m in a cage.
Not a small one, maybe ten feet by ten feet, all sides exposed to open air. And below me was a slab of cold concrete. No windows decorated the walls beyond my prison, and the room held a slight musky odor. And dust particles floated in the air.
Oh, those are interesting. I narrowed my gaze at them, watching as they caught in the dim lighting, their colors a flash of intrigue. It was as if I’d never really seen dust before. Was it always this hypnotizing?
And has my skin always been this soft? I wondered as my fingers grazed my bare thigh. I drew my nails over my hips to my abdomen, tracing across my skin in a hypnotic wave of heat. So smooth and perfect.
I was naked—no surprise there. But I was also clean, and that struck me as odd. Although, I couldn’t really remember why. The reason was lost somewhere in my memories, the thick fog preventing me from latching onto any specific one.
Did it really matter?
I felt good. Like, really good.
I rolled onto my stomach, then pushed myself off the ground and easily onto my feet. The cage provided a little more than a foot of clearance over my head. I reached up to wrap my fingers around the cold steel and marveled at the silky texture. Sturdy. Heavy. Perfect.
My knees buckled as I tested my grip. I hung with ease and even lifted myself up a little in a version of a pull-up. Nice. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been able to do this. At the university? In a class with Silas?
I canted my head, trying to recall the course, but it hovered just out of range of my mind.
The lack of focus probably should have concerned me, but after months or years of drug abuse, I couldn’t really think beyond the peace of having a clear mind.
No nightmares.
No lycans.
No classwork.
Just existence.
I released the bars to spin in a circle, feeling lighter than air. Then I fell into a fighting stance, my legs moving with a fluidity that just felt right. Perfect. I jumped, careful of my head, then started a routine my body seemed to grasp more than my mind.
Silas taught me this, I recognized, uncertain of when that was. Yesterday? A month ago? Years, maybe? Time seemed irrelevant. Particularly with how fast my hands were flying in front of me. I went through each kata with a precision I could feel in my very soul.
By the time I finished, sweat dotted my brow and my chest was heaving from the effort. But I also felt invigorated. Powerful. Complete.
More of those dust particles flickered, drawing my focus to the darker shadows of the room. Where am I? My mind refused to answer. Something about the breeding camps—which I immediately locked a door on. Had they moved me to a new dungeon cell? When would they return? Would they drug me again?
I shivered. That had to be the cause of my bizarre state. Maybe they’d increased my dose and this was all a dream.
No. Impossible. My mind didn’t allow for a positive imagination. I lived in a nightmare. Trapped. Forever considered—
What is that? I narrowed my gaze on the glint in the dark, some gleam of silver shining in the shadows.
Then it began to move.
I jumped backward into the bars behind me, my hands going around the metal columns beside my hips.
The being appeared to grow, as if lifting from a seated position on the ground. And then he stepped into the dim light.
My heart stopped. Oh, shit… He was too perfect to be human, his features flawless and sharp as if etched from marble.
Square jaw.
Straight nose.
Harshly cut cheekbones.
Eyes that glittered like black diamonds.
Dark, tousled hair that matched the light dusting of a shadow across his chiseled jaw.
I swallowed. Vampire. Yet he held an animalistic edge as he prowled toward me, a distinct intrigue playing through his gaze that appeared to be underlined in cruelty.
Where am I? I wondered again, caring much more about the answer now. How had I ended up in a vampire’s lair?
Potent didn’t even begin to describe the male coming to a stop just outside my cage door. He oozed power and sex. Domination. Superiority. Arrogance.
I nearly suffocated on his presence, his hypnotic gaze holding me captive before him.
My vampire professors had nothing on him. They could command a room, but this male seemed like he could command an entire army with a single look.
“Where did you learn how to do that?” he asked, his voice so deep and sensual that it scattered goose bumps down my arms.
I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry. “Th-the university.” My palms clamped tightly around the bars as my knees threatened to buckle beneath his penetrating stare, his irises roaming over every inch of me.
“You took warrior classes?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Why?” His midnight eyes met mine once more. “What was your goal?”
My heart went from stuttering to racing in my chest, answers populating my mind before I could think them through. “I wanted to be a Vigil.” Although, I couldn’t quite remember why at the moment. So foggy. So strange.
What silver glimmer had I caught in the dark? I wondered then, glancing over his T-shirt and jeans, only to spy a watch on his right wrist. That. How had I missed that?
“And they sent you to the breeding farm instead,” he replied, his sinful gaze dropping to my chest before lowering to the apex between my thighs.
A shiver skittered down my spine.
I’d stood naked in front of countless supernaturals before—humans, too—but something about this vampire had my nerves climbing into my throat.
“I think you would have served better in a harem,” he mused. “But your genetics must have marked you for breeding.”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that, so I said nothing.
He continued to study me as if I were a present, appreciation evident in his gaze.
“How did I get here?” I blurted out, then immediately froze as his eyes snapped up to mine.
“You don’t remember?”
“N-no,” I admitted.
“Fascinating.” He tilted his head in an eerie manner, another wave of intrigue overtaking his features. “I suppose you did imbibe a lot of my essence.”
My eyebrows shot up. “I what?”
“My blood, pet. You drank my blood.”
“Why?”
“To live,” he answered as if that explained everything. “Your memories will return shortly. I suspect nightmares will accompany them.”
He spoke the words nonchalantly, which only seemed to heighten the chill sweeping over me.
I don’t want to remember.
But I did want to know a few things. Such as… “Who are you?” I realized the faux pas of my question the moment his eyes widened.
A series of edicts from my life began to chant through my mind, some course I took as a child ingrained forever in my head, even beneath my apparent memory loss.
Humans do not address their superiors.
Humans do not look at their superiors.
Humans do not engage their superiors.
Humans bow to their superiors.
Humans are here to please their superiors.
Humans are food.
Humans are meant for pleasure at the hands of their superiors.
Humans do not—
“I thought society broke humans of the penchant for speaking out of turn,” the vampire mused, dragging me out of my inner chant.
I needed to apologize, to beg forgiveness, to bow at his feet. And yet, my body refused to do all those things, as if I were being held up by invisible puppet strings that forced me to disobey.