“Good. You’re back. And now I have another piece of persuasion for you.” He pivoted slightly and snapped his fingers in the direction of the tunnel entrance.

Claire felt some kind of vibration in the air shift, some level of Daniel’s intention. He turned toward the arched doorway behind him, where two large torches cast a glow at the end of the cave. He waved an arm and once more snapped his fingers.

Guards appeared, one on either side of a man they dragged behind them. He was naked like Lucian but covered in grime. She wasn’t sure of the color of his hair because he was filthy, including his face, which was bruised and bloody.

Lucian leaned back like he’d been hit. He rubbed a hand over his face, narrowing his eyes as though he couldn’t see well. “Marius, is that you? What have you done to Marius?”

The guards dropped the vampire at Daniel’s feet.

“You sure you don’t want to join me, Lucian?”

“Never.” He leaned forward on his knees, his gaze fixed on Marius. His head wagged back and forth again. Claire had a strong sense that he couldn’t see his brother clearly.

“Well, that’s too bad, then.” Daniel leaned down and, taking a blade from his pocket, sliced open the man’s throat. The victim thrashed, his hands to his throat, blood leaking everywhere.

As Marius collapsed, Daniel stepped out of harm’s way. Apparently he didn’t want blood on his expensive suit.

Shouting sounded through the pit.

On instinct, Claire covered her ears, aware of the reason a few seconds later: Lucian had started bellowing like a wild animal, straining against his chains. “Marius! My brother! Marius!”

Claire felt his pain because the chain shared it with her, letting her experience Lucian’s horror. He was losing something infinitely precious.

Her chest started to hurt.

She tried not to look at Marius, who now lay still, but whose blood had created a lake near his head. Instead her gaze drifted to Daniel, who watched Lucian’s suffering with a half smile on his lips, his gaze hooded.

So he got off on his son’s suffering. Of course that much had already been made evident to Claire in the recent exchange.

“It’s just you and me now, Lucian. Marius is gone. Adrien is holed up somewhere with the woman who bound him up and subdued him. Become an Ancestral and rule beside me. You’ll forget this pain, and you won’t believe the power you’ll wield. It’s intoxicating.”

Claire knew Daniel’s words were wasted. She could feel Lucian’s venom. He hated his father, wanted him dead.

Daniel skirted Marius’s body. “Say you’ll join me, Lucian. I have a thousand slaves here and you’ll get all the blood you need. I can feel your starvation, and I want to take care of you. That’s what you’ve never understood. I have tremendous compassion for you.”

Lucian, still prone, strained once more against his chains trying to reach his father. “I’ll see you in hell first, Daniel.”

But again Daniel touched the top of his head. The powerful warrior rolled onto his back, his body seizing again.

Through a mist of tears, her hands pressed over her mouth, Claire watched Daniel revel in the pain he caused his son. He stood over him, both arms spread wide, staring down at Lucian’s body, a smile on his lips.

At last, Lucian must have passed out, because his eyes closed and his body grew lax. For a moment she thought Daniel might have killed him, but Lucian’s chest moved up and down. Only then could Claire finally breathe.

She held her disguising shield tight, fearing that Daniel might suddenly realize she was in the cave. If he ever turned that level of power against her, she wouldn’t survive for the time it took to blink.

Fortunately, with a sheen of perspiration on his forehead and a satisfied dip of his chin, Daniel turned and left the space. The guards and med tech followed after him while a cleanup crew hurried in.

She turned away as two of them carted Marius’s body out; the rest set to cleaning the floor. Powerful emotions moved through her: the grief that Lucian would now experience, and the horror she felt at watching a man killed in front of her eyes. She knew enough to let the sensations flow, as hard as they were to bear.

She would have a lot of processing to do later, but right now she had to get Lucian out of the cave.

With the last of the blood cleaned up, the crew left. Claire waited until the hall beyond grew quiet. Finally, she hurried toward Lucian, her disguising shield tight around her.

She withdrew the vial of her blood from the pocket of her jeans, then dropped to her knees beside him. Uncorking the small plastic tube, she held it beneath his nose, hoping he’d catch the scent.

At the same time she smoothed her hand over his forehead. “Come back to me, Lucian. Let me take you out of here before Daniel returns. Please wake up.”

She thought about what he’d said, that he was loyal to those who sought justice and equality. Here was a man who deserved so much more than what life had dealt him.

His head began to shift, first left then right. A moan left his lips. “Blood,” he whispered.

When his lips parted, she began easing the blood into his mouth, then stroking his throat to encourage him to swallow. Little by little the vial grew empty.

“Lucian, can you hear me?”

He finally opened his eyes and stared at her. “You’re the human, the one I saw earlier.”

“I am.”

“My God, your blood tastes the way you smell, like sweet herbs. And there’s strength in you. Great strength. But who are you?”

Claire stared into Lucian’s smoky-gray eyes and for a moment got completely lost in what he’d just said to her. She’d never heard a more beautiful compliment.

“My name is Claire. Rumy sent me here to help you.”

Maybe it was the chain she wore, or that she admired how he’d stood up to his father, or his kind words—but suddenly he became more than merely the vehicle by which she could find her friend. Something inside her began to warm to him, a sensation that brought heat to her cheeks.

He sat up and took several deep breaths. He winced suddenly and shaded his faced with his manacled hand. “Marius.” He whispered. “Oh, God, Marius.”

As much as she needed to get him out of the cave, the sooner the better, she had to give him just a little space to recover from what for her had been a horrifying spectacle. She swallowed several times, her throat tight.

In addition to the sudden swell of grief, she also sensed that he was working hard to recover from Daniel’s most recent assault. He was still in a lot of pain.

After a moment he lifted his face to her, but his gaze dropped to her neck and he frowned. “You’re wearing a blood-chain.”

She nodded. “Your blood-chain, Lucian. Rumy said that being bound together through the chains would be the only way you could leave this cave, but I don’t know exactly what he meant.”

He glanced down at his manacles. “Rumy was right, because these shackles are preternaturally enhanced with Daniel’s power.” He lifted his gaze to hers. “The blood-chain bond will expand my abilities, give me what I need to break free. But tell me what Rumy told you.”

“That we’ll have a proximity issue, with about a twelve-foot reach, which means we’ll have to be close to each other for however long we’re bonded in this way.”

He lowered his chin. “And? Surely he told you more than that.”

“Rumy was very specific that you’ll be in a blood-starved state. You’ll require a recovery period, and I’ll have to donate.”

“And you’re okay with that? Because the sense I’m getting is that this is all new to you.”

“Very.”

“Then why did you come here? Why would you put yourself in this kind of danger?”

Claire needed him to understand the whole picture, especially the promises Rumy had made. “Two years ago, my friend Zoey and I were abducted from a club in Santa Fe. I’ve been held captive all this time in Florida at Daniel’s command. But Rumy got wind of it, suspecting that I might have the ability to forge a tracking pair with you. Does this make sense? The ‘tracking pair’ thing, I mean?”