Compel (Rae Wilder #2)

Chapter Nine

Opening my eyes, I sighed at the stone ceiling. My mind was clear, all too clear, and I knew I had been captured. Again. This time I had nothing but my own foolishness to thank.

Sniffing, I tried to sense where I was, up high or down low, and was relieved when I had not travelled far from the last place I was conscious. I scrunched my nose up. It smelt dreadful; so bad I could taste the decay.

Rolling onto my side, I ignored the figure I had sensed in the corner when I woke up, and touched a hand to my neck. The skin was tender but fully healed. I fingered the two raised lumps of skin and closed my eyes remembering how it felt to have fangs sink beneath your skin and your blood sucked from you. No, that part was not a dream either.

“Our bites leave scars.” The voice from the corner was hesitant.

Wonderful, as if I needed more of those.

My sweaty palms slapped loudly on the hard floor “Why do I always find myself in these uncomfortable situations? Why don’t holding dungeons come with warm blankets and cushions?”

Shifting onto my hands and knees I arched my back, working out the stiffness then levered myself up onto my knees. I stood and rolled my shoulders. When I opened my eyes Tomas stood in front of me, eyes fathomless and deceptively filled with life.

I breathed out slowly. “Why are you here?”

“Protecting you.”

I chewed my bottom lip. “From the vampire Queen?” He nodded once. I flushed angrily. “Why does it matter? I saw the way she looked at me when she realised we have a blood tie. It’s only a matter of time before she drains me, right?”

Like hell it was, but I was curious. For all intents and purposes, he had betrayed me, but then why was he down here lurking in the shadows like a weirdo?

“None shall feed from you but me.”

“Oh, don’t you like to share.” My eyes narrowed. “Unless you have something I would want to hear I suggest you leave. Looking at you is making me feel ill.”

His hand lifted as if to touch me, but he let it fall loosely to his side. “You hate me.”

“What do you think,” I snapped and moved around him to place my hands on the door. No iron, just wood. It had a locked rusty doorknob. I frowned and opened my senses. Okay, no iron close by. I furrowed my brows at him over my shoulder. “It’s like you were expecting me to stay in here.”

“Yes,” the response was unassuming.

The rank odour of my prison had me retching again. “What is that sm–” My eyes landed on the body twisted in the corner. My heart sank to my feet and my face flushed in anger. “Oh gods.” Swallowing hard my eyes twitched to his. “Why have you done this?”

Tomas glanced at the body in the corner. “That was not my doing. He and his followers entered the city and Gwendolyn defended her territory. No doubt she was hungry too.”

My mouth swung open, and all I could see was a chain of events that had spiralled out of control and led me to this moment. Was this my fault? No … he had come here to escape his own mad actions. Knowing this made the sight in front of me no less easy to bear. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

The body explained why Devlin had unexpectedly disappeared from my future, from everybody’s future.

He simply did not have one any more.

In this moment of pain, I did not think of the entire fairy race but of Wasp. She would be devastated. Hell, deranged would be a better description. I remembered Devlin speak of his life-mate. The way the insanity had drained from his eyes to be replaced with adoration. He would not have left her, anyone else but her. What if that had been Breandan lying there and I was her?