Vincehad been in Imogen’s apartment. He’d come here and taken my friend. Either he’d come here looking for me, or he’d known I was gone and had come to send a message.
Bile burned the back of my throat. One way or another, Silas knew that I’d betrayed him, and this was his way of getting back at me.
Terror clawed at my insides, threatening to overwhelm me. I knew the sort of things Silas and his hunters were capable of. One more dead witch was nothing to them.
But there was no blood — no body — which meant she was still alive. Vince wouldn’t have come here to killImogen and then cleaned up his mess. He would have left her body here for me to find.
Silas knew I’d been staying here — just like he knew I’d come looking for Imogen. This was his way of luring me back, and I didn’t care.
Resheathing my dagger, I headed for the couch and the two short swords I’d stashed beneath the cushions. Strapping them to my back, I flew out of the apartment and took the stairs two at a time.
I burst through the front door onto the sidewalk, my blood thrashing with terror and fury. The relentless heat had finally broken, and for once it was cooler outside than it was in the stuffy apartment.
As I rounded the corner, heading for the car, a hand clamped down over my mouth. It was large and sweaty and smelled like dirt, and when an arm the size of a small tree snaked around my waist, panic crowded out every other thought.
My back slammed into a rock-hard chest, and a sour stench filled my nostrils. I groped automatically for my dagger, but my arms were pinned to my sides. Even with my hunter strength, I couldn’t break his hold.
I squirmed and bucked, but the male was immovable — his arm like a vise as he hauled me into the shadows. I drove my heel back to connect with his shin, but my attacker merely grunted.
Who was he? More importantly,whatwas he?
The male’s scent wasn’t one that I recognized, so he couldn’t be one of Silas’s hunters. He waswaytoo strong to be a mortal, and he didn’t smell like a vampire.
Dread seized me as he dragged me farther down the alley. Blinking tears from my eyes, I looked around andspied two more hulking figures — one with reddish skin and small black horns, the other a male with gray-green skin, bulging yellow eyes, and piercings in the slits he had instead of nostrils.
Shit.
My stomach heaved as my attacker bent closer, bringing his mouth to my ear. “Silas thinks he can cheat me? Maybe he’ll reconsider now that I have his little bitch.”
I gagged on the male’s sour breath, and my dread amplified.
This was about Silas. But who —
Understanding hit me like a club to the head.Gorm. The half-human, half-ogre buyer I was supposed to have delivered the vampire blood to had followed me back to Imogen’s. He’d come for retribution.
I’d never met Gorm, but I knew he dealt in violence and black-market goods. Blood. Venom. Enslaved witches. I’d heard he even trafficked in shifters.
Vince and Alessio had always made me wait in the car when they made drops at Gorm’s — not for my safety, I was sure, but to keep me from ruining a deal by drawing my weapons.
And yet Silas had sent me to deliver this last shipment alone. Why? To see if I could hold my own against these three? The way the pierced one was looking at me, I had a feeling I would not have been treated much better if I’d arrived with their blood on time.
“What should we do with her?” Gorm’s low voice rumbled up my spine, turning my insides to liquid. “She must be special to Silas if he’s kept her so . . . protected.”
If the situation hadn’t been so dire, I might have laughed out loud.
Protected.Special. The half-ogre must only have had half a brain if he thought I was special to Silas. If Silas felt anything for me, it was ownership. But I didn’t belong to him anymore.
“I’ve never had a huntress,” Gorm mused, that putrid breath wafting into my mouth. “I wonder if they scream the same as human females . . .”
That vise of terror tightened around my chest as Gorm’s beefy arm drifted higher. The change in position left my forearm free, and my heart pounded in my throat. My fingertips brushed the hilt of my dagger. If I couldjustreach it . . .
“I wonder what Silas will do when I dump your body on his lawn. Do you think that will get his attention?”
I didn’t allow myself to latch onto the hideous words spewing from the half-ogre’s mouth. Instead, I focused everything I had on reaching the dagger at my thigh.
One chance. I couldn’t waste it, or I’d find myself all alone in this alleyway — outnumberedandunarmed.
I waited another heartbeat. Then two. Gorm’s huge hand slid down to cup my breast, and I felt the lecherous eyes of his companions on me as he squeezed — hard.
