The Darkest Pleasure by Gena Showalter Read Free Book Online Page B

light, not darkness and fear.
    “She does not look well.” Lucien released him and steppedaway, taking the vision with him. “The longer she is with them, the more harm they can do to her. I followed the dead Hunter’s body to a funeral home, stayed there in spirit form and watched as Hunters came to visit. They unknowingly led me straight to Danika. They know she killed their friend. Apparently they’ve had her since the night of the stabbing. They have her chained to a bed and have kept her asleep. She is unable to fight them like that, is helpless, vulnerable, a—”
    “Yes!” Reyes’s arm fell to his side. He was panting. “Yes,” he repeated. He didn’t have to think about what to do any longer. “Give me Danika and I will give you Aeron.” Perhaps this was the answer to his torment. Save Danika, protect her and help restore Aeron to his former self, reminding the warrior of what he had once been. Though how he would accomplish the latter, he still didn’t know. “But I will have your word that when he is brought here, he will be given the solitude he craves.”
    “You have it.” Lucien nodded, grim. “Know that I do this partly because Anya thinks Danika can lead us to one of the artifacts. And doubt me not. When the girl is here, I will use her to find it.”
    “And doubt me not. I am not myself when I am with her and do not know how I will react if you willingly place her in harm’s way.” Already he felt feral with the thought. “Take me to her.”
    “First tell me you understand that we might save her now, only to lose her later. I will not have you blame me if—”
    “She will not die.” He wouldn’t let her. “No more talking. Take me to her.”
     
    I FOUGHT FOR MY LIFE only to lose it like this? Danika laughed bitterly. She’d only just woken up, wasn’t sure how much time had passed or what had been done to her. The thought made her gag.
    After the…the…attack— oh, God, don’t think about it —she had raced to her shabby apartment to gather her things. Mistake. She should have left the gun and clothing behind, butwithout the day’s pay she’d known replacing them would have been too expensive. And since she hadn’t yet mastered the ability to steal without getting caught, she’d felt she had no other recourse.
    A group of strange men had been waiting for her, standing in the shadows next to the fire escape as though they’d known what route she most often took. As if they’d been watching her for days and knew her habits.
    She could have fought one or two. Even three. But there had been six of them, all bearing the same figure-eight tattoo on their wrists as the man she’d—she’d—she couldn’t even think the word now. They’d possessed the same tattoo as the man who’d died in that dirty alley. They’d overpowered her, knocked her out.
    Never helpless again, huh?
    When she’d first opened her eyes a little bit ago, her hope that the men were cops and she might make bail was completely dashed. Cops did not chain women to strange beds. Who were these men? What did they want with her?
    Nothing good, that much was clear. Panic bloomed inside her chest, freezing her blood. Her ears rang with fear. Her jaw ached from the knock it had taken. Her strength was depleted, hunger gnawing at her. She had trouble drawing in a breath, her airways too constricted.
    Don’t make a sound. The chains were cold and heavy, abrading. She tugged at them as her wild gaze circled the room. It was nicely furnished with overstuffed chairs, colorful beaded pillows and a mahogany vanity that boasted a square, gilt-edged mirror.
    Reyes’s doing? she wondered, not knowing what to think about that. He had kept her in comfort, too.
    No, not Reyes, she decided in the next instant. He wasn’t the kind of man to send others to do his dirty work. He would have been there, would have subdued her himself. So who had taken her? she wondered again. Friends of the man she’d…hurt, obviously.