The Hunter that trapped me, grins at me again and then in a flash of power that definitely did not come from him, but I can’t tell from whom, we vanish into the night and to the gods only know where. Me still caught in the golden cage and not knowing what happened to Lincoln or my husband.
Chapter 14
I look around the dank cell that I am in, still caged and I roar. “Let me out!” Not that I expect it to help any. It’s just something you feel you have to do in this circumstance.
“Not likely,” the Hunter chortles at me. “I have heard the rumors of your new sire. He cannot be contacted while you are in there.”
Remiel.
I open my mouth to shout for him, but the Hunter once again laughs at me. “Try it. I would love to hear you beg.”
“Fuck off,” I snarl at him, pissed off that I could have been so fucking stupid to get caught like this. What did I think was going to happen when I busted through our own wards to rescue a bunch of Vampires I don’t know and were clearly put on display for our benefit? Well, my benefit it seems. They wanted me, and only me. I don’t see Linc and I don’t see CK anywhere.
I do, however, spot Cade, chained up in a corner and looking the worse for wear. That poor guy, he must want to commit suicide at this point just to get away from all the horror that he has endured since he met me. Well, suicide or homicide. Perhaps a murder/suicide?
“Let him go,” I say indicating to Cade. “You don’t really want him.”
“The traitor?” the Hunter scoffs at me. “Oh, we want him, badly. But, for now he is here to reinforce your own guilt.”
I grimace at him. Yeah, that would do it. Everything that has happened to him has been because of me.
“Guilty as charged,” a female voice reaches out of the darkness to slide down my spine like ice. Clementine appears, looking as unruffled and perfect as ever in her pale blue skirt suit. “You will answer for your crimes.”
I growl and bang on the bars of the ‘cage’, which are now clearly visible in the dank cell. “You,” I hiss at her. “You did all of this…just to put me on trial?”
“Mm-hm,” she says approaching me with caution. She isn’t sure the cage will hold. But after another attempt by me to get out and show her who she is messing with, and my failure to do so, reassures her and she relaxes completely. She reaches into the cage and grabs my left hand. With a swift move, she removes my blue diamond ring with a smirk. “Mine now,” she whispers before she adds to the Hunter, “Nice work. Now leave us.”
The Hunter bows to her and beats it. I sneer at his retreating back. “They must be desperate. Working for a Vampire just to get little ol’ me.”
Clementine returns my sneer. “Everyone has a price.”
“Oh yeah, and what is theirs?”
“They get you, to do with as they please, once you are found guilty by a jury of your peers for your crimes.” Clementine gives me a level look, expecting some sort of reaction. “You are quite the prize,” she continues when I just stare at her. “Although, what the fuss is about, I will never know.”
“Ah, there it is…the inevitable jealousy. I knew it was lurking under that icy exterior somewhere,” I say casually, ignoring the feeling of lead that hits the pit of my stomach suddenly.
“Me jealous of you?” she bleats unconvincingly, twirling my ring on her finger. “Hardly. I am the love of his life. The one that got away. You are merely a pale imitation. Clearly.” She gestures up and down at me with a look of disgust.
“You think you are the love of his life?” I snort unable to help myself. “You are deluded.”
“He chased me for months before I would give in to him. He committed acts so vile to isolate me so that I would have no one else to turn to. He marked me, made me his completely. He wanted nothing more than to have me and when he got me, he loved me. Oh, how he loved me. The things he did, the things he said…” She shivers as she remembers, and it turns my stomach. I know she is saying all of this to hurt me, but it rings
true. I know my ex-sire’s obsessive nature. I have no doubt that everything she says happened. “He was completely faithful to me,” she adds, looking me straight in the eye.
I swallow but try not to show how much that hurts whether it’s a lie or not.
“Completely besotted with me. Worshipped the ground I walked on. I ripped his heart out when I left him. He mourned my loss for decades. Tried so desperately to replace me.”
Her wicked smile irritates me, but it brings me back to myself. She may be speaking the truth, but that is until he met me. “I am the light of his life. You cannot for one second think that he would choose you over me.”
I see the flicker of darkness in her eyes. She would have sneered at me if I had used the word ‘love’, but ‘light’, oh, she knows how much that means to him.
“That is what he wants you to think because I left him no choice but to move on,” she stammers quickly before she regains her composure. “He never got over me. His first love.”
“His first obsession,” I hiss. “I know him better than you do. I know his nature better than you ever could. You wouldn’t spread your legs for him, so it drove him crazy until you did.”
She chuckles at me. She knows she has gotten to me in some way. “And after? He wanted to stay buried between my legs for eternity.”