War of Hearts (True Immortality 1)

When finally she stopped, she was exhausted. The taste of salt from her tears filled her mouth.

“Your back is healing slowly.” Amanda looked green. “But I don’t know if the scarring will fade.”

It wouldn’t. Thea still had a scar from where Ashforth had plunged the knife into her gut all those years ago.

The door creaked open behind her.

“Time’s up,” a female voice Thea recognized as one of the vamps cut through the room.

Amanda glared in the door’s direction. “Time is up when I say it is up.”

“Time’s up when Mr. Ashforth says it’s up. He said fifteen minutes with Miss Quinn and no more.”

“I’m coming.” Amanda raised an eyebrow. “You can leave.”

The door shut and Amanda bent down to Thea. She felt her adoptive mother’s lips on her ear. “I will get you out.”

That awful hope glittered inside Thea’s darkest hiding place. Amanda had often apologized for her husband’s behavior, but she’d never dared to promise Thea an escape. And although Thea didn’t know how it could be possible, the hope that someone might care enough to save her still existed.* * *TWO WEEKS LATERStaring at her back, Thea felt foolish for the shallow worries that filled her head. When she finally had sex, what would the guy think about those awful scars? Would he see the scars as she did … as a failing? As a weakness? As proof she wasn’t strong enough to protect herself? Would they repulse him?

Maybe she could have sex without removing her top?

She scoffed at herself as she pulled on a shirt. She couldn’t wear a bra yet because her back was still too tender. Going braless was a nightmare. She was too full in the chest to go without a bra and she hated the way some guards watched her like she was a piece of meat.

Guards, she reminded herself.

In her prison.

Where she was unlikely to ever meet someone she was attracted to in order to lose her virginity.

God, would she die a virgin?

Oh, right … possible immortality.

If that was true, she just had to survive this nightmare until Jasper Ashforth died. Unless he became like her.

Thea felt rage churn in her gut at the thought. No way was she staying stuck down here for another fifty fucking years. Or worse, forever.

Right on cue, the door to the room opened and Amanda walked in with a human guard (armed with a dart gun) at her back. She smiled sadly at Thea. “I’ve been granted permission to walk with you around the grounds for an hour.”

That tickle of intuition, of hope, bloomed in Thea and she nodded carefully before pulling on a pair of sneakers to follow Amanda out.

To her surprise, the human guard and a werewolf, who Amanda called Sarah and Jack respectively, trailed them. No others. They kept a polite distance as Amanda led Thea down the basement corridor; right led up to the house and left led out into the gardens.

Another guard opened the exit and Thea blinked against the natural daylight as she walked up concrete steps to the outside. The sun felt amazing on her face after spending weeks in a windowless room.

The large house was surrounded by the island’s forest, which acted as a natural perimeter on three sides. The grounds also housed a tennis court, indoor and outdoor pools, a guest cottage, and perfect lawns that led down to their beach.

Amanda slipped her arm through Thea’s and huddled close. “How are you feeling?”

“Still weak,” she admitted. “The effects of the room take time to wear off.”

“About an hour, right?”

Thea fought to stay relaxed. “Yes, about an hour.”

“We’re going to walk around the grounds for an hour,” Amanda said, lowering her voice. “And then we’ll take a walk on the beach. Jack and Sarah are my personal guards, Thea.”

She looked into Amanda’s eyes. “How?”

“There’s a boat,” she whispered. “Jasper is in Australia on business, and I’ve told about a hundred lies to get guards out of the way for the exact moment when the boat will arrive. You have to be on it at exactly one fifteen or we could get caught.”

“What will he do to you?” Thea asked, fear for Amanda stalling the anticipation of flight.

“I’m his wife. He won’t hurt me. He’ll be furious with me, but he won’t hurt me.”

Thea cut her a dark look. “He’s a bad person, Amanda.”

Her green eyes filled with tears. “I know,” she whispered bleakly. “And I’m … stuck … but I can’t let you be. I loved your mother. She was my best friend.”

Tears momentarily blinded Thea. “Come with me.”

“I can’t leave Devon.”

“He’s at school. He’s grown up.”

Amanda smiled sadly. “He’ll be fifty and I’ll still think of him as my little boy. I can’t leave him alone with Jasper. I just … I can’t.”

They fell into silence as they walked by the pool, not acknowledging the guard placed at the entrance to the lounge area.