Those vampires could have killed Jane. They hadn’t realized just what an immense mistake they were making.
No one could kill Jane. She belonged to him. Not just as a clansman, but so much more.
He was the only one left who remembered the bond that had been forged so long ago. Perhaps it was time for him to enlighten the others.
For them to truly see that there was no hope for Jane and Alerac. The lovers weren’t going to get some romantic, happy ending.
It was too late for that.
Jane was already linked to another, through blood and pain, until death.
***
“He doesn’t want to kill you! You’re part of his clan. He just wants you back.”
Right. Jane didn’t buy that line for an instant. Not with the images of Lorcan still swirling in her mind.
Finn came back into the room, holding thick rope in his hands. Alerac dumped Heath into the nearest chair, and they tied him up tight. Tight enough to cut off the circulation.
Then Alerac backed up. He cocked a brow and glanced at Jane. “Want to go first?”
Yeah, she had plenty of questions for her friend. “How did you know to find me in that swamp?” When she’d been walking alone, covered in dirt and grime. Her mind broken. Her body convulsing from hunger. “It wasn’t some vacation trip. Some coincidence.”
Heath’s gaze glanced around, sweeping the room.
“Don’t expect Liam to come to your aid,” Alerac snapped at him. “The pack knows he’s a traitor. He’s been hunted now.”
Heath’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
“Tell me!” Jane demanded.
“L-Liam told me where to find you. Said he’d drunk the memory from some vamp years ago. The enchantment that held you prisoner was supposed to fall away this year, and he figured that if you were strong enough, you’d crawl your way to freedom.”
“Where was she?” Alerac’s voice was low.
In his binds, Heath shrugged. Some blood still dripped from his wounds. “All I know is she dug her way out of a grave in that swamp.”
A grave. “I was buried alive? All that time?”
Another shrug.
“How could even a vampire survive that?” Zoe asked as sympathy flashed across her face. “Wouldn’t you need food? Air? I mean, you breathe, right?”
“It was the spell,” Alerac said, voice wooden. “It locked in the air in her lungs, froze her body, and made it her prison. She could feel the bloodlust and hunger, but she couldn’t move.” His face was tight with fury. “Magic can do anything, if it’s strong enough.” Alerac yanked his hand through his hair. “Liam knew.”
Jane tried to focus on breathing. She’d been shoved in the ground somewhere out in that swamp, buried alive for all of those years? A prisoner, in her own body. I don’t want those memories back. Maybe that made her a coward, but she didn’t care. Screw the past. She was ready for the future.
“It was gift, you know?” Heath was staring at her now. “Once I went with Lorcan, I realized that.”
What? Now she was the one grabbing for Heath as she lunged forward. “Being imprisoned was a gift?”
“No.” His chin lifted. “Losing your memory was. You should thank Lorcan for that. He was merciful to you. If you’d kept those memories, you’d probably be insane.”
She was staring at someone insane. “Oh, I’ll be sure to thank him, all right.” She’d thank the bastard by taking his head. That’d really show her gratitude to the jerk.
“Why did he send you here?” Alerac asked as he pulled Jane away from Heath.
Heath’s gaze jumped to him. “Because I promised him that I could deliver Jane to him.”
She laughed at that.
“It’s a promise I’ll keep,” Heath swore.
“I don’t see how,” Zoe said as she lifted a brow. Finn stood just behind her. “I mean, considering you’re tied to a chair right now, and you look like werewolf chow to me.”
Finn growled.
Heath licked his bloody lips. He turned his head, and his eyes found Jane once more. “If you don’t go with me, Jane, if you don’t go back with me to meet Lorcan, then he’s going to hurt someone that you care about.”
She frowned at him. “I should believe you because…?”
“Lorcan thinks I’m here to use our friendship.”
They didn’t have a friendship. They had lies.
“But I saw. I saw.”
Good for him. Disgusted, she turned away from him. She didn’t want to hear any more of his stories.
“Did you know that you have a brother, Jane?”
Yeah, she did. Jane hesitated. Her gaze slid toward Zoe. The other woman gave an almost imperceptible nod.
“Did you know that he’s about to die?”
The guy was bluffing. Jane spun to face him, and her hands fisted on her hips. “I don’t think so.”
“He has poison in his veins. Poison that Lorcan put there.” The hair at his temples was wet with sweat. “Lorcan has the cure to that poison. If you go to him, you can take the cure.”
Her heart kicked into her chest. “That’s a lie.” Another one. Ryan would have mentioned his imminent death, wouldn’t he?
Alerac was now staring at Zoe, too. “Bring the vamp in here.”
“But—but the sun—”
“I don’t care if he’s weak, I want him in here.”
Zoe nodded, then hurried from the room.
Jane kept staring at Heath. “It’s just another lie,” she said, sadly. “Another trick. Maybe you were supposed to come here and try to get me to your side, but when you started to heal, you realized that wasn’t going to work because we’d all realized that you’d been using my blood—”
“No, dammit, I’m telling you the truth!”
But his truth sounded like lies to her.
Heath exhaled. “It’s true, I swear it is. The guy is going to die unless you go meet Lorcan.”
She just gazed back at him. Liar, liar.
Heath swore and jerked against his ropes. “Don’t believe me? Then just drink me. Vamps can see memories. As old as you are, you should be able to control the memories you pull up. Lorcan does. He can see anything he wants when he drinks from prey.”
“I’m not Lorcan.” She might as well be a newborn vamp as far as memory control was concerned. As far as any vamp powers were concerned.
“You want your brother to die, fine. You can just—”