Page 56 of A Velvet Kiss After Dark

They'd stopped about an hour into their journey to the castle, when Tabitha suddenly sprang to and leapt from the camel-creature, toppling Kane off with her momentum.

"Why am I tied up?" she screamed, yanking on the rope. Her gaze was wide with panic and fear, and she didn't seem to recognize any of them.

Kane wiped the sweat from the back of his neck and kept a tight hold on the rope he'd cinched to his waist.

"Listen," he said. "My name is Kane Gunner, and you've known me for several years now. Do you know your name, sweetheart?" Concern furrowed his brow, and his heartbeat rapidly with fear.

"I know who I am, but I can't say I know who you are! Why have you restrained me, and where the hell am I?" she snapped like a biting lioness, bearing her teeth at him and squaring off.

Aware that she'd already clawed the skin off his face, Kane kept a few paces away from her. "Tabitha, you're part of our team now. We're in another world, sweetheart. I need you to think back to the last thing you recall."

Her eyes swam with tears, and he recognized a massive panic attack when he saw one.

She shook her head helplessly. "I don't know any of you. Just back off! Stay away from me!" She began untying the rope around her waist, but he'd cinched it too tight. When she tugged, it only got tighter around her. She let loose a howl of frustration. "Get me out of here! You're all going to die!"

Kane's temples blared with an oncoming migraine. "Why do you think we're all going to die, honey?"

"Oh, stop calling me nicknames! I am not your honey or your sweetheart! I am nothing to you!" she screamed, her cheeks flushing a dusty shade of pink.

"Okay, I can do that. Can you stop screaming?" he asked her in a gentle voice, like he was speaking to an injured animal.

"No! I will not stop screaming until you untie me and let me go! I have to get out of here. I have to find the Relic of Souls!" She tugged vehemently at her ropes, but it was useless.

Kane stiffened. "Why would you need to find that?" Had that innkeeper put a damned wizard's spell in that brew? Graham was fine and he'd drunk far more than she did, but she was human after all and had different immune responses than they did.

"Because it's my duty!" she screamed as if he was the one acting strange.

Kane deliberated on this news and shook his head. He couldn't make sense of it. "Honey, I mean, Tabitha, it's our duty, me and my teams to find the relic, not yours. You came here by accident, remember?"

"No, I don't remember, and I don't trust any of you! Now let me go!" Her voice carried, and Kane feared some nearby wanderers would hear them.

"Quiet your voice, or I'll have to put you to sleep again."

Her eye widened with venomous luminosity. "You can't. You wouldn't dare!"

"Try me," he growled, his migraine full-blown and plowing his temples with agony. He rubbed at them and looked to his team for help. "What is the matter with her? Can you get a read on her?"

Seth stepped forward and his eyes began to glow as he called forth his innate vampiric gifts. He held up a palm as if sensing her energy field. "I see as much as Alexis did. A bad dream. A nightmare. The brew, I sense, was malarkey and not indistinguishable from most liquors, but it is made of harsher substances. It lingers in her system still. Perhaps by nightfall it will be gone."

"Great," Kane muttered. The day had only just began. They had a long time to wait until nightfall. "Listen," he turned back to Tabitha, "I need you to cooperate with us. I can't abandon you here, you're too important. We won't harm you, in fact, we're all in this together."

She shook her head vehemently in denial. "No, you're wrong. You're lying. I've never seen any of you before in my life! You're trying to trick me so you can steal the relic for yourselves, and I can't let that happen!"

"Why?" Kane asked as he digested what she said.

"Because he'll kill all of you!" she screamed as if he was a fool and the answer was obvious.

"Who?" he asked deliberately.

"The—the—the man with the skeletal fingers." Tabitha shook her head like a wet dog, swinging her hair all around her. She let out a garbled shout and wrung her fingers through her hair, yanking it in two great pulls.

"Honey, calm down!" Kane said, moving toward her.

"Stop!" she said, her hands palm out in front of her. "Don't come any closer." She eyed him like a frightened animal rearing to take off at a moment's notice.

"Alright, I won't come any closer, but who are you talking about."

She released another garbled shout. "I don't know! I don't know his name. I just know he…he…that I must find it, or else!"

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