Page 102 of The Girl in the Forest

Amal. The name sent alarm whistling through the closest vampires. Two shimmered and disappeared. Others went back to what they were doing. But every sense I had was on fire.

“This is High Citadel.” Barend’s fangs descended with aggression, defiance. “No one has ever broken through our wards.”

“There were traces of her energy in the dungeons.”

A churning, caustic fog, actually. One that searched like one more snake in this snake pit.

Behind me, Brin pressed her fingers against my spine and the useless, ruined runes. Her hand was trembling. I didn’t dare look back at her. Or at Laura, supporting Levi. He made the effort to slow his breathing, but it was harsh with pain.

I scanned the stone walls, looking for doorways. For hidden corners and shadows. Then I forced myself to look at the bodies shackled to the wall. I guessed the living were vampires, suffering a punishment or humiliation, being incapacitated but on display. A few sad, shrunken bodies meant humans were also punished, but it was a lingering death, and given a choice, I understood why the banshee girl opted for her way out.

The vampire named Ago had taken another step in my direction. I steeled myself against the confidence in his expression.

“Why are we here?” I asked.

His dark eyebrow arched. “She demands?”

I pulled my lips back in what I swore was a smile. “Did you expect a please?”

Ago nodded—and a pressure wave slammed into Brin, knocking her to the ground. A tall vampire stood behind her, grinning; I added him to my list of those I’d destroy. Decided this one would be right behind Ago, and the one who’d dragged Levi.

Brin lay sprawled on the gray stone with her hands outstretched, her face bruised. Blood oozed from her lip. I spread my fingers, but before I could syphon, an iron bolt slammed into Brin’s hand, pinning her to the floor like the bodies pinned on the wall.

I twisted around, breathing hard when I saw the vampire on the balcony. He held a crossbow with another bolt nocked and aimed at Levi.

“We can do this all day,” Ago said. “Don’t be obstinate. Start with please.”

I was tempted to start with asshole, but thought better of it. But I still had to force the word through tight lips. “Please.”

“Better. The first lesson—you are not in control. You are not here as our guest. And your friends will pay for your defiance, so it depends upon how much you can stomach for the sake of your pride. Cooperate, and we’ll get along fine.”

I pressed my lips together.

“You know a dangerous secret, don’t you?” he asked.

“That you kidnap failles?”

“You know why, don’t you?”

“No, I do not know why,” I snapped, and I swear Ago was about to flash red in his eyes as if that wasn’t a tell, and I wouldn’t know how easy it was to annoy him.

“Speak plainly, Ago,” the female snapped. “Tell her what you mean.”

“Set…”

It took an instant before I realized Set was the woman’s name, and the vampire who spoke—Barend—was warning her about something. Set’s posture had gone rigid. I watched her graceful hands fist.

Barend turned toward me. “We have need of a faille.”

Something in his dark eyes made my heart pound. “Why?”

“We have had them before. They’re not all as strong as you.”

I had to ignore the awful, muffled gasping coming from Brin while I focused on Barend. On the cunning hatred in his eyes. “How many have you killed? The fakes? The abused girls sold to you because of the bounty you offered?”

“Look at the wolves who sold them. The guilt is theirs.”

Heat trickled through my fingers, and when I looked at Brin’s hand, pinned to the floor, I let myself remember Mace’s warning, how an enemy might prevent me from syphoning. I’d foolishly taunted with a remark about cement shoes.

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