Page 86 of Marked By Moonlight

She glanced to Nina, then back to him.

“You’ll stay down here until tomorrow. Until moonrise.” He nodded at Nina. “And she’s going to keep you company.”

Claire’s eyes shifted to Nina in horror. Nina blinked, bewildered, confused, evidently failing to grasp Cyril’s implication. But Claire understood perfectly.

He pointed at two jugs of water near the foot of the stairs. “So you don’t dehydrate. Be sure to give the girl some. We don’t want her to perish before you get the chance for a fresh meal.” His lips curved in a mocking smile. “You should be starving by tomorrow night.”

“Please, you can’t do this.” She looked over her shoulder at Nina, her face frighteningly pale. “Anyone else. Not her.”

He looked amused. “Ah, you will be a delight to train. I’m anxious to see how long it takes you to lose this… sensitivity after you’ve had a taste.”

Turning, he started back up the steps. Claire flew after him, her feet a blur beneath her. Snarling, she launched herself at him, legs wrapping around his waist, fingers clawing down the sides of his face.

He plucked her from him as if she were weightless. Hard fingers closed around her face, lifting her off her feet. “Careful now, Claire. You’re no match for me.”

“I’ll kill you,” she hissed.

Laughing, he flung her down. She hit the concrete floor. Hard.He called down to Nina. “You don’t happen to be a virgin, do you?” He shook his head in mock disgust when Nina failed to answer. Clucking lightly, he addressed Claire again. “These girls today just don’t know how to hang on to their virtue. I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I tasted a good virgin. The blood is always—” He pinched the air as if seeking the right words. “Sweeter.”

The bile rose in the back of her throat.

Still laughing, he ascended the stairs. The door clicked shut behind him, the sound magnifying in her ears.

“Miss Morgan?”

Claire looked down at her student, the silent plea clear as day in those espresso-colored eyes.

Nina stumbled for words, her brow creased in worry. “You’re not really going to kill me, are you?”

CHAPTERTWENTY

Don’t be fooled by appearances; sometimes the scrawniest dogs are the most dangerous.

—Man’s Best Friend: An Essential Guide to Dogs

Gun ready, Gideon yanked open his door and took aim. “Where is she?” he asked with deadly calm, his barrel a mere inch from those silver eyes. He looked away for the briefest second to scan the street. Tom, who had diligently dogged Gideon’s trail, was nowhere in sight.Guess Cooper called off his watchdog.Or Tom got lazy and went on a food run.

His gaze flicked back to Darius, the very bastard he had spent endless agonizing days hunting. The lycan didn’t appear the least bit ruffled to have a gun in his face. He lifted a dark brow and asked mildly, “She’s not with you, then, I presume?”

Desperate for answers, Gideon flung his elbow against Darius’s throat and pinned him to a porch pillar. He pressed the gun to the center of his head. “If you touched her—”

Darius’s lips curved in clear amusement. “I didn’t hurt her, if that’s what you’re worried about. Or didn’t she assure you of that herself?”

“Why would she be with me? You took her.”

“I let her go. Days ago.”

“You let her go?” Gideon’s finger loosened on the trigger and he eased his arm from the lycan’s throat, shocked and a little skeptical at this unexpected news. “Why?”

“Because that’s what she wanted.” Darius shrugged lightly, as if even he couldn’t make sense of it.

“She didn’t want to go with you in the first place,” Gideon reminded him, finding it hard to believe that this lycan would take Claire’s wishes into consideration.

“Yes,” he agreed, angling his head. “But I thought I could persuade her to stay with me. We lycans are social creatures, you know. We enjoy companionship. I thought Claire would come around.”

“What about your pack?” Gideon sneered. “They’re not company enough?”

“I don’t have a pack.”

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