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For one breathless moment, Jackson believed him. Then he laughed. “You’re out of your mind if you think I’d fall for that. Whatever game you’re playing now, I won’t be a part of it.”

“This is no game.” A note of frustration edged Nick’s voice.

“Then why would you make such an offer?”

“For the only reason I have done anything since the night she appeared in my lair—Cassidy.”

“You’re not seriously telling me this is her idea.”

Suddenly, the vampire was within touching distance. Impatience drew his sweeping brows together over his knife-blade nose. Too startled to think, Jackson whipped out the flashlight and beamed it at Nick’s face. For a fraction of a second, the vampire’s features flashed a luminous white.

Then Jackson’s arm jerked back, his entire body spun on its axis, and his front slammed into the nearest wall with enough force to spill the air from his lungs. He fought for breath, only dimly aware of the screaming ligaments in his shoulder—and the bloodsucking menace crushing him in place.

A resonant growl at his ear. “Did I not say I find that annoying?”

“Get. Off. Me.”

The bloodsucker ran his tongue up the side of Jackson’s neck, triggering a slew of horrific memories and a fresh flood of terror-induced fury. Jackson slammed his free fist into the wall and thrashed between it and the vampire. He tried to scream for help, but his burning lungs scarcely managed a hoarse wheeze. Not that anyone could have helped him. At least not in time. Come morning, they would find him like his brother, drained and dismembered.

“I should just pierce your vein, drench you with serum, and compel you senseless,” the vampire said against Jackson’s pulsing jugular.

Fighting to subdue the flashbacks, Jackson tried to ready himself for the attack. Physically, he lost this fight before it ever began, but mentally, there was still a lot he could do to ward off a compulsion, even if backed up with a dose of serum. Or so he hoped. It wasn’t like he had much opportunity to practice that.

But instead of chomping on him, Nick spoke again, sounding weary. “Did you ever love her?”

It took Jackson a moment to focus on the words. Her…Cassidy. Of course, he loved her. And he would continue to do so for as long as there was breath in his body, which at the moment was precious little. Not that he was about to share that with a vampire fishing for an emotional response.

“What’s it to you?” he croaked.

“Right now? Everything.”

With that, Jackson was free and staggered off the wall. He caught his footing and gingerly tested his abused arm. Sore, but not broken.

His assailant stood halfway across the room again, thumbs back in his pockets. “My sire has found me, and I was foolish enough to think I could reason with him. I was even more foolish to allow Cassidy into his presence. He took her.”

Jackson’s every nerve thrilled with reluctant alarm. If he was being manipulated, he was being played by a master. But until he knew Cassidy was safe, he couldn’t afford to ignore the possibility that the vampire was telling the truth. He finally managed to draw a full breath again. “Took her? Why?”

“To control me. She is interesting to him only until I either submit or flee. Then she will be dead.”

Or worse, Jackson amended to himself and flexed his aching shoulder. “So why don’t you run?”

“Did you miss the part where I said she would die?”

“No, I got that.” He cleared his throat forcefully, hating the still somewhat strangled sound of his voice. “What I don’t get is why you would care. She’s human. We’re expendable in your world, aren’t we? God knows enough of my family has been.”

Nick searched his face. “Not to all of us. Not all of them.”

Something about the raw, haunted tone caught Jackson off-guard, and it wasn’t a compulsion. “My God. You really are in love with her.”

Nick’s silence was all the confirmation he needed—and sparked a whole new kind of animosity. It was one thing to think that Nick spirited Cassidy away with supernatural charm, quite another to consider that there was a true emotional connection between them. “How’s that even possible?”

A thin smile curved Nick’s wide mouth. “You never fail to underestimate me, do you?”

“Fuck you.”

His expression darkened. “We can discuss this some other night if you wish, but right now I need to know if you will help me locate and rescue Cassidy.”

Some other night? Right. If the offer was genuine, Nick wouldn’t have too many more of those. “I thought you knew where she is.”