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Shouts echoed from above. The ground fell out from beneath her.No!

One moment they were entombed, the next hurling through space. She clung tight to Liam, wrapping her legs around his hips. Wind buffeted her, threatening to separate them.Hang on. Have to hang on. Her head whirled, her body spinning in a tornado.

Together, they tumbled into the void. Never to be seen again? Did a fiery death at the Earth’s core await them? Pain splintered her bones. Her muscles strained, her joints aching as though she were being ripped apart. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound emerged.

The spinning ceased as suddenly as it started. She dropped, gravity taking hold, then crashed into a slab of unforgiving rock. Oxygen exploded from her lungs, Liam landing partially on top of her, threatening to crush her bones. She drew a shallow breath, filling her nose with the strangely familiar scent of beeswax and chemicals.

“Liam,” she groaned. While he remained unconscious, his steady heartbeat rang true. She eased him to his side and shoved an elbow beneath her. Had the dagger created another portal? If so, a portal to where?

Her first glimpse of her surroundings flooded her with horror. “No,” she gasped, taking in the nightmare unfolding before her eyes. “It’s not possible.” Rusted cages lined the wall. Beside her was a table loaded with black-spined journals.

Alistair’s sneering face appeared above her. “Welcome home, my love. I’ve missed you.” He drew back his fist. Pain exploded in her cheek, and then…nothing.

Twenty-Four

Vivian pressedher hand to her pounding cheek, her head a heavy weight. Slowly, the fog cleared from her mind. She forced her eyelids to open, then wished she hadn’t. On the concrete wall before her were the hash marks she’d once used to count her days, her months, her years. Years she’d spent in Alistair’s cage.

She was back in the charred remains of her prison. Denial battered her system with the terrifying grace of a rampaging bull. Her heart seemed to stop, ice sliding through her veins. No, this wasn’t reality but another nightmare.Please wake up. Wake up!

She sat up on the rusted cot and eyed the iron bars of her former cell. Goosebumps rose on her chilly skin. She shivered and pulled the sheer fabric of a gauzy dress away from her stomach. Sacrificial white.No, no, no. Not again.Alistair must have changed her while she lay unconscious.

A noise drew her attention, and she snapped her head up.

Across the laboratory, her former lover stood next to his worktable. Journals littered the surface. Bent over his task, he scribbled on an open page. Twin candelabras spilled light upon his disfigured visage.

He’d been attractive when last they were together, resembling nothing of the monster she’d known him to be. Finally, he looked the part. The years had been hard on the mage. Deep, pockmarked scars covered the side of his face. His right ear was gone as though it had melted away. Patchy clumps of dark hair hung lank on his head.

He sighed, seeming to sense her eyes on him. Without looking up from his task, he said, “Do you not find me appealing, my love?” Then he lifted his head. “Rather uncharitable of you, don’t you think? Seeing as how it was you who disfigured me.”

She held her breath, meeting his gaze for the first time in decades. While his body seemed worn and emaciated, his eyes hadn’t changed one bit. They remained two pitiless pools, void of anything resembling compassion.

He tipped his head back, glancing up at what was once the ceiling of his laboratory. Over their heads, stars sparkled in the night sky. “There was a time I relished our days here. Having you with me as I worked. Those were the best days of my life. It was you who witnessed my rise to power. You who was there for every one of my accomplishments. It’s one thing to record my achievements in paper and ink, another to share them with someone. You are a living testament to all I’ve created.”

She was a living testament, alright. A testament to all he’d destroyed. She pressed her lips together.

Unlike before, he hadn’t locked her in. Perhaps because he couldn’t. The door of her rusted cell leaned crookedly on its hinges. Much of the walls had long since crumbled. Copper pipes and wiring hung from the remains of the ceiling. Perhaps he didn’t bother to restrain her, knowing she wouldn’t leave without her mate. For once, he had something of hers she cared about in his evil grasp, something he could hold over her.

Liam.

Her throat tightened, her heart thumping behind her breastbone. Where was he? She distinctly remembered waking with Liam still clasped in her arms. If she asked about his welfare, she risked showing her hand. Despite the panic burning in her chest, she schooled her features into a practiced mask.

For all of Alistair’s insanity, he was an intelligent male, one with no patience for pretension. “It’s been a long time,mon amour. You look tired. Rough day?”

He choked a laugh, closing the journal. “Apologies, but pulling you and your lover across space and time takes a lot out of a man. When I sensed you’d connected with the stone, I’d hoped to only pull you through. Bringing the two of you together was rather taxing.”

The revelation made her pulse race. How drained was he? She assessed his condition with new eyes. This could only work to her advantage.

“Fear not for my welfare,” he said as though reading her thoughts. “I’m drawing power from the mansion’s ley lines as we speak. It’s only a matter of time before I have enough energy to finish what we started.”

Time? How much time? Minutes, hours, days? Perhaps if she kept him talking, he would divulge something useful.

She stood, easing from her cell, the crumbled concrete scraping her bare feet. “What we started?”

“Yes.” He plucked the dagger from the surface of his table. Her stomach churned at the sight of it in his lean fingers.

“For years, Salvatore Guerra held me captive. After you left me here to die, he was the one who came looking for me. Turns out, he needed a mage to reincarnate his Bride. Because of you, he found me in the rubble of our home, weak, clinging to life. You’re the reason he was able to imprison me. For a maddened rogue, he was quite clever. He kept me weak, allowing me to draw just enough energy to do his bidding. In an act of desperation, I offered him the drug I created in exchange for my freedom.” Hate hardened Alistair’s eyes. “Salvatore defaulted on our deal.”

“I’d have expected as much from a rogue vampire,” she said, tone biting with condemnation. “There’s nothing more deplorable than someone who breaks their word.” She’d lost track of all the promises Alistair had broken over the years.