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“Tie her up. Stupid bitch.” The man wiped his face.

Tarley was bound and lifted.

The birds were starting to sing in the trees as the sun began to rise, the sky a less intense shade of dark. The three men she didn’t know were shadows, but she could make out Rufus’s bright, blond hair shining in the weak light as he walked toward her. He stopped so they were toe to toe, and if she could have kicked him, she would have.

He smiled and tilted his head. “What happened? You’re so shiny now.” He pinched her chin and moved her head back and forth. “Tell me.”

“Tell you what?”

“Why you’re so bright?”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

He clicked his tongue behind his teeth. “I tried to warn you, little Fareview, but you insisted on denying me.” He ran his thumb over her lips, and she jerked her head back against the chest of her captor. “I was always going to win. I’m stronger, faster. Even with all your prince’s threats, there’s nothing to stop what’s coming.”

“What are you rambling on about?” one of the men said. “She’s our prisoner. You said you’d lead us to her. She’s going to tell us everything she knows.”

Rufus’s eyes flicked to the owner of the voice, then back to her. “You’ve made this so much fun. The chase is so satisfying.” He grinned.

She spat at him, catching him in the eye.

Her captor shook her. “Calm yourself.”

Calm herself?

Rufus removed a cloth from his pocket and wiped his eyes. “Yes. A chase to satiate. But not when I’m this hungry. It won’t do.” He looked at the man holding Tarley’s captor and licked his lips.

“So go. Bock has your coin. You can go buy your damn dinner, but she’s coming with us,” her captor said, tightening his grip. “Romis will want to question her.”

“So this is your revenge for telling you ‘no.’” Tarley said through clenched teeth. “Collection? Why go to all this the trouble?” she asked Rufus, focused on his strange words rather than the man at her back.

Rufus grinned, his white teeth suddenly sharp in his mouth. Tarley blinked to restore the proper image, and his awful grin returned to normal.

“A good question,” Rufus said. “I made a promise. Find you for him. I was looking for the green one, but I get the purple one.” His gaze roamed her outline. “I’m collecting you. And your two sisters. And your brother. All of you.”

Tarley wanted to correct him—she had three sisters—but didn’t. “They hate you.”

“Enough chit chat,” one of the men said. “Sun’s coming up. We need to get across the river.”

“Hate is tasty,” he told her, leaning forward and sniffing her, ignoring the man. “I was promised you would be… rich. You’re so bright.” He licked his lips, and Tarley shuddered. “But I need to eat first.”

“Just take your coin and be on your way,” her captor repeated, his impatience giving way to something more wary. Tarley understood. Rufus seemed… off.

Rufus ignored the man and said to Tarley, “He said he’d give me a plaything. I choose you.”

“Who said? Romis?” Tarley asked.

“I waited, chasing.” He moaned and Tarley leaned against the man at her back, who suddenly felt like less of a threat. “I’m so hungry. You have disappointed me with your prince, giving yourself to him. Innocents are so much sweeter.”

Oh, no. “I’m not having sex with you, Rufus. I’m…” But she stopped speaking, not wanting to reveal she was betrothed to Lachlan to these men who’d captured her for information about the royals.

“Sex?” Rufus laughed, a horrible sound. “This isn’t about sex. It’s about Satiation. My kind can’t undo the bond to move on until satiation occurs.”

“I don’t know what you’re babbling about,” she snapped. “Your kind? Doctors?”

He chuckled and said, “Satiation or death, that is.” Rufus paused, his fingertip running lightly down her cheek. It felt sharp, as if his nail was now a claw. “I can’t wait to taste you. To turn you–” He looked up at the sky. “But we’ll have to wait until I’ve eaten. And the sun is coming.”

“Yes,” one of the men said. “We should get going.”