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“You have to help Gage. He’s?—”

“I told you never to leave this apartment once dark fell.Never.” His fangs lengthen.

I take a step back and bump against the glass. I’ve never seen him like this, not fully. How could I have ever believed he was only a man?

“You disobeyed me once to meet with your sister.” He steps closer, erasing the distance I’d put between us. “And now you’ve disobeyed me again.”

“You saw?”

“I know every move you make. Every single moment. The rhythm of your heart. Every fucking beat.” He inhales, his pupils blowing and swallowing the blue whole. “Andnowyou’re scared? When you know what lurks in the darkness. When you’ve already seen it firsthand. Onlynowyou feel fear?” He moves so quickly I can’t even react. His hand collars my throat, his skin warm, his grip firm. “I’m not the one you should be afraid of. Do you have any idea how many vampires want you dead?”

I swallow hard as I look up at him, at his impossibly long fangs. My knees threaten to disintegrate, but I force myself to meet his gaze. “Why?”

He smiles, but there isn’t a single hint of amusement in it. “Why not?”

“Let me go.” I grip his wrist, but his hold doesn’t move, doesn’t even change in the amount of pressure.

“So you can run to the captain of the guard?” He leans closer, his eyes becoming my entire world. “I don’t think so.” He glances at my lips, and something low in my gut turns molten.

“Don’t.” I barely breathe the word.

“Don’t what?” Now there is amusement in his eyes, in the way he moves closer, stealing my breath.

I bring my knee up as hard as I can, but he sees it coming. With a swift movement, he puts his thigh between mine, pressing against my sex.

A groan rumbles in his throat, and I gasp, heat pooling in my stomach. I can’t breathe, and not because of his hold on my neck. I’m reacting to him in ways I can’t seem to control. An ache sets up inside me, and it thrums with each drumbeat of my heart. If he kissed me right now … I close my eyes, clamping them shut. I have to break free of whatever this is.

“Please,” I whimper.

“Mmmm. I like the sound of that.” His lips feather along my ear, sending goosebumps rising along my skin. He presses his thigh against me even more, and I feel his hard length along my hip. “Beg me again, Georgia.”

His accent has been flat, nothing giving a hint of where he might be from, but when he says my name … I don’t know, there’s something extra in his tone, his voice. He’s never called me by my first name before, and now perhaps I know why. It’s loaded with so much, like a world of color when it used to be only gray.

My breath hitches. “Please let me go.”

He laughs, low and dark, the sound like the caress of a velvety claw. “And if I don’t? If I want you right here, right now? What then?”

I don’t have an answer. Don’t have anything except the need that seems to eclipse everything else. It’s sick and wrong, but I want him. God, what have I become?

“Please,” I whisper again, one last plea before drowning.

His hold disappears, and I drag in a deep breath. He stands a few feet away, the wild look still in his eyes as his fangs slowly retract.

“Never leave this apartment once the sun sets. You’re safe here. Out there—” He runs a hand through his dark hair, the only sign that what just happened affected him, too. “Out there, you’re fair game to all of my kind.”

“You have to help Gage.” My voice is thin and reedy, the same way I feel inside—hollowed out and raw. “There were other soldiers, too. They went to help.”

“The captain is fine.” He smirks. “The other soldiers, well, they know what they signed up for.”

“There was a vampire. Gage only had a gun.” I want to search the street again for any sign of the captain, but I don’t dare turn my back on Valen.

“It’s been handled.” He reaches into his pocket and retrieves a vial. “This week’s sample.” He holds it out, his gaze expectant. The wolf offering the rabbit a carrot, saying, ‘come closer.’

“Don’t ever do that to me again.” I force the tremble from my voice.

“Do what?” He’s taunting me, reminding me why I hate him. There shouldn’t be any cloudiness around that simple fact, no matter how my body reacts to him.

“Get out.” I snatch the vial from him, and he grabs my wrist, holding me in place with his grip and the force of his stare.