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Turning his attention away from the attendant, the newcomer finally looks at me, hitting me with the full force of his blue eyes. “You want to leave now?”

Remembering how my father was able to throw his money around to make things happen, I know men dressed like him tend to have power others don’t.

So I nod my head and answer, “Yes,” hoping he might be able to help me get on a bus somehow.

But then he runs his blue eyes up and down me in an appraisal that makes me uncomfortable. “Why?”

Shifting nervously from foot to foot, I grip the strap of my backpack tighter. “I just do.”

He stills in a way that causes alarm bells to ring in my head.

I take a step back and look toward the lobby doors. Considering how long it will take me to reach the car.

As if he can read exactly what’s on my mind, the man in the suit suddenly grabs me by the arm and asks, “Where did you come from?”

I immediately try to yank my arm back, but his grip is unbreakable.

He grins at me as if he’s pleased by my reaction. Then I’m suddenly surrounded by three other men. Three other men in suits.

The attendant jumps up from his stool and stumbles away from the plexiglass as one of the new men asks, “What do we have here, Sire?”

“I might be mistaken,” the man gripping my arms says, his grin stretching wider and showing the tips of his fangs. “But I believe we’ve finally found a soulmarked.”

“This is taking too long,” the Prophet sighs, giving me a brief reprieve from the electrical torture.

Before I can open my mouth to tell him something snarky, I’m jolting from the shock of the next blast of pain and thrown back into the past.

My memories of what happened that night rush past my eyes as if someone pushed fast-forward on my brain.

I struggle like a feral animal needing to be free against the group of vampires as they drag me out into the street and try to force me into a black car.

When my mouth fills with saliva and I bite the arm of one of the vampires holding me, their leader finally loses his patience with me.

“Enzo, do you have any of that shit your little toy loves on you?” the blond man everyone is calling sire asks irritably.

“Yes, Sire,” the man I just bit says.

The leader nods his head at me. “Give it to her. Maybe it will calm her down.”

“Can’t you just compel her to do what you want, Sire?” the vampire at my other side inquires as if he’s mystified by this entire situation.

The blond leader’s arm moves so fast it’s simply a blur in front of my eyes as he smacks the vampire that asked the question across the back of the head. “No, you idiot. The Marked can’t be compelled. Hence, we need to use other means.”

Shocked and terrified by how fast the leader moved, I forget for a heartbeat that I need to keep fighting if I want to escape.

Then I feel a sharp jab in my arm, quickly followed by a warm wave of euphoria washing over me. My knees become weak andmy entire body relaxes with the sweetest sensation of calmness and peace.

Two things I haven’t felt in years and years...

The vampires gripping me have to hold me up now to keep me from falling on my face.

“Excellent,” I hear the leader say.

Then the rest fades away.

When consciousness next returns to me, I’m sitting in the leader’s lap in the back of a car with his arms wrapped tightly around me.

“She may be marked but there’s something… unpleasant about her that I can’t quite put my finger on,” he says to someone.