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I recognize this vampire, with his honey-colored hair and striking features, as the one Raphael referred to as his sire.

Whatever that means.

Raphael’s sire looks at me then at the vampire still sprawled on the bed.

“Fuck,” he growls before disappearing as fast as he appeared.

Another male voice shouts, “I have him cornered in the—" only to suddenly cut off.

The foundation of the house shakes and it sounds like something massive slammed into the walls.

“Don’t try to stop him!” Raphael’s sire calls out in warning. “Let him go before he brings the whole house down on top of us!”

“Are you all right?” the vampire that was on the bed only a moment ago asks.

He’s kneeling down in front of me now, his keen eyes roaming over my body.

My heart jumps into my throat and my mind feels dangerously close to cracking.

This is just… too much.

Waking up in Raphael’s arms after who knows how long of being chained up and drugged… his rejection… and all theseother vampires moving and acting faster than my brain can comprehend.

Shaking my head back and forth, I scoot back until I’m pressing into the wall.

The vampire kneeling in front of me scowls. “You don’t have to be afraid of me. I don’t want to hurt you. I want to help you.”

Hysterical laughter bubbles out of my mouth.

I don’t have to be afraid? How could I not be? Even if I wanted to trust this vampire after all the other shit that has happened to me, there are too many instincts ruling me.

Ancient, primal instincts telling me I’m in danger.

Being so close to him is the equivalent of being close to a lion or tiger.

My eyes may be fooled into believing he’s human, but my subconscious recoils at all the sheer perfection of his appearance.

Finding it disturbing and utterly alien.

The too smooth, unblemished skin. The hair without a single strand out of place.

So many small, imperfect details are missing. Like all the lines and creases that make a personhuman.

“Andrei,” a soft, feminine voice says from the doorway. “She’s soulmarked. She can’t help being terrified of you.”

The vampire in front of me, Andrei, casts an irritated look over his shoulder. “You shouldn’t be here, Mother, it isn’t safe.”

The stunning, blonde-haired woman in the doorway takes a step into the room.

“Raphael won’t hurt me,” Chloe says, her stormy gray eyes clouding over and looking far away. “He doesn’t want to hurt any of us… he’s just in so much…. pain.”

That last word—pain— is exhaled as if she too aches and can barely breathe past it.

Do vampires even breathe?my cracking psyche demands.

Or have I gone insane and this is all another drug-filled dream?

Maybe I’m still in chains and this is my imagination going crazy.