Page 7 of Desired for Her Blood

“Come on, answer guy.” Ryker shakes his head. “Tell us. What the fuck happened?”

Zuben clears his throat. “I have at least three hypotheses—“

“How about I tell her the short version?” Ryker interjects. The color’s returned to his skin, and he looks recovered from all the blood that I took.

“Short version sounds good, for now.” I smile at Zuben, hoping he’s not offended.

“Octavia was controlling Axe,” Ryker says, “trying to force him to fuck you.”

I look down, my heart sinking as if part of me hoped that had been a dream.

“Then what?” My voice is so quiet.

Ryker slides his hand up my arm. “Then, all of a sudden, Octavia and her guards backed off.”

“Why?” Maybe her sense of decency returned? Maybe she was only making a threat?

“We have been talking about that…” Ryker glances away, his lips twisting as if he’s trying to hold back whatever he wanted to say.

“The most likely hypothesis,” Zuben jumps into the silence, “is thatyoustopped Octavia.”

“Me?” I take a step back.

They both nod.

“How? I couldn’t even move. How couldIhave done anything?” Memories continue to flood me. A fire building inside me… A light. An explosion. Glancing over to the cave entrance, my heart nearly stops.

“What happened there?” I stare at what used to be the entrance—and then unease tightens my chest. “Did I do that?”

“No.” Ryker’s hands look like they’re trembling, but he shoves them in his jean pockets. “Octavia did that. Blocked our exit. Trapped us in here.”

“It appears,” Zuben takes over, “that Octavia’s team used explosives to collapse the tunnel leading out of here to the main part of the dungeon.”

He gestures around and I notice all the rocks and pebbles covering the ground. “In fact, the resulting vibrations shook loose smaller rocks which fell inside here. The explosions seem to have stabilized, and the only lasting change I have noted is the waterfall, which has greatly increased in its volume and velocity.”

As he speaks, a beam of sunlight strikes the pool’s surface.

Zuben’s eyes widen. “In addition, it appears that the aperture above has become wider—” he narrows his eyes as he looks up “—and possibly more direct. We must be extremely careful to avoid the light.” He steps to the side, looking up, as if he’s judging angles or calculating where the sun is now and where the light might move as the day progresses.

“How do you know they set explosives?” I ask, my throat tight.

“We cannot be certain,” says Zuben.

“What else could it be?” Ryker asks

Unease gains the upper hand in the battle to control my mind and body, and it quickly shifts into fear. The simmer of lust remains as an undercurrent, but it’s now coated in a thick web of terror. Terror of a worse variety than I’ve ever known before.

If that powerful light inside me is what stopped Octavia, then who’s to say I didn’t collapse the cave entrance too? Ryker and Zuben clearly both think I have magical powers. Ryker looks afraid of me. Afraid of something.

And worse, how the hell can I control magic I don’t understand?

My fear of being trapped down here is strong, but it’s now completely eclipsed by one much stronger.

I am terrified of myself.

I’m afraid of magic I don’t understand. I’m afraid of my lust. Afraid of my body’s uncontrollable needs, which seem to be growing even as fear tamps them down.

Are my sexual feelings driven by magic too? And is magic the reason that vampire venom doesn’t cause me to sleep?