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A yawn escapes me, and I rub my eyes. My notebook is discarded on my coffee table, and I’ve spent the last half hour simply staring out my window and trying to put my chaotic thoughts into some sort of order.

We’ve worked on the new sample for three days straight, but we’ve gotten no closer to figuring out how it can help us with the virus. It seems to defy everything we know about cells.

The elevator makes its tell-tale sound, and I call, “Still nothing. If you’re bleeding again, at least have the decency to let me steal one of the used gauzes when we’re done.”

He doesn’t answer. I half expect him to fall into the room, a dagger in his back or something similarly dramatic. It’s strange how quickly I’ve adapted to this new normal. Every waking moment spent researching and conducting trials to discover the secret of Valen’s people’s blood. No contact with Juno, or Candice, or even Vince. I’m on an island, and the only visitor is Valen, the one person I’m not keen to see.

“Valen?” I realize he hasn’t answered me and lean back to peek down the hall.

I yelp when I feel a sting at my throat, then scramble to my feet.

“Doctor.” A man stands behind me, his eyes dark and hard like granite. Hair so blond it’s almost white.

“I know you.” I back up and trip over the coffee table, falling onto it. “You were with Valen at the press conference. Y-You’re—How’d you get in here?” His entire form seems to shimmer, the room going crooked. “What did you do?” I press my fingers to my throat where I felt the sting. “What …” My mouth suddenly feels stuffed with cotton. I blink, and then I’m gone.

* * *

“Ah, here she is.” A low voice, heavily accented. “I’ve wanted to meet you for quite some time, Dr. Clark.”

I open my eyes, a headache pounding deep in my skull. Cobwebs obscure my vision, and I blink several times to clear them.

A man sits across a desk from me, his dark eyes seeming to swallow the light. Pale skin, so white it’s almost sickly looking. Gray half-moons shadow the skin beneath his eyes, and the blue veins in his forehead and cheeks are so prominent that they’re distracting.

“Who are you?” My voice is hoarse as I sit up and realize I’m lying on a couch in a large, ornate room. Golden ceilings, marble floors, and huge paintings of various scenes of war along the tall walls. It’s like a room in Versailles or the Louvre. “Where am I?”

“You may call me Gregor.”

I rub my temples, my hands cold, my forehead hot. Drugged. The blond man drugged me and brought me here. Wherever here is.

He lifts one long finger, the nail sharp and yellowed. “Bring her.”

Noise behind me has me turning to see two wide doors swinging open. The gargoyles from outside the lab march in, someone held between them, their feet dragging on the ground. I know who it is in my gut.

“Juno!” I yell and try to get up, but my legs don’t hold me. I fall to the cold floor and crawl to the edge of the couch as they drag her forward.

Dropping her into a heap, the gargoyles retreat.

I crawl the rest of the way to her and pull her against me, my strength not enough to lift her into my lap. “Juno, wake up.” There’s a cut somewhere in her hairline, and her jaw bears old bruises. She’s alive, her breathing shallow and her heartbeat too fast. My eyes blur with tears as I turn her face toward me. “Juno, please.”

“Wake,” Gregor snaps.

Her eyes open, and she lets out a scream as if she were in the middle of one when she was knocked unconscious.

“Juno, it’s me.” I wrap my arms around her shoulders as her cry dies off and she pushes herself to a sitting position beside me. “It’s me.”

“Sisters.” Gregor comes around the desk as two more figures appear in my peripheral vision.

Valen and the blond man—Candice said Theo is his name. Scorching hot betrayal singes my insides when I see Valen there just watching, his dark blue eyes giving nothing away. The other one smirks, clearly enjoying whatever the hell this is.

“I can’t imagine the bond that exists between sisters, even two such as you, so different. Not even the same sire or dame.” Gregor stares down at us, sending a chill through me.

“What do you want?” I wrap my arms around Juno, protecting her the only way I can.

“The same thing you want.” He drops to his haunches with liquid grace, no joints popping, no exhalation of breath. It’s uncanny. So much so that my hackles rise. “The cure.”

“I’m trying.”

“Are you trying hard enough?” He cocks his head to the side, his pupils barely pinpricks. “You’ve been given two samples already. But Valen and Theo tell me you’ve gotten no results. Perhaps your sister has misplaced her faith in you. Or perhaps the humans you’re working with aren’t up to the task. Easily replaceable, down to the very last one.” His sharp gaze cuts to Juno. “And you, Madame President —” the words drip with derision, “—are not moving fast enough on the camps.”

“We’ve already built?—”

“Ah-ah.” His dark brows draw together. “I didn’t say you could speak.” He sighs. “Theo.”

The blond comes around and backhands her so quickly that I can’t even react to stop him. The force of the hit jars me, and Juno’s head knocks into my shoulder.

“No!” I scream. “Juno.”

“I’m all right.” Her lip is split, blood dribbling down her chin.

“Don’t you fucking touch her!” I scream at the blond. He only grins, a leering smile that makes hatred erupt in my heart.

Juno wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. “I’m—we’re working on the camps. Next week, the first one in LA will open.”

“It was supposed to open this week.” Gregor snarls, his eyes flashing with the eerie yellow of cats and nocturnal animals.

I recoil, trying to pull Juno farther from him, but I run into Valen. He’s standing right behind us, a wall hemming us in. When I look up, he doesn’t meet my gaze. If anything, he appears disinterested.

“Next week. I swear. And then New York. We’re close. It’s just hard with the shortages and?—”

“I don’t want your excuses. In fact, you already know what I want and what will happen if I don’t get it.” Gregor rises with the same ease as before, as if his joints are nothing but air or oil. “As for your sister, well … if she can’t deliver a cure, then she will become expendable like all the rest of you. In fact,” his mouth ticks as if he’s trying to smile, “if she fails to deliver within six months’ time, I’ll bring her here and make her my special pet.”

Valen shifts behind me, his movement almost imperceptible.

“No,” Juno gasps.

“Do you have any idea how long I can keep a human alive? I’ve tried over the years with particular pets. Keeping them just on the verge of death for years, withering away, but still alive enough for me to feed. It’s an art form, really. My favorite medium, painting in the transience of human lives.”

I’m frozen with fear, with a complete lack of understanding of anything that’s happening. My heartbeat thunders in my ears, my legs finally waking up from the sedative as I pull Juno even closer to me, wrapping myself around her.

“And you.” Gregor’s gaze lifts to Valen. “You, who told me you would handle this, would ensure the cure was found.” He sneers, the viciousness in his words echoed by the mask of disdain on his face. “And where are we? Hmm? Closer?”

“The scientists?—”

Gregor moves so quickly I barely register it.

Turning, I see Valen’s gone. Gregor has him pinned to the wall far behind us. My hands shake, my body and mind rebelling at what I’m seeing. It’s impossible.

Gregor seethes at him in a language I don’t know, but I get the gist. Especially when Gregor rears back and slashes his face, Valen’s blood welling as Gregor chokes him.

“I won’t let them hurt you. I won’t.” Juno shudders and clings to me.

“You have no say in this, in anything.” Gregor is in front of us again, lecturing Juno airily as if he hadn’t just maimed someone and moved faster than humanly possible. “Perhaps your sister isn’t as gifted as you believe. If that’s the case, I’ll keep her here and bring in someone else to do her work. Not that I need more leverage over you, of course.” He clucks his tongue. “But I will enjoy breaking her while you watch. Something to keep you motivated to live up to our arrangement.” He examines the blood on his long fingernails and flicks it away, the droplets spraying across the floor.

Valen has returned to his spot behind me. I don’t dare look at him, at the damage.

“Until then, here’s a little reminder.” Gregor glances toward the doors.

They open and the gargoyles drag another figure in. Horror twists in my gut as I recognize the gray hair, the pink skirt suit. “Candice.” One of her shoes is gone, her hair in disarray.

“Please,” Juno whispers. “Please don’t. I’m doing everything I can. I?—”

“Silence,” Gregor hisses.

The gargoyles stop in front of him and pull Candice to standing as if she weighed nothing more than a doll. Her head lolls to the side, her eyes fluttering open as she looks around the room. Confusion blooms in her expression, quickly followed by terror.

“Candice!” I lean forward to crawl to her, but Valen’s hand comes down on my shoulder in an unforgiving grip, holding me in place.

“Juno?” Candice’s voice comes out as a whisper. “What is this? What?” She looks at Gregor, and a visible tremor goes through her. “What?—”

“Don’t hurt her!” I plead and fight against Valen’s hold, but I get nowhere. “Please!”

Gregor ignores me, his eyes on Juno. “Do as you’re told. Find the cure. Open the camps. Do not disappoint me.” Gregor opens his mouth, two white fangs shooting impossibly out from his canines.

I instinctively flinch, Valen’s grip tightening on my shoulder. Then Gregor sinks his teeth into Candice’s throat. He rips his head back, tearing her flesh to shreds as her lifeblood pours in a cascade onto the white marble.

Her eyes seize on mine. “Georgia …” is the last word on her lips, the last thing she ever utters.

“No!” Juno and I scream.

The blond steps forward and bites into the other side of her neck, but he doesn’t release her. He drags her backwards like a lion taking an injured elk to its den. Crimson streaks the white marble floor as Gregor gently dabs at his bloodied mouth with a handkerchief.

I scream and scream, my mind caving in on itself with fear, with disbelief, with pain. This time when the needle sting kicks in, I’m thankful for the black oblivion that awaits.