Page 130 of To Catch A Rogue

Chapter 24

"How disappointing," Jelena said, as Malloryn lifted his head from his chest to look at her. "I'd expected... more blood."

Pushing to his feet slowly, he feigned a tremor. "Perhaps you underestimated my strength of loyalty. I will not harm her."

Both Dido and Jelena watched him through the bars of the cell, though Jelena paced like a hungry tiger and Dido merely looked bored.

"We shall see." Jelena snapped her fingers to one of the guards. "Open the cell."

The latch clicked, and the gate swung open.

Ava scrambled to her feet as Jelena strode inside. "Malloryn?"

He edged closer, wrapping the chains around the fist he kept tucked close to his leg.

"Jelena," Dido barked. "Don't be a fool. Wait him out. He cannot last for long."

"I will show you loyalty," Jelena replied. She drew the knife at her hip and strode directly toward Ava. "If I want blood, I'll have to take it myself."

"Wait!" Malloryn threw himself at the end of his chains.

The guards at the door pressed a button and something in the wall began to groan. He was hauled up short, and then yanked backward as the chains retracted into the wall. Hitting the ground, he felt the barely healed skin of his back scrape across the cold stone floors, but none of it mattered.

"Yes, Malloryn?" Jelena purred, grabbing Ava's chin from behind and setting her knife to Ava's throat. The blue blood scientist was no match for a rabiddhampir."Do you have something to say?"

He saw the merciless gleam in her eye.

She would do it.

Just because it would drive a knife through his heart.

Ava gasped, and stretched up onto her toes. "Please don't hurt me."

No amount of begging could sway this.

"If you leave her unharmed, I will give you what you want," he said, hoarsely.

Jelena dragged the knife down to the bloodied lace of Ava's décolletage and rested the tip against her heart. "You misunderstand. Youaregiving me what I want. I want you to suffer, Malloryn. I want to cut your bloody heart out of your chest with a rusty knife. I want every single breath you take to hurt. And I think I've finally found the means to hurt you, haven't I?"

He only had one shot at this.

There was no way to stop this, no way to fight, except to surrender. "If you kill her, then yes, it will hurt. But I can give you something Balfour wants more than this."

"I'm listening."

He forced the words through his teeth. "Balfour wants me broken. He wants me shattered. Well, I can give him that. I will kiss his boots if he so wishes it. I will crawl at his feet and beg forgiveness for ever daring to touch what is his. I will let him parade me on a leash around the court and bow to his every whim. All you have to do is let Ava go."

Jelena's eye narrowed. She wanted blood, he could see it, but the idea of seeing him humbled also appealed.

"You will grant himanythinghe demands?" Jelena finally asked.

Malloryn slumped to his knees. "Only if you don't harm her."

"You see, Dido," she threw over her shoulder to her compatriot. "I told you I could find the right buttons to push."

Dido said nothing, merely watched him with those implacable green eyes. "We shall extend your offer to Lord Balfour. Her fate lies in his hands."

But Malloryn knew he'd won, because there was nothing Balfour desired more in life than his abject humiliation.