Page 146 of To Catch A Rogue

The Black Wolf smiled, the rasp of a match flaring in the darkness as he lit his ever-present cheroot. "Sorry, little bird. But this is the Blood."

"And Nikolai knows which side of his bread is buttered," Jelena said in thickly accented English.

Chapter 27

"You son of a bitch!" Lark snarled as one of Nikolai's men hauled her toward him, kicking and fighting. "You treacherous snake!"

Nikolai ignored her, striding to meet Jelena. "You have the duke secured?"

"Yes."

The vampire lunged on the edge of its leash, smelling the blood that dripped from the gash on the back of Charlie’s head.

"Soon, my precious," she cooed, stroking its bald, flaking head. "Perhaps you could have a taste of this one…."

She edged toward Charlie.

"Do you think that wise?" Nikolai asked, eyeing the creature with distaste.

"Squeamish?" Jelena asked him.

"I know you think it tamed," he replied, "but once it gets a taste of blood it won’t stop."

"We’ll see."

"And I thought you were trying to break the duke? What better way than to show him his captured rescuers?" Nikolai ground the cheroot beneath his heel. "He thinks they’re coming to save him. Why not let it eat the lad in front of him? It will also be safer there, down in the cells, in case it loses control."

"Don’t you dare!" Lark kicked out, downing the man holding her. "Charlie!"

He reached for her, but Lark was jerked back, a fist in the back of shirt hauling her to her knees.

Nikolai squatted in front of her and captured her jaw in his gloved hand, squeezing. "Don’t make me kill you right here. Behave, and I might cut your throat before she throws you in the cell with that vampire."

"I curse you," she whispered. "I don’t know what they did to you, but you’re a monster."

"Yes," he whispered, "I am. You would be wise to remember that."

"Ah, poor girl," Jelena chuckled. "You’re breaking her heart, Koschei. Come. Let us show Malloryn how close he came to being rescued."

* * *

Lark was thrownto her knees in the stone cellars, pain searing through her flesh as Charlie cursed beside her. There was no sign of the duke in the room. Only an enormous steel sarcophagus in the center, its face carved with a demon screaming in agony.

The smell of blood came from within, and drops of crimson dripped from the bottom of the sarcophagus.

There was someone inside it.

Nikolai circled the sarcophagus. "Is he dead?"

Jelena caressed the device, almost lovingly. She’d put the vampire in the cell opposite them and it paced the bars, its scaled tongue tracing its lips as it smelled the blood. Lark shuddered. Jelena hadn’t yet decided which one of them she intended to throw in with it first.

Maybe both,she’d said with a dangerous smile.Young lovers dying in each others arms…. How sweet.

"Not yet. He will wish he is though. My Iron Maiden can break the hardest spirit."

Horror filled Lark. She didn’t know this Malloryn, this duke, but Charlie had been so determined to rescue him she almost felt a kinship. What kind of tortures had he endured?

"Wake up, Malloryn," Jelena said, laughing as she knocked on the sarcophagus. "I have brought you another gift."