Page 1 of Vicious and Volatile (Vengeance and Venom #2)

H unger pangs stab my stomach. I try to swallow, but my mouth is too dry.

I roll over on my blanket on the floor, my eyes scanning the room again, hoping, praying for anything to have changed.

But it hasn’t.

It’s still an empty room, save for two chairs. There’s still that red light that hasn’t shut off since I woke up as a prisoner here. The door is still locked.

It’s hard to tell how much time has passed. I have no way to mark the hours. There is no change of light to give any indication if it’s day or night. But the parched condition of my throat tells me it’s been far longer than twenty-four hours since Augustus left me here.

No food.

No water.

Augustus does everything with a purpose. He’s starving me to make me weak. To make it so I can’t resist once the buyer he’s lined up comes to retrieve me.

The sick bastard.

There was supposed to be another Red party. Ares got the notification. I don’t know exactly how long it’s been, but surely that time has passed by now. Am I going to get some company? It makes me want to rage, scream, beat something when I think about the Red parties and what they’re for. Augustus takes people from them. And then he sells them.

I pull myself into a sitting position, though it isn’t comfortable. I have this one blanket, but no bed. It lies on the cold, hard tile floor. I groan as I wrap my arms around my stomach. More than twenty-four hours. It’s definitely been more than twenty-four hours since Augustus left me here. Plus, the time I was unconscious after his cronies jabbed me in the neck with a sedative, knocking me out.

I’d do just about anything for something to eat right now. I’d do worse things for some water.

I scoot back until my spine is against the wall, tilting my head back to rest against it. I squeeze my eyes closed, trying not to let the nightmare that is my present reality completely overtake me. But my brain won’t stop running through everything.

What is Ares doing right now? My heart gives a squeeze when I think about how panicked he must be. He ripped a man’s heart from his chest when the man tried to touch me. Now I’ve gone missing for what I know is more than two nights. I can just imagine how he’s tearing up New York in search of me.

How long until he realizes it was his own damn father who took me?

The thought sends a jolt of terror racing down my spine. Ares is terrifyingly capable. But if it came down to it, who’s stronger? Him or Augustus? Because Augustus is older. He’s been a vampire for eighty-something years, as opposed to Ares’ six.

It makes my hands go cold when I think about the possibility of Ares getting hurt. Of him being in danger because of me.

Fuck.

I wrap my arms around my knees, hugging them into my chest. The weight on my finger is a comfort. I hold my hand up, seeing the massive engagement ring Ares placed on my finger just weeks ago. I’m so damn grateful it’s still here, physical evidence, a grounding, of the man who has worked his way into my heart and soul.

I clench my fingers, locking the ring on my hand.

There’s a nightmare waiting ahead of me. Whatever is coming, it’s going to be bad. But I vow, I vow with every vile, vicious part of my being that I will fight. I will get out. And I will get back to Ares.

I startle when the door opens suddenly. I’m too thrown off to make a move, to make a break for it. A male figure slips through the door, and it closes behind him in just two seconds’ time.

Augustus stands there just inside the door, his dark eyes fixed on me with a smile I’d very much like rip from his lips.

“I hope you’ve slept well,” he says. Every word he speaks makes my skin crawl.

“I haven’t,” I say flatly.

He smiles again at that. “Not to worry, I’m sure you’ll have more comfortable, permanent arrangements once you get to your destination.”

“You should let me go,” I say, my words a warning. “If you let me go now, Ares might forgive you. He might not rip your heart out through your throat. He might not pull your limbs from your body one at a time.”

“Mere weeks, Miss Kincade,” Augustus says in a low tone. “You’ve meant something to my son for mere weeks. Yes, Ares will resent me for a while, again. Will he figure out I was the one who took you? Most likely. I brought him up to be smart. Ares has cut me off before. But it’s nothing in the grand scheme of an immortal life. Ares will come around, don’t you worry.”

I’m so fucking tempted to tell Augustus that it was all a lie. Ares’ return to Augustus earlier this month had nothing to do with forgiveness. Ares and I plotted against him from the night we met.

Ares never forgave Augustus.

“You don’t know your son nearly as well as you think you do,” I say with venom.

“This is getting quite old, don’t you think?” Augustus says with a bored-sounding breath. “We can talk in circles until we’re blue in the face. But facts are facts. You are human, you have the blood my kind requires. And you’ve fetched a fine price.”

Augustus reaches for the handle of the door and twists it. It swings open, and another figure steps inside.

He’s somewhere between Augustus and Ares in age, looks wise. Maybe mid-thirties. His hair is darker and curly, his jaw covered in a thick but well-kept beard. He’s average height and build. At first glance, I don’t have any extra description for him. He’s average-looking in every way.

But there’s something about his eyes.

Fuck they’re dark.

Augustus closes the door behind them yet again. And the look in his eyes when he stares back at me… The man is evil. There’s no doubt in me about it.

“Hello, Lana,” the newcomer says. His eyes scrape over every inch of me, his gaze hesitating on the ring on my finger. “My name is Lawrence Crawford, and you’ll be coming home with me today.

“Fuck you,” is all I have in me. Something stings the back of my eyes as reality is setting in. I could get up. I could try to defend myself, to fight what’s coming. I’m one of the most capable women in Manhattan. But both these men are vampires. And I know I don’t stand a chance.

Lawrence only offers an unamused smile, somehow the look in his eyes going colder. “I need to be on my way, Al,” he says, using the same moniker the prisoners had for Augustus. “Let’s wrap this up.”

One moment Augustus was by the door, the next, I feel a faint ruffle of air, and he appears at my side. “It all could have been so different, Lana,” he says softly, right before something sharp stabs into my neck.

I try to swing at him. To claw his eyes out. To at least give him a tiny sliver of pain. But whatever he’s injected into me drops me like a rock. I collapse into the darkness.