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to the concrete several stories below would only take seconds.

    “You can barely stand up! You need to be in bed till the doctor gets here. Open the damn door! I’ll bust the glass if I have to.”

    Open the door? So she could be a prisoner and a blood whore for him?
Never.

    She glanced at the building’s exterior. Glossy black and pearly white. Stark and shocking, so unlike anything in the Etherlin.

    Her muscles cramped and her knees gave way. Her skin scraped against the rough outdoor carpet. She raised a palm, staring at the eerie bloodless scratches.
No blood left
.

    Burning pain became piercing and lanced through her.

    She realized she wouldn’t need to jump.

    Pain blossomed in her chest. Death was coming.

There was extra security. A guy on the back door. Probably a guy on the roof, too, Merrick thought, looking up. He went still.

    There was a body on the penthouse balcony. A blonde-haired, porcelain-skinned body.
That had better not be her,
he thought wildly.

    He yanked his binoculars out of the duffel.
She’s too valuable,
he told himself as he raised the binoculars. Jacobi wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of getting her out of the Etherlin only to kill her on the first night.

    Unless the asshole couldn’t resist biting her, and he’d drained her dry. Merrick’s muscles bunched.
If he did, I’ll kill him for it. He’ll pay for her blood with his own.

    Merrick swallowed his rage. It was the vampire in him talking. His human side reasoned that he had no claim on the girl. Avenging her wasn’t his responsibility.

    The lattice of the bars made it impossible to tell for sure if the woman was Alissa North, but whoever was on that balcony wasn’t moving.

    He should walk away. If she was already dead, there was no point starting a blood feud.

    What if she’s not dead?

    He set the duffel down lightly. He popped a nonkilling clip into his gun and fitted it with a silencer, then he slung the harpoon rifle and its corded nylon rope over his shoulder.

    He stayed in the shadow of the opposite building until he was ten feet from Jacobi’s. Two shots took the backdoor guard down. That bullet between the eyes was going to give the guy a major headache.

    Merrick shot the spike into the underside of the balcony and started up the rope. Alive or dead, he had to know.

Chapter 4

    Roses. She smelled roses, which reminded her of Merrick. She dreamed he was standing over her. Beautiful and dark, like a fallen angel.
Fallen.

    Why didn’t he smile? In her dreams, he always wore the smirk that she’d never forgotten.

    “Smile.” Her voice was soft and rough. She tried to raise her hand to touch him, but it was too heavy. He would disappear now. That’s what he did in her dreams.

    “Rest,” he said. He caressed her cheek with his fingertip, which surprised her because he’d never touched her before.

    “I’m thirsty.”

    He smiled.
Finally.

    “I bet you are,” he said.

    His voice was different than she remembered. Deeper. Her pulse throbbed in her ears. Something was wrong. “Am I—?” She tried to sit up, her eyes darting around the dim room. Rich, heavy fabrics. Eggplant trimmed in gold. The colors were wrong for one of her dreams.

    “Where am I?” she croaked. It wasn’t a dream, she realized with a stab of fear.

    “My penthouse.”

    His penthouse? How had that happened?

    She looked down at the bandage taped to the inside of herright elbow; an IV sprouted from underneath it. A memory surfaced of another penthouse. Of preparing to die.

    “How did I get here?”

    “I brought you.”

    She clutched the thick, velvety coverlet. “I was on a balcony…”

    He nodded.

    “In the Varden. This is the Varden, isn’t it?”

    “Yes.” He moved a plush, deep purple chair next to the bed and sat.

    She massaged her temples with her fingertips, trying to piece together the details.

    “I don’t understand,” she said and fell silent. He waited as her mind connected the