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through me. Several more vampires
had joined us on the rooftop by now, ten in all. I’d only spotted a portion of
them coming after me on the ground. The rest had leapt down from the adjacent
building or had come up from the rear.
     “Can this really be
the mighty Tinder?” the red-headed vamp directly in front of me asked, his tone
mocking. “Hardly the fearsome hunter I was expecting.” He looked a little like
he’d just stepped out of the Scottish highlands, his long, curly hair tied back
in a messy ponytail.
    “Bite me, Merida,” I
ground out. The Disney reference was totally lost on him. I had to question why
I myself could come up with it.
    The vampires closed
around us in a circle, eyes gleaming in anticipation. Their spokesvamp continued
as if I hadn’t said anything, addressing the crowd. “It’s disappointing, that’s
what it is. He was built up to be the stuff of legend, but look at him. He’s
more boy than man, really. Just another fragile little human.” To illustrate
his point, he circled behind me and took the place of the vamp holding onto me,
then wrenched my arms upward. I yelled as bones snapped, the pain so intense
that I would have dropped to my knees if he wasn’t holding me up.
    “How many of my kind have
you killed, hunter?” The vamp pinned my broken arms excruciatingly behind my
back, and another yell tore from me. “Dozens? Hundreds?” He twisted my arms slowly,
pain searing through me. “It’s a shame that I can only kill you once. But at
least I can drag it out, make you suffer for what you’ve done to my brethren.”
    Despite being in almost
unbearable agony, I reached deep within myself and gathered my strength, then
whipped my head back as hard as I could. The vamp wasn’t expecting me to fight
back, and when my skull shattered his nose, he yelled and let go of me. I flung
myself forward and barrel-rolled across the rooftop, knocking down two vamps
before leaping to my feet. I was near the edge of the roof, and I didn’t even
think about it. I just jumped off.
    I was ten stories up.
The fall would kill me, I was sure of that. But it would be a quick death, so
much better than slow torture at the hands of those bloodthirsty vampires.
    The moment before
impact moved in slow-motion, the only sound the rush of wind past my ears. I
wasn’t afraid to die. I’d never been afraid of that. I actually found myself
letting go, accepting the end.
    I was at peace.

 
    Chapter
Four
     
    Strong arms caught me effortlessly three feet above
the ground, and my eyelids flew open. Bane was staring at me incredulously, his
green eyes troubled. Without a word, he took off running, moving faster than
any vampire I’d ever seen as he cradled me carefully in his arms. In less than
a minute, he’d put several blocks between us and the other vampires, loaded me
into the passenger seat of his flashy Aston Martin, and gotten behind the
wheel. The car took off like a shot, and then the warehouse district was behind
us.
    Bane slowed down when
he reached city streets, and wound smoothly through traffic. I glanced at his
profile as he drove. He was angry about something, a muscle in his jaw working
as he ground his teeth, and he still hadn’t said anything. Normally, I would
have had an arsenal of sarcasm ready to hurl at him. But since I was in excruciating
pain, all I could really muster were quick, shallow breaths.
    Abruptly, he swerved into
the driveway of a high-rise apartment building and punched in a code on a
keypad, which raised a security gate. The silver sports car slid into an empty underground
garage. After he parked, he retrieved me from the passenger seat, again lifting
me into his arms. I didn’t have it in me to protest.
    We rode the elevator to
a huge apartment on the top floor of the twelve-story building. Bane carried me
through to the bedroom, where he placed me gently on the mattress. He sat
beside me and stared at me for a long moment, and his silence was so unnerving
that