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sizzled, and she kissed him back with urgency.  Time stopped
in that moment as his lips worked over hers.  In the back of her mind, she knew
this was wrong—dangerous even—but she didn’t care.  All she wanted in that very
moment was to lose herself within his arms, feel his body pressed against hers,
taste his lips …
    Suddenly searing pain exploded in her legs,
and her knees buckled.  Erin’s eyes flew open, and she screamed.  Someone
grabbed her hands and pulled them behind her back, and the pain spread.  It was
blistering, as if she was burning alive.  The heat spread over every inch of
her body.  Tristan let go, and she fell to the ground, flailing about and
writhing in pain.
    “Take her,” he said.  “Lock her up with the
other one.”
    “Tristan,” Erin screamed.  “Tristan, make
it stop.”  Someone grabbed her and hauled her up to her feet.  Arms slipped
under her armpits and began to drag her away.  She had never felt a pain like
this.  Not even when she was human and Tristan was using the pain through the
soulmate bond to control her.  She expected to see flames burst up from her
skin at any second.
    He grinned, and his eyes flashed red.  “You
haven’t gotten any smarter, I see.  Did you really think I’d just let you walk
back in after you betrayed me to that …” His lips curled into a sneer, and his
skin flushed as red as his eyes.  He looked above her, to the thing that was
dragging her.  “Get her out of my sight, and shut her up.”
    Erin hadn’t thought it was possible, but
the pain became more intense.  It was as if someone was stabbing her with
hundreds of burning stakes all at once.  The screams ruptured from her lungs
like a broken dam, and then the pain took her over; everything grayed and then
faded to nothing.

CHAPTER 6
     
    “Could you hurry it up?” Amelia asked for
what must have been the millionth time.  Josh had been poking around for hours
now, and although he was keeping most of the pain at bay, it still hurt like
hell.  After a close examination of her injuries, Josh had confirmed that
Tristan had broken fifteen bones in her body, as well as fractured twice that
many.
    Josh looked up from her leg and rolled his
sterling silver eyes.  He smirked and said, “We could just let you heal
naturally if you prefer.”
    Amelia groaned, long and loud.  Josh had
been trying to keep the conversation light, and it was starting to drive her
crazy.  Every time she questioned him about Mitchell, he simply ignored her,
refusing to confirm or deny if he was dead, although the sinking feeling in her
stomach and the lack of a connection was confirmation enough.
    For the first hour or so, all Amelia could
do was cry, but then she kind of figured she was allowed, given that she was
certain her soulmate was dead, and he was never coming back.  Vampires don’t
get second chances.
    Once her tears had dried up, she realized
that she was in a brick room, chained to a hospital style bed.  The room had
probably been used as a cold storage room at one point in time.  There were no
windows and no furniture other than the bed, a white plastic lawn chair that
Josh sat in, and the large television screen that showed Megan, chained,
beaten, and unconscious.  In the center of the ceiling was a fixed light bulb
with a dirty looking string as a pull cord with no fixture.
    After surveying her enclosed surroundings,
Amelia had managed to hyperventilate herself to the point of passing out.  She
had never been good with small spaces, and this was almost like being locked in
a closet.
    When she finally came to, Josh was still
working at mending her bones, and he had given her what he called a ‘magical
valium’ to take the edge off and help her mind from thinking that the walls
were closing in on her.
    Amelia gritted her teeth against the pain
as Josh pushed down on her leg, holding the bone in place, while he infused the
area with steamy power.  She could actually feel the bone