She took her time, her touches tentative at first. It felt... like she was violating his privacy. Intruding.
She remembered something abruptly. "Someone told me you don't like to be touched," she told him. She couldn't remember who it had been. Asil, maybe.
His chest lifted off the bed, following her fingers when she started to lift them. Uncertain, she left her hands where they were, so he had to make an effort to keep them on him.
"Not usually," he admitted, sounding a little breathless. "But I love your touch. Touch me anytime. Any place. Anywhere." It was heartfelt and honest: and she had a sudden vision of him talking to his father and her with her hands on inappropriate places.
She was going to share the picture with him, but then she got a good look at his face and realized he meant what he'd said-and the impulse to laugh left as quickly as it had come. Deliberately, he pushed up higher, pressing her hands into him, using the muscles of his back because he kept his hands and feet where they had been.
"Pet me," he told her. "I like it."
Her heart beat so hard she could hear it-fear, a little, yes. But also there was something momentous and empowering in having Charles at her mercy. He was as good as his word: no matter what she did, his hands and his feet stayed where they were.
SOMETHING vibrated under her head.
It was such an odd sensation that-still only half-conscious-Anna tried to figure out what it was. Her ears told her there was a car motor somewhere very nearby, and she tried to figure out how she'd made it from the bed to a car without noticing.
And then she smelled the vampires.
"She's awake, Ivan," said a woman's voice.
Anna opened her eyes and saw the vampire who'd attacked Moira. The woman smiled at her.
"Now me," she said, "I didn't like Krissy. She was a pushy little bimbo. But Ivan had a thing for her-and he doesn't like you at all. So you just be a good puppy, and we'll not have any trouble, right?"
Anna didn't bother answering. She was naked, chained hand and foot and stuck in what could only be the back section of the blue minivan the vampires had been running around in. They'd removed the backseats and installed huge eyebolts to which they'd chained Anna. They were going to be paying the rental company through the nose when they returned the van. She was pretty sure that even rental insurance wouldn't cover things like drilling eyebolts through the floor.
The woman vampire was leaning against one of the big sliding doors. Her feet were pressed against Anna's side. Next to her was a man who looked about forty-five, but he was a vampire. He'd probably been forty-five for years.
Questions bubbled to the tip of her tongue. What do you want with me? How did you get me out of the hotel? What did you do with Charles?
Charles wouldn't have just let them take her. She closed her eyes and felt for her end of their bond-and it was just as it usually was when Brother Wolf wasn't holding it open. Whatever had happened, Charles was all right.
The last thing she remembered was leaning down to taste the skin of his belly. Mustn't show the enemy weakness. So pick her question carefully.
"Who hired you?"
The woman smiled displaying a set of fangs. "Not my part of the show," she said. "All I know is the job. We're to box you up and ship you across the shining sea on an airplane. No harm to you if you don't give us any trouble."
Her smile got bigger. "Of course, if you do give us trouble, we get to hurt you. Fun, fun, fun."
Across the sea sounded like Europe to her, Anna thought. One of the wolves kidnapping her? Did they think that Charles couldn't find her out of the country? If so, then they were wrong. Still, it would be easier on everyone if she didn't go in the first place.
She jerked up, using the big muscles of her back and thighs for strength. The metal handcuffs cut into her skin, but she ignored the pain. Whatever her hands were chained to was tough, but the eye hook attached to her feet began to bend, the floor beneath it pulling up.
"Shit!" The man who'd been sitting by her feet looked to the front of the car. "I told you that there was no good place to attach the chains in this stinking rental."
"Shoot her," said the driver.
She couldn't get her head up and around enough to see who was driving, but she was betting on the man she'd seen at the warehouse. A shotgun flew back, thrown by someone in the front passenger seat. The male vampire she could see caught it and fired it from three feet away, hitting her in the shoulder.
CHARLES sat up and grabbed his aching head. It took him a moment to catch Brother Wolf's frantic message. She's gone. They have her. Couldn't move. Couldn't stop them. Couldn't wake you up. Wake up!
Anna?
She was gone-unarguably. There was no one beside him in the bed.
The room smelled of vampires and night air, both scents coming from the broken window. He grabbed his jeans and pulled them on. He grabbed shoes and socks because not ripping up his feet might let him catch up with them faster.
Seventh floor would have been impossible, but the second room he'd gotten them had been on the fifth. He jumped out the broken window, landed on his feet, and rolled to soften the fall. He got to his feet, shoulders and knees aching but functional.
He might be able to track them, even in the city-but there was a better way. He recklessly threw open the bond between him and Anna.
The first thing he discovered was that she was not far away, but she was moving fast. And she was hurt-likely her getting hurt was what had allowed him to break whatever spell it was that had put him unconscious. He felt the last trickles of it still trying to hold him-awake and aware he was able to burn away the magic. The spell was pure witchcraft. While the rest of him was focused on finding Anna, a small part noticed that the vampires seemed to have some way of accessing a lot of magic: wolf and witch.