Zane glanced at the silver handcuffs around her wrists. He cursed. He had brought weapons to kill vampires, but he hadn’t expected that her father would be keeping Portia captive with silver, the only metal he couldn’t break. Frustration howled through him, and his free hand clenched into a fist.

Portia’s frightened eyes pinned him.

“I would never hurt you,” he hastened to assure her.

Her expression went from fear to doubt.

“Please trust me.”

When a tear rolled down her cheek, he swept it up with his thumb. “Please don’t cry, baby girl.”

He slowly removed his hand from her mouth, ready to clamp it back on should she decide to scream. But her lips remained silent, and her eyes drilled into him.

Then he saw the cords in her throat move. “Tell me you don’t love me,” she murmured so quietly he almost didn’t hear it.

“I can’t do that.” His heart expanded as he noticed a sparkle in her eyes. Hope blossomed. She hadn’t given up on him yet. She hadn’t stopped loving him despite the cruel things he’d said to her.

“Zane.”

Gently, Zane caressed her cheek with his palm, even as he listened to the sounds of fighting from below. “Forgive me for the things I said. I didn’t know what I was doing.”

She raised her head to come closer, and he took the invitation and lowered his lips to hers. As he took her mouth in a desperate kiss, he pressed her to him. The silver handcuffs clanged against the steel beam as she tried to move her arms. The sound brought reality home. He had to free her. He pulled back, releasing her.

She tried to reach for him, her fangs suddenly protruding farther from her lips.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m thirsty …” Portia averted her eyes.

“He’s been starving you?” He wanted to howl in frustration. Had he known, he would have brought bottled human blood for her.

She nodded. “He wants me to blood-bond tonight. I told him I wouldn’t … mate with the man he’s chosen.” Her voice broke off, evidence that she was weak.

They had no time to lose. “We have to get you out of here. Now.”

Zane pressed his finger against the little wireless device in his ear to connect to the command center. “Thomas, I’ve found her. He chained her with silver. We need wire clippers, and human blood. Quickly.”

“Location,” Thomas requested.

“Second floor, south-west corner bedroom.”

“Understood.”

From downstairs the noise intensified. He hoped his colleagues could keep Müller and his thugs at bay until he had freed Portia and brought her to safety. Only then would he return to finish off Müller.

Portia’s eyes darted toward the door. “Who’s with you?”

“Half of Scanguards. They're fighting Müller and his people.” He refrained from referring to Müller as her father, hoping to keep reality away from them. Because reality was a cruel mistress. The fact was he hated the father of the woman he loved, and he was here to finish him off once and for all.

Their gazes clashed. “You’re going to kill him, aren’t you?”

Zane withstood her scrutiny for a few seconds before he broke the contact. “I’ll kill anybody who hurts you.”

When he got no answer, he looked back at her and noticed that she’d closed her eyes again.

Panic seared through him. “Baby girl!”

“So tired,” Portia mumbled. “So thirsty.”

He had to do something before she slipped too far. He needed her coherent to get her out of here, and the way she looked right now, he wasn’t sure she’d be able to walk. Even though he knew that vampire blood would provide her only with temporary nourishment, it would boost her strength for a short while, long enough until he could get her human blood. It had worked for him when he’d fed off the Czech vampire at the camp. It would work now.

“You have to feed.” He propped her head up.

Portia opened her eyes halfway, and he placed his wrist at her lips.

“Do it, baby girl, it’ll ease the thirst.” Even if it would weaken him by a fraction, it needed to be done. He couldn’t bear seeing her suffer.

When her mouth opened wider and her fangs grazed his skin, Zane shivered involuntarily. God, he’d missed her. It seemed impossible, but in the short time that he’d known her, she’d become a part of not just his life, but of him.

The sharp tips of her fangs drove into his skin and lodged in his flesh. Heat suffused his body as she began feeding from him.