When he pulled back to nuzzle my neck and lick at my pulse, I groaned. “You need to go, or we’ll end up bonking.”

“And that would be bad because…?”

“Fletcher’s right; it’ll add to the anticipation and stuff if we hold off tonight.”

“You’re mean to me.”

“I won’t be mean to you tomorrow night. Although...I will be biting you in some very interesting places.”

His eyes were shining with humour and interest when he looked at me. “Oh I really hope you do.” Having smacked one last kiss on my mouth, he released me. “Oh and Sam…I’ll be doing the same.” With a devilish smirk, he teleported away, leaving me tingling in all kinds of places. The sod.

A cold shower. That sounded like the best idea.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work. I came out of the shower feeling more sexually frustrated than I had before I got in it.

I was just slipping my robe on over my underwear when there was a knock on my apartment door. Clearly Fletcher was back to help me try on the dress. I quickly scuttled through the apartment and opened the door – and growled at my two visitors. Before I could say a word, Brook grabbed my arm, and there was a very familiar sensation in my stomach as he – oh f**k a duck – teleported me, him, and Magda to a strange living room.

I had no idea where the hell I was, but I had a very strong feeling that I was no longer at The Hollow. Confirming that, the door opened and five male vampires entered. I recognised three of them. Two were the Trent brothers, and the other was Blake. Fucking great.

Abruptly, Brook shoved me into an armchair, holding me there by my shoulder. I had barely shrugged him away, fully intending to whip the crap out of these people, when I was suddenly paralysed. Literally. I couldn’t move at all. Recalling what Orrin had said about one of the brothers having the gift of freezing things, I quickly realised what had happened.

“You’ll have to do it quickly,” Magda told the brothers, sounding desperate and anxious. “Jared will sense her fear, and he’ll come to her.”

“Do not worry,” said the tallest brother. “It will not come to that. Blake.”

The ex-Handler stepped forward, grinning mischievously. If I hadn’t been frozen in place, I’d have snarled at him. “How much do you want gone?”

“Everything up until the day that she was recruited,” the tallest brother told him. “I do not want her to remember anything after that day.”

Oh shit.

Magda shot me an evil smile. “I should be getting back. I don’t want anyone to notice that I was missing at the same time that she disappeared. Plus, Jared is going to need me to be there for him.” She left with her consort, wearing a smug, devious smirk. Oh the bitch.

Blake put his index finger to my temple. Then, there was only blackness.

(Jared)

I felt like someone had punched me in the head – there was a heavy impact, there was a momentary disorientation, and then there was pain as my connection to Sam abruptly vanished. Not physical pain, but a crushing, overwhelming, agonising emotional pain as suddenly I could no longer feel her.

I should have been rushing out of the bar in a panic, but that same sense of panic seemed to be stopping me from moving. I was expecting to feel her again any second now, for the ‘glitch’ to fix itself.

“What’s wrong?” Evan asked.

“Sam.”

Concern was plastered across his face. “What’s wrong with her?”

“I don’t know.”

“Go to her.”

“I can’t.” Without our link, I couldn’t take myself to her unless I could see her.

“What do you mean, you can’t? Don’t tell me your gifts are now acting up, too.”

Shaking myself out of my shocked state, I teleported to our apartment, right in the spot that I’d left her only half an hour ago. The room was empty. “Sam! Sam!” In vampire speed, I raced through the apartment, coming to an abrupt halt when I saw that the door was open. I dashed into the hallway, but there was no sign of her whatsoever. “Sam!”

Frantic, confused, and scared-fucking-shitless, I went to the one person I believed could fix just about anything. Antonio double-blinked as I, suddenly, appeared directly in front of him on the veranda. “Sam…I can’t feel her.”

He stiffened in his seat. “How can you not feel her?”

“I don’t know. But our connection…it’s not like it broke. It’s just like she’s not on the other end of it anymore. Like she fell off the face of the Earth or something. I can’t sense her at all – not what she’s feeling, not where she is.”

He shot to his feet, looking almost as anxious as I was. “Did you feel anything from her just before this happened? Fear?”

“There was a little anxiety, but before I even had a chance to think about acting, she was gone. Just like that.” I clicked my fingers.

“Have you been to your apartment?”

So distracted by the panic circulating through me, I hadn’t even realised that Wes was behind me until I heard his voice. I spun around to face him. “She’s not there.”

Pacing, Antonio asked, “Were there any signs of a struggle?”

“No. The front door was wide open, but that’s all.”

Wes placed a supportive hand on my shoulder. “You do understand what this might mean, don’t you, Jared?”

Yes, I did know, but I wasn’t going down that path. “There’s no way. There’s no way that she’s dead. I’d know it.”

“But you said she’s not on the other end of your connection anymore,” he said gently.

“That doesn’t mean she’s dead.”

“Not much else could break it so abruptly.”

I growled, pulling away from him. “Well what else could break it so abruptly? Because she’s not dead!”

“Jared—”

“She’s not! I’d know it, I’d feel it – connection or no connection, I’d feel it if she died!” And I was one hundred percent sure of that. No, she wasn’t dead. And the second that the connection snapped back into place, I’d go to her.

Haste footsteps had us all looking to our left. If there was one person I hadn’t expected to see, it was this guy – at least not yet, anyway. He looked absolutely livid.

(Sam)

Feeling like I’d just been spat out of a vacuum or something, I triple-blinked. When my eyes came back into focus, I instantly stiffened. Who wouldn’t if they found themselves in a strange place with five strange vampires? My instinct was to conjure my whip, ready to defend myself if need be. That was when I realised that I couldn’t move.

“No need to be alarmed, Samantha,” a tall Pagori with black hair assured me. “We mean you no harm. If you allow us to explain, you will see that we speak the truth. My brother is going to unfreeze you now. I am trusting that you will not attempt to attack anyone. If you do, he will be forced to freeze you again, for our safety.”

Experimenting, I tried crossing my legs. It worked. “Where am I?”

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

As I spoke, I wasn’t so much answering him as I was trying to figure things out for myself. “I was on my way back from the shop, heading for my flat…I knew a vampire was up there…Was that you?”

Looking oddly pleased with my answer, he replied, “No. I suspect the vampire in there was the one who attacked you. My name is Quinn. My brother here is Wyatt. The vampires around you work for us.”

“I was attacked? Let’s start from the beginning. How the bloody hell did I get here, and why am I here at all?”

The brothers exchanged an odd look before Quinn flashed me a bright smile. “I’m afraid that your memories will be a little shaky for a while. The process of bringing someone out of a comatose state can have that effect.”

“Say again?”

“You were comatose until just now. I am guessing that the vampire responsible had been waiting for your Sire at the flat and was surprised by your entrance – it would seem that he upset the wrong people.”

Victor had a terrible habit of doing that. “Are you one of those ‘wrong people’?”

He appeared truly offended. “No, Samantha. Definitely not. We were strong allies of your Sire.”

Well then I definitely didn’t like these people. I had an urge to get up and pace around. Having five Pagori vampires standing over me wasn’t making me feel relaxed, but perhaps the best thing to do would be to act as though I was at least open to trusting them. The last thing I wanted was to get frozen again.

“We heard about the plan to attack him, went to the flat to warn him, but unfortunately we were too late to help him. We found you and brought you here so that we could—”

“Wait a minute. Victor’s dead? Then why am I not in agony? They say if a vampire’s blood-link with their Sire is broken, the pain’s excruciating.”

“Perhaps it is because you were comatose at the time.”

Oh this was bloody unreal. Attacked in my own flat. Surely I’d remember something like that. But as I tried to reach for Victor through our blood-link, I realised that the link had been severed. He had to be dead.

“I brought you here and one of my vampires used his gift to awaken you. How do you feel?”

He seemed truly interested…in a very paternal way. I didn’t like it. “Confused.”

“The confusion will wear off soon.”

“Right. Well, as much as I appreciate your help and stuff, I should head home now so—”

“It would be an extremely bad idea for you to return to the flat, Samantha. The person who attacked you and your Sire could be waiting there.”

“I’ll take my chances, thanks.” I moved to stand, and every person in the room tensed. What was with these people?

“Please, Samantha. I failed to protect your Sire, but I do not wish to fail you. I want only to protect you.”

“Yeah?” I said doubtfully. Maybe I shouldn’t be so suspicious, but there was something about this bloke that I didn’t like. If these people truly had any wish to help me, it wasn’t out of the kindness of their hearts. Crossing my arms over my chest, I suddenly became aware of something. I was wearing silk. Looking down, I studied the silky black robe, briefly noticing the white lacy underwear beneath it. “Whose clothes are these?”

If I wasn’t mistaken, Quinn seemed a little stuck for words. Like a kid having to think fast on his feet because mummy had caught him out on a lie. “They’re not yours?”

“No.” I would never in my life have the money to afford this kind of stuff.

“You said you had been shopping, so perhaps these are new purchases and you were trying them on when the attacker struck,” suggested Wyatt.

“But that makes no sense. Not just because the shop I went to only sells food and booze. But because I knew there was a strange vampire in the flat. The last thing I would have done is model new clothes while there was an intruder. And what are these things on my nails? Crystals?”

“I’m sure this will all make sense to you soon.”

I kind of got the feeling that he was very wrong about that. There was something else that was bugging me. “Why do I feel…different?”

Wyatt’s eyes lit up. “In what way do you feel different?”

My eyes widened at the sight of the silvery-blue wisps on my fingers. “And why is energy clinging to me like that?”

“We were wondering the same thing. Maybe the vampire did something to you during the attack.”

But that didn’t make sense, because I felt stronger, more powerful. Not that I had any intention of telling these people that. I didn’t trust them as far as I could throw them, even if they had pulled me out of a coma.

A hissing sound distracted me from my thoughts. I looked around to find a large reptile tank that contained one hell of a huge snake. A python. Its black eyes regarded me, and suddenly I was thinking of another set of black eyes. The image of a brilliant blue snake flashed in my mind. “I have a snake.” No, no, I didn’t. I almost laughed at the absurdity of that statement. Of course I didn’t have one, why would I ever have –?

The python hissed again, and another, similar image flashed before me; this time the same blue snake was curled up on a sofa…A sofa that I recognised, yet didn’t. It certainly wasn’t from my flat.

Maybe these blokes had slipped something in my drink.

“You have a snake?” said Quinn.

I meant to say no, but the word wouldn’t come out of my mouth. It felt unnatural to deny ever having owned one, even though I had no recollection of ever having bought a snake.

As if Wyatt sensed my confusion, he said, “The disorientation is normal. Do you need to feed?”

I wasn’t about to accept anything from these people who had obviously been giving me drugs or something. I shook my head. Involuntarily, I found my gaze moving back to the reptile tank. As I looked at the python, an image again flickered in front of my eyes. This time, it was the same snake as before, yet its colouring was different…Red. It was wrapped around me, hissing at…at…And then the memory was gone, and I couldn’t reach for it.

But it couldn’t be a memory, could it? None of that could be real. So why was I seeing these things? Why did I feel…more than before? And why did I feel restless – like there was something important I was supposed to do, someone important I was supposed to see?