That bad feeling she had grew worse.
She turned back to Night, desperate to get something out of him and painfully aware that if she didn’t then things were probably going to get very bad for her.
And for him.
“Did you really attack a coven of witches, Night?” She kept her tone even and soft, warm despite the chilling fear she felt.
Instead of answering her, he lumbered onto his feet and prowled around her, his gaze locked on her. Lilian swallowed and backed towards the door. When her spine met the cold metal, she banged her fist against it, not taking her eyes off Night.
“Let me out. This is dangerous.” She kept banging, her fear cranking up a notch as Night made another pass, pacing back across the cell, closer this time.
“That’s the reason you’re in there,” the woman said. “You fraternised with the vampire. That wasn’t part of the mission. You let him get under your skin and now you believe he’s been telling you the truth about his brother and himself. You believe in this vampire more than you do your coven.”
Lilian whirled to face the door and pressed her palms to it, her eyes flying wide as she shook her head. “No. That’s not true! You’re wrong. I’m loyal to my coven—my family! I would never turn against it like that. Please. Let me out. I’m loyal to my coven.”
She dug her fingertips into the door.
“Prove it.” The guard’s cold eyes slid towards Night. “Take his blood and see his past.”
Lilian frantically shook her head, an icy chill slithering down her spine as her heart skipped a beat and she breathed, “That’s suicide.”
She stared into the woman’s eyes and saw in them that she knew that.
She wasn’t here to prove her loyalty.
She was here to die for her perceived betrayal.
And they wanted her to take Night down with her.
The elders had already decided that he was responsible for the atrocity committed against their coven, even though they had no proof and she wouldn’t be able to give it to them. They didn’t want her to. They wanted her to die and they would let Night die with her, keeping him in this cell as her blood slowly killed him.
They would take pleasure in watching him wither and die.
Lilian banged her palms against the door. “Let me out! I need to talk to the elders. They’re wrong about this. They’re wrong about me. They’re wrong about him!”
The guard looked beyond her to Night, who was still pacing but was keeping his distance, and then at the other guard. She nodded. For a moment, Lilian thought they would do as she asked, but then they both began muttering as one.
An incantation.
The hairs on her nape rose and dread pooled in her stomach, and she frantically beat the door with her fists. “Let me out!”
Night loosed a long, low growl that had her spine stiffening.
And then his arm snapped around her waist and he dragged her back against him.
And sank his fangs into her throat.
Pleasure blasted through her, hot and intense, blinding as he caged her against the wall, one hand pressed against it and the other clutching her waist.
Cold replaced it a moment later as the reality of what he had done hit her.
“No. No. No!” She tried to wrench free before it was too late and her blood hit his tongue, but he snarled and bit down harder, the pain-pleasure combo fogging her mind for a second as he drew on her blood.
Night growled against her throat and it turned to a groan as his grip on her tightened, his hand splaying against her side and palming it as he pressed his front against her back.
Fear for him had her fighting the effect of his bite, made her desperate enough that she did something she knew would anger him.
She muttered a protection spell and cried out as his fangs sliced through her flesh as it hit him, hurling him away from her. She pivoted to face him, bracing herself at the same time, sure he would be on her again before she could convince him not to bite her. He picked himself up on another low, threatening growl, and she held her hands out before her.