Page 29 of Feeding Frenzy

I dashed away the trickling tears with the back of my hand. Ridiculous, demanding vampires. None of my arguments had been heard, but I would not stop until I proved my point. My exit would benefit them.

The door creaked as it opened.

Maddy poked her head in.

“Maddy,” I gasped, sitting up straighter. “Can you get me out of these? My back is on fire.”

She grimaced. “Sorry, I was ordered not to. But I did bring you a tea.” She lifted the little plate with a teacup. The bed dipped as she perched next to me. She raised the plate, and I took the little handle. I wasn’t the biggest tea person, but I was damn thirsty.

I gulped some down and struggled to hide my grimace at the bitter taste.

“I should have added some sugar in it, huh?”

“Maybe a little.” I cleared my throat and drank the rest of it and set it back on the saucer. “Can you tell one of the guys I need to speak with them?”

“They’re not back yet. I think only Jax is here.” She fidgeted with her hair.

“Nevermind.” I grumbled. Jax didn’t make the list of anyone I wanted to see right now. Not that I wanted to see any of the others since they locked me up in here, but I could tolerate the others at least.

“Do you know where they went?”

“I think they went to Crimson Nights.” Maddy eyed me.

Ouch. I grabbed my aching throat.

My lip trembled, and I sucked in a deep breath, but upon my exhale, a sob exploded out.

They’d gone out?

I cinched my eyes tight, but tears tricked out from the side.

These relationships would lead nowhere, but they wouldn’t let me leave. If I went to another Coven, maybe to work for them. Could that work? If I were completely honest, I preferred Alistair to any other vampire I’d met. At least he seemed fair from what I’d witnessed, and he’d saved my life during that hunt. And he owned a mall, maybe I could work in a shop, instead of as a feeder.

“Earth to Cat.” Maddy snapped her fingers near my face. “What was it with them earlier, they looked like they were about to rip heads off?” Maddy brushed her hair back, looking around nervously, as if keeping an eye out for them. I squeezed my cuffed hand into a fist. The tingling was so severe, it was beginning to spread to my other hand like some phantom pain.

“I asked to change Covens.”

She gawked.

“You have bigger balls than I thought. I mean, don’t get me wrong, you were already with all of them, so I thought a lot ofyou, but that?” She whistled. “Their nature would rather kill you than give you up. I can tell you that much.”

“I learned that, thanks,” I said dryly and wiggled my cuff. “How do you think I ended up like this?”

And here came the tears again. I really needed to get out of these cuffs, my entire body was becoming numb.

Her lips thinned and then her eyes suddenly widened. She looked down at the teacup, horrified.

“I am so sorry, Catalina. She compelled me to forget.”

She was blubbering so fast I couldn’t make sense of her sentences. Her change in demeanor gave me whiplash.

“Maddy,” I shouted. Her sobs quieted. “What’s going on?”

“The tea had a paralytic drug.”

What? I could only blink, but that heaviness to my limbs I believed was numbness became more intense. I tried to move, and it took all my effort to hold my head up.

“I am so sorry,” she cried. She stood from the bed stiffly.

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