Page 8 of Incandescence

Like Maya? a cutting voice asked.

I blew out a slow breath. Though Maya’s strength of mind was impressive, I had no doubt she’d soon fully succumb to my master’s demands. She wouldn’t live through the ordeal much longer than the other women who’d been abducted and taken away from the world they’d known. Except, if she did outlast the longest survivor of four years, how much deeper would my feelings for her grow?

I paced back and forth. Usually I was resigned and numb to whatever my master devised, but now I was worked up and restless. I hardly knew Maya, and yet already she affected me on a level I could scarcely comprehend.

I paused as the bathroom door thrust open and she walked through it with her chin tilted as high as her ponytail and her eyes flashing. She wore the moss-green wrap dress, soft white cardigan and low-heeled sandals I’d chosen for her from the closet of the guest bedroom. My master kept a good selection of apparel for his donors, mostly seductive wear that would titillate my senses.

Maya’s outfit had been the most demure I could find.

I resisted licking my lips. I wouldn’t think about the matching cream underwear set I’d chosen. Instead, my breath caught at her alert gaze and rigid jaw. My pulse accelerated at her natural grace and elegance, which were irresistibly seductive.

“Where is your master?” she demanded.

Maybe she wasn’t charming, but damn if I didn’t find that even more appealing. Even so, I frowned. Did she think she could demand an audience with him? “He’s in his chambers. You cannot disturb him there.”

“Why not?” Her eyes narrowed. “Is he asleep now?”

There were no clocks in the nest, just the same as there were no calendars and no news from the outside world to keep me informed. I’d even been reduced to using my fingernails to scratch out a tiny mark beneath the tabletop for every day that passed.

I automatically glanced out of the window to guesstimate the time. The sun had climbed high in the sky. It was a few hours shy of midday. I nodded. “Yes.”

She inhaled sharply and stepped closer to me, staring into my eyes. “Then now is the perfect time to escape.”

I couldn’t stop a bark of mirthless laughter. “You can’t be serious?” At her furrowed brow, I sighed and said, “You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”

“But you do, right?”

I frowned, hating the direction the conversation was headed. In my previous life, I’d been a lawyer, a fearless go-getter, ready to take on the universe. In this life, I knew better. I was a realist living in a powerful vampire world. My reality was having my blood sucked out right along with the breath in my body if I showed even a sign of disobedience.

She swung a hand toward the elevator. “When the chef next comes up with our food, we’ll get into the elevator and out of this building.”

I gave her points for courage. But she wasn’t thinking straight. Not one bit. “You’ve already tried to escape once today, and failed. Remember?”

That wasn’t even to mention the security guard, who’d been chosen specifically for his brawn and lackluster willpower. No captives would escape via the elevator.

She didn’t seem deflated. If anything, her mind ticked over all the faster. “How deeply does the bloodsucker sleep?” She blinked. “What would you need to overcome his mind control?”

Her enthusiasm and belief almost buoyed me with hope. I suppressed the emotion. She knew nothing. Her blood addiction hadn’t yet kicked in and made her dependent...a slave to my master.

But it would soon enough.

I squeezed my eyes closed, fighting against a surge of rebellion. But it grew inside me, a dark shadow that’d been hovering out of sight, snapping and snarling, just waiting for the right moment to emerge. The same shadow that I had no doubt Maya had glimpsed.

She’d read me all too well, and known exactly how to bring it out of me.

Warmth flowed through me and centered in my groin. She was more skilled than a lawyer in the courtroom. Not that I disagreed. With her by my side, this might truly be the one and only time we could escape. Before my master again drank from Maya’s veins and the excessive intravenous bacteria from his fangs wiped out any remaining scrap of her willpower.

Even if she by some miracle fought the infection, the moment my master fed her a drop or two of his blood, she’d be an addict just like me.

My stomach cramped and I pressed a fist against the gnawing, ceaseless ache. “I can’t go anywhere,” I croaked hoarsely. “I’d die without my master’s blood.”

She marched toward me, face drawn but determined, eyes flashing. “That monster isnotyour master. You’re not his trained dog, nor are you his slave. Whatever life he’s forced you into is no longer relevant. You can fight this...fight him.”

She lifted her hands and clasped my shoulders, and I inhaled sharply at the rush of warmth and the jolt of instant connection. It was that same touch that sent rebellion hurtling through my body, shredding my doubts and ripping the blinkers from my eyes.

Passion and self-belief now pulsed through my veins, drowning out any lingering weakness. I stood straighter, shoulders back, hands clenched. I didn’t have time to tell her everything I’d learned and observed, but I’d tell her everything that might aid in our plans.

“The vampire will be sleeping his deepest at midday. Nothing will rouse him then.”

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