Page 54 of Bound By Blood

“I will release him from the tower when the sun goes down …” He held up a hand when Kaitlyn started to speak. “But he will have to stay in the dungeon until I am sure I can trust him.”

Kaitlyn nodded, knowing that was the best she could hope for.

Just when Zack thought the day would never end, he felt the shift in the atmosphere as the sun began its slow descent. The absence of its deadly rays was a welcome relief. Its light had burned his eyes, its heat had made his blood burn like liquid fire, searing his veins. He had never realized he needed to be in a dark place for the daylight sleep to overtake him. Hovering on the brink of oblivion, unable to escape the sun’s heat, he had cowered under the blankets, squirming like a worm on a hot rock. It had been the worst day of his life. The only relief he had known came from the blood Kaitlyn had left for him. It had strengthened him when the pain grew unbearable. Bless the girl for her thoughtfulness.

Nightfall did nothing to ease the pain of the silver shackles. His neck and ankles were raw where the metal rubbed against his skin.

He had told Kaitlyn the sunlight wouldn’t make him go up in smoke, but he wasn’t sure he could survive another day in the sun.

Feeling as though he were smothering under the blankets, he jerked them away from his face. And saw Kaitlyn’s father staring down at him. He recognized the man standing in the doorway as the mortal who had accompanied Drake before.

Zack glared at Drake, wondering if the vampire was about to drive a stake through his heart. Instead, the mortal stepped forward and unlocked the chain from the bolt in the wall.

“Get up,” Drake said. “Torrance, bring him.”

Before Zack could ask what the hell was going on, Drake turned on his heel and started down the tower stairs.

Torrance tugged on the chain around Zack’s neck. Resigned, Zack followed the man, his steps hobbled by the shackles around his ankles.

When they reached the bottom of the last flight of stairs, Drake moved down the main floor hallway to a narrow wooden door that opened onto another stairway.

Zack’s trepidation increased as they descended farther and farther underground. One flight. Two. Three. And they came to another door. He swore under his breath as Drake opened it.

Zack shuddered as a miasma of pain and blood and death roiled toward him through the open doorway. How many people had suffered in this place? How many had died screaming in agony or begging for mercy?

Clenching his jaw, he followed Drake and Torrance into the bowels of the dungeon.

Drake opened the door to the last cell on the right.

Tugging on the chain, Torrance forced Zack into the cell and fastened the chain around his neck to a bolt in the wall.

“Torrance, leave us,” Drake said.

The man left without a word or a backward glance.

Zack flinched when Drake shut and locked the cell door. “What now?” he asked, turning to face his captor. “You gonna leave me down here to rot?”

“The thought crossed my mind.”

“Listen, Kaitlyn told me about your war with the Others and how her great-grandfather took ‘em out. That’s got nothing to do with me.”

“Does it not?”

“No. If I was the kind of inhuman, blood-sucking monster you seem to think I am, I’d have killed Katy and bled her dry by now.”

“Katy.” Drake spoke the word slowly, so that it came out in two syllables. Ka-ty.

“Dammit, you must have some faith in her judgment. You left her alone in Lake Tahoe.”

“Where do you come from?”

“Originally? A little town outside of London that doesn’t exist anymore.”

“How long have you been a vampire?”

“Six hundred years, give or take a few.”

“Have you made others of your kind?”

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