"I will tell you once I have you free of the vampire. If he were to know your worth he would most certainly kill you."
Great. Just great.
That was all she needed. A reason for a dangerous vampire to kill her.
"I don't know what you mean by worth. I'm just an uneducated bartender with less than fifty dollars in the bank."
The dark eyes held a heat that was more than a little disturbing. "Oh no, cara, you are most certainly priceless."
"Why? Why me? Does it have something to do with my blood?"
"It has everything to do with your blood."
Darcy caught her breath, her simmering unease abruptly forgotten. "Do you know something of my parents?"
Without warning he had moved forward and was holding her face in his hands.
"I will reveal all once you are in my care, cara," he promised.
His touch was surprisingly gentle, but Darcy batted his hands away with impatience.
"Stop that."
He merely smiled as he backed toward the door. "If you want the truth of your past, you must come to me, Darcy. I will send word to you in a few days with a plan to help you escape. Until then." He gave a small bow as he stepped through the doorway. "Oh, cara."
"What?"
"You will need to return to the shower. Vampires possess an uncanny ability to smell werewolves."
He disappeared from view and Darcy heaved a heavy sigh.
"Gripes."
Salvatore slipped through the shadows with a shimmering frustration.
Nothing was going as it should.
He had devoted thirty years to searching for Darcy. Thirty goddamn years. Then, when he finally managed to track her down she was snatched from beneath his nose by filthy vampires.
It was enough to make any werewolf snap and snarl.
And now, when he had risked everything to slip her away, he was being forced to leave the remote estate alone.
What the hell was wrong with the woman?
She was supposed to be terrified at being held prisoner by a vampire. She was supposed to be hiding in a corner just waiting to be rescued.
Rescued by him.
But she hadn't been terrified. As a pureblood he could sense her every mood, and while she had been bemused and understandably wary, there had been no panicked need to escape.
In fact, it had taken only a few moments to realize that she would balk at any attempt to force her from the house.
Balk enough to bring a horde of angry vampires down upon his head.
Salvatore was a powerful Were. Perhaps the most powerful pureblood in centuries. But not even he could take on a dozen vampires. Not when one of them was the mighty Anasso.
And more importantly, he couldn't afford to risk Darcy.