Chained - Zara Novak Page 0,53

I suddenly felt like I could breathe again. Vincent grabbed my hand and we started walking faster.

“Okay, no denying it, you’re amazing,” he said, leaning in to kiss me briefly. We headed straight for the front door, tensing momentarily as guards came running towards us. They saw me, gave me a wide berth and carried on running. We heard shouting in the house behind us, followed by the muted eruption of gunfire.

It looked like Casper and his men hadn’t come to an agreement.

We burst into the night and saw Wardorf waiting with his helicopter. He already had the blades spinning.

“Holy shit, you’re alive!” he shouted as we ran towards him.

“If we don’t hurry up, we’ll all be dead. Let’s get the fuck out of here!” Vincent shouted back. We jumped into the helicopter and strapped in. Though I could no longer hear anything over the blades’ whir, I saw the flash of gunfire through the windows of the country manor shrinking below us.

I had saved him. We were alive, but I had a terrible feeling this moment would have sweeping repercussions for the criminal empires within Vincent’s world. Five families were already on the brink of an explosive and violent clash. We were in a powder keg, one that was just waiting to explode.

Something told me I had just lit the fuse.

Chapter 7

Rachel

I could hardly believe it when we landed back on the castle roof. My plan had actually worked, despite a few hitches. I had rescued Vincent from the clutches of defeat and brought him back to safety.

As soon as our feet touched the roof Vincent dismissed Wardorf, instructing him that no one was to bother us for the next twenty-four hours. The bald giant quickly disappeared, leaving me alone with Vincent on the roof.

My vampire captor turned and looked at me. “Who are you?” he said.

“Your slave,” I answered, tonguing my cheek as I did so.

The answer appeared to amuse him. “I must admit you continue to surpass my expectations. The voice is supposed to take some time to appear in breeders, this is why I have not brought it up with you yet. How long have you known about your power?”

“A few hours,” I answered frankly. “I didn’t know about it before leaving the castle. I went to Monroe’s with the intention of making them believe I was a threat. I didn’t expect I would actually be able to control anyone. It was a gamble.”

Vincent’s eyes widened as he realized just how big a gamble. He smiled however, not seeming too bothered at how close we had come to death. “Sometimes you have to take risks to get what you want out of life. The decisions you made, they were reckless, dangerous, and straight up irresponsible.”

“I—”

“But they are all signs of a good leader. Sometimes you have no other choice but to play the game.” His eyes shone with intrigue. “When I brought you here, I brought you as a slave. I cannot hide the attraction I feel for you. You were a piece of meat to me, with the promise of bringing me an heir further down the line. Do you realize that?”

“Yes, master.”

“I still feel that way about you, but I think I have been shortsighted too. You can be a slave. You can be a fertile womb, but I think you also have the power to be something much greater. The power to be the woman at my side. That has been the element that has been missing this whole time.”

It was strangely inspiring and invigorating to hear him talk like this. Was he finally seeing me as his equal, as his contemporary? I looked inside and asked myself what I wanted. How did Rachel feel about this? What did she make of it all?

Why had she passed up yet another chance to run away from him and be free?

Why had I helped him again?

“I keep helping you,” I said. “Several times now I could have run away, but yet I stay here, slobbering at your knee like a dog in heat. The way you stole me from the world, the way you have kept me here since I arrived. A normal woman should have hated it. She should have spat in your eye and run for the hills. But I don’t. I keep on helping you. I keep feeling like I’m falling deeper into this world with you. Why?”

“Because maybe you’re meant to be here,” he said, his eyes glistening like blazing coals.