isn’t frightened when she wakes as well.”
Isadora then sat on the edge of the bed where Emma slept. The girl’s face was still pale, as was expected from blood loss.
Emma stirred, her gaze landing on me first. She gasped, fear rounding her eyes and stealing her breath. I waved a gentle hand over her, willing her to calm with a whispered spell in my native tongue, “Hum tumhare dost hai.” I pushed a pulse of hypnotic magic into the air to settle over her, to convince her we meant no harm. At once, she eased back onto her pillow, focusing her attention on Isadora.
Isadora glanced up at me then back at the girl. “Hi. I’m here to help you, Emma.”
“I know.” My magic worked on her, persuading her that we were friends. She licked her ashen, dry lips. “They can’t seem to make me feel better. I feel so sick. So tired.” Tears sprang to her eyes. “And I can’t remember. Not anything really. Except being in pain.”
I clenched my fists till the knuckles popped.
A vampire’s bite was mostly pleasurable with the euphoric toxins that released into the blood when fangs penetrated the skin. But the aftermath, once the toxins wore off, would certainly be painful. Especially if the vampire had been aggressive. Rough. Unless the vampire used glamour to ease the pain, which apparently these had not.
Glamour was a kind of persuasion that could be used to deceive the senses of others—what humans saw, smelled, tasted, felt. So it was a courtesy and a kindness to extend a glamour spell to a blood host so that they didn’t feel pain after they gave their blood. But these bastards hadn’t bothered. Not only were they violating these young women by stealing their blood, but they also didn’t care how much pain they caused their victims.
“I know,” assured Isadora, her voice soothing and kind. “But I can still help you. Will you let me try?”
The young girl nodded, tears streaming. Isadora lifted Emma’s hand in both of hers, whispering under her breath. The lights flickered and the IV shook as Isadora shifted the energy in the room and poured her healing magic into Emma. The young woman’s eyes closed, her mouth falling open as she tilted her head back on the pillow, a look of almost ecstasy as Isadora fed her more and more magic.
Her pale cheeks flushed pink, then her lips, the sallow complexion vanishing, replaced with a glowing vibrancy. Isadora kept on, murmuring softly as Emma received the energy Isadora channeled into her. The vampire wounds on her neck faded, the dark purple bruising vanishing first, then the raised and reddened puncture marks. Finally, when Isadora released her, Emma sucked in a deep breath like she’d woken from a nightmare, her eyes wide in shock.
“What happened?” She was confused, which is right where I needed her to be for one more minute.
I stepped alongside Isadora and placed a hand over Isadora’s where she held Emma’s. “I’m going to take a look inside, Emma. But it won’t hurt.”
Her brow pursed in deeper confusion, but she nodded all the same, still fully under my spell.
Perfect.
Without waiting a second more, I washed her with a tidal wave of magic, letting my voice fall into a hypnotic rumble. “Close your eyes, Emma, and show me where you’ve been for the past week.” I needed her fully entranced before I searched inside her mind.
“Of course,” she obeyed, robotically closing her eyes.
I did the same, hoping like hell everything hadn’t been erased. “Show me where your abductor has been keeping you.”
“Yes,” she agreed.
Just like that, I was in her head, stumbling into a world of darkness.
She breathed hard. She was blindfolded. I read for every scent and sound since I couldn’t see anything through her eyes. I could feel ropes or bindings of some kind on her wrists. Then the sound and scent of two men drawing near.
A muffled voice of one man, then another responded as a door opened. “Thirty minutes is plenty of time.”
Emma yanked on the bindings, but then the man crooned softly. Her body went limp with glamour before he punctured her neck and drank until she was listless and exhausted.
The fear riding Emma angered me the most since she remained blindfolded, but I’d listened intently as he walked from the door to her. It was a small room. The walls were close. She lay on a bed or mattress, but it must take up most of the room because when