rush ahead of him and take the chair without the restraints, sitting quickly as Sir leaves the room, the door clicking behind him.
Cutter raises an eyebrow, and then surprises me by taking the other chair without argument. Score one for me, maybe. Or this is all a test.
My bet is on the latter, which deflates my momentary victory like a popped balloon.
“Can I get you anything?” he asks, and it’s so damnably polite, I have to resist the urge to scream.
I’m in a cold, dank dungeon. Held against my will by a century-old vampire whose only goal is to steal my essence, or maybe even my very life. And he’s offering me refreshments.
“How about freedom?” I snap.
“All right,” he says, surprising the hell out of me.
“What?”
“You can have your freedom. After today, I will have no more need of you anyway.”
His words, the way he dismisses this entire nightmare, carry a dark sense of foreboding, but I press ahead.
“And my sister. And the twins,” I say, stopping short before I add Logan’s name to the list. I don’t want to show my whole hand too soon, or put Logan in danger. “I want their freedom, too.”
“Of course. All of you will be free to go. We only have one last test to conduct and then this can all be over.”
He’s lying.
Or keeping something from me.
I have to know.
“I won’t help you make yourself into a monster.”
He looks intrigued at my words. Head tilting, he says, “Is that what you believe yourself to be?”
“What I am is not yours,” I tell him.
“On the contrary, when I am finished, your power will belong solely to me.” He smiles. “And then you will be free.”
“None of this will bring Genevieve back,” I say, and his expression contorts. His eyes narrow and I realize too late I’ve only made things worse.
“She has spoken to you. I guessed as much.”
His voice is quiet now, deadly calm. Lethal.
I watch him warily.
“She showed me what you did,” I say. “What you’ve done to every woman in my family since.”
His eyes glitter with a malice that is only barely contained. “As you might have guessed, this is so much bigger than just saving your sister. It is also much more important than even my beloved Genevieve.” He pins me with a look that makes me shiver with the violence it promises. “This is about me becoming the powerful creature I was meant to be. When I’m done, every human, vampire, witch, and werewolf will bow. And the ones who don’t will pay.”
Obey or pay. Seems to be his theme.
I roll my eyes, so tired of the blade’s edge I’ve been perched on. And for what? A broken heart? A lover’s need for petty retribution?
“Do you hear yourself?” I ask. “You went through one breakup and completely lost your shit. It’s ridiculous—”
His hand blurs with a movement too fast for my eyes to track.
I only know what he’s done when his palm makes contact with my cheek.
I gasp, the wind nearly knocked out of me at the force of just one blow.
Cutter leaps from his chair and roars, canines suddenly lengthened as he hisses at me. Shrinking back in my chair, I try to breathe. And think. And come up with some response that won’t end with my throat ripped out right here where I sit.
“You can still do the right thing,” I half-whimper.
He doesn’t answer, but after several ragged breaths, he backs away and returns to his seat.
My face stings where he struck me, and my skull throbs from the earlier abuse I endured. But through it all, I force myself to think.
There must be a way out.
Around me, the spirits of the departed weep and mourn, but I don’t see Genevieve among them. The idea that she has given up and abandoned me to my fate is almost too much to bear.
I look up as Cutter’s expression clears. He cocks his head as if listening to something I can’t hear. A second later, the door opens and Nurse Schmidt walks in followed by Sir and Logan.
My eyes widen at the sight of the doctor, and I bite back his name on my tongue.
But it wouldn’t matter.
His eyes are glazed over with the evidence of whatever illusion Schmidt has spun around him.
They each push a wheeled gurney with a body draped in a sheet.
I strain to see the faces of the newcomers, but they’re completely covered.
“Any problems?” Cutter asks.
“None,” Schmidt assures him.
“Good, set them up and let us