“I’ve never been afraid.”
“Sure you were. Everyone is afraid of something.” She found herself leaning toward him. Mirroring his movements was part of her strategy. Trust building. Her subjects always talked more when they felt secure with her.
“Is that so?” His chains creaked again. “Then why don’t you tell me what you fear…Olivia.”
How had he known her first name?
“I heard the guards talking about you,” he murmured. “When a sexy young doctor walks into hell, people take notice.”
It wasn’t hell. It was Purgatory. And her muscles were too tight. “This interview isn’t about me. If you’re not going to participate in the session, I can call the warden back in here. There are plenty of other vampires I can have brought in. I don’t have to talk with you.” Pate had picked him, not her. She could find someone who unsettled her a bit less.
“Ah…so there’s an answer. You fear me.” He nodded, as if he’d just had a theory confirmed. “I thought as much.” He gave what looked like a rather sad shake of his head. “You probably shouldn’t have gotten yourself locked in a room with a man you fear. Not such a smart move, love.”
“Stop calling me love.” This was professional. An interview. Nothing more.
Nothing less.
“Love, I truly fear nothing because I have already lived through every hell imaginable.”
She believed him. The truth was in his eyes and his voice.
“Tit for tat, is that how this will be?” Shane asked. “You reveal to me…and I reveal to you?”
The last thing she intended to do was reveal her own secrets. “That’s not how it works. I’m not the prisoner here.”
“Aren’t you?”
She stared down at his files. “You killed four men in Chicago. Why?”
“Why not?”
Her right hand fisted. “There are other vampires…” She was already going to be interviewing three more. “I don’t have time to waste with you.”
Silence. She knew he was waiting for her to look up at him. So she didn’t. She kept staring at those files as if they truly fascinated her. As if—
“You shouldn’t mourn those men. They weren’t some innocent humans. They were killers, too.”
Her gaze lifted.
He’d leaned toward her even more, stretching out those chains that bound him. “Is that what you want to hear, love? That they were evil, and I only kill evil humans? Will that make the crime better for you?” His words were low, deep, wrapping around her.
Olivia shook her head. “No. I want to hear the truth.”
He smiled then. “No, you don’t. No one ever does.”
She was getting nowhere with him. Normally, she could take months to build up trust so that her subjects would talk to her. Pate hadn’t given her months. Her clock was ticking down every moment.
“What is it like when you kill?”
The chains squeaked. “You’re more blood thirsty than I realized.”
You have no idea.
Olivia had to keep pushing him. “Do you ever think about your victims or is the attack just about…you?”
The color of his eyes darkened. Vampire. “It’s always about me, love, always.”
***
Case turned away from the video screens. Dr. Maddox hadn’t recognized him, and that was damn good. He’d pushed her deliberately, to see if she might remember him, but she hadn’t. He’d only been in her presence once, briefly, years ago. Obviously, he hadn’t made a big impression on the woman.
But then, Dr. Maddox had always been more interested in the paranormals than the humans around her.
That was why she was there. Her interest in monsters was the reason that they were both there. He started to pace. The interview was still going on, but the vamp wasn’t telling Dr. Maddox anything new. As far as Case was concerned, there was only one reason why the paranormals attacked. They killed because that was the nature of their beasts. You didn’t need a fistful of degrees to figure that shit out.
He whirled back toward the screen. Dr. Maddox and the vampire were leaning toward one another. The vampire looked as if he just couldn’t wait to take a bite out of the lady. Shane was still bound though, still chained securely and—
Case saw the end of the chain begin to rip away from the floor.
Fuck!
***
When she heard the groan and pop of that chain, Olivia surged to her feet.
But it was too late. He’d ripped the first chain from the floor. The second followed an instant later.
Her breath heaved out as she waited for the vamp to go right for her throat.
Only he didn’t move.
“I told you…” Anger hardened his voice. “You’d be dead in less than a minute.” His eyes burned with fury. “So the next time you get a prisoner in here, make damn sure you have a guard with you.”
The door flew open behind him. Case rushed in, with two guards right on his heels.
Shane leapt to his feet and whirled toward them.
“No, don’t!” Olivia cried out, but the guards had already fired their weapons. The bullets slammed into Shane’s chest and he stumbled back against the table.
She grabbed for him, clutching his shoulder. His head turned and his eyes met hers.
“Why did you do that?” Olivia whispered. He’d known the others were watching. Had he wanted to get punished?
“Solitary!” Case shouted. “Throw his ass in the sun for twenty-four hours, and let’s see how he likes it!”
Shane’s eyes began to sag closed. She realized he’d been hit with tranq darts. “Remember…always…guard…”
He was trying to protect her? The cold-blooded killer wanted her to have a guard at her beck and call? What. The. Hell?
Case’s hands wrapped around Olivia’s shoulders and he pulled her away from Shane.
Then the vamp was dragged out of the room. His chains trailed behind him.
***
Sunlight. Burning from every wall. Burning down from the ceiling. From the floor.
“Neat little cell, isn’t it?” Case asked him as he shoved Shane into solitary. “Scientists can invent the most amazing things. I mean, it’s not real sunlight, but your kind gets weak from ultraviolent radiation, too, right? I mean, this is like one big ass tanning bed.” He laughed. “So I’m sure you can see just how much fun this place will be for you.”
The light blazed all around him. For an instant, Shane remembered another time. Another place.