Must Love Fangs

was no air. Panic shredded at me as his teeth sank deeper into my skin, like claws ripping at my flesh. He sucked hard, blood running down my shoulder.

I twisted violently against him, but it was no use. My lungs ached and panicky lights began to flash behind my eyes. It wasn’t going to end like this, was it? Choked to death by a feeding vampire? I kicked feebly.

The world began to edge with black, and I dug my fingers at his arm, trying desperately to free myself. I . . . couldn’t . . . breathe . . .

Then everything went black.

• • •

A hand patted my cheek. “Are you okay?”

I stirred, my head throbbing, my throat aching. My shoulder felt like it’d been scraped raw. I opened my eyes into a dark room, lit only by a small night-light on the far side.

At my side, the person scuttled away and I sat up, turning to look at her. As I did, chains clinked and I frowned, putting my fingers to my neck. There was a metal collar around it with a chain attached. I looked over at the woman. “I’m chained?”

“We both are,” she said, and moved into the light of the night-light.

It was a human woman, her hair hanging about her in a tangled cloud, and what I could see of her face was hollow and unhappy. She wore a metal collar and a dirty bikini top.

She smelled, too. Like unwashed skin. I wrinkled my nose and scooted backward, hissing at the waves of pain the movement sent through me. I gingerly touched my shoulder and winced. “Asshole,” I muttered, trying to examine it in the low light. It felt raw as hell, but I couldn’t tell how bad it was. “Where are we?”

“In a wine cellar,” the woman said. The dim glow of the night-light revealed the long chain attached to a hook in the wall. “He keeps his meals down here.”

“Meals?” I repeated stupidly. “Who are you?”

“I’m Lily Faust.”

The name didn’t ring a bell. “Is Andre keeping you here . . . to turn you?”

She gave a mirthless laugh. “No. I’m his lunch when he can’t find anything else.” She raised one arm to the dim glow of the night-light, and I saw that her arm was riddled with bites. Big, ugly ones.

“Oh, my God,” I said. “He’s going to keep us chained in here?”

“For a short time,” she said softly. “Then I imagine he’ll get rid of one of us. He’s brought a few others down every now and then, but . . . I never see them after he takes them away. I don’t know if he lets them go, or something worse.”

Considering he kept a girl chained in his basement to feed on? I was going to go with “something worse.”

I stared up in the darkness. A crack of light upstairs told me that a light was on somewhere. “Are we . . . still in his house?”

“I don’t know,” Lily admitted. “I went out on a blind date with what I thought was a nice guy, and the next thing I knew, he was choking me. I woke up here. I’ve been here for . . . a while.”

I swallowed hard. “How long is a while?”

“What month is it?”

Oh, God. “May.”

She shuddered. “Six months. I suppose I should count myself lucky. The others never even last a few weeks.”

I didn’t have months, and an hysterical laugh bubbled in my throat.

“What’s so funny?” Lily stared at me.

“I’m dying,” I choked out. “Fatal disease.” When she scooted away, I added, “Not contagious. I just find it ironic that he kidnapped a dying woman. Guess he’s in for a rude surprise.”

“Is there anyone who’s going to come looking for you?” she asked. “My family’s dead. I don’t have anyone, and I was at college. I think that’s why he snatched me. Easy pickings.”

I thought of Josh. His look of betrayal as I’d run away from him tonight. God, I was an idiot. He’d known something was suspicious about Andre; he’d warned me not to go.

Just trust me. We’ll find a way.

And I’d thrown that trust in his face. I totally sucked at this relationship thing. “I don’t know if anyone will come looking for me.”

She sighed heavily, and I felt like echoing it.

“When will he be back?” I asked.

“He comes every day,” she said dully. “I guess when he’s hungry and needs something to snack on.”

I tugged at the collar around my throat, then looked up at the crack of light up the stairs that led out of this place. “Someone will come looking for us,” I told her, forcing bravery into my voice. “We can’t just go missing.”

Except my dad wouldn’t know where I was. Ryder, either. Bath and Sara would just assume I was avoiding their calls, since I’d been fired from the agency. If Josh didn’t come looking for me . . .

I stopped that line of thought. He had to come.

Had to.

I extended a hand in the darkness toward Lily. “We’re going to get out of here.”

She clasped her hand in mine, and I noticed how thin and fragile her hand was. “You don’t have to try and cheer me up. I’ve been here for six months. I know what our odds of being rescued are.”

• • •

A voice called my name, stirring me out of the darkness. “Marie,” I heard. “Marie!”

Hope surged in my chest. Josh!

But Lily still slept undisturbed, huddled against me. Was . . . was it just a hallucination? I’d had several of them since being chained down here. I didn’t know how many hours had passed. Endless, tense hours, waiting for Andre to return.

“Marie!” he bellowed.

I licked my dry lips. Maybe this was real. “I’m here,” I called, my voice faint. I was thirsty and hungry, and weak from the loss of blood. When I tried to struggle to my feet, it was extremely difficult.

There were footsteps somewhere upstairs, then I heard a hand try the doorknob.

Lily woke up and gasped, scuttling into a shadowy corner of the room in terror.

A large body slammed against the door. Once, twice. Then it crashed open.

“Marie?” Josh asked, and I saw his glorious, wonderful silhouette, haloed by the lights.

“I’m here!” I said, still struggling to stand up. The chain at my neck felt as if it had weighed a hundred pounds. “Josh, I’m here!”

“Thank God.” He fumbled for a light switch, then cursed and moved down into the darkness. His eyes gleamed like a cat’s in the night, scanning the room. They lit on me, and I heard a feline growl start low in his throat. “Baby. What did he do to you?”

I was enveloped in warm, strong arms. I clung to him, burying my face in his chest as he kissed my hair, stroking it back from my face. I even cried. “You came after me!”

“Of course I did. Are you crazy? I’ve been worried sick about you.” His hand went to the collar at my throat, and the low, ominous growl started in his throat again. “What the fuck is this?”

I couldn’t seem to stop shivering, even with his warm arms enveloping me. I was so tired and cold and weak. “He’s keeping us down here. Like snacks.”

He lifted his nose and scented the air. “I thought I smelled someone else. Who’s here?”

“Another human girl,” I told him.

In the darkness, I heard Lily whimper. I didn’t know if it was a whimper of fear or a whimper of acknowledgment.

“I’m getting you both out of here,” Josh said roughly. He pressed a quick kiss to my forehead, then grasped the chain again, eyes gleaming in the darkness. “Where’s this linked to?”

“The wall,” I told him as he began to follow it.

He grasped the chain where it was attached to the wall. I knew Josh was strong, but was he that strong? His muscles bulged and I heard him groan . . . and then I heard the brick