shift back and transformed her.”
Slowly Jack’s smile died. “He didn’t make you do it for him? You know, he didn’t have you suck her blood and then make her drink yours…?”
“No,” she said with a disgusted look.
Jack pushed a hand through his long hair and shook his head. “Damn, that would’ve been hot.”
“She’s a shape-shifter. Are you even getting this?”
He shrugged, then looked at Vixen. Then, frowning, he really looked at her. His brows drew together. “Vixen. And that hair. And those eyes.” He glanced at Briar again. “You saying she’s some kind of a fox?”
“Pull your hair back, Vixen. Show him.”
Vixen lowered her head, but not in shame, for she knew no such thing as shame. But she hated defeat. She hated obeying the girl with the blackest heart in all the world. Still, she pulled her hair back, and Jack looked, and then his brows shot up.
“Are her ears slightly…pointed?”
“Mmm-hmm. And now she’s going to try to shift back into her animal form. If she can still do it, she can be of invaluable help to Gregor. I mean, can you imagine the places she could get into where we couldn’t fit? Hell, we could set her loose inside a bank, then have her shift back and let us in after closing.”
“Gregor’s got more money than God already.”
“You can never be too rich,” Briar said. “You ready, Vixen?”
“I think so.”
“Then do it.”
Vixen nodded and sank down onto the floor. She lay down on her side and pulled her long, copper hair around her face. She closed her eyes and pretended to will her form to change. But in fact, she wasn’t willing it at all. She didn’t know if she could change, but she wasn’t going to do it just for them. Especially not for Briar. She had to wait, because she wasn’t sure she could fit between the bars. So she had to wait.
She lay there for several minutes.
“Dammit, Vixen, do it,” Briar snapped.
“I’m trying…”
“This is bullshit. She ain’t a damn fox.”
“She is, I’m telling you. Do it, Vixen!”
Vixen said nothing, just lay there, trembling, because she could feel Briar’s anger, and when that one got angry, it didn’t go well.
“You are gonna be so fucking sorry,” Briar whispered.
Vixen heard the keys in her cell door. Yes. Finally. Vixen focused. She honed her energy and saw herself in her mind’s eye as a fox, running free, and then she felt her body shrinking, growing smaller, vanishing into her long protective hair, until the hair was her tail, curled around her body like a warm coat and covering her face.
She’d changed. Just as Briar swung the cell door open and came charging inside, probably to hurt and punish her, she sprang onto her toes, her clothes falling away behind her, and darted right out of the cell, racing between Briar’s feet, dashing past Jack, who jumped and dodged her as if in fear for his life.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” she heard him say as she raced past.
“Don’t just stand there laughing, get the damn thing!”
She didn’t know which way to go and sought wildly for some means of escape. There! The door, and that gap in the bottom. Please, let her fit! She ran up to it.
Then the door swung open, and the master himself stepped in. She darted fast, intending to race between his feet and outside before the door swung closed, but Gregor was faster. He grabbed her by the tail as she rushed past and lifted her high.
“Well! So she can still do it after all!”
Vixen twisted her little body around, and sank her claws into his arm and her teeth into his hand. She sucked blood from him as he howled, and a hunger reared up inside her such as she had never known. They’d been starving her to keep her weak.
She drank all she could before he flung her away so hard that her body slammed into the stone wall and sank to the floor. Energy spent, she felt herself changing again, becoming a woman. A vampiress. She lay there, naked, her head aching, her tailbone throbbing, the taste of Gregor’s blood on her lips.
“Jack, toss her back into the cell. Briar, you have some explaining to do.”
“I didn’t mean to let her get out,” she began.
“Not about that. I understand you sent one of the drones on an assignment last night, without clearing it with me first.”
Jack scooped Vixen up into his arms, and she remained limp, not because she was acting, but because she was exhausted, half starved and in pain. He seemed to try to be gentle with her, as he carried her into her cell and lowered her down onto the cot that was the only piece of furniture.
“You said this person, this hit-man vampire, was coming after you,” Briar said. “I caught wind of where he was, and I didn’t see any reason to delay and risk losing track of him again. So, yeah, I sent a drone to take him out.”
“Well, the drone failed. Any task that takes thought isn’t exactly their forte. But that’s irrelevant. Next time, Briar, do not even think about giving orders. I’m in charge here, not you. You have no authority.”
“But…but—”
Vixen heard pain in the dark one’s voice. She was hurt and confused. The black-hearted bitch deserved it—and more.
“The thing is, Briar, I want him to come after me. I need him. Alive.”
Briar blinked slowly. “Well, you could have just told me that.”
“Easy, Briar,” Jack said. “Haven’t you figured him out by now? He operates on a need-to-know basis. And you didn’t need to know. Just like I didn’t need to know about our guest here and her special abilities.” He looked at Gregor. “Even though I’m his right-hand man. Right, Gregor?”
Gregor shrugged, but the look in his eyes was chilling. “You complaining, Jack?”
“Not me. Not a chance. You’re driving this rig, and I’m content to sit in the passenger seat and ride along. Always have been.”
Gregor grunted but said nothing more. Instead, he looked down at his hand, which was dripping blood. “Briar, come with me and patch this thing up before I bleed out. Damn. Good thing it’s almost dawn. Jack, you see to the vixen here. Make sure she’s staying put for the day. We can use her.” He took Briar by the arm, and left the horrible underworld where Vixen was forced to exist on stale air and darkness.
Jack closed the cage door, double-checked the locks, and then she heard his footsteps moving away. She expected that to be the end of her torment, but no. Only moments later, she heard his return, caught his scent.
Her
