Chapter 1: The Captive

“Let me out!” I screamed for what felt like the millionth time. My voice echoed off the dungeon walls, nothing answering my cries.

But I hadn’t expected them to.

Vampires were patient creatures, and after years of being their prisoner, I knew I was wasting my breath thinking they would actually let me out.

But I was also stubborn as hell and a sucker for punishment.

So I kept screaming.

My throat was dry, my voice hoarse, but I was not giving up.

Apparently, they weren’t either.

Especially not tonight when the blood moon was rising.

Concrete walls surrounded me; a small stone grate at the top of the cell let in the icy cold winds of night.

But it was always night in the vampire territory.

At least I could see the stars through the tiny hole in my concrete cell. They gave me a comfort I couldn’t explain.

But tonight I would find nothing but pain.

I had been with the vampires long enough to know that.

The full moons were bad enough, the vampires using me as a toy for their sadism every full moon in hopes they would hear my voice like they had all those years ago.

But I wasn’t using it again. I had learned my lesson.

But tonight was different. It was the blood moon. They were stronger, and they had made sure I was weaker.

I hadn’t eaten in four days. They had barely let me sleep. They had spent their days mocking and taunting me about what was coming—all so I would be as weak as possible against them for the blood moon.

I was terrified they were going to succeed this time.

But I promised I wouldn’t give up—that I wouldn’t use my voice for them. It had been the last promise my mother had ever made me make. I intended to keep it.

Even if they tortured me for hours.

Even if the urge to sing grew when I was around them.

My hands clutched the poles of the cell door, and I screamed again.

A vampire I had come to know well in the last few years came in with a wicked smirk.

He wasn’t like the others. He was pure evil, and I didn’t need the magic in my veins to know that. It was all in his deep, dark eyes that made contact with mine.

“Hush now, Kassandra. Don’t wear out that pretty throat for later,” he taunted, standing with his legs astride, his waist-height staff between his legs as he leaned on it with clasped hands.

He was pale, almost white in skin, his hair slicked back, long and straight. It was whiter than snow and made his dark eyes look even more terrifying.

“You will get nothing but screams from me whether I am here or there,” I snapped, backing up in my cell.

His eyes raked greedily over my body, and I hated how naked it made me feel.

Since I had been taken five years ago, my family was killed for protecting me; I had only ever been allowed to live in my human dresses that were still spattered with my family’s blood.

Unless it was the full moon.

Then I had to wear a small scrap of silver silk that didn’t cover enough of me. It was short with straps that went over my shoulder and across my back.

It was nothing like the clothes I had ever seen, but the vampires seemed to be ahead of our times and particular about what I wore to their monthly moon ritual that involved showing as much skin as possible so they could see the trauma they inflicted on my flesh.

“Oh, you misunderstand, dear. I intend to use your throat for something more tonight,” he smirked.

I sucked in a breath, holding in the gag that tried to escape. I glared at him, his implication turning my stomach.

“I bite,” I snarled, backing up against the back stone wall, my body shaking.

I’d take the torture over what he wanted to do with me.

Silas grinned, a hiss escaping as his teeth extended into sharp points, “So do I.”

I couldn’t help the fear that pierced me. The others left me alone, but Silas didn’t. He taunted me every day with new horrors.

From what I had overheard, he was climbing the vampire ranks faster than anyone ever had.

‘Impressive,’ they had said after he had finished carving up my family and dragged me back to the vampire territory castle, kicking and screaming.

Ever since, he had spent five years trying to force me to sing the song he had first heard.

But it had lured him in; it had been the reason he had found our tribe.

We had been wandering for weeks, looking for a place to settle. We were tired and hungry.

And we had warmed ourselves with a fire in the forest.

And then we had sung together.

I had always had a voice that carried above others, and when I used it, I got lost to it too.

I had gotten lost that night, singing, not realizing my family had stopped.

But when I had looked at them, they were smiling, listening to me sing, the fire crackling in the cold night.

And then Silas had found us with a group of his vampires.

We’d heard the legends that they were dangerous, but they had not seemed so. We had let them sit with us and listen to my song.

It was too late by the time they attacked. We had let our walls down, sure the legends were a lie.

Every single one of my tribe had been killed while Silas grabbed me, his teeth threatening my neck, ordering me to sing.

I looked in my mother’s eyes as she was drained of life, her last breaths spent with the promise on her lips.

I had kept it so far.

And I would keep fighting to keep it. Fuck Silas, and fuck my stupid voice.

“You are not allowed to bite me. I heard the others say the rules were clear. You are not allowed to kill me or taste my blood. It is sacred,” I threw back at him.

I thought that would stop him, but he just grinned and slowly walked up to the door of my cell.

He unlocked it, his eyes never leaving mine as he pulled it open.

He closed it behind him, and I shrunk back against the wall. That made him grin wider, his sharp teeth showing.

“Your mistake is thinking anyone will stop me from doing so,” he said a second before he blurred, appearing right in front of me.

I gasped, going to run, but it was too late. He gripped my throat and slammed me against the wall.

He pulled a strand of my bright red hair up to his nose, sniffing it, a slight hiss escaping with his breath, “It’s so potent. Your siren blood calls to me even now. The red hair is a dead giveaway.”

I frowned, gripping his wrist, trying to pry his hand off my throat, “Siren bloo—”

My question was cut off when he slammed my head back into the wall, pulled it to the side, and buried his fangs in my neck.

I cried out, my screams echoing once again through the cell.

But Silas was right.

No one came running to stop him.

I went limp as his bite drained me, and I was convinced I was dying. It was almost a relief.

Until the pain subsided and something else clouded my mind.

A floating feeling fogged my mind, my body weightless. I let out a sigh, my eyes fluttering closed as a pang of life sparked inside me.

It panged everywhere, my nerves wakening one by one with something sharp and full of energy. It contrasted with the lull in my mind.

It was a high, an ecstatic high that my body and mind gave in to.

“You like that, Red?” Silas grinned, but his voice seemed far away. I smiled and nodded slowly.

Silas put me back on my feet, his pointed features seeming friendlier than I remembered.

“Does it make you feel good?”

I nodded again. It did. It made me feel like there was nothing wrong—like I was warm and safe. I knew I wasn’t, but my body didn’t; my mind arguing with the logic.

“Do you know what else feels good? Singing. Tonight, I am going to bring you out to my friends, and I want you to sing for us. If you do, I can make you feel good again. How does that sound, dear?” he asked.

I felt the manipulation; I knew it was what he was doing, but I found myself nodding. “Mmmm,” I sighed, not sure what had happened to my voice.

I wanted to tell him to fuck off, get fucked, and fuck him, but words were not happening.

Silas grinned and urged me over to my bed, lying me down on it before brushing my red hair back from my face.

My body felt so heavy; I couldn’t move it to smack his hand away.

I wasn’t even sure I wanted to.

“And this is why that ‘no biting’ rule needed to be broken. You see? Rules are meant to be broken. They are only made to stop us from feeling good. So, we will both break the rules tonight, and then we can both feel good.” Silas got up and left my cell. “See you tonight, Kassandra.”

He left, and I didn’t even try to fight the high that claimed me.

My mind swam somewhere between unconscious and awake, and I moved through the clouds in my mind, wondering whether I wanted to come out of it or not.

I wasn’t hungry, tired, or cold in my mind fog.

Before I could do much more than lie there, the fog in my mind swirled, turning into something entirely different.

It turned into an image, one that I was a part of.

I was in the forest, in a clearing highlighted by the blood moon.

But I wasn’t alone.

Three men came forward through the trees, and I sucked in a breath, backing up.

My silver dress snagged on a tree branch, tearing up the thigh.

The men growled, the sound low and echoing as my cold, bare feet sunk into the soft grass beneath them.

I wasn’t sure what they planned to do or why the dream felt so real, but it did. The men did.

Hot, muscular men radiating power and mystery.

“Woah,” I whispered, eyeing them warily.

One had blonde hair that was shaved on the sides and pulled back into a braid on the top. He was the biggest, but his smile was the friendliest. His eyes were blue—so blue they captured mine.

He licked his lips, and it was enough to have me parting mine.

The middle one was tall, almost as muscular, with long brown hair that curled at the ends. His eyes were a mesmerizing brown that reflected the light of the blood moon, so when he looked at me, a shiver of pleasure chorused through.

My stomach fluttered, and I dared a glance over at the third man. He was tall, muscular, and slightly thinner than the other two. His black hair was tousled on his head, shaggy and falling over his thick, dark lashes. His green eyes were already devouring me.

I tried to speak, but nothing came out.

But I wasn’t scared.

I was excited.

My thighs trembled as they came forward. They crossed the clearing in a few steps, and when they reached me, they didn’t stop.

They touched me, caressing my skin. It raised against them, and I sighed as they lowered me to the ground.

I still couldn’t speak as the blond one kissed over my neck. Green eyes spread my legs, lowering his mouth to my core. The brown-haired one exposed my breasts.

I cried out as pleasure assaulted my body. It was a deep, addictive pleasure that felt so damn real.

It was the best dream I had ever had.

And I wasn’t about to tell these strange men to stop. Not even when my body crested, succumbing to their touch in the most carnal way possible.