Priceless

calm holding back the anger brewing beneath the façade. All my training, all the strength I’d built on over the years, was nothing to him.
    “Fuck!” I knew he almost had me. I could feel my resistance to him slowing. For all I was worth, I clung to O’Shea’s emotions.
    “Let go of him.”
    “No.”
    “Do as I say, Rylee.” His words were so insistent; I wanted to do as he asked. I wanted to please him.
    My body shivered, caught between the two men. I had nothing left to fight, and his lips covered mine, his tongue plunging into the depths of my mouth. Power flowed between us, and he ground his hips into mine, his desire obvious. I wasn’t Milly, but I knew an out when one was given to me. Still hanging onto O’Shea’s emotions, I kissed the cloaked man back until his arms went around me, sliding down over my hips, cupping my ass against his ever hardening body.
    His hands started to strip me out of my clothes and at that moment, I sensed his loss of control. He couldn’t fuck me and keep a handle on my psyche at the same time. Still, I kept my eyes closed. I didn’t want to see his eyes, those icy blue eyes that sucked me in like some sort of vortex. I had a feeling if I looked him in the face, no amount of control lost on his part would save me.
    Instead, I started to strip the cloak off him, pulling it over his head, and the horny fool let me. Like a hockey player starting a fight, I lifted the cloak up, got it halfway over his head, tangled it, and shoved him backwards, kicking out at his left knee. The joint gave way under my foot, and he screamed. Thank you, Doran, for that little gem.
    I spun, yanked the door open and tumbled through into the caves. Without a goddamned light. All the Coven members were dead, so all of their Witchlights were out.
    In the pitch black, I was unable to see my hand, let alone know where I was going. But, I had a plan. In a manner of speaking.
    The plan was to follow along the edge of the wall until I hit the bodies of the two witches we’d killed. If the woman was still alive she could make a witch light; if she wasn’t, surely one of them would have something on them I could use. Surely.
    Of course, three steps in and the door behind me opened. The man—sorcerer—whatever the fuck he was, was right behind me. With a light. Well, that would work. I bolted down the cavern with him right on my tail. Even with his busted leg, he was
fast
. The upside was he was no longer trying to control me. The downside was that I knew if he wasn’t trying to control me, he was going to try and kill me.
    Arms pumping, sweat dripping down the side of my face, I could taste the dusty cavern on the back of my tongue with each desperate breath I took. Fingers grazed the back of my jeans giving me an extra spurt of adrenaline.
    We raced through the cavern and turned a corner that turned into a near spill for me. As I looked up from my scramble, I could see the harness dangling, like Manna from heaven.
    Three feet away, I leapt for it and started to climb, but he was too close and latched onto my ankle before I could get out of reach.
    “We’re not done yet, Rylee.”
    I didn’t answer, and just kicked out with my free foot, catching him in the forehead, snapping his head back. A flash of white fangs and those icy blue eyes made me scream.
    Vampire, he was a vampire.
    The rope was nearly yanked out of my hands as someone began to haul me up. I fought my urge to flee and the urge to drop back to the ground to try to finish him off. Berget, my Berget, had been taken by vampires.
    Self preservation kicked in and I clung to the rope as it—and I—were pulled to the surface. Hanging from the rope, I had time to think, time to ponder. But I did nothing. I let my mind go blank, let my fear hold me onto the rope for the lifeline it was. I was yanked from the mineshaft and slapped into handcuffs. My Miranda rights read to me. My mind numb. I was unable to believe what had just happened, and I didn’t fight them.
    From below, the vampire called up to me. “I’m not what you think I am, Rylee. But not to worry, we’ll meet again. I promise you that.”
    For the first time in my life, I was grateful for the police. Of course, at that particular moment they were arresting me for multiple murders of FBI agents, not to mention I was in league with the rogue former FBI Agent O’Shea, and being accused of being the leader of a kidnapping ring. The moon had risen since we’d been in the