Before I could start to second-guess myself, Damon returned.
“Brother,” Damon said curtly. The scent of hot, fresh blood wafted from his mouth, and it was al I could do to keep my fangs from making an appearance. “Shal we?” he asked, indicating the warehouse where Samuel had hosted one of his famous dock parties.
I stepped onto a rotting crate and peered through a filthy window. A dozen people wandered about the room, wearing wel -tailored clothes and looking like they had made a wrong turn on the way to a bal . I knew they must be Samuel’s vampires. In the center of the warehouse was a pile of bodies. Blood stil dripped from some of the wounds on their necks, like a fountain in the center of a town square.
Al of a sudden, one of the vampires turned toward me, fangs flashing. I jumped down, hoping I hadn’t been seen.
“Let me see.” Damon pushed me aside so he could look in the window. But it was too late. The window and door were suddenly smashed open, and two vampires barreled out, pinning me to the dock as I desperately writhed under their crushing weight. For being newly turned, they were surprisingly strong, and every time I seemed to loosen one of my limbs, it would be pinned down al over again.
I heard a crash as another vampire jumped down through the broken window. The sound was fol owed by a snarl. I twisted my head to see Damon and Lord Ainsley locked in combat. Lord Ainsley was growling and gnashing his fangs as Damon struggled to wrestle him to the ground.
Damon ended up flat on his back instead.
“Hold off, Ainsley!” Samuel’s voice echoed as al the vampires looked up expectantly, as though he were a priest who’d just ascended an altar at a church service. “And hold off on the brother, too. They’re mine.”
He placed the heel of his boot on Damon’s chest and leaned his weight into his foot. Damon gasped, and I heard the crunch of a rib breaking.
“Let this be a lesson to you,” Samuel said, glancing at the vampires around him. More vampires had circled the two who’d pinned me down, and I could no longer see Samuel. Al I could see were eight bloodthirsty vampires glaring at me, their newly formed murderous drive practical y glowing in their eyes. “Damon here is a vampire who might have made quite a good foot soldier at one point. He’s smart. Devious. Charming. We could have been quite a team if he hadn’t made some unfortunate blunders in his youth. He set his sights on women he didn’t deserve.
As if my long-ago love, Katherine, would ever truly have taken him seriously! But he persevered, only to kil carelessly. Not to mention choosing the wrong teammate.” At this, Samuel kicked Damon’s ribs and stalked toward me, leaving him gasping for breath.
A shaft of moonlight fel on Samuel, giving him a sort of spotlight. At that moment, I had a feeling those eight vampires would have been easier to fight off than Samuel alone. He looked tal , refreshed, and utterly triumphant. He was the hunter, and I was the fel ed prey. Samuel had two choices: kil or compel. I wasn’t sure which would be the worse fate.
He knelt down until his face was only inches from mine.
“I’m done playing games.” Samuel cupped my chin and forced me to look him in the eyes. I squeezed mine shut.
“Patrick!” Samuel barked, and one of the young vampires pried my eyelids open with his stubby fingers. I writhed, looking up at the stars, trying as hard as I could to pinpoint the constel ations, anything that wasn’t Samuel.
“Look at me!” Samuel ordered, grabbing a fistful of my hair and pul ing my head up from the wooden dock.
“No!” I averted my gaze and focused on a spot of dried blood on Samuel’s cheek. What could I do to resist his compulsion? I tried to think of anything—Katherine, Mystic Fal s, Cora, Violet—anything to take me to another time and place. I knew I had to resist looking in his eyes, but I felt my head being turned without my control, and I knew it would only be a matter of time before…
A blur raced toward Samuel, and a jolt caused him to release his grip. Damon had regained his strength and fought off Lord Ainsley. He jumped on Samuel’s back, but before he could get a good hold on him, five more vampires piled on top of Damon and pul ed him off, leaving Samuel free to reinstate his death grip on me.
“Your brother won’t help you now, although your familial ties are admirable,” Samuel said. “As you know, I had a brother once. And then you two murdered him. And I’m afraid I’m the type of man who holds a grudge. Terrible character flaw, I know, but luckily, I have an eternity to attempt to correct it.”
I bit the inside of my lip and continued to look up at the sky. But then, I felt a burning sensation on my skin and realized one of the young vampires was holding a match to my cheek as Samuel continued to hold me down. I involuntarily jerked my head and locked eyes with Samuel.
“Good.” Samuel smiled. “Just stay there, and the fire wil be over before you know it. But if you resist, then we’l have to add more flames. It’s your choice.” I could smel my burning flesh and feel the flames heading toward my hairline. In the center of Samuel’s eyes, I was entranced by two tiny figures.
“That’s it,” Samuel repeated, his voice sounding like he was talking underwater. “Now, your brother was never good to you, was he? Always disappointed you? Always caused trouble?”
I couldn’t break my gaze. In Samuel’s left eye, I immediately recognized Damon. Or, at least, Damon’s body, consumed by flames. And in the right eye was a version of me. I was with a woman—whether I was kissing her or feeding from her neck, I wasn’t quite sure.