I woke with a jerk.
The dark wooden ceiling was carved with weird symbols.
Those twisted lines seemed to crawl right across my eyes like they were alive.
I tried to move.
Pain stabbed through my right arm like a red-hot poker. My brain went blank. Then every bone in my body screamed—ribs, shoulder, back of my head—all at once, like they wanted to rip me apart.
“Don’t move,” a deep male voice came from my left. It didn’t leave room for arguing.
I turned my head slowly and stiffly.
There he was. Victor.
He sat in the shadows by the fireplace. Firelight jumped across him. Those storm-gray eyes stared at me without blinking, like he’d been waiting forever.
The black tattoos on his arms twisted in the light. They looked like they were breathing, moving with a life that made my skin c
