My face warms with shame. Flanagan knowing the gory details somehow makes it worse. “Is he? Untouchable?” I say through gritted teeth.

“Not if I have anything to do with it. But his family is…influential.” He rubs his eyes. “I know you are not to blame for what you are, but you’re still an unknown and a danger and therefore under the custody of the Blackriver Guardians. You will have every comfort you need, but I do have to secure you.”

“A comfortable cage. Sound peachy. How exactly is that better than being with the vampires?”

“Believe me, you have no idea.” He sweeps up the clothes from the bed and thrusts them at my chest. “Go and shower. We’ll eat breakfast on the deck and talk.”

I make no move to take the clothes. His explanation for stealing my liberty is nowhere near good enough. I lock eyes with him, but as usual, I can’t hold his intense gaze without feeling like my eyeballs are cooking.

I let out a harsh breath. It’s not as though he’s ever going to concede my point or bend to my demands. Only the long game is going to work in this situation.

Snatching the clothes from his hands, I say, “I want to know what happened at the labs.”

“I will tell you.” He points to the far side of the room. “The shower’s that way.”

I throw him a last poisonous glare. I hate his guts right now, but I need to get on the bastard’s good side, and a hot shower will calm me down. I turn without another word and tramp across the wooden floor to the door he indicated.

It leads into an en suite—a huge modern bathroom with a walk-in shower room attached. I’m still too hot with anger to pay much attention to it, but I get a sense of sandstone tiles and natural furniture.

As I dump my clothes on a stool, I catch my reflection in the wall-sized mirror above the sink and stalk over to get a better look. A gasp leaves my throat when an unrecognizable man peers back at me. There’s no evidence on my skin anywhere of the beating I received. I’ve lost a bit of weight, the muscles of my arms and chest more defined because of it. The dark gray metal collar sits around my neck like a brand of ownership. Symbols curl across its dull surface resembling silver filigree.

But it’s my face I don’t recognize. The weight loss has accentuated my cheekbones, not unusual, but my pale skin has an odd luminescence, as though I’ve swallowed a light bulb. My eyes glow such an unnaturally intense green they shine out from beneath my dark eyebrows like jade-colored jewels lit from behind.