By the deep ache in her chest and the sharp whistling sound, she could tell a bullet had collapsed one of her lungs, even if Caine had partially healed it.

Heels echoed on a concrete floor, and someone yanked the hood from her head. Her captor strode in front of her, peering into her bleary eyes.

Rosalind stared into the pale, freckled face of Randolph Loring. She glanced to the right and caught a glimpse of Caine, his body bound to a chair with thick, iron chains—chains that would leach all the power out of an incubus. Black duct-tape covered his mouth, and blood soaked his chest from gunshot wounds to his shoulders.

She gazed around at the iron-walled room. It was nearly bare. A bright light shone overhead, and a metal watering can stood on the floor by two cement blocks. There was a video camera mounted on a wall. She’d seen this setup before, and the sight turned her blood to ice.

Caine’s blackened eyes burned into General Loring with an ancient, primal hatred.

Loring leaned down, examining Rosalind’s eyes. His cold fingers slid over her cheeks, and she shuddered.

In desperation, she wanted to tell him how much she hated being tied up, but the cloth still gagged her. Raw panic gripped her lungs like a vise.

“Mmm. I can see you’d like to speak,” he said tonelessly. He pulled a knife from his belt, cutting through the cloth.

She gasped, looking up at him. “Please untie me.”

“I don’t think so, Rosalind. You look so much like your sister.” He shook his head. “Do you know, Rosalind, that I’d wanted to promote you? We were alike, or so I thought. Not everyone understands that we must take extraordinary measures to fight evil, or that there are strict lines separating the pure from the corrupted. Not everyone has a visceral revulsion to magic like I do. Not everyone understands that the demons won’t respect us if we’re weak and refuse to fight back. I thought you and I were the same.”

“Magic still repulses me,” she said. Apart from Caine’s magic, but she wasn’t going to bring that up now.

“It is a poison. A toxin that corrupts a human body. You seemed to understand that. I’d been watching you from afar. I’d hoped you’d work on our security team. I’d heard about you, and your clever skills. I thought perhaps you’d make a nice wife for one of my officers, or even me. I didn’t know we had a traitor in our midst. We’ll have to be more careful in the future.”

They were in one of the cells deep below the ground in the Chambers. A thick metal door blocked their exit. There was no way in or out of this room without a retinal scan. Even if she could get out of this chair, her own retinas wouldn’t make the “approved” list. She was thoroughly screwed. In a frenzy, she tugged at her wrists, the chair rattling on the floorboards. “General Loring. I didn’t realize you knew so much about me. It is nice to finally meet you.”