Warrior (Relentless #4)(213)

Sara swallowed hard. “We were happy. Until he was killed.”

Madeline’s face became pinched. “I went to him and warned him he might be in danger. He didn’t believe me. The last thing I wanted was for him to get hurt.”

“He’d didn’t get hurt, Madeline. He got murdered.”

The pain in Sara’s voice pulled at me. It was all I could do not to slide over and put an arm around her.

Madeline lurched from her chair and went to the window. Outside, rain was coming down in torrents, blurring the city lights.

“Part of me died that day,” she said hoarsely. “No matter what had happened between us, Daniel was the only man I ever loved.”

“Did you even care about what happened to your daughter after he died?” I asked.

I understood her pain over losing the man she loved. I’d go crazy if anything happened to Sara. But Madeline was a mother. She should have protected her daughter above all else.

She scowled at me. “Of course I did! Sara disappeared after her father died, and there was no trace of her. I thought she had died, too, at first. I don’t know why I forgot about Daniel’s brother, Nate, but it was years later when I remembered him.”

Sara had told me Aine had erased all traces of her after her father was killed to keep her safe from the vampires. That was why the newspaper articles had no mention of a child, and people forgot Daniel had a brother. Even Sara’s own mother had forgotten about him.

I rested my arms on my knees. “Tell us about the Master.”

Madeline’s face turned ashen. “I-I can’t.”

“Yes, you can.” Sara’s voice rose. “Why are you protecting him?”

Madeline began to pace, her face tight with fear. “I’m not protecting him. You don’t understand. I can’t tell you because I don’t know who he is.”

“You’re lying. A day before my dad was killed, you went to visit a friend of yours in Portland and you told him you knew about the Master.”

Madeline stared at her. “Jiro Ito? How do you know about him?”

“His son, David, was there and he overheard you talking to his father. You said you knew the identity of a Master, and you needed the money he was holding for you so you could disappear.”

“Jiro’s son was there?” She paused as if she was trying to remember that day. “He misunderstood what I said. I told Jiro that a Master was after me because I’d seen him, but that I didn’t know who he was.”

“That makes no sense,” Sara argued. “If you saw him, you can describe him. And how did you come to see him in the first place or even know he was a Master?”

The air was thick with fear when Madeline sat again and began to tell us her story.

“I was in New York to see Adele, who was opening a new night club there, and I ended up at a party on the Upper East Side. I –”

She swallowed convulsively, real terror in her eyes. “Something happened to me at the party. One minute I was having a drink, and the next I woke up in a cage in the basement of a place I didn’t know. There were vampires everywhere, but none of them talked to me until one named Eli came in. He taunted me about being his Master’s new toy. When I heard the word ‘Master’ I knew I was dead.”

“Khristu!”

“A few hours later, they took me upstairs to meet the Master. I remember walking into a room and seeing him sitting by the fireplace.” Her voice faltered. “I remember every minute I was tortured by him for two days. I remember wishing to die. But I can’t remember anything about him.”

“I’m sorry,” Sara said softly. “Did they drug you to make you forget?”

Madeline shook her head. “He compelled me to forget him.”

Sara turned her shocked gaze to me. “But we can’t be compelled by vampires. Can we?”

“A Master is not a normal vampire,” I reminded her. The vamhir demon in a Master was much stronger than those in a normal vampire. No one knew what made them so powerful, but they could compel other vampires and most demons, including ours.

Madeline trembled. “He made sure I remembered everything about my time there, except him. He said he was going to enjoy playing with me for a long time.”

Lightning lit up the room, and Sara jumped. The three of us were on edge after hearing Madeline’s story.

“How did you escape?” I asked Madeline kindly, seeing how difficult this was for her.

“I didn’t. He released me.”

I stared at her in disbelief.

“He let you go?” Sara asked.

Madeline’s voice cracked. “Something happened. I don’t know what. I was chained in his sitting room and I heard voices outside. Then he came in and said something that made me go to sleep. I woke up in Central Park filled with an overwhelming urge to run. The first thing I did was go to Portland to warn Daniel. I’ve been running ever since.”

“Madeline, why didn’t you go home?” I asked her. “Tristan would do anything to keep you safe.”

“Whatever he did to me made me afraid to trust anyone, especially the Mohiri. Adele is my closest friend, and I can’t even trust her completely.”

For a moment, anger replaced the fear in her eyes. “He stole that from me. He released me from my chains, but he still robbed me of my freedom. Until I can get rid of this compulsion, I’ll never be free.”