Bound to Night by Nina Croft Page A

field himself. Anyway, he was going to organize a meeting, but I was attacked the very next day when I went to meet him.” She shrugged. “That’s it.” She glanced from one to the other, trying to stop the fluttering in her stomach. “Why do you want to know all this? What’s it got to do with my father?”
    Jack looked at Sebastian, nodded, and then got up and paced the room.
    “We found the wolf who attacked you,” Sebastian said.
    A scalding flood of fear washed over her. Bile rose to the back of her throat, and she swallowed.
    “His name is Michael Oswald,” Sebastian continued. “We want you to question him.”
    “Me? How? Why?” She didn’t want to go anywhere near him, and she certainly didn’t want to get inside his head.
    “He’s not talking. We need to know who paid him.”
    “Paid him? Why would you think that?”
    Sebastian smiled wryly. “Contrary to popular opinion, we don’t make it a habit to attack humans at random. On the other hand, it’s not unheard of for weres to act as paid assassins. We don’t object as long as it doesn’t bring attention to our kind. So, can you do it?”
    Suddenly, Tasha longed to be back in her nice yellow bedroom, with her head in a book, or watching TV. She didn’t want to confront the creature who had caused all of this misery and confusion in her life—the creature from her nightmares.
    “We need to find out why this happened to you,” Jack said. “Until we do, there’s no going back.”
    She nodded. “I’ll do it,” she said, fighting to subdue her fear. “At least I’ll try.”
    “Good.” Jack took out a phone and spoke quietly into it, then sat and waited. “So,” he said, after a moment’s silence. “What was Sebastian thinking?”
    At his words, Tasha glanced up. “What?” she asked.
    “Sebastian. What was he thinking when you read his mind?”
    Tasha flicked a glance at Sebastian, who smiled. She couldn’t look away, and her mind was flooded again with the image of that long, golden body poised naked over her own, the sinful expression in his hot blue eyes. She stared down at her hands as heat rose to her cheeks. “Er, nothing important,” she mumbled.
    Jack raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to speak, but the door opened behind them. They all turned as two men came in, leading a third, shackled between them, a silver collar around his throat.
    Tasha recognized the two guards as the vampires who’d been with Jack the night of their escape, but she didn’t recognize the prisoner. He’d been in wolf form the night he attacked her, and she found she could look at him after all.
    Compared to the others in the room, he was short, stocky, with cold blue eyes and shaggy, blond hair. He was shooting wary glances at Jack and Sebastian but hardly seemed to notice her.
    The two guards dragged him to a chair, fastened his handcuffs to the arm, and stepped back. He looked up, defiance flashing in his eyes. “Why am I here?”
    Jack rose to his feet and stalked toward him. He stood, staring down, and the man’s insolent glare faltered. “What’s a vampire doing here?” he asked.
    Jack ignored the comment. “You remember a job you did eight years ago?” he said.
    The man frowned. “I’ve done lots of jobs.”
    “This one should be quite memorable. You were employed to kill a thirteen-year-old girl.”
    “So?”
    Jack’s fist moved faster than Tasha’s eyes could follow and blood oozed crimson from the man’s nose. “Do you remember?”
    “Yes.” His reply was sullen yet still defiant.
    “What happened at the hit?” Jack asked.
    The man’s eyes flashed around the room. For the first time, he appeared nervous. “I killed her,” he said.
    “Is that all?” Jack asked, and he nodded. Jack turned to her. “Tasha?”
    She stood up and shuffled forward to stare down at the thing that had haunted her dreams for so long. He stared back, something stirring to life behind his eyes.
    “Who’s she?” he asked but Tasha