Ezra couldn't take his eyes off Natalie as she slept on her side next to him, stuffed in the blankets but pressed with her back to his chest. Up on his elbow, he ran his arm around to touch her face, and a purr escaped him. The sound had startled Natalie the first time she'd heard it, and it was new to him as well. It was more so to him that a vampire could make an affectionate noise, considering the kind of monsters they were, predatory, power hungry, and devoid of that which once made them human.

Natalie was so beautiful with her smooth, pale skin shaped by moonlight wisps of hair. Warmth emanated from her body where it connected to his, and he never minded that her hair tried to strangle him most days. It was so long and soft but also took over if it wasn't tied up. Ezra wandered his hand lower to trace the gentle swell of her stomach, and a groan slipped from Natalie's lips.

The bump was shallow still, but it was physical proof that his child grew inside of her, that she had accepted him. It annoyed Natalie, he knew, how much he loved to caress it, but it was not out of fear or disgust. Natalie let him touch her, laughed pleasantly at his overabundance of affection, and relaxed next to him when it came time to sleep. While she tried to stay awake during the nights for him, of late, she passed out well before the sun rose. The light filtered in now, but it didn't bother him much when it meant he could be with her.

"I will never sleep if you don't stop petting me, Ezra," Natalie said, turning to him with a smile that eased his nerves. Every time she mentioned his touch, he feared she'd tired of him, but she had yet to show it if she felt so.

"Forgive me, Natalie," he tried to say the words, but they came out in a purr again. It was so hard for him to suppress the blissful rumbling in his chest. No one had ever been close to him like this, allowed him to touch them, nor promised to love his child.

"I'll forgive you if you grab me something for breakfast. The little one in my stomach has been sapping my strength." Natalie turned to him, lying on her back, and he couldn't stop himself from lowering his upper body over her.

There, he stopped, his face just inches from hers. Ezra wanted to kiss her, to run his hands up her face and tell her he loved her and would never leave her side. But she didn't want to hear such things. This was temporary, and as soon as her friends came for her, she would return to her mate. And he would be alone again.

"I won't leave you here. You'll come with me, I promise." Luna's words teased his mind.

Ezra clenched his fists into the sheets and closed his eyes just as her hand grazed his cheek to comfort him. Luna always smiled at him now, treated him well, and welcomed him, and while it was only a façade, it made him happy. No one had ever bothered to fake anything that gentle for him before.

She hadn't meant her words. Not really.

It was nice to think so, but he'd seen the way she'd looked at him when they'd met, how repulsive he'd been to her. Those feelings didn't fade easily, and if she got a chance to run, she wouldn't be waiting around or coming back for him. That was okay though. The woman just wanted to live, to survive, and she was leaning on him because he was all she had. He wasn't delusional enough to read any more into it. After all, she had a mate. What would he be to them? Her rapist? That sounded like a long fulfilling life.

"Ezra," Natalie said his name, and he didn't want to open his eyes, to see the woman who would never love him.

If he could just pretend that she wasn't going to abandon him the moment escape presented itself, it was better. Even if she would leave him to die in a heartbeat, Natalie was his hope. For a long time, he'd given up and become complacent to the master's commands, but with his child growing within her, the fight had grown inside him once more.

If he could get her out of here, he would give his life for it.

The fate of not only her but his child rest in her hands. It would break him to see his child go to those cruel masters to be raised and programmed to their wills and desires. Some part of him feared that they'd be cruel to it, and other parts worried it would grow to be as cruel as them. There was no winning, and he had to get Luna out one way or another.

It wasn't necessary for him to go with her.

"You know I can feel when you're upset," Natalie said with a sigh that tore his eyelids open. A frown had worked its way onto the smooth features he loved, and he hated himself for being this way.

"I know. Forgive me," Ezra said, removing his arm and rolling onto his back. "I will get you breakfast." Ezra was out of the bed before her deceptive hands could reach him again, and he backed away from the bed with his hands up to keep from chasing him. The way she was half sat up, she had intended to.

"I'm sorry I can't love you," Natalie said into the sheets, her milk white eyes sinking, and his heart lurched in pain.

"It's not that," Ezra said, a low growl shaking him. Why couldn't he trust her words, that she wouldn't abandon him, that she cared? Nothing about her rang false, but no one had ever said such things, promised that he meant something to them, that he wouldn't be cast aside for their own interests. "I don't expect you to love me, Natalie. I am just worried about everything really."

"You're not a good liar, Ezra," Natalie said, lifting him a pitying smile. The master had forced Natalie to sleep with him and now to carry his child, but she pitied him.

And he couldn't trust that any of it was sincere.

"I'm sorry," Ezra whispered before he slipped out of the room.

The barrier that locked them in didn't cage the masters' own blood, and the masters had changed him, but Natalie was unable to escape without them allowing her out. The sick men bet that Ezra wouldn't abandon his child and left him unshackled, and they were right. Before Natalie had arrived, he had been unshackled, so it wasn't as if it were a new experience. It just angered him that he could do so little to free her. For months, he'd tried to figure out a way to get word to her allies and failed miserably. Soon, she would grow with his child and it would be hard for her to escape regardless of who came for her.

Each day grew more frustrating, and he almost broke the platter as he slammed it on the counter to fill with food for her. Dhampir pregnancies were much like human ones, except that as they grew later in the terms, they were not supposed to be moved. It could upset the child within them, and with the dark magic growing inside of a vessel of light, it was dangerous. There was still time before that, but each day he lost more hope that he would get her out of her.

Forget whether or not she took him with her.

Ezra decided to put his focus on the food rather than Natalie and his child's dismal future. A few of the peaches were overripe and had to be tossed out, and he moved on to the apples instead. They allowed him a shopping list to insure Natalie was getting all of the nutrients she needed, but as vampires, they didn't always take care to make sure how long the perishable foods would last. It was still much better than they fed their slaves. Ezra had eaten no such things as a human and wondered what fruit tasted like since vampires couldn't taste solid food like humans did.

Perhaps he could ask Natalie, but he wasn't sure how she could describe something when all he could taste anymore was blood. Of late, he'd wanted to taste hers again, but it was better not to. It wasn't as if a small amount of blood would hurt her, but the stress of it might. While she'd given it to him the night they'd conceived, he had no right to it otherwise. If she even knew he thought about such things, she might change her mind about allowing him to sleep by her side.

Ezra poured a pitcher of water as he thought about watching her sleep, tracing the curve of her pale neck in the moonlight and salivating over the thought of sinking his fangs into such soft skin. That night, she'd tasted so sweet on his tongue, and he'd drank from her in his pleasure though he hadn't needed it. The way she'd just smiled at him after had him mesmerized.

It was all a pretty good act, pretending she cared for him.

"I can't sense anything in here. It's like a giant maze," a voice came from the hallway, and Ezra set down the pitcher just as two men rounded the corner.

A blast of dark energy hit him, more powerful than anything he'd ever sensed, and his hand shook so hard that he had to grip the counter as two foreign men came into the room. Three, he recounted as a smaller one slid in next to them but exuded no magic at all. Ezra had never seen a creature that did not have magic, nor one with hair the color of ripe grass, but his focus was on the other two.

They took notice of him and immediately made a wall of muscle and dark magic to keep him from fleeing, one at the entrance and the smaller of the two over the side door. These were not the masters nor the slave vampires, which made them Infiltrators. But they were vampires.

Unlike mages, who would come to save Natalie and likely leave the rest of them to their lives after eradicating the masters, vampires were a brutal breed. They left no one behind. They wouldn't stop until every one of the masters' experiments and slave soldiers were dead, Natalie included. No dark creature would take more than half a look at a caged grand mage before ending it.

"You're not shackled," the smaller one said in front of the side door. Black stretch material wrapped his body for ease of mobility and accentuated every muscle with a threatening shadow, even covering his face up to his eyes. This one was an assassin, no doubt. No one wore attire that ridiculous except for a function, and his was stealth.

"Is he an enemy?" the other vampire, and Ezra stiffened.

They were weighing whether to kill him or not. Both had dark eyes, but the one's of the man who'd asked the question were liquid onyx, so dark it pulled Ezra in like an abyss. This one looked to be an aristocrat by his fancy dress wear layered in greys and pitch before hanging between his legs. It was reminiscent of the garb some of the visiting mages wore when they came to pick a few humans among the bad stock. When the girls were not good for bearing children or the men too weak to work, they were given away to the master's acquaintances as gifts.

"The man is getting food, so he's likely a servant," the assassin said. "A vampire, yes, but there are many programmed to serve the masters from birth that do not need restrictions. Who are you taking food to?" The assassin turned his attention to him, sharpening his grey eyes.

Ezra's throat constricted. Why did this man care? Either way, Ezra needed to look amiable and take them to a master. They were the only ones strong enough to deal with them. Perhaps he could lure them with promises of something else. 

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