Lorne (The Dark League 1) by Melody Adams

grimaced but remained silent. Angry, I let my claws grow and drew them across his face. He barely altered his expression, but the sadness that I saw in his eyes was clear.  
    “Now I want to know the truth! Where. Is. Lorne?“
    Lothaire avoided my eyes.
    “We have to get out of here, Trisha. It’ll be light soon. I’ll explain everything to you late...“
    “Fuck you, Lothaire!“ I shouted. “I’m not going until you have answered me!“
    He hardly flinched.
    “Lorne ... Lorne has done an exchange with Gregory!“ he said finally.
    “What sort of an exchange?“ I asked impatiently.  
    “He’s offered himself in exchange for you.“
    “What?“ I shouted. “He’s done what? Where is he? We have to ...“
    Lothaire had grabbed my hand, wanting to take me with him.
    “You can no longer help him!“ he hissed. “His wish was that you should be rescued and that I should take care of you. Don’t make his sacrifice worthless. Gregory will not hesitate to tear you apart before Lorne’s eyes if you try anything stupid.“
    “What does the son of a bitch plan to do with Lorne? Where is Lorne?“ I asked, beside myself.
    “I don’t know!“ replied Lothaire, but I could see that he was lying. I glanced at the wall where the silver handcuffs were hanging that I had, until a few moments earlier, been tied up with. As quick as lightening I grabbed Lothaire’s hand and put one of the handcuffs around it. Before he could react I had locked the cuff and I quickly jumped out of his reach. Lothaire bellowed angrily, staring at me wildly.  
    “What are you doing? Have you gone mad?“
    “I want to know now where Lorne is. If you don’t tell me, then I’ll ask Gregory and I’m sure you don’t want that, do you?“
    Lothaire swore wildly but he seemed to understand that I was being serious.  
    “At the moment he is probably still with Gregory. But they’ll soon take him outside.“
    “Outside? I don’t understand.“
    “They’ll chain him up in the inner courtyard and wait for the sun. That’s the punishment that vampires get for betrayal.“
    “Betrayal? Do I have to drag every word out of you? What is Gregory accusing Lorne of?“
    “Lorne was not always a hunter of the League. He was a Renegade. Gregory was his best friend.“
    “What?“
    This was new to me. I would never have guessed that Lorne had ever belonged to the Renegades. Now it made sense that I had been abducted. Gregory must have had it in for Lorne from the beginning and he had counted on Lorne offering himself up in exchange for me. And if I did not come up with a plan quickly then the man that I loved would soon roast in the sun. Literally. How long did it take for a vampire to die in the sun? I knew that we could be outside for quite a while when we were appropriately protected, but I presumed that in this case Lorne would neither be provided with sunglasses nor sun protection cream.  
    “We have to save him,“ I said to Lothaire. “When they chain him up there, then we’ll simply free him.“
    “That won’t be so easy, Trisha,“ said Lothaire gently. “They have covered spectator stands that they’ll watch from. You can’t just burst in there and take Lorne away.“
    “But what can we do?“
    “Hide and wait. Hope they leave the spectacle before Lorne is dead. They’re sure to leave one or two guards there. We’ll have to knock them out before they can set off the alarm. I’ll help you, but only under one condition.“
    “What?“
    “You’ll do nothing rash but will leave the command to me. It’ll be hard. You’ll have to bear seeing him burn. We can’t move in as long as everyone is assembled there. There are at least twenty Renegades here. The two of us won’t deal with that many.“  
    I closed my eyes, horrified. How was I to watch Lorne burning calmly? I knew that Lothaire was right and if we were going to rescue Lorne we had to go about it with a clear head. But I could not just switch off my