Enslaved by the Others

ENSLAVED

“You do like walking the hard road, don’t you?”

Before I could retort, he had me twisted around so my back was cradled against his chest, and he had my wrists pinned at my stomach with one hand. The other was at my throat, his thumb digging under my jaw to force me to tilt my head to the side and expose my jugular. His fangs scraped over my skin and a scream was dragged out of me as I struggled vainly against his hold.

“Ah, yes, I remember now. This is what you fear, is it not?”

My only answer was to increase my helpless squirming, a thin sound of panic and terror dying in my throat.

“Well, then, pet, since you’re not much impressed by pain, perhaps this will deter you.” His cool lips trailed upward, rubbing against my skin like melting ice until they brushed against my earlobe to whisper his threat. “Every time you disobey me, I will bite you. Make no mistake, the last time I did was in haste. From now on I will make every effort to make it last. Each . . . and every . . . time.”

As those last words trailed off, he struck, his fangs piercing my skin so quickly and cleanly that all I felt was pressure, not pain. Then, whatever the hell it is in vampire saliva that makes it feel good kicked in—and this time I was writhing against his hold for a totally different, far more shameful reason....

Books by Jess Haines

HUNTED BY THE OTHERS

TAKEN BY THE OTHERS

DECEIVED BY THE OTHERS

STALKING THE OTHERS

FORSAKEN BY THE OTHERS

ENSLAVED BY THE OTHERS

Collections

NOCTURNAL

(with Jacquelyn Frank,

Kate Douglas, and Clare Willis)

THE REAL WEREWIVES OF VAMPIRE COUNTY

(with Alexandra Ivy, Angie Fox, and Tami Dane)

Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation

ENSLAVED B
Y
T
HE

JESS HAINES

ZEBRA BOOKS

KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.

http://www.kensingtonbooks.com

All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

Table of Contents

ENSLAVED
Also by
Title Page
Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three
Copyright Page

Acknowledgments

As always, I must thank my beta readers for their tireless efforts to set me straight.

Kristin, thank you for helping me finish this puppy on time and with minimal psychological damage. You are my favorite architect.

Tori B., you make me laugh and gave me encouragement I didn’t know I needed.

Tori N., you’re bloody brilliant. Thank you for helping make this a better book in ways you may never know.

J.C., you are the best cheerleader, and don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise.

Brooklyn Ann, you helped me figure out how to fit in a touch of romance in the darkest of moments. How the hell did you manage that?

Kate, I’m sorry that I’m not sorry, but the socks had to stay.

To those who had a hand in the research that went into this book, whether they knew it or not, thank you. A special word of thanks to Captain Awkward and the rest of the Awkward Army for introducing this lurker to terms like “pantsfeelings” and concepts that gave more depth to parts of this story than I thought I was capable of capturing in words. To the people of YouTube, Twitter, and the blog-o-sphere I follow, there are too many of you to list, but I love you fiercely for the education and entertainment you provide. A huge thank you to MacAllister Stone and the gang at the Absolute Write Water Cooler for providing invaluable resources and the kind of camaraderie one could only expect from other writers who have been there and done that.

I want to acknowledge the Polaris Project (
www.polarisproject.org
) for the education they provided on the current state of human trafficking in the United States and abroad. Their website was an invaluable resource for me when doing research for this book. I hope you’ll consider showing your support of the Polaris Project, and other organizations like it, to help put an end to human trafficking.

Thank you to my agent, Ellen Pepus, and to the team at Kensington who have worked so hard to make these stories shine and get them into the hands of readers. John, Peter, Vida, Ross, Alex, Justine, and everyone else who had a hand in getting the H&W Investigations off the ground, you guys are the best.

Last but certainly not least, thank you to all you fans out there.

You all rock my socks. Thank you for all you do.

He who fights with monsters should look to it
that he himself does not become a monster.
And when you gaze long into an abyss,
the abyss also gazes into you.