Samuel’s POV

I stopped him at the bottom of the stairs.

Not with words or with force. I stopped him with something else, a compulsion that rose from the bond between us, from the power Elena had awakened when she fed. David froze mid-step, the sledgehammer trembling in his hands.

“Put it down,” I said, and watched in horror and fascination as he obeyed.

Elena appeared beside me, her hand finding mine again. “Good,” she whispered. “Now come back upstairs, David. We need to talk.”

He climbed the stairs like a puppet, fighting every step, his fury battering against my mind. When we released him in the library, he collapsed...