Lawrence flashed his fangs. “Deadly.”
If Shaun hadn’t been trying to barter for a woman’s life,he would have rolled his eyes. “Why?” he asked tiredly.
“Because you think you can just waltz around the city doing whatever you please.” Lawrence stalked forward, grabbing Shaun’s throat as he leaned in close. “Your life belongs to me.”
“You can punish me some more, but don’t bring some innocent person into this,” Shaun gasped, finding it hard to speak with Lawrence crushing his windpipe.
Lawrence looked right into Shaun’s eyes. “Youwillkill her,” he said, layering the words with compulsion.
Shaun fought it. He fought it so hard that his entire body shook with the effort.
But his fangs still extended, eager for blood.
“Kill her, and I will let you out.”
Shaun’s gaze fell on the woman. “Yes, Master,” he whispered.
“Enjoy your meal, pet.” Lawrence unlocked the manacles around Shaun’s wrists before shutting and locking the basement door, leaving Shaun alone with the woman.
Shaun closed his eyes. Normally, the compulsion would force him to obey Lawrence regardless of how reprehensible he found the action. But he knew now he was strong enough to resist the pull that told him to obey his creator, no matter what the cost.
He concentrated on throwing off the compulsion, the barbs of the command falling loose as he regained control.
Shaun took stock of himself, cataloguing which parts of his body had suffered the most damage. Amid all the pain, he found a modicum of relief that Lawrence hadn’t deigned to fuck him whilst enraged.
He steeled himself, walking gingerly towards the woman. She was out cold, but her chest moved up and down in even breaths. A good sign. Well, as good a sign as any, all considered.
She had the telltale double incision on the inside of her wrist where Lawrence had bitten her. Judging by her ashen skin, he’d taken more blood than in normal circumstances. Shaun wouldn’t be able to feed from her at all, lest he inadvertently act on Lawrence’s will.
Shaun might be able to move around the room, but he was far from free.
All Shaun knew was that he wouldn’t kill the woman, and he wouldn’t let Lawrence do it either. But if he didn’t get out of the basement soon, he doubted either he or the woman would live to see another night.
He went back to the wall, tugging on the chains embedded in the stone. He’d been working on them ever since they’d moved to Brighton a few years earlier. Even at his strongest, it would be a challenge to pull them out. Of course, he was never at his strongest when in the basement.
He examined the link closest to the wall. Degraded, but not overly so. Not enough for Lawrence to have noticed.
Shaun glanced at the woman. With fresh blood, he’d have more strength to break the chains. He knelt beside her, checking each of her wounds. The blood on her head had clotted, sticking to her hair in congealing lumps. Not ideal, but it was all he had.
He offered a quiet apology to her before scraping the dried blood from her head. It didn’t come close to the sensation of drinking warm blood straight from the vein. Only the knowledge that he needed it had him persevering. It wasalmost devoid of flavour, which was a small blessing, but the texture left much to be desired.
Once he’d choked down all he could stomach, hating himself every time he touched the woman, he hurried to the wall, keen to put the memory of what he’d just done behind him.
He paused for a few seconds, straining to hear if Lawrence was coming back down the stairs. The basement had soundproofing, but you could tell when someone was right outside the door. Shaun only heard the faint sound of the woman’s heartbeat, however.
He grabbed onto the weak link in the chain and yanked, sending puffs of dust into the air. Metal ground against metal as he pulled with all his might. Again and again, he pulled, then stopped, listening each time for movement on the stairs.
Eventually, and unexpectedly, it gave. Shaun fell backwards with a jolt, landing on his backside, the broken chain in his hands. He stared down at it in shock, then let out a startled laugh. He hadn’t truly trusted it to work.
As he composed himself, he considered his next move. No matter what, he needed Lawrence to think, even for the shortest length of time, that Shaun had followed his orders and killed the woman.
Lawrence would know she was alive within seconds of being in the room. But she just needed tolookdead for long enough for Shaun to gain the advantage.
In the end, he chose shock value. He tore into his own arms, dripping the lethargically flowing blood over the woman. He painted a macabre picture on her skin until she was drenched in red. It left him light-headed, his armsbarely healing. The impression it gave would hopefully be distracting enough to even someone as indifferent to violence as Lawrence.
Because Shaun was out of options, and this was his last stand.
“Master, Master, please. Let me out! I can’t be here with th-the body.” Shaun choked on his words. Perhaps playing a role for over a decade had improved his acting skills. “Pleaseforgive me.” Okay, so maybe that was laying it on too thick, but Lawrence loved nothing more than him begging and repentant. He even let loose a few tears, which weren’t all that hard to conjure when he thought about all he’d endured over the past few days.
