His eyes were blue, but not the dreamy blue of lazy summer afternoons.
They were cold and traitorous, like arctic waters.
They held my gaze, pulling my soul in like some cursed vortex.
Coldness thinned the air between us.
“This one will do nicely. I’ll take her,” he declared in a tone not used to objections.
Did he mean—
Dr. Vexley shook his head.
“A woman? Are you sure about that? I’ve been preparing Jeremiah for weeks!” He gestured at the young man with the bleeding wounds.
“I’m absolutely sure, Vexley. We’ll do it tonight,” the blond stranger said.
His fingers closed around his cane, its handle made of ivory.
A high-pitched whine filled my head, like the scraping of claws against metal.
I recognized the symbol carved into the ivory handle.
That dark Ouroboros, the serpent, biting its tail.
“Very well then. Alice, get her ready!” Vexley ordered. The room spun around me.
Daphne
The Angel of Death
Alice and Anne led me to that gray, empty room where I had been locked up after my arrival.
“There is no escape, darling. Adapting is your only chance of survival,” the tarot reader had told me.
To hell with this.
My jaw hit the floor when I saw the dress spread out on the stained, bug-infested mattress. The cut was old-fashioned, yet it would still make any debutante proud.
It was a deep, vibrant explosion of color among the sad walls: the color of old wine and dried blood.
“I’m not wearing this,” I said, pointing at the corset. Alice grinned.
“Oh dear, yes, you are.”
No fucking way I put that over my bruised ribs.
“Sure,” I said instead, grinning and putting my hands on my hips. “Try me. I can keep you busy for hours.”
They exchanged looks.
“Leave it,” Anne whispered to Alice. “We need to get her to Doctor Vexley’s office NOW! She’ll be dead by the end of the night anyway—why bother?”
Alice eyed the satin garment, then shrugged and tossed it back onto the bed.
Encouraged by this minor victory, I let them dress me.
They took off the tattered nightgown and pulled a silk petticoat over my head, hemmed with rich black lace. The soft velvet of the dress was pleasantly warm.
