Something was coming.
Chapter Twenty
Rocco
Balthazar.
He flashed into the room in a swirl of sulfur and shadow, materializing inside the glowing pentagram like he'd been waiting for the invitation.
He was just as I remembered him. Dark long hair cascading past his shoulders. Shirtless, his muscled chest gleaming in the candlelight. Leather pants that clung to him like a second skin. The wannabe rock star from hell.
Literally.
My blood ran cold. Every muscle in my body locked up.
The memories slammed into me like a tidal wave—the obsidian walls of his chamber, the crimson light from eternal flames, the screams of the damned echoing in the distance. I could still feel his fingers twisting into my hair, wrenching my head back until my tendons strained. The cold bite of hellish chains around my wrists, inscribed with runes that mocked every attempt at escape.
"Such an easy pawn to manipulate," he'd said.
And I had been. Broken. Chained. Helpless.
I remembered the blade at my throat—a hellish blade with ancient writing that pulsed with unholy light, a demon's head carved into the handle with ruby eyes that seemed to sneer at me. I remembered the thin line of blood he'd drawn, how I'd closed my eyes and accepted my fate because I deserved it. Deserved to die in hell after what I'd done to my mother.
I remembered Serenity's tears as Balthazar forced her to drain my power. The way my head snapped back, the scream that ripped from my throat as my very essence was stripped away. My skin turning ashen, my cheeks hollowing out, my strength becoming hers against both our wills.
A proud prince reduced to a sacrifice on the altar of Balthazar's cruel games.
And now he was standing ten feet away from me, a slow smile spreading across his face.
"Well, well." His voice was silk over broken glass. "Rocco Palazzo. We meet again."
Selena's hand tightened around mine. I could feel her trembling—could feel her fear, seeping through my skin.
I stepped in front of her, putting my body between her and the demon. Something settled inside me—not courage, exactly, but something harder. Colder. The same thing I’d felt when Angelo had threatened my mother. The knowledge that there was nothing I wouldn’t do, no line I wouldn’t cross, to keep this woman alive. A demon had taken everything from me once. I wasn’t going to let it happen again.
I’d die protecting her.
"Rocco,” she whispered.
She must have sensed it—my terror, raw and exposed. Two years of nightmares, two years of waking up screaming, two years of remembering what it felt like to be nothing more than a plaything for a demon's amusement.
I didn't answer her. I couldn't.
His eyes burned red—not a trick of the light, but actual flames dancing in those ancient, pitiless depths. His gaze swept the room and landed on Rose.
"Rose Dragan." His voice dripped with contempt. "You dare to summon me?”
She met his hostile gaze without flinching. I had to give her credit—most vampires would have been cowering by now. "We're desperate."
"You must be." He stepped out of the pentagram like it was nothing—like the magical barrier meant to contain him was a mild inconvenience. He walked around the room, trailing his fingers along the furniture, examining us like insects under glass. "And what, pray tell, do you idiots want?"
Selena's fingers dug into my arm. I could feel her pressing closer to my back, and I reached behind me to squeeze her hand.I won't let him touch you.
She was my mate. I had claimed her. No one would hurt her again.
Every instinct screamed at me to grab Selena and run. But running from Balthazar was pointless. He'd find us. He always found his prey.
"You want to protect Noelle, don't you?" Valentin asked, his voice steady despite the tension radiating off him.
