“Poor Valentine,” hetsks, crouching in front of me. “You thought you’d gotten away from me, and yet here you are, back at my feet.” He snags my chin, and I avert my eyes, not wanting to give him eye contact. “Look at me. Now.” Damien shakes my head, but I refuse. “Tell me how you broke free from the cells before. No?” he asks when I stay silent. “Fine, I know how to make you talk.”
A strangled cough comes from Ava, and I look over to see her desperately gasping for breath. Her face is already turning pink, and her body spasms as she clutches her throat to no avail.
“Ava!” I move toward her but make no progress. “You son of a bitch. Let her go! I’ll talk!” I concede.
The shadows must let up, because she gulps down a much-needed gasp of air and sputters. She curls in on herself and rests her head against the floor to catch her breath.
Turning to Damien, I clench my jaw and finally make eye contact. His face is a mask of eerie calm, but I see the anger bubbling under the surface. He’s always been sadistic and the last thing I want is him messing with Ava.
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” He cocks his head at me. “Now answer my question. How did you escape?”
My lip curls in disgust as I look at him. “I don’t know.” For years, I was unable to leave, and I couldn’t understand why. And as I became weaker, the fight inside me died. I know now that Ava’s ancestor put a spell on me to keep me bound, but back then I had no idea what they’d done that kept me prisoner.
Damien smiles and stands from where he was crouched. Slowly circling my prone form, he stops in front of Zav and Celine’s cell. They’re still unconscious, but seeing him soclose to them has me on edge. I know firsthand how dangerous this man is.
“I see you need more motivation.” Damien waves a hand, not looking away from me as he does.
Zav groans, slowly coming awake, and Celine fidgets where she lies beside him. He looks up and growls, trying to get up. When the shadows keep him from doing so, he spits in Damien’s direction.
Snapping his fingers, the shadows wrap tighter around Celine, and she coughs just like Ava did.
“You monster! Fucking stop!” Zav screams, his wild eyes darting to meet mine. There’s an urgency in them, and I snarl at the situation we’re in. I don’t want to give Damien any information he might need to do further harm, but with the girls here, he has the perfect leverage against us.
“Leave them out of this, Damien,” I yell. “They have nothing to do with it.”
Damien clucks his tongue and squeezes one more time before easing up on Celine. Zav corrals her weak body to his. The unhinged vampire looks defeated in this moment. I hate what Damien has done to us in such a short amount of time.
“I beg to differ.” My brows draw together at his words. “After you got your little human out, I realized I underestimated you and that Valentine was probably with you. Did you like my presents, Zavier?” He turns toward the redheaded vampire. “I tried to emulate your … designs, in an effort to lure you out.” He cocks his head to the side. “You don’t seem appreciative.” He clucks his tongue. “Such a shame.”
Zavier scoffs and understanding floods his features. “Those poor imitations? Subpar at best and totally laughable. If you wanted to take me out to dinner, you could’ve just asked.”
Damien was behind all of the copycat murders?
I would have never guessed that.
Squatting down, Damien lets out an irritated sound. “You are nothing but an abomination, Zavier Lockwood. I should’ve put you down like the dog you are when I had the chance. Same for your blond friend who I know is somewhere in the building.” Standing once more, he brushes a piece of invisible dirt from his immaculate suit jacket. “Through trial there are bound to be errors. Now I’m slowly but surely eradicating those errors.” He gives Zav a knowing look and walks back over to me. “One by fucking one.”
If he knows Luna and Levi are here, that means he’s a step ahead of all of us, which I fucking hate. My mind races with potential exits but I’m coming up blank. I can’t scent anything nearby, and since everything around me is unfamiliar that puts us at another disadvantage.
“Back to you.” Damien crouches in front of me once more. “It should have been impossible to escape, and yet you did. The curse bonding you to us has been broken. Explain,” he hisses. “How. Did. You Do. It? I don’t take kindly to my things running away, Valentine.”
I shake my head once more. “I already told you—I don’t know. Celine helped me physically escape, but once I was out and with my mate, that was that.”
Damien’s silvery eyes narrow. “I still can’t believe you would stoop so low as to mate with that witch.” His voice raises as he speaks. A crude laugh leaves him. “You have no idea what you’ve done, Valentine. None at all.”
He walks toward Ava and I panic. I’ve seen him irate on rare occasions. I swear he’s constantly simmering under the surface, and only rarely does it bubble over. Somehow by mating with Ava, I’ve just sent him into a boil.
“What does my mate have to do with you?” I yell, trying to move but again being denied.
Damien stops and glares at me over his shoulder. “As soonas you mated this filth, you severed the cursed bond. That wretched witch I used to curse you wove a way out for you into the spell—a mate from her bloodline would undo the curse. Her desire to give you a chance at freedom cost her her life, but I’m certain you don’t remember that with as out of it as you were.” Hetsks. “Now I must get rid of her and see if it solidifies once more. Of course, I can’t be certain it’ll work, but I imagine with your mate no longer in the picture, you’ll be a lot more accommodating.” His smirk is pure evil.
“You don’t even know if that will work! Leave her alone!” I catch Ava’s terrified blue eyes and see her body practically vibrating in fear.
“It’s a risk I am willing to take.” Damien shrugs and sets his sights on her. Lifting a hand, he twists and pulls her body to standing with the shadows.
Raw fear filters through my pores and tears flood my eyes. I don’t want to believe the universe is so cruel to allow me to escape one hellhole for another. Now that I have Ava, I don’t want to go one more day without her. It would be absolute misery to function without the pink-haired witch. Not to mention how sad Pom Pom would be.Weneed her.
Now that our mating bond is complete, I canfeelher fear as acutely as my own.
