Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 140780 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140780 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Chapter Ten
MARCUS REARED BACKWARD, WAVING HIS ARM at the guards who’d raised their guns again, not entirely sure who to point them at. The doctors had retreated behind one of the G-wagons, looking as if they’d happily steal one and speed into the sunset.
“For fuck’s sake, put your weapons down!” Marcus shouted. “Don’t shoot!”
The guns lowered a fraction, but Whisper continued to growl, deep and rumbling.
The outside chaos felt muted and detached—an eerie sense of separation as if I viewed everything through the lens of death.
Marcus held up the vitalsync remote. “Take the knife off your throat, or I’ll hurt you again.” His face twisted. “Watching you bleed such precious Ashfall blood is pissing me the fuck off and I’m done. Do you hear me?”
“Do you honestly think he’ll survive more torture?” Rook hissed, baring her teeth like a rabid little fox. “You activate that awful pacemaker again and it’ll kill him!”
Marcus ignored her, his thumb hovering over the button. “Do you need a reminder of what happens when you disobey me, Lucien?”
“Go ahead,” I said softly, pressing the knife harder to my throat. “Let’s see if that’s the dose that’ll finally free me.” Thick droplets of blood dripped like morbid red jewels from my wrist. In the chaos of escaping, I’d knocked the silver cuff, leaving one of the permanent ports open enough to leak.
Yet another thing bleeding me.
Another thing pushing me into my crypt.
I couldn’t really focus anymore.
I crossed some invisible line between life and death, rushing toward full system failure.
Rook clutched me close as I swayed, her heart knocking against mine, sending Morse code through our ribs.
My hand slipped, cutting my throat a little deeper than I intended.
Ow.
“What the fuck do you want, Lucien?” Marcus barked. “I’ve had enough. Tell me what you want and—”
“I want what I’m owed.” Pure violence shot through me. “I want you to pay for everything you’ve fucking done. I want—” I coughed, wet and deep—the last of my blood bursting from my mouth and splattering all over Marcus’s feet.
The knife slipped from my fingers, clattering to the ground—
“Guards!” Marcus bellowed. “Grab him. We’ll return to Cinderkeep immediately!”
Boots crunched on the driveway gravel, coming straight for me.
Panic crawled as hands landed on me, bruising—
Rook screamed and Whisper lost his mind.
The panther flung himself at the guards. With a deafening snarl, he bit one and shredded the trousers of another.
One guard screamed. Another ran.
A gunshot went off and Whisper ducked, flattening himself to the grass.
I tried to crawl out of my coffin long enough to protect my only friend. “S-Stop—” I folded forward, racked with another wet cough. “Don’t hurt him!”
“Do it,” Marcus commanded.
“NO!” Heat detonated in my blood. Fire surged up my spine.
I gasped as liquid, molten fury ripped through me, so hot and violent, it threatened to cremate me from the inside out.
For a split second, I thought Marcus had triggered the vitalsync core again, but...this was different. This heat came from somewhere deep inside, just waiting to burn the world to the fucking ground.
Another gunshot.
I convulsed—
Metal suddenly pressed against my throat as Rook wrapped her arm around me, hauling my lifeless bulk against her. I collapsed into her hold, her coolness colliding with my heat, keeping me awake, stopping the flames mid-lick.
“Shoot Whisper,” she yelled. “And I’ll kill him!”
Everything froze, even the rain.
“I’ll kill him,” she screamed. “I swear to God, I will. If you don’t leave Whisper alone and let all of us go, I’ll...I’ll...I’ll slit Lucien’s throat and spill the rest of his blood myself!”
My heart kicked in disbelief as the dagger broke the first few layers of skin. Pure adrenaline kept me awake long enough to suffer yet another crush of very inconvenient and highly complicated feelings.
What was she doing?
This wasn’t her fight.
She should’ve run—
“Don’t be stupid, Rook.” Marcus throttled his umbrella with shaking fists. “You didn’t want to harm him in Cinderkeep and you won’t harm him now. Besides...” He shrugged and cocked his head. “If it’s true that you are pregnant, who cares about him? You both carry the R gene which means your child will be even more potent than he is.”
R gene?
What the fuck is the R gene?
“So go ahead.” He shoved one hand into his trouser pocket. “I’ll wait.”
Whisper folded himself over my legs.
And Rook...ruined everything.
Repositioning the dagger over my jugular, she said ever so calmly, “I’m not pregnant.”
Marcus stiffened. “What?”
“I said there’s no pregnancy. We haven’t slept together. There is no child.” She laughed a little psychotically. “He lied to protect me from you, don’t you see? So if I kill him, there’s no one else.” Her voice turned so cold, a blizzard blew down my spine. “No more blood. No more whatever it is that you’re doing with it. Everything dies with him and you lose it all. So go ahead and test me, you bastard.” She shifted closer as if she would happily slit my throat. “Push me and you’ll see just how far I’ll go to ensure Lucien is never tortured by you again.”