The needle marks on my arms suddenly burned. Elias had drained me completely of my blood. . . .
Gabriel couldn’t feel me, so any clues I could have gathered to try to lead him to wherever I was being held didn’t matter.
Gabriel couldn’t help me. I was alone.
“At least tell me if Thomas and Inola are alive!”
Elias shrugged. “Maybe they are. Maybe they are not. In all honesty, I really do not feel like telling you. I’ll let you drown in your worry and guilt. It will be pleasing to watch.”
Ice and fire warred inside my body. Cold with fear, hot with anger.
I stared at him disbelievingly. “You can’t be this cruel. No one should be capable of it!”
Elias moved away from the wall very slowly. His gaze made the fire inside of me evaporate with absolute fear.
Even in our first darkest moments, Gabriel had never looked at me the way Elias was looking at me now.
“Listen to me very carefully,” Elias said. “You do not know me. You do not know the things I have done or the things I have seen. You think I am cruel? You cannot even imagine the evil things both vampires and humans desire. So I tell you this now—I am capable of the bloodiest acts. Humor me, and I may kill you quickly. Piss me off, and your mind will be consumed with only a longing to die to free yourself from the pain. Do you understand?”
I swallowed what felt like metal shards. “Yes,” I breathed.
“All right, then. No one can say I didn’t warn you.” Elias smiled to himself, like his words had been a mercy to me.
I gathered up the remnants of my courage before he left the room. Compassion for Gabriel had saved me. Maybe compassion could save me again.
“But I have seen bits of what you went through because of my blood connection with Gabriel, and it was awful. I’m sorry that you—”
Suddenly, he was in front of me, pinning me to the wall. His hands were very cold.
“Do not say anything like that again,” he said.
Anger briefly overshadowed my fear. “Lucy would hate you if she saw you now! She would—”
He moved blindingly fast.
Razor-hot pain in my right shoulder. I screamed.
He twisted the knife while it was still inside my shoulder and tore it free from my body, sending splashes of blood all over the wooden floor. I fell to the ground, leaving a long smear of red down the wall.
Elias ran his tongue over the blade. “The same knife that killed my Lucy. Sometimes, I can still taste her on it.” He looked down at me. He pupils had nearly swallowed the silver completely; it was like looking into the eyes of a demon.
“You have chosen your fate. Now die slowly, little hummingbird.”
I groaned, looking down at my shoulder. Blood was leaking out in a steady stream.
“Elias . . . don’t do this! It won’t bring her back!”
He turned the light off and left the room. The door closed, the sound of my fate resonating inside my bones. I was in complete and utter darkness.
To others, being in the dark would be nothing compared to the knife wound. But for me, it was worse.
Tears finally fell from my eyes. I began to hyperventilate, and eventually, the pain pouring from my shoulder sharpened my brain enough to help me focus.
“Have to stop the bleeding,” I told myself.
I pulled my shirt off, grateful for the black tank top I wore underneath it. The shirt stayed on the chains, but I was able to move it to my shoulder. I pressed down as hard as I could, crying out from the pain.
An unknown amount of time passed. The shirt became soaked through, but I was able to discern that the bleeding had slowed significantly. I leaned my head back against the wall, sweat saturating my hair and dripping from my temples.
Thomas. Inola. Please be alive. Please be alive.
Thomas couldn’t be dead. He was too vibrant. Too carefree. He was like a brother to me, and I loved him beyond words.
And Inola . . . Gabriel needed his mother. I needed her. Why did it take me until now to realize she was the closest thing to a mother I had?
Gabriel . . . There was a part of me that was glad you couldn’t feel me. You had enough guilt inside your heart, enough to cripple a lesser person. This would kill you.
And what could I tell you? I had no idea how long the car ride had been. I had no idea where I was. I could tell you I was chained inside a wooden room. That would be all.
It was better this way. I didn’t want you to feel me die.
And I was going to die. It was more certain than when Gabriel had taken me. To die alone in the dark . . . How ironic a fate for me.
At least Gabriel’s blood was no longer inside of me. When I died, it would be the end. I wouldn’t become a vampire. I loved Gabriel, but I wouldn’t willingly damn myself to an eternity of night for anyone.
But I loved him, and what I wouldn’t give to see him just one last time.
***
Eventually, I passed out, weak from trauma, fear, and blood loss.
I awoke when the light flicked on. Elias kicked me in the side, hard enough to crack a rib. I screamed bloody murder at the fire in my side, and only his threats of causing more pain made me stop.
He brought a key to the locks of my manacles. “I’m going to unlock these and take you to a bathroom. I despise the look and smell of waste—too many times my victims at Grace’s were covered in the stuff. Try anything, and you won’t get
