“I see you’ve added a new portrait to your collection,” Satan said, not removing his eyes from the drawing.
“Yes,” the young man replied simply.
“Who’s the man with her?” Satan asked, knowing exactly who it was, but eager to hear the artist’s reply.
He rose to his feet and crossed the room to join his Master in front of the picture. “I’m not sure. It’s the first time I’ve seen her with anyone else. He cares about her; that’s all that I know.”
“And did you dream of her while you were sleeping just now?” Satan asked, trying and failing to keep the excitement out of his voice.
The young man looked up at him, perplexed at this sudden enthusiasm. “Yes, I didn’t think I would.”
“And what did you see this time?”
The young man frowned as he replied. “They were together again, but this time there was someone else with them. There was fog or smoke that kept getting in front of the second man’s face. The smoke was all around them...it didn't make much sense.”
Keeping his back to the young man, Satan’s smile grew until his face hurt. Amazing! His mental connection to her was clearly getting stronger. He could now see where she was and who she was with. He was abso-fucking-lutely going to exploit the shit out of this. Lucifer may think he was keeping Katia well-hidden, but nothing could hide her from a psychic spy. It was imperative his prisoner stay linked to her as much as possible.
“Draw as many of these pictures for me as you can and I promise to let you go free,” Satan said, turning to face his captive.
The prisoner looked up in confusion. “Why? After all this time, why let me go for the price of a few drawings?”
Satan shrugged, feigning an air of nonchalance. “Why not? They interest me. You’ve proven to be of little value, so I might as well set you free. That is what you want, isn’t it?”
Suspicion warred with hope in the young man’s eyes. Satan kept his expression as guileless as possible as he watched his prisoner’s inner struggle. Finally, it appeared as though hope had won out.
“All right, I’ll keep drawing for you in exchange for my freedom,” he said.
“Good man,” Satan replied. “I’ll leave you to it.”
With that, Satan left. As he walked back to his chambers Satan began planning exactly how he would torture every single person who had helped hide that damned Chimera from him. He threw his head back and laughed. It was good to be bad.
Chapter Twenty-One
Sergei’s brain snapped back online in an overwhelming rush of sensation. Noise crashed all around him, smells assaulted his nostrils, and an electric charge in the air made his skin prickle almost painfully. Confusion reigned. He’d been gutted like a fish, burned, sliced and diced, clawed and bitten. The memory of his torture spun like a tornado through his mind causing a violent shudder.
His eyes snapped open, but all he could see were blurring streaks of light. He started to panic. His eyes weren’t working! What had happened to his eyes? He covered his ears as the noise hammered into his skull. This was hell on earth and he was stuck in it.
Suddenly the chaos stopped. He focused on the pretty redhead whose face was level with his, her hands gently resting over his. Her eyes were hypnotic, a swirling mixture of jade and gold. As he stared into them his panic dropped to a low simmer. She nodded at him calmly, assuring him that he was all right. The scent of roses wafted over him; he realized it was coming from her. It was a calming scent, beautiful, simple and pure.
As his panic abated, Sergei took stock of his body and realized, to his surprise, that nothing hurt. He must have made a face of some kind as the woman tapped on his hands, still clamped tightly over his ears. Sergei removed them, but continued to stare into her magnetic gaze. She spoke softly and calmly, her voice had so many layers…he’d never heard anything like it before. “You’re safe now, Sergei, and your injuries are healed.”
He reached down to his stomach, needing to reassure himself that his entrails were indeed inside and not outside. “I noticed nothing was hurting,” he frowned at the sound of his own voice. It was the same, but with so much more depth and nuance than he'd ever heard before.
The woman gave him a nervous smile as she twisted her hands together. “I need to explain what's happened. I hope I didn't make a mistake, but there wasn't much time...” She trailed off as though unsure of how to continue.
“Go ahead,” Sergei prompted.
The young woman steeled herself, then plowed on. “You were almost dead. I turned you…I’m a vampire. Well, you are too now.”
Sergei could only sit and stare at her blankly. His brain was giving him the blue screen of death like a fried computer. He sat there for what seemed like an eternity until he was snapped out of his stupor by the sound of her voice.
“Sergei? Do you understand what I’ve told you?”
“Yes,” he whispered in response.
“Okay. Do you have any questions for me about what happened?” she asked.
“Um, yeah...not quite sure where to start...how did I get here? Who are you?”
“My name is Mara. A fallen angel named Baal brought you here and asked me to turn you. I met your friend Katia a while ago, she was so relieved that we’d been able to save you.”
“Katia,” Sergei whispered. “Is she all right? That demon didn’t get to her, did he? He took my phone, he wanted to track her…”
Patting his hand comfortingly, Mara replied. “Katia’s fine. The others have made arrangements for her to stay
