“Careful,” Marcus warned softly. “If you shoot and miss, I’ll ensure you never see the light of day again.”

“Got another cage ready for me, huh?” I coughed up a sudden mouthful of blood. Spitting it out, I grinned. “You’re assuming I’ll live long enough to care.”

“You’ve left me no choice,” he sighed, stabbing his thumb on that awful remote.

Pain tore through my heart, white-hot and absolute.

I doubled over as the vitalsync core fed poison directly into my drying bloodstream.

My fingers seized, dropping the guns. I bit my tongue as my knees buckled, slamming against the ground.

“Lucien!” Rook skidded to my side, catching me as I folded.

“I told you not to push me,” Marcus said quietly, adding yet another dose of despair. The vitalsync burned me alive, making every bone turn molten.

“Guards, pick him up and put him into the car. Doctors, prepare to operate the moment we arrive. If he dies, you will too.”

“How could you?!” Rook snarled. “He’s already hurt so badly and you’re torturing him!”

“He’s well enough to threaten my life and try to escape,” Marcus snapped. “He’ll survive.”

“You’re a bastard!” she yelled, her arms tightening around me as I choked on endless agony. The Cryolyt pills completely abandoned me, leaving me to feel every flame.

“This is just business.” Marcus stepped toward us, his umbrella pinging with droplets. “Just like it was business when I threw you in with him. Just like it was business when I noticed your blood mirrored his in ways I’ve never seen before.” His mouth curved into a mocking smile. “I should thank you, Rook. After two decades of trying to get him to propagate—of forced semen taken when he was unconscious and multiple attempts at test-tube pregnancies, you’re the first to actually succeed.”

I choked.

What?

They’d done what to me while I’d been knocked out?

Marcus came closer, making every part of me crawl. “Thanks to you, he’s finally lost his virginity and done something worthwhile. Turns out, you were the one he was waiting for all along, but I do have to wonder if it’s you or something to do with the fact that your blood is eerily similar to his.”

My ears rang as unconsciousness came for me.

Wait...

Her blood was like mine?

Was that why I was drawn to her?

Could sense her?

Sucking in a breath, I focused on the fire burning around my heart.

I tried to push past it. To snuff it out.

The flames crackled hotter, licking around my ribs and scalding me alive.

Stop.

Just...give me time.

In the pain-delirious part of my mind, I swore, just for a second, the fire paused and listened. Fresh heat stirred around my bones, but...it didn’t hurt. It felt soothing, powerful—responding to my hatred like a living thing, reaching for me as I reached for it.

It transformed from my enemy into something else.

Fresh flames suddenly surged through me, smashing against the imprisoning metal around my heart, turning inward instead of outward.

I groaned, seizing on the ground as heat incinerated me.

Rook’s arm tightened around me and her strange coolness trickled through my veins—cooling the fires in my bones and easing the fevered mess in my blood.

I sagged against her as my pain faded.

But I didn’t get up.

Didn’t alert Marcus to the fact that the woman they’d given me had turned out to be everything I didn’t know I needed.

Whisper snarled as Marcus stopped close enough to shield us with his umbrella. The panther churned up dirt and whipped his tail, but he didn’t attack—knowing as well as I did that Marcus would put him down.

Rook tensed, trying to protect me the best she could.

Marcus sniffed. “Let’s stop squabbling, okay? We need to get you two out of the rain.” He held his hand out to Rook. “Come on. You’ve done what you needed to do and gotten pregnant with an Ashfall. You don’t have to return with him.” Bending over as if to grab her, he added, “Of course, Lucien does have a tendency of lying, so you’ll forgive me if I insist on testing you.”

Rook jerked away from his hand, tilting her chin in defiance. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

Marcus exhaled heavily. “I suggest you don’t pick up bad habits from him. Come. I’m releasing you. If you turn out to be truly pregnant, you have my word you’ll receive everything your heart desires.”

“And if I’m not?” she asked frigidly.

“Then...” He shrugged. “I’m afraid I can’t have you running around out there. Not when I’ve found another like him.”

Another like me?

Images slammed through me in a sickening rush—Marcus tormenting her, trapping her. Strapping her down and cutting her open. Inserting a vitalsync to control and cripple her—

The fire around my heart roared.

The grave I’d stepped into shattered as my hand shot toward my pocket. My fingers curled tight around the same blade Rook had driven into my chest. The blade I’d kept...just in case.

With strength that threatened to kill me, I pushed Rook away, swayed to my knees, and pressed the dagger against my throat.

“Wait.” Marcus froze. “What are you doing?”

“Touch her,” I said quietly. “And I die.”

Marcus blinked before a slow smile stretched his lips. “You won’t do it.”

Angling my chin, I cut.

Not deep enough to sever my jugular but definitely enough to make more blood spring free. “If you lay a single finger on her. If you take her from me. If you even think about torturing her like you’ve tortured me—” I swallowed and kept drawing the knife “—you’ll be collecting what’s left of my blood off the driveway.”

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.