I strained my ears and searched my memory, trying to understand what the other sound was when white hot, blinding pain enveloped my entire body. My eyes shot open to see a delicate chainmail covering my face. Smoke rose before my eyes and I smelled burnt flesh. I struggled to throw the metal off my body but found I could barely move.
“That’s silver, moglie,” Massimo said from above me as he placed large, weights around the edges of the blanket. The heavy thud of each one sounded like nails being hammered into my coffin. “You won’t be able to move from that spot and you’ll be in excruciating pain the whole time,” he said almost cheerfully. “This is what will happen every time you disobey me.”
I watched him peel off thick black gloves and tuck them into a pocket in his trench coat.
“I’m going to leave you here like this while I run a few errands. Be a good girl, Adrienne.” With that, he walked leisurely from the apartment and locked the door behind him.
I was in agony. Every inch of exposed skin was burning like a fire had been set and I’d been placed in the middle of it. The stench of my burnt skin invaded my senses and made me cough, jostling the silver so it touched new places on my body. My previous injuries were all but forgotten in light of the agonizing pain I was in now.
My eyelids felt heavy and panic set in. I couldn’t fall asleep now, under this silver and with Massimo able to return at any minute. I shifted again, hoping I could throw even one corner of the metal blanket off me, but my limbs felt heavy and useless. The silver wasn’t only burning me, it was sapping my strength and energy. Couple that with the approaching dawn and I was in poor shape.
I lay there for the last few minutes of consciousness, desperately trying to formulate a plan. Anything that would get me out of this situation. I knew now that Massimo had never intended to honor our two-week agreement. He’d find a way to keep me and I’d never get to see Nicholas again.
Tears leaked from my eyes again, and I thought through every moment I’d had with Nicholas. Although he’d come into my life during one of my most trying times, our brief encounter had been nothing but amazing.
It was then, when I’d been stripped bare of almost everything, that I’d never wanted anything more than to bond with Nicholas. There would never be anyone who cared for me like he had, and I’d never love anyone the way I loved him.
It was pure chance that we’d met, and I wondered if I’d ever get to look into the depth of his beautiful hazel eyes again. Ever feel his strong arms around me again, protective and soothing. If I’d ever get to know if he loved me like I loved him.
With that last thought drifting through my head, blackness consumed me and mercifully, I lost consciousness.
Chapter 25
When my eyes opened for the night, I couldn’t help the small whimper that escaped. I was still covered from head to toe by the silver net, and from what I could see, my exposed flesh was almost unrecognizable. It seemed as though my eyeballs were the only parts of my body that weren’t in agonizing pain.
I quickly assessed my injuries and found them much the same as the night before. It seemed the silver was slowing my healing abilities.
“I’m glad to see you’re finally up.”
My eyes rotated upward and saw Massimo seated in one of the ratty couches near where I lay. He stood from his seat and slowly made his way over. His eyes were black and his face emotionless as he assessed my limp form.
“Please,” I whispered, the effort making me wince in pain.
Massimo nodded once. “I see that my punishment is working. I think another night of the silver should do it.”
Another night? How could I possibly withstand another night of this torture? How could my body hold up under this pain and the constant burning of the silver? Looking into Massimo’s fathomless eyes, I saw he had no remorse whatsoever. There wasn’t a single ounce of empathy in him.
It was then I decided I’d rather be dead than to live any length of time with this man.
Massimo reached in the pocket of his coat and extracted the same pair of black gloves he’d worn the night before. Once they were in place, he removed one of the weights and carefully lifted the silver chainmail off my body. The relief was instant. My body slowly stitched skin back over the raw patches, itching as it went.
I was busy watching my skin repair itself, so I had no warning for the kick Massimo landed in the center of my face. A loud crack told me he’d broken my nose and blood immediately poured from my face. I cried out at the abrupt pain and raised my good arm to my face to staunch the flow of blood.
With a light tinkling noise, Massimo settled the silver blanket back over my body, and any skin that had repaired itself during my reprieve now burned again. The silver felt as if it weighed many times more than it should, pressing me into the thin carpeting. The sizzling of my skin filled my ears as blood continued to pour from my broken nose. He quickly replaced the weight and stood to survey his work.
“I think that should do it. You may thank me for keeping your punishment light for tonight.”
I peered past my hands to look at him incredulously. Thank him?
He lifted a heavy boot and pressed the silver into the exposed skin on my arm, embedding the metal into me and searing my flesh.
“Thank you! Thank you!” I screamed, my survival instinct taking over for my pride.
Massimo lifted his boot, but the silver stayed embedded in my skin, burning it into a bloody lattice pattern. I tried to pull my arm closer to my body, hoping it would separate from the chainmail, but it was stuck. Whimpers escaped my trembling lips as the metal burned deeper and deeper into my flesh.
He stood there, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction as they roamed over my mangled body.
“Tonight, when I return, we will be bonded.” I couldn’t stop the gasp of horror that slipped past my lips. “And tomorrow we leave for Roma,” he said, his deep accent embellishing his words.
“We’re leaving?” I asked pitifully.
“Of course. We will return to my home in Italia. I refuse to stay in this dirty, brutish city any longer than necessary.”
With that, he spun on his heel and left the apartment, the ding of the elevator signaling his descent from the floor all together.
As I lay helpless on the filthy floor, I tried to imagine the horror my life had become. I was being held captive by a psychotic vampire who delighted in causing me pain and thought nothing of breaking bones and burning me with silver. He’d even had this chainmail waiting for me to get here.
And tonight, he’d bond us together. How could he do that without my willing participation? I wasn’t sure about the specifics of the process, but I knew I’d have to drink his blood. How could he force me to do that? With a humorless chuckle that rattled the silver and burned a new spot on my skin, I realized he could make me do whatever he wanted.
Look where I was. Lying in a heap, covered in my blood while I slowly roasted beneath this silver blanket.
To top it off, he was taking me from the city. There would be no hope of rescue once he took me off American soil. Hell, once I left New York City I was as good as lost to Nicholas forever. After all, how would he find me?
My GPS tracker!
In the haze of torture and pain, I’d completely forgotten about the little card-shaped contraption Nicholas had asked me to wear. I squeezed my arm against my side gently, feeling the hard plastic exactly where I’d placed it yesterday. Nicholas could find me using the tracker. He’d already tracked my position to this apartment. In fact, he knew where I was right then. He just didn’t know what kind of trouble I was in.
I let loose a strangled sigh. Even if Nicholas knew what was going on, I didn’t want him getting involved. Massimo had already threatened to kill him, which from my point of view, seemed merciful compared to what I was experiencing. There was no way I’d want Nicholas to get tangled up with Massimo. It would be best if he let me go, and I faced my fate alone. It had been sealed the moment Massimo snatched me
off the street over a week ago. It had just taken a while for it to catch up to me.
The silver was still sending sharp shooting pain throughout my body from every place it touched my bare skin. Add to that the pain of all my broken bones and ruptured organs and I again wished for death. Maybe I’d get lucky and perish from my injuries before Massimo returned. It seemed the only way out for me.
If you’d asked me when I awoke for the night what my pain level had been at on a scale from one to ten, I would have told you ten without hesitation. Now I realized the pain scale must go higher than that because the agony I felt was much more acute than before. Every minute I spent with the silver against my skin was like being dipped into acid and then set on fire.
A new pain surfaced as I realized how desperately thirsty I was. It had only been twenty-four hours since I’d last fed, but the massive blood loss must have depleted me. My tongue felt like sandpaper and my throat burned. Not as devastating as the silver, but the pain was mounting as time ticked away.
I lay there for what seemed like hours, but very well may have been only minutes. When your entire body was engulfed in desperately agonizing pain, time moved differently. Every second was like a lifetime of torment.
I began to feel rage boiling under my surface, threatening to escape. How dare Massimo treat me this way? As if I was an object and not a human being–or vampire. My anger brought with it a surge of energy. I needed to find a way out of this. I couldn’t just lie here and wait for Massimo to come back and bond with me. I didn’t want that, and I needed to fight back.
It was then that I remembered the dagger Nicholas had strapped to my ankle. If I could pull it out from its sheath and have it in my hand when Massimo returned, maybe I’d be able to get a few good swipes in before he caught me. Maybe I’d even be able to incapacitate him long enough to escape. If I could make it to the street, it would be a lot harder for him to bring me back here undetected.
I slowly curled into a tighter fetal position, bringing my knees up to my chest. The silver rattled and burned but I gritted my teeth and kept moving. The pressure of the silver was almost unbearable, but I reached down with my good hand and was able to just barely grasp the hem of my pants. The silver singed the back of my hand, but I pressed on, pulling up my pant leg and extracting the dagger from its sheath.
I brought the knife to my chest and clenched it tightly. I knew I’d be able to hide it beneath my mangled form when Massimo returned, I just hoped I was strong enough to use it on him.
The elevator in the hall dinged, and I froze beneath the silver, rattling the chainmail and causing another puff of smoke to rise from my flesh. I heard the thundering of feet coming down the hallway and stop in front of the door to the apartment. Had Massimo brought others back with him? I whimpered as I imagined the pain of being beaten by multiple vampires and not just the one.
With the knife clutched tightly in my fist, I heard a loud crash and the apartment door exploded inward, shards of wood flying across the small space.
“Adrienne!” I heard my name being called, but the voice wasn’t the one I’d been expecting. Was I hallucinating? Was the pain finally so unbearable that I’d lost consciousness before the dawn?
Loud footsteps sounded down the hall, moving closer to where I lay.
“Adrienne!” the beautifully deep voice called again.
“Here,” I managed to squeak past my bloody lips.
A massive form blocked the light overhead and I cringed away, trying to curl in on my body to protect myself from further abuse.
A masculine gasp reached my ears. “Oh my God, Adrienne!”
I opened one of my swollen eyes to see Nicholas’ horrified face staring down at me. I watched as he, without hesitation, grasped the silver blanket laying over me. His hands smoked, and the fresh scent of burnt flesh reached my nose. With a yell, he tossed the silver into a corner and turned back to me.
His hands healed as I watched him studying my body, taking in all my injuries.
“Oh, Adrienne,” he whispered, his voice almost too soft for me to hear.
“Nicholas, what are you doing here? If Massimo finds you, he’ll kill you!” My speech sounded garbled to my ears, and I wasn’t certain he understood. I tried to sit up but only lifted a few inches off the ground before flopping back down with a groan.
Nicholas ignored my protests and gently pried the dagger from my grasp before he slid his hands beneath my broken body and lifted me with ease.
“Don’t worry about Massimo, Adrienne. We’ll take care of him and he’ll never hurt you or me again,” he vowed.
Although he tried to hold me steady, even the slight sway of his steps aggravated my injuries and I moaned into his chest. I didn’t know what to feel. Relief? Joy? Fright? It was too much, and they all bombarded me at once, trickling out in the form of tears. How I still had any blood left in me to cry, I didn’t know.
“How did you know?” I asked the half question, knowing he’d understand what I meant.
“When I noticed your GPS tracker hadn’t moved at all from the night before, I thought something might be wrong. I had my guards surrounding the building and watching Massimo. They’re trailing him as we speak. When I saw he’d left without you, I had a feeling you needed me. I’m so glad I trusted my instincts,” he said as his tortured eyes roamed over my beaten body. “I’m so sorry, Adrienne. More sorry than you’ll ever know.”
“He was going to make me bond with him tonight,” I whispered.
“Fuck!”
Hearing Nicholas swear stopped me short. I almost didn’t tell him the rest, but I figured he should know.
“Massimo said we were leaving for Italy tomorrow.”
Nicholas clutched me harder against his chest, causing me to squeal in pain. He immediately loosened his hold and shot me a contrite look.
“You aren’t going anywhere but home with me. Where you belong.”
Tears welled up in my eyes again, but for the first time in a long time, it wasn’t from the pain. I looked up into the face of the man I loved and let all the worry and torture I’d been subjected to out in a cathartic cry. I didn’t know how, but I knew Nicholas would make things better.
We made it outside, and after looking both ways down the sidewalk, Nicholas hustled me over to the black Suburban. Alexander was at the wheel as usual, and as Nicholas climbed in with me, I saw the look on his face turn from sorrow to rage in seconds. When I tried to crawl to the seat next to Nicholas, he pulled me closer, and I fell limp in his arms. It felt so good to be held by him after being so brutalized.
Alexander sped through the city streets, barely following the rules of the road. We pulled up to a familiar warehouse, and Nicholas slid out of the SUV the moment it stopped. He carried me through the luxurious hotel lobby with barely a nod in the concierge's direction.
When we reached our room, Nicholas brought me right to the bathroom and set me gently on the counter. Without a word, he turned the taps and filled the large garden tub. Gentle hands tugged my clothes off until I sat there naked before him, all my injuries on display.
Nicholas’ eyes were on fire, but not the kind I’d been used to seeing while naked in his presence. I watched as he found and catalogued every bruise and cut. When his eyes finally met mine, they were full of regret and remorse.
“This wasn’t your fault,” I reminded him weakly.
He simply nodded and stripped the clothes off his body. When he was gloriously naked, he switched the taps off and turned to me. I shouldn’t have been able to react to him in the state I was in, but I couldn’t help myself. Every inch of him was perfectly sculpted and toned. My own mangled body was a sorry comparison to his perfection.
Nicholas gently picked me up again and stepped into the tub, taking a seat with me on his lap, his chest against my back. I sighed long and loud, causing my chest to spasm, resulting in a fit of coughs. I’d forgotten about my punctured lung. Nicholas tensed behind me and I knew I’d made him angry all over a
gain.
With gentle hands, Nicholas used a wet washcloth to wipe away the old blood from my face and body. He cupped water into his large hands and let it drip on top of my head. I watched as the water turned from pink to red as the blood was washed from me. Seeing the state of the water, Nicholas stood with me in his arms again. He used a foot to drain the water, and when it was gone, he filled it back up.
We sat together in the steaming water and I felt my sore muscles uncoil as I relaxed into his embrace. His sure fingers gently rubbed first shampoo and then conditioner in my hair, getting the last of the blood out of my dark brown locks.
“When was the last time you fed?” he asked, his deep voice rumbling against my back.
“With you,” I admitted. “I’d been on the floor under that silver since yesterday evening.”
Nicholas’ body tensed behind me again and a low, deadly growl escaped him. I unwillingly flinched at the sound and it instantly cut off. He grasped my hips and gently turned me around to face him in the water, my legs sliding around him as I straddled his waist.
“You fear me,” he stated, not asked.
I shook my head vehemently. “No. Never. I guess I’m just a little skittish right now.”
Nicholas’ full lips thinned out as he pressed them together roughly. I knew he was fighting back another growl. “I’d never hurt you.”
I placed the hand of my uninjured arm against his whiskered jaw. “I know that,” I said as I stared deeply into his eyes, willing him to believe me.
He sighed and broke eye contact. “You need to feed.”
The thought of leaving this hotel room was almost too much for me. “Nicholas, I’m so tired. Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”
“No. It cannot. Your body won’t be able to fully heal until you have more blood in your system.” His tone was final. There’d be no persuading him. My shoulders slumped in resignation.
Blood Debt Page 21
