by Lexi C. Foss
Lifting me like I’m a child, he carries me toward a long wide wooden table. Leather shackles encircle my wrists and ankles preventing me from moving. I’m so weak I can barely raise my head off the table. I’ve never felt so goddamn helpless in my life. Within me, my tiger hides her face in her paws, curled up and silent.
Julien starts his torture by cutting me open from breast to groin with his claws. My screams and pleas for him to stop are ignored, and I see the glee dancing in his eyes. He’s trying to find something that’s a part of me.
My tiger.
The reason I see Dante as a mate. This demon wants it gone. He sees it as a stain marring what he sees as perfection. Expression hungry, he doesn’t show any disappointment when he finds no sign of a beast beneath my skin. Clucking his tongue, he reaches across to grab a staple gun off a chair.
“Does it hurt?” he questions after he’s finished patching me up, looking at the huge scar trailing along my shoulder, down my chest, and stomach. Red, angry, and raised, the sliced skin is kept together by the metal he’s just applied.
“What the fuck do you think?” I hiss at the sadistic son of a bitch. “Let me have a knife and I’ll show you.”
Julien chuckles. “Don’t be like that, my love. Once I’ve rid you of your shifter side, you’ll feel better. No more being treated like an outcast. We’ll live here in this abandoned castle off the Italian coast.”
We're still on Earth. At least I know where I am now. If it had been one of the dimensions Lucifer governs, getting back would be a lot harder.
My eyes lock on the syringe he’s now holding up. “Don’t.”
I don’t trust what he has in it. The needle is a wicked looking thing far thicker than anything I’ve seen before. I lurch uselessly against my restraints with a bolt of panic, dizzy and sick with agony from my wounds.
Julien focuses on my arm, pressing the skin around the veins, testing for a good area to use. “Don’t try and fight it my love. I’m told it's excruciating if you do. Take a few deep breaths and try to relax. The serum will prevent you from shifting until I can work out what I need to do to separate the animal from you.”
I can’t hold in my whimper as the needle slides into my flesh with a sting. Coldness spreads through me as it joins my bloodstream. Thoughts become hazy. Dimmed with the drug taking control of my system.
“I...I think I'm a little lost.” The words come out slurred, which makes me frown. Where am I? Why does everything hurt?
“Oh no,” a voice purrs right beside my ear. “You’re exactly where you should be.”
Drenched in agony and delirious with pain, I’m aware of being lifted off the table and lowered to the floor. Hands grasp my ankles, and I’m dragged along behind someone like a sack of potatoes. Voices see-saw in my ears. Someone saying my name. Darkness curls around me, and I don’t even try to resist it.
Pain. Cold. Dark. Pain. Cold. Dark.
I fade in and out of consciousness. Stretches of nothingness entwine with vivid images of laughter and happiness. Arms keeping me safe and secure. A haven I’d never dreamed I could have.
When I open my eyes again, it's to find myself in a metal cage. The smell of urine and other bodily fluids is strong in the air. From the scents and the other empty cages I can see through my bars, I’m not the only one Julien has been holding. Connection faint, I can sense my tiger sleeping within me in some kind of induced coma from the drug.
“Hey, Kitty cat, I was worried you were never going to wake up.”
Tilting my head from where I’m lying on the metal floor, I find a familiar face watching me from the cage beside mine.
“Vinnie?” I manage to croak not sure I can believe my own eyes.
Naked as I am, he’s pale, haggard and half starved. Giving me a glimmer of a smile, the relief in his gaze makes me want to cry.
“No, lay still,” he orders roughly when I try to move. “You're still healing, and besides there’s no way out. Believe me I’ve been trying for months.”
“Months?” My stomach knots in anxiety at his revelation.
“That’s how long that demon has had the spell running,” he tells me confirming my worst fears. “He’s been cutting me up like a science experiment. I’ve been forced to watch while he’s cracked open my ribcage to see my insides. He’s demented...”
“Vinnie, what did you do?” I ask, sensing he’s holding something back from me.
“Me?” He smiles benignly, the soul of innocence. “Nothing.”
I don’t believe him for a second.
“Liar,” I growl, eyeing him through the bars.
Facade crumbling under my weak glare, he makes a pained sound like a dying bison. “Vanna got me drunk. She wanted to know who you were and why I’d brought you to Rome. The crazy bitch was jealous of you and hatched a crazy plan. I didn’t think she’d ever go through with it. She’s just a spoiled daddy’s girl who doesn’t know anything about demonology.”
His little outburst leaves me speechless for thirty seconds. What the fuckity fuck? He can’t be serious. Who am I kidding? This is Vincenzo. I shouldn’t really be surprised after everything he’s done in the past. Only this time, he’s gone above and beyond screwing himself and me over.
Clinging to the one fuck I have left like a life preserver, I release a long slow breath. “Let me get this straight. Because I chose Dante, you and his ex-girlfriend decided to summon a fucking demon to tear us apart?”
“Vanna summoned Julien to get Dante. They’ve never even dated or even fucked. She thinks Dante’s her soul mate or something,” he corrects. “I had nothing to do with it, and what do you mean you were with my brother?”
“Apart from coming up with the bloody scheme,” I remind him.
A guilty flush of color washes over his cheeks. “I was drunk and unsupervised. Yukie, what do you mean you chose Dante? What the hell are you talking about?”
“You can't make a heart feel something it doesn't.” Grimacing as my body aches, I lay still, memories like phantoms haunting me. “I love Dante, or at least I think I did. Now I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
A whirlwind romance. That’s what it had been. Vincenzo had taken me to a party in Rome and introduced me to his brother. The second our eyes had met, something had clicked into place between us. Call it love at first sight. Fate. Destined mates. In that instant, we both knew what we felt ran deeper than just lust.
The feelings I felt for Dante burn, churning with the others that have been formed in the farce Julien created of our world. All I want to do now is protect myself. I’ve been betrayed by the man I love. Forgotten. Tortured at his hands. He’s shown me the monster he is beneath the charming smile. Nothing should be able to steal what we have, but somehow it has been. Love has been twisted and fashioned into something toxic and deadly.
Vincenzo sucks in a breath, the look on his face shocked. “Yukie, we’re dating. You love me. I was going to ask you to marry me at the party I was throwing at one of Dante’s hotels. You’ve only met my brother once. You thought he was an arrogant asshole. Egotistical for looking down his nose at you because you weren't a vampire. He tried his best to humiliate us, and you loathed the sight of him. You disliked him so much I had to talk you out of throat punching him. You were never a couple.”
“We weren’t?” I frown, his revelation leaving a bitter taste in my mouth and my world crashing around my ears. I’m in love with Vincenzo? Everything I think I know is a lie? The grip I have on my sanity slips a little further. How can I trust my own mind? Maybe everything is an illusion. A fabrication of a warped demonic creature set on making me his.
“No,” he murmurs. “But everyone in the room felt the instant sizzle of animosity between you when you met him. You...don’t remember me?”
“I remember you're my friend and lover.”
His eyes pinch shut his feature tight with pain. “We had fun in Paris. Champagne and oysters on the Eiffel tower. I made you laugh at some lame joke. St. Petersb
urg, I treated you to caviar as you’d never tried it before. You looked at me with so much warmth it made my entire evening. Tel Aviv, we had a picnic on the beach, fucked on the sand, and I’d never seen you so happy.”
I shake my head trying to find the images somewhere inside. Wishing I could pry them out because the fact that they're not there fills me with sadness so intense my heart aches. “No, I’m sorry…I want to but it's just a blank space.”
Footsteps tear me from my disturbing, tumbling thoughts.
Julien smiles as he enters the room, his canines extending into fangs. Seeing them, everything inside me turns icy with dread. He’s never had teeth like that before. At least not that long. It can only mean one thing.
“Vincenzo?” I snap in an accusing tone. “Please don’t tell me you’ve been a colossal prick.”
“It wasn’t me!” He whines, sounding offended at being accused of such a thing. “You think I'm really crazy enough to turn a demon into some vampiric hybrid? Please give me some credit for my intelligence.”
Julien’s intense gaze never wavers from mine. “A parting gift from Vanna. She turned me in payment for giving her the Vampire King she so desires to have.”
“That bitch seriously has to pay for her actions,” Vincenzo mutters, flattening himself against the bars at the back of his cage when the psychotic demon walks in his direction.
Wincing as I try to scramble up, I watch in horror as he opens the cage and drags Vincenzo out. My friend tries his best to fight him off. Fangs bared, he attacks our captor weakly but is not a match in such a feeble state.
“Leave him alone!”
Julien merely grunts at my shout. “Don’t worry, my love, I’ll be back for you momentarily.”
Banging impotently against the bars of my prison, I curse my ex-mentor. I’m supposed to be smart. Always in control of the situation I’m in. Regardless of who initiated the interaction. The Devil’s vampire slayer, yet here I am trapped and at the mercy of a demented demon with a sick case of infatuation. How could I have fallen into his trap? My stomach heaves despite being empty. Julien will kill both of us if he doesn’t get what he wants and carry it out in the most imaginative way.
Screams.
High pitched and anguished echo from outside the room.
How much can Vincenzo take? Even as a vampire, he won’t be able to withstand the type of torture this dark hellion dishes out. They have their own brand of suffering that turns their victims into sniveling wretches. With my training to withstand interrogation, it might take a little longer, but Julien will break me eventually.
When the screams stop, the sounds of footsteps follow.
Panic tries to choke me, but I swallow it down. I need to think detached and coolly. Julien is just another adversary I need to dispose of. Tougher than the vamps I normally face but he will still have weaknesses.
When Julien enters, his grin promises a terrible river of nightmares awaiting me. “I’ve warmed him up for the show which I don’t want you to miss.”
Doing a little dance of happiness toward me, he twirls in a circle before opening my cage. I flinch when he reaches for me, his fingertips skim over my thigh. When I shove his arm away, he snarls at my reaction. Lunging for me, he wraps his hand around my throat and squeezes, hauling me from my cage. Coldness envelopes me, but no darkness comes as he raises me off the ground. Kicking and squirming, I fight to breathe, the instinct to survive kicking in hard. Just as my vision starts to go blurry, he lowers me to the floor.
“Come on my love, don’t spoil this,” he croons softly, gripping my bicep when I sway on my feet.
“I’m...sorry,” I manage to croak. “You just scared me.”
“I like your fear,” he admits, brushing a loose strand of blue hair behind my ear. “It’s so delightful, but you must be good for me, or I’ll have to cage you again, and then you’ll miss the fun.”
A hand on my spine shoves me forward. Legs shaking, I use the wall to help me move along with slow unsteady steps. Julien stays right behind me whispering words of encouragement and praise. All it does is fuel my hate for him more until I can feel it pulsing inside me like a physical ball of negative energy.
When we finally reach a door, he directs me inside.
“Vincenzo.” I stare numbly at the vampire prince. He’s bound to the same table the demon had me on when he first brought me here. Cut marks mar his chest, thighs, and arms, deep and bleeding. Dark stains tarnish the wood. Dried blood, which I’m guessing isn’t all mine. Beside it on a stainless-steel cart are an assortment of surgical instruments.
Wrapping an arm around my waist, Julien places a kiss on my forehead, smiling when I wince in pain. “I kept him alive so you can kill him. Then we’ll try removing that beast of yours again. I have spells and poisons. One of them is bound to work.”
Tilting my head to the side to meet his gaze, I see his expression is sickeningly adoring, the light of obsession bright and clear in his eerie eyes. I’m trying hard to keep it together. This demon is insane. I manage to give him a queasy smile.
“That’s so…generous of you. We should celebrate,” I blurt out, playing for time. “Have some champagne.”
“Champagne?” Julien frowns at the suggestion, his fingers caressing the skin of my belly, the tips of his claws scraping gently leaving a sting in their wake.
“That’s how the humans do it. If you’ve been watching me as you say, you’d know that. You would have seen me drinking it when I was with him in restaurants.”
“You're happy?” His tone is tentative, curious.
“I am.” Raising my hand, I caress his arm with my fingertips. “I should have killed Vincenzo a long time ago. You’ve made me realize that. Vampires are nothing but a scourge. He’s had me under his influence, and I’ve been too blind to see that. I let him bewitch me with notions of romance and love.”
Julien shivers in excitement under my touch. “I saw you together more than once. He was corrupting you from your purpose. I knew I had to bide my time for the perfect moment to help you see that. My guiding hand showing you the true path that awaits you. All those memories in your head you didn’t need. They pollute you with feelings and emotions. Twist you up inside. Took you away from me, and I can’t have that.”
“And you have.” I plant a chaste kiss on his lips. He accepts it with a look of shock before taking my own hungrily, his tongue driving into my mouth. Trying not to gag, I remain still allowing him to do as he pleases.
When he finally finishes kissing me, he nods slowly. “Let me see what I can find. We should make this special, after all. I know you're too weak to wander off, but if you try to leave, I’ll be forced to dispose of your beautiful eyes, and we wouldn’t want that, now, would we?”
“I’ll wait right here,” I lie.
Julien vanishes in a swirl of blackness and a cloud of despair, which clings to him like a bad cologne.
Not wasting any time, I limp unsteadily to the table with only one purpose in mind.
Vincenzo watches me warily. “After what I put you through, I’m amazed you can stomach being in the same room with me, let alone want to stake me. Vile vampire that I am.”
Keeping my attention trained on my task, I’m grateful for the excuse not to look at him. Hands shaking badly, it's the third attempt before I get the first restraint around his left wrist unfastened.
“Wow, you're really set on pretending I don’t exist,” he continues softly. “Our engagement is over before it's even had a chance to start, and I even bought an emerald ring to match the color of your eyes. Mateo took it and gave it to Dante, but I was going to get it back.”
“Just because I’m saving you doesn’t mean I have to talk to you.” The second buckle on the right one comes undone a little easier. “So shut your mouth. I’ll deal with you when we get out of this, not before.”
“Yukie, what are you doing?”
Shit. Julien.
Twisting to face him, I find the menacing demon watch
ing me coldly. A bottle of champagne is clutched in one of his hands, two long crystal flutes in the other.
Squaring my shoulders, I stand resolutely between him and Vincenzo. “If you want him, come get him.”
Tossing the bottle and glasses to the side, Julien’s lips curl up in an evil sneer. “You're defending him? You still want him, don’t you? Do you still harbor notions of love for this creature? Affection? Making me jealous is a big mistake. I won’t tolerate unfaithfulness.”
I’m terrified of him, but that’s not enough to make me back down. He may be cruel and vicious, but I kill vampires for a living. Maybe it's time I take out a demon or two instead. Focusing through the pain I’m in, I attack.
His first punch knocks me aside. Scrambling to my feet with a grunt, hands shaking, I take the second more prepared. A third one leaves me on my knees. Even injured with all my training, I know Julien’s skill is greater than mine. He’s always been better. My teacher and mentor.
Each of my blows are deftly deflected, I’m batted aside again and again as if all my training is nothing.
“Stay down,” Vincenzo bites out fumbling to undo the restraints on his ankles. “He’ll kill you.”
I shake my head, ears ringing from a punch to the head, nose bleeding, and the taste of blood thick in my mouth.
“The poor thing must be delirious,” Julien mocks. “Protecting a vampire. Don’t worry, I’ll teach you your mistakes, and you’ll learn from this lesson, my love.”
“Boyfriend,” I whisper. “I’m protecting my boyfriend.”
“Are you sure about that?” He hums with a devious grin. “Maybe I just planted those memories. Twisted and corrupted thoughts until you believed in them. Just like I did with the love you thought you had for the Vampire King. Vanna was foolish enough to be jealous of the attraction she saw pass between you from one brief meeting that she summoned me before anything else could flourish. She has such a selfish greedy heart.”
Ignoring his mind games, I lunge, going for his exposed side. Countering my move, Julien’s fist powers into my own cracking my ribs. The blinding pain almost takes me to my knees. It steals the last of my strength as I shake in frustration.
