The Eyes of the Sun: The Complete Trilogy

by Christina McMullen

  “Do I have a say in this?” I asked. As desperate as the situation had become, their negotiations were actually working to my advantage. Damien’s grip on me had loosened enough that I was able to move my fingers. Just another inch and I would be able to reach a CPA.

  “And what exactly are you expecting me to do?” LaLaurie asked with an incredulous laugh. “Sit here quietly and wait for death while you smile in smug satisfaction?”

  “As I see it, you have no choice,” Damien stated flatly.

  “Don’t I?” she laughed again. “You say you learned from your mistakes, did you? I admit, you were clever in keeping from me your little advantage, but I too can learn. As much as I would love to see you suffer a slow and agonizing death, this time, I’ll make sure you are truly dead before celebrating my victory.” She glanced suddenly over Damien’s shoulder and nodded slightly. “Kill him.”

  I was at a disadvantage in that I had no way of seeing what was happening behind me, but Damien’s grip on me loosened enough that I was able to twist free. But before I had a chance to draw a weapon, I was knocked down with enough force that my head slammed into the floor and I was temporarily blinded. As I tried to stand, I was grabbed again, this time around the neck.

  “Make another move and I’ll kill her,” Damien whispered menacingly, bringing a blade to my throat with just enough pressure to break the skin. Black spots still obscured my vision, but I could see well enough to know that whoever was attacking didn’t seem deterred at all by Damien’s threats, which did not bode well for me. Fortunately, he failed to secure my arms this time.

  “Not if I have anything to say about it,” I grunted and reached for a CPA, jamming it into his exposed forearm.

  Thankfully, the knife clattered uselessly to the floor, but my reactions were still slow and I wasn’t able to move out of the way. I fell again to the ground and nearly blacked out as the weight of Damien’s lifeless body slammed into mine, forcing the air out of my lungs. Mercifully, someone dragged him off of me, but I barely had time to take a breath before I was dragged to my feet and thrown against a wall. It felt as if every bone in my body was broken and I barely had the energy to focus on my surroundings. When the fog finally faded, I found myself staring into a pair of cold, vacant eyes of a familiar chocolate brown color. Andre had one hand around my neck and a CPA in the other, ready to strike.

  “Don’t kill her!” LaLaurie screeched. “Bring her here.”

  He lowered his weapon, but grabbed me roughly by the arm and practically threw me toward the center of the room with enough force to jar my shoulder in its socket.

  “What are you doing?” I hissed. His only response was to tighten his grip on my arm and march me forward.

  “Andre,” LaLaurie said in an oddly calm voice, as if she was addressing a small child. “Do you know who this is? Do you recognize her?”

  He spun me around and looked at me fully for the first time, cocking his head to the side, the way a dog does when they hear an unfamiliar noise. I realized suddenly that he was pretending he didn’t recognize me and I relaxed slightly, hoping that he would give me some indication that he had a plan because I sure as hell didn’t.

  “That is Lucy,” he said at last in a flat, emotionless voice that left me cold. He wasn’t pretending at all. The only explanation was that he was under the influence of Neurephenhol.

  “You are sure of this?” LaLaurie asked, unable to keep the excitement out of her voice.

  “I am,” he said confidently.

  “Andre, kill her,” I managed to choke out. If what Abe had told me about Neurephenhol was true, he had no choice but to follow my order. However, instead of raising a hand to LaLaurie, he just stared at me with the same blank expression.

  “Stupid girl,” LaLaurie said with a harsh cackle. “Neurephenhol isn’t the only method of mind control at my disposal. Secure her,” she ordered Andre, who dragged me over to the empty platform.

  “Not that one, you fool!” she barked, storming over to the second platform where she pushed the now lifeless body to the floor.

  As the sheet fluttered away, I gasped. The girl, who once must have looked as young and beautiful as the face LaLaurie now wore, was no more than a husk of a human, as if she had been drained of every last drop of fluid in her body. From the tubes that had attached her to the machine, it was very likely that was exactly what had happened. But most disturbing was the twisted expression of pain and agony that was now permanently etched upon her face. Unless I could find a way to overpower both Andre and LaLaurie, this would be my fate as well. As it was, I had been so stunned that I didn’t notice Andre had already secured my legs to the platform. I was too weak from being knocked around to put up a fight.

  “Sam! Do something useful and begin preparing for the transfer,” LaLaurie ordered and turned to Andre. “What is taking you so long?” Pushing him out of the way, she looked down at me in disgust. I noticed then that it wasn’t just her voice that had been affected by stopping her transformation earlier. From a distance, she still looked like her ‘Alex’ persona, but up close, I could see that her skin was cracked and wrinkled. I clung to the hope that she was physically weakened as well, though I was too broken to even think of taking advantage even if that were the case.

  “Let her go,” I heard Sam say and turned my head to see him standing a few feet away.

  “This isn’t the time for misguided heroics, Samuel,” she said, never taking her eyes off me. “Prepare the transfer.”

  Sam reached into his pocket and withdrew a small glass tube that he held out in front of him. “Let her go, or I’ll smash this to bits.”

  “Sam, no!” I croaked, realizing that the item in his hand was the antidote.

  “You dare threaten me, you swine?” LaLaurie roared as she turned on Sam. But as she did, Andre snapped out of his trance and lunged at her with a CPA, plunging it into her neck with a satisfying hiss.

  She froze, but instead of dropping dead, her head turned slowly as anger and surprise twisted her face into a terrifying mask. “Well,” she stated, pulling the CPA out of her neck and throwing it on the floor. “That was anticlimactic. Your pathetic cocktail of poisons won’t work on me.”

  “And your hypnotics won’t work on me,” Andre replied, reaching back to grab the knife he was wearing.

  “What a pity,” she said with a ‘tsk’ sound. “I was rather looking forward to having some fun before I killed you.”

  “Andre, look out!” I screamed, digging at the restraints on my legs, but it was too late. There was a flash of silver and for one terrible moment, time seemed to stand still as Andre fell to the floor, clutching the hilt of the blade that was protruding from his chest.

  “No,” I whispered, fumbling with the buckles. I had gotten one leg loose, but the other was still strapped to the table. “No.”

  “Oh, yes,” LaLaurie cackled, walking slowly toward me. “I’m out of patience and you are out of saviors, little girl. It will be fun to play the grieving widow while I destroy each and every one of the so-called hunters and the traitorous wretches you’ve been harb-”

  There was a small pop, like a light bulb shattering and LaLaurie froze mid-sentence.

  “Oops.”

  Sam stood with a look of mock surprise on his face. The vial with the antidote lay shattered on the floor at his feet.

  “You worthless animal!” she yelled, turning on Sam and slapping him so hard that he lost his balance and fell to his knees. I saw another flash of silver and screamed, tugging violently on the last strap until it came off.

  Using every ounce of energy I had, I lunged, slamming her head as hard as I could into the floor, ignoring the excruciating pain that seemed to radiate from everywhere at once. Without the antidote, I was as good as dead, but it didn’t matter. I wasn’t going to let the bitch win. In a blind rage that was fueled by pure adrenaline, I attacked with wild punches as if it was a schoolyard fight, landing a few good blows before she launched me halfway across t
he room with a solid kick to the stomach.

  I managed to push myself up on my hands and knees, but collapsed into a coughing fit that brought up a terrifying amount of blood. LaLaurie was already on her knees and crawling toward me. At least it appeared that I had done some damage, even if it wasn’t as much as she did to me. My cache of CPAs was useless, but I didn’t have the strength to continue our hand-to-hand combat. I realized that I had just one option left.

  Reaching down, I pulled my gun out of the holster and tried to steady myself. But as I took aim, another spasm in my chest brought on another coughing fit and the gun clattered uselessly to the floor. Before I could retrieve it, my head snapped violently back and pain exploded across my skull. LaLaurie had grabbed my hair and was dragging me back to the platform.

  “The more you fight me, the less inclined I am to be gentle,” she rasped, giving my hair a violent tug for emphasis.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I managed to choke out. “You’re as dead as I am.”

  I managed to hook the gun and brought my arm up. Aiming blindly, I prayed that I didn’t miss. But just as I squeezed the trigger, her hold on me slackened and she dropped heavily to the ground. Instead of a gunshot wound, the bladed edge of a hatchet protruded from the back of her head. Realizing that something was very wrong with this picture, I looked up.

  “No!” I gasped. “Oh god! What did I do?”

  “Is she dead?” Andre managed to ask before he too collapsed, his hands pressed to the wound on his chest where my bullet had struck him.

  Chapter 28

  “Oh god. Oh no, please no!” I began to panic as I tried to scramble to my feet and fell back to the floor in agony. Between the broken bones and internal injuries, I had doubts that I would live long enough to die from the effects of the poison. Another coughing fit brought up so much blood that no matter how much air I took in, it felt as if I was suffocating. Fighting through the pain, I dragged myself with my one uninjured arm, slipping on blood as I went, to where Andre had fallen.

  “I’m sorry,” I gasped as I collapsed again into another round of uncontrollable spasms. “Oh, Andre, I’m so sorry.” My voice was nothing more than a hollow, whistling whisper. I felt the tears slide down my cheek, pooling on the floor next to my head, but I didn’t have enough air left in my injured lungs to cry.

  I shot Andre.

  I didn’t even know if he was still alive and I didn’t have enough life left in me to crawl the last three feet to find out. I was scared, but more than anything, I was angry. This wasn’t how it was supposed to end. Not that I was so egotistical that I thought I deserved a heroic death, but I had at least hoped to die without regrets. I had so much unfinished business, so many things to say to so many people, that I was sure I would come back as a ghost. Instead of surrounded by my family and loved ones, the last image I saw was the twisted face of Delphine LaLaurie, her glassy, dead eyes bulging unnaturally from the force of the trauma to her skull. I didn’t have enough energy left to look away or even close my eyes.

  “You did it, Andre,” I managed to choke in a harsh, watery sob. The gruesome sight before me began to fade as I succumbed to the descending darkness. “She’s dead. You saved the day.” In the end, wasn’t that all that mattered?

  “Lucy?”

  I heard Andre’s voice, but it sounded like it was coming from the other end of a long hallway. “No. Come on, Lucy, please,” he said in a choked and panicked whisper. There was a scuffling noise and then a light pressure against my chest. “Lucy, please wake up. You have to stay with me.”

  I tried to speak, but all that came out was a wheezing croak. I opened my eyes slowly, blinking as the darkened room came into focus. I was lying on my back and Andre hovered over me, panic-stricken. I tried again to speak, but the burning in my lungs and throat made it impossible to breathe, let alone do anything else. I imagine I must have looked much like a fish on dry land because Andre’s panic flared suddenly before he grabbed my shoulders and turned me onto my side. I gasped as the burning receded and I was able to breathe again, though with difficulty.

  “Andre,” I finally managed to gasp. “I’m so sorry. Go. Don’t worry about me.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” he said, reaching out to take my hand. “We’re going to get you out of here. The others are on their way right now.”

  “Andre, I’m…” I coughed again. “You need a doctor.”

  “Me? Sweetie, I’m fine. You’re the one with the injuries.”

  “But… I… I shot you,” I said, replaying the horrible moment in my head.

  “Well, yeah, you did,” he said with bit of a smirk. “I might have even deserved it. But look.” He pulled away the tattered remains of his shirt, revealing nothing but the faded scars from an old injury. “I’m fine.”

  “Did I miss?”

  “No, you most certainly did not,” he said with wry amusement. “Did you forget about the fact that it takes a little more than a bullet to kill me?”

  “Oh yeah,” I said sheepishly. With everything that had happened, I couldn’t be too hard on myself for forgetting that Andre still had his abilities. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I should have trusted you. I… Oh my god!” I broke off suddenly, horrified that I had forgotten about LaLaurie’s prisoners. “Dr. Hayward’s here, and Agents Timmons and Carr,” I told him. “Andre, you have to get them out of here. There are probably others.”

  “Hush, it’s okay. They’re all safe,” he assured me. “We got them out before I followed you and Damien. Your father made sure everyone was safely escorted to headquarters. He and Evan are on their way. They’ll be here soon. The others are checking the rest of the compound and making sure we didn’t miss anyone.”

  “But you were… Wait,” I said as I realized what he was saying. “So you weren’t drugged?”

  “Technically, I was drugged,” he informed me. “Alex drugged me not long after we met, but whatever she used cleared my system within minutes. I let her think she had control of my mind in hopes that she would reveal who she was working for. The only reason it worked for as long as it did was because she didn’t know you had transformed. Lucy, I’m so sorry,” he said, brushing a stray hair out of my face. “Not just for the emotional pain I caused you. If I had had any idea that Alex was actually Delphine LaLaurie, I would have killed her right then and there. I honestly thought she was just a pawn who would eventually slip up and reveal where LaLaurie was. I certainly didn’t expect to come face to face with her when I followed you down here.”

  “How did you find me?” I asked.

  “I uh, actually took a page out of your book,” he said with a shy smile. He reached into the pocket on the sleeve of my suit and pulled out the locket that I had left at headquarters.

  “Very clever.” I hadn’t noticed him slip it onto me and I never would have discovered it because I considered that pocket to be pretty useless. My small laugh turned into a sob. I tried to turn my head away as the enormity of the situation hit me, but it was impossible.

  “Lucy,” Andre said quietly, brushing away the tears as they fell down my face. “Don’t cry. We’ll be out of here very soon.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said with a sniff. “I… You loved me and I was awful to you because I didn’t trust you. It’s my fault. I was insecure. I thought you were repulsed by the way I look and Alex was pretty, so…” I trailed off with a sob.

  “Lucy, I still love you,” he said, resting his hand gently against my cheek. “I can’t blame you for the way you reacted. I hurt you. You have every right to be angry with me. I thought I could keep you safe by putting distance between us and I was wrong. I should have trusted you enough to tell you what I was doing. I never meant to hurt you. I… I’ll understand if you need time, but I meant every word I said.”

  “Oh, Andre,” I said, attempting to take a deep breath, but the pain was too much. “I do love you and nothing is going to change that. I want you to remember that, remember us, but not like this. Just the good thi
ngs, okay?”

  “What do you mean, remember?”

  “Andre, I’m… I’m…” My words were choked off as I began to cry. I always thought I would be strong, that I would face death with bravery, but I couldn’t even bring myself to say the words out loud.

  “Lucy, what is it?” Andre asked, his voice laced with concern and hurt as he misinterpreted my words as a rejection. Here I was, with precious few moments of my life left, and still I managed to screw up what should have been my chance to make things right because of my cowardice.

  “Andre, Sam destroyed the antidote,” I said at last. “I’m going to die.”

  “No. You can’t… You’re not… Abe will figure it out. He was getting close,” he said vehemently, but his stricken expression told me that he wasn’t as sure of his words as he sounded.

  “There’s no more time,” I said quietly. “I’ve got hours. That is, if I’m lucky and my injuries don’t kill me first. Please… Just promise that you’ll remember me the way I was. Not like this. Not like some…monster.”

  “You were never a monster, Lucy,” he said fiercely. “You never repulsed me. No matter what you look like, you will always be beautiful to me.” He lifted my hand and kissed it gently before bringing it up to where I could see it. “I guess you hadn’t even noticed.”

  “How?” I asked in awe. My skin had gone back to its normal color and my nails were no longer silver talons. I reached up and pulled a lock of my hair forward. It was back to its normal shade of deep brown. “When did this happen?”

  “Right after you shot me,” Andre replied with a small laugh. “I actually thought I was seeing things because it was so sudden.”

  “Traumatic experience,” I said, echoing his laughter with a weak chuckle of my own, but it trailed off into a sob that I couldn’t hold back. There was so much of my life that was left unfinished. I thought of my father, and everything he had suffered already. It wasn’t fair.