I couldn’t even be concerned for the most important creature in the world to me. Couldn’t let my system feel fear or worry or panic.
“You’re hurt.” My voice came out cold and heartless, doing my best to stay conscious.
Whisper stopped beside me and dropped to his haunches. His head tipped up to stare at me. He exhaled heavily, sounding so much like an exasperated human, I forgot that he wasn’t one.
A grunt echoed in his barrel of a chest as he twisted and licked his injury.
My gaze flew to the furthest pavilion on the outskirts of the woods.
Rook.
She’d better have a good excuse for not coming.
Her absence had condemned me to yet another day of absolute misery. A day that I wouldn’t see much more of because any moment now the pain would become too much, and I’d succumb.
Gritting my teeth, I used what meagre strength I had left to bend over and stop Whisper from cleaning his wound. He hissed a little but obeyed, licking his lips free from blood.
Running a shaking finger over the shallow slice, relief filled me. “It’s not deep. You’ll be okay.”
Nudging me out of the way, he resumed his licking.
Fine, let him heal himself.
I wasn’t any use to him in my current condition.
“Who did it?” I staggered forward, holding onto the parapet as another flash of fire shot through me.
Whisper bared his teeth but kept licking.
Sweat rolled down my temples as I dug my fingernails into the rock. “Fine. Keep your secrets. However, you’ll have to fight your own battles today, I’m afraid.”
He made a soft grunting sound and came to lean against me.
My right hand stopped clawing at the stone and dropped to his head. Touching him sometimes helped. Borrowing his brutish power was sometimes the only way I stayed conscious. Scratching behind his ears, my gaze slid back to the wall trapping me in this estate of horrors.
I glowered at the sensors, cameras, locks, and barricades.
I wished I could blow them all up. Tear them apart and smash them to pieces.
A hot flash of agony had me groaning and abandoning those thoughts.
A steady buzz grew louder.
My fingers froze around Whisper’s ear as a drone appeared, its shadow drifting over me as it hovered, putting itself in a position of authority.
I bared my teeth, wishing I could shoot it down and destroy the message it was about to deliver.
“Fuck off, Marcus.” I swallowed hard as a rush of nausea warned me I was mere moments from being knocked out.
“Is that any way to talk to your nearest and dearest friend?”
I didn’t bother answering. I wouldn’t waste the last dregs of energy on him.
The drone dropped a little lower—but not too low. They’d learned to stay out of swiping distance after I’d managed to destroy a few.
Marcus’s voice crackled through the speaker. “I’ve been waiting for good news, Lucien. I’ll admit, I’m a little disappointed that you haven’t progressed.”
I grinned, wishing I had fangs as sharp as Whisper’s. “Is that why you’re punishing me so much lately? For something you think I should’ve done?”
“It’s not a punishment,” Marcus drawled, his tone smug and faintly amused. “It’s merely a correction. You’ve had that girl in your house almost every day since she arrived. Tell me, seeing as you refuse to let us have cameras inside, have you fucked her yet?”
My mind filled with images of being with her in that way. Of finding out what it would be like to kiss and touch and give in.
The idea didn’t disgust me nearly as much as it should have.
I smirked. “Why? Are you jealous?”
“I merely need to know if today is the day I can stay true to my promise.”
“What? To finally kill me?”
The drone’s speaker system hissed with white noise. “You know you mean so much to me, Lucien. It pains me that you don’t see that.”
I laughed. Marcus’s lies would never stop being funny. But then my laugh turned to a groan, and I wobbled, fighting the fog creeping over my thoughts. “Nice of you to say such things while your finger is on that little button feeding me whatever drugs keep me useless.”
“It could all stop you know.” The drone circled me. Whisper snapped his jaws, swiping with his huge paw. “All you have to do is get one of them pregnant. The moment we have confirmation of your child in someone’s belly—”
“I’m not your breeding whore.”
“—I’ll personally collect you and take you home.”
“I am home.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t.” My skin drenched in sweat as I continued to fight the burn.
“Stop being difficult. Just have a little fun and knock one of them up. How hard is that?”
“Fine.” I smirked. “Say I do...will you let me go? Will you completely forget about me and never come after me again if I get one of these trespassing rats pregnant?”
“If you work with us instead of against us. If you prove to us you’re willing to run Brimstone Industries under our guidance and do what we ask for the sake of your legacy, of course we’ll leave you alone. You may live your life however you wish.”
“Bull. Shit.”
“You always were a pain in my ass,” Marcus muttered, showing his true colours.
I chuckled around my pain. “Fuck you too.”
“This hurts me as much as it hurts you, you know.”
“Sure, it does.” I flung my hand up, delivering a vulgar finger at the drone. “Go jump off a cliff, Marcus.”
“When you wake up, meditate on your choices, Lucien.” The vitalsync core beeped as another flash of red released the final dose I’d never been able to withstand. “Either pass on your blood to a nameless child that will mean nothing to you, or continue to suffer until you obey.”
My vision went white as the pain surged, doubling, tripling—a flood of molten magma in my veins. I fell to both knees, my breath hitching, fingers clawing at the disc surgically implanted in my chest.
The drone lingered above me, watching as I fell to the side and convulsed.
Marcus sighed. “I really hope that one day you’ll behave. But until that day...suffer well.”
My eyes rolled back as sunlight broke into shards.
The last thing I saw was Whisper as he roared at the drone, leapt into the sky, and swatted it.
He smashed it against the roof.
And as he tore out the innards of the flying spy, the world folded in on itself, taking me with it, hurtling me into a volcano of pain.
Chapter Thirty-Six
“AH, YOU’RE HERE!” DASHING OUT OF the bathroom where I’d finished washing away yesterday’s awfulness, I skidded to a stop in front of Whisper. The black cotton dress I’d chosen made my already washed-out skin extra noticeable, revealing I still wasn’t feeling the best.
The panther stiffened at my sudden arrival but then broke into loud purrs as I bent over and bear-hugged him. “Thank God you’re okay!”
It was a testament to how gentle and wonderful he was that he merely accepted my worship.
Pulling away, I winced at the long, thin line across his shoulder. His fur was so thick, it obscured most of the wound—just the slightest stiffness of the strands revealed where his skin had scabbed over.
“Can I touch it?” I eyed him warily.
He didn’t react, so I took that as a yes.
Bracing myself, I ran my fingers lightly over the cut. No heat. No swelling. It seemed as though Laura hadn’t caused too much damage.
Thank goodness.