I watch as Luci goes into the bathroom only to return several minutes later with the white corset from earlier.
“Come here.”
I don’t move.
“I said,come here,” Luci snaps, his voice suddenly more terrifying than anything I’ve ever heard come out of him.
I rise from the bed and move to stand in front of him, even as every bit of me struggles not to defy him.
I’m supposed to be trying to behave, remember?
Stopping in front of Luci, all thought of rebellion evaporates as I look up into his face and find no semblance of the man I know looking back. I can quite literally feel the blood draining from my face as black, emotionless eyes reflect my own terrified expression right back at me.
“Luci?” I start just as his face hardens, and he grabs my arms roughly to spin me around.
“Arms, now!”
I lift them over my head, and Luci shoves the corset down over me before setting to work on the lacings. A small, sharp cry escapes me as he tightens the corset around my body with more force than even Valentine used on me.
“Breathe,” he growls, and I do just before he pulls on the cords again.
Finally satisfied, he wraps and knots the ends of the laces around my waist and turns to grab the dress off the bed.
I’m having trouble breathing, and in all honesty, I’m surprised I haven’t thrown up everything I ate not that long ago too. My knees feel week, and I’ve started to sweat in the few seconds it takes for Luci to return.
“Luci, I—”
“Step inside,” he orders, cutting me off as he holds the dress down and open in front of me.
I weakly obey, grabbing his arms for balance as I do, and he pulls the dress up over my body before fastening it around me. By the time he finishes, I’m feeling more than a little faint as Luci takes my wrist and drags me back into the bathroom.
He pushes me down onto a chair in front of a vanity before squatting down to open the drawer closest to the floor. I watch as something falls out of his pocket, landing with a soft, squishy plop on the floor.
It’s the still untouched bag of thick dark liquid Valentine gave him earlier.
Without thinking, I grab it, nearly passing out from the strain the corset puts on my body. Luci whirls on me in nearly the same second, and again, without thinking, I do perhaps the stupidest thing I’ve done yet.
I stuff the bag straight down between my breasts.
“Give that back,” Luci says in a low warning.
“Why should I?”
“Evi, give it back. You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Then tell me.”
Luci’s eyes darken, losing any last semblance of humanity in them as he straightens to his full height, and my heart nearly stops beating altogether.
This has to be a side effect of whatever this drug is, right?
I lean away as he steps closer and grabs the back of the chair, slowly bending down to my eye level.
“Don’t make me tell you again. Give it back.”
“No, this is for your own good.”
His hand darts forward, but I’d been expecting this and by some miracle manage to escape his grasp as I twist my body out of the chair, putting it between us.