No sooner than he does this, a shadow falls over us both. Luci’s body is pulled away from mine and thrown back into a wall as Valentine steps into the room to stand over me.
His eyes drop to my breasts, and a look of pure rage takes over his features. It’s only now that I realize my body has started to seize, shivers racking it in waves.
Turning, Valentine storms over to Luci. Grabbing him by his shirt, he begins punching him over and over.
“Did I give you permission to break her?!” he roars, seething as his blows grow more violent.
“No. Please ... stop,” I plead through clenched teeth, apparently surprising Valentine as much as myself as he turns to look back at me, his fists bloodied.
Releasing Luci, he straightens and readjusts his suit.
“Men, grab him,” Valentine orders, his voice low and rumbling. “It appears the fool has started to go feral sooner than expected. Take him underground so I can deal with him later.”
Feral?
The two men I’d seen earlier, along with several new ones, quickly move to obey as Valentine crouches down to lift me up into his arms.
As he carries me out of the room, my vision darkens, and the last thing I see are four men dragging Luci’s limp body out of Anna’s shrine.
10
Luci
My head snaps to the side as a hand collides with the side of my face.
“Wake up.”
I struggle to open my eyes, only to find that one of my eyelids is swollen shut as I finally manage to look through the partial opening of the other.
Valentine is standing in front of me, bent at the waist so that he’s eye-level with me. It takes me another second to realize I’m sitting, my hands and feet strapped to a chair, in a small metal room with florescent lights.
We’re not alone either, as several black-suited guards stand behind Valentine, their arms folded behind their backs.
“Where the hell am I?”
“Is that really your first question, Lucien?” Valentine snorts, shaking his head at me in disappointment as he straightens, tilting his chin toward the ceiling to look down his nose at me.
My brow furrows, my mind trying to fill in the missing pieces of my memory. My eye widens painfully as snapshots of Evi’s face in Valentine’s office return to me.
“Evi, where is she? What happened to her?”
Valentine smiles cruelly.
“I was beginning to think you were too far gone to remember. It appears you may still have a little time left before you’re lost to the ages.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You’re going feral, Lucien. I’d say you have a week perhaps two, tops, at this point.”
“That’s impossible.”
“You would think that, wouldn’t you?” he laughs coldly. “Onlyyouwould be fool enough to think I’d freely give one of my son’s menuntaintedblood, especially before you’ve completed your end of the deal.”
“You son of a b—”
“Now, now, Lucien. There’s no need for that kind of name calling. After all, I wasn’t the one who came looking for a way to get back to his deadwife.”
I can’t stop myself from trying to lash out at him, but the chair keeps my wrists firmly in place. My jaw hardens as I glare up at Valentine.