Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
I come out onto a rotunda with a black filigree railing. Looking over it, I see a staircase winding downward, sconces glowing softly to show several floors below. Far ahead of me is more stone, a flat wall that extends up to the ceiling and down into darkness.
There’s no light, no hint of a way out. If I truly am underground, how do I get to the surface? I lean against the wall at the top of the stairs, my breath already labored and my ribs aching. Nausea churns in my gut, but I keep going. I have to. There’s only one way to move. Down.
I painstakingly descend, my steps silent on the stairs as I keep one hand on the wall. The sconces give off a warm light despite the chill in the air, and I find them a slight comfort. I silently thank each one when I pass it and hope they stay lit.
At the next landing, I find a grand piano, several sitting areas, and more art. A large statue of some Greek hero commands the center of the open landing, his body draped across a chair, his eyes rolling toward the heavens. A gash mars the stone at his chest, a deadly wound. Macabre but also somehow beautiful, his eyes seem to follow me as I creep past the large piano and into another hallway.
Again, I have to lean against the wall, my hands shaking as I brace myself and take in steadying breaths. My head is spinning now, exertion eating up my adrenaline and leaving nothing in its wake. I’m out of gas.
I slide down the wall despite my efforts to stay upright. It’s a losing battle. When my ass hits the floor, I groan and rest my forehead against my knees.
“You shouldn’t be here.” Valen’s voice, cold and curt.
I look up at him. “No shit.” The words pop out. No filter. No thought. I don’t even have the energy to be startled. If he’s come to kill me, maybe it’s a relief. Maybe … Maybe I’m done.
He sighs, irritation in the sound. “Go back to your room.”
“Why am I here?”
“You know why.” He crosses his arms, looming over me.
“I remember you, you know? I remember you from before.”
His eyes flash for a fraction of a moment, then return to their stony color. “From what your jailors told me, your brain is diseased. You haven’t been able to tell them anything about your work or what happened to Theo. You’re just as useless to me now as you were then.”
“Maybe.” I grit my teeth. “But I remember you.”
“What is it you think you remember?” He reaches down and takes my arm, hauling me to my feet with ease as I let out a yelp.
“You were supposed to help me.” I can’t stop him from pulling me past the piano and statue. I’m nothing more than a doll to him. “We were going to find a cure. I was going to find it. I-I’m a scientist. A doctor. I was working on—”
“You failed.” He walks me up the stairs, his grip sure but not painful. “Not to put too fine a point on it—after all, I want you to be able to understand me, so I’ll use smaller words. There is no cure, your people are doomed, and you’re never leaving this castle.”
“That’s not true. I found—” A splitting pain hammers into my temples, and the world seems to flash into black and white, then back to color.
“You found something?” he asks. “What?”
“I …” I don’t know. When I think back to my research, everything is scrambled. I know I had a lab, had people working with me to find a vaccine, but beyond that—it’s gone. Just like I remember Valen, but nothing specific. Nothing that could help me piece together what happened. I get a flash, but this time it’s of the torture. Of what happened to me after I was captured—not that I remember being captured. I simply woke up tied to a table. That’s when my memory becomes far too specific. Fangs and blood. Whitbine. Questions, so many questions. But I couldn’t answer them then. Just like I can’t answer them now. Whatever the vampires did to me, its effects are lasting. Will I ever know how the hell I ended up like this?
“Too bad you never found a cure. We could’ve used that to lure humans into the blood camps. But I suppose the objective has changed now.” He pauses when I lose my balance, the pain in my head obliterating whatever thoughts I might’ve been having. “Total annihilation works best when there’s no help coming. Nothing to stop the plague. Nothing to stop us.” He sounds almost bored as he talks about destroying an entire species.
“You won’t win. We’ll fight you. We’ll—”