Page 124 of Requiem
Erik shrugs, unconcerned. “If I bought her, it doesn’t matter what I do to her. She’s my little plaything, now.”
Silence fills the room, rage coiling tight in my chest. But none of us says anything this time. Then a sound interrupts us from upstairs.
Alexei’s head tilts slightly as he listens, a small, satisfied smile curving his mouth. “That will be Vlad,” he says, pleased. “Right on time.”
My stomach drops.
No. Not yet.
Alexei glances toward Erik. “Go get him.”
Erik pushes off the wall and turns toward the stairs, rolling his shoulders as he disappears through the door, which opens and shuts behind him with a hollow click.
My heart is racing, and Heather looks over at me with terror in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I’m so sorry, Heather.”
The strength she’s been holding onto finally cracks, and a tear slips down her cheek.
Alexei grins like he’s taking pleasure from our pain. “I will have you know that Vlad really likes blondes. He’ll likely take his turn with you first.”
Heather whimpers at that, and I lunge against the restraints.
Oh, god. Where will he take us? Will I ever see my parents again? Jude?
Alexei turns toward the door, still completely unbothered.
The door opens, and Erik comes back in. Except he doesn’t walk. He’sthrown.
His body hits the floor hard, sliding across the concrete in a smear of blood, a knife buried deep in his side as a broken sound gurgles from his throat.
The entire room goes rigid, Alexei’s gaze snapping upward.
And then Jude steps through the doorway.
Chapter thirty-four
JUDE GRAVES
Erik’s body hits the concrete like dead weight just before I step inside the basement, blood smearing beneath him as he slides across the floor. The metallic scent of it floods the air. My gaze locks onto the girls chained against the far wall, moving over them as I catalog every visible injury on Emma before I even fully breathe again.
Her face is flushed, one side of her jaw beginning to redden beneath the fluorescent lights, and there are faint marks blooming along her throat that make something murderous twist deep in my chest. But she’s alive, looking at me like she thought she might never see me again. My sweet girl.
Behind me, Micah and Nico rush past without hesitation, already beside the cuffs with Erik’s keys clenched tight in Nico’s bloodstained hand. The chains rattle sharply as they work to unlock them.
Emma stares at me with relief and wonder, and I can’t help the smile that pulls at my mouth.
Thank fuck she’s okay.
The relief barely settles before my attention shifts toward Adriana, and the memory of Erik’s words slams back into me from when I embedded that knife in his side upstairs.
I got her, motherfucker. And they’ll get your girl, too.
“Kill him,” I say quietly, my eyes locking on hers.
For a second, Adriana just stares at me like she doesn’t fully understand what I’ve said. Then something inside her finally gives. She lunges forward, straddling Erik’s barely conscious body as her fingers wrap around the knife still buried in his side. Blood spills across her hands when she wrenches it free. Then she drives it back into him.
Again.
Again.
