Page 160 of The Darkness is Calling

Not even the voices are whispering anymore.

The car slowly stops in the underground parking lot of a skyscraper in central London. The Shard.

Looking at my brother questioningly, he just raises the corner of his mouth.

“Didn’t you say that the safest place is right under their eyes?” he whispers before getting out and opening my door.

Katya startles, frightened, no matter how slowly I try to get out, and her body tenses, visibly scared.

My lips immediately press to her temple, and I would do anything to see her calm again.

“Shh, dusha moya. I’m here. You’re safe.”

She doesn’t even look around, as if she’s afraid of what she might see, but she looks into my eyes.

“Everything is alright now,” I say as calmly as I can, though I’m frustrated that she had to go through something like this.

In the next moment, four soldiers from our organization appear, protecting us on all sides until we reach the large elevator, where two of them fit inside with us. Two remain downstairs, guarding the access door.

“The whole floor is ours,” he tells me quietly as we go up to the fifty-fifth floor.

I nod, still preserving a calm atmosphere, even though Katya isn’t asleep.

She seems so small and fragile that my arms would be capable of carrying her like this, like a bride, for the rest of my life. Especially since my embrace seems to soothe her with every second that passes.

When we enter the apartment, I don’t pay any attention to the space. To me, no house feels like home if she isn’t beside me. It doesn’t matter how much it costs or what expensive decorations exist. It could be a ruined house with cracked walls and, as long as she is with me, I know I will turn it into a castle for my queen.

Sasha lingers behind, to admire the city visible through the panoramic windows, while Yar leads me toward one of the bedrooms. He shows me the door to the en-suite bathroom and whispers that he’ll bring me some clothes to change into.

I lay her carefully on the bed and look at her tearstained face, with mascara streaks on her cheeks. The image squeezes my heart for the thousandth time.

I quickly take off my blood-spattered jacket and lie down beside her without making another sound. I only kiss the top of her head again and again while my hand strokes her back, giving her the comfort she needs to fall asleep again.

I exhale in relief when her breathing becomes calmer, but this is the right moment to start thinking about the blood of those who brought the woman I love into this state. Blood that is still on my clothes, just as it is on her white dress.

I don’t need to look in the mirror to know I need a shower, which I decide to take at lightning speed, just so I can return to her as fast as possible. Very carefully, I detach myself from her soft body, but this time she doesn’t wake, so I head quickly to the bathroom.

When I come out of the shower, she is motionless. She barely had time to move in the few minutes I was gone. On an armchair, I see the clothes my brother left for me, and I put on a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt.

I grimace, displeased with the clothes he chose for me. I haven’t worn anything like this outside a training room since I was a teenager.

But I don’t have the luxury of being picky right now. That’s beside the point. What matters is that they’re clean and that now I can immediately lie down beside her and gently pull her into my arms, returning my lips to the crown of her head.

In the distance, the sun is getting ready to set, and I wish I had the power to erase this day completely from her mind, so that when she wakes, she won’t remember anything.

For a moment, I let sleep and her warm, increasingly calm breathing wrap around me. I fall asleep with my lips pressed to her forehead, but I stay alert to every movement she makes and every sound beyond the door.

Today I allowed myself to be caught when they stormed into my office, at the club, where I only go when there’s something very important to handle there. It was the ideal place for a trap.

But I won’t allow it a second time.

No more games.

It’s my turn to attack, and I will make sure I exterminate their filthy bloodline from the face of the earth.

Starting with the Prescott family.

A warm hand gently touches my cheek, and every thought braided with dreams fragments disappears. I open my eyes at once.