27. Luna

Chapter 27

Luna

I stand under the shower for a long time. Floating in Lucien's swimming pool, and the way he carried me outside holding me close, feels like a distant memory already. And I can't connect it to the way he looked at me when he told me to stay out of his business .

How did I allow myself to forget what he was?

I fell into the same trap I have always fallen into; trusting someone who has literally shown me exactly what they are right from the beginning.

Choosing to believe that this time it will be different.

Lucien murdered someone and sent me their body parts. He is a vampire. He drinks human blood. And on top of that, he's some kind of supernatural gangster. He ate another vampire's heart.

But still, I let the heat in his gaze distract me. I believed his touch, and the softness in his eyes, and the things he made my body feel instead of the facts.

I believed he was falling for me, and I thought I was falling for him too. I thought this was what it felt like to finally be safe.

I was wrong.

I am not safe with him, and I never will be. So, it's time to stop pretending. It is time to leave this place.

I pull on my clothes and pace the room. I tug at the painting Kim hung back over the window, and take it down. I try prying my fingers beneath the sheet of MDF, but there is no gap and it is held firmly in place by the nails Kim hammered into the wall.

I examine every crevice, searching both for a way out and for the camera I know he uses to watch me. I find it in the eye of a statue. A skull with a caved in head that holds a clutch of black roses. I turn it to face the wall.

No more watching.

No more.

My heartbeat quickens. My ribs feel tight, like my breath is swelling against them and threatening to crack them in two. The lights flicker. For a moment, I think Lucien is doing it to mess with me but then they right themselves.

I cross to the door and try the handle. It is locked. I am about to turn away when I hear footsteps outside.

My stomach clenches.

Has he come back?

Why the fuck do I feel relieved? excited to see him instead of dreading it. Hopeful that he might have changed his mind and come to apologize; to show me he's sorry and that he knows he was wrong. To do what my father and Steven never did and admit his failings.

I hear a key in the lock. It turns and clicks. I stand back, waiting for the door to open. But it doesn't.

A long moment passes and still Lucien doesn't appear.

So, I try the handle again myself. I push. And the door opens.

The corridor is almost pitch dark, lit by just a few muted wall lights. Hard floor, long red rug running down the center. The same eerie paintings and pictures.

I stare into the shadows. But there is no one there.

Immediately, my thoughts go to Kim. If things change, I'll let you know .

Is he setting me free? Telling me to run?

My feet are bare, but there is no time to go back inside and fetch socks and shoes. If I'm going, I have to go now.

I let the door close behind me and move quickly down the hall. Down the same stairs Lucien carried me when he took me outside, through the entrance hall, out of the large wooden doors and onto the steps in front of the house.

Then I run.

Down the driveway between two lines of silver birch trees, standing like sentinels watching over me, toward the large wrought iron gates that separate Lucien's estate from the outside world.

I have no idea how I'm going to get out. All I know is I have to try.

I am a few feet away when I hear the dogs. I look back over my shoulder and then my foot catches on something sharp. It's bleeding but I don't stop. I keep running.

I reach the gates and wrap my fingers around the cold metal, puling as hard as I can. Rattling them frantically as my heart hammer and my lungs swell and my body screams with desperation.

I try to climb but there is nothing to hold onto.

I move to the wall and try there. I manage to find a foot hold but it's not enough.

The dogs are louder now. Closer.

Above, thunder cracks and seconds later a fork of lightning illuminates the night sky. It has been weeks since we had rain. Of course, it would choose to arrive tonight.

I return to the gates. I lift my arms higher so they're straining, and my shoulders hurt and use every ounce of strength I possess to pull myself up high enough so that I can slot my feet onto the metal bar that sits a couple of feet above the ground. There is another to my right. Too far out of reach to be easy, but I have no other option.

This . This is why I should have tried harder in gym classes at school. This is why I hate my body; I always knew I wouldn't survive a zombie apocalypse, but it didn't occur to me that being able to escape vampires was a necessary skill.

I have just managed to move my feet to the next metal bar when it starts to rain. The gates become instantly slick and slippery. My bare feet struggle to keep hold, and my fingers can't get enough purchase to pull me up any higher.

I am stuck.

I look down at the ground. It is not a big jump. Maybe five feet. But just when I'm contemplating letting myself drop, they appear as if from nowhere – the dogs. Four of them.

They gather at the bottom of the gate, jaws snapping, barking, shining black fur wet from the rain. A fifth appears. Different from the rest. Grey with bright blue eyes.

Why does that dog look familiar?

I turn away and try to adjust my grasp on the gate. I have to keep going. I can't go back. But the second I reach for the next metal bar, I lose my hold.

And I fall.

My body meets the ground with a force that knocks the breath clean out of my chest. Rain pummels my face. Pain ricochets through me, scraping down my bones, clawing my insides, making my muscles constrict and twist and throb.

I try to move and realize my shoulder is sticking out at a strange angle. Panic rises in my stomach. My vision blurs. Everything is going black. Like it did when I was sitting in my upturned car with my parents' dead bodies.

The sound of the car radio echoes in my ears. I hear glass breaking, and my parents screaming, and the darkness keeps closing in.

"Do you need a hand?"

I open my eyes. The dogs are quiet, and Trent – Lucien's security guard – is standing above me smiling.

I blink up at him and I'm about to cry with gratitude when I realize his eyes are bright blue. Like the dog's.

I turn my head. Now there are only four.

I look back at him. "You're a werewolf?"

He nods and folds his arms in front of his chest. "You're injured," he says, nodding at my shoulder. "You really shouldn't have tried to escape."

I try to scramble back, away from him, but he clicks his fingers at the dogs, and they crowd together behind me. "Did you unlock my door?"

Trent tilts his head. "Why would I do that?"

"So, you could be the one to rescue me?" Fury flares in my gut. Is he that desperate for Lucien's approval? Is he that pathetic?

With a dry laugh, Trent sweeps some rain from his eyes and shakes his head. "I didn't let you go so I could rescue you, Luna." He licks his lips.

My bare feet are now covered in mud. My body screams in pain. My shoulder… my shoulder.

"I let you go so I could chase you."