Chapter 5 #2
I rush over and fall onto my knees in front of her.
I take her arms and pull her into the light of the window.
Semi-unconscious, her eyes roll back, and her head lolls to the side.
When the light from the window touches her face, I see a jagged gash across her right cheek and dried blood on her swollen bottom lip.
Oh my god…
“Haven,” I gasp, trying my best to hold her upright. She still doesn’t respond, but being this close to her allows me to see multiple bite marks on her neck, the curve of her shoulders, and on her breasts. Her skin is bruised purple.
She’s not only been fed on, she’s been bled dry.
I swear under my breath. Whoever did this took too much. She’s close to death.
Glancing over my shoulder at the door that Keagan and Cornelius protect, I understand why Keagan was so eager to let me in. He wanted me to find her like this.
Did they do this to her?
Fury ignites inside me unlike any I’ve ever felt before.
When I tell Henri about this, I’m going to be the first in line to see them executed. Front and center.
Looking down at Haven cradled in my lap, I let my fingers glide over her arms. Her skin is too cold; it feels all wrong.
Guilt rears up, and I wish I’d never left her yesterday, as much as I know I had to.
What I don’t understand is how Keagan and Cornelius had gotten to her, or how they put her in here without Henri knowing? It doesn’t make sense.
When my fingers brush against something coarse around her wrists, I pause. It’s a rope and it’s binding her hands together. As if things could get any worse, they have her tied up here like a wild animal.
With shaky hands, I try to get her attention again. “Haven… Haven, please. Wake up. Please.”
She moves slightly in my arms but doesn’t respond.
“Haven… It’s me. Avrum. You’re safe now. I’m here.”
Her eyes flutter open, and she stares up at me blankly, her gaze struggling to focus on my face.
“W-Who did this to you?” I ask.
I have to get her away from here and cared for. I need to tell Henri what’s happened.
Footsteps vibrate the floor underneath me, telling me someone is about to enter the room. I pray it’s Henri.
To my relief, when the door opens he’s the one who steps through, fiddling with the cuff of his ivory-bib shirt. His coal-black hair is slicked back from his face, curling up at the end, and he strolls across the room. When spots me, a smile breaks across his face.
“My dear boy!” he says, with his arms out like he’s about to embrace me. “You’ve come to me.”
I glance at Haven, who’s still barely conscious in my arms. He’s obviously seen her, so where’s the outrage? The questions?
“My-My lord, I—”
He turns to the standup mirror beside his study’s door. His reflection watches me with careful eyes as he fixes his other cuff. “I didn’t want to have to wake you, Avrum, but this news couldn’t wait.”
I’m stunned silent by his lack of reaction. I can’t wrap my head around what’s happening. He’s standing there, looking me in the eye, and blatantly ignoring Haven’s sickly state right in front of him.
“I have thought a lot about all you have done for me,” Henri says as he does up the buttons up his shirt. “And I am eternally grateful. You are truly a friend in my eyes.”
“My lord…” My mouth is drier than the desert. “Have—”
“I wanted to find some way to thank you,” he goes on. “And so, I’m making you my second-in-command.”
The words float in the space between us, not fully reaching me or sinking in.
In another circumstance, I would’ve been thrilled.
Honored. Thankful beyond belief. Being second to the lord means I’d have authority over everyone in the coven, power Henri had never given out before. But I don’t know how to respond.
In my silence, Henri’s eyes narrow. “You don’t seem too pleased about this.”
“No, no, my lord, forgive me. I’m very thankful, but—”
“What is the problem then?” His voice gains volume, anger flashing across his face. “And stand up, will you? You know better than to address me this way.”
Peering down at Haven’s pale face, I frown. Gently, I lay her against the wall, like I’d found her, and stand on wobbly legs. My mind is a torrent of conflict and confusion.
“Do you not accept my offer?” Henri asks.
“I apologize, my lord,” I start. “I accept, of course, and would be honored, but…”
“Good,” Henri snaps, cutting me short. Walking over to the door, he knocks on it twice, waits for it to open, and for Keagan and Cornelius to come inside before he continues, “As my second, I will be expecting only more from you. This is not a position I give lightly. I’ve been running this coven for decades by myself for a reason.
I hope you won’t prove this decision a mistake and disappoint me. ”
“Of… course…”
Cornelius and Keagan shove past me. With a pleased gleam in his eyes, Keagan smiles at me as they move to the other side of the bed where Haven lies.
My stomach twists into knots.
Henri moves back to the mirror. Bored. “Many might try to test your loyalty, but I don’t think I will have to worry about you wandering from me.” His reflection’s stare bores into mine, testing me. “Right, Avrum?”
I swallow roughly, the reality of what is actually going on here finally sinking in.
I couldn’t deny it any longer. Henri had been the one to do this to Haven.
He must have. Her burning hatred for him and her need to run away all make sense now.
And he’s challenging me and where I stand with it.
He wants to know if I’ll fall in line, like Keagan and Cornelius.
“Right, Avrum?” he repeats stiffly as he waits for my answer.
A loud groan comes from behind me, and I whirl around.
Cornelius is hauling Haven from the dark corner and drapes her over his thick arms. Still lost to unconsciousness, her limbs swing back and forth with his movements.
She barely looks alive, and the idea makes nausea roll through me.
The beautiful cotton dress she had been wearing before I’d left her is only shreds of blue cloth that barely cover her nakedness.
I can’t believe this. He’s taken her, abused her.
“Avrum.” His voice rumbles with animosity, and when I meet his gaze in the mirror, his pupils have dilated as his anger and impatience grow.
“Yes, my lord.” The words leave my mouth, but they don’t register in me otherwise.
“Excellent!” As if on a switch, Henri’s mood shifts dramatically. He grins and continues dressing himself, slipping into a burgundy vest and buttoning it up.
Cornelius places Haven on the bed while Keagan begins using the ropes already around her wrists to tie her to the headboard.
I can’t move, can’t believe the atrocities I’m witnessing. Who else knows about this? How long has it been going on? I’m not even sure I could stomach the answers.
When they finish securing her to the bed, Keagan leans down and presses his lips to her forehead, holding my gaze the entire time. Mocking me. He’s enjoying this, the sick bastard.
This can’t be happening.
The man who’d saved me from death, my immortal father… He’s not trying to help Haven. He’s using her for his pleasure.
And Haven had been risking it all to leave this Hell. She’s a prisoner, and I had been the one to track her down and drag her back every time.
Am I any better than Keagan or Cornelius? Am I a monster, too?
“Will that be all, my lord?” Keagan asks, drawing out every word.
Henri adjusts his collar. “You can go,” he dismisses them.
As they leave, my legs are locked in place, my thoughts a jumbled mess. Henri pats my back hard and I lurch forward. “You may go, too, Avrum.”
I don’t know how I make it across the room to the door, but when I take hold of the handle, my gaze lingers on the four-poster bed. Haven’s awake now, her glassy blue eyes watching me, pleading with me not to go.
My chest clenches painfully.
“You may go,” Henri says again, with more force.
And I do. As quick as I can, rushing out the door and down the hall, unable to take another second longer inside that room with her, Henri, and the truth.
Keagan’s and Cornelius’s booming laughter follows me all the way.