CHAPTER 27
ZANE
The air reeks of blood before I can even react.
Nico stares at Mia with a quiet, insidious victory, but she isn’t finished.
She moves fast—too fast. The blade gleams under the tunnel lights, cutting through the dim space like a death sentence. A second later, a scream shatters the air.
Paulina stumbles back, hands clutching her face, but blood surges hot and dark between her fingers. Her grip on me loosens, and the gun slips from her grasp, clattering uselessly into the gap in the drain, vanishing.
“You cunt!” she shrieks, but her voice is strangled by pain, her sobs mixing with the slick, nauseating sound of blood dripping onto the concrete.
Mia’s knife trembles, but it isn’t hesitation—it’s adrenaline. Hatred radiates from her, raw and vicious, burning through every inch of her rigid frame. Her breath comes fast, shoulders tight, pupils blown wide.
She wants to kill.
I know that look. I’ve seen it before.
Paulina writhes on the floor, wailing, but before Mia can take another step, an arm clamps around my chest, yanking me backward.
Nico.
“You stay quiet,” he says, voice steady, unreadable.
Mia’s gaze locks onto his hand gripping me, her entire body snapping taut. "Let him go," she warns, voice low, steady. "Or I’ll kill every last one of you."
Nico only chuckles. "Be my guest, daughter," he says mildly. "But if you do, know that I’ll put a bullet through his skull first. And I’ll make you watch."
The shift in Mia is instant.
Terror.
Not fear for herself—for me. It shakes her, just for a second, and I hate that. Hate that she’s caught in this position, that she feels powerless.
I need to fight.
Nico’s hold tightens, an iron grip caging me in place. I twist hard, throwing my full weight into breaking free, but he’s stronger. Faster. I use something Mia taught me—some trick meant to unbalance an opponent—but it’s no use.
Damn it.
Nico only laughs, low and amused. "You should learn to control your woman, boy."
Rage sears through me.
I twist again, this time bringing my fist up, smashing it into his face. The impact makes my knuckles throb, but Nico barely flinches.
He only smiles.
And then, with deliberate calm, he pulls out another weapon.
Shit.
I see it in his eyes. He’s going to shoot. I don’t have time to think, no time to run—
Then I remember.
My pocket.
My fingers dive into the torn fabric, brushing against two things: Mia’s necklace, tangled from when she dropped it yesterday, and the small vial I had tucked away.
Not as a weapon. Not as a precaution.
Just an experiment. A chemical reaction I’d been testing, something unfinished.
Modified Perchloric Acid.
Pure, it burns through flesh and bone in seconds, searing like hell itself. Lethal. Unforgiving. But mixed with the right stabilizers—ethanol, sodium bicarbonate—it turns harmless. A solvent. A trick of chemistry.
I hadn’t planned on using it.
But now—
My hand moves on instinct.
The glass shatters against Nico’s skin, and the reaction is immediate.
A strangled, guttural scream rips from him as the acid sears through flesh, eating away in sickening rivulets. The acrid stench of burning meat fills the air, smoke rising as he staggers back, clawing at his face.
It didn’t hit as deep as I wanted, but it’s enough. A distraction.
I don’t waste the moment.
I grab Mia’s hand, and we run.
The tunnel is suffocating, damp air thick with the metallic tang of blood and gunpowder. My pulse pounds against my skull, each step jarring the ache in my arm, but I don’t stop. I can’t stop.
Mia pulls me forward, her grip crushing, her breath coming in short, sharp gasps. Behind us, gunfire erupts, the guards regaining ground.
"Faster!" she hisses, her bare feet slamming against the cold, filthy floor without hesitation.
The path narrows, and for a second, I think we’ve found an escape. A lab door looms ahead, the sterile glow of fluorescent lights cutting through the darkness.
Then the shots come.
Bullets whiz around us, shattering test tubes and glassware as we push through the lab. The acrid sting of chemicals burns my nostrils. Mia grabs a metal tray and hurls it at a guard bursting in, the impact cracking his skull.
We're almost there.
The exit gate is just a few meters away when another burst of gunfire rips through the air.
The sound hits me first—a deafening detonation that reverberates through the cramped space. Then comes the pain.
It burns like fire, a hot, sharp wave tearing through me. The bullet barely grazes, but it’s enough to rip open flesh, exposing muscle and nerve. Blood gushes hot, running too fast down my leg, pulsing in time with my frantic heartbeat.
Pain crashes over me in brutal waves. The torn fabric of my pants is soaked in seconds. I try to move, but my body won’t respond. My skin throbs, unbearable heat radiating from the wound, as if my flesh is disintegrating from the inside out.
I stagger, my balance failing. My lungs seize. My vision blacks out for a second.
“Zane!”
Mia drops to her knees beside me, her shaking hands cupping my face. The panic in her eyes cuts deeper than the pain.
"Go," I yell, pressing a hand to the wound. "Get out of here, Mia!"
She shakes her head frantically, lips parting and closing like the idea of leaving me is impossible to process.
"I'm not going without you."
“Damn it, Mia, run!”
“No!” Her hands grip my face tighter, nails digging into my skin. “Wherever you go, I go. Do you understand that? I wouldn’t leave you. Ever. I don’t care if I have to drag your entire body out of here.”
The guards close in.
Dozens of them.
Mia stands, chest rising and falling with furious breaths. Blood drips from her fingers onto the floor. For a second, something almost primal flickers in her eyes.
But it’s not enough.
They advance like a wave. Even as Mia attacks—ripping out a man’s throat with a knife, burying the blade into another’s stomach—there are too many.
Someone grabs my arms, twisting them behind my back. The pain blinds me.
Mia is pulled away, her screams raw, turning to fury.
Then he appears.
Nico walks toward us, face streaked with blood. A cloth is pressed against his cheek, failing to contain the damage—the acid burns deep. His eyes burn with something murderous. A silent promise.
But I left my mark.
Permanent.
"Zane!"
Mia’s scream rips through the air, pure agony. It cuts deeper than any wound.
I force my eyes to stay open. My mind to keep working.
But the blood keeps flowing.
And Nico is still standing.
He raises the gun again, barrel pointed at my head.
"Next time, I won’t miss."
Mia freezes.
Her chest rises and falls violently, eyes flicking between me, Nico, and the bodies around us—half his men, twitching and spitting blood on the floor.
She did this.
Nico notices. He scans the wreckage, almost… impressed. She tore through his soldiers.
She could’ve escaped. If I hadn’t been too slow. If I hadn’t gotten shot.
Shit.
We’re dead.
"You made a mess of yourself, Number Two," he says, voice eerily calm as he looks at Mia.
"Let Zane go, or I’ll finish the art he made of your face."
Nico chuckles.
“Be a good girl, princess. No nastiness.” He presses the gun harder against my forehead. Cold. Icy. Deadly. “Or I’ll redecorate these walls with your husband’s brains.”
The crack comes before the pain.
Nico’s boot crashes down on my leg. The bone shatters with a sharp snap.
A scream tears up my throat, but I choke it back. My body twists on instinct, muscles seizing from the sheer force of it.
"Look at that," Nico murmurs, pressing harder. "And here I thought you were tougher."
He grinds his heel deeper into the wound.
Pain explodes.
"Fuck you.”
Nico ignores me.
“Aren’t you feeling nostalgic? I broke your leg before. Here I am, doing the exact same thing,” he taunts. “Are you going to cry like a little bitch, just like last time?”
"Stop!" Mia shouts.
He barely glances at Mia. "You chose poorly, daughter. This is their failure. The weakest. Not even Evermore wanted him. That’s why I can’t trust your judgment."
The weakest.
“It was the weakest of them who ruined your face, father." Mia's voice cuts through the air like a blade. "Because he has something in me that you will never understand. Love. Loyalty.”
“Loyalty, huh?”
Nico smirks. Then his boot presses down again.
I bite back a groan, but the pain is unbearable. A thunderclap splitting me in half.
“I can stop whenever you want,” Nico muses. “I can take you back to your pathetic little territory and leave you there. You can save yourself. But you can’t have her.”
He tilts his head.
“Choose. Your life or Mia.”
“Mia,” I rasp without hesitation.
He underestimates me. Thinks I’ll save myself and leave her behind.
He has no idea.
If I die, I die by her side. If this ends, I fight every second for her.
Nico’s fist slams into my jaw. The taste of blood floods my mouth.
“I will break every part of you before you can have my daughter,” he says, voice dark with promise.“And I will enjoy every second of it.”
"I'm going to kill you," Mia spits, thrashing, but there are at least six guards holding her down. She's unarmed. They can hurt her.
I look up, my muscles trembling, but my voice is steady.
"You can break every bone in my body, and I'll still find a way to crawl back to her."
"Okay."
"No!"
Mia's scream cuts through the air like a blade.
Before anyone can react, she rips free from the guard restraining her, moving with brutal precision. The knife in her hand plunges into his throat as if he were nothing. Blood gushes hot and thick, his body collapsing in a lifeless heap. Her gaze burns like wildfire.
I count, watching as she tears through the six men who had held her back, their deaths so swift they barely register. The task doesn’t even seem to require effort.
Nico doesn’t move. He simply raises the knife in his hand, his expression eerily relaxed. With a slow, deliberate motion, he drags the blade across my throat—just enough to draw blood, not enough to kill me.
"One more step, and I'll rip his throat out."
Mia freezes.
Her eyes lock onto the thin line of blood trailing down my neck as if it's something hideous. And her body stops.
For a second, there's only silence.
Then she collapses to the ground, sobbing, hands slick with blood. Her eyes are wide, her breathing erratic.
"Don't kill him. No. Please, Father." Her voice cracks, a desperate, broken sob that tears through the air and slams into me harder than any blow could. "I know you don’t care, I know you never cared... but please—please don’t kill him."
Her words hit me like a physical strike.
Every syllable is laced with raw desperation, with terror that cuts through me in a way nothing else ever has.
Everything slows, and for a moment, I’m not here in this hellish place.
I’m seventeen again.
Katie is begging for my life.
But this is different. There's no hesitation, no uncertainty in Mia’s voice—just a pure, unfiltered, primal fear that I’ve never heard from her before.
She’s not just pleading for me. She’s begging for her own survival, for her own reason to keep breathing. She’s begging for us both.
I can understand this feeling, because I feel it too. This love, it’s not the kind of love you dream about, it's the kind that claws at you, that consumes you whole.
She consumed me whole.
Her hands shake, her sobs racking her body. "Please, Father. If you kill him, I’ll... I’ll lose everything. I’ll lose myself. I can't live without him. I can't..." Her voice breaks, and I hear her fall to her knees, her face twisted in agony. "Please. Please don’t take him from me."
The sound of her cry rips through my chest like a jagged knife, a pull that drags me down into the depths of her madness.
I look at her, and it’s like looking into the abyss.
There’s nothing left but her—no sense of time, no reason, no escape. Just her, bleeding out in front of me, and me—helpless.
But Mia's not helpless. She’s a force of nature, fierce and untamed, and yet when I look into her eyes... that fear, it destroys me. It shatters my heart in ways I can’t even put into words. I should be the one protecting her, the one standing strong for her, but instead, I'm the one breaking.
"Mia..." I try to speak, but the words catch in my throat, too choked with blood and pain. I want to say everything. I want to tell her that I love her. That she doesn’t have to beg, that I won’t let her fall apart.
But all that escapes my lips is a whisper: "I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. I love you, baby."
Her gaze locks onto mine, wide and wild, her breaths coming in ragged gasps. "Don’t you dare leave me," she sobs, her words frantic, frenzied. "I can’t do this alone. I can’t breathe without you. I’ll die if you die. I’ll... I’ll kill myself if you die. Please don’t make me face this world without you. I can’t—"
The terror in her voice, the weight of her words, crashes over me like an avalanche. She’s not just asking for me to live. She’s asking for her own salvation. For some thread of hope to keep her from falling into the same darkness that’s been following us both all our lives.
My heart breaks.
"Mia, stop. You’re not going to lose me," I whisper, though I know the truth. I might not have the strength to promise that. But I’ll be damned if I don’t try.
Her tears fall freely now, her chest heaving, her body trembling. She’s unraveling in front of me, every shred of her control slipping away. "I love you," she gasps, her words torn from the depth of her soul, the kind of love that consumes you. "I can't—"
Nico’s laugh cuts through the rawness of the moment, but it feels like the last thing in the world that matters.
He’s watching this destruction, this fracture of us, like a sick joke.
But this isn’t a joke.
This is her soul screaming for the only person who ever made her feel whole.
And I can’t let her go. I can’t let them take me from her.
"I’m not leaving you," I say again, this time louder, more forceful, as if trying to anchor her to me. "I won’t let you be lost. I’ll survive, Mia. I’ll survive for you."
Her eyes search mine, and in them, I see the madness, the desperation, the need for me—only for me.
And the weight of that need crushes me.
"Then live. Don't you dare die. I swear to God, if you die, I’ll follow you. I’ll follow you into hell," she cries. "You don’t get to leave me. You don’t get to leave me like this. Please, don’t you dare leave me..."
Her words break the last of my resolve. She’s begging, pleading, and I can’t let her fall apart like this. Not like Katie. Not like so many others who begged for my life, only for it to be taken anyway.
But this is different. Mia... Mia is my everything.
Nico watches with morbid interest, a smirk curling his lips.
"Oh dear… love," he muses, almost contemptuous. "It looks so beautiful from afar."
He studies me, assessing, then gestures toward Mia.
"You know, kid, Mia used to literally eat the men we let her torture. She didn’t just hurt them—she consumed them, piece by piece. When I wanted something slow, something agonizing, I handed them over to her. She’d start with the smallest cuts, just enough to make them bleed, and then she’d... savor it. She’d tear into them, not just for survival, but because there was something inside her that craved it, something savage. The flesh, the blood—it was all part of the feast. She’d rip into their skin like it was her only purpose, and when they begged, when they screamed, it only made her hunger grow. No mercy. No hesitation. Just pure, twisted instinct. And in the end, there was nothing left of them but bones."
Horror and rage twist inside me.
I look at Mia, but she doesn't react. Her face is pale, her lips trembling.
"Do you still love her?" Nico asks, amusement flickering in his gaze. "Look at her, kid. She's a monster. A product of the cell she was raised in. Look around." He gestures at the carnage she left in her wake, as if that could possibly change my mind. "The small affections she feels are the only thing keeping her controlled, but it won’t last. She’ll get sick of you. And then she’ll kill everyone around you. It’s only a matter of time. I'd be doing you a favor."
"I don’t care."
"So what if I killed her and let you live?"
"Yes!" Mia screams at the same time I roar, "No!"
Nico's knife drags lower, pressing into my side, slicing into a spot that makes the pain gnaw through my nerves like fire.
"So many ways to kill you," he murmurs.
The burning spreads. Mia lets out a strangled sound, raw fear in every syllable.
"One more scream, and I’ll carve deeper, freak."
"You’re a fucking son of a bitch," I spit, fury coursing through my veins.
Nico chuckles, pressing the blade just a little harder, just enough to make me feel the threat. Then he lifts it back to my throat, playing with me.
"Want to repeat that?"
"You. Are. A. Fucking. Son. Of. A. Bitch." I make sure to enunciate every word, loud and clear.
I’m not afraid of him.
Fuck him.
Nico grins. "I like you, boy. My knife is at your throat, and yet you insult me."
I smile. "I know you won’t kill me. It’s not a sure move. If you do, Mia will have nothing to lose. And you know she could kill everyone in this room if she wanted to. You can try to break her with Katie, but we both know Katie probably has weeks left to live."
I have no idea if he will call my bluff but I told Mia I would survive, if it’s not by physically fighting it will be with some trucks on me sleeve.
"I know that," he admits, his smirk smug. "Very clever. I like that."
"I don't care."
"Well, let’s see how long this passion lasts. Throw them in the mansion's cell. Maximum surveillance."
His men seize me, dragging me away. The pain makes my vision go white.
"Don't give Mia any food," Nico orders. "Take care of his wounds. Keep him alive, but keep her hungry. Let’s see how long it takes before you become another one on her list."