Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Rocco
Balthazar.
He flashed into the room in a swirl of sulfur and shadow, materializing inside the glowing pentagram like he'd been waiting for the invitation.
He was just as I remembered him. Dark long hair cascading past his shoulders. Shirtless, his muscled chest gleaming in the candlelight. Leather pants that clung to him like a second skin. The wannabe rock star from hell.
Literally.
My blood ran cold. Every muscle in my body locked up.
The memories slammed into me like a tidal wave—the obsidian walls of his chamber, the crimson light from eternal flames, the screams of the damned echoing in the distance.
I could still feel his fingers twisting into my hair, wrenching my head back until my tendons strained.
The cold bite of hellish chains around my wrists, inscribed with runes that mocked every attempt at escape.
"Such an easy pawn to manipulate," he'd said.
And I had been. Broken. Chained. Helpless.
I remembered the blade at my throat—a hellish blade with ancient writing that pulsed with unholy light, a demon's head carved into the handle with ruby eyes that seemed to sneer at me.
I remembered the thin line of blood he'd drawn, how I'd closed my eyes and accepted my fate because I deserved it.
Deserved to die in hell after what I'd done to my mother.
I remembered Serenity's tears as Balthazar forced her to drain my power. The way my head snapped back, the scream that ripped from my throat as my very essence was stripped away. My skin turning ashen, my cheeks hollowing out, my strength becoming hers against both our wills.
A proud prince reduced to a sacrifice on the altar of Balthazar's cruel games.
And now he was standing ten feet away from me, a slow smile spreading across his face.
"Well, well." His voice was silk over broken glass. "Rocco Palazzo. We meet again."
Selena's hand tightened around mine. I could feel her trembling—could feel her fear, seeping through my skin.
I stepped in front of her, putting my body between her and the demon.
Something settled inside me—not courage, exactly, but something harder.
Colder. The same thing I’d felt when Angelo had threatened my mother.
The knowledge that there was nothing I wouldn’t do, no line I wouldn’t cross, to keep this woman alive.
A demon had taken everything from me once. I wasn’t going to let it happen again.
I’d die protecting her.
"Rocco,” she whispered.
She must have sensed it—my terror, raw and exposed. Two years of nightmares, two years of waking up screaming, two years of remembering what it felt like to be nothing more than a plaything for a demon's amusement.
I didn't answer her. I couldn't.
His eyes burned red—not a trick of the light, but actual flames dancing in those ancient, pitiless depths. His gaze swept the room and landed on Rose.
"Rose Dragan." His voice dripped with contempt. "You dare to summon me?”
She met his hostile gaze without flinching. I had to give her credit—most vampires would have been cowering by now. "We're desperate."
"You must be." He stepped out of the pentagram like it was nothing—like the magical barrier meant to contain him was a mild inconvenience. He walked around the room, trailing his fingers along the furniture, examining us like insects under glass. "And what, pray tell, do you idiots want?"
Selena's fingers dug into my arm. I could feel her pressing closer to my back, and I reached behind me to squeeze her hand. I won't let him touch you.
She was my mate. I had claimed her. No one would hurt her again.
Every instinct screamed at me to grab Selena and run. But running from Balthazar was pointless. He'd find us. He always found his prey.
"You want to protect Noelle, don't you?" Valentin asked, his voice steady despite the tension radiating off him.
Balthazar stopped. Turned slowly. His red eyes narrowed.
"Protect her."
The way he said it—flat, dangerous, like a snake coiling before it strikes—made bile roll up my throat.
Meaning we just signed our own death warrants.
But we'd come this far. No turning back now.
"Someone stole the Lapis Umbrae shard from me," I said, bracing my shoulders and forcing myself to meet those hellfire eyes. "I need to find it."
Balthazar's head tilted, a predator assessing its prey. "And what were you doing with that? Dracula possessed it."
"I stole it from him." The words tasted bitter. "Angelo Santi wants it to protect his daughter."
Balthazar’s expression shifted—barely, just for an instant. Something almost... human.
"Doesn't trust his own daughter?" He let out a dark laugh. "Such an arrogant fool. I would never let anything happen to her."
The possessiveness in his voice made my skin crawl. What was his obsession with Noelle? Why did a demon—one of the most powerful in existence—care about a vampire's infant daughter?
I took the bait. "Why?"
He strolled over to me, closing the distance until we were almost nose to nose. The heat radiating off him was suffocating. The smell of sulfur and something ancient filled my nostrils.
"That's my business." His red eyes bored into mine, daring me to push further.
I held my ground, even though every nerve in my body screamed to run.
Selena stepped out from behind me, her chin lifted despite the fear I could still sense. If I could sense it, so could Balthazar.
“We’re not here to play games,” she said. “The shard was stolen. We need to know if a demon took it. If you care about Noelle at all, you’ll help us.”
“And who is this? She’s a beauty.” His smile turned predatory as he circled like a shark scenting blood. “Ah. Your mate you rejected? The one who still crawls for you?”
Selena winced as if he struck her.
“Shut up, Balthazar. Leave her alone.”
“Or what, Prince?” He laughed, and the sound scraped against my spine. “You’ll stop me? We both know how that ended last time.”
Selena’s hand found mine again, and her strength flowed through me. The trembling had stopped. She wasn’t hiding behind me anymore—she was standing beside me. And that small act of defiance, that refusal to cower, straightened something in my spine that Balthazar’s words had tried to bend.
"We need to know who stole the shard," Rose said, cutting through the tension. "If Noelle leaves Crescent Manor, she’ll be vulnerable."
Balthazar turned to face her, and every muscle in my body coiled tight. I shifted closer to Selena, my arm pressing against hers, ready to pull her behind me the second he made a wrong move.
"No, she wouldn't," he said, his voice dropping to something almost soft. Almost protective. "No one would dare hurt her."
I folded my arms across my chest. “What about a demon? Otherwise Angelo wouldn’t need the shard.”
Balthazar went still.
The temperature in the room dropped another ten degrees. The flames in Rose's bowl sputtered once and went dark. For a long, terrible moment, no one moved. No one breathed.
Balthazar's red eyes flared brighter, the flames in them dancing with barely contained rage. His hands curled into fists at his sides.
When he spoke again, his voice was cold. Deadly.
"So you want to know which demon stole it?”
Which demon. Not “if” a demon took it—which one. He’d just told us everything we needed to know without meaning to.
For once Balthazar was in the dark. I couldn’t help but smile. It wasn’t often that he didn’t have the upper hand. “Do you even know?”
He flicked his hand—a casual, almost lazy gesture—and I sailed across the room. My shoulder slammed into the wall. Pain burst inside me, searing and blinding.
The memory slammed into me — not the images this time, but the feeling. The helplessness. Being trapped inside my own body while something else drove it, screaming behind my own eyes with no one able to hear me.
"I'll kill the prince now if you don't do as I say."
“Rocco!” Selena screamed.
Her voice yanked me back to the present. I wasn’t in hell. I wasn’t chained. But the demon who had broken me was standing in this room, and the terror was just as real.
I looked up to see Selena launching herself at Balthazar, her fangs bared, her eyes blazing with fury. “How dare you hurt him!”
Balthazar caught her by the throat with one hand, lifting her off the ground like she weighed nothing. Her feet dangled, her hands clawing at his wrist.
“Selena!” I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the agony in my shoulder. “Leave her alone!”
“Or you’ll what, Prince?” He squeezed slightly, and Selena gasped. “If she attacks me again, I’ll crush her windpipe.”
“Please.” I hated myself for begging, but I’d beg on my knees if it meant keeping her safe.
Her face was turning red, her fingers clawing uselessly at his grip.
One twist of his wrist and she’d be gone.
Everything we’d just found—everything we’d just become—over in a heartbeat.
“Please. She has nothing to do with this. Hurt me, not her.”
Balthazar’s gaze sharpened—amusement, maybe, or something darker. “Ah, so you’ve claimed her. How quaint.”
He released Selena, and she crumpled to the floor, coughing and gasping for air. I was at her side in an instant, pulling her into my arms, checking her throat for damage. She was breathing. Ragged and raw, but breathing. The relief nearly buckled my knees.
“I’m okay,” she rasped, her hand finding my cheek. “I’m okay.”
I forced myself to look away from her and back at the demon. Balthazar didn’t even glance at her. His burning eyes stayed fixed on me, his lip curled in disgust.
“Don’t be presumptuous with me, boy.”
I climbed back onto my feet, helping Selena up with me. My shoulder throbbed, but I’d be damned if I’d show weakness in front of him. Not again. Never again. I gritted my teeth so hard I thought they might shatter. “Then who is it?”
He strolled around the room, taking his time, seeming to savor our desperation. “The same demon who wants Noelle. The same demon who tried to sacrifice her.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I shoved my fingers through my hair. “Vex, the demon Vex.”
Balthazar stopped and turned, a slow, mocking smile spreading across his face. He clapped his hands together—once, twice, three times—the sound echoing through the room like gunshots. “Very good, Prince.”
Rose stepped forward, her voice tight with urgency. “Do you know where he went?”
“To Transylvania.”
The birthplace of Dracula? “What the hell for?”
Balthazar leaned against the wall and folded his arms, looking almost bored. “Because he needs to perform a spell on the Summer Solstice at midnight at Dracula’s castle to destroy the last remaining shard of the Lapis Umbrae.”
Shit, the Summer Solstice. Dracula’s castle?
“But the Summer Solstice is tomorrow night,” Rose said. “Can you stop him?”
“No,” Balthazar said. Final. “I’m going to remain by Noelle’s side. If I go after Vex, Lucifer will mount my ass on his wall.”
“Then we’re fucked.” I looked at Selena, saw the fear in her eyes that mirrored my own. We’d be on the run for the rest of our lives. Hunted. Hiding. Always looking over our shoulders. But eventually—whether it took weeks or months or years—either Angelo or Costin would track us down and kill us.
And it would be all my fault.
“You have such a limited imagination, Prince.”
“Don’t call me Prince,” I growled, my hands curling into fists.
I didn’t deserve that title.
He shrugged, utterly unfazed by my anger. “That’s what you are, whether you admit it or not.” His red eyes gleamed with something that might have been amusement. “You can’t think of anyone who can help you with time?”
Time?
Rose’s brow crinkled. Then her eyes widened. “You mean Alice Carroll? You know about her powers?”
Balthazar laughed—a dark, rumbling sound that made my skin crawl. “Demon.”
Of course he knew. Demons knew everything.
I turned to Rose. “Where is she?”
“She’s still here in New Orleans,” Rose said. “With Darius.”
“You have less than twenty-four hours.” His mouth twisted into something that wasn’t quite a smile. “Oh, by the way, Dracula owned four different castles.”
“How do we know which one?” I glared at him, barely keeping my voice steady.
Balthazar tilted his head, studying me the way a cat studies a mouse it’s already decided to kill. “You’ll know.” He flashed me an amused look. “Follow the scent.”
Follow the scent. Like we were dogs being sent to fetch. The arrogance of it made my fangs ache.
“One more thing—demons can’t touch the shard. Not even I would. Nasty little bugger. So Vex would have hidden it in a protective barrier. Remember that you fools!”
I glared. “What kind of barrier?”
He shrugged. “Could be anything. But you won’t be able to open it.”
“Fuck,” I growled.
“Such a temper, prince. Remember these words—Cruor meus, clavis tua. Aperi." He smiled, all teeth. “You'll need to bleed for it, of course. Just a little. Consider it a taste of what's to come.”
He crossed the room and approached Rose. The temperature seemed to drop with every step he took. Rose held her ground. Valentin came up behind her.
He leaned in close—too close. “Don’t summon me again. Or next time, I might not be as forgiving.”
Rose didn't flinch. Didn't blink. But the candle flames around her guttered and died, plunging the circle into shadow.
And then he was gone. No flash of light. No dramatic exit. Just there one second, and not the next—like the darkness had simply opened its mouth and swallowed him whole.
No one moved. No one breathed.
He left us with an impossible task.