Chapter 40
Salvario
I’m tapping my shoe against the floor in an anxious, annoying rhythm.
So far, I’ve thought of thirty-three ways to kill Matleon, and over a hundred for that impostor.
I should have listened to her when she told me I was Salvario.
But I didn’t, and that made both of us suffer this much.
If I had believed her, I would have done everything to prove to her that he wasn’t real.
I went to Naples and found out she’s here in San Diego. It’ll take me at least three weeks to crack Matleon’s security, and I don’t have a second to spare. So I decide to come forward. I’ll tell him about the impostor. I don’t know if he’ll believe me, but right now I have no other option.
If they try to put me in their prison, Logan is waiting outside for my signal to hijack whatever vehicle they use to transport me there.
I’m desperate to see her, and to beat the shit out of that bastard. And here I am, stuck in the security cabin at the foot of Matleon’s hill.
I check the clock on the wall, three more minutes until the half hour is up. The guard in front of me rises at the sound of an approaching car.
“He’s here.”
I rise and step out of the cabin ahead of him. Ten SUVs are lined up at the gate.
The back door of a black SUV opens, and Matleon’s voice comes from inside. “Get in.”
I walk to the SUV and climb in. It moves again as soon as the door closes. Matleon sits beside me. The usual smirk is gone from his face.
“I didn’t know it was possible to fuck you this hard, Il Macellaio di Napoli.”
My brows draw together.
“Wondering how I know?” He tilts his head forward as the vehicle stops. “You’ll find out soon enough.”
I get out and walk into the mansion with him. He takes me upstairs in long strides. We cross the long corridor and stop outside her room.
I grow more anxious with each passing second. I don’t know what’s causing it, but the clench in my gut tells me something isn’t right.
Matleon opens the door, and I follow him inside. Five women and three men are gathered around the bed. They’ve surrounded it so completely that I can’t even see her. I don’t like the fact that there are so many people crowding around her. Is she sick?
I get my answer the moment I step closer and finally see her. All eyes in the room are on me, but mine are on her.
My mind goes blank. I don’t think, or process anything.
Then, all at once, everything comes rushing back.
I stumble backward. The horror in front of me merges with a flood of images: her lifeless face, and another woman’s.
Now I know they’re fragments of my memory.
What I used to believe were creations of my imagination were real all along.
I force myself forward. When I reach her, I extend my trembling hand and press my fingers to her nostrils.
A single memory grips me. She’s in my arms, her face blue, her eyes lifeless.
“You’re the morning after all my darkest nights. God can’t be cruel enough to take you away too.”
He isn’t. Not yet.
She looks dead, but she’s not.
“She’s been drugged,” says a woman I don’t bother looking at. “Multiple times. She’s in delirium, with some...” She stops, so I look at her. It’s Matleon’s wife.
“Some what?”
Her eyes well up. “Some neurological injuries.”
I don’t know the extent of any of this. I’ll find out, but first, I need to know one very fucking important thing.
“Who did this?”
“That fake Salvario.”
I turn to Matleon, rage thrumming through every inch of me. “Where is he?”
“In the cell. You can—” He doesn’t finish. A loud shriek echoes through the room.
Elowen
“Hunter.” I call for him again as the monsters crawl closer. He promised my dad he would always protect me. Why isn’t he doing it now?
I crawl backward, my hand slipping on the rough floor.
I want to run, but I can’t get to my feet.
The monsters keep coming. I’m crying for help.
Trapped in a dark room, I can’t see anything but them.
Their bodies are long and thin. Their hands reach as long as their torsos, fingers dragging the ground.
Black skin stretches over sharp bones, splitting open with every movement.
Their mouths hang wide, filled with jagged teeth that glisten in the darkness.
Their eyes aren’t eyes at all, just hollow pits. Watching me.
“Dad. Pa. Leo. Uncle.” My voice breaks into sobs.
Please.
Please take me out of here.
They’re going to kill me.
One of them drags itself closer. Its fingers scrape across the floor, creating a horrible scratching sound. I squeeze my eyes shut. When I open them, light floods the room. The creatures are gone. Now there are only shadows, tall and faceless, standing all around me.
I try to move away. “Go a-away.”
One of them moves closer.
I scramble away. “Do-don’t hurt me.” I cry out.
It listens. It doesn’t come closer. But there are so many, they all want to kill me. How can I stop them?
But then, among the shadows, I see a figure standing still. It isn’t a faceless shadow or a monster. I don’t recognize him, but he looks human. I crawl toward him as fast as I can.
He’ll save me.
Salvario
She’s sitting up in bed, body shaking, staring at everyone with wide eyes, as if these people aren’t her family.
“Go a-away.” Her words are barely recognizable, as if her tongue has grown too heavy to move, slurring everything together.
Her mother tries to reach her, but she scrambles backward, crying out in a terrified voice. “Do-don’t hurt me.”
My eyes burn. A tremor runs through my lips. I press them into a hard line.
She looks at everyone with horror. Then her gaze lands on me, and the tears I’ve been holding back fall. She’s like this because of me. If only I had believed her, none of this would have happened.
The horror in her eyes shifts to confusion. She crawls quickly to the edge of the bed where I’m standing and wraps her arms around my waist. Her arms have no strength, they’re shaking violently, but it seems like that’s all she can manage.
“S-s-save m-me.” I make out the words through her muffled, slurred voice.
“We should leave her room, she’s afraid of us.” Her mother’s voice is thick with tears. Elowen’s head turns toward her, and she clings to me even tighter.
I don’t move. I just stand there, fists balled at my sides, every muscle drawn tight.
Everyone leaves the room. Once I’m alone with her, I move, bending down and picking her up in my arms. She tries to resist, but her muscles have no strength to do so. Her entire body is shaking.
I toe off my shoes and sit on her bed, back against the headboard, holding her in my lap, wrapped in my arms as tightly as I can.
She looks up at me meekly. “Who a-a-are y-you?”
“Someone who should have protected you.” I blink rapidly, trying to clear my vision so I can keep watching her. “Someone who should have trusted you.” My tears fall onto her face. She flinches, eyes squeezing shut.
I cradle her face against my chest, my tremulous lips pressed to the top of her head. My tears keep soaking her hair.
“I’m sorry, baby.” My voice cracks, the words breaking apart between my sobs.
“Who a-a-are you?” she asks again against my chest, the words slurred.
I pull back slightly to see her face. “I’m Salvario.”
“S-s-sa-saviour.” She smiles. On her lifeless face, it looks painful, and that pain pierces straight through my soul. “You are S-sa-saviour.”
She looks around the room, then points a shaking finger at the window. “Who is s-she?”
There’s no one there.
“What do you see?” I ask.
She presses her cheek to my chest. I hold her face in my palm, stroking her hair as gently as I can.
“A w-wo-woman.”
“She’s just a statue. She won’t hurt you.”
“How do y-you know?”
I remove my hand from her face, take hers, and kiss the back of it, then each of her trembling fingers. “I won’t let her.”
She watches me with parted lips, the back of her head resting on my bicep. A smile slowly forms, but it vanishes into a frightened flinch as her door opens, and she buries her face in the crook of my neck.
Her cousin Avira enters with a tray. Elowen peeks at her, then hides her face again, shaking harder.
Avira sets the tray on the bed beside me.
“Try to get her to eat something while she’s responsive.”
I frown.
She continues, glancing at Elowen. “Last time she woke up, she clung to her mom and talked to me about going to school for an hour, then went quiet for hours before falling asleep.”
Right then, Elowen starts crying, repeating the fragmented plea over and over. “Send her away, she will kill me.”
“Take care of her,” Avi murmurs, then leaves.
“She’s gone.” I stroke her head slowly. “She won’t hurt you.”
She lifts her head and looks around. Then her teary eyes find my face. “Who a-are you?”
I force myself to speak past the knot in my throat. “Salvario.”
“S-s-sa-salvario,” she repeats.
I nod.
I take the soup from the tray and bring it to her. “Let’s eat something.”
She looks up at me, then at the bowl. “Po-poison.”
“No poison.”
I hold the cup in the arm wrapped around her shoulders, supporting her, and fill the spoon with my free hand. I bring it to my mouth and take a sip as she watches me intently.
I set the spoon back in the bowl.
“See? No poison.”
She reaches for the bowl, trying to lift the spoon, but she can’t grip it. I take the spoon from her, fill it, and bring it to her mouth. She drinks.
She finishes the soup but refuses anything else.
“Where a-are you fr-from?” she asks after I finish wiping her face and chin.
“I was born in Naples. I lived in Greenland. Now I live with my wife in Naples.”
“You h-h-have a w-wife?”
My voice thickens as I answer. “Yes. I have a very beautiful wife. She’s a world-famous pianist. Now she’s rebuilding a city.”
She stares at my face, saying nothing. Then slowly, her focus drifts away, I’m right in front of her, but she’s not seeing me.
I caress her cheek with my thumb, cradling her face in my palm. “She has the kindest heart, the brightest soul. She’s never hurt anyone. But the world hasn’t been kind to her.” I kiss her forehead. “It’s unfair, baby. But don’t you worry, I’m here to make it right.”
She doesn’t hear a word I said. Her eyes blink in long, slow intervals, staring at nothing.
I watch her remain like that for hours. She doesn’t respond to anything, not to noise, not to people coming and going. Her mother comes in, but unlike when Avira arrived, she stays motionless.
“The delirium will pass in a few days,” her mother says, stroking her hair.
“Is her impaired speech and shaking also from the delirium?” I doubt it.
She shakes her head. “These are neurological injuries. We don’t know yet how many more she has.
” She meets my eyes. “We don’t know if they’ll ever fully heal.
With rehab, maybe most will improve, but we can’t say for certain.
” I see hesitation in her eyes before she says it. “Are you sure you want to stay with—”
“Yes, I’m sure.” I don’t let her finish. “That question doesn’t exist for me when it comes to her.” I look down at her. Her eyes are closed now. “I’ll do whatever it takes to heal her, but never because I can’t love her as she is. She’s my world. Nothing will ever change that.”
“I used to think you couldn’t love anyone, because of how many innocents you’ve killed.” I look back at her. She continues with a tired smile. “I was wrong.”
“You weren’t. I can’t love anyone but her.”
Her smile falters. She looks away from me, her gaze settling on her daughter.