Chapter Sixteen
––––––––
MY HANDS TREMBLED AS WE ASCENDED IN silence.
The mirrored sides of the elevator flexed with heat, making our reflections warp and wobble.
A deep, insidious weakness spread through me like poison—eating away at the edges of my strength. I tried to hide it from Rook. Tried to hide that the fire might’ve returned to me, but it gnawed on my bones like a starving beast.
I was terrified she might sense that—
“I can feel your pain, you know.” Her eyes met mine, full of unspoken hurt. “You’re afraid you won’t have enough power to get me out of here safely.”
“That bond is a pain in the ass.” I sighed hard as the doors opened to reveal Brimstone Industries’ grand entrance.
“Why? Because you’d rather keep me in the dark than show me the truth?”
“Because I know what I’m doing, and I will keep you safe.”
“Not if it costs you your life, you won’t.”
“Don’t worry,” I murmured as we stepped out. “I’ll be fine.”
“You better be.”
Her temper and concern flared into my heart as we stepped barefoot over glossy marble floors. The ginormous crystal chandelier, huge artwork, and towering windows framed the still dawn-starry sky.
I remembered the chandelier from my childhood. I remembered it because when Marcus had brought me here to insert the vitalsync core, I’d been carried by two men—flat on my back and staring up at the ceiling.
A door slammed open as a torrent of guards poured into the space—all of them dressed in black with rifles.
Rook shifted closer, pressing against my side as I wrapped my arm around her waist.
The moment her body pressed flush to mine, a quiet surge of energy flowed through us. Her icy winter trickled into me like cool, life-giving water, soothing the gnawing ache in my chest and taming the feral fire.
I stood a little taller, my shoulders squaring as fresh strength filled me.
Thank you. I squeezed her as the lobby crowded with men and guns. I lost count after thirty, pretending not to care as they formed a blockade between us and the exit.
The blur of their heartbeats made my ears ring. The temptation to reach out and siphon their lifeforce had me gritting my teeth.
Just stay alive, alright? She didn’t look at me, keeping her eyes on the men as we all entered a good old-fashioned stare-down.
No one moved to shoot us.
No one shouted their demands.
We just stared at one another as another door slammed open to the left.
Two men and one woman appeared, marching toward us in neat suits and stern faces. Rook went stiff against me. An echo of her fears bled into me, followed by the violent desire to kill them.
My heart swelled with love that she was so vicious, so protective.
The fire swam in my veins, growing hotter for another battle.
Straightening my shoulders, I focused on the three board members who looked familiar.
The woman with mousy brown hair stepped forward, flanked by the two men.
She looked me up and down. “We finally meet again after all this time, Mr. Ashfall. I must admit, I thought you would look different.”
“Different?” I narrowed my eyes. “What? Like a monster?”
“Hey, if the description fits.” She smiled tightly. “After all, you’ve earned a pretty gruesome reputation killing so many women over the years.”
“You were the ones who threw those women in with me. What did you expect would happen when half of them wanted to kill me and the other half wanted to get impregnated?” Leaning forward, I purred, “Perhaps you should look in the mirror and see the real monster.”
Her nose wrinkled as she brushed down her immaculate ivory suit. “You’re so young, yet already so cynical. Can’t you see that everything we’ve ever done has been for your own good? You were so young when you inherited Brimstone—”
“I was young because you killed my parents.”
“Semantics.” She waved her hand as if the truth was an annoying gnat.
“You hold such a gift in your veins—not just the Ashfall blood that we’re forced to rely on for the reactors—but also the unnatural power you’ve just used to destroy your own building.
Instead of fighting against us, why don’t you—”
“Move,” I hissed, cutting her off. “Move and I’ll kill you quickly. I promise I won’t torture you like you did all those R gene carriers.”
“But that’s the thing.” She crossed her arms, sniffing with her nose high in the air.
“They weren’t Requiem carriers because the only one who’s ever been able to survive to adulthood with the full potency in their blood is you.
” Her lips stretched into a smile as she looked at Rook. “Until now, of course.”
“Careful.” I bared my teeth. “I was going to be generous and just stop your heart but now I want to shatter every bone in your body.”
I raised a hand. Fire sparked in my palm.
One of the men—a middle-aged guy who looked like he’d spent way too much time in the sun—shot forward. “Wait. All of you.”
The fire grew into a bigger orb in my hand.
He swallowed hard as he placed himself in the line of fire.
“Stop with the verbal volleyball match.” Glowering at me and Rook as if we were bugs on the bottom of his shoe, he added, “You two have caused quite a mess. First the labs and now the reactors. I was dragged out of bed to deal with you and I’m tired.
” He rolled his eyes. “However, all can be forgiven if you agree to come with us for testing. This is your company, Mr. Ashfall. Our profits and losses are your profit and losses. If you agree to work with us, then...we won’t restrain or lock you up.
How about that? You’ll be free to come and go as you please, as long as you—”
“No.” I smirked.
His smarmy attitude vanished with a snarl. “Do you honestly think you can refuse?” He arched bushy eyebrows at the well-armed guards. “They’ll shoot you in a second if you try to use your little fire trick.”
The woman scowled and took control again. “If you refuse to come with us offsite, then we can go upstairs to my office. We’ll just take a little of your blood and restart the reactors.”
“You won’t be needing my blood for that anymore.”
“I’m aware you just destroyed the ones here, but there are hundreds of others around the world.”
“And if you think I’d ever give you more, you’re fucking delusional.”
She kept digging her grave. “Fine. Is this about Cinderkeep? You don’t have to return in order to help us, you know. Marcus Ward is no longer in charge and—”
“I know he’s no longer in charge because I tore him into pieces.” I shrugged, cutting her off. “To be honest, his death wasn’t nearly as satisfying as I hoped because it was over so fast but you...” I stepped forward, dragging Rook with me. “You won’t have it so easy.”
“Alright, alright.” The second man with a long shaggy beard inched forward. “What about if we agree to shut down the testing facility? What if we focus entirely on the energy side of the business and forget about what you are.”
“It’s too late for that.”
“Nothing is too late if you’re happy to negotiate.”
“Negotiate.” I couldn’t stop a cold laugh escaping. “You think you’re in a position to negotiate?”
Rook trembled as she picked up on all the memories I did my best never to think about.
All those moments where I’d been strapped onto cold metal tables as a child.
How they’d drained me of so much blood, I’d pass out for days.
How they’d drilled needles into my bones—not content just to take my blood but scraping out what they wanted from my very marrow.
How they’d kept me in agony for twenty fucking years with the vitalsync core.
How I’d screamed myself hoarse when they’d kept me isolated, breaking my mind so they could break my body.
Without Whisper, I would be a stark-raving lunatic by now. A psychopathic monster who turned his back on everything because they’d turned their back on him.
Pushing Rook away from me, I dropped my hold over the fire—
It howled.
I staggered backward as it hurled out of me with a thunderclap, hurling flames across the marble, smacking against the tiled walls, and swallowing up the grand staircase. The colossal chandelier swung as it was engulfed by monstrous flames.
Even I was shocked at the viciousness.
At the utter carnage as flames barrelled toward the three board members.
It didn’t burn them quickly, it punished them—listening to my dissatisfaction at how quickly Marcus had died and ensuring these three paid the price.
It melted their clothes off them, rendered flesh from bone.
The woman screamed as her skin blistered and peeled away in blackened strips. One man tried to run but the fire hunted him down, surged around his body, then poured into his mouth as he begged. His eyes burst with twin pops, boiling in their sockets.
The other man dropped to his knees, clawing at his throat as the fire poured down his gullet. He convulsed as flames cooked him from the inside out, his belly swelling and splitting, spilling charred organs all over the floor.
The stench of burning hair, cooked meat, and melted fat filled the lobby.
The massive chandelier groaned overhead, crystals shattering from the heat and raining down like fatal diamonds.
I watched every second of it.
For every needle they’d driven into innocent people.
For every drop of blood they’d stolen.
This was justice.
Rook covered her head as the chandelier rained heavier with molten glass. The marble cracked and fissured as fire continued to pour out of my body. The entire building groaned as if its foundations threatened to snap.
Support beams glowed red, sagging like melting wax, and the rest of the chandelier collapsed in a deafening crash of twisted brass.
Lucien. Rook spun to face me. Enough!
I groaned as something fissured inside me, sending up a mouthful of blackened blood.
“Lucien!” Rook’s voice cut through the roar. Grabbing my burning arm, she sent a blast of ice through my skin. “Stop! You have to stop. We need to run! The entire building is going to collapse!”
The fire snarled around me like a starving wolf, snapping at me to stay and burn.
“I...I can’t—” My voice cracked. Another mouthful of blood came up, smoking on the ruined floor.
The fire raged hotter, refusing to release me.
It wanted everything. It wanted the whole damn skyscraper.
Every last traitor who’d ever touched us.
A vicious ache bloomed behind my ribs. The glorious strength I’d gained from Rook fractured into splinters as the fire turned on me again.
STOP IT!
For a second, the flames froze.
I breathed a sigh of relief, snatched Rook’s wrist, and tripped toward the door. We had to go. Right now. I had to get her to safety—
The air turned heavy just as an ear-splitting crack ricocheted.
The power in my blood boomeranged back with full force—arrowing into my body with a million burning knives.
It shredded me alive.
Broke me, killed me—
I dropped to my knees with a guttural scream. Blood poured from my mouth in thick, black rivulets, splattering across the marble.
“Lucien!” Rook’s voice cracked with terror. “Make it stop! You have to make it stop!”
I snarled and yanked back with everything I had.
OBEY ME!
But the flames burrowed deeper, searing my lungs, cracking my ribs one by one like dry kindling. Another mouthful of black blood bubbled up my throat.
“Fuck—” I choked, tipping forward.
She threw herself against me, wrapping her arms around my burning body.
Her ice flooded me, but the fire just grew worse—doing to me what it’d done to the board members. It felt as if my organs were boiling. My left femur snapped with a sickening crack, the pain so blinding I screamed against her shoulder.
The sprinkler system finally kicked in, spraying useless arcs of water.
Rook wrapped her arms around my head as chunks of steel rained down.
The crack of another rib made me groan. “W-What’s going—” My right forearm shattered into fragments.
Holy fuck—
The pain.
“Lucien!”
I collapsed on my side as more bones shattered, leaving me crippled and useless. The lobby spun as pain made me delirious. The burning ceiling groaned—dropping massive blocks of concrete.
“Watch out!” Rook tensed over me, protecting my broken body with hers.
“Don’t.” I choked on blood. “Get out...go.”
“I won’t leave you!”
“Leave.” I howled as something else broke.
“Fuck you!” Rook yelled at the howling hellfire. “I didn’t let you have him the first time and I won’t allow you to take him now!” Rising to her knees, she spread her palms and tipped her head back. A shockwave of winter blasted in all directions. White and ice and glacial beauty.
Frost raced up the walls, across the floor, and webbed over the ceiling.
The flames hissed with rage as arctic power swallowed them whole. The temperature plummeted so fast that the falling debris shattered into dust, falling over us like snow.
The windows blew out.
Her ice sank into my skin.
And for one blissful second, the pain calmed—
But then a blinding pulse of frequency slammed into us—a savage corkscrew driving right through my skull and butchering my brain. My vision went white. Every nerve in my body seized.
Rook cried out, her body jerking against mine before going terrifyingly limp.
I tried to reach for her, tried to summon even a single spark of heat that wouldn’t murder me.
Another bolt of frequency struck.
The last thing I registered was the sound of heavy boots crunching over rubble and glass, coming straight for us—