Chapter 18
You may remove the chains,” Victoria mumbled.
She set the plate of food she held on her father’s desk and looked back at where Innominatus reclined in the chair as he read some dusty book that had been tucked away on her father’s shelf for ages.
Her cheeks heated from the memory of the night prior, of them touching themselves feverishly while the other watched, but she refused to acknowledge the mistake.
He watched her over the edge of the book seductively. “Come closer and remove my chains, Victoria.” A mischievous smile licked at one side of his face when she glared at him. “Though, I think you should be grateful I was restrained and unable to reach you last night. Did you enjoy the show?”
She shot him a venomous look. “I don’t know what you speak of. I slept through the night. And you are obviously capable of removing them yourself.”
He grinned, flashing his white teeth, and Victoria dropped one of the glasses she held to the floor, sending it shattering.
His smile, the way his eyes lit and his entire face suffused with joy, was the single most beautiful thing she had ever witnessed.
She whipped her body away from him and cleaned up the shattered glass.
When she stood, she felt his heavy presence at her back, tickling the base of her neck.
“Let me do it, please; I don’t want you to cut yourself.” His voice rumbled over her skin, leaving hungry goose bumps across her body.
“I don’t need your help,” she snapped, flustered. “How did you remove your chains so silently? I’ve heard them every night for the last week.”
He smiled again, but only with the side of his mouth, and she wanted to throw something at him. “I can be quiet when I want to be.”
She hurried around the other side of the desk, straightening books and tools.
“Maybe I wanted you to hear.” Even without looking, she could hear his amusement.
He knew how unnerved she was by his presence despite her efforts.
“Maybe I wanted you to know how affected I am by you, how I long to worship at the altar of your body.” He paused and tilted his head as he took her in.
“I had thought that since I had broken free from the chains, you would deem them ineffective. But if you need the illusion that I cannot escape them, then I will return to them and that is where I will stay. You need only command it.” He sat on the edge of her father’s desk, giving her space, despite his stare practically piercing her skull from the intensity of it as he took in her every movement.
“Innominatus, eat your stew. I will return tonight to retrieve the plate.”
“You are leaving me again?” he asked with a hurt look.
“No, someone—a friend of mine—is coming here for dinner,” she said, struggling to remain strong when his words affected her so deeply. God, she wanted nothing more than to give in to her stupid heart and throw herself into his embrace.
“What would you like me to wear?” he asked.
“Inno—you can’t…” Her voice fell when she looked at his face.
“Inno,” he said thoughtfully at her abbreviation. “I like when you call me Inno. Innominatus Creatura sounds like some sort of Roman god or something.”
“And you don’t like that?” Her head tilted inquisitively. “Most men would love a name that evoked a god.”
He shrugged. “Inno sounds like a pant of pleasure from your lips, something private.”
Victoria stiffened as she glanced at the stairwell, longing to escape.
“Yes, well, remember that you must remain in the laboratory…though you don’t have to remain in your chains,” she grumbled.
“It’s not as though they are doing any good anyway.
Just please remember what we talked about and how important it is that you remain in the lab… contained.”
“Of course,” he added in quiet understanding. “Which friend is coming over tonight?”
Victoria watched for a moment as if deciding how much information she wanted to disclose.
Every time she was near him, she struggled to keep any amount of distance between the two of them.
“Helena, my dearest friend. She means more to me than anyone…still alive. She must not know about the—abhorrent thing I created. I command you to stay hidden and quiet tonight.”
“More than anyone?” He flinched. “Abhorrent thing? That’s quite harsh, do you not think?
May I leave this darkness just for a moment?
To come up to meet this friend and then I shall return?
It’s unbearably lonely just sitting in this hole all day and all night with no company. It could drive a man mad.”
“No, no one must know about you!” Victoria had begun to pace. “And you are already mad.”
“I am not mad—in love and devout, maybe, but hardly mad. Also, I am already known,” he argued gently.
“No one here would assume that you are an infamous Russian killer—”
“I meant as your father’s assistant,” he interjected. “They have already met me. They invited me to a ball.”
“I suppose you are right. Wilhelm and the baron saw you. They believe you are my father’s new lab assistant, though, and his lab assistant would hardly be seen.
” Victoria’s body was stiff. Her eyes kept landing on the door to the cold chamber as if her father would crawl out—decaying, bloodied, dead—to fight with her about the need for discretion.
The soft pounding of his footsteps looped in the distant corner of her mind, and as she shook, staring at the door, the footsteps curled and coiled within her heart.
The thought of Innominatus escaping sent a vibrating fear into her stomach.
People would of course wonder where her father was eventually, but by then she would have a plan of where to go and how to survive—until then, she needed to buy herself some time and take her father’s place in surgeries.
But the only way this would work was if she could keep her creation contained in the lab.
“I need to prep my father’s body tomorrow.
It will be gruesome, as I’ve left him untended far longer than I should have.
I just…was not ready to tend to him, but by the smell, I cannot put it off any longer.
If it is too much for you, you may stay in the space of the tunnel, but you may not go near the back door. ”
“My God, I will assist you. That is not something one should have to do alone,” he said.
“It’s not something one should have to do at all,” she muttered with a catch in her throat. Why did he have to be so kind and understanding? He really did understand her in a way that she always knew he would.
Victoria made it to the top of the stairs with trembling legs, as she did with every trip on the stairs now, just in time to hear the knock at the front door.
}
Victoria sat next to Helena in the dining room, stirring her tea as a fire blazed behind them. The weather was changing and was warm tonight, but the fire helped lend a sense of comfort to the stark castle.
“I’ve missed you dearly,” said Helena with a thoughtful look on her face.
“Everything is all right. I’m sorry to have worried you; I’ve been terribly busy.”
“Helping your father?” Helena asked gently. “You look well. The time away from Wilhelm has benefited you. Your skin is bright again, and it seems you’ve managed to put on a few much-needed pounds since I saw you last. You look divine.”
Victoria smiled as she swallowed the rest of the tea sandwich in her mouth. It was true, despite the overwhelming horrors that she felt, for some reason, she’d been able to eat again. Her timid, problematic digestion had soothed over the last two weeks since—
Since Innominatus had been alive. It started as him demanding she eat with him, but she couldn’t deny the feeling of safety he brought to her knowing he was always there.
“Are you helping your father, Victoria?” Helena nudged.
Victoria trusted Helena; she knew she would keep her secret and not judge her. “Yes, it’s true. I’ve been assisting my father in his surgeries.” A heavy breath eased out of her tight chest.
“Where is your father?” Helena asked with warm eyes as a slow smile curled on her mouth.
“I have just returned from the baron’s, and I long to tell him all the wonderful things that were said about him.
” At the mention of her father in present tense, Victoria’s stomach twisted, revolting against the tea she had just swallowed.
“I’m afraid he’s working in the laboratory tonight,” Victoria said cautiously.
“Take me to see him,” Helena said loudly.
Victoria spilled a little of her tea at the request.
“Oh, come on, I am not weak of stomach, and I am well aware of what you have been dabbling in. If you can stomach it, I see no reason why I cannot.” Helena stiffened, raising her chin defiantly though a small smile still played on her lips.
“Besides all that, I want to meet this handsome new assistant.”
The teacup in Victoria’s hand bounced off the edge of the wooden table and clanged against the hard floor but remained intact. “Forgive me,” Victoria muttered as her cheeks pinkened and she moved to collect the teacup.
Helena gently guided Victoria off the floor and onto the settee. “Is he unmarried? When I saw Wilhelm, he would not stop speaking of this assistant. He kept badgering me about your relationship with the man. The jealousy is practically dripping off him.”
Victoria swallowed. This was bad. “Wilhelm was asking about my father’s assistant?”
Helena gasped. “Is there something going on between you and this assistant? There is! That’s why you are glowing!” Helena clawed at her chest in mock exasperation.
“No!” Victoria began, but Helena interrupted.
“From my understanding of what the baron said, he’s quite good-looking.
Oh, do take me down to the laboratory so that I may meet him, Victoria.
Tell me, is it true? Have you begun something with this man?
What was his name? Oh, something quite Roman sounding…
” She paused to bite her lip and look up at the ceiling with a squint.
“Innominatus Creatura,” Victoria stated as the curls of adrenaline tightened every nerve in her body. “Perhaps another time. They’re working on something quite delicate, I believe,” Victoria said absently, hoping Helena would not ask more questions.
“Oh, do not be upset by my request, my darling friend. I will see him at the ball.”
Victoria’s eyes widened and had there been another teacup in her hand, there would’ve been a second casualty rolling across the floor.
“I’m not going to the ball,” she answered more sternly than she meant.
“Oh, but you must! The baron is thrilled about Mr. Creatura. But if I’m being honest, my interest in seeing him is purely from the way Wilhelm spoke of him, not the baron.
He seemed absolutely irked with jealousy, which can only mean he’s shockingly masculine and handsome. ” Helena raised an eyebrow at Victoria.
“I have missed you, my friend,” Victoria said with a smile. “But let us not ruin the evening with talk of men. Shall we go to the library and talk of things that matter?”