So here is my new chapter! ***Spoiler alert!*** This chapter briefly references a plot point at the end of Holly and Cade's story, so if you haven't read it, you might want to skip this chapter!
Also, based on a couple of comments, it seems I was not clear enough about why Lucia reacted to Sebastian's touch the way she did in Chapter 8. She was not simply enjoying herself because Sebastian is a master at seduction; he was using his power to manipulate physical sensations he accesses through his victim's memories to force her to feel pleasure. He truly is twisted. So I added a few sentences to Chapter 8 that made this more clear. Feel free to check it out if you want! But honestly it's only about two sentences that I added, so reading this may suffice if you don't want to re-read.
As always, the IAD series belongs to Kresley Cole, not me!
R&R please! I really appreciate the reviews! They are very encouraging !
Lucia awoke for the first time in days without pain. Her entire body felt light, as though she were floating. She opened her eyes, half expecting to find herself hovering in midair. But no, she was lying on a long, thin sort of table with a cushioned top. After days of being suspended from the ceiling by her wrists, it felt more plush than the most comfortable bed she had ever slept in.
But this feeling of comfort faded when she realized metal cuffs restrained her wrists, ankles, and neck to the table upon which she lay. She was still being held prisoner, was still in the same godforsaken cell that had become her home over the last few days. She glanced around at her surroundings to confirm it: yes, there were the same dull grey concrete walls, the steel door, and the shackles hanging from the ceiling. They had sedated her to move her a few fucking feet? She supposed she should feel flattered, but all she felt was disappointment that she had missed a chance at fighting her way free. Or at least bloodying Sebastian again.
But if she was still here, Garreth must be too. Fearing what she might see, she hesitantly turned her head to the right to see through the glass wall of her prison.
He was conscious again. He had assumed his former position at the bars facing her cell, gripping them tightly. Lucia had to fight back tears as she took in his appearance. The claw marks on his chest were scabbed over, but were still a long way from healing completely. The skin on his ears had regenerated, but they still appeared tattered around the edges. His eyes were closed, still in the process of regenerating behind his healed eyelids. She knew if they were open they would be a bright, unnatural blue. His beast was fully out of its cage.
"Garreth?" She called to him tentatively and he jerked his head up. He regarded her in silence, and she knew he must still lack the ability to speak.
"Garreth," she plowed ahead. "I need you to do something for me." She paused, considering how best to convince him not to hurt himself anymore. She wasn't sure if he was capable of controlling it in his beast form, but she needed to at least try.
"If I ask you to do something, do you promise to do it?"
He cocked his head to the side, clearly hesitant to make a promise when he didn't know what he would be pledging to do.
"Please, Garreth. For me."
Slowly and reluctantly, he nodded his head in assent.
"Whatever happens to me now, whatever you hear or see, I want you to promise me to take no action that will result in harm being done to yourself. I need you to heal. I need you to be whole."
He bared his teeth in a silent growl, clearly angry at his consent to her request for him to promise before he knew what she would ask.
"You promised to do what I asked. Tell me you will honor your agreement."
Again, he nodded, his face twisted in an expression of anguish.
"Thank you," she whispered.
Just then, the steel door to her cell opened, and Sebastian stepped into the room, Jon's enormous frame hulking behind him.
"Lucia!" Sebastian grinned at her. "I'm so glad you are awake. Just in time, too."
He approached her at a leisurely pace, stopping when he reached the head of the table. His face loomed over her, his black eyes boring into her own.
"Soon such restraints will not be necessary, my pet; you will no longer be a threat to me."
"I will always be a threat to you, for as long as I live," she snarled back at him.
He just smiled at her genially. "Jon," he held out his open hand towards the dempire, gesturing imperiously.
The enormous immortal handed over a metal stake that gleamed dully in the muted light that filled the cell. It was about five or six inches long, maybe two and a half inches in diameter at its thickest point. It looked wickedly sharp.
"This," Sebastian said the word lovingly, caressing the length of the stake as he spoke, "is a most valuable tool found in the ruins of the recently destroyed fortress belonging to a sorcerer named Groot. He was quite a brilliant metallurgist, and he had a vast army of slaves that tended to his every whim. One man was able to control many with the implementation of this device. It gives the sorcerer absolute power over one's body. You will be the first I have had the pleasure to test it on."
"Well, now I'm scared," Lucia said scathingly, trying to mask her fear. "All of your tried and true methods at breaking me have worked so well thus far. I'm sure that a magic you are unfamiliar with will work out for you just great." But as she delivered her sarcastic remarks, she was silently praying in her head that he was incapable of wielding the magic properly. She had heard something of Holly's experiences in Groot's fortress when he had intended to forcibly impregnate her with a child who would possess the capacity for ultimate evil. Holly had briefly mentioned that the metallurgist had a spike that he was going to drive into her brain to make her more compliant. She had shuddered and grown very quiet after describing it with the maximum possible brevity. If this truly was one of Groot's stakes, then the only way Lucia would be able to avoid becoming Sebastian's mindless slave was if he failed at performing the magic correctly. So she prayed for all she was worth.
"Hold her still, Jon," Sebastian ordered. He stepped to the right side of her head, allowing the dempire to take his place at the head of the table. The hulking male grasped either side of her head in his massive hands, turning it roughly so that she could see nothing but the grey concrete ceiling of her cell. She felt a small, cold pinprick on her right temple.
She had been fairly successful at remaining outwardly calm up until this point, but now she began to struggle wildly against her bonds, desperate to break them. But all she met was unyielding resistance to her efforts. Sebastian smiled down at her. Cutting her eyes to the side, she could see that he held a hammer in his right hand.
"See you on the other side," he said softly.
And the hammer swung down so swiftly it became a blur. Lucia let out a scream of rage and frustration at her inability to fight back.
Then her scream was cut off abruptly as pain burst through her mind. For a brief moment, she felt the horrible sensation of the cold metal driving into her brain. Then everything went black.