There was a sudden, sharp iron smell in the air, and my pregnant stomach heaved. Suddenly I turned and threw up against the wet walls.
Gabriel wrenched open every door in the hallway until there was only one solid wooden door left.
“Wait,” I hissed. “Just—what if whoever’s in there is dangerous? What if they want to hurt me?”
He turned back to me, his face veiled in shadow.
“I’m the only one who gets to hurt you. I decide. Not anyone else. And you’re not getting spanked today.”
Then with one well-placed kick, he smashed through the wooden door and we walked into the room.
It stunk of viscera and blood, of ruin and damnation, and there were Lucian and Hemsworth in the middle of it, desiccated bodies hanging in rows around them like a gruesome butcher shop.
Hemsworth held out his hands to Gabriel.
“Welcome.”
CHAPTER 17
“It’s just people who don’t matter,” Lucian said soothingly.
They were both wearing white lab coats, Hemsworth with a scalpel and Lucian with a clipboard.
And in front of them on the gleaming table. . .I couldn’t even look at the poor creature.
“It’s just a few useless whores now and again. A beautiful man who couldn’t keep his mouth shut. No one important. He’s under control. I make sure I keep him under control. It won’t hurt your career, son. I promise.”
“You are so weak and spineless!” I shrieked with rage. “Your brother is a fucking serial killer and you don’t give a shit! You’re enabling him!”
“He’s a psychopath, too,” Hemsworth said, his eyes gleaming as he watched Gabriel. “It runs in the family. He doesn’t give a shit. In this family, we take what we want.”
“Were you the one Lark saw on Halloween?” Gabriel asked.
Hemsworth directed a little bitter glance at me. “Yes.”
Of course he was. I recognized the eyes now.
Lucian stepped in between us as he always did. “He was a little angry about that, but he’s over it now. Lark was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
He set a clipboard down on the gleaming silver table and I couldn’t help looking at it.
There was something about Lucian’s careful bookkeeping, the way he was merely keeping a record of all Hemsworth’s kills, that nauseated me the most.
My stomach heaved as I threw up again, my nose full of the scent of blood and torn flesh and utter horror.
This was my life’s work, and suddenly it seemed so useless now.
All my studies and I had never been able to stop one psychopath.
“So you see,” Lucian went on, “There is no need to worry about this, Gabriel. Your father has it taken care of, as usual.”
“Or, you could join us,” Hemsworth said, his eyes looking bright and frenetic. “My boy, think of the power. It’s an incredible rush, to feel their lifeforce between your fingertips.”
Gabriel’s face was blank, but I felt panic pulse through my temples and my empty stomach twisted painfully again.
What if it sounded good to him?
“You could join me, Gabriel,” his uncle continued, his voice low and seductive, laced with wickedness. “Together we’d be unstoppable. You with your untouchable celebrity status. You could get an endless supply of useless whores for us to kill. They are drawn to you like moths to a flame. Together the country could run scarlet with blood and we’d be like gods.”
