Page 63 of Illusory

“He isn’t going to get any better chained up in your basement,” he called out at my back, halting me in my tracks. “Deep down, you know it’s the truth.”

I turned slowly, my anger and sadness and disappointment coalescing in the back of my throat like an immovable stone. “And what would you suggest I do instead, huh? What other option do I have? Should I just set him and his bloodlust loose on us and let him go to town on everyone?” I shook my head at the dire circumstances and hopelessness of it all. “He’ll hurt someone, and I already know he would never forgive himself for it. It’s up to me to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“Then start helping him,” he said as he shot upright and stalked over to me. “Excuse us,” he announced unceremoniously as he snatched me by my elbow and kept on walking, dragging me out of the kitchen right along with him.

“Excuseyou!Can you stop manhandling me?” I snapped and then yanked my arm free from his grip, stopping us in the middle of the corridor. Granted, if he hadn’t wanted to let me go, he wouldn’t have, but I still felt emboldened by it in the moment. “What the hell are you even doing?”

He turned to face me, schooling his features into a blank mask of indifference. “I’m keeping my promise to you.”

I blinked at him stupidly and then yelped as he picked up my elbow and trudged forward again. “Wait a second,” I demanded, digging my heels against the varnished wood floor, but this time, he didn’t let up. “Can you…be a little…more…fucking specific?” I bit out choppily, struggling against his hold as I tried to slow him down and buy myself more time.

“No.”

“Dominic!” I growled, my irritation notching up again. “Knock it off. This isn’t funny!”

“I couldn’t agree more,” he said as he rounded the corner and then came to a stop at the basement door. His hand grasped the doorknob but before he could turn it, I managed to wrench my arm free from his grip using nothing but sheer terror and adrenaline to spur me on.

Whatever anger and annoyance I’d felt moments ago had been swallowed whole by the fear and panic pummeling down on me as his destination became horrifyingly clear. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” I whisper-yelled at him, my eyes round and wide. “Have you lost your mind? We’re not going down there!”

He met my eyes for a second, his own the picture of calmness. “This is the only way.”

“The only way to what? Provoke him into killing us both?” I already knew Trace didn’t want to see me, and that was bad enough, but seeing mewithDominic? That was a surefire way to get him to snap and kill us both.

“He isn’t going to do any such thing,” he stated calmly, like he actually knew what he was talking about.

But he didn’t.

“You don’t know what he’s like now—you haven’t been here! You didn’t see!”

“Do you trust me?” he asked me suddenly, the softness of his question throwing me off and making my lips move before I had a chance to think the answer through.

“Of course, I do.”

“Then let me do this for you, angel.”

I faltered at his words, at the softness in which he spoke them to me, and then we were moving again, the confusion swirling heavy in my mind as I let him lead me through the basement door. I had no idea what hethoughthe was doing for me, but this hadepic disasterwritten all over it.

Memories of my last impromptu visit to the basementflashed through my head and my stomach dropped all the way to my feet, making them feel like lead. Trace had nearly chewed a hole right through me last time just for getting too close to him, and here I was about to do it all over again, and worse, this time I had Dominic flanking my side.

He was going to go nuclear.

“Dominic,wait,” I hissed, trying to keep my panicked voice at a whisper despite the fact that I was basically entering a vampire lair and the only one who might have trouble hearing anything down there wasme. “Let’s just stop and think about this for a second,” I pleaded, trying to reason with him—but there was no stopping him from this mad dash into the murky depths of insanity.

He was on a mission. A mission to apparently destroy the both of us by way of a scorned lover.

A cold blur of near-tangible air rushed past me as soon as my foot hit the bottom landing. For a split second, I thought it was Trace teleporting out of his cell to kill us both where we stood and then I remembered that Caleb had spelled the prison bars with magic and that, thankfully, that wasn’t possible.

Gabriel appeared in front of us as though he’d manifested out thin air, halting our advance into the lion’s pit like the Knight in Shiny Leather that he was. “What exactly do you think you’re doing?” he growled, his angry frown darting back and forth between me and Dominic as though I were somehowinon this madness. “You cannot be down here!”

I started to shake my head, an apology on the tip of my tongue.

“Can’t I, brother?” smirked Dominic.

Gabriel’s jaw tightened into stone. “This isn’t the time or place for your sadistic games, Dominic. Leave this basement at once!”

“Well, you’ll be happy to know that I’m not playing any games at all,” he answered and then shoved Gabriel out of his way. “And I won’t be leaving either. In fact, I plan on staying for a while,” he added, pulling me into the center of the room with him where the sleeping beast could see me in all my trembling glory.

We were so fucking dead we needed a new word for it.

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