Page 15 of Midnight Queen

Often, I found myself fighting my own smile. Her joy and bright personality are contagious like that, but now, watching the footage we’re streaming through the large television, I long to see one of her smiles or hear her laugh.

Her overly expressive face is guarded and closed off. The bright spark that’s always sat in her powder blue eyes is diminished. Her sun-kissed skin looks pale and the dark circles under her eyes tell me just how exhausted she really is.

Despite all of this, she never once cowers to Gideon. She boldly meets his eyes, appearing unimpressed with his scare tactics.

“She’s strong,” Lorcan comments from the air chair he sprawled in. “I like it. You need someone strong willed to put up with your bullshit.”

Perched stiffly on the cream-colored sofa, with my elbows resting on my knees, I don’t look away from the screen as I explain, “She shouldn’t have to bethisstrong. She should have been untouchable.” My estate has always been safe from my enemies. The security teams I’ve hired over the years should have been able to protect whoever resides within those four walls. “My security failed me—failed Quincey—last night.”

“They were outgunned and outmanned,” Lorcan attempts to reason to pacify my misplaced anger. I’m not sure who Gideon had found to inflict the devastation against my team, but I’m irritated they weren’t on my payroll first. If Duke was awake, I’m sure he’d have a guess as to who the group was. His background in private security and time in the military makes him privy to that kind of information. “Maybe you should hire more vampires as security. They can at least take a bullet.”

“I don’t trust enough vampires to task them with protecting my important assets.” When you’re at the top of the food chain, people are always vying to bring you down. Allowing vampires close would put them in a position to find weaknesses they could exploit.

“Yourassets? Is that what she is to you?”

“No,” I manage to grit out, annoyed he’s asking questions he already knows the answers to. “She’s the only thing on earth that could get me to walk away from it all.”

Before she was taken, I knew there was an expiration date on our time together. I knew sooner or later I would have to leave her behind. That’s what is required in my lifestyle. I knew it would be hard to do, but in the end, I truly believed I would be strong enough to leave.

It took her being taken from me to realize I’m no longer capable orwillingto live without her. She’s permanently engraved herself in my life and the void I feel now that she’s gone is unbearable.

When I have her back, if she asks me to walk away from everything, I would do it without a second thought. I’d pick her over the power and money. She’s worth more than both anyway.

Lorcan is quiet for a second while he ponders my words. I don’t look at him, but I can feel his heavy stare on me. “I truly can’t wait to meet the lass Silas Laurent would abandon everything for. She must be something incredibly special.”

Before I have the chance to confirm his sentiments, the sight of an irate Gideon holding a knife to Quincey’s throat has me leaping off the couch and stepping closer to the mounted television screen.

“Don’t say her name,” Gideon warns Quincey, the knife pressing harder into her flesh.

“Is he talking about the woman you killed?” Lorcan asks, now standing at my side, his posture alert.

Don’t push him,I silently plead to Quincey. Her strength thus far has made my chest fill with pride, but right now, if only for a moment, I want her to do as he says. If it means she stays alive, I don’t care what she must do. I just need her to buy Rory enough time to find her location.

“I didn’t kill a woman,” I snap at Lorcan. “I killed a monster disguised as the woman he loved.” Margret came back, just like my wife did. Devoid of all empathy and humanity. Her only care was her next meal. If she hadn’t been eliminated, the number of lives she would have taken would have been in the hundreds. Gideon was too weak to do what needed to be done, so I stepped in.

And that’s what Quincey is trying to get Gideon to admit. She doesn’t know the full history of what happened, but she does knowme. She knows I wouldn’t kill Margret on a simple whim.

My stomach sinks when she asks him, “Did she say your name when Silas took her life?”

Beside me, Lorcan hisses out a harsh curse while I’m completely frozen in place, my eyes locked on the stream of blood coming from the nicks Gideon had slid into her skin with his blade.

“No, Silas didn’t give her the opportunity. He acted too fast,” Gideon tells her, all while dragging the knife lightly down to her left collarbone. “But I will. I’ll give you ample opportunity to say his name, Quincey.”

The world around me stops existing when the knife slices into her perfect skin. Everything falls away but the sight of my heart being carved.

Gideon stops cutting long enough to tersely order, “Say his name.” A malicious grin on his face.

Tears fall from her eyes, disappearing into her hairline. After a moment of tense silence, she refuses to do as he wishes. “No.”

Wordlessly, he brings the knife back to her chest, and begins to cut another deep line through one he’d already made. In a matter of seconds, he’s carved a perfect X into her previously perfect skin.

As if I’m standing in the middle of the ocean, waves of rage collide with my body. The power behind them is almost strong enough to make me lose my footing. I’m one blow away from giving in and allowing myself to drown..

Blood pools from the wound he’s made. Smiling down at his handiwork, Gideon smears the blood across Quincey’s chest. Like a deranged artist, he paints her skin red.

He lifts the hand now covered in her blood to his mouth. Taunting me, he once again looks at the camera while lapping at his fingers. “You found yourself a sweet one, Silas. No wonder you keep her around. She’s simply delectable,” he goads. “Think about all the people who will get to try her next. I’ve already had many offers. I wonder just how much I can make off her.”

Hand still bloody, he reaches for Quincey’s face. She winces when he harshly turns her head to force her to look at the camera. “Call to him, Quincey. Tell him to come and save you.”

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