Page 151 of Buried in Blood
She had the clutch.
She planted the devices.
Shelooked me in the eye… and then turned.
The memory sears red behind my lids. Her mouth forming the words—I’m still yours—the night before she shattered the illusion I created. Just before she made a mockery of my control.
She thinks I won’t find her.
She thinks I’ll let her disappear into the cracks of the world like some gutter rat scurrying from light.
But she forgets who I am.
Iamthe dark.
And I will smother every flicker of rebellion she sparked.
My eyes drift closed, and I let myself sink into the dream again.
The one that’s been repeating for days.
Lucien and Dante on their knees. Stripped. Bloodied. Evelyn screaming in the background. Astra crying without a sound. I slit Dante’s throat first—slow, deliberate, just enough to let him feel it.
Then Lucien.
Oh, Lucien.
I won’t kill him quickly.
I want him tobeg.
I want him to see what it feels like when the world burns and there’s nothing left to save.
My phone buzzes on the table.
I answer without checking. Only one person calls this number now.
“Reese,” I say, voice low.
“Nothing,” he says. “No sign of her.”
I don’t reply right away. My grip tightens around the phone, knuckles going white.
“She’s hiding,” he adds.
“No,” I murmur. “She’srunning.There’s a difference.”
“She covered her tracks. Whoever helped her… they knew what they were doing.”
“Lucien,” I spit. “Or Dante. Maybe both. But it doesn’t matter.”
Reese exhales. “You want me to keep looking?”
I stare out the window, watching the moon reflect off the blade lying on the desk. My favorite. The one I used on Enrique.
“I want you todig,” I say. “Start with the girls we haven’t touched yet. Follow every whisper. Every shadow. I don’t care what it costs. Find her.”
“And if I do?”
