Page 37 of To Crave Deeply
Levi moved closer and waved a torch across her eyes. I couldn’t tell the colour from here, but I didn’t want to move closer. I didn’t want my little flame of hope that burned in my chest to be snuffed out.
“Well?” I asked nervously.
Levi’s frown deepened and my stomach dropped. Shit.
“They’re a swirling grey…”
I didn’t hear the rest of what he said; I was too fucking happy. I knew it was a small victory but knowing that Iveri was still locked in her cage was a blessing.
It was that moment that Jasper appeared, rushing into the room with his vampire speed and immediately peppering Levi with questions.
“What the fuck happened?” Jasper roared, clearly upset and worried over his mate. His eyes were wild and the blackness that signalled his beast was breaking its leash was creeping around the edges of the blue. This had the potential to break into chaos in seconds.
“I don’t know what it was.” Levi sounded worried. I didn’t know him well enough to tell how worried, though. He wasn’t a person I wanted to cultivate an acquaintance with, either. I still didn’t like the way he looked at me. Like I was an object just waiting to be investigated and dissected. He still made my skin crawl when he fixed that penetrating gaze on me, and I didn’t want to spend any more time with him than I absolutely had to.
Jasper grabbed Levi by the lapel of his lab coat and pulled him closer, snapping his fangs like a feral animal. “Well, find out, dammit!”
“He’s not going to be of any use if he’s dead,” I drawled. I still didn’t have a fondness for the vampire. What can I say? I’m not the type to have friends. Enemies, sure. Friends though? Definitely not.
The vampire growled but let the doctor go. He paced the foot of the bed and his agitation rolled from him in waves. It was making me uncomfortable, and I was tempted to knock him out just to find some peace. But I don’t suppose Lori would be best pleased with me if I did that, so I’d just have to suffer the leech’s pacing and hope the doctor would find something useful to calm the beast down.
Levi, meanwhile, went back to looking at Lori’s mark and cleaning it as best he could. It was still angry and looked sore, but it wasn’t bleeding anymore. I took that to be a good sign.
After cleaning the mark, Levi turned to Jasper and I and fixed us with a stern gaze. “Do you know why her eyes are grey?”
Jasper looked at me. “I only know what she told us. You were there.”
Why did that sound so accusatory? I might have been there, but I still had no idea what had actually happened.
“Iveri and I were visiting the Witch Queen when Lori returned. Iveri fell unconscious and Lori woke up. That’s all I saw.”
Levi pursed his lips and his focus disappeared into the distance as his mind wandered off somewhere.
“That’s it? That’s all you have to say?” Jasper rounded on me, and I rolled my eyes. I got that he was pissed. That he felt helpless over his mate but what did he expect me to do? Fucking lie?
“I said what I saw. I didn’t see anything else, so I have nothing else to say. Least of all to you, leech.”
He lunged for me, like I knew he would. I stepped into my shadow plane, and he ran straight through me, face planting the wall behind me. I laughed. Stupid fucking vampire. He was too pissed off to be thinking clearly and he only had himself to blame for that.
His eyes were completely black now, the inner beast coming out to play. Adrenaline flooded my veins at the prospect of a good fight. I was looking forward to knocking this vampire down a peg or two.
“Hey! Knock it off!”
I whipped around to look at the bed and found Lori propped up on her elbows and frowning viciously at us. Relief jumped in my veins as I took in the sight of her awake and furious. Jasper and I really needed to learn to get along because Lori did not look impressed with us at all.
“Are you alright?” I asked as I approached the side of the bed warily. Lori looked like she was about to stab someone, and I really didn’t want it to be me.
“No,” she replied firmly and fixed those swirling grey eyes on me. “I need you to take me to see Lucifer now.”
“Why?” I asked, suddenly fearing the worst.
“He’s awake.”
Chapter 14
LUCIFER
I’d been suspended in so much darkness that the moment my eyes opened, I had to close them again against the onslaught of light. I felt weak. Bone-shattering, soul-shaking weak. I could feel my life force and magic fading from me with every passing second and I knew that the bonds tying the wards of Hell to me were breaking.
