Uncle Raphael opens his eyes again and glances at Mauricio. “Did I do that to you?”
“Yes.”
“I’m so sorry. I don’t remember.”
“How do you feel now?” I ask.
“Much better.”
Hope surges within my chest. Maybe Nightingale blood is the key to cure my uncle.
There’s a knock on the door, and then Rikkon says, “Lucca, you need to come quickly.”
The urgency in his tone has me back on my feet and out of the room in a flash. Vivi and Miranda are with him. “What is it?”
“Vaughn just called. They were ambushed at the Nightshade Market. Jacques has Sophie.”
Fuck. I knew I shouldn’t have let them go.
“Do we know where he’s taken her?”
Miranda nods. “To Bloodstone Institute. Jacques is going to try to free Madeleine Boucher.”
Son of a bitch.
Fifty
SOPHIE
When I regain consciousness, I’m bound and gagged, and my head is throbbing. It takes me a moment to figure out my location. I’m in the catacombs of Bloodstone Institute, and my father is pacing in front of me in a frantic manner. He looks as deranged as my mother did the last time I saw her. I wonder if it’s truly only first-generation Bluebloods who have the degenerative disease or if second-generation like my father are affected too.
I try to break free from the bonds around my wrists, but my father must have doused the cord with vampire’s bane, just like I did when I captured Vaughn.
My stomach drops.
I don’t know what happened to him. I lost him in the fog, then came the piercing noise that split my brain in two. I couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t use my senses. I was totally disoriented, which had been the point of casting those spells—to make me easy prey.
I grunt to get my father’s attention. He stops pacing and looks at me. “You’re finally awake. Good, good. I need you.”
When he removes the gag from my mouth, I yell, “What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m helping you fulfill the mission I gave you. It seems you got confused where your alliances lie. Not to worry, sweetheart. All will be forgiven as long as you do what you’re told from now on.”
“You’re insane. We can’t free Madeleine. She can’t be controlled.”
His eyes widen. “Who said anything about controlling her? I want her free so she can wreak havoc in this town, and then the world.”
“Why? I spoke with my mother. That’s not what she wants.”
He twists his face into a scowl. “I don’t give a fuck about what Tatiana wants. She betrayed all her followers when she made peace with Raphael. All those centuries of bloodshed and the sacrifice of her people for nothing.”
“I won’t help you. You can’t make me.”
He grabs my chin roughly, digging his long nails into my skin hard enough to draw blood. “Are you sure about that, darling?”
One of the assholes he hired to kidnap me has Tish in his grasp. She’s not moving. “What have you done to her?”
“She’s just sleeping right now. She’s a hellcat, after all. But I can make that permanent if you don’t bring down the wards concealing Madeleine’s prison.”
