Page 122 of Eternal Obsession

A girl’s sobs echoed from within the next room.

I scanned her thoughts to see if it were Catherine. Marcus’s bearing was intent as he gestured for me to follow. Despite my better judgment warning me otherwise, I stepped forward into the center of the room, cautioned by his dark eyes.

The trapdoor flew open beneath me.

I hurtled through it, grappling to slow my momentum. My shoulder banged against one of the shaft walls and bounced me against the sides, thwarting my ability to rise. Plummeting and battling with gravity, my head struck the hard stone. With a loud thud, I hit the ground.

Gradually, afraid of what I might feel, I ran my hands down my torso and back up to my head, reassured to still be in once piece, though bruised and in pain. I scrambled to my feet, looking down at my bloody hands and again checking myself. My blood clotted and my wounds healed.

It took my breath away to see my body respond so quickly to the violence and trauma, even now . . .

I studied my surroundings. The ground was dry, but this was part of the sewage system to judge by the reeking odor. Three corridors led off in different directions.

A noise startled me.

They descended upon me without a moment’s pause, a dozen vampires hungry for blood. They pinned me down, shoving ferociously. The pain was unbearable.

Catherine!

Their fangs sank into my flesh.

They swarmed like bees in the dark, stealing me from the world I had so desperately clung to. No final words, no tender farewell. Only the cruel certainty I would never again chase the moonlight, never again surrender to the velvet seduction of the night.

Alex would never make it alone.

And Catherine would remain lost to me. After being so very close to finding her, it hurt like hell. My thoughts spiraled into the abyss. Ingrid . . .

Ingrid faded like a dream at dawn that was never real. Fear braided with dread, disorientation and confusion crashing in all at once.

Their moans of pleasure resounded. Dizziness came in waves, the blood loss draining my strength until consciousness lost its hold.

Chapter Fifty-Two

ORPHEUS

Many hours had passed, and Alex wondered if the melding of intense pleasure and pain would ever cease.

Having returned to the room, I witnessed his radiant surrender, his realization that should one live a million lives, then surely, this was how to exist within this world—by savoring all its pleasures.

“Do you like your exquisite gift?” I said.

He turned his head away, refusing to answer, refusing to give me any credit for his sated expression. His hands, tied tightly behind his back, ached with the strain of their bindings. He was strung up helplessly.

They had relentlessly bestowed their remarkable talents. Having cast upon him all their many faceted layers of pleasure and pain, revealing a startling artistry, showing just how much they were capable of.

He now regretted he had not drunk from the girl as I had asked him to. His captors appeared to take far too much pleasure in their work. They judged both his reaction to the pleasure and his tolerance to the pain and altered their attention to his reactions.

Pushing him over the edge, they held him there, masterfully bringing him back again to that familiar dark place. Alex sensed something within his soul dissolving. He wondered if he would ever feel the same again. His torturers probed his every want and fear and responded accordingly.

Around us, those in the room moved with a kind of surreal elegance—their talent and beauty so striking, mesmerizing, untouchable, unforgettable.

He almost relinquished in that moment, but resisted me still . . .

Ah, but this gift, this decadent blessing. The sacred art of slipping beneath the surface, of peeling back the delicate layers of another’s soul.

I used this talent on Alex, clearly viewing the fragile architecture of his longing. With each secret unearthed, I crafted a sensual game so deliciously cruel, so perfectly tailored, that it felt less like manipulation and more like seduction, his dark fantasies cloaked in velvet dreams, whispered into the hollow places he thought no one could reach.

From the other side of the chamber, I observed with pleasant arousal.